Rework Aether

[russianspy1234]

So since it seems people were responding to points i wasnt even making, in large part due to how i presented my case, i am reworking my problems with aether into one sentence.

its kind of annoying that aether has two immaterial creatures and two cards that give immaterial, as well as two other cards that require targeting creatures to work.


original post for posterity.
Note:  I am in NOT saying aether is weak.


Ok so, I was thinking of starting up some topics in the buff this card thread (in particular the nymph) but I realized this cannot be accomplished by simply buffing a few cards.  Aether needs to be reworked almost completely.  I mean, its mostly a splash color, sure there are the monoaether rush deck, that use 6 copies of 3 cards but thats not enough.  lets take a look at what aether has:

1. spark, a card that does 3 damage once, and is only really useful for being immolated.
2. lightning, a decent direct damage spell that is outshined by fire lance and drain life
3. 2 immaterial creatures
4. 2 cards that make creatures immaterial
5. 2 other cards that target creatures and give you a beneficial effect from them
6. 1 creature that can take advantage of either of the two above points
7. mindgate, silence, and lobotomizer (no issues)

aether as an element is very antisynergistic, so you really end up just splashing 1 or two of the cards into another deck.  even monoaether is basically an aether splash.  the nymph is pretty much completely useless to the element, as most of your creatures are already immaterial or are going to die after they attack anyway, however making things immaterial does seem like something aether should be able to do.

im trying to think of how to do this by changing as little as possible because completely overworking the element would obviously be bad.  adding some poll options, keeping them short for simplicity (ie option 1 can be accompanied by an increase in cost)

[omegareaper7]

1.spark is useful for many other things besides immo
2.Lightning is not outshined by lance or drain life, they can't do 5 damage for 2 quanta.
4. that would just annoy more people, some already think quint needs a nerf, no reason to add another.

[plastiqe]

..even monoaether is basically an aether splash.

QFT

You should add Fractal to your list.
8.  What's the deal with Fractal, you can't even use it on Phase Dragons.

[The_Mormegil]

Heh. And nothing about Phase Shield either.

[plastiqe]

9. Phase Shield only lasts for 3 turns, compared to all other shields that are permanent, therefore Phase Shield should also be permanent for the sake of balance.

[willng3]

Free Frogs!?  Blasphemy!

But seriously, Aether's fine the way it is.  It's one of the best answers to several decks dominating the PvP scene and definitely adds a lot of synergy to other elements, despite what you may claim.  Fractal, Parallel Universe, Dimensional Shield, Quintessence, Lightning and Spark are all cards that are commonly used in Duo decks.  In terms of completion, Aether is one of the few elements that actually isn't in need of assistance to make it a "better" element.

[Calindu]

Aether needs 1 thing,an mid-range attacker.
And giving sparks a buff would be absurd.

[ddevans96]

No.

Spark can be buffed just like any other creature, and is in the same element as Parallel Universe for even more potential. It can also form the sheer damage in an OTK with fractal. And in theory, Spark and Chaos Power is one the most damaging two-card creature combos in the game.

Lightning is the most powerful base CC in the game. Fire Bolt requires 10 quanta to deal as much damage, and Drain Life requires 20. You're comparing a card that is better for CC with cards that are better for direct damage, which doesn't work. And Lightning can be used as a finisher to boot.

Quintessence doesn't need to be changed at all, because immateriality is already a powerful effect, especially on a creature that disregards shields. As for Immortal, making a creature come into play with no immunities at all would be way too powerful. (although Immortal does still need a buff).

Turquoise Nymph is far from useless. It's a powerful attacker in it's own right, and can even make it untargetable if it survives just one turn. Or you can Quint it with the spell right off the bat and be done with it. And the fact that it isn't immaterial allows you to make even more of them with PU.

Aether can make several variants on mono, both rushing and stall varieties (you forgot dim shield on your list, by the way), and can also splash easily into both duos and rainbows. The only place I agree with you is that one more material creature wouldn't hurt, but it isn't a necessity at all.

[Higurashi]

1. Spark is perfect with Blessing, Momentum, Chaos Power and Bone Wall (especially with Fractal). Ball Lightning is also used in OTK decks along with Fractal and Sky Blitz.

2. Lightning is the best single-target CC spell in the entire game. It's faster than Gravity Pull, unconditional and will kill the majority of all creatures in one use. There's a reason Team Aether dominated War 3 with Bonebolt; Lightning+Bone Wall with Poisons for damage is an incredible rush-stopper that can be easily modded into a stall-breaker thanks to Fractal with Bone Dragon. It's by far the most versatile rush-stopper in the game, imo.
Lightning is also great in Monoaether for stopping the opponent's offense cold.

3. This unique feature of Aether is what made CC so much less effective against us in War. Phase Dragon is easily one of the strongest creatures thanks to the Monoaether deck concept. Immortal, however, needs a buff (most suggest -1 cost or +1 attack).

4. Another unique feature of Aether (you need to use Anubis too). This is a huge part of why Aether is used in so many FG killers and other rainbows or duos. The ability to remove CC as a weakness is huge, especially considering very powerful creature abilities.

5. Fractal is one of the game's three best cards along with Nova and Immolation. It's so powerful it affects card design (too powerful abilities in cheap creatures can't be allowed into the game unless you somehow make Fractal not work with them). It and PU is the biggest reason why Aether synergises with other elements more than any other element, as PU can be used with any high attacker and buffs. They both also enable OTK decks.

6. Phase Spider/Recluse is what lets Aether rush decently. Combined with TU, it's a good rush when upped. Combined with Fractal, you have ridiculous amounts of offense at the cost of one turn of gathering quanta. Both decks have reaped many victims.
Aether as an element is the most synergistic there is. That's the reason it was hard to choose how many votes people could have in this topic: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,21386.0.html
It is truly the element of duality, as pika tends to repeat. It can create very powerful combos with every single element, mainly thanks to Fractal and PU (as mentioned). Lightning is, of course, a huge reason people often splash Aether, and Quint is occasionally a game-winner. Dim Shield.. hah, it can win games on its own even when just randomly inserted into any duo. In well planned decks, it's one of the strongest cards in the game and the single most used shield, judging by stats given by Zanzarino.

Turquoise Nymph lets an Aether rush pwn CC stalls, as seen by my success with this deck in the Trials: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29157.0.html

Judging by the continuous success of Aether players in PvP, you don't have much of a case here. That said, Aether and Fire have 15 cards; the lowest amount in an element. They could totally get more cards.

I would suggest getting more experience in all kinds of PvP (especially restricted Events on the forum) before making topics that deal with huge changes like these. Zealots like me can react pretty strongly to them.

[NikaZaslavsky]

Aether doesn't need what you mentioned. Spark has a great synergy with fractal and boneyard, and other things too. Adding 1 health would be absurd, since then you would have a 3/1 creature, that's free to play. Think about how that would be used with fractal. The nymph is useful in a duo deck, and so is quintessence. Aether is a very synergistic element. Lightning is powerful compared to drain life and fire lance, since they need more quantum to make it really have an effect. I should say more, but I think the other people have explained enough.

[russianspy1234]

No.

Spark can be buffed just like any other creature, and is in the same element as Parallel Universe for even more potential. It can also form the sheer damage in an OTK with fractal. And in theory, Spark and Chaos Power is one the most damaging two-card creature combos in the game.

Lightning is the most powerful base CC in the game. Fire Bolt requires 10 quanta to deal as much damage, and Drain Life requires 20. You're comparing a card that is better for CC with cards that are better for direct damage, which doesn't work. And Lightning can be used as a finisher to boot.

Quintessence doesn't need to be changed at all, because immateriality is already a powerful effect, especially on a creature that disregards shields. As for Immortal, making a creature come into play with no immunities at all would be way too powerful. (although Immortal does still need a buff).

Turquoise Nymph is far from useless. It's a powerful attacker in it's own right, and can even make it untargetable if it survives just one turn. Or you can Quint it with the spell right off the bat and be done with it. And the fact that it isn't immaterial allows you to make even more of them with PU.

Aether can make several variants on mono, both rushing and stall varieties (you forgot dim shield on your list, by the way), and can also splash easily into both duos and rainbows. The only place I agree with you is that one more material creature wouldn't hurt, but it isn't a necessity at all.

ok yeah calling the nymph useless is a bit too harsh, lets put it this way.  it is the most useless nymph to its own element (with the exception of  ).
all of the other ones, aside from  dont even need you to have your own creatures on the field, and can be used offensively, and earth has multiple creatures that are the right size to really benifit from the nymph.  aether has 1, other than the nymph itself anyway.

let me make it clearer, im not saying any aether cards are bad on their own, they all have uses.  im not even saying the element is bad, i know mono aether is possible, i even use it fairly often.  im just taking issue with the very clear lack of synergy of the element with itself.  with any other element, you can take 2 of each card and have a working deck.  you cant do that with aether.  one (or better yet 2) more non immaterial creatures would go a long way towards alleviating that.  theres still the issue of its main trick being giving immaterial to creatures and having creatures that are immaterial already, but w/e.  the dragon wasnt immaterial to start with, and was changed to remove the combo with fractal right?

Aether doesn't need what you mentioned. Spark has a great synergy with fractal and boneyard, and other things too. Adding 1 health would be absurd, since then you would have a 3/1 creature, that's free to play.

i kept the poll option short, but in the post i mentioned increasing the cost if that is done.

[CCCombobreaker]

Lots of responses.  If you want my reasons enter spoiler.

I think that you grossly underestimate Aether's potential.
This deck, http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,23368.0.html (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,23368.0.html), aptly named the MONO AETHER FG grinder is one of the top 3 FG killing decks (full list here: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,25609.0.html (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,25609.0.html)).

And most of the other top decks (except Liquid Antimatter or Eternal Chaos) prominently feature Aether cards as part of their strategies. 

Aether is full of very useful cards already, and almost no aether card is overlooked when you scan through top decks.  VNG uses ball lightnings (even though it could use gnomeriders or photons) because it isn't just immo-food, it hits harder than any free creature when you have to close out games.  Fractal is everywhere, and so is twin universe.  Phase spiders shows up in lots of speedbows, and since the addition of wings has started showing up even more in other Bows and duos.  Lobotomizer is one of the most useful weapons in the game.  Phase shield chains are pretty much the best thing ever.  Phase dragons are awesome and lightning is the best cheap removal which is why it get's used like this http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=29792.0 (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=29792.0).  Where drain life or fire bolt would require a much more significant investment than a mark change.  Silence is pretty key in PvP matchups, and mindgate gives more potential card advantage than anything else in the game (drawing up to 6 extra cards a turn without added risk of decking yourself!).  Quint is key to CCYB and many other decks that run just a few creatures but need those creatures to be safe to hit critical mass.

Yes little old immortals are not super useful.  That is why they already have a thread in "buff this card". 

And while aether nymph isn't super useful to it's own element... it's only competitor is Anubis, who also costs 8, but requires a duo of elements (including aether) and has less attack.

If I'm not mistaken, aether is already considered one of the more powerful elements.  Don't let how useful it's cards are to non-mono decks fool you into thinking it doesn't make great monos.  Fractal spiders, the immaterial army, mindgate stall, and fractal balls are just a few ways to combine cards inside of aether that work together to make really solid decks.