Guest posts by Colonel Forbin

1

Issue Archive / Black Hole restores health even if Sanctuary blocks quanta drain [not a bug]

« on: March 04, 2011, 11:08:23 pm »

Black Hole still restores health (1HP per quantum drained) even when Sanctuary blocks the quanta drain.

Is this by design?  It goes against the wording of Black Hole.  In analogous situations when the opponent doesn't have quanta, Black Hole doesn't heal.

Also, it creates strange situations where you'd be better off without Sanctuary than with it.  For example, Gravity Nymph can pretty much exploit an opponent with Sanctuary for up to 24hp/turn.  Without Sanctuary, at least the opponent would run out of quanta eventually, so the healing would stop.  (Curse you, Dark Matter!)

(From this thread, it sounds like Nightmare has a similar side-effect, doing damage even if cards don't get added.
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,21502.msg300002#msg300002)

2

Issue Archive / Re: I drew a golden nymph on my first draw, but I don\'t even own one [unconfirmed]

« on: March 02, 2011, 09:00:55 pm »

Topic Locked!  Not a bug.

3

Issue Archive / Re: I drew a golden nymph on my first draw, but I don't even own one [unconfirmed]

« on: March 02, 2011, 08:59:57 pm »

Duh, that makes sense.  Sorry, not a bug.

4

Issue Archive / Re: I drew a golden nymph on my first draw, but I don't even own one [unconfirmed]

« on: March 02, 2011, 03:44:34 pm »

Right, as 7wavemaster points out, I DREW the Golden Nymph.  It did not appear in play as a pet.

Although if it makes a difference, this was the first game I played after visiting the Oracle.  Perhaps this is relevant to the bug.

5

Issue Archive / I drew a golden nymph on my first draw, but I don't even own one [unconfirmed]

« on: March 02, 2011, 02:57:26 pm »

On my first draw of the game, I drew a Golden Nymph.  There is no Golden Nymph in my deck.  I don't even own one.

I was using a stock CCYB deck.  I was playing against Destiny.  But since it was my first draw, I hadn't yet had the opportunity to play any cards.  So it is not possible to be a mutation/rewind combination, or some such.

Sorry, I should have captured a screenshot or something.  I will if it occurs again.

6

Forum Archive / I drew a golden nymph on my first draw, but I don't even own one [unconfirmed]

« on: March 02, 2011, 08:58:47 am »

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,21972.0.html

(Sorry, I didn't capture a screenshot.  I will if it happens again.)

7

Trio & Quartet / Re: 2 rares, 2 upgrades: a DUO FG Killer for the Masses.

« on: February 04, 2011, 04:23:04 pm »

Huh.  Having expressed some skepticism, I go on to win my very next FG match, against Ferox.  SoG x4, Elec x1.

Won an upgraded card (Leaf Dragon).

Sweet, this might be more promising than I thought.  Thanks guys!

8

Trio & Quartet / Re: 2 rares, 2 upgrades: a DUO FG Killer for the Masses.

« on: February 04, 2011, 03:57:12 pm »

I won my first victory against a False God ever with a variant of this deck.  It was against Hermes, a "Kinda Hard" FG.

So first things first: thanks to Essence and Yaladilae.

I just wanted to share my observations and experiences.  I don't know if anyone cares, but it might help other newbs who are just now starting to collect enough electrum to upgrade in earnest.

I used the mostly unupped version of yaladilae's variant (see reply #10)
Like his deck, I have Elite Otys x2 and an Animate Weapon.  I also added SoG x2 and Elec x2.

Observations:
(1) Shards of Gratitude are critical.  I played this deck without the SoGs and Elecs 15 times before this, and lost every single match badly.  In this match, Hermes had me Fire Lanced down to 12.  Without SoG, it would have been another loss.

(2) I still needed a nearly perfect initial draw to win. 
- Initial draw had the Animate Weapon, an Oty, and a Shard. 
- I drew a Quint third turn, just as I had enough quanta to play both Oty + Quint.  That bugger saved my life until I could get my Dimensional Shields up. 
- Then I played my Shard.
- I drew just the right number of shields through the midgame, about 1 draw out or 3..

(3) After the Oty devoured the initial rush, I had an pretty poor draw through mid-game (other than the Shields)
- I only had 2 Aether pillars through my first 10 turns. 
- I didn't draw a Titan for Animation until nearly the end of the match when it didn't matter.
- I drew both Electrocutors mid game when I couldn't play them because I needed to save quanta for Dim Shield.  I wound up having to discard one.  Never did play the other one.  The dead draws nearly got me killed.

(4) After I finally drew a couple more Aether Pillars in the endgame, things got a lot easier.
- I was finally able to bank Aether quanta for one of the 4 Parallel Universes in my hand.  It still took like 5 turns.
- Finally drew a Titan, which I Animated.
- Finally, i was able to PU that huge Lava Destroyer that had grown out of Oty range to 29/29.
- Two turns later, it was over.

(5) I got really lucky with the Hermes draw and AI.
- Early on, he double-Plate Armored a Brimstone Eater instead of Fire Spectre.  My Oty could eat one, but not the other.  That Brimstone Eater lasted until the second to last round.  If he had been growing a Fire Spirit that whole time instead, I'd also probably be dead.
- Other than that, he marched a perfect diet of creatures one by one straight into my Oty's gullet.
- He never got a fire shield up.
- He wasted his Explosions early.  I only remembered getting my Dim Shield exploded once, in the early mid-game.  Maybe he exploded a gravity pillar?  If he had saved it for later, when his Lava Destroyer was bigger, I would have lost.

(6) I only got 48 Electrum and no cards for my win. 

 Conclusions:
(1) Shards of Gratitude are critical.  I'm going to upgrade and add 2 more.
(2) Do NOT add Electrocutors unless you need them.  All I know is: you don't need them for Hermes.
(3) Considering how much luck I needed to win, how long it took, and how little I got out of it, I suspect grinding T50 is better bang for your buck.  But I will try a few more times before I can know for sure.  Besides, this is more fun.