Guest posts by Hodari

217

Humor / Re: The Trick Question Thread (Elements version)

« on: February 06, 2011, 07:35:59 pm »

I will answer both questions then
jippy: ruby dragon
hodary: he has only one creature with 50+ attack, you drew an antimatter

What is the first deck that everyone starts with? (keep in mind this is a trick question thread)

Still doesn't explain how I ended up winning though

218

Humor / Re: The Trick Question Thread (Elements version)

« on: February 06, 2011, 07:26:56 pm »

ok, for my question then..
I end my turn with no cards in hand or remaining in my deck.  All of my creatures are quinted.  My creatures and weapon would have been able to do enough damage to kill my opponent if it wasn't for his shield, but with it, I was just short.  I also only have 50 hp left and no permanents that would heal me.  At the start of my turn, it looked like my opponent would be able to kill me with his next attack but fortunately I was at least able to prevent that and in fact, I end up not only winning the game but getting EM as well...how?

219

Humor / Re: The Trick Question Thread (Elements version)

« on: February 06, 2011, 07:20:45 pm »

Armagio then?

220

Humor / Re: The Trick Question Thread (Elements version)

« on: February 06, 2011, 07:11:55 pm »

What card has the highest hp to attack ratio?

Chimera

221

Humor / Re: The Trick Question Thread (Elements version)

« on: February 06, 2011, 12:27:32 am »

Let's see.
Suppose you have 2 Fractals and 6 PU's in your deck. Both you and your opponent have fields full of malignant cells. You have 13 Electrum Hourglasses in play, a Malignant Cell in your hand (you had Mindgates that stole his Electrum Hourglasses), and 2 Unstable Gases in play. You blow one up, getting 92 charges on the shield, and play your lone Malignant Cell once the field is clear, then you use your Hourglasses to draw all 6 PU's, which you play on the cell. Now, you use it again, and get a Fractal in your hand. You play it, then draw 5 Supernova's, which you play, and then use the Hourglass again to gain another Fractal, which you play. You have 23 Malignant Cells on the field. Now, you play UG one more time, gaining another 46 charges.

So, using a deck, you can gain 138 charges on your shield in a single turn.

What about having a couple more UG's and a Graveyard out as well?

222

Humor / Re: The Trick Question Thread (Elements version)

« on: February 05, 2011, 08:19:37 pm »

Run the phoenix into an opponent's skull buckler, getting a skeleton.  Endow one of your crusaders targeting his Eternity, play shard of readiness on it, then use that to rewind your skeleton and get a Devourer with endow ability, then endow it with your Pulverizer?

223

General Discussion / Re: PvP issues

« on: February 04, 2011, 02:22:28 am »

As far as I know, there's no way to force yourself to play the AI.

Sure there is...click level 0, level 1, level 2, level 3, top 50, level 5, or quests -> level 6

224

General Discussion / Re: PvP issues

« on: February 04, 2011, 01:53:19 am »

Having the AI be able to play at all is easier only because nearly all cards' effects are in some way good whereas in chess, it is much easier to make a move which is actually BAD.  However I suspect trying to find an optimal strategy in elements would be significantly more difficult since as I said, there are far more possible moves to choose from on each turn as well as not having complete information about the position(ie not knowing your opponent's hand or even what cards you will be drawing in the next few turns).  While the AI may be able to play at a level which is at least halfway decent in most cases, how often do you see it do something completely stupid like playing a dune scorpion, immediately followed by quintessence? 

  Also, it would be a bit unfair to compare the difficulty of writing a chess program which can compete at a grandmaster level vs. an Elements AI playing at the level of an average player.  And even then, the only AI level which presents a significant level of difficulty for a reasonably skilled player with a good deck is FG's and then ONLY because they are given significant advantages like double hp and draws, triple mark, larger deck etc.  Making a chess engine that could be the world champion would also be fairly easy if it could make 2 moves at a time and move pawns up to 3 spaces forward

225

General Discussion / Re: PvP issues

« on: February 03, 2011, 05:36:30 pm »

If zanz could code an AI that was smarter (and thus better) than a human player, without using 'cheats' (such as playing cards, knowing what the opponent's hand is), then he'd most likely be working for a major software company or university, not making websites and flash games. :p

This would basically be similar to writing a chess engine in that it would have to examine the position after every possible move and calculate how good or bad it was..except that it would be significantly more difficult here since there are FAR more possible moves and the computer wouldn't even know what moves the other player has available(thus would have to somehow be able to make intelligent guesses based on mark, cards already played etc.) 

226

General Discussion / Re: PvP issues

« on: February 03, 2011, 12:56:20 am »

If the other player intentionally leaves and lets the cpu take over, they automatically lose anyway..just that you have to still beat the cpu in order to get the win.  If it went with your suggestion and just gave a draw and refunded everyone's money, even more people would leave as soon as it became apparent they were going to lose.

227

General Discussion / Re: a stupid question..

« on: February 02, 2011, 07:41:48 pm »

Not in the same deck, no.  You can only have 6 copies total counting both upped and unupped versions of the same card.

228

Card Ideas and Art / Re: Mjöllnir | Mjöllnir

« on: February 01, 2011, 03:03:02 pm »

I don't wanna ruin every eternity based deck out there, making them deck out.

Stopping the weapon even 1 out of 3 turns would ruin that since at some point they will deck out(though of course unless they've been overusing hourglasses, you'd be likely to deck out first)