Round 4-Strategy

[Acsabi44]

kevkev60614 vs nilsieboy (General)

has the least cards in their vault, so they deck chioces may be limited. CC could be a problem here, so I suggest a deck that 1, is pretty unaffected by CC  or 2, avoids it entirely.
My suggestions are the following: PoisonBolt, Quinted spirits, Fractix


jmdt vs Lokiburn4

A moderate vault and pretty good players here. I expect to see either devourers or their novagrabby deck here (although it lost vs us last round, they have replacement in their vault and its generally a strong all-around deck)
I suggest a novagrabby, as it is good against devourers and faster in the mirror. jmdt's suggestion (fractix) is a good idea too.


Hyroen vs  Gyrodiot

lost pretty bad last round, so they have to discard the bigger half of their decks. Still their vault is decent, so they might have replacement cards aplenty.
The following thought, with a bit of "reverse psychology" may be a bit weird, but I "think" it can be true: The flying titans deck worked like a charm against us, so they will think we'll expect it again so they'll bring a deck to counter what we bring to counter Fliying Titans. You still with me?  ???
I suggest we play a fast rush deck (Vreely), if this tiny bit of mindgame works then it does wonders against their "anti-anti-flying titans"deck.


majofa vs Napalm Grenade

I don't see a way the deck I played against them in round 3 could fail.

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Lava Golem vs  10 men

This matchup is tough. I agree that this one is perhaps the most important in this round.
I played vs entropy in round2, and they claimed they predicted my deck pretty well. Still, I beat Sir Valimont 2-0.
Because of this, I suggest a similar deck that I played against them: an ImmoPhoenix. SV said they would've won if not for Fog Shield, so I'm sure they'll be preparing for it. So why not tweak ImmoPhoenix a bit? -1 BB, -1 Deflag (I doubt they'll be playing lots of discords if they expect an immodeck), and add 2 Enchant Artifacts(we have to salvage them from brett's win vs. Tinkady).

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Acsabi44 vs YeliyaYue (rookie)  and Stinnger vs hrmmm

Facing life has been pretty rare this war for us. Only one match versus them: In round 1, Hyroen won 2-1 vs Hrmmm (who was using a life/fire stall.)
They play lots of stalls, some of them are clever decks and some of them.. well... not so clever. Their bonewall/scorpion stall and  are the most dangerous imo. An adrenastaff could hurt too.

If we play boltdecks here, its crucial that we play reflective shields cause life has easy access to a card that shuts a boltdeck down and it's too tempting an option to miss playing a few.
That said, the decks I suggest here is the SuddenKiller and a rush deck. Of our rush decks, Vreely is the fastest but its too fragile, so I suggest playing a modified ImmoPhoenix(-CC + deflag) or the second novagrabby.

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catalyzeme vs Demagog (Lieutenant) and brettbstock vs Skydaemon

They just cannot seem to do anything about our RT deck, so it is clearly a good option here.
For the other deck, I suggest Vreelys as it is
1 faster than a grabby rush
2 has built-in EQ resistance
3 has enough deflags to handle puly and shields.

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It's on, peolple.
With an outstanding round 3, we are currently the no.2 team behind Entropy, the difference being a measly 9 cards.
Also, there are 2 teams who cannot fight with 9 players- Water and Gravity.
We have some interesting matchups this round. I know we can repeat our perfrmance and take the lead this time!

Go 

[majofa]

same drill as last time...
NOTE: these are just 1st impressions and haven't been adjusted for the element they're facing.
  kevkev60614
  nilsieboy

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  lokiburn4

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  Gyrodiot

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  Napalm Grenade

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  10 men

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  YeliyaYue

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  Demagog

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  hrmmm

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  Skydaemon

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[jmdt]

Deck thoughts, will update as I get ideas.

I expect a deck that can circumvent wings from

2 they used in the previous round are:
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,15620.msg213410#msg213410
http://67.18.28.242/~eleforum/index.php/topic,15561.msg212624#msg212624

Not saying they will use these decks, but we can expect that they will play a deck that has some way of dealing with wings be it airborne critters, poison, or heavy PC.
has a big vault still, but most of their working decks lost last round including flying titan so who knows what we'll see.

After seeing flying titans last round against them, I want to bolt to oblivion this go around.  Poison bo
lt is prolly the safest choice as either flying titans or hope could hurt a dim shield or rush strategy.
has one constant in their decks, especially versus us: lots of CC.  I expect freeze in the deck no matter what.  Also note that nilsie is the general and will have 6 upped cards.

I'm leaning toward fractix here, however we will have to test how it fares versus several water decks.  If they pack a stall with squids and miracles, fractix may be a bad idea.  Then again 20+ mp will be tough to stop. if they freeze half, we still are doing 40+ damage
packs a surprising amount of CC in their decks.  However, they've also seen heavy losses and have already started putting together some quasi suicide decks with spare parts.  After 4 more losses I expect a few ugly decks.  They have a ffq deck, adrenastaff with OE, adrenanovagrabby that can all be dangerous.  Their 40 card stall hurts a lot, but has lost 2 or 3 times and may not have much mileage left.
We can expect to be well prepared no matter what happens. luckily they lost their voodoo doll deck which caused us issues.  Eq is always an issue when playing them so bolt decks can be dangerous.  I expect we will see the flying glory miracle stall at some point.  the deck is very tought to stop.  Especially since we showed rt last round.
has a pestal deck and a discord deck that can both cause us fits.

I'm scared to used fractix again, but it may be the strongest option I have.

[kev]

We've used 4, 4, and 3 bolt decks the first three rounds.  Opponents are starting to figure it out, as evidenced by my loss to light last round.  If an element is a good target for a bolt deck, they'll expect to be targeted by a bolt deck.  This round is a great opportunity for us to return to speed decks.  Another great reason to use rainbow rush decks: teams have used discord more than is probably sane and they're not discarding them if they lose.  Team Air used three decks with discord last round!  It wouldn't bother me at all to use both immophoenix, Vreely's, two novagrabbys, maybe fractix, one bolt deck, and an "other."  I'd allocate them as follows:

  lava golem versus  10 men
I'll address this first because it's our most important match.  It's too early to say that we're competing with Entropy but I think we can all agree this match matters the most.  This match represents a 60-card swing between the two teams.  Immophoenix is a great option; they seem to have trouble building a deck against it.  I like novagrabby every bit as much.  It has the added bonus that we haven't already used it against Entropy.  We can't immo AM'd phoenixes but we can burrow or ragepot AM'd grabbys.  A third option is to use a super rush deck, hoping to kill before they set up.  Something like No Land Stompy or a yet-to-be-tested variant of the Grabbix deck I posted in the Deck Ideas thread.  The upside of such a deck is we might have three 7+ damage critters out before they play their first card.  But if we lose with it, the number of precious cards means we might effectively lose two rush decks.

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  kevkev60614 versus nilsieboy
My initial thought was novagrabby with either upped grabbys and/or ragepots.  I intend to spend the next day or two testing fractix variants, and if I find one I like more than novagrabby I'm likely to use it.  Btw, if anyone is holding off in the strategy threads from giving advice simply because I'm Master, use last round's results as evidence and please share your thoughts.

  jmdt versus  lokiburn4
Ok, we're through three rounds and only three times has Darkness used LS (twice by Kael and once in last round's loss to us).  It's probably time for me to let go of that fear and say it's ok to use phoenixes if you want to.  For some reason I suspect they'll use the air duo they beat Water with last round, so whatever you use you may want to test against that deck.  The decks they've used against us so far are novagrabbys (might both be gone) and monos or splashes.  You could consider something like immophoenix modded with less perms, plus a discord or two.  Your fractix would be just fine as well.

  brettbstock versus  Skydaemon and  catalyzeme versus  Demagog
We used immophoenix in round 1 and they were ready for it.  As jmdt pointed out, their counter deck may be gone now.  Immophoenix is equipped to get out damage early, which forces them to use SS early in a stall.  It also is equipped to adequately slow shrieker rush.  I'd prolly edit immophoenix with -1 arsenic (which can't get over titanium shield) and -1 or 2 deflags (cuz they'll be PA'ing perms).  If we thought a stall was coming I might like Dragon Powa as well, -2 deflags +2 ragepots.  It'd outpace their stalls and dragons aren't bothered by titanium shields.  Another great option is the Wings deck from last round, -4 ragepots, -9 pends, +11 pillars.  I'm pretty confident we'd outpace SS with that.  If one of them stalls and the other does not, I'll guess Dema does not.

  Acsabi44 versus  YeliyaYue and  Stinnger versus  hrmmm
KDZ is terrified of fire shield, and I expect him to act accordingly.  That means adrenaline decks are a little less likely.  They have a bonewall/scorpion deck with heals that'd be a tough matchup.  I don't see a lot of PC in the first two rounds so sudden killer, as majofa suggested, would be a big winner.  I'll comment again after the War 2 decks thread is up to date.

  Hyroen versus  Gyrodiot
This may be paranoia talking, but air might fall into the "they'll expect to be targeted by a bolt deck" category I spoke of above.  They have an EQ deck and Team Light might've showed them the road map to breaking bolt decks last round.  They used 3 discord decks last round but lost with them all.  Poisonbolt isn't awful but I like Vreeyly's a bit better.

  majofa versus  Napalm Grenade
I feel like your suggestion is ridiculous because they'd have to consider it, but I also can't fathom how they'd stop it.  lol.  Pretty much any deck you'd want to take would stand at least a fair chance imo.  Their most effective decks are deathstalkers and D/BH, but I believe you and jmdt already tested against them so I trust your opinions.

Sorry, this is shorter than I wanted it to be.  I'll edit or post again tonight or tomorrow.  Hopefully the All War 2 Decks thread will be updated shortly.

[catalyzeme]

I agree with the general shift toward faster decks, as most teams suffered substantial card losses in the last round, and might have to discard a lot of meaty cards to have the pillars/pendulums necessary to play. Entropy is definitely by far in the best shape, so that match is definitely our most important. They should have the cards for a strong round. We do too, of course, so we really need to outpace them this round. They have so many pillars available (their last loss was with a stall that had tons of pillars. I would take that stall apart, discard pillars from other losses, and use those to fill it in). Entropy, like us, probably suffered pretty unsubstantial losses last round. Other teams might concede matches to Entropy, and so they could be in for a big round. I think this is a must-win, so they don't extend their lead.

Throwing something new at them I think would be a good idea, and speed would definitely be good. The killer entropy cards are expensive. If we do use a mono/duo, obviously deflags will be essential, but I like the idea of just using a speed deck.

Most teams are gonna be harder to predict than we will be, since they will be stitching together new decks and we will be using a lot of the same. I definitely agree with limiting the bolt usage this round, also they could still be used for CC.

I have a hard time believing will bring their best against us. If they have to build decks that just can't win, they might put them up against the biggest threats, and try to focus on their matches against weaker teams.

[Acsabi44]

To sum it up so far:

suggestions/ matchups	kev-nils	jmdt-loki	lava-10men	cat-dema	majofa-napalm	hyroen-gyro	stinnger-hrmmm	brett-sky	acs-yeliya
kev	Fractix	ImmoPhoenix Fractix	ImmoPhoenix NovaGrabby the two mixed together	ImmoPhoenix DragonPowa Wings	anything?	Vreely (posionbolt not bad)	Sudden Killer	ImmoPhoenix DragonPowa Wings	Sudden Killer
jmdt	Fractix	Fractix?				(Posion)Bolt
majofa	Fractix	Fractix	ImmoPhoenix	ImmoPhoenix	Boltdeck w/freezes	PosionBolt	SuddenKiller	ImmoPhoenix	SuddenKiller
cat			some rush
acs	Fractix Qspirits PosionBolt	Novagrabby Fractix	ImmoPhoenix	Vreely ( )	Dragons w/Discord	Vreely	SuddenKiller ImmoPhoenix Novagrabby	Vreely ( )	SuddenKiller ImmoPhoenix Novagrabby

EDIT: while on chat, jmdt came up with the idea of RTs versus  . We discussed it a bit and agreed that it is an idea to consider.
It shuts down various flying weps and good vs dragons they like to play.
(RT ing a pulled flying titan is WIN.)

[jmdt]

Give this version of fractis a try kev.  I feel it performs better.

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[kev]

Alright, we currently have a list that looks like this:
jmdt and I: fractix
two life matchups: sudden killer
two earth matchups: immophoenix and modded immophoenix
air matchup: Vreely's
gravity matchup: freeze bolt
entropy matchup: novagrabby proposed, Lava hasn't said anything

jmdt, maj, and Lava, please post your deck as requested.  jmdt and maj have said they're likely to use the above decks in chat.  But Lava it's a little disappointing we haven't heard any thoughts from you by now.  You're a good player and the team would really benefit from your perspective.

Some thoughts:
Hyroen, just a heads up that both jmdt and majofa seem to think I'm off my rocker for recommending Vreely's.  They both recommended poisonbolt.  On the face of it, taking our only grounded deck which has 1hp critters against the element of Wings, OE, and shockwave seems insanely idiotic.  My guesses are that Perv won't field the same deck as last time against us, and he might try to counter a bolt deck.  But it's possible I'm overthinking it so you should weigh the team's opinions and make sure what you're doing makes sense to you.  If you decide to stay with Vreely's, I recommend sparks instead of photons.

Life matchups: Practicing those decks against AI3 is as good as against one of us.  Sudden killer takes a little finesse, and the difference between winning and losing may come down to how familiar you are with the deck.

Earth matchups: I can't shake the feeling they'll play something like their Round 3 versus Light win:

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 590 590 590 590 590 590 591 591 591 591 593 593 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rkWe're currently slated to use more immos than we have in the vault and the more I think about it the less comfortable I am playing two immophoenixes against Earth.  What if we lose both?  What would one of you think about something like this:

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[Acsabi44]

What are your opinions about the two versions of suddenkiller below?

The original:

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Thank you.

EDIT:

we don't have the farenhieghts to run the modded version acsabi

Bummer. Never mind, then.

[jmdt]

we don't have the farenhieghts to run the modded version acsabi

[kev]

What are your opinions about the two versions of suddenkiller below?

Alright, this is gonna sound pretty nitpicky, but...

If you're going use either aether pillars or aether pends, make it the pillars because we have more to spare.An aether mark and one fire pendulum isn't enough to chain dimshields.  You need 1 aether pillar or pend to do so.  I don't recommend you remove aether pillars or pends.

We have an extra FH in the vault (assuming maj uses 3, stinnger uses 1, we will be keeping 6) so you should feel free to replace a fire pillar in deck 1 w/a FH if you want.  But as I said this deck is pretty refined, so I'd be careful when tweaking.

[jmdt]

In the strategy session with cat, majofa and I we came up with a few ideas.
After some thinking and testing, I like a discord phoenix fire shield deck versus hrmmm on .  He will likely take a stronger deck than the rookie and seeing how life has shown PC and CC in their better decks this combo should work pretty well.  Majofa and I came up with a version that defeats nova grabby, ffq, and life's other strong decks.
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?mark=4sj&deck=z34viz34vlz95f0z25f5z25f65fbz65fcz45gi
Sudden killer should be fine for the 2nd deck.  Our best bolt deck option since they have reflectors.
We also came up with a modded wings deck for cat versus earth that should work well.  We added some control just incase the run a few flyers.  if they run rt, it would only serve to help us win by deckou if needed.  flying discord could hurt it, but in those decks they only run 2 animate.  We expect a more rushy deck from dema.
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?mark=4sr&deck=z95f0z35f0z65f3z25f4z25f65f7z25fcz65oo
For the second deck who knows what we will see.  Immophoenix for brettb should do fine unless they pack rt heavy.  hopefully the expect a bolter anf run eq or some SS stall or something.
I really like a rt deck with extra deflag versus than add dragons and maybe phoenix.  has been quite perm and expensive critter heavy; rt defeats any flying weapons or dragons and deflag can clear out any OE or discord that would hurt the deck.
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?mark=4ss&deck=z95f0z35f0z35f2z35f6z45fcz35giz55rk
We did a bit more testing with novagrabby versus .  The matchups will be luck based, but we definately have a shot at winning.  its vertually a 50/50 versus the poison deck.  It can roast several others with the pots, so I definately say its a keeper.