2011-04-02 11:02
Rule #1: Play honorably and respectfully. I understand the wish to win and competitiveness, but I will not abide by anyone on my team acting like a jackhole or cheating. I highly doubt this will be a problem but just in case, there it is. So, let's have fun! - MrBlonde
0. Reference
* Chat colour key:
* xn0ize
* Mrblonde
* xdude
* Rastafla
* icecoldbro
* kevkev60614
* Daxx
* SteppingStone81
I. Team Death
General - Mrblonde
Lieutenant - Kevkev
Strategist - Xdude
Vault Organizer - Rastafla
Dogsbody - Daxx
Duel Organizer - ICB
Deck Builder - Xnoize
Salvager - SteppingStone81
Nymph totals
* Mrblonde ( 4 entropy, 3 black,3 amber, 2 air, 1 fire, 1 earth, 1 light)
* SteppingStone81: (2 Aether, Air, Darkness, Earth, 2 Entropy, Gravity, Light, Time) + mark of fire
* 6 Entropy [3xDeath&Gravity] (2xTime&Earth&Life) 1x light water aether death
* kevkev60614: (Air, Darkness, 2 Earth, Entropy, 3 Light, Time, Water)
* xdude: (1 Aether, 3 Entropy Nymphs (+1), 1 Death Nymph (+1), 1 Turquoise Nymph, (1 Lyght Nymph) )
* xn0ize: ( 2 Earth , 1 Air , 3 Entropy , 1 Death , 1 Life , 2 Darkness , 1 Aether , 2 Gravity , 1 Water , 1 Time )
* Daxx: (2 Death, 2 Gravity, 2 Earth, 1 Life, 1 Fire, 2 Water, 1 Light, 2 Time)
* icecoldbro (3 Entropy, 1 Red, 2 Light, 1 Blue, 1 Golden, 1 Darkness, 1 Turqouise)
* ICB secondary number 1 (1 Entropy, 2 Death, 1 Gravity)
* ICB secondary number 2 (None
)
II. Strategy
Match strategy
* Keep game in a separate window and switch from it as little as possible to minimize desyncs.
* If you're winning, do not play any cards needlessly.
* Yes, that Fog would make you win with 20 more HP, but it will be worth it if next time the GrandMaster wastes those Explosions on Pillars.
War meta game
* Avoid posting too much strategy snippets on the (preferably win) threads.
* You still could post stuff like 'we saw it coming, countered', but don't do stuff like 'they could've used this, this or this, so we took this as it would beat 'em all'.
III. Vaultbuilding Strategy
* Vaultbuilding strategy:
* a few counters vs. the key decks we are weakest against,
* some utility cards, and
* the rest of the Vault composed of strong decks in their own right.
* First build decks, and then build the Vault around them.
vault size and pillar / pendulum counts:
* Starting vault size:
* 473 cards (500+12+12-51) in beginning vault
* 13*30 + 2*40 cards, or 15 decks including two stalls
* Due to the new 24 card conversion:
* we can underpillar (but we still want to be careful with our starting pillar/death card counts.
* we can take otherwise difficult cards like:
* Mark of Death (confirmed on-element)
* nymphs
likely salvage
* Team death has only been able to salvage death cards one time in 2 wars so don't expect to gain any death cards from salvaging.
IV. Deckbuilding strategy
Best Death combos / strategies:
* Speed Poison
* Bonewall Stall
* Novabow
* Fractal
Off-element combos / strategies:
* We need good combos for off-element cards to be useful as the primary focus of the deck (example - Fractal + something).
* Advantages to building decks focused around off-element cards:
* People can't counter them by building a typical "anti-death" deck.
Element-specific counters
* Build at least one counter for the most troublesome decks of each element
* Some counters will be able to handle multiple teams
* Still need to be careful not to use same deck against same opponents
V. Decks
0. Uncategorized
* Rewind deck (aka don't Immo/Nova me):
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=zB52gz552hz152rz3542z55rk8ps3 * Rewind deck from war #2
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z752g52hz152jz552oz252qz45rkz45rp8ps * 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52h 52j 52j 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52q 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 8ps
Xdude's spreadsheet:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmnzqQaMcm0OdFVBeWlfR09LeHMxd1FkWVdXY2Z6SWc&hl=en&authkey=CO-btJsC#gid=91. Likely opposing decks
* Key opposition decks:
* Water Stall + Purify
* Grabbynovas
* Sanctuary Stall
* MVP decks from War 2
* possibly immaterial creatures
* discord / BH
Deck codes for trainer AI3 opponents:
* Light
* Light / Water stall:
* Entropy
* Grabbow (entropy):
* 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vl 4vl 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 590 590 590 590 590 590 593 593 5ia 5ia 5oi 5oi 5oi 6u5 6u5 7n0 8pm <-- (against-death version).
* Entropy / Water stall:
* 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vg 4vg 4vg 4vg 4vg 4vi 4vi 4vi 4vi 4vn 4vn 4vn 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 5ia 5ia 5ia 8pp
2. Rush decks
* Air-mark Mumbow (from War #2):
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z44vjz552gz152rz552t542z15c5z15f65oi5ol5onz15oo61q8pr * 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52r 52r 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 542 5c5 5c5 5f6 5f6 5oi 5ol 5on 5oo 5oo 61q 8pr
* Death / fire
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z552gz152hz152l52qz552tz5542z35f6z45fb8po * 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52h 52h 52l 52l 52q 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 542 542 542 542 542 542 5f6 5f6 5f6 5f6 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 8po
* Death rush w/ lightnings
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z952gz252hz352oz152qz552tz461q8pu * 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52h 52h 52h 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 52t 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 8pu
3. Semi-stall Decks
* Air-death (MVP from last war):
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z152hz552jz152rzB542z15olz35onz35oo8pr * 52h 52h 52j 52j 52j 52j 52j 52j 52r 52r 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 542 5ol 5ol 5on 5on 5on 5on 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 8pr
* salvaged air pend allow for a better deck, e.g.
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z452gz152hz552jz152rz3542z15olz35onz35ooz35pu * 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52h 52h 52j 52j 52j 52j 52j 52j 52r 52r 542 542 542 542 5ol 5ol 5on 5on 5on 5on 5oo 5oo 5oo 5oo 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu
4. Stall decks
* Entropy/Death deckouter(as promised...) :
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z24vcz54vnz54vpz150uz452rzD5428pj * Sanctuary Stall:
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z552gz552oz152qz452rz5542z45lm8pq * Lightning Stall:
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z652gz552oz152qz452rz3542z561q8pu * OE Stall:
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z252gz552oz352rzB542z15oiz25ol8pr * Parasite Stall:
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z752gz552oz152qz452rz2542z55un8pt * Skull shield + aflatoxin
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z752gz352lz552oz152qz352sz25i5z45i78pp * 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52l 52l 52l 52l 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52s 52s 52s 52s 5i5 5i5 5i5 5i7 5i7 5i7 5i7 5i7 8pp
5. Denial Decks
* Death-darkness:
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z452gz152hz152qz152tz3542z15ulz55umz15uoz25upz15uq6068pt * 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52h 52h 52q 52q 52t 52t 542 542 542 542 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5uq 5uq 606 8pt
* if not enough mummies, can substitute flesh spider, bone wall, or deathstalker
6. Counter-Decks
A. Aether
B. Air
C. Darkness
D. Earth
E. Entropy
* Mumbow #5 (Gotta own 'em all!):
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z54vjz352g52jz552tz3542z15f6z15i7z15og5roz161q8ps * DoSA:
*
http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?deck=z152hz552iz252rz552vz961oz46228pkF. Gravity
G. Light
H. Life
I. Fire
J. Time
K. Water
L. Underworld
VI. Analysis of death
Poison / mummy
Mummy is AWESOME.
Again, I think some Lightnings would be great CC. BTW, in all my decks, Poisons can be replaced with Mummys (tweaking Pillar count, of course). That's good, because it looks like we have poison and arsenic in a lot of decks.They're great for Stalls. Mummys would be worse because we'd need less of them, and thus have a smaller chance of drawing. Even worse with Dragons. Yeah. Poison is a great card for duos where you have a lot of pendulums cuz it's so cheap. You can't have 10 pends to fuel your off element and then expect to be able to afford dragons.
Soul catcher
soul catchers are handy-.-, fractal decks, immo decks.
Deathstalker / aflatoxin
One other snippet: I know blonde is disinclined to include any stalkers or aflas in the vault.
About ^ I'm sure we can convince him to if we have good reasons. He's a rational person.
Again, we need something not terribly slow, to be able to deal with Grabbow.
Im not a fan of stalker either.I dont like afla, takes too long to set up for not much benefit, Stalker I can live with, but not one of my faves.
Aflatoxin + voodoo ???
I have 3 gray nymphs but those suck. possibly with voodoo dolls othervise bad. aflatoxin does good poison when applied ot dolls.hmm, but i don't see really a good point doing death nymph + voodoo deck, sounds like something will fail so hard that it's funny We should test it. We should use Trainer testing function for it.<--[ i used trainer for testing few decks today and yestraday ]
i have no problem testing it, i like testing things before throwing them to the can
Before building it and testing, which opponent are we willing to use it against? If there are betetr option its pointless to build and test. I was thinking at the same thing. Combo seems pretty hard to pull out.
The main advantage of voodoo is that we can duo with darkness and use steals imo. Lack of PC is a real problem.
VII. Analysis of opposing elements (a.k.a., the soon-to-be-deceased)
1. Aether
-i underesimated aether last war and paid the price later. Did well in the beginning, faltered in the middle until we countered them.
Bonewall, enough said, Fractal decks can hit through but that's where plagues come in, due too the main use of fractal being on small creatures with low cost therefore low health, plague should come in handy here.
A problem could be them taking a poison deck that my team and I favored in WAR II.
2. Air
3. Darkness
4. Earth
5. Entropy
* Entropy will be a strong contender if Zeru gets off his arse. They still have an advantage due to having versatile cards. Sanctuaries can help.
Countering Diss Shield stall and grabbow
Although I don't like to say it, we have to find a deck to beat both Grabbow (Entropy version) and Diss/Antimatter/Pande/Purify Stall and be prety decent. Hard to do IMO. Momentumed stalkers would mess with that. lucky pandemoniums would screw the stalkersPande + Purify would kill the deck, not to mention Grabbow is loads faster. fractal viruses and soul catchers to fractal massive ammounts of bone dragons would break the dissipation. We could even infect the AM'd Dragons...mm, its decent. and that decks works vs other stuff. The problem is then entropy grabbow(<-- might be too fast)
Can we put together a credible anti-Grabby nova rush? If we pack Rewinds. Or Thunderbolts.
Fire bolt is an obvious option but I don't like most bolt decks with 50% death against anything else. Me neither. I thought at that.you know , against that Diss shield, i see that just 30 + cards deck fire bolt can do it, but risky.
Fractal and afla are too more solutions, though both are kinda icky, especially against other decks.
i think DoSa can do well against grabbow . Or can it? If you don't kill the Virusi, you don't get up BoneWalls and Dragons, but if you do (waste them), he can attack with unburrowed Shrieks. Not to mention, this is IF you can get up in 6 turns.
Rewinded Dragons with Bonewalls?
Perhaps not even Bonewalls, but more creatures. grabbow has pc?Dim Shield decks wouldn't stnad a chance against the Diss Shield deck. Also, they might have some, considering they can definitely add a lot of utility cards in there (9, not counting Grabs) Depends on the novagrabby. I don't remember the Entropy version.
Straight out death rush probably won't make it either. Not positive though.
One thing we can't forget though is Antimatter. Any antimatter deck will wreck a dragon deck.
Actually either fractal or afla would be interesting. Pande sometimes rewinds, which would work against the deckout. Maybe xn0 is right that DoSA stands a chance against both. I wish I had time to test now.
6. Gravity
Gravity i fear alot, momentum is the worst thing we could face. Trebuchet can be brutal as well with flying titans and/or armagio (we have no in-element PC and trebuchet bypasses all shields).I also could see GG using a flying titan/catapult/freeze deck.
also, discord / BH could hurt a bit
Gravity too me is the biggest problem. High health so plagues and CC is useless, and they can bypass Bone Wall and Bone shield.
I have reason to believe Gravity will have two D/BH decks and two novagrabby decks. They'll prolly also have a momentum deathstalker deck and a phoenix deck. We're likely to face D/BH because they fear bonewall and might try to stop us from reaching 7 quanta. Sanctuary is a really interesting card for that reason.
7. Light
Miracle is teh reason light counters so well and stalls. Holy light is also a pain.
I can clearly see them trying to Water Stall us again.
Fractal decks can possibly make a breach, NEEDS FURTHER TESTING.
Light can stall a lot as well as go pretty fast.
Ryan proved how effective Gravity Shield is against light creatures, but I agree that we're likely to see a water stall. Figuring out how to counter that deck is important.
8. Life
9. Fire
- Interestingly enough i think we have quite a bit of metagame here. Because of skull shield i'm sure they will be reluctant to use phoenix or LG types of decks and/or will pack extra deflags because of them. So using skull shields vs them may be not even necessary.
Plague and Stall or Heal can take all except one deck and its variation, Fire Stall, I can see a Plague, Miracle + Mirror Shield deck here, it should be good against pretty much any deck that they can send at us, except for maybe a Immo Bow.
I agree that we're likely to see bolt decks out of the gate because bonewall is such a problem for other decks with immo and low hp creatures.
10. Time
11. Water
12. Underworld
* UW tourney being single- rather than double-elimination will likely result in a weaker team
~~~~ Miscellaneous