Round 6-Strategy

[brettbstock]

I was thinking, maybe, something like this, if we salvage otyughs from Phantomfox.

Of course, this is going to run us out of a good few key cards in the vault if we lose with it. Any comments?

feels a bit underpillar'd.

During testing, it had way too many pillars. I was left with, like, 30-40 quantums near the end of most duels. That was during a match I played 2 dragons, and 2 bolts, and some ragepots. But, you're the expert. I'll add a few.

[kev]

I guess I didn't impress upon you guys the severity and complexity of the situation.

But before offering an opinion please make sure you've gone through the scenarios in as much detail as I have.

Large departures from my recommendations would have to look deep into vault restrictions.  I've tried to provide the framework to do so on my other first page post.

We are really on the ropes here and struggling to field nine decks.  jmdt initially guessed we would have to suicide twice this round; I've worked out a way we can all play.  But each of the decks proposed by you guys destroys one deck and impacts others.  Brett, your oty deck would replace our poisonbolt but impacts other decks as well.  Lava, both your proposals kill novagrabby and use phoenixes we'd have to take from other decks.

I like that we're still brainstorming our best options.  But your proposal NEEDS to include a detailed explanation of which deck in my proposal it impacts, whether it takes cards from any other decks, against which opponent you'd use this deck, and if that shuffles the proposed decks, to where.  No matter how good your deck is, if it forces us to suicide elsewhere it prolly won't make the cut.

[brettbstock]

I guess I didn't impress upon you guys the severity and complexity of the situation.

But before offering an opinion please make sure you've gone through the scenarios in as much detail as I have.

Large departures from my recommendations would have to look deep into vault restrictions.  I've tried to provide the framework to do so on my other first page post.

We are really on the ropes here and struggling to field nine decks.  jmdt initially guessed we would have to suicide twice this round; I've worked out a way we can all play.  But each of the decks proposed by you guys destroys one deck and impacts others.  Brett, your oty deck would replace our poisonbolt but impacts other decks as well.  Lava, both your proposals kill novagrabby and use phoenixes we'd have to take from other decks.

I like that we're still brainstorming our best options.  But your proposal NEEDS to include a detailed explanation of which deck in my proposal it impacts, whether it takes cards from any other decks, against which opponent you'd use this deck, and if that shuffles the proposed decks, to where.  No matter how good your deck is, if it forces us to suicide elsewhere it prolly won't make the cut.

0.0

*facepalm*

Sorry, kev. Looks like my deck will force us to suicide a good bit, and pretty much screw up the rest of the team, like you said. On that note, I'm going back to *open to suggestions* status.

[catalyzeme]

I'm sorry I haven't been around. I wish I had the time the last couple days. My schedule opens up a bit tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. I will be online then to contribute.

[kev]

It seems like the Team had kind of fallen into a rhythm where I give initial thoughts on each matchup, a number of players give their thoughts, I revise, and then everybody selects decks.  This hasn't really happened this round due to vault constraints adding a layer of complexity to the analysis as well as several players just not having the time to contribute.  At this point (one day and eight hours until the deadline) almost everyone should have posted in the deck thread.  Just a heads up: if it comes down to it, I'll distribute the decks according to whatever whimsical thoughts enter my head just before the deadline. 

He also talked about salvaging either AM for a viable entropy duo or EQs and titanium with our BBs for a viable earth duo rather than the mono fire deck I proposed.

It's almost like he didn't like my mono deck idea.    I like both ideas in principle.  I'll be interested in seeing how effective they are, and which opponents they will work against.  Let's see rough drafts, Jimmy.

jmdt hasn't had the time to do this, but here are the two decks he and I discussed to replace the fire mono I created on page 1:

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4t5 58s 58s 593 593 593 593 593 593 595 595 595 595 595 595 5f0 5f0 5f3 5f3 5f3 5fa 5fa 5fa 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi

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4vi 4vi 4vi 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vl 4vn 4vn 4vn 4vn 5f2 5f2 5f6 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5giWe can't create both atm but we can convert another 12 cards to pends after the round ends.

Edit: Yes, I'm aware variants of the Earth duo above has been proposed a number of times.  I'm not in love with the deck but our options are limited.  Also, according to the remaining decks I outlined on page one and above, our vault is short one immolation, one lightning and one freeze.  I'd propose I change my deck -1 immo, +1 deflag.  jmdt could go -1 (or 2) freeze, +1 (or 2) purify.  And jmdt, if you need the lightning I can salvage it, but that means one less AM for our potential entropy duo.  If you can do without it, feel free to sub in a stiletto, fog, lobo, poison, arsenic, photon, aether pillar or RT.

[jmdt]

Just a quick second here, but I thought we lost all our golems in NLS last round, so they will not be available for an earth duo.  In the entropy deck, are we going for a deckout win? 2 dragons won't go far against heavy CC.

Otherwise they look good.

If I run fractix, do will have the extra pillars since I will have to run 1 less immo and 1 less freeze I think?

[kev]

Just a quick second here, but I thought we lost all our golems in NLS last round, so they will not be available for an earth duo.

We can salvage three.  I'd originally wanted to salvage pillars instead, but it looks like we can get by.

In the entropy deck, are we going for a deckout win? 2 dragons won't go far against heavy CC.

That was my thought at first: either rage or AM their critters and deck them out.  My AI3 wins have been slow but have come from damage.  I tried removing ragepots and adding critters but it seems to work better as I posted.  I'd love some more testing and feedback.

If I run fractix, do will have the extra pillars since I will have to run 1 less immo and 1 less freeze I think?

See the post two above this.

[Acsabi44]

sorry I cannot really contribute to this round... I have a lot to deal with.

I wanted to suggest complete decks but now I don't have the time for it.

I'll just add some insight about our matchups.

  matches
last round they come to realize that heal is good against rushes. I expect bonds and/or heals. Also a couple of reflectors can be too good against us to miss. They might even try something as simple as a flying staves deck.
Some boltstall w/ fireshields and  RoFs can be good. Coctarices live after a RoF but not if FS is active. FS also shuts down adredecks. and our boltstalls are faster than theirs. An Hope/ FFQ deck is problem, but RoF can be good there.

 

bonewall is hard to play against. One solution is fractix, but they know it and a Plauge stocks loads of BW counters. could we fractal something with a bigger butt? jmdt, upped firespirits maybe? 3toughness might buy us enough time. its 3 cost is a problem, but the 3 toughness might compensate for it. idk. My guess is they won't try to single-CC us.

 

they lost 2 sets of devourers last round, so I don't think it will be a darkness duo. We don't have to play imodecks here. They deck seem to be situated against decks playng creatures. A boltdeck is our best choice here.
round 1 I played a boltdeck vs Boingo and lost. Now I play him again so I my gut says they won't be expecting a boltdeck. Problem is, we have 2 sets of bolts left.

 
I made some considerations here. My reccomendations are unchanged: a rush and a stall. (novagrabby and wings-stall, maybe)

 
They critters have big butts with blessings, so no damage-based CC here. I suggest an Entropy du with AMs and discord. Once AMed, they have no way to get rid of their creature. Of course, there's morningstar, but still I think an entropy duo might be good. Miracle is a problem.

 
they lost a good deal of their aether cards, so maybe no fractal dev. I am predicting a novarush. Sad we don't have a set of RTs anymore.


Also by looking at the decks we won against, I realized we could salvage for a light duo with blessings and miracles. Could be good against death.

[brettbstock]

So... since Hyro is running a rush (sudden killer) I'd take a stall, right? Dragons with Wings, maybe?

[brettbstock]

So... since Hyro is running a rush (sudden killer) I'd take a stall, right? Dragons with Wings, maybe?

Sorry about the double-post.

I think I'll more likely than not be on again before the duel phase starts, but just in case I'm not, I'll be going with whatever deck you guys think is best. However, if it won't screw anyone else up, I'd prefer to go with Dragons with Wings.

[kev]

I'd prefer to go with Dragons with Wings.

I don't think anyone on the team has had an opportunity to test either Dragons with Wings.  :/  I built Dragons with Wings without a specific opponent in mind.  Now that we know you're up against Entropy I'm gonna recommend this modification:

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5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f2 5f2 5f2 5f2 5f7 5f7 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fc 5fc 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5ooBasically I added ragepots for the following reasons: BE, Dragons, and Maxwell.  Basically don't bother using ragepots on anything else.  Lycans and aboms for instance can't hurt you through Wings.  But one BE or a dragon combined with a solid defense would be trouble for you, so save the rages until you really need them.  Good luck!

[jmdt]

I'd prefer to go with Dragons with Wings.

I don't think anyone on the team has had an opportunity to test either Dragons with Wings.  :/  I built Dragons with Wings without a specific opponent in mind.  Now that we know you're up against Entropy I'm gonna recommend this modification:

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5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f2 5f2 5f2 5f2 5f7 5f7 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fc 5fc 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5ooBasically I added ragepots for the following reasons: BE, Dragons, and Maxwell.  Basically don't bother using ragepots on anything else.  Lycans and aboms for instance can't hurt you through Wings.  But one BE or a dragon combined with a solid defense would be trouble for you, so save the rages until you really need them.  Good luck!

May I recommed we add 1 or 2 cards to the deck if only to ensure deckout conditions if necessicary.  We discard 30 cards, so we can keep any extra cards we add anyways.