50% Phoenix Rushers - fine, but why?

[ilovecandy]

hello everybody! 

I've been playing Elements for quite some time now and just love this game. i've also been secretly lurking the forums every once in a while and find its community definitely to be one of the better ones out there - so helpful and friendly!

after doing some PvP (or well, as I caught a bad flu and can't do anything else except lying in bed and playing elements on my notebook, more than just "some" pvp ^^) I was curious.

how come that usually every other PvP match you play, fire phoenix rushers is what your opponent plays? is it just me? from my experience, it seems to fill the pvp ladder with upgraded rainbow rushes coming second, and some shrieker rushes & fractal+something decks thrown in there.

any possible rest just seems left in the dark of the rarely found fun decks, which I personally find a bit sad. after all, this game is so very well balanced (or so I thought).

I really start missing diversity in there =) what are your experiences?
just for the fun of it - what about an anti-getting rushed - deck? anyone ever built one of these successfully?

[guolin]

I personally hate using rushes in PvP. I've made several non-rush PvP decks, like my Deadly Blizzard (PvP1 Toadfish + Ice Bolts) and my Eternal Permafrost (PvP2 epic stall deck).

Are you sure it's just phoenix rush? The most popular rush around are Fire Destroyers, which are the real culprit. Phoenixes only help Fire Destroyer decks - Phoenix isn't the actual focus.

[Shantu]

The reason is that everyone wants to win, and rush decks are generally a lot more effective than slower decks. If someone thinks up an omgwtf deck, people will copy and use it till something better comes up. That's why you see the same decks everywhere.
At least this is what I've noticed, perhaps I'm wrong..

By the way, life rushes are damn popular too nowadays..

[guolin]

The reason is that everyone wants to win, and rush decks are generally a lot more effective than slower decks. If someone thinks up an omgwtf deck, people will copy and use it till something better comes up. That's why you see the same decks everywhere.
At least this is what I've noticed, perhaps I'm wrong..

By the way, life rushes are damn popular too nowadays..

Rush decks are better at playing most AI. (people still prefer faster decks, like RoL/Hope or CCYB, against FG's) That is why you can see a lot of T50 plyers using it.

However, during PvP, I personally think stall decks work much better. There was a topic a while back that argued that stall decks had huge card advantages, and if played correctly, stall decks would be overpowered compared to rush decks. Of course, he didn't factor in the fact that fast decks are better at grinding, but still.

[ilovecandy]

By the way, life rushes are damn popular too nowadays..

Rush decks are better at playing most AI. (people still prefer faster decks, like RoL/Hope or CCYB, against FG's) That is why you can see a lot of T50 plyers using it.

However, during PvP, I personally think stall decks work much better. There was a topic a while back that argued that stall decks had huge card advantages, and if played correctly, stall decks would be overpowered compared to rush decks. Of course, he didn't factor in the fact that fast decks are better at grinding, but still.

might be I haven't noticed those random life rushes in between, as their lack of creature/ permanent control usually made me smile softly.

gonna have to search the forum a little bit for that "stall decks work fine" thread you mentioned!  thanks for the tip

I personally have tried to build a stall'em / anti-rusher-deck during the better part of last week; using  &  plus some quantum towers. Otyughs for relatively early and reliable creature control to dam the constant flow of whatever gets spammed towards you, and phase shields (+ shards) to make up for the times in between or before, plus some mindgates to finally finish off the opponent with multiple times his creatures.

works fine, actually, and more often than not I win with elemental mastery, though it obviously is not a fast deck (which probably is its biggest downside, if you're up to farming fast gold - though I'd rather win a long interesting match than lose 1x and win 1x quickly in the same time). still, I was wondering if with the present majority of players using rush decks, there were some rarely used, but funny ways of making those fire / rainbowrush players bite their desks .. 


edit: uploaded screenshot of my deck  (hope it worked ^^)

[Daytripper]

I think it depends on the pvp. People only have a limited amount of upped cards. Basically you have no choice but to use what you have. Rush decks and anti FG rainbows would be first choice. I think if the game gets older we will start to see more variation, that is people having several decks.

Since Phoenixes don't actually die, they are a decent choice.

If you're interested, I use a special ''slow rush'' against rush decks like life.

It works like this:

You get 10 or 11 pillars
You use 9 spells. (For example 6 basilisk blood and 3 Rewinds, but you can see how storms and freezing would be fine)
Add 10 creatures.

Gradually build up your creatures.
KILL or stall the frogs.

Game over, you win (most of the time)

You cannot actually outrush life, so you delay it just a tad and then you outrush it. Blessed pegasuses or lava golems are no problem either. Rarely will someone play out so many you can't target them. Especially funny is Rewinding after their attack has grown big. It won't help against a  fractal rush, unless if you had firestorms/plagues to kill everything.

[coinich]

Try the old Rage Quit deck for many lulz.

[High-Lord Vin]

well the BL is FULL of speeddecks; like 80% use them; and they kill me 

and asking for a counter on chat, the answers I got can be summed up as thus, build a faster sb

any good counters?

[Ryli]

Try the old Rage Quit deck for many lulz.

Some decks can actually outrush these (at least when the AI4 plays them).

For pvp I like to use a phase recluse, twin universe and phase shield deck.
It's rather useful, as if they play large creatures like dragons and destroyers you copy them, and back them up with recluses.
If they play small creature spam or no creatures you just twin all your recluses.

If they have no permanent control and you draw your phase shields your almost guarenteed a win. (about 95% for me)

[guolin]

Also, http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,13557.0.html

A lot of decks being built are also "Domination" decks - decks that can rush and stall. They should be the decks you look out for - plain old rushes become useless as long as you can take the impact in the beginning and develop from there.