n00b life deck

[dragonsdemesne]

So, I just started playing this game a couple days ago on the recommendation of a friend, and have really gotten addicted to it quickly.  I tried switching my decks up a bunch trying to best the bigger opponents, but I found that I wasn't making very much money.  Yesterday I went back to one of my quickest decks and just started farming ai3 for cards/gold.  Then I decided I'd sell *everything* that wasn't in the deck, other than pillars (since they only get 4 gold anyway) and upgrade what I could.

So my question is, given the following deck, what do you think I should be upgrading first:
(I've read some of the tutorials and general deck advice and things like that, and I've played lots of paper CCGs so I know what I'm doing, but would like to see what people say about this specific deck)


6x Emerald Pillar
6x Life Pendulum (rather than pillars to help protect against Earthquake and other land destruction)
6x Horned Frog
3x Cockatrice
1x Elite Cockatrice
2x Adrenaline
4x Epiphedrine (upgraded adrenalne)
1x Mitosis (tried this after winning it, might scrap for another Cockatrice or Druid Staff, which is what it was before)
1x Jade Staff
total: 30 cards (mark = life)

other than some pillars and one unupgraded shard, 2 normal cockatrice and a druid staff, I currently own no other cards, having sold everything as soon as I got it, and upgrading something every time i get to 1500

Initiially I'd been thinking to upgrade Horned Frogs, but then they don't work as nicely with Adrenaline, so I upgraded adrenalines first, then a cockatrice, then a staff.  Anyway, what do you think I should upgrade first?

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[xdude]

First, the deck (to make a nice picture of it, select it all and then press on the deck creator icon (the 2 cards, above the smilies))

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I'd do the Pillars early on. As strange as it might seem, they are usually the best upgrades, as 2-3 early quanta can speed you up a ton.

[dragonsdemesne]

Don't worry; it makes sense.  I'd thought about doing those as well.  That was my reasoning behind upgrading adrenalines first; having them cost 3 instead of 4 often means a drug-pumped frog is charging that one turn sooner.

I'm going to take the mitosis out, and unless the upgrade looks really nice, I won't bother upgrading it, and will just sell it.

Also thanks for the info about how to make pictures.

[xdude]

Don't worry; it makes sense.  I'd thought about doing those as well.  That was my reasoning behind upgrading adrenalines first; having them cost 3 instead of 4 often means a drug-pumped frog is charging that one turn sooner.

I'm going to take the mitosis out, and unless the upgrade looks really nice, I won't bother upgrading it, and will just sell it.

Also thanks for the info about how to make pictures.

But you see, in this case an upgraded Pillar (or Pendulum) is strictly superior to the Epinephrine. If you draw the Tower (upgraded Pillar) you can play the Adrenaline with as much ease as if you had a Pillar and a Epinephrine. However, the Tower can also help you fuel other cards earlier, making it generally more useful.

[Jaxly]

Xdude has the right of it about pillars and explained it very well.
If two identical unupped decks went against each other and one replaced all their pillars with towers then that player would essentially be one turn ahead the entire game.
This is opposed to one turn ahead for a single card (like when you up adren).

[dragonsdemesne]

Yeah, I agree 100% with that.  I hadn't thought about it in quite those terms before, but the upgrading of my Adrenalines means that whenever I draw Adrenaline, it is  cheaper.  However, if I had upgraded pillars/pendulums, then the next card I play (ANY card) is  cheaper.

Since my last post I swapped Mitosis out for another Cockatrice and farmed enough AI3 to upgrade a pendulum, following the above suggestions.  I figured pendulums would be more useful in the long term than pillars, since in the (very) long term I foresee myself using a rainbow deck primarily powered by Quantum Towers, or perhaps a 2-3 element deck powered by pendulums.  The strongest decks I built were of a control/keeper style (for those who have played Magic) and could beat top50 and AI5 with a reasonable win rate even with 0 upgraded cards, but the games would take me 15-20 minutes to play, so I was not getting very far.  I only ever beat a false god once with that deck, but I did win an upgraded relic that I got to sell for like 1k gold :p

[dragonsdemesne]

I'm slowly upgrading some cards, mostly for a rainbow deck later, but the life deck is now looking like this:

by dragonsdemesne

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

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I also have two upgraded Elite Otyugh and an Electrum Hourglass; the otyughs I shelled out 3k to upgrade, and the hourglass I happily won against a false god while trying some rainbow decks out for a change of pace.

[kitty45]

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[mightyforest]

Yeah what xDude and the other have said about upping towers/pends first is the way to go.

I'd just like to add a small tip here seeing your newest SS shows you are upping all pends first. A small trick is to alternate upgrading pillars and pendulums if you're using a mono deck because it helps you against Earthquakes/ quicksand. You end up with 4 piles (unupped pillar, unupped pendulum, upped pillar and upped pendulum) in the process so when opponent plays an EQ you have a better chance of not having all your quanta generating perms knocked out.

Heh, yeah it's not so significant in the big picture since you will eventually have all upped anyway, but there's no reason not to either right xD.

Hope this helps