Weekly Featured Cards poll - Other

[Time_lord_victorius]

i voted for trident because it need to be shown as a card that needs to be reworked

Nothing wrong with Trident if used right!

i still think it's UP

[johannhowitzer]

Trident is extremely powerful against opponents who rely heavily on renewable or slow quanta: mono-Aether, Dissipation shields, any deck that relies on quantum pillars, Earth/Miracle stalls, Fractal decks, Bolt sudden-killers, fat Time decks.  It is powerful enough to be useful against most other pillar-based decks, provided you draw it early.  Earth decks can run it off Water mark alone.

Its weaknesses are decks that use low-cost cards, decks with burst quantum sources like Immolation, pillarless decks, and of course, cheap permanent destruction unless you pack Enchant Artifact.  Immolation/Nova decks being so popular, Trident does see very limited use in some areas, but I'm of the opinion that it's grossly underrated.

[Higurashi]

I've seen it in action a lot. It's not as bad as most would claim, perhaps, but it's still very inferior to EQ. Very rare are the situations where you need renewable EQ, so it mostly sees use in restricted deck-building like War. It's not as powerful against quanta-heavy decks as one might think, since it takes two kinds of quanta and an additional turn to be used compared to EQ. Monoaether, for instance, can pummel a Trident deck to death before the denial hurts.

[Kuroaitou]

Here you poison lovers~ the article for Toadfish is now done.

Overview
As one of the few cards that have a completely different mechanic while upgraded, Toadfish provides creature control in the form of Inflate. However its upped form, Puffer Fish, applies that poison onto the player via Venom. Because of the differing mechanics between the two creatures, they are hardly used together (non-upped and upped) within the same deck.

General Use

• The abilities for both Toadfish and its upped version, Puffer Fish are completely different.
• Toadfish’s ability, Inflate, poisons a creature for 1 damage per turn when activated.
• Puffer Fish’s ability, Venom, deals poison damage to the opponent when it successfully attacks the opponent.
• Both Toadfish and Puffer Fish are Poisonous.

Toadfish and Puffer Fish have one central theme in common; poison. Despite their similar costs (5 quanta) and stats, their mechanics of utilizing that poison are completely different from one another. The Toadfish can shoot a nasty barb at a creature (Inflate) with one poison counter provided a little quanta, which often serves as a slow but nifty form of CC for the Water element. Puffer Fish instead ignores dealing with creatures, and applies the poison directly to the player upon a successful attack (i.e. – an attack does damage, including ‘negative’ damage).

In the Toadfish’s case, while it may not accumulate poison onto the player directly, it can still serve as a monitor for the enemy’s creatures if they aren’t paying attention. Given the synergy between Air and Water cards, the Inflate skill can often be used repeatedly over the course of a battle to wither the majority of the opponent’s creatures down. Its HP is only one less than the Puffer Fish, making it fairly durable against several AOE CC effects, and its ATK is double that of the upped version, making it a very strong mid-range attacker.

For the Puffer Fish though, many cards that involve dealing poison damage to the opponent work better with it. Its HP can survive a Shockwave, and its damage (while only half of its counterpart) is more lethal in the long run, as the poison damage can stack up pretty quickly against non-shield-wielding enemies. While the major loss of ATK and bare increase in HP seems like a terrible tradeoff, the Puffer Fish’s skill is not only deadlier, but also non-reliant on any element to work (i.e. – Inflate requires , while Venom can be used in any deck).

Regardless of which version of this creature is used, both of them are considered poisonous, making them somewhat resistant towards devour-based creatures such as Otyugh and Scarab, and other mutants with the Devour ability.


Synergies
Because the Toadfish has a fairly slow CC effect, cards that often ‘stun’ or stop the creature from attacking (while being dealt poison damage) pair up well. The Arctic Squid | Arctic Octopus is another Water creature with the capacity to Freeze (or Congeal) enemy creatures for 3-4 turns. While the creatures are still frozen, they are still vulnerable to targeting effects, and thus, a Toadfish can slowly infect the creatures while the Squid can refreeze them for a continuous lockdown. In upped environments, Puffer Fish cannot serve the same CC effect, so the Squids can help lock down nasty creature abilities while the Puffer Fish deal the damage to the enemy.

Shockwave | Shockwave also works well with the Toadfish and Pufferfish creatures, alongside Water’s arsenal of freezing techniques. Shockwave can deal instant damage against creatures that have relatively low HP (or lowered via Toadfish), to deliver a killing blow easier. Also, depending on how many cards are capable of freezing enemy creatures (or the enemy’s weapon!), Shockwave can instantly destroy such cards in a single stroke. Shockwave is a cheap card that helps reinforce the Water-Air synergy in various duos, and shouldn’t be ignored if you use Toadfishes of Puffer Fish exclusively.

Finally, Chrysaora | Physalia is wonderful to add if the deck is focused mostly on poison techniques. While the combination of three elements may be hard to pull off (, , ), using the upped versions of these cards can create a very annoying but fun duo-Water/Death deck (from the Puffer Fish and Physalia). In most cases, Physalia can act as support damage while the Toadfish (or Puffer Fish) becomes the main star in dealing damage.


Other Cards With Synergy
The other two Water spells, Freeze & Ice Bolt can serve as alternate ways to stall your opponent’s creatures on the field, and are great when used with any of the above aforementioned cards as well. Adrenaline can be fairly beneficial on the Puffer Fish, which can help it deal 12 raw damage and apply 2 poison counters during its attack (unless certain shields are up). Ice Shield can be a great defensive counter towards creatures with moderate ATK & HP for your Toadfish to take down, while Owl’s Eye can act as the offensive counterpart. Finally, it’s important to note that Toadfish can actually apply its poison ability directly to the enemy via the use of a Voodoo Doll, although this combo is extremely rare in game.

Conclusion
All in all, Toadfish and Puffer Fish are two unique sides of the same coin. Poison the creature, or the player? No matter how that last question is answered, players should always remember the strengths and weaknesses of the version they’re using.
Popular Deck
Arctic Infection (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,10302.0.html)

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Other Decks

• Flowing Reflection (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,21448.0.html)
• Speed Nymphs (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,13524.0.html)

Let there be light.

[Higurashi]

Hm.. Luci has the most strategical options. Stuff like Deja Hope, Monolight stall and even any deck with vanilla creatures (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,24811.msg339574#msg339574) is not yet entirely expected in PvP, and surprisingly powerful. :>

[Time_lord_victorius]

cmon on pêople, show morning glory some love!!!

[Jappert]

I simply love Pegasi and Wyrms. Love those air/light rush combinations and utilizing buffs like blessing to beyond their full potential. Especially with the newly released Sky Blitz, they're awesome! Bless + Dive + Blitz....

Pegasus get's my vote!

[coinich]

Gonna have to go for Miracle.  No other card has defined Light's card-supply for so long.  Especially in the days of the old Heal, only Miracle could rival and potentially beat Shards for sheer practical healing power.

[PlayerOa]

Angel is a card that needs some love (although UP).
Voted for it, I think it's an interesting card

[ddevans96]

• Flowing Reflection (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,21448.0.html)

As for this month, I basically agree with Higs - Luci is a fun little card that no one ever expects, and since the buff it's been placed in a few different PvP decks. +1 from me.

[TheForbiddenOracle]

Tough choices... in the end it was down to Archangel or Pegasus, which after thinking very closely I chose Archangel

[Raptor6789]

From now on, is it possible to automatically feature cards that are newly released?