Weekly Featured Cards poll - Light

[Korugar]

Well, which one is it, buffed or nerfed?

[Bloodshadow]

I think quicksand and black hole should be either buffed or nerfed. It just doesn't feel like its a good card right now

What? EQ and BH are powerful enough. They don't need to be buffed.

[Bloodshadow]

Writing the analysis of Earthquake. I haven't done this in a while, so I hope my writing skills aren't rusty. And this is gonna be a pretty short article, since the card is not that complex.

Earthquake | Quicksand

Earthquake is a powerful permanent control and quanta denial spell that instantly destroys up to three pillars your opponent controls. When used properly, Earthquake can completely shut down your opponent's deck, depriving him of his quanta source and preventing him from playing any more cards.

In the game, the same type of pillars/pendulums will always occupy a single permanent slot, to prevent cluttering your field. For example, if you have 15 Water Pillars, all of them would be gathered into a single stack. When you target a pillar stack with Earthquake, three pillars in that stack are destroyed. The powerful aspect of Earthquake is that with one card, you can destroy up to three of your opponent's cards. Theoretically, 6 copies of Earthquake in your deck can destroy 18 of your opponent's pillars, and most decks don't even carry that many; if your deck is built around this card, then you can often strip your opponent pillarless, and usually they can hardly do anything to stop you.

While powerful by itself, Earthquake can be absolutely devastating when combined with other cards. A very popular deck is the Time-Earth Shrieker Rush, with Earthquake and Reverse Time added for control: destroy your opponent's pillars, and Rewind his creatures so he'll no longer have the quanta to play them, then mow him down with your powerful Shriekers. Another powerful deck is the Darkness-Earth Denial, which uses Earthquakes to destroy your opponent's pillars, then summons Devourers to suck up his remaining quanta and lock him down. Earthquake is cheap enough to be fueled only by a couple of pendulums unupgraded, and when upgraded it can be splashed in with just an Earth Mark; this makes Earthquake a versatile card that can fit in many decks.

Just like any other card in the game, Earthquake is not invincible. There are indeed ways to counter Earthquake, ways that may not seem obvious when you first think about it. The most obvious answer is using a deck without pillars, with all your quanta generated by Nova, Immolation, or quanta-generating creatures. Another way is to put an Enchant Artifact card in your deck, and use it on your pillar stack; one use of the card renders your entire stack invulnerable to destruction, so you won't have to worry about it being targeted by Earthquake. A third method is to have multiple stacks of pillars, since Earthquake can only target one stack at a time; regular/upgraded pillars and pendulums all count as different stacks, so splitting your resources over several stacks can at least slow down your opponent. Lastly, if you know for sure that your opponent is playing an Earthquake denial deck, you can simply hold back your pillars, and play them one at a time, so he'll only be able to destroy one pillar per Earthquake. This strategy is frequently used against the False God Seism, whose deck focuses very heavily on quanta denial.

Quick Facts:
- Earthquake can destroy up to three pillars or pendulums in the targeted stack.
- Earthquake only affects one stack, so it cannot destroy pillars in two or more different stacks.

Synergies:
- Devourer | Pest
- Reverse Time | Rewind
- Graboid | Elite Graboid

Decks:
- Shrieker Rush
- Dark-Earth Denial
- The Shutdown

Please tell me if I made any mistakes, or if I need to add anything.

[Nume]

It looks good to me. I think you covered pretty much all the common uses of earthquake that I can think of, and I dont really see any other mistakes.

[Kuroaitou]

You're back! ^_^

(I was sort of planning to write the Earthquake article, but... I couldn't really come up with much. Of course, not every article has to be over 600+ words in order to be of adequate analysis. XD)

The only thing that you should change are aesthetic; you should change 'Synergies' to 'Use This Card Together With:' to match the other Featured Card articles in the past, and likewise, also change the 'Decks' to 'Decks Using This Card:'. Of course, that's just nit-picking. I don't see anything wrong with the content itself, so it sounds good to go.

[chum3]

Your writing skills don't seem rusty. Like you said, it's a straight-forward card.

Earthquake is a powerful permanent control and quanta denial spell that instantly destroys up to three pillars your opponent controls.

Technically, you can target your own stack of pillars. Of course, you'd be pretty loony to do so, but that bit should probably be replaced with "up to three pillars of your choice" to include that fact.

Also, I'd definitely add "Black Hole | Black Hole" to your "Use This Card Together With" list. It doesn't obey the "list of threes," but not all lists have to be three items long.

[Bloodshadow]

You're back! ^_^

I may be back this time, but don't get your hopes up. You probably still have to write most of the articles for the next three months or so.

The only thing that you should change are aesthetic; you should change 'Synergies' to 'Use This Card Together With:' to match the other Featured Card articles in the past, and likewise, also change the 'Decks' to 'Decks Using This Card:'.

I know, I know. I'm just typing "synergies" and "decks" because the article isn't in the wiki yet. I'll change them accordingly when I actually put the article there.

Technically, you can target your own stack of pillars. Of course, you'd be pretty loony to do so, but that bit should probably be replaced with "up to three pillars of your choice" to include that fact.

Well, it doesn't really matter if the reader knows that he can target his own pillars. Heck, he's probably better off not knowing. I don't really think I need to change that bit.

Also, I'd definitely add "Black Hole | Black Hole" to your "Use This Card Together With" list.

Black Hole only really works well against rainbow decks. I wouldn't put it on the top three synergies list, since BH isn't much help if all it did was suck up three quanta from your opponent.

[Kuroaitou]

I may be back this time, but don't get your hopes up. You probably still have to write most of the articles for the next three months or so.

Oh poo. Guess I better make sure that my Word doesn't crash for these next few months then. ^^;

I know, I know. I'm just typing "synergies" and "decks" because the article isn't in the wiki yet. I'll change them accordingly when I actually put the article there.

  ...about that. I uh, kind of beat you to the punch: http://elementswiki.co.cc/cards-earth/earthquake-quicksand/

Sorry. ^^;

[chum3]

Also, I'd definitely add "Black Hole | Black Hole" to your "Use This Card Together With" list.

Black Hole only really works well against rainbow decks. I wouldn't put it on the top three synergies list, since BH isn't much help if all it did was suck up three quanta from your opponent.

Like I said, you don't have to list things in threes (it just happens to be a very comfortable number for a list, which is why it's favored in communication). BH would probably suck more more than 3 quanta (most decks aren't mono), and you also mention a deck that uses both BH and Earthquake (you don't talk about that deck in your article either). BH also lists Earthquake as a card to use it with on its page, so I see no reason to leave it off the list.

[Bloodshadow]

Meh, for the sake of consistency, I'd just put the three best choices up there. And personally, I don't think BH is one of the top three choices to use with EQ.

...about that. I uh, kind of beat you to the punch: http://elementswiki.co.cc/cards-earth/earthquake-quicksand/

Sorry. ^^;

It's OK, you saved me some time anyways

The new poll is up.

We almost completely abandoned the original time schedule anyways, so I'm just gonna leave the poll up till next Monday or something. Screw the time schedule, we're "flexible", right?

[Kuroaitou]

It's OK, you saved me some time anyways

The new poll is up.

We almost completely abandoned the original time schedule anyways, so I'm just gonna leave the poll up till next Monday or something. Screw the time schedule, we're "flexible", right?

Meh, why not? The main goal of this project anyway is to have all ~163 (if I counted correctly >_>) articles done sooner or later for all of the elements (the Pendulums and Pillars will get a very static analysis). This way, all of the spells, creatures, and permanents with cool effects can all give out some nice little bits that everyone might not think about. ^^;

[DrunkDestroyer]

Rustler or Druidic Staff.

However, all I can think of are flying adrenalined staves, so I'm going to go with Rustler, as it works very well with luciferen, and its upgraded art is possibly the best in the game.