Comic of the Month
This month, comic strips are courtesy of Krzysiekxd, SpikeSpiegel and Rootranger
(http://i.imgur.com/0WWGyu7.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/pXLAilg.jpg)
Deck Idea of the Month
SoB Air Rush (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/duo-decks/sob-air-rush-%28fire%29%28air%29/msg1117924/#msg1117924) by dark ripperThis deck review was written by the Trial Overseer Zawadx.
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 8po Rushes form a significant portion of the metagame for Elements, especially when you consider grinding. A fast rush can easily outpace a slower deck when it comes down to electrum gain. This month’s deck is perhaps the fastest consistent rush deck devised for grinding, SoB Air Rush. According to the Decks used against the Arena with Stats (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/farming-studies-and-statistics/decks-used-against-arena-with-stats-1-32/) thread, a mod of SoB Air rush performs the best against ALL Arena Levels. It is also the best deck to use against AI4 as per the Halfblood Stats Thread. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/farming-studies-and-statistics/ai4halfblood-stats-thread-%281-321%29-decks-and-spin-chance/) It was devised by
dark ripper, a young PvPer and grinder who will become, most likely, a great member of this community.
Card by Card:Mark of Fire: Mark of Fire fuels the Shards of Bravery, allowing you to get out of fail draws without any hassle.
Shard of Bravery: Shard of Bravery is the best instant card draw in the game, allowing you to draw upto three cards. It is what propels this deck to Ãœber Rush levels.
Wind Towers: Allows you to get :air quanta fast.
Damselfly: Aside from proving :air quanta, Damselflies also damage the opponent taking advantage of the Shards of Freedom. Thanks to the shards, they also soon become immune to single-target CC.
Wyrm: The primary attacker of the deck. Wyrm is an efficient attacker at 5 damage for 4 :air, but its Dive skill simply makes it a monstrous rusher. With 4 Shards of Freedom on the field, a dived Wyrm deals 15 damage – the same as a Ruby Dragon.
Shards of Freedom: Shards of Freedom are staples for any Air Rush. They provide your creatures with extra damage, shield bypass and CC protection, at the same time. Arguably the most overpowered shard of them all, Shards of Freedom are what makes this deck a consistent rush.
Sky Blitz (Optional):
jd_k has tested a mod of the SoB Air Rush with -1 Wyrm +1 Sky Blitz, which is currently the best against all arena leagues. The Sky Blitz is a perfect finisher and can win you some almost lost games.
Improved Fog (Optional): While SoB Air Rush is generally focused on Speed, an improved fog shield can help in an anti-rush matchup.
Strategy: The Strategy is really simple; fast damage. Draw with Shards of Bravery, but take care not to overdraw and deck yourself out. Successive uses of Shard of Bravery might also lead to getting outrushed. Generally, you should use the Shard of Bravery only if you have enough quanta to play the cards you draw, or if you had a bad starting hand and need to recover. Aside from that, simply keep playing stuff. Generally diving two wyrms is better than playing one, but try to think ahead and play the wyrm if it will net you more damage. Take caution against mass CC.
Strengths: It is extremely fast with a really good winrate, so this deck just rains money. The short games also make grinding much more enjoyable (especially when you’re biting your nails worrying about whether your opponent will play that mass CC). It does very well with slow setup decks, and can ignore shields easily.
Weaknesses: Mass CC just wrecks this deck in the face. Pandemonium, Rain of Fire, Dry Spell and Thunderstorm are all spells which just beat this deck into a pulp and then swallows it whole. Recovering from an AoE is usually not possible. PC is also a problem for this deck, as your Shards of Freedom are really essential. Devourers in Mono Dark can also be a pain, as they chomp on precious :fire and stolen Shards of Freedom empower Vampires. Discord and Black Hole can also hurt (don’t they always?), but you can usually recover.
Card Idea of the Month
Justicar | Justicar (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/trial-of-light/8th-trials-challenger's-entrance-55053/msg1147288/#msg1147288) by Jen-iThis card review was written by the Idea Guru Drake_XIV.
(http://i.imgur.com/KOHMWOj.png)(http://imgur.com/ZNfEhPh.png) It's Trials season again! For this 8th Trials, it is time for forum members to duke it out in an attempt to personally represent their favorite element. So far, only Phase 1 has completed and the battles for Phase 2 are underway. In light of that, let's take a look at what Light Trial Challenger
Jen-i has submitted for one of his Phase 1 tasks.
While the wording of the card text could definitely be simplified, it offers soft creature control in a way that does not conflict with the theme of Light. The ability of
Pacify is definitely something that has been seen time and time again as seen in fellow Light Trial Challenger
theelkspeaks in his Phase 1 submissions (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/trial-of-light/8th-trials-challenger's-entrance-55053/msg1147435/#msg1147435), which has a very similar effect and a much more similar name. But this is the first time that I've seen this tacked onto a creature.
To get down to it,
Justicar is a mid-range hitter that has the capability of crippling an enemy creature. Or your own, depending on how you target. And if the target's attack is low enough, it can change it from being a damage dealer to a healer since, as pointed out, it can make attack stats go below zero. With this ability and rocking stats of 5|4 even when upgraded, it is priced at 6 :light , which is a bit low considering its utility with its power.
Duo Possibilities
[ :light | :earth ] - Do you know what would go well with this? A large source of damage reduction. When used in conjunction with
Titanium Shield,
Justicar is capable of preventing the affected creature from dealing any physical damage. In fact, this combo would definitely inhibit most creatures if they get targeted by Justicar.
[ :light | :entropy ] - This and
Antimatter. This particular combo was actually highlighted in the example deck for this task submission as
Justicar now has the capability of increasing the healing due to Antimatter. Aside from this, if that isn't your taste, this pairs nicely with
Dissipation Shield as it does lower the consumed damage by one.
[ :light | :aether ] - I'm a bit sure about the wording, but the ability works whenever
Justicar enters play. If the ability works with copies,
Parallel Universe and
Fractal both are available to span the ability on either an enemy's field or to effectively cast
Antimatter on a single target. And speaking of Fractal, this could easily find a place in
Hope decks as it is a possible target for
Luciferin and helps keep damage down while Hope slowly builds up. This, too, can work in Life with
Mitsosis, but using Aether allows for a much faster spawn.
Courtesy of
Andretimpa(http://i.imgur.com/BXnh40D.png)
A very big "thank you" to: Afdarenty who made and formatted the new members list, Zawadx who made deck idea of the month, Drake_XIV who made card idea of the month, Dm1321 who made the format for the Newsletter, Krzysiekxd, RootRanger, Andretimpa for comics.
