Weekly Featured Cards poll - Other

[Kuroaitou]

Mind Gate article now up! Also, please vote for your featured Entropy card ~ (for the New Year! )

Quick Facts:

    * The use of Duality (Mindgate’s skill) costs 2 to use, and can be used once per turn
    * Mindgate only generates copies of the opponent’s next card in your hand, and cannot be used if you have a full hand
    * Cards that you copy via Mindgate do not disappear from the opponent’s deck (they will still draw the copied card the following turn, excluding certain effects)

Use This Card Together With:

    * Eternity | Eternity
    * Dimensional Shield | Phase Shield
    * Nova | Supernova

Decks Using This Card:

    * Mind Riot
    * Mirage Deck
    * The Neutralizer

There are numerous cards in the game that allow a player to effectively steal and/or copy cards from the opponent’s field. Only one, however, allows them to take cards directly from their deck: Mindgate.

Mindgate is an Aether permanent (5 unupped, 4 upgraded) that, when used, allows the player to basically generate the opponent’s next drawn card. Mindgate’s ability, Duality, can be used only once per turn. Duality costs 2 for both card versions, but it does not steal the card from your opponent’s deck – it only adds a copy to your hand, meaning that your opponent will still draw that card the following turn (excluding a few counters). Note that Duality’s effect is useless if the opponent has no cards left in their deck, or if you have a full hand.

However, the usage of Mindgate can allow the player to outmaneuver their opponent as they can figure out how to counter upcoming cards (or even play them) to deny certain strategies. For example, assuming a player with Mindgate has generated enough quanta by duplicating the opponent’s pillars, they can counter the effects of Steal by using the duplicated Steal card on their own stolen permanent. A duplicated Antimatter via Mindgate can help reverse the debuff effect immediately if it’s played on one of your creatures. Even a duplicated Gravity Pull can be used to redirect damage from one of your creatures to another (assuming it’s still alive by the end of your opponent’s turn). Many other cards can be copied to give the player another way of effectively negating the use of certain control cards, including various creatures.

From the last statement, the power of Eternity becomes wonderful to use in combination with Mindgate. Since Eternity places a target creature back into the owner’s deck (as the next drawn card), one could use Eternity’s ability to rewind certain creatures to either Mindgate them (making it an alternative copying effect to Twin Universe). The other tactic is to use Mindgate before rewinding a creature, allowing one to gain another type of card rather than the creature (which can be useful if it’s something involving permanent or creature control). One could also achieve a similar effect by using Nightmare on any non-playable creature (allowing them to be unable to draw their next card), but in either case, both of these tactics don’t work as well against those who have increased drawing techniques (Hourglasses).

Dimensional Shield becomes another great candidate for synergy with Mindgate. Against opponents who lack permanent control, having a Dimensional Shield can allow a player to stall and deny all creature damage dealt to them while they continue copying the opponent’s deck – the fact that they both cost moderate amounts of quanta also makes it viable strategy in Mono-Aether decks. However, because Mono-Aether decks are generally limited in outside quanta generation (compared to Immolation), Dimensional Shields can also provide additional turns to hopefully draw the opponent’s pillars or pendulums for non- quanta generation.

To counter the situation above, Nova (or specifically Supernova) assists with Mindgate’s quanta issues. Depending on the opponent’s deck and variety in cards, Supernova greatly eases the problems of having a certain quanta type to play the creature, permanent, or spell that was copied from Mindgate. In various rainbow decks, Supernova is a favorite for fast quanta generation to play as many different card types as possible, and with Mindgate, one could turn the opponent’s own deck against them fairly quickly without waiting turns for pillars and pendulums to trigger.

All in all, Mindgate is one-of-a-kind (for the time being); while many other cards from Aether and other elements allow one to technically take and copy cards from the opponent’s field, Mindgate goes beyond and duplicates cards from the opponent’s deck, making it a versatile card to counter the enemy with their own cards. Aside from permanent control, one should think carefully when facing an opposing Mindgate – depending on what card you draw next, your opponent might have the same (dis)advantage…

[nilsieboy]

i'd love to see an article about discord, look what it did this war

[icecoldbro]

nova- snova for me, base of an incredible amount of rainbows, one of the most OP cards and so much fun to use

[PlayerOa]

Nova have fewer votes than I thought.
Whatever, I voted Nova/SNova

[Kuroaitou]

Ooof... holidays are quite stressful. ^^;; Here's the article for Discord:



Discord (the rare weapon for Entropy) is both a fascinating and frustrating weapon to see on the field. For 3 quanta, Discord will not only deal damage to the opponent, but will also disrupt the opponent’s quanta pools, redistributing quanta from one element to another.

Discord is an incredible weapon to use against various decks that have limited quanta generation techniques, and is especially effective against mono or duo decks (ones that require only 1-2 specific types of quanta to function correctly). Upon dealing damage to the opponent, Discord will potentially affect up to 10 random quanta and reallocate them to other elements, acting as a form of denial. Mono and duo decks can be heavily interrupted in playing cards due to a lack of their main quanta resource, as Discord will often times remove their most important quanta type. In rainbow decks (where all or most of the elements are used), especially ones that use Supernova, Discord has a much less noticeable effect, as the quanta spread is generally unaffected by Discord (in a few cases, it might help the opponent). Regardless of whatever deck one goes up against, an early Discord on the battlefield is generally more effective than one in the later part of the game, as the quanta scrambling effect is weakened when the opponent has more quanta.

The best cards to combine with Discord in a deck are ones that also disrupt your opponent’s quanta. Black Hole definitely carries the most synergy with Discord, because it removes scrambled quanta and keeps your opponent’s main elemental quantum supply low, allowing Discord to continue its punishment. Given enough Black Holes, one could swing a battle due to the quanta destruction and healing provided from the alchemy spell – having a Gravity Nymph alongside multiple flown Discords, for example, could shut your opponent out of playing any cards due to pure quanta denial.

Earthquake is another great card with Discord. Given the limited amount of pillars or pendulums in some decks, being able to both destroy multiple pillars as well as scrambling the leftover resources can aggravate many players. Of course, this strategy doesn’t work as well if they use creatures or spells (Cremation or Firefly spam, for example) to generate the quanta they need.

Lastly, Devourers and Discords improve the synergy between Darkness and Entropy cards. While Discord scrambles, Devourers (or the upgraded Pests) will slowly absorb the remaining quanta, fueling you with quanta while depriving the opponent of theirs. Although this strategy can be fairly risky to pull off (as Devourers are relatively frail and may not absorb the right quanta to deny your opponent), this card combo can help you play some of the most expensive cards revolving around and quanta, including the two alchemy cards, Liquid Shadow and Antimatter.

It’s important to note that Discord does have counters aside from rainbow decks. Since it’s a weapon, various shields (Bone Wall, Wings, etc.) can block the damage that Discord deals, preventing its Scrambling ability. Permanent control such as Deflagration is often brutal against Discord; since Deflagration only costs 2 (1 upped), trying to remove the entire opponent’s quanta to avoid that result is difficult and fairly unreliable. If you’re using a mono-Entropy deck with Discord, having it stolen and used against you can be equally detrimental. Even when a Discord is turned into a creature via Flying Weapon, its stats (3 HP and 4 (6 upgraded) attack) make it prone to practically every form of damaging creature control available, including the Maxwell Demon’s Paradox ability. In very rare situations, certain opponents may actually benefit from Discord to exchange quanta to give them access to off-element abilities of cards. Using a Discord against Seism, for example, may allow him to use the Pulverizer’s “Shatter” ability against your permanents, which normally doesn’t occur because he cannot generate . Because of this, Discord isn’t used as often in False God decks (for that reason, and for the fact that they generate too much quanta to Scramble usually).

Some players see it as an incredibly dangerous (but unstable) weapon, while others perceive it as a minor nuisance. With these issues and tips in mind, one must always be wary about what type of deck one faces with Discord, as the deck will generally determine its effectiveness.

Quick Facts:
Discord will scramble up to 10 random quanta from the opponent’s pools, meaning that their quanta can be random placed into other elements
Discord’s Scramble ability requires a direct hit in order for it to take effect
Generally has a lesser effect the more quanta the opponent has

Use This Card Together With:
Black Hole | Black Hole
Earthquake | Quicksand
Devourer | Pest

Decks Using This Card:
Dis-Chargers Revisted: Drag-ords (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,8895.0.html)
Entropy/Earth Quanta Control (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,5902.0.html)
Pesty Lycans with Scrambling Daggers! (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,15956.0.html)

Death polls will be up soon once the article is posted on the wiki.

Death polls are NOW up!

...also, new cards will -not- be in the polls until Janurary 21st, according to this post: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,17535.msg245485#msg245485

[smuglapse]

Good article.

Small suggestion:

Regardless of whatever deck one goes up against, an early Discord on the battlefield is generally more effective than one in the later part of the game, as the quanta scrambling effect is weakened when the opponent has more quanta.

To some one new to the game, I think the word 'weaken' may be construed as the mechanic changing somehow due to more quanta in play.  I would suggest changing to 'less noticeable', or 'not as important'.


I pick Mummy for Death.  Soul Catcher needs more play before voting for the high cost Death cards.

[EvaRia]

Arsenic, it's just so great to have in a large variety of decks.

[Ant-n-ero]

Poison, By-passes all shields instantly, it's like momentum, but you don't need a creature too, so there is NO CC to stop it, just a single effect (purify) which is quite rare imo...

[PlayerOa]

Poison, the signature card of

[Higurashi]

Deathstalker, the most fun card of Death. Poison is quite superior, but this baby is a lot more fun.

[Bloodthorn]

Deathstalker, simply because with a CP its an arsenic on roids.

[nilsieboy]

poison, if i think of death i think of poison