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Elements the Game => General Discussion => Elements Articles => Topic started by: RootRanger on March 18, 2016, 04:34:10 pm

Title: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: RootRanger on March 18, 2016, 04:34:10 pm

The table below is the synthesis of my six years of experience. The concepts are simple, but a deep understanding of them gives you considerable advantage in competitive PvP. Over the course of this post, I will be elaborating on the definition and significance of each section of the table.

	Direct Offense	Bypass Offense
No Defense	Rush	Break
Temporary Defense	Domin	Hybrid
Permanent Defense	Non-viable	Stall

Fundamentals
Before we begin, let’s look at the very basics of how Elements was designed. Unlike with many other card games, the cards in Elements can be divided into two categories: offense and defense. For comparison, cards in other games can oftentimes serve both of the two roles, by choosing either to attack your opponent’s life points directly (offense) or to destroy the opponent’s creatures instead (defense). With Elements, most of the creatures are almost exclusively offense cards, while most of the spells and shields are almost exclusively defense cards. Although some might believe this divide causes Elements to be simplistic, I believe it is what makes the different types of decks in Elements more distinct from each other than in other games.

Two Types of Offense
The numerous different offense cards in the game can be condensed into two categories: direct and bypass. Direct offense cards typically have efficient damage for their cost, but they are stopped by most of the game’s defense cards. Bypass offense cards typically have less damage, but they are more difficult to remove with defense cards. Consider the sharp distinctions between Crimson Dragon (direct) and Phase Dragon (bypass). Crimson Dragon deals 12 damage a turn for 10 quanta, while Phase Dragon deals only 8 damage a turn for 13 quanta. However, Crimson Dragon can be killed by numerous defensive spell cards (Lightning, Shockwave, Fire Bolt), while Phase Dragon is impervious to almost all of them. Additional examples of direct offense cards include Cockatrice, Ghost of the Past, Bone Dragon, and basically almost any creature with less than 6 health and no redeeming ability. Additional examples of bypass offense cards include Unstable Gas, Fractal, and Catapult.

Three Types of Defense
The distinction between the different types of defenses is more dependent on the quantity of defense cards, rather than the type. A deck with "no defense" obviously has no defense cards, or very few. A deck with temporary defense has a fair number of defense cards (usually 6-12), which are intended to delay or diminish the opponent’s damage but not prevent it entirely. A deck with permanent defense devotes almost the entirety of the deck towards the goal of stopping their damage completely, until the opponent runs out of cards. Note that decks with permanent defense almost always have a means of healing themselves, in order to offset the damage done by the opponent’s creatures before they are removed. An example of a temporary defense would be the use of 6 Lightnings. An example of a permanent defense would be the use of 6 Fire Bolts, 3 Fire Shields, 2 Deflagrations, 6 Sanctuaries, and a Miracle.

Rushes
Rushes are fairly simple, in that their win condition is simply dealing 100 damage to the opponent as quickly as possible. Note that some rushes devote a small amount of resources towards cheap cards that provide minor defensive benefit, such as one copy of Fog Shield or Druidic Staff, but most of their non-quanta cards are direct offense. Examples of Rushes include Immolation decks and Mono Life. Rushes are most effective against Breaks, which carry no means of delaying the opponent’s offense yet bring a much slower offense themselves.

Breaks
Similar to Rushes, Breaks focus entirely on offense. But unlike Rushes, Breaks carry bypass offense, which cannot be stopped by the opponent’s defense. Of course, the cost of using bypass offense is having a slower win condition, which is very disadvantageous against Rushes. Examples of Breaks include Flying Titans and Fractix. Breaks are most effective against Stalls, which are unable to use their defense cards effectively yet have too little offense of their own to deal enough damage in time.

Stalls
Stalls are considerably different from the other types of decks, because their primary win condition is deckout, the ultimate form of bypass offense. Nearly all of the deck’s resources are devoted towards stopping the opponent’s offense cold, then winning when the opponent runs out of cards. Examples include the notorious Firestall, as well as Immortal (Stone Skin + Miracle). Stalls are most effective against Domins, which do not get to make use of their defense cards very effectively and lack sufficient offense to deal enough damage to win.

Domins
Domins are a tricky type of deck. They do not have as much defense as Stalls, nor do they have as much offense as Rushes. However, they still have their niche in the metagame as a deck to use to beat Rushes. Domins accomplish this goal by delaying the opponent’s offense enough for their own offense to deal 100 damage first. An example of a more defense-heavy Domin is Pandebonium, while an example of a more offense-heavy Domin is Mono Entropy with Antimatter.

Cross Match-ups
Now, what happens when we match a Rush against a Stall, or a Break against a Domin? Well, it depends. If you match an Immolation Rush against a Firestall, for instance, they’ll both have more or less equal chances against each other. Similarly, Flying Titans (with Catapult) would win about half the time against Mono Entropy with Antimatter. This isn’t to say that the matchup is always a 50/50 - an Immolation Rush would have a huge advantage against Immortal, and Flying Titans would obliterate Pandebonium. On the other hand, Immortal would easily beat Mono Life, and Pandebonium would typically win against Fractix. Thus, the Rush/Stall and Break/Domin matchups are a more or less a toss-up.

Non-viable
Let’s take a minute to consider a deck with direct offense and permanent defense. The very nature of permanent defense is that almost all of the non-quanta cards in the deck are focused on defense. A deck with permanent defense can only spare a couple cards for offense purposes. For Firestall, these cards are Fahrenheits, and for Aether+Light Stall, these cards are a single copy of Light Dragon and Fractal. If the deck were to use any more than 3 or 4 cards for offense, its defense would become less permanent, and the deck would be considered a Domin. Now, let’s keep in mind that few decks are pure Rush or pure Break. In other words, most decks constain some form of defense, even if it’s only a couple cards. If a deck uses a mere 3-4 direct offense cards, there are high chances that they will accomplish nothing at all because the opponent’s defense cards will dispatch them. As an example, Seraphs included in a Firestall will be stopped cold by a fast Grabbow that brings a couple Lightnings, or a Mono Death Rush that brings a couple Bone Walls. In certain metagames, ones in which Rush decks do not bring any defense cards at all, a deck with direct offense and permanent defense could be viable, but I have rarely found this to be the case.

Hybrids
Moving on with that, time to talk about the most interesting deck type of all! Hybrids are similar to Domins, except they use bypass offense instead of direct offense. Hybrids can also be defined as a Break-Stall, in the sense that they have a little less offense than a Break and a little less defense than a Stall. You might not have heard of this deck type before, but some of the scariest decks in the games can be considered Hybrids. These examples include Phoenixbolt, which can use Fire Bolts either for defense against a Rush or bypass offense against a Stall, and Mono Aether Psiontal, which delays Rushes with Dimensional Shield or Lightning and breaks through Stalls with its Fractal+Psion combo. Due to their versatility, and sometimes the sheer power of the cards included in their decks, Hybrids are often favorable against Rushes, Domins, and Stalls alike! How else do you think Aether and Fire won so many Wars?

Final Thoughts
Congrats, you’ve made it! You should now have a pretty good idea of the sorts of deck types and how they interact with each other. So, what’s the takeaway? Don’t be predictable. If all your most frequently used decks are the same one or two deck types, a top level player who possesses such knowledge will exploit it. It’s happened time and time again, in Wars, Leagues and PvP Events alike. Additionally, if you have a good idea of what to expect from your opponent, don’t hesitate to use your knowledge of deck types to gain an advantage over them. You’ll be one step closer towards becoming one of the best in the game.

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: Manuel on March 19, 2016, 12:04:58 am

awesome guide, thanks root

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: Sera on March 19, 2016, 03:27:16 am

These concepts will be helpful in creating decks of the mentioned archetypes. Thanks for this!

I have a few questions:
Under what classification do Denials belong to, or do they not belong to any specific classification?
Are stall OTKs Hybrids or Breaks?
Is there a general way of beating hybrids?
Is sundial balanced?

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: Arum on March 19, 2016, 03:02:30 pm

Denial looks like a Hybrid deck. Some temporary defense plus bypass offense.

Stall OTKs go into the stall category. They tend to have large amounts of defense and small amounts of bypass offense which are buffed by momentum to get around shields. Limitless speed is a good example.

My questions to Root;

Could there possibly be a "non-viable" deck that actually works? For that matter, would Stall OTKs be an acceptable category to go into the non-viable slot as they tend to have a different win condition than deckout?

Could you compile a short list of what the current meta-game decks fall into? I know some are Swallow, Pestal, Ghostmare, Wise Dragons, and Psiontal. You've mentioned a couple as Hybrids, so it'd be interesting to see where the more used decks end up.

And yes, is there a category that tends to beat Hybrids?

Right now, it looks like Rush > Break > Stall > Domin > Rush.

Perhaps the "non-viable" category, if a decent deck was built for it, could beat Hybrids.

What category does SoW Reflect fall into?

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: Solaris on March 19, 2016, 03:09:24 pm

Quote from: Arum on March 19, 2016, 03:02:30 pm

Denial looks like a Hybrid deck. Some temporary defense plus bypass offense.

Stall OTKs go into the stall category. They tend to have large amounts of defense and small amounts of bypass offense which are buffed by momentum to get around shields. Limitless speed is a good example.

My questions to Root;

Could there possibly be a "non-viable" deck that actually works? For that matter, would Stall OTKs be an acceptable category to go into the non-viable slot as they tend to have a different win condition than deckout?

Could you compile a short list of what the current meta-game decks fall into? I know some are Swallow, Pestal, Ghostmare, Wise Dragons, and Psiontal. You've mentioned a couple as Hybrids, so it'd be interesting to see where the more used decks end up.

And yes, is there a category that tends to beat Hybrids?

Right now, it looks like Rush > Break > Stall > Domin > Rush.

Perhaps the "non-viable" category, if a decent deck was built for it, could beat Hybrids.

What category does SoW Reflect fall into?

Denial would be a Domin, as most Denials don't have bypass. (Discquake, Entropy base DBH, Devtal, Devquake)

Stall OTK's are in the Stall cell, yes.

"Could there possibly be a "non-viable" deck that actually works?" They can "work", as in function, however, they will be beat in a PvP setting. An OTK is not considered part of the "non-viable" section because it has Bypass Offense.

DISCLAIMER: I am not RootRanger, these are just my views.

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: Arum on March 19, 2016, 03:26:40 pm

Yes, Domin, my bad.

I was wondering if there was an actual competitive-grade "non-viable". It looks like a Ghostmare variant would work. More focus on shields, with an Eternity, has bypass and direct damage as well as permanent defense, placing it as a quicker miniature stall. However, that would take an incredibly specific deck and make it more specific just to generate a category that doesn't really exist. Oh well.

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: serprex on March 19, 2016, 08:39:10 pm

It'd be useful to flesh out how to deal with a hybrid meta

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: RootRanger on March 21, 2016, 05:58:12 am

Thanks for the feedback ya'll!

Quote from: Puff on March 19, 2016, 03:27:16 am

Under what classification do Denials belong to, or do they not belong to any specific classification?

Depends on the card. Reverse Time is definitely a Domin card, and Earthquake is definitely a Break card. Discord and Devourer are more complicated and probably require their own entire category (Devcord?). Devcord decks are bad against Rushes, which can get the quanta they need pretty quickly regardless of denial. Devcords are good against Breaks and Hybrids, which typically require more quanta to perform. Devcords are bad against Stalls due to Sanctuary, and they're a toss-up against Domins.

Quote from: Puff on March 19, 2016, 03:27:16 am

Are stall OTKs Hybrids or Breaks?

I'd consider them Hybrids, since I've defined Breaks to be almost entirely focused on offense.

Quote from: Puff on March 19, 2016, 03:27:16 am

Is there a general way of beating hybrids?

I think a large part of why Hybrids are so strong is because the cards they use are overpowered. Fractal nullifies an entire hand of the opponent's CC cards. Fire Bolt can be used either to kill most creatures in the game, or take out a quarter of your opponent's health in the late game. Dimensional Shield, Fahrenheit, Sundial, Psion, Phoenix...I could go on. If it wasn't for these cards, Hybrids wouldn't be as much of a problem. Winged Flying Titans, for instance, is one of the more balanced Hybrids. It's much slower than regular Flying Titans, and Wings is insufficient defense against many different decks.

Now, as for beating them, you should be pretty well off with a Break, because these decks can ignore the Hybrid's defenses and deal damage faster. If you want a Break that resists both CC and Shields, you have a handful of options: Flying Titans, Fractix or Fractal Psions, Shard of Freedom Mono, Pulvy Stone Dragons. Devtal is also a pretty safe bet, although it's not your typical Break. Unfortunately SoV, Poison, and Unstable Gas tend to be too slow for a pure Break deck. Also, you can oftentimes expand your options if you can rule out a certain type of deck (ie Dimensional Shield is banned, so you can use Flying Morning Star as a Break).

Quote from: Puff on March 19, 2016, 03:27:16 am

Is sundial balanced?

Nope! It's really not. I feel like when zanz made that card, he wasn't really expecting creatureless decks to be such a good strategy (remember, the old Sundial was even stronger), but this is just speculation.

Quote from: Arum on March 19, 2016, 03:02:30 pm

Denial looks like a Hybrid deck. Some temporary defense plus bypass offense.

Eh, it doesn't really bypass that well, thanks to Sanctuary. I'm also not a fan of having very much temporary defense included in a Denial, but that would get explained in the quanta post.

Quote from: Arum on March 19, 2016, 03:02:30 pm

Stall OTKs go into the stall category. They tend to have large amounts of defense and small amounts of bypass offense which are buffed by momentum to get around shields. Limitless speed is a good example.

This is really just semantics, but I personally count them as Hybrids because their defenses are not intended to last a full 23 turns, only long enough for an OTK.

Quote from: Arum on March 19, 2016, 03:02:30 pm

Could there possibly be a "non-viable" deck that actually works? For that matter, would Stall OTKs be an acceptable category to go into the non-viable slot as they tend to have a different win condition than deckout?

Their offense is bypass, though. An OTK isn't stopped by CC or Shields. And their defense is temporary, moreso than permanent. A deck in the non-viable category would be able to win by deckout, but also by direct offense. It's too much to cram into a single deck.

Quote from: Arum on March 19, 2016, 03:02:30 pm

Could you compile a short list of what the current meta-game decks fall into? I know some are Swallow, Pestal, Ghostmare, Wise Dragons, and Psiontal. You've mentioned a couple as Hybrids, so it'd be interesting to see where the more used decks end up.

From elk's list (plus a couple)

Disquake Bow - Devcord
Phoenixbolt Control - Hybrid
Light Firestall - Stall
THE DECK - Stall
Grabbow - Rush
Catatitans - Break
Adrenastaves - Domin
It's A Trap - Domin
Immorush - Rush
Ghostmare - Rush/Domin
Psiontal - Hybrid
FW Vamp Daggers Bow - Domin
Vader Saders - Domin
No Flaming - Domin
AM Monoentropy - Devcord/Domin
Pdialsbow - Domin/Hybrid
RT Shriekerquake - Domin/Break
Toadfish Bacteria - Rush/Domin
Dragonbow - Hybrid
Bonebolt - Hybrid
Adrenavamps - Domin
Devtal - Devcord
Pulvy Smash - Break
Mono Darkness - Devcord
I omitted the decks I wasn't familiar with. Some of the decks can be different types, depending on how they are built (more CC = Domin). Ive also included the Devcord category, which I explained earlier in the post.

Quote from: Arum on March 19, 2016, 03:02:30 pm

Perhaps the "non-viable" category, if a decent deck was built for it, could beat Hybrids.

Its defenses would be useless against Bypass damage, and its offense would be shut out by the opponents' temporary defense.

Quote from: Arum on March 19, 2016, 03:02:30 pm

What category does SoW Reflect fall into?

I'd consider it a Domin. It's intended to beat Rushes and loses to Stalls.

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: Arum on March 21, 2016, 03:16:00 pm

Thank you for responding to my questions.

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: Dr.Pizzazz on April 23, 2016, 03:08:47 am

AMAZING guide Rootranger. I've never liked stalls, but get beat by them so often in PvP Tourneys. Now I know when to use them myself, and know how to break someone else's stall! ;D

Thank you!

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: JonathanCrazyJ on January 14, 2017, 06:55:55 pm

Can this be moved to Tutorials or Elements Articles? took me ages to find for someone in chat, and it seems much better in one of those locations

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: treebeard xiii on January 14, 2017, 07:55:45 pm

Ah the world of deck semantics such a difficult area to truly get down as some decks can fit into multiple categories. Things like sanc rushes an area the particularly interests me are built like rushes but act with a decent matchup against other areas of the list but a weaker matchup against other areas, are they classed as a rush except they often have a decent matchup against rushes. Also what would control decks class as I'm guessing domin, but control decks are weird in a way, as a control deck can function in two different ways as a stall like say the deck, or more like a domin like pandebonium depending on the path you choose.

Title: Re: Deck Type Table (Advanced Elements Theory)
Post by: RootRanger on January 14, 2017, 11:34:57 pm

Quote from: JonathanCrazyJ on January 14, 2017, 06:55:55 pm

Can this be moved to Tutorials or Elements Articles? took me ages to find for someone in chat, and it seems much better in one of those locations

I'm glad to see that this is still being appreciated! I might write another sometime.

Quote from: treebeard xiii on January 14, 2017, 07:55:45 pm

Ah the world of deck semantics such a difficult area to truly get down as some decks can fit into multiple categories. Things like sanc rushes an area the particularly interests me are built like rushes but act with a decent matchup against other areas of the list but a weaker matchup against other areas, are they classed as a rush except they often have a decent matchup against rushes.

Sanctuary Rush is something I consider to be non-viable, both in terms of its deck classification and its actual prospects in competitive play. Perhaps it works in Arena, but that's a metagame confounded by asymmetric restrictions and suboptimal AI play. In unrestricted PvP, I have almost never seen Sanc Rush, and with good reason. For a deck with enough damage to be considered a rush,  other cards such as Lightning and Basilisk Blood provide a much more efficient means of blocking damage. These cards can respectively kill and delay cards with a much higher attack than the 4 damage that Sanctuary heals back.
Of course, Sanctuary is still a decent card in Stalls, and that's because Stalls need some way of having more than 100 HP in order to survive the whole game. You could manage kill all of your opponent's creatures and weapons, but they'd probably manage to collectively get in 100 damage before going down.

I do think a given deck can fit into two different categories in two different metagames. Light Dragons, for instance, would be considered Bypass Offense against an Air deck (since Wings and Shockwave cannot easily stop them) but Direct Offense against an Entropy deck (since Antimatter can definitely stop them.) There's more nuance to the game than I can cover with just a table, but I think I've gotten pretty close.

Quote from: treebeard xiii on January 14, 2017, 07:55:45 pm

Also what would control decks class as I'm guessing domin, but control decks are weird in a way, as a control deck can function in two different ways as a stall like say the deck, or more like a domin like pandebonium depending on the path you choose.

Discussions many years ago over what constitutes a control deck are largely what led me to formulate deck type theory in the first place. Some players considered control to be about creature control, while others considered control to be more about denial from Discord and EQ. These were completely different archetypes - one to defeat rushes, the other to defeat stalls! So, I've purposely avoided calling decks Controls because there's just no clear definition on what it really means.