Speed Lance Deck?

[coinich]

Mark of Light

Simple enough, I think.  Its a lance deck thats supposed to speed towards the kill.  I'm not very good with lance decks however, and I wondered if anyone had any good suggestions.

The point is to use Time to speed up your draw.  The Cremations and Deja Vus actually pay for themselves; the Cremation gives 1 Time for every time its played, and it only costs 1 Time to play a Deja Vu, so they cancel.  The Hourglasses are the real draw masters here, but the Precognitions and Sundials have their use too; the Sundials double as a shield or quick-starter late or early in the game.  The deck works; the only loss was against a FG, and I don't know if any Lance deck can really bring them down.  Usually I win playing 3-4 Lances ~120 Fire Quanta, but I'm sure an experienced player could do a bit better there playing in the margins.

[PhuzzY LogiK]

Mark of Light

Simple enough, I think.  Its a lance deck thats supposed to speed towards the kill.  I'm not very good with lance decks however, and I wondered if anyone had any good suggestions.

The point is to use Time to speed up your draw.  The Cremations and Deja Vus actually pay for themselves; the Cremation gives 1 Time for every time its played, and it only costs 1 Time to play a Deja Vu, so they cancel.  The Hourglasses are the real draw masters here, but the Precognitions and Sundials have their use too; the Sundials double as a shield or quick-starter late or early in the game.  The deck works; the only loss was against a FG, and I don't know if any Lance deck can really bring them down.  Usually I win playing 3-4 Lances ~120 Fire Quanta, but I'm sure an experienced player could do a bit better there playing in the margins.

I never really understood Precognition, especially in a speed deck.  If you play Precognition, you've just PAYED to draw a card that you would've drawn instead of Precognition anyway, so why not just cut out the middle man and save that Time Quantum?  Yes, you get to see your opponent's hand, but is that really going to change your strategy with this deck?  Also, it seems like adding time towers just to play a few cards adds a lot of fluff in a deck built to go fast.  For the same reason as the precognition, are the hourglasses really worth it here? 

How about this:
Mark of TIME. 

15x Burning Tower
6x Fire Lance
6x Cremation
4x Elite Deja Vu
5x Sundial (NON-upgraded)
1x Fahrenheit

37 cards total

From your post, I'm assuming you mean to save your lances until you have enough to deliver a death blow.  I see the deck running like this:

1. Play Towers and Deja Vu ASAP.  (-1 )
2. Next Turn, use Deja Vu's copy ability and Cremate them.  (-1 , +1 or +2 , +1 or +2 )
3. Play Sundial (don't play Sundials until you have to). (-1 , -1 for ability)

Rinse and repeat.

The card count is a bit high for a speed deck, but I think since so many cards are repeated you should be able to get away with it.  You won't be able to play a sundial right away, but if you want it to double as a shield, you probably don't want it out in the first 2 turns anyway.  The key draws are getting a Deja Vu and 1-2 Cremates in your first 1-2 draws.

You said you need ~120 Fire Quantum.  If you play 10 Towers and 4 Cremations, you will have a base pool of 10 + 36 = 46 Fire Quantum.  After 7-8 turns you should be sitting about where you need to be, and most of those turns should be covered by a Sundial.  If you're able to play Fahrenheit (since it works with a lot of Fire Quantum), then the opponent shouldn't be at full health so the amount of damage your Lances have to do will be less.

[xdude]

Precognition is basically used to make some basically 24 cards deck. You splash time and you get few to none bad draws. (If I wasn't clear, I was talking about a deck like 18 burning towers, 6 crimson drags and 6 precogs, Mark of  . I know this is not the best deck possible, but you get the idea.)

[PhuzzY LogiK]

Precognition is basically used to make some basically 24 cards deck. You splash time and you get few to none bad draws. (If I wasn't clear, I was talking about a deck like 18 burning towers, 6 crimson drags and 6 precogs, Mark of  . I know this is not the best deck possible, but you get the idea.)

Huh, I guess I never thought about it like that.  It makes sense, but since I like decks with 30+ non-expendable cards, I still don't really see the value in them. 

[coinich]

That makes some sense with the Precogs though; they don't do much for a deck this size at all.  Interesting on the version you proposed there; it completely cuts out the hourglasses which is what I thought really made the deck work.  I'm guessing they provided too much of a quanta drag?

[PhuzzY LogiK]

That makes some sense with the Precogs though; they don't do much for a deck this size at all.  Interesting on the version you proposed there; it completely cuts out the hourglasses which is what I thought really made the deck work.  I'm guessing they provided too much of a quanta drag?

Well, I guess it's a toss up.  If you agree the Precognitions don't do much and drop those out, then the Time Towers are only there to support the Hourglasses.  With the Hourglasses in, you can potentially draw faster, but you're adding 14 cards to do it.

My thought process was if you cut out the Time Towers and Hourglasses all together, you should be able to use any card you draw except the Fire Lances, which you want to save until the end.  The Sundials will provide a moderate draw boost, but overall it will definitely be slower.  Also, if you don't get Cremations in the first few turns you could be screwed.

Now that I consider it, you may be right, though.  If you're looking to end the game in ~8-10 turns, you'll get your initial draw, 8-10 draws on turns, and up to 5 from sundials.  That's only 21-23 out of 37 cards drawn.  It may still work if you get Fahrenheit out kind of early to reduce their health.  It may also be better to throw in that 6th Sundial.

To be honest, I probably don't have enough experience to say what is better at this point.  I'd love to hear others chime in.