Zero Pillar Immolation Deck

[eNonymous]

As a newbie, grinding in this game felt really slow, so I put some thought into winning games faster. My goal with this deck is to minimize turns, and minimize inactivity.

Also, I was not happy after being raped by some Level 3 AIs with Aether Dimension Shield decks and Darkness Devourer decks, so I wanted to be able to defend against those 'denial' decks in particular. Here's what I've come up with. It wins quite a lot on Level 3, and does okay in PvP:

4x Nova
6x Immolation
4x Ash Eater
3x Crimson Dragon
2x Fire Shield
4x Deflagration
2x Rain of Fire
2x Lava Golem
3x Photon - Light (free)
3x Chaos Seed - Entropy 1
1x Boneyard - Death 3
1x Poison - Death 1
1x Chrysora - Water 1 (skill Death 1)
1x Graviton Fire Eater - Gravity 2 (skill Fire 1)
1x Blessing - Light 3
1x Dragonfly - Air 1
1x Deja Vu - Time 1 (skill Time 1)
1x Steal - Darkness 3
1x Lobotomizer - Aether 3

This list is very rainbow, on purpose. It quickly generates a small number of each quanta, so my criteria for choosing a lot of these cards was: "do I have a better use for that element?"

The only element that I'm guaranteed to have a steady supply of is Fire, so all expensive cards are Fire, and I try to minimize dependence on other elements. There are two exceptions which I'll discuss later.


How It Plays:

What it needs to get started is a cheap minion to Immolate. This can happen one of three ways:

Photon (cha-ching!)[/li] Nova + one of the cheap guys (Ash Eater, Chrysora, Deja Vu, Dragonfly)[/li] Free Fire quantum from Mark of Fire + Ash Eater[/li]

The important thing about the above conditions is that the first two work on round 1. If my hand is okay, I can play an Immolate on round 1, giving me enough Fire quanta to play a Lava Golem (plus one or two Earth quanta for him to eat). If it's a great hand, I'll be able to Immolate two minions and play a Crimson Dragon on round 1.

And that's the key to this deck: it can hit hard before the opponent has time to get his strategy in place. This way I've been able to reliably beat Aether shield decks on Level 3.


Reasoning Behind Choices:

Fire Shield: It's my defense against Parasites, Lycanthrapes, and stolen copies of my own creatures (all of which are weak defensively).[/li] Lobotomizer: I asked myself, what quanta are you NOT using for anything? 3 Aether for 5 damage seems pretty good, and if I hit five Nova/Immolates early, it can save me from an early Otyugh or FFQ. Mainly it's there because I'm not using Aether for anything else, though.[/li] Lava Golems: I generate 2-5 quanta of Earth, so one of these will be well fed, and they do good damage even unfed.[/li] Steal: Can be game-changing, and I'm not using Darkness for anything else.[/li] Blessing: Damage + protection = sweet, and I'm not using Light for anything else.[/li] Boneyard: I burn through my minions, and once I get Fire Shield up, both sides suffer losses. A few free Skeletons makes the late game easier.[/li] Poison: Maybe this one should go away. I thought of it as a nice cheap source of damage, but it may not add enough to justify its space in the deck.[/li]

What Needs Help:

The deck feels too big. I'll bet it could be narrowed down considerably, and made more reliable.

I'm using Death for three things (Chrysora, Poison, Boneyard), when really I can't expect enough Death quanta to use all of them. Chrysora can be Immolated, so it's not a total waste even if I can't feed it, but that might not be good enough.

This deck is very vulnerable to Otyughs and Thunderstorms. I could avoid the Thunderstorms by keeping minions in my hand until I'm ready to Immolate them, but that goes against my core strategy, which is to maximize damage by getting creatures out as quickly as possible.

I'm not sure the spells are the best I could pick. Deflagration is great against an early weapon or shield, and it works well as a delaying tactic if I see an opponent with very few pillars up in round 1. Rain of Fire works nicely against the same foes that Fire Shield kills, so maybe a smaller deck would give me more reliable Fire Shield instead.

[Gir]

Interesting.

[CB!]

I run a deck similar to this when I'm farming lvl3 to get enough cash to start fighting fake-gods again.  But your deck is waaay too big for a zero pillar deck.  I would recommend 6 novas, 6 immolation, and 6 photons all for generating quanta.  Then I would focus on 1 different creature from an element that could make use of 2 elements.  Example: forest spirit, costs 2 life to bring out and uses water for growth.  Lava golem, costs 4 fire (immolation helps this along) to bring out and uses earth for growth.  Once you decide on a few of these creatures, don't use other cards that make use of the elements they need.

Your reasoning behind you choices is on the right track with trying to efficiently use the quanta you're generating, but I think your brush is too broad.  Also, I've found that adding cards to counter specific scenarios just causes more problems.  If you want to add more cards, make sure they serving more than 1 purpose.  Like my deck, I wasn't using light or time at all.  So I added deja vu and blessing.  The optimal use for this would be to bless the deja vu and then split it.  But if that doesn't happen I can always bless another creature, and use deja vus for immolation fodder if I'm not drawing photons, etc.

But the deck is really fun to play, and most times plays really fast.  The purpose of a deck like this is to not ever let your opponent develop their strategy.  Just my thoughts, anyway.

[eNonymous]

Yeah, it was too big, and that made it unreliable.

I spent waaaaaay to much time playing last night, and here's what I've got now:

5x Nova
6x Immolation
2x Fire Shield
2x Deflagration
2x Rain of Fire
3x Lava Golem
1x Ash Eater
4x Crimson Dragon
5x Photon
1x Virus
1x Chrysaora
1x Dragonfly
1x Deja Vu
1x Steal
1x Blessing
1x Lobotomizer

I feel like I've got too many Dragons, but I'm not sure how to shrink the deck without losing its current balance.

When things go well, it's game-over in 5 rounds.

I ditched the Lycanthrope. If I get three Darkness, I'll hope for Steal, which is really fun.


Specific Strategy Notes:

If I see Entropy and Darkness, I'm going to prioritize Fire Shield. Lycanthropes hit hard and fast, but with my shield out they just die fast.

Shield also a priority if I suspect an FFQ deck based on Rustlers. If I can toast the rustler, his strategy is over.

Stealing Boneyard is hilarious.

Stealing an early Fire pillar is amazingly useful, and can save my butt if the opponent only uses Fire for attack spells.

Against Devourers, I hold my Novas until I can Immolate my way to something awesome (like a Crimson Dragon or Rain of Fire).

Maxwell's Demon is my bane. Strategy: burn something to fuel Lobo's special ability, or get out a Fire Shield and wait two turns. Every turn of delay is murder to my strategy, though, so this really hurts either way.

Reverse Time is another bane, since I can't usually reproduce the 1-round Immolation/Nova that got my dudes out in the first place. If the opponent is low on Time quanta and pillars, I sometimes Deflag/Steal his pillars to reduce his ability to screw me over. If I can Immolate a Photon, I can get out a Deflag and a Lava Golem.

[ggabriel]

Echoing what CB said. Several of your card picks look good on paper, but in most situations they're entirely irrelevant to the strategy of this deck.

Nova/immolation/photon is the core of your quanta supply. With mark of fire, ash eaters may be able to partially substitute for photons--their damage output is not worth much, but it's enough to contribute and you can still easily use them for fodder. There's virtually no point in having a dragonfly vs. having another photon, though. I'm kind of iffy on this use of deja vu; while deja vu + blessing is fun, I don't think you're reliably going to be able to get it out in time to do any good.

Deflagration is key--it protects you from Owl's Eye/Lobotomizer, and stops most shields from reducing your damage output. Steal can work in a pinch, although it's more expensive than I'd like and there are some other tempting options for darkness quanta.

Lava golems are tremendously good for damage output. Most variations on this deck I've seen ran mark of earth and had lots of golems, but that arose in part from when lava golems cost 3 instead of 4; now that they're more expensive, some experimentation is probably in order. Graviton Fire Eater is another decent source of damage; it's a bit slower to start, but it's a lot sturdier which makes you a bit less vulnerable to creature-killing cards. Other creatures worth looking at include forest spirits and lycanthropes.

Lobotomizer seems like a good idea, but spending 5 quanta just to remove the skill from one enemy creature? If you want to throw in a little creature control, try a mind flayer instead. You can get it out and start lobotomizing things after only 2 nova/immolations.

Chrysoara isn't bad--it's cheap immolation fodder and it converts death quanta into damage. Its damage output is a bit low, though, and you may find better uses for water/death. The poison spell does damage a bit faster than chrysoara, but I'd recommend ditching it--it still doesn't do damage fast enough to be relied upon, and it takes up a card that does not help you get your critical immolation fodder up.

Chaos Seed is a fantastic card that seems to be under-rated in a lot of rainbow decks; it's extremely inexpensive and will generally take care of many threats. You might consider replacing 1 or 2 of them with Freeze--it's just as inexpensive but has a more reliable effect. Freeze won't kill things, but it's guaranteed to stall them for 3 turns and that's what you're really after. Freeze an otyugh to get your creatures room to grow large enough that they're not in immediate danger of munchies, or simply beat down the opponent to critical health while it's frozen.

Dragons are horrendously expensive and are still very vulnerable to creature damage which is your #1 threat. Two golems are cheaper, more effective, and in most circumstances less vulnerable than 1 dragon; of course, the dragon has the advantage of only taking 1 card instead of 2, so they're nort worthless. I think 4 is definitely too many, though.

Blessing is decent, although I wouldn't rely on it--it's expensive and only adds a static 3 damage/turn, not too hot, but it does help protect your creatures against damage. That being one of this deck's biggest weaknesses this is definitely worthwhile, although getting it out fast enough to matter may be difficult.

Boneyard, Rain of Fire, and Fireshield, though--these are all powerful, but here they don't fit in. They don't contribute to your primary strategy (putting out a lot of damage fast), they do a poor job addressing counters to your primary strategy (killing your creatures to stop your damage), and they're too expensive to be effective for stalling in situations where you're having difficulty getting your primary strategy up and running. If you need creature control, I'd vastly prefer to use Chaos Seed and Freeze over RoF/Fireshield to kill/stall early threats--if the game lasts long enough for a late threat to emerge, you've already failed.

[eNonymous]

CB and ggabriel, thanks for your feedback.

Here's my experience so far:

- Graviton Fire Eaters: they are too expensive to feed, since I only make 1 Fire per round. They also deal no damage on the round they're played. I use Momentum instead, and that seems to add enough damage.

- Lava Golems: are also expensive to feed, since I don't produce any Earth naturally. I can generally feed one of them (since Immolation generates 1 Earth, it's always worth it to burn a Photon, Ash Eater, or any other minion to add +2/+2 to a Lava Golem). I love having one out, but having two out isn't quite twice as good, and more would be worth less I think.

- Dragons: if I can play two Immolations in round 1 (and neither is off of an Ash Eater), I can play a Dragon and a Lava Golem immediately.



I'm going to ditch my Rain of Fire cards (for a Deflag and another Ash Eater). I'll post results later.

Thanks again for the help! This deck is so much fun when it comes together.

[seraphim]

i run a pillarless speeddeck with good success. you don't necessarily need to think you need a card(s) to counter every situation. instead why not impose your presence instead  you'll find a focused deck more dependable than waiting for that one card in your whole deck that appears every 5 games.

[eNonymous]

Okay, I took the advice here to heart, and met with success. Thanks!

Here's my current deck (30 cards, mark of Fire):

6x Immolation
4x Nova
6x Photon
4x Crimson Dragon
3x Lava Golem
3x Deflagration
1x Blessing
1x Steal
1x Lobotomizer
1x Druid Staff


I've got enough coins for 3 upgrades. I'm thinking of adding some Brimstone Eaters in place of some Photons.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

Sorry for the bump.

I found this interesting, so I went out and designed my own take on the pillarless deck, and this is what I came up with.

Mark of ENTROPY


I took the usual Speed Rainbow that Scaredgirl posted in the Rainbow Deck section, and I mixed it with the usual Towerless Rainbow Deck, and came up with what you see here. I left the dragons unupgraded so that they couldn't be eaten by unupped Otyughs and because they cost less to play that way, not to mention that they are still priority targets, so my weaker creatures are safe. Let's see the deck in action.

EDIT: I'd probably take out a Dragon for another Forest Spectre.


Poison is just too slow...=/



In all fairness, I didn't play fair. XD



They Firstormed, played two Bonewalls and a Dimensional Shield, AND they Miracled...=/



I, personally, think that this deck might be one of the better ones, as it's very fast, very strong, and is useful in many, many situations.

[darkfrogger]

im using this deck right now and its working great