Weekly Featured Cards poll - Other

[Calindu]

Go heal!I know what to do with frogs.

[Metoropolice]

 forest spirit just pour water sure it will  grow 

[willng3]

Scary Kuro aside, go FROGS

[UTAlan]

Go Horned Frogs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_horned_lizard)! (<3 Texas)

[ddevans96]

Look on the biright side - at least we have 12 weeks to figure out what to do with antlions

Funny. I don't seem to recall you guys making any progress towards Antlion decks. 

If I wasn't stupid and Antlion had actually come in second like I thought, I'd thank you for proving what would have been my point.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Heal. As awesome and rushy as Frogs are, Heal is a nice and simple way of showing Life's not just about creatures.

[Kuroaitou]

Credits to pepokish for writing the ORIGINAL article - many of her paragraphs are still kept (relatively) the same in the Featured Article, but I added some new information, an intro/conclusion, and a few other refinements.

Overview
Despite a wide assortment of creatures to choose from, Horned Frog is one of the most iconic Life creatures due to its coveted ATK-cost ratio and overall offensive prowess.

General Use

• Both versions cost only 2 quanta for both the non-upped and upgraded versions.
• An adrenalined Horned Frog deals 1 more point of damage than an andrealined Giant Frog.
• A Frog’s HP makes it fairly vulnerable to creature control.

For 2 quanta, the Horned Frog (or Giant Frog) plays its part as one of the basic, low-cost, high-damage dealers within the Life element. At first glance, it may seem overshadowed by the slightly more durable Cockatrice, but further investigation into PvP and/or PvE grinding shows that this is not always the case.

Players may initially assume that because of its low HP, Horned Frog is a fairly frail creature highly susceptible to creature control (a Rain of Fire can take out an army of frogs). However, not all enemy decks are necessarily equipped with such creature control, and thus, Frog armies can usually deal decent damage to the opponent before dealing with shields or harmful spells. In addition, its cheap cost makes it viable in a variety of decks that primarily focus or partially splash quanta. Thus, its cost (cheaper than Cockatrice) expands its access to different deck archetypes.

Synergies
Combined with Adrenaline | Epinephrine, Horned Frogs can be quite deadly. Seldom should a frog go without Adrenaline, as it will essentially turn the amphibian into a dragon for half the usual quanta cost. With Adrenaline, the Horned Frog causes more damage (12 damage unupped, 11 damage upgraded) than the Emerald Dragon for only 5-6 quanta (while the Emerald Dragon costs 10). However, Adrenaline also gives the Horned Frog notable weaknesses. Because it causes the Frog to attack multiple times per turn, CC cards like Fire Buckler and Plague can destroy it. Conversely, Adrenaline can also help Frogs escape CC effects such as Freeze and Delay, and even chip away the various layers of a Bone Wall shield.

Despite its lack of health, the Horned Frog is a key card in most mono-Life Rush decks. In such decks, the Cockatrice | Elite Cockatrice can also serve alongside it for slightly more durable (and relatively quick) damage. In upgraded formats, both creatures can deal 5 damage upon attacking, making single-target CC futile against an army of fast attackers.

Additionally, its cheap cost to summon (2 quanta for both unupped and upped versions) allows it to be a great choice for creature-spam decks. Fractal | Fractal is an excellent card to use with Horned Frogs, as the critters can be played immediately in a turn given an abundance of quanta. Swarming the opponent with multiple Frogs will put the enemy on the defensive if they aren’t paying attention, and if they don’t have a way to mitigate or stop the damage outright, the Frogs can soften act as the killing blow.

Other Cards With Synergy
Frogs also work well with other Life cards, such as Emerald Dragons. The Dragons are able to take the place of an Adrenaline-affected Horned Frog when faced with high amounts of creature control. Mitosis can provide a slower, but equally troublesome creature generator for decks that may lack CC, especially if Empathic Bond is on the field to provide massive healing. Other defensive-oriented Life cards, such as Druidic Staff and Heal, compensate with healing over damage mitigation. Even in rainbow decks, Giant Frogs can provide a great source of damage (it only takes one Supernova for allow a Giant Frog onto the field).

Conclusion
Symbolizing the power of speed, Horned Frog and Giant Frog are indispensable when it comes down to the fast-damage in the Life element. Efficiency-wise, Frogs are one of the most used Life creatures and pack a decent punch for any -using player.

Popular Deck
Life Rush - (aka Ultimate Speed EM) (http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/decks/strategy/life-rush/)

by Kuroaitou

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

6rk 6rk 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ai 7ai 7ai 7ai 7ai 7ai 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pn

Other Decks

• All Hail Gl1tch! (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,6653.0.html)
• GAEM: Giant Amphibi'EM v2.0 (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,21620.0.html)
• Frogtal (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,3949.msg314930#msg314930)
• Frogs, and Epi's, and Swords, Oh My!!! (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,11285.0.html)

Fire polls are now up!

[furballdn]

Ash eater. Want to see it's article improved from "test test"

[Xenocidius]

Ash eater. Want to see it's article improved from "test test"

*Quickly edits*

I voted for Deflagration. It is the simplest and cheapest permanent control card in the game. Flexible, versatile and useful, this is one of Fire's most iconic cards, and I'm surprised it hasn't been featured yet.

[UTAlan]

I voted for Deflagration. It is the simplest and cheapest permanent control card in the game. Flexible, versatile and useful, this is one of Fire's most iconic cards, and I'm surprised it hasn't been featured yet.

This. Deflag is the obvious choice.

[Higurashi]

The two cards I find the most iconic -and- powerful for Fire are Phoenix and Fire Bolt. As Phoenix has been featured, Fire Bolt it is.

[nilsieboy]

rain of fire, my favorite mass cc card in the game.