Very nice work Miniwally; I hope you don't mind if I 'expand' on your article a little more. ^^;
I skipped the 'exploit' with Eclipse/Nightfall, because I think it's more of an advanced Easter Egg trick that will hardly come up in comparison to the information below.
As a form of tactical creature control and healing, Antimatter is another impressive alchemy card that turns your opponent’s creatures against them. When used on a creature, Antimatter inverts the creature’s attack power value. Thus, they deal a negative amount of damage; in other words, the creature restores health upon attacking.
When Antimatter is played on a targeted creature, its attack value will become negative; just as how a creature with 10 attack power takes 10 health away from you (disregarding shields and other variables), a creature with –10 attack power takes –10 damage to you (or gives 10 health to you). Unlike traditional healing spells that simply heal you upon being used, Antimatter only works when the creature attempts to attack. In this case, Entropy has its own form of healing reliant on the opponent’s forces. If the creature cannot be targeted though (burrowed, immaterial, immortalized), then Antimatter will be ineffective as a form of soft creature control. By the phrase ‘soft creature control’, the creature is not killed per se, but it can be rendered practically useless in dealing damage.
Antimatter is a very costly spell in comparison to the other alchemy spell equivalents. In its non-upped form, it costs a total of 8
quanta, which is a very expensive (but still potent) card to use effectively. Upgraded it only costs 6
quanta; despite its cost, it’s still a very handy card to have for burst healing.
Because Antimatter’s healing effect is dependent on the creature itself, there are various counters to undo the negative healing aspect. Aside from killing the creature outright, using Reverse Time and playing the creature again will remove the negative attack value and restore the monster to its original stats. Using Antimatter twice on a creature turns the attack positive as well (so Antimatter can be used to counter itself). Certain stat-buffing spells such as Blessing, Rage Potion, and Chaos Power can partially boost the attack power into a positive value. Similarly, creatures with attack-power boosting abilities (Graviton Firemaster’s Ablaze, Forest Specters Growth, etc.) can slowly overcome the negative attack value deficient as long as they can use their ability. Other special attack bonus (Flying weapons: Gavel, Long Bow, and the ‘Fiery’ effect from Fahrenheit) will automatically add an additional attack value reducing the amount of healing done. Finally, creatures with Dive can initially double their negative value upon use, but will return to their normal attack value after diving (e.g. a worm with –4 attack will dive to –8, but then return to its original value of 4). Thus, lobotomizing or immortalizing the creature after using Antimatter will make it much harder for the player to undo the negative healing.
Creatures that have been afflicted with Antimatter will hit past a lot of shields without damage reduction or bad effects happening to the creature, making the card even more potent. However, a few shields can also block creatures with a negative attack value, which may make them somewhat useless when combined with Antimatter in a deck: Gravity Shield, Wings, and Phase Shield. If they don’t usually affect the creature, then they’ll still pass them (e.g. an airborne creature will still pass Wings). Sundials also prevent creatures from attacking, which can reduce the amount of healing you receive.
Nonetheless, several alchemy cards have incredible synergy with Antimatter. Liquid Shadow, for example, grants a creature the ability vampire, which would normally cause the creature to heal its owner based on the damage it dealt. However, when combined with Antimatter, the creature instead heals the opponent while dealing damage to its owner. Since Liquid Shadow also grants an active ability, it also removes its previous skill, thus making creatures with stat boosting abilities unable to undo the negative healing aspect. Adrenaline also combos well; depending on the creature’s attack, you may be healed for several more times the amount as Adrenaline adds additional attacks.
Another interesting effect of Antimatter is its combination with Butterfly Effect. As Butterfly effect bestows a creature with less than 3 attack power with the ability, Destroy, using Antimatter on a creature will always allow it to be targeted by that spell. Upon using Antimatter again on the creature to restore it back to a positive value, creatures that can deal high amounts of damage (like Dragons) can be bestowed with another powerful ability (Destroy), making it quite a dangerous creature to deal with. Of course, this combination requires several cards to work correctly, but can be useful in a variety of situations. The Twins Butterfly FG deck exercises this strategy effectively.
The last important facet of this card is its effect on the A.I. The majority of A.I. (including some False Gods) may avoid using crowd control spells on creatures affected by Antimatter because they see it as a beneficial creature. Thus, using Antimatter on your own (weak) creatures can serve as a temporary creature protection against A.I. opponents.
Quick Facts:
-Antimatter inverts the attack power of the creature (makes the attack negative). Negative damage is translated as healing.
-The healing only occurs when the creature makes a successful attack.
-When Vampires or creatures with the ability ‘Vampire’ are affected by Antimatter, they also damage the opponent
Use This Card Together With:
-Liquid Shadow
-Adrenaline
-Butterfly Effect
Decks Using This Card:
-CC? Why Bother?
-Twins Butterfly
-ESco the Half-Blood Killer
