[Article] Comparison of Nymphs

[Absol]

Spoiler for Hidden:

Hey y'all, i have this idea floating for a while, then i looked at Trial and there was a task to write an article, so that gave me motivation to finally write this down.

Comparison of Nymphs
Because not all Nymphs are created equal
By Absol

Introduction
Nymphs are the ultra-rare cards everyone wants. Perhaps not me though, i'd rather have 6 Mark of Darkness than Black Nymph They are a series of 12 elemental creatures with high-end costs, with effects identical to their element's alchemy card. Being expensive cards with powerful effects, they are sought by many, and generally can fit in various decks and situations. But the one thing almost everyone thought of, and haven't been answered yet till now, is: "which nymphs are the better ones?". Well, hopefully this article can help with that.

Fun facts:

• Nymphs cost 8 to 9 quanta to summon, only slightly cheaper than dragons.
• Their skill cost also varies from 1 to 4 quanta per use.
• Their drop rate from Oracle averages at once every month. Of course, as this is RNG, it's only a rule of thumb.
• They were largely impractical to actually use before Patch 1.31 buffed a lot of them. Now they're mostly viable.

This article will analyze the nymphs based on current version (1.327). As Nymphs are mainly used for reusable Alchemy cards, those cards will also be analyzed. The Nymphs are analyzed based on their cost (both summon cost and skill cost), their stat, and their effect. Final score is given in a 1-10 scale. The Nymphs and Alchemy cards compared will be unupgraded as the current PvP setup restricts upgrade, and there's no way to downgrade cards yet. However, occasional comment about upgrading may be present for Alchemy cards, as they are common cards and can be upgraded without downsides.

Comparison of Nymphs

		Well. This is our first Nymph and we're already greeted with the highest cost for both summoning and using the skill. But at least the stat is good, right? Wrong again, it's very, very frail. With only 1 HP, literally any CC can take her with ease. So, how's her skill? Thankfully it's really good. Antimatter reverts a creature's attack into healing, which basically neutralizes 2 hitters, and with a fair cost. But slap the skill on the Nymph, and suddenly we get an expensive, slow, and fragile creature who, yes, can shut off the entire field, if: You can prevent to be outrushed in the first place You can sustain the expensive cost Opponent have no CC (unlikely), or you have CC protection (requires duo) All in all, a risky gamble, and usually not worth bringing the Nymph over the Antimatter itself. 3/10.
		Now this is a decent Nymph. Cheap (for a Nymph, mind you) to summon and to use the skill, with decent attack and HP to her cost. I almost never use Dragons anymore since i have enough of these. So, what's the downside? Aflatoxin is a rather expensive card with niche use. It's usually used to lockdown opponent's creature slot with worthless creatures, or to fill own creature slot with zerg cells and use SoPa to buff them, but both strategies require rather heavy setup. With moderate quanta cost, it's better to summon the sturdy and strong Nymph instead and use (or even abuse!) the skill instead of a one-use spell. Even with her skill ignored, Grey Nymph is still a rather heavy hitter with Plan B in case things goes south. Or if you're using Aflatoxin-heavy deck, this Nymph can cut the cost down considerably. 8/10, with water 10/10.
		Here we have another expensive Nymph with low stat but powerful skill. Similar to Purple Nymph, Amber Nymph also costs 9 to summon. Her skill costs 3, only one quanta lower than Purple Nymph. But Amber's slightly more resilient, though still easily killed. And for such expensive creature, this is one big disadvantage unless you can protect the Nymph. Even so, this Nymph is expensive and slow to summon. Black Hole is optimal if used in the first few turns of the game, but with this Nymph, you have to gather quanta to summon it, then even more to use the skill, and if you don't want wrench thrown in your general direction, some form of protection. Arguably, denying opponent quanta so that they can't use CC is a protection, but realistically, when's that going to happen? CCs are cheap, you know. Strong skill with no stat or speed to back it up. You can probably make it work but i wouldn't bother. Better pick BH instead. 5/10.
		Auburn Nymph's skill cost is rather expensive, but totally justifiable because she has strong skills. However, the card's main point of interest is her HP. Look at that 8 HP! And you better kill her in 2 shots, lest she can heal herself for a long stall. Skill-wise, Auburn Nymph can be compared to Arctic Squid. Auburn can delay a creature for 6 turns for 3 . Squid delay a creature for 3 turns, for 2 . Auburn is more expensive and gives opponent's creatures HP, but the in-element stalling synergy with Stone Skin and Titanium Shield can't be ignored. Not to mention, what other creatures can control 6 creatures at once without killing them? I'd say that Auburn Nymph is essential for Earth stall or general control decks, and even more so in Earth/Light deckout stall. But it's relatively low attack prevents its use for rush decks. 7/10.
		This is your Nymph. This is your Nymph on drugs! Jokes aside, Green Nymph is rather cheap with only moderate skill cost but powerful skill. Her 6 HP makes her hard to kill, and her 3 ATK is just right for her own skill. Adrenaline gives low-attack creatures multiple attacks, and its use is perhaps best demonstrated by the famous Adrenafrog. While it's true that 3 ATK creatures are the best creatures to drug, what if you have infinite Adrenalines? Green Nymph can basically convert excess into damage. Although not without weakness (such as shields or quanta denial), this effect is still very strong. And you know what else has 3 ATK, produces quanta which can be converted to , and is a dime a dozen? Fireflies. In conclusion, why use a dragon if you can use a dragon that can also dragonize other creatures? 9/10 very solid Nymphs, one of my favorites.
		Defying the convention of "high ATK but low HP" fire creatures, the Red Nymph has 6 HP, but only 1 attack. But the fun thing is, you can use her own skill to change it to 6|1, if you're either brave or stupid enough. Might work better with buffs, but don't try this at home without protection! Rage Potion has several uses, the first and most obvious is simple CC. Few creatures have more than 5 HP, so they can be oneshotted with no worry. However, for those who do have more, you better kill it in one turn or you'll face a very angry creature. Aside from simple CC, it can also be used in conjunction with Lava Golem (preferably with some Plate Armor), Voodoo Doll, or Guardian Angel if you want the attack buff. Red Nymph's use is rather niche, but she's good at what she's doing. 7/10 solid Nymph, if in a synergistic deck.
		Somewhat expensive Nymph with a weak-to-moderate ATK and high HP, the Nymph Queen is a special case because her skill is to turn pillars into Nymphs. She used to never even looked at, but now she's a good Nymph, because of the stat buff. How so? Nymph's Tears make more Nymphs. If used on other element's pillars, it'll make that element's Nymph. Such a roundabout way (and requires duo) to get a reusable Alchemy. And with the pre-1.31 Nymphs being so weak, it's easily the weakest Alchemy, and by extension, weakest Nymph. Now that Nymphs are buffed, it's still impractical to use Tears for other element's Nymph. But with 5 attack, heavy pillar (and quanta) usage, and a creature that can basically clones herself, she turned from a very niche card into a self-replicating mid-attacker, in element with SoPa if you somehow still need more ATK! Try a 24-pillar 6-Tears deck, i'll wait. 8/10 solid mono but limited use outside mono. Perhaps 4/10 outside mono.
		Also the most expensive Nymph, the Light Nymph boasts 9 HP. But with only 6 ATK, it's a waste to use her as an attacker, unlike Grey (who has more ATK but cheaper), Green (who can buff the attack of other creatures), or Queen (who can self-replicate). Why even use Light Nymph? Because of her effect? What does Luciferin do? Mass Luminescence every skill-less creature, is that worth 4 ? No, but the reusable 10 HP heal is. Because so far, this is the only creature who can heal yourself indefinitely. That, and Vampires. Combined with Hope and mass Vanilla creatures, she can make a very powerful stall, but Hope already have Fractal RoL for much easier, and the reusable heal is overshadowed by Sanctuary, which costs much cheaper in the long run. This is the tragic case of a good creature being overshadowed by its alternatives. Even the buff can't make her more desirable. 8/10 in theory, but 2/10 in practice.
		Someone once said in chat that Blue Nymph is the best Nymph because it practically has 26 ATK. And i would agree that she's strong, but perhaps not really my favorite. She has so-so stat in the form of 5 HP (still easily killed by CC) and 6 ATK. But she's an attacker Nymph, and that's because of her effect. Unstable Gas deals 20 spell damage to opponent and 1 damage to all creatures, including your own. It's risky, but Blue Nymph has 5 HP anyway, so by the time she dies, the opponent will too. However, if detonated too early, the opponent can just CC her, but if too late, the gas can be PC'd. Gas requires is also a non-issue as you can splash the Mark to fuel it, but it does open a weakness against quanta denial. But the biggest weakness would be reflective shields, your Nymph is as good as dead against them. 8/10 hard hitter which bypass Dim Shield, but requires good timing and somewhat situational.
		Yet another mid-hitter with strong stat and skill, the Golden Nymph is hard to kill with 8 HP and hits rather hard with 6 ATK. Slightly weaker than the dragon, but with a unique, and very useful skill which gives her far more use than the boring dragon. Card draw is a very powerful effect, and old stall decks require Electrum Hourglass to speed it up, along with Mark of Time to guarantee drawing speed. The problem with Hourglass is that it's only build for card draw, so imagine a hitter with drawing power too. Better than the hourglass, i'd say. Golden Nymph can speed up rush even more with tremendous drawing power, if coupled with enough quanta and hard-hitting creatures. Expensive but sturdy mid-range attacker with very useful ability, worth every quanta spent. 9/10.
		It's kind of hard to judge this card without bias when it's also the Nymph of my favorite element. Black Nymph's stat is generally below other Nymphs, but still above Purple and Amber's. Which is justifiable, since her effect is also not as strong as them. But see, that's another problem with this Nymph. Mediocre stat, altough not bad, and rather niche skill. 5 HP is barely better than 3, since Lightning, one of the most used CCs, can still oneshot anything below 5 HP, and 3 ATK is almost useless too. So, with mediocre stat, let's see her skill. Liquid Shadow gives vampire skill but also gives poison. It's mostly used in 3 scenarios: For stall, in conjunction with high-ATK and medium-to-high-HP Mini-lobotomize weak creatures whose ATK is negligible in the long run Liquid AM All in all, not a bad effect. But with the Alchemy spell being so much cheaper, and the Nymph itself isn't that hard to kill, it's better to use the Liquid Shadow card instead of the Nymph. In very specific cases where LS needs to be reusable, maybe the Nymph can be used, but it's rare. 5/10 situational use, often times it's better to bring the Alchemy instead.
		Quick, what creature can make itself and other creatures immortal? That's right, the Turquoise Nymph is the one. What's that? Anubis you say? What's an "anoobish"? Any example deck? Yeah, thought so. Turquoise Nymph hits quite hard, and with only 4 HP, but if she survives for one turn, she'll be immortal. How's that for 8 per summon and 3 per skill? Still expensive? Remember that Turquoise Nymph is in-element with Dim Shield, which gives unparalleled (har har) stall power. Aether decks can be very easily made stall, but with this Nymph, it's also easily be made into stallbreaker. Want more? How about SoW for buff, or Quint for that risky one turn? All in-element, of course. 9/10 heavy hitter with innate anti-CC. Just be mindful of that first turn vulnerability.

Conclusion
In general, the top 3 Nymphs are Green, Golden, and Turquoise Nymph. They're all very solid creatures with high HP, considerable ATK, and useful skills. They can be used in many decks, and in general can be used more easily than the more niche Nymphs. Meanwhile, the bottom Nymphs are Light and Purple Nymphs. In general, they're too expensive to use and the strategy is easily disrupted. Amber and Black Nymph requires more thought in using them, but they can be powerful if used in the right deck. The rest are amazing just the way they are.

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[iancudorinmarian]

Blue nymph not 10/10? wat?
Aether nymph 9/10? wat?
Light nymph 2/10? wat?

- Blue nymph is one of the most broken cards in the game in terms of value. I'd rate it 10/10, or because perfection doesn't exist, 9.99/10.
- Aether nymph is terrible and almost never used due to the fact that it's not worth the risk of 1 turn of vulnerability when you can just play phase dragons (which come with quint in play) or just recluse (which is 7/2 for 4 instead of 7/4 for 8). I'd rate it 4/10 at best.
- Light nymph is pretty good in RoL/Hope and I also consider it pretty good in mono light along with archangels even if you've got the light dragon alternative. I'd rate this 5/10 at least.

Good article otherwise.

[worldwideweb3]

Nice post. Now onto critique (or really, just my opinion)

Purple is better than grav nymph. It's more dangerous, while you dont really care if opponent has grav nymph unless its couples with discord. In which case, purple can still be better. Also, quint <3
Light is better than 2/10.

The other nymphs are all debatable and depending on preference, can go +-1/2 but these two nymphs, imo, are much better than their rating says.

[Blacksmith]

Finally a nymph list 

I'm quite impressed with your list and agree on most stuff.

Traditionally people favored and since they have strong abilities. However I agree that and aren't as strong as they look like.

Comments:
  Under the right circumstances this nymph can completely lockdown an enemy of their own. 3/10, 4/10 would be my pick
  One of my favorite nymphs. Has a useful CC ability and great stats. Good with death effect. Makes really cool combo with water. 8/10 seems legit
  I agree with what you said but like to add that upped it's stats is 1-4 which makes it better vs CC. 5/10 seems legit
  Just great. Good stats and great ability. Strong enough to give a rush deck a strong lockdown player that is hard to kill. 7/10, I'd put it at 7.5/10
  While it is strong it's not that amazing. Vanilla life is already fast and life nymph dosen't make it that much faster. 9/10 is to much 6.5/10 is better.
  I should add that targeting a upped pillar gives a upped nymph with better stats. 8/10 is slightly to high, I'd put it at 7/10
  I do agree that it's stats isn't good. The ability is way to expensive. But since light is used to have lots of quanta it's playable. 2/10 4.5/10is more accurate imo
  A truly splendid nymph. It's fast and evil and counters many decks. And in addition it has good stats. 8/10, I'd put it at 9/10
  It's a cool nymph, especially upped. 9/10, I'd put it at 8/10
  Agreed on all
  It's good but not amazing. 9/10, I'd put it at 7/10

[ValerianFlame]

Finally a nymph list 

I'm quite impressed with your list and agree on most stuff.

Traditionally people favored and since they have strong abilities. However I agree that and aren't as strong as they look like.

Comments:
  Under the right circumstances this nymph can completely lockdown an enemy of their own. 3/10, 4/10 would be my pick
  One of my favorite nymphs. Has a useful CC ability and great stats. Good with death effect. Makes really cool combo with water. 8/10 seems legit
  I agree with what you said but like to add that upped it's stats is 1-4 which makes it better vs CC. 5/10 seems legit
  Just great. Good stats and great ability. Strong enough to give a rush deck a strong lockdown player that is hard to kill. 7/10, I'd put it at 7.5/10
  While it is strong it's not that amazing. Vanilla life is already fast and life nymph dosen't make it that much faster. 9/10 is to much 6.5/10 is better.
  I should add that targeting a upped pillar gives a upped nymph with better stats. 8/10 is slightly to high, I'd put it at 7/10
  I do agree that it's stats isn't good. The ability is way to expensive. But since light is used to have lots of quanta it's playable. 2/10 4.5/10is more accurate imo
  A truly splendid nymph. It's fast and evil and counters many decks. And in addition it has good stats. 8/10, I'd put it at 9/10
  It's a cool nymph, especially upped. 9/10, I'd put it at 8/10
  Agreed on all
  It's good but not amazing. 9/10, I'd put it at 7/10

You forgot fire 

My votes:

  A, well, not that great nymph. It can be killed easily, especially unupped (dry spell, fire shield, thorn carapace...). Its ability is decent, but the alchemy card itself is probably the better choice. 2.5/10.
  Aflatoxin is a meh card, having a few good things as well as bad things about it. Grey nymph does get rid of one of the main problems (the cost) while being a force to be reckoned with.
  Call me biased, but I think this is underrated. Reusable denial? I like it. Sure, the nymph itself is frail (3hp, 4 if upped) but it's not like many creatures have higher than 4 or 5 health. 6.5/10.
  I'm going off of my experiences vs. the Gravity/Earth AI3 for this one. It's got a nice amount of synergies, and the stats are decent. 7.5/10.
  I couldn't get this one to work with me, but I understand that it's a solid nymph. The skill is nice, and so is the cost, and so are the synergies, in-element or not. 7.5/10
  I haven't been able to play with this nymph a whole lot. I do know that when you have creatures that have decent health (Looking at Gravity and Earth), this nymph will be a big help if you can fit fire into the mix. Still, a little situational, if nothing else. 7/10.
  I like NT rushes, and I like water nymph. The skill is cool, there are A LOT of in-element synergies (SoPa, Dry Spell, and Arctic Squid, to name a few), even if the skill is costly, and sometimes risky. 8/10.
  For reusable healing, a solid damage output, and a few in-element synergies, you could go better, but this nymph does its job if it's needed. Considering the actual card costs of Luci, it's likely for there to be better options. 5/10.
  It gets countered by Reflectors, sure, but this nymph is one heck of a, well, nymph. Your counters are Fire (Rage, FB), Aether (TB), Light, (Reflector), and Life (Emerald/Jade shield), but otherwise, there's not much your opponent can do but use CC that in most cases, won't work. Its damage output is BEAST and its stats are somewhat past mediocre. 9/10.
  Another amazing nymph. Got SoR and this nymph, you're going to have draw almost as fast as SoB rushes. Not only that, you'll also have a heavy hitter for 6 damage. One of the rushiest nymphs out there, and that's why I like it. 9/10.
  I suppose this nymph has its purposes in decks such as TUgons (though the deck would be VERY inconsistent) or Liquid AM, but as Absol states, this is all very situational. The stats, well, they're mediocre, I suppose. However, you won't be rushing your opponent with a measly 3 attack. 4.5/10.
  Iancu, what's with the hate? This nymph definitely has a purpose. Phase dragons are almost as expensive as Miracle, and you can apply this to ALL targetable creatures (maybe except spark, if summoned on the same turn). Unlike Anubis, this nymph is also a relatively hard hitter. (even though you can SoR an Anubis). 8/10.

[JonathanCrazyJ]

Iancu, what's with the hate? This nymph definitely has a purpose. Phase dragons are almost as expensive as Miracle, and you can apply this to ALL targetable creatures (maybe except spark, if summoned on the same turn). Unlike Anubis, this nymph is also a relatively hard hitter. (even though you can SoR an Anubis). 8/10.

deuce22 the best aether master there has ever been, and winner of war with aether on many occasions, has never included a single aether nymph in his vault for war.
It's not just a sub-par nymph, it's a bad card in general. 2/10
Aubern nymph is great, i'd put it 8/10 personally.
Light nymph is a solid card tbh, good in RoL hope and Mono light. 6/10

The only nymphs that ever see play in an unrestricted meta are, in tiers:
Top tier: Air, earth,
Mid tier: death, light, time
Gimmicky but playable: water (generally outshone by tears), Entropy (occasionally seen quinted, possibly with SoW), Life (mainly as extra damage in adrennastaves), gravity (borderline never used tbh, very gimmicky in DBH)
Total rubbish, never ever played in an open meta: darkness, aether, fire (very rarely sees use, but can be used in restricted metas)

[ddevans96]

deuce22 the best aether master there has ever been, and winner of war with aether on many occasions, has never included a single aether nymph in his vault for war.
It's not just a sub-par nymph, it's a bad card in general. 2/10

On the flipside, the second-best Aether player ever is fond of her Turquoises. It's certainly a below average card, but I'd put it cleanly above Red and Black, at least. I think iancu's rating of it as 4/10 is the most fair judgement of it in this thread.