The Sundial Nerf: Analysis and Solutions

[xiongwen8]

  The Problem
 
  Personally, I think that the sundial nerf since version 1.17 has had a huge impact on FG rainbow decks. Most rainbow FG farming decks rely on heavy creature control and permanent usage. However, the main weakness with these decks (and generally with most large rainbow decks) is its slow and unreliable setup. In early stages of games against false gods, rainbow decks are often still trying to either draw key cards or get enough quanta while the false god has already summoned multiple creatures and then proceeds to quickly pound you into the ground.
  Scaredgirl has said herself that the sundial was:” The most crucial card", and rightfully so. Before its nerf, sundials were the perfect fix to the rainbow's weakness, allowing you cheap, absolute defense (no creatures attack for 2 turns at the cost of 1 or 0 quantum) and lets you draw 2 cards, thus giving rainbow decks fast, early defense and accelerated card draw leading to faster setup. Now, the nerf has not only cut its defense value in half (1 turn instead of 2) but also, sundials now give you no net gain in cards (since you only draw 1 card, you only gain back the card slot taken by the sundial card).
  Now that the sundial has become a mere shadow of its former glory, we need to move on and find another solution. But it won’t be easy, since most FG rainbow decks I’ve seen before version 1.17 had sundials. Although I won’t get into the issue as to whether rainbow decks should still contain sundials, I know that it is in our interest to find a solution to the rainbow deck’s once again, exposed weakness of slow and unstable card setup.
  Please reply with any comments to my rough analysis or potential solutions to this problem.

[xiongwen8]

Possible Solutions and Deck Options

I agree with many players that some good solutions to the sundial nerf for rainbow FG decks includes:

1. Making decks smaller for more stable draws.
2. More Hourglasses for faster draws.

So generally, its seems that more speed is now the way to go. The decks nowadays are indeed faster and more stable. However, this makes the deck more vulnerable to FGs that are more control oriented, (Hermes, Rainbow, and lot more I think...) since less cards mean more chances that some key card(s) (e.g. the only fallen druid in your deck) could be taken out, thus severely lowering you chances at winning.

I'll try to post some good examples of decks that approach these problems soon.

[Kamietsu]

Sundials do work worse than they once did, but they are still a good addition to rainbow decks because that one turn of stalling they do could net your the quanta you need to pull out some bigger, badder cards waiting in your hand, or that you could possibly draw.

But, a solution to this, I would say, is to bring more drawing power. Take a time factory and a nymph's tears, bring some precognitions, seeing the opponents hand will definitely help you to know whether or not to play a certain card at the time. If you can't stall 'em, draw 'em

[ivalmian]

  Personally, I think that the sundial nerf since version 1.17 has had a huge impact on FG rainbow decks. Most rainbow FG farming decks rely on heavy creature control and permanent usage. However, the main weakness with these decks (and generally with most large rainbow decks) is its slow and unreliable setup. In early stages of games against false gods, rainbow decks are often still trying to either draw key cards or get enough quanta while the false god has already summoned multiple creatures and then proceeds to quickly pound you into the ground.
  Scaredgirl has said herself that the sundial was:” The most crucial card", and rightfully so. Before its nerf, sundials were the perfect fix to the rainbow's weakness, allowing you cheap, absolute defense (no creatures attack for 2 turns at the cost of 1 or 0 quantum) and lets you draw 2 cards, thus giving rainbow decks fast, early defense and accelerated card draw leading to faster setup. Now, the nerf has not only cut its defense value in half (1 turn instead of 2) but also, sundials now give you no net gain in cards (since you only draw 1 card, you only gain back the card slot taken by the sundial card).
  Now that the sundial has become a mere shadow of its former glory, we need to move on and find another solution. But it won’t be easy, since most FG rainbow decks I’ve seen before version 1.17 had sundials. Although I won’t get into the issue as to whether rainbow decks should still contain sundials, I know that it is in our interest to find a solution to the rainbow deck’s once again, exposed weakness of slow and unstable card setup.
  Please reply with any comments to my rough analysis or potential solutions to this problem.

Um... thanks captn. obvious... I don't see a proposed solution though 

On a serious note, I think fg grinding rainbow used to be OP, now they are not, I like that... Getting ~55-60% win rate against all gods is still very much possible (see PuppyChow's or my deck), and high grinding efficiency can be gotten by focusing on particular gods rather than fighting every one....

 Also, rainbows are no longer "large".. most are <45 cards and can be drawn completely <20 turns... effectively, they are as "fast" (draw wise) as the 30 card speed decks, the only difference is that heavy hitters for rainbows come a little later than for the 30 card speed decks.

[thearchduke]

A possible solution I considered was congeal.  It's a cheap card that draws from a mostly unused element (water) and helps delay sometimes substantial damage from big creatures (like Seism's shriekers).  In combination with Trident, you may be able to get some traction by stopping a god's development early (with good draw).  I have been running this deck for a bit and I don't know if my results are any better than with sundials, but it's a little different and picks up a different feel than a sundial rainbow.

[Essence]

Two words: Arctic Squid.

[xiongwen8]

  Hmm, congealing is an interesting idea for stalling and creature control. Although it is true that rainbow decks lack water cards, false gods usually can summon many creatures quickly, so that for congealing to be effective, it has to be fast and plentiful.
  Although congeal spells are cheap, and can help with stalling false gods, they are not a long term solution since false gods will summon additional creatures and 6 congeals might not be enough.
  So, personally I think having congeal spell cards would just clog up your deck. However, arctic squids does sound like a better long term and compact solution. These 2 all have pros and cons (arctic squids are costly and vulnerable), so I think some proper testing should settle matters.

[ivalmian]

seriously.. congeal is not a solution, it affects one creature, and only for 4 turns, most fgs put more than 1 creature EVERY turn, as such, you would have to run a water oriented deck.......... solution is what i and puppychow did:

shields + quint for creatures + pa for permanents...

we know this works, because both of our decks work!

[Justsoneguy]

I use 6 sundials in my 31-card deck.  I've tried other deck builds but I always end up liking this the best as it's small and yields more reliable draws.

I haven't played recently so I don't know how it does vs. the new gods, but it gets me around 50%.  I stopped keeping stats of this deck after 80 games and that sample size is still too small so I'm not going to bother posting, but it won more games than lost.

DG, rainbow, hermes, graviton are very tough. I personally don't think it's worth the time and I instant quit vs these gods...unless I'm bored.

Seism can be tough especially without an early PA, same with an early pulv from obliterator (which happened the only two times I fought him with this deck).

The rest is very manageable or easy wins. 

[ivalmian]

I use 6 sundials in my 31-card deck.  I've tried other deck builds but I always end up liking this the best as it's small and yields more reliable draws.

I haven't played recently so I don't know how it does vs. the new gods, but it gets me around 50%.  I stopped keeping stats of this deck after 80 games and that sample size is still too small so I'm not going to bother posting, but it won more games than lost.

DG, rainbow, hermes, graviton are very tough. I personally don't think it's worth the time and I instant quit vs these gods...unless I'm bored.

Seism can be tough especially without an early PA, same with an early pulv from obliterator (which happened the only two times I fought him with this deck).

The rest is very manageable or easy wins.

why explode if you can steal?

[Justsoneguy]

What do I need to steal?  I only really need to get rid of weapons, and I rather have my eternity down and not wasted in my hand until the end.  Eternity can be useful (dare I say game changing potential).

Although I've lost a few games because I didn't keep track of my own time quanta and when I need it to not deck out...bummer