AqrabteiniThe changes happened by chance -- as they always do. A tiny shift in an allele here, a minute fluctuation in hormonal content there, and over time, what started as an innocent bug adapted to the environment it was born into. It learned to inject poison with its tail, armor itself with its own skeleton, and scuttle over almost any terrain with many legs. It went almost entirely unnoticed by the Elementals for hundreds of years. Gods rose to power, reigned, and fell without ever being even tangentially aware of the new life form. Until, that is, it spawned a brother.
A new kind of scorpion. A kind of scorpion whose poison could drive even a False God to the brink of insanity. Suddenly, the Gods were interested -- too late. For the shelled stinger had already been claimed by one who had not yet borne the title of God...but one day would.6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u6 6u6 6u8 6u8 6ug 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 7aj 7aj 7am 7am 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7b0 7b0 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q5 7q5 7q5 7qd 7qd 7qd 7qk 7qk 7qk 7qkAdaptation is defined as "the ability of life (
) to change (
) over time (
).
Aqrabteini represents some of
's newest adaptations to the Elemental energies -- the development of Spine Carapace and Scorpion -- as well as the ripple-effects of those changes, the offshoot Dune Scorpion and the Butterfly Effect that the development of these small but dangerous creatures have had on the way that Elementals fight.
There are a few strategies working together here. Obvious is poison in the form of Scorpions and Dune Scorpions+Chaos Power. Less obvious is Deja Vu + Scorpion Spam + Feral Bond + Purple Nymph + Spine Carapace (healing gives time for the Infection to kill your offense), Deja Vu and unPowered Scorpions + Fallen Druid, a variety of small creatures + Butterfly Effect, a variety of small creatures + Adrenaline, and of course MASSIVE DRAW SPAM to make everything happen at an ever-accelerating pace.
At the same time,
Aqrabteini has some obvious weaknesses -- there's nothing here to protect her form any form of control, a decently-sized shield will put a BIG dent in her offense (if it survives Butterfly Effect), and all of that draw spam should actually make her pretty easy to deck out, even at 100 cards base. She won't be able to use the abilities of any Mutants she creates, so a good chunk of them will be useless. And if she never draws her Feral Bonds (pretty likely, all told), she won't be all that hard to whittle down.
Common decks and her response:
RoL/Hope: She loses.
CCYB: Lack of hard-hitting creatures makes Antimatter pointless, poison will build to overwhelm SoGs pretty fast unless Permafrost comes out really early, and Spine Carapace makes playing even a Quinted Destroyer a no-win policy.
CHMD: She loses pretty hard to Rain of Fire, but if she gets Neurotoxin on you, your extra draws will be the end of you.
Voodoo: Small attacks mean not a lot of Voodoo injuries, and the chances that she'll stack some solid poison on you before the Doll hits and/or Mutate your Dolls when they do is pretty high.
Skittles: Fireflies die to Spine Carapace like RoLs don't, so this is a probable lose for Skittles.
Pesty: Depends on if Spine Carapace drops before quanta-lock happens. I'm guessing 50/50.
