Pendulum Theory

[PuppyChow]

Alright, so basically, with the addition of pendulums, it seems it could be confusing for newbs to figure out the best way to add them. This topic is to talk about the best way to use them in decks.

IMO, the best way is to make a deck as you normally do. Let's take a fractal deck with 6 aether pillars and 10 life pillars with aether mark.

Now, in my mind, the best way to exchange for pendulums is to take out all of the lower number of pillars and an equal number of the higher number of pillars, and replace them for pendulums.

So instead of 6 aether pillars and 10 life pillars, you'd have 4 life pillars and 12 life pendulums.

In an upgraded format, replace one more of your higher number with a pendulum to offset the lower amount of the minor element's generation due to it not having the +1 on draw for its towers anymore. So it'd be 3 life towers and 13 life pendulums.

The theory behind this is that that keeps the exact same total quanta generation endgame, and makes draws more consistent at the same time.

Any other ideas on the best way to use them?

[Nume]

That looks like a pretty good general strategy. One other more minor use is to simply replace half of the towers of your marks element with pendelums, to create a 2nd stack and thus be less vulnerable to earthquakes. Though in certain decks this can backfire (if you regularly run out of permanent slots).

[smuglapse]

That looks like a pretty good general strategy. One other more minor use is to simply replace half of the towers of your marks element with pendelums, to create a 2nd stack and thus be less vulnerable to earthquakes. Though in certain decks this can backfire (if you regularly run out of permanent slots).

To illustrate, take a standard RoL Hope deck with 8 Aether Towers and Aether mark.  Remove 4 Towers and replace with 4 Aether Pendulums.  The deck works exactly the same, but now you can slow play 1 Tower AND 1 Pendulum against Seism.

Of course, there are some decks where you do NOT want any Pendulums.  A good example is a duo deck that can satisfy one element with the mark alone.  The Dune Scorpion FG deck (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,11131.0.html) illustrates this.

[Dragoon]

At first I thought that Pendulums would help with making Trio decks but what it really helps is making fully-fleshed Duo decks.  Most Duo decks before just used the Mark to splash a few cards from another element.  Using a second set of Pillars was just asking for a bad hand.  But now that you can use one set of Pillars to feed two elements, a Duo deck with a more even usage of elements is possible.

For instance, the two pillar version of the FFQ deck looked something like this:

Code: [Select]

5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oj 5oj 5oj 5oj 5oj 5ol 5olThe main weakness though was that if you didn't draw one set of pillars you were screwed.

But now you can make a deck like this:

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5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5lk 5lk 5oj 5oj 5oj 5oj 5oj 5ol 5ol 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu?? are Air Pendulums obviously.  I think you can even get away with slightly fewer "pillars" because you're not so worried about trying to increase your odds of drawing enough pillars of both kinds.

[smuglapse]

@Dragoon:
Seeing that post reminded me of Fire Queen and Divine Glory's bad draws.

But now... (gulp) 

[kobisjeruk]

i just hope FGs dont start having pendulums instead of their off-color mark pillars
some of my win versus DG for example resulted from him not getting any fire towers early game

[Bloodshadow]

but now you can slow play 1 Tower AND 1 Pendulum against Seism.

With a Pillar, a Tower, a regular Pendulum, and an upped Pendulum, you can now have up to FOUR stacks!

[Mastermind79]

With a Pillar, a Tower, a regular Pendulum, and an upped Pendulum, you can now have up to FOUR stacks!

Five, if you include Marks, but who uses those against FGs?

I think you can even get away with slightly fewer "pillars" because you're not so worried about trying to increase your odds of drawing enough pillars of both kinds.

Tested and true. My Dark/Death duo worked with 10 Pendulums instead of needing 13 total pillars.

[jmdt]

Tested and true. My Dark/Death duo worked with 10 Pendulums instead of needing 13 total pillars.

I've found the same

[Dragoon]

Five, if you include Marks, but who uses those against FGs?

Six, if you include upped Marks, but who ups them?

[wavedash]

Would it be best to have all Pendulums in a mono-element deck if you expect Mind Gates?

[jmdt]

Would it be best to have all Pendulums in a mono-element deck if you expect Mind Gates?

In a mono deck, a 50/50 split of Pendalums and pillars is prolly the best choice to combat earthquake.  If you expect mindgate, using Pendalums exclusively would definately slow down the mindgate deck.