| DECEMBER 2012 | | THE TRIALS
Challenge a Master, Become a Master | | Trial Overseer RavingRabbid put together an epic event in the sixth iteration of The Trials. Congratulations to our 12 Masters who emerged victorious, and good luck on your coming challenges. |
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5th Elements Council | Congratulations to whatifidogetcaught? and Opsinis who have been selected as Newsletter Writers. Look for them to take over starting in the new year.
Upcoming Council Projects
- End of Year Forum Awards 2012
- Return of featured member interviews
- GS&F Section Improvements
- CIA Section Improvements
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We'd like to welcome everyone that joined the forums in the last month. A special welcome to all the new members that took the time to introduce themselves.
If you see them say hello!
This month's card idea review is
Orochi | Orochi by
Drake_XIV. Idea Guru
Drake_XIV reviewed it below.
Orochi | OrochiOn a strict cost to stat basis, Orochi is an incredibly effective attacker, perhaps the most effective for its stat tier with 12 ATT for 8|7
. However, there are a few things keeping this from strictly being overpowered and overshadowing fellow effective attackers like Shrieker, which has 8|10 ATT for 8
.
The one obvious thing here is Appease. Each turn, you must sacrifice a creature on your side to ensure that Orochi attacks your opponent instead of turning around and attacking you instead. So the card cost of the sacrifices goes into the cost of Orochi itself, and that's disregarding any cost of the Sacrifices themselves.
Another thing that sets this aside from other attackers is how Appease works. On the first turn, due to the inability to use its ability on the first turn, if you have not taken proper precautions, Orochi can and will do damage to you once. That is a guarantee.
So, cost balance. At 12 ATT [ +12
] and 8 HP [ +2
], it can take some punishment and deals in kind, but Orochi's Appease considerably drops the cost. With the initial 12 damage [ Compared to a negative weaker Heal, estimating -2
] and assuming that Orochi will be used for on average 3 turns, there is card cost to consider [ Estimated to be -3
, excluding quanta cost of sacrifices]. As a neutral element,
grants only a HP boost [Graboid + Shrieker is an exception for thematics], so it justifies the 8 HP [ -1
]. This leaves it at its current spot at 8
, 7
for upgraded.
Duo Possibilities:
[
|
] Especially upgraded, both elements provide free fodder to fuel Orochi's Appease. Also, use of Quintessence will prevent Orochi from being Lobotomized and attacking you instead. And Parallel Universe will create more ways to get more out effectively, with Dimensional Shield keeping any backlash from touching you.
[
|
] With so many things being sacrificed, the death effects will definitely increase. With Gnome Riders and Skeletons, Orochi will have plenty of cheap fodder to go through while generating more with Boneyard, racking up quanta with Soul Catcher, raising defense with Bone Wall, or increasing one's offense with Vulture. It's up to the player, but there are choices here.
[
|
] Deja Vu and Scarabs create cheap fodder for Appease, especially when used in tandem with Pharaoh, meaning you should be able to maintain a steady stream of sacrifices. In case you don't, Sundial is helpful in making sure Orochi doesn't strike back at you right away and Reverse Time or Eternity will return him back to your deck in case he is Lobotomized. There is also Anubis to protect Orochi from being Lobotomized to begin with, but that treads in trio territory. It also allows for some Graboid splashing, so this isn't exactly far off as well.
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5up 5up 5up 5ur 5us 5us 5us 606 606 606 606 606 8ptNewer players are often faced with a rather infuriating problem when it comes to gathering electrum for new decks and new upgrades: They need rare cards. But where does a person go to obtain rares as quickly as possible? Most players would say Bronze League due to its rare spins. And this month's deck serves as a reliable Bronze League grinder which is easily obtainable by players that are new to the game.
The beauty of this Mono Darkness is not just the fact that it's so cheap and easy to build, but that the strategy that it uses to defeat Bronze League opponents is quite simple and straight forward. A player only needs to play Devourers and then use the quanta they produce to play their Dragons to deal the damage needed. Steals are then used to take care of cards impeding the player's progress such as Dimensional Shields, Empathic Bonds and Sanctuary. You may also Steal Pillars versus Monos or Duos to cause quanta denial. Drain Life can be used as Creature Control or to help you keep you alive as needed.
The deck doesn't have a flawless winrate (it is unupped, after all) versus Bronze League, but the sheer number of consecutive wins that the deck is able to gain should be enough to where special spins are obtainable more often than not. The player can expect to have problems when facing Mono Entropy decks (mostly due to Maxwell's Demon), but otherwise the deck is solid.
Another positive aspect of this deck is that is is also available shortly after a player has just started their game assuming they have picked the Darkness starter. Until the player has finished the 500 score quest and picked their Vampire Stiletto, they can grind AI3 with nearly any other Darkness card/Other Weapon as a replacement.
With this deck, a new player's dream of one day owning their own Instosis, Poison Dials, etc. becomes more of a reality, though it will still take some time.
Thanks to Drake_XIV, willng3, Zblader, n00b and the rest of the council for helping put this issue together.
