I'd rather focus on Gravity than Air, actually. Here is why:
Old Trees said (although I can't find where) that Air is prone to CC, hasn't got strong defenses and is predictable in its offense.
Well, Air has strong upped rush potential which is not prone to CC thanks to having lots of creatures (Damselfly damage adds up...), has alternative permanent-based damage in UG, has an excellent weapon in Owls' Eye that is capable of winning a game alone (Earth-Air stall's win condition is, in fact, that - or deckout), has Firefly Queen which is resistant to many forms of CC and spawns even more creatures, has excellent synergy with poison and even with bolts. So it isn't predictable in its offense either.
It has good defenses too, as its CC is excellent and I believe OT is undervaluing its shields a whole lot: Wings is a deadly weapon that stops many top-tier decks cold, cutting their offense at least in half as well as stopping powerful weapons such as Fahrenheit, Arsenic and Discord, and that's not even counting Spider decks - which are extremely powerful if half-upped as spiders are great upped attackers; Fog Shield is extremely powerful in rush vs rush battles: grabbow mirror matches are oftentimes determined by how lucky you are with it. Also, Fog is one of the best Discord soft counters as it comes out fast even against Discord and has a good chance to stop it for a turn, allowing you to play a real answer - or even just plain ol' offense. Add Hope and Bonewall synergy and you have really good defenses, versatile offenses and the potential to run very different deck concepts.
You might specify that you need duos to pull this off and that you are discussing mono elements, but consider Gravity: its offense is MUCH more predictable and hard countered by RT, its defense is pityful as its CC is anti-synergic or slow and its shield is really situational (compare it to Wings: Wings stops top-tier threats and has off-element synergy to stop the rest, Gravity Shield doesn't stop top-tier threats and has far worse off-element synergy to stop part of the rest. Wings' only downpoint is that it needs to be chained).
Even if you use a duo, you either pick a more varied offense or a better defense, but can't afford both while keeping most of your deck Gravity-based.
Good points. You have convinced me that Gravity is in a weaker position than Air.
Upon reflection I was drastically underestimating the shields. However I would point out I was evaluating mono
not the broader mono Air or even broader Air. In mono
vs mono
, Air is much more predictable than Gravity because Unstable Gas and FFQ are unavailable but Catapult remains available.
