Darkness and Aether

[mac10289]

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5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5up 5up 5uq 5ur 5us 5us 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 622 622 622 622 6rm 6rm 6rn
Any tips or criticism on this deck??  It's not upgraded yet. I upgraded those 3 shards in one day. I'm gonna work on upgrading the pillars next and I will cut down on some of the Obsidian pillars once some of them are upgraded. I have beat at least 5 of the Top 30 players in the Top 50 with this deck, that is the ones that were actually playing cards. I'm pretty sure they were Time decks.  So, Tips, criticism, anything???

[icybraker]

I don't think any of your Shards are needed. They can make you live longer, but they also help make your deck larger (making it slower and more prone to bad draws) and don't help you lock down and deal damage, which is the main point of your deck. Anyways, you have quanta, permanent, and creature control, which can probably hold you well enough such that you don't need to heal. You have Drain Life to heal, too. So:

-3 Shards

You also don't need 4 Minor Vampires. You will play your Devourers first, anyways, in order to lock down your opponent. Vampires come later to deal damage. I think 2 or even 1 vampire would be fine, because you can always fractal it.

Otherwise, pretty good deck. You may need more Devourers so you can draw more of them; I'd replace 2 Obsidian Pillars for 2 more Devourers. Nice deck.

[PhuzzY LogiK]

First of all, I agree with Icy 100%.

Second, this deck will work exponentially better upgraded.  I know you're aware of that, just keep it in mind when you get some frustrating losses.  It's a solid deck.  Don't give up on it.

Here's a variation I tried and had some success with:


A few reasons for the changes I made:
- 30 cards.  I play Darkness/Earth deck with a similar strategy (quanta denial), and you WILL get screwed over with draws.  The less cards in the deck, the better.
- Darkness Mark. If you can't get the initial devourers out quickly, the deck breaks down.  The Fractals are a supplement, but this deck needs darkness quantum.
- Less Aether Pillars.  You don't really want to draw Aether Pillars in your opening hand.  If the auto-mulligan kicks in and you only get Aether Pillars, it's going to really hurt.  Also, 1-3 Pillars can generate more than enough to play a Fractal by the time you're ready for it.
- Less Fractals.  In most games you're really only going to need one or two Fractals.  If you're having trouble locking them down, Fractal a Devourer.  If you just need to finish them, Fractal a Vamp.  Just keep in mind, Fractals are a bonus here, not your primary focus.
- Less Control (Steal/Life Drain).  Your main control method is quanta denial, so focus on that.  You only need a steal when your opponent gets something out before you get setup.  Use Life Drain to deal with a pesky Oty if they get one out, not to heal (your Vamps/Dagger should be your main healing).  Don't count on it for much damage (you'll be using your quanta to play creatures).  I'd also consider switching out one Steal for a Dusk Shield.

The biggest problem I had with this deck was it's a little sluggish.  You need to have at least a devourer out in your first turn or two to get things rolling.  Again, that's something that will improve as you get cards upgraded.

One last screenie:  Here's this deck beating PuppyChow's [presumably] fully upped Shrieker rush deck (Top50, so AI was playing, not Puppy--I'm sure he would have done better).  It destroyed all my towers with Quicksand, so I never even got a fractal off, but the deck could still pull off the win.  The bottom line is this type of deck is very capable.