Pestal 101

[omegareaper7]

Though its not totally on topic, i'll go ahead and say it.
Having 4 copies of a card in a 30 card deck nearly ensure you get it first turn.

[Selvaria]

Ok, while every point could be argued, I just say you don't need 6 fractals because it will give you dead draws.

I'm very sure that you don't need 6 fractals on this deck, 6 fractals in a 30 cards deck is a bad idea.

[Chromatophore]

Though its not totally on topic, i'll go ahead and say it.
Having 4 copies of a card in a 30 card deck nearly ensure you get it first turn.

about a 73% chance if you go second
about a 68% chance if you go first
(mulligans not taken into account)

[Xenocidius]

Though its not totally on topic, i'll go ahead and say it.
Having 4 copies of a card in a 30 card deck nearly ensure you get it first turn.

about a 73% chance if you go second
about a 68% chance if you go first
(mulligans not taken into account)

Bingo. And you'll want that Fractal by turn 3 or 4, and you'll also want more Fractals soon after that. You usually play about 3 or 4 Fractals over the course of the game. That's why I have 6 - because they're such a key card. I used 6 in my RoL/Hope deck and still sometimes wished I had another.

Ok, while every point could be argued, I just say you don't need 6 fractals because it will give you dead draws.

I'm very sure that you don't need 6 fractals on this deck, 6 fractals in a 30 cards deck is a bad idea.

That's exactly why I don't have cards like Siphon Life, Steal, Dusk Mantle, etc. They're dead draws, because you can only spend quanta on Pests in the beginning.

[couponlady]

First off, 6 is too many Fractals.  Even RoL/Hope runs with 5, and I would argue that Fractal-ing RoLs is more vital to that deck's success than fractaling Pests is to this one's.  Also, by reducing the number of Fractals you have, you can in turn take out an Aether Tower or two and replace them either with Pends, or any combination of Steals, Dusk Mantle, and Vampire Dagger.  Before you decide that I'm wrong out of hand and disregard this (I promise, I have read all of your previous arguments), please take into consideration what I say.

First off, the fact that you label this "Pestal 2.0" can be very misleading to a new player.  This could very well lead them to believe that this version is better than other posted versions and, to be perfectly honest, it's not better.  Not necessarily any worse, either, and that's one of the beautiful things about Pestal; the fact that there are so many different ways to play it depending on what you think may be coming.

Also, when it comes to adding in Steals, this is a very effective weapon since the goal is to achieve a quanta lockdown, or very close to it, of your opponent.  If you are able to get that lockdown, but they are in turn able to get out a troublesome permanent or two (Fire Shield, for instance) and then you are able to Steal that permanent, you then have that game won.  In essence, they're using their last gasp of quanta to play something that could possibly buy them the win, and you are in turn snatching that hope from them.  You're giving yourself another out, another win condition, which will always be superior to having only one.

As for the Dusk Mantle and Vampire Dagger, well, see above about win conditions.  The more things you can give your opponent to have to worry about, the better.  Also, there is exponentially more CC in game than PC, so they can do wonders in the early game, especially if your hand gets flooded with quanta producers and Fractals.  In fact, the two of them put together can almost win a game for you by themselves.

These suggestions will not cause this deck to beat all others, but the intent is instead to make it more viable against a wider variety of decks.  Happy elementing!

How can you make this deck so it has at least a 60% win percentage? I started playing False Gods instead of Half Bloods because you can get only upgraded cards. I earn money faster this way but I do loose more often. I can beat at least 50% of the decks. It all depends on what cards I draw and what the opponent gets. If I go against Ferox I can beat him. If he first gets Leaf Dragons and it takes him at least 3-4 turns to get his bigger creatures, I'm fine. If he starts playing his 5/3 or 5/5 within the first couple of turns then I'm dead.

There are a few decks that give me problems. Eternal Phoenix can be really hard. If he fractals a bunch of his 4/1 guys I'm already dead. I don't think I ever beat him. Gravitron is another deck that causes problems. He will use unstoppable so his Elite Chargers keep growing. I end up taking mass amounts of damage and dying. I also have problems with Dream Catcher. I don't like playing against him because he uses Butterfly Effect giving one of his creatures the ability to destroy. If I have a dusk shield now he has a creature with the ability to destroy it. If I don't get an Electrocuter before he uses  Butterfly Effect then basically there is no point in me playing any of my weapons or shields or my eclipse. It will just get destroyed.

He also has the Purple Nymph with the ability Antimatter. If he gets the Nymph out I'm probably dead. At this point there is no reason to play any Vampires. He will just antimatter the Vampire. Now instead of dealing damage to the opponent I have to take that damage. I like playing this Pest deck but wish I could there was some way to beat some of the harder decks.

[SnoWeb]

some links showing the high popularity of pestal as well as two effective versions of it:
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,20440.msg284367#msg284367
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28170.msg387913#msg387913

[Xenocidius]

@couponlady: Umm ... what deck are you using? If you are using my deck, it's definitely not intended as a False God farmer. But wow, I never thought it could even stand up to False Gods. If you are using another Pestal deck, then I would certainly love to try a Pestal deck with a winrate that high. As for 60%, even RoL/Hope and CCYB, arguably the two most popular False God farmers, do not have winrates that high.

@SnoWeb: Interesting ... Maybe I will upgrade 10 pendulums and try some of those, seeing as they are more popular and effective than I thought.

[ralouf]

Some thoughts to maybe help you :

6 fractal are far too much I never use 6 fractal in a 30 cards deck (5 mostly in pestal/rol hope/fractix and sometimes 4 in fractix). I almost never miss them and on the contrary I had sometimes had too much of them in mah hand.

Pestal exist since a long time as an FG farmer (look in the archive) but isn't really efficient.

I met 1 pestal in CL out of 100 matches (and lost cuz is dusk mantle stopped 7 creature out of 8 while he was at 10).

Steal is a very very good card, for example if you opponent is low on pillar in the beginning you can steal them to win. you can steal an annoying weapon or a good shield too or something else which can help you to win. When I used this deck against plat league I ran 4 steals.

in win rates RoL hope is at 40% and CCYB 55%. Only I've GotP Time is higher than 60% (it has 67% in fact).

The number of fratal you want to play depend to the number of cards you have in hand.. if you have 3 fractal in hand it takes a lot of place..

[Xenocidius]

Yep, I remember trying the Pesty FG Farmer, but of course it was/is incredibly outdated.

I've been playing with the anti-platinum Pestal deck, and my hand always seems to get clogged up with Steals, Mantle and Dagger, and I rarely get two or more pendulums first turn. Fractals come around turn 6 with about 3-5 cards in hand, and denial is impossible.

Although I do admit the haxx shield has saved me quite a few times.

It really all comes down to who you want to play against. My deck denies unupped, single-mark opponents the majority of the time, but against stronger opponents those extra cards do come in handy.

CCYB at 55%? Last time I checked it was 49% (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,25609.0.html).

[TheonlyrealBeef]

If it's Pest/Devourer denial you want, Pest/Devtal is definitely your best option imo, so less popularity can only be caused by an increasing popularity in decks that counter them, Immolation/Cremation and (Super)Nova based decks being prime examples, but with the arrival of Sanctuary it's become worse. I have personally not been using Pestal a lot lately, even if just because I expect people to expect me to use that :P

Sno basically already linked my variant, Siphons are exchangeable with Steals, though Siphons make it more versatile and even gives the deck a chance against Immolation/Cremation decks.

[couponlady]

Some thoughts to maybe help you :

6 fractal are far too much I never use 6 fractal in a 30 cards deck (5 mostly in pestal/rol hope/fractix and sometimes 4 in fractix). I almost never miss them and on the contrary I had sometimes had too much of them in mah hand.

Pestal exist since a long time as an FG farmer (look in the archive) but isn't really efficient.

I met 1 pestal in CL out of 100 matches (and lost cuz is dusk mantle stopped 7 creature out of 8 while he was at 10).

Steal is a very very good card, for example if you opponent is low on pillar in the beginning you can steal them to win. you can steal an annoying weapon or a good shield too or something else which can help you to win. When I used this deck against plat league I ran 4 steals.

in win rates RoL hope is at 40% and CCYB 55%. Only I've GotP Time is higher than 60% (it has 67% in fact).

The number of fratal you want to play depend to the number of cards you have in hand.. if you have 3 fractal in hand it takes a lot of place..

How many cards do you run in your pest deck? I currently have 60 cards in my deck. I'm running 6 fractals. I'm also running 6 pests, 6 Improved Steals, and 5 Vampires. The other cards in my deck are 3 Dusk shields, 2 Black Dragons, 2 Electrocuters and 2 Vampire Daggers.

I can't seem to make my deck any smaller. Originally the deck was 50 cards. I decided to add some additional land and later some extra cards. I originally had 3 steals in the deck and now I have 6 in the deck. You can always find some of your opponents to steal. I know steals can sometimes clog up your hand. My deck currently has 16 Obsidian Towers and 10 Aether Towers. I have the Aether Mark so I don't need as many Aether Towers. I wanted to make sure I have enough land in the deck. Some decks like Decay I can loose to pretty often. It's usually because I don't get enough land in my hand.

[TheForbiddenOracle]

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7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t9 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7td 7td 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 808 808 808 80i 80i 80i 80i 80i

Is this supposed to be mark?