Psionist is an Aether Creature card suggested by moomoose. Unlike most creatures, Psionist doesn't attack physically. Rather it deals spell damage (a mental blast of some sort) like Lightning or Fire Bolt does. Like Lightning, Psionist's attack can be reflected. Since it has this weakness that momentum doesn't, Psionist has been balanced to be slightly cheaper than Charger.However, Psionist would not be here if it were just an Aether version of Charger. While the effect is deceptively simple, it expands current combat mechanics. The addition of magical rather than physical attacks allows for a few expansions.More detailed simulationThere have been interesting unrealistic results of the abstraction involved in combat. All unblocked creatures are compelled to attack regardless of whether it is a wise move or not. Furthermore, all combat happens at close enough range for the attackers to get affected by shields. Spell damage allows a creature to attack without having to engage in melee and risk effects like burns from Fire Shield.Mechanical expansionCategorizing things mechanically allows cards to be designed that affect the categories unequally. Cards could have effects that trigger whenever one type of damage were dealt. Cards could convert creatures from one type of damage to the other (Shard of Wisdom). Not only are more options available but it adds a new balancing tool. If a source of damage would be too powerful as one type of damage then it could be altered to fit under the other type of damage.
Some users may find it odd to hear of senior players spending the vast majority of their Elements time warring against the Elders, an opponent level that one might expect to be abandoned once a player has obtained the tools to face more difficult enemies such as False Gods. But with USEM this reasoning is very well founded and quite obvious after experimenting with the deck for a few games. USEM lives up to its name (Ultimate Speed Elemental Mastery) by being one of the fastest decks used and tested against Elders available on the forums. And not only is the deck dangerously fast, but it's also easily capable of EMing its opponent swiftly and many times without much effort. Very few decks can boast being able to net over 1500 score per hour versus AI3 and those that can manage this feat consistently are even more uncommon. USEM also made it possible for more dedicated grinders to earn several tens of thousands of score per week while maintaining a ridiculously high numbers of wins compared to losses. The sheer simplicity of USEM is yet another of its more enticing factors. Some decks require significant amounts of clicking, thinking, and prediction each turn which cuts down on the deck's speed. However, USEM does not have this problem because its strategy is to use brute force and rush the opponent while healing as necessary. The deck's Mono-Life nature cuts back on bad draws tremendously as it's nearly impossible for it to receive a horrible starting hand which hinders its speed for the remainder of the duel as opposed to numerous Speed Rainbows which attempt to serve the same purpose as USEM. As such, the deck becomes quite useful to players who might be trying to multitask or stay alert when at work because it requires very little thought to put it to great use.USEM remained the undisputed champion of score grinding for many, many months before a breakthrough in deck design caused its crown to be lost. Prior to the Arena's release, AI3 was the proven place to go if a player wanted to increase their score quickly for the simple reason that with the right deck games were completed quickly, losses were kept to a minimum, and EMs earning a player bonuses for score were relatively easy to achieve. But even as easy as this sounds, the quest to find a deck which possessed the perfect balance between speed, win rate, and Elemental Mastery ability was very difficult to find. Though some Speedbows may be faster than USEM and others may possess better variety, their reliance on luck makes them hard pressed to make USEM do much more than scoff at them and their attempts to surpass it. However, TADAbow has shown to be able to surpass USEM's score farming ability ever so slightly, seemingly causing the deck to be forgotten and disowned...or is there more to USEM's story?As it turns out USEM received a bit of a bonus in its efficiency when Mitosis was released, causing the "Ultimate" deck to become even more supreme before the advent of TADAbow. The simplest modification of -1 Giant Frog and -1 Elite Cockatrice for +2 Mitosis has shown to improve the deck's efficiency rate by a noticeable amount (though the difference was still relatively minuscule) to the point that the variation was given the name "USEMosis". The deck's one downside is that games become less mindless with the addition of Mitosis, and it will take a more experienced player's judgement and knowledge to produce more noticeable differences in grinding efficiency. This nudge forward causes testing for both USEMosis and TADAbow to yield varying results, as some statistics will support one's supremacy over the other but do little to confirm either case. As such it is generally accepted that the two decks share the title of "Best AI3 grinder" together. However, with the Arena completely removing the purpose of upgraded AI3 score grinding it is highly unlikely that players will see USEM return to its former glory, despite weathering the storm of countless game updates that had little effect on its performance one way or the other.
Quote from: Absol on February 29, 2012, 05:45:34 amNice one!How about putting a few of the final battle results? Or is it saved for the next newsletter?Results will be saved for the March newsletter, since Trials don't officially end until March.
Nice one!How about putting a few of the final battle results? Or is it saved for the next newsletter?
