What are the best all-around cards to upgrade?

[ginandtonic]

I know this is an open-ended question, but I'm hoping to generate discussion more than get hard and fast answers. 

I play a variety of decks and like to switch up the strategies pretty often so I'm more interested in upping the cards the benefit the most from the upgrades, or that can be used in a wide variety of decks.  I have a few hundred upgraded cards already and I'm sitting on enough electrum to up 10 more cards right now.

My instincts tell me that pillars and pendulums and novas are the best all-around to upgrade.  So I'm leaning towards trying to up an equal number of pillars & pendulums for each element.

But some creatures (flesh recluse, horned toad, etc) get some pretty major increases/cost of casting.  Others (puffer fish) change their skill. 

Of course, weapons being upgraded might be more potent than upgrading creatures, but only to a point since there is only a single slot (or requiring flying weapons...which itself often needs upgrading to be most useful).

Maybe there are categories, like creature control (basilisk blood, freeze, lightning bolt and the rest of them) that are more useful upgraded than, say, creatures.   Or shards, perhaps?

So...what (individual or classes of) cards benefit the most from upgrading? 

[kaempfer13]

Well, first I would upgrade my farming deck if I were you; Generally often used cards that also benefit a lot from upgrading are Hourglasses, Supernovas and sundials. It depends a lot on your play style though which upgrades are relevant to you. Which decks are you running or intending to run?

[ginandtonic]

Yes, Hourglasses are in the top list of upgraded cards, as well as Supernovas, I agree.  Sundials are on  the fence for me as I just as often use my unupped to avoid the mulligan as I do the upped version.

This makes me wonder if cards whose skill/activation cost are lowered, like Hourglass, or Pulverizer, or (its a stretch) Artic Squid, are better to upgrade than the cards which only have a one-time casting-cost reduction, since the activation cost-lowering-benefit can be applied many times per game...

Certainly upgrading one's most-often-played ('farming') is a good strategy, but I am more interested in cards on their own. 

For instance, I can say with great conviction that upgrading the Rustler is going to be at the bottom of my list, while upgrading Plague (4 casting cost -> 2 casting cost!!!) can be quite beneficial and allows it to go from a death-only card to fitting into a rainbow that can be cast after only a single supernova...definitely a large improvement.

While upgrading most of the dragons actually makes them cost a bit more to use which pretty much presupposes the upgrading of that element's pillars and pendulums.

[Pella]

The best all-around cards to upgrade are the cards that almost every deck needs.  Obviously, I'm talking about Pillars and Pendulums.

There's nothing sexy or exciting about upgrading a Pillar to a Tower, especially if you decide to do 24 of them in a row.  For versatility, though, they can't be beat.  Generating quanta when you play a quanta source often allows you to play other cards in the same turn.  Regardless of what the card is, the value of playing it one turn sooner cannot be overstated.  Though the difference seems small, playing an important card one turn sooner has saved my bacon more times than I'd like to admit. 

Which of the 25 varieties of Pillars and Pendulums should you upgrade first?  Whichever ones are in your favourite deck, or the deck you use most.  After that, upgrade quanta sources for decks you want to build, and go from there.

[BeefSupreme]

Chaos Seed --> Chaos Power
The card completely changes its ability and it has the potential to be an amazing card.

[bripod]

Pella said it best... "nothing sexy about (it)..."  You can't play what you don't have Quanta for... a few Quanta Towers are always good too...

[ginandtonic]

So, if we were to round out the top ten:

Quantum Pillars
Pillars
Pendulums
Nova>Supernova -- case by case basis

Pandemonium -- changes targets
Chaos Seed>Chaos Power -- different card
Mutation>Improved Mutation -- mostly a much better card
Flying Weapon>Animate Weapon -- card no longer costs particular element
Fallen Elf>Fallen Druid -- changes skill
Lightning>Thunder Bolt -- Highest damage per cost reduction


A lot of 2 cost>1 cost cards (momentum, lightning bolt, rewind, basilisk blood, freeze, etc) could be argued for because they can then be added to a rainbow deck in multiples.

[Pella]

I agree wholeheartedly with your top 4.  There is absolutely no question that those are the most versatile cards in the game, and upgrading them should be a high priority for every player.

I agree that your 5-10 are powerful upgrades, and I agree with your reasons.  From the data available to me, those probably are the best choices to round out YOUR "top ten".  Another player thinks it would be really fun to build [any 3-5 decks that don't use those six cards].  Even though the other player agrees with your assessment of the versatility of those six cards, he/she rounds out her/his "top ten" by prioritizing the cards needed for the decks wanted.  Of course, players who have no specific decks in mind might as well use your entire list, since those cards do change the game significantly when upgraded.  That's why I phrased the following statement the way I did.

Which of the 25 varieties of Pillars and Pendulums should you upgrade first?  Whichever ones are in your favourite deck, or the deck you use most.  After that, upgrade quanta sources for decks you want to build, and go from there.

TL;DR The "top 4" probably are the best all-around cards in the game.  In most cases, the rest of the "top 10" should be selected based on each player's deckbuilding priorities, if they exist.

[ginandtonic]

Give me more!! I could determine my own top cards. But what are the objective best cards to upgrade?

[Drake_XIV]

Specifically Entropy Pendulums, as they help get SNova out.

Other than that, I wouldn't really prioritize upgrading Pillars and Pendulums besides Quantum Pillar.  Compared to what else is on the list, that is.

[treebeard xiii]

You want my opinion here goes my top ten

nova
quantum pillar
hourglass
elf
photon
graboid
entropy pends(dependent on wht you want to build) or your favourite decks quanta
gnome finder
dragonfly
phoenix

The bottom three are personal preference I like free critters as the open up slightly different decck options, phoenix the price reduction is massive an minor phoenixes work wonders in immobows or bows that don't use lave golem, grabbies there because i like a good grabbow but again personal preference, Photons becaus rols are helpful little guys, elf because improve is tonnes better than mutate and top three are givens I'm sure nearly eryone would agree with the up priority.

[Regyptic]

I think it depends on what you're asking. If you're looking for which cards benefit most from being upgraded then the answers already given cover it (although I might add Short Sword. Long Sword is a lot better).

If you want to expand the number of different decks you can build then I'd say the top priorities are things like Nova, Chaos Power, Photon, Flying Weapon and Sundial. The first 3 of these allow some new strategies when upgraded (eg Supernova bows, Chaos Wyrms and RoL/Hope) and the last 2 allow them to be used without specific quanta meaning they're available in more decks (eg Poison Dials). Of course there are a lot good options.

I think it's also worth considering what cards you can/can't win from False Gods (See this list). If you're gong to be fighting False Gods then it might not be worth upgrading, say, Drain Life, as once you've beaten Decay/Jezebel a few times you'll already have won a few Siphon Lifes from them.