16
« on: January 15, 2010, 11:44:04 pm »
Scaredgirl, thank you very much for posting this decklist/strategy.
I started playing a couple weeks ago and tried several decks (Gravity with earth or fire, Firefly Queen/Empathic Bond, Mono-Aether), and they all beat level 3, did poorly against top50 or level 5 (~25-33% win), and couldnt beat the false gods. Very difficult to get any upgrades that way.
I put together a version of this deck (all unupgraded), and started beating some of the false gods right away. (Some destroy me, but enough are winnable to make it worth it, which should be the goal at first).
I dont have eternity so I am playing 15 more cards. (I really need to get an eternity!)
Here are my thoughts for new players on what to upgrade first:
The #1 card to upgrade first should be Otyugh. He can kill a lot more when he starts at 5 than 3, allowing him to grow bigger.
I actually started out by upgrading 4 Otyughs. For a 55 card deck without Eternity, creature control is the #1 issue. For a 40 card deck with Eternity, I would go with the standard 2 Otyughs. (Thats 3 good creature control cards in 40 cards, 4 in 54).
The second card I upgraded was actually Supernova. My biggest problem with this deck is speed. I have the answers in my hand but no quantums to cast them. Dying with dissipation shield in hand, or bonewall + rain of fire, is very annoying. So is not being able to play Oteugh soon enough to get it going. QUantum Pillars/Towers arent all that reliable at giving you the right quantums for your answer in the early game. Sometimes youll get the wrong ones. With Supernova, all you need is 2 chaos, and then you get +2 of everything.
I was using Novas in my 55 card version, and upgraded them next. I found this speedup even more important than upgrading Hourglasses! (Note: Upgraded hourglass might be more important for those with Eternity, however!).
After Supernovas, the next step will be upgrading Hourglasses and Quantum Pillars, again you are goign for speed. This deck, unupgraded, is pretty slow to get going. Drawing supernovas early feels pretty key.
As to the cards to include, what are all of your thoughts on this?
Here are my thoughts:
Definitely 1 Boneyard, 1-2 Bonewall. Bonewall is the most reliable shield and is amazing lategame. It cant be stolen or removed. I have had the AI use pulverizer to destroy one bonewall piece every turn, while ignoring my weapon and empathic bonds! I use 2 Bonewall in my larger version.
Boneyward is involved in your kill combo, and generates skeletons for you to mutate.
1-2 Fallen Elf. Fallen elf plays good defense as well as upgrading your skeletons and fireflies. He is critical to the versatility of the deck. I actually like unupgraded Fallen Elf early on (especially in the unupgraded version), as you can kill and downgrade enemy creatures. I use two in my large version.
0 Maxwell's Demon. The problem creatures are generally the ones that Otyugh cant kill, which are the high toughness ones. Generally I found that Maxwell's demon felt inferior to either Fallen Elf or Otyugh.
0 Mind Flayer. I found Mind Flayer to be worse than Otyugh/Fallen Elf. He is cheaper, but he doesnt deal with as many problems. If I had the water weapon that lobotimizes, I would definitely pick that over Mind Flayer.
1-2 Firefly Queen. I use two in my large version, to go with two Fallen Elves. This helps me to get them both earlier and begin mutating.
1-2 Empathic Bond. I use 2 in my large version. This gives you some chance against poison, and it results in Elemental Mastery cash bonus.
1-2 Rain of Fire. I have been using 2 but maybe it should be 1? Against several of the Gods, drawing this in time is key to winning, such as Ferrox and Fire Queen.
6 Sundial. Duh!
2-3 Steal. I use 3 in my large version, its a key card for taking shields and weapons. 2 works as well, but it means you have to be more careful about how you spend them. I actually beat rainbow by stealing his first two hourglasses!
2-3 Dimensional Shield.
4 Hourglass.
Enchant Artifact: I have not been using them (and automatically lose to Seism, clearly). My thought is that if I included 1-2, they might help against Seism but would they do much of anything against most gods? With my unupgraded deck, I would rather reliably beat some of the gods, than weaken myself against those to try to have a chance against Seism.
Am I being foolish here? Will I really kill Seism very much if I put these in? He seems almost impossible for the slow, unupgraded deck.
Transcendance: Would this help the deck? While it seems like it would be great on an Otyugh, I also feel that I cant afford the Aether cost. One struggle early on is often to survive until I have 6 aether quantums to play DImensional Shield! I dont want to spend 4 on this.
Purify: Against the two poison matchups, I'm not sure that this would really save me. They tend to keep on piling up the poison forever. Generally you either get your skeleton/firefly generation up in time, with empathic bonds, and live, or you
Weapons: Eternity is definitely the best. Other than that, Pulverizer is good (I use it to deny shields/weapons, and do things like kill all of Miracle's white towers to prevent the second miracle). The water/lobotomizer, and air/Eagle eye are also good choices as they deal with creatures.
A couple other cards I have conseider but do not currently use are:
Some sort of Otyugh pump spell (Heavy Armor). However this doesnt help against peopel who rewind your Otyugh.
Some sort of targetted creature removal, such as Rage Potion or Lightning. These can bring a big creature down to Otyugh-eatable size, team up with Rain of Fire to kill something, etc. However I think an Otyugh/Otyugh pump, or another Fallen Elf would be better.
I would start over and take eternity if I didnt have 10 upgraded cards already, it seems critical. I need to find the best way to grind this thing.
Guest Posts