Guest posts by Hodari

313

General Discussion / Re: I broke 9500 wins today. What players have the most wins?

« on: August 02, 2010, 01:02:30 pm »

I dare all of you to try to reach datkewlguy's wins. he has well over 23,000 wins. (macros ftl)

Does the use of a macro/script violate any game terms?  I've actually written a script to grind AI3/T50, but haven't really used it for fear that my account would've been reset...    And actually now it doesn't really matter, since I've got 6 of every cards anyway.  But it might be fun to start a new account and let it run once you've built an AI3 deck that wins consistently...

From the game rules page:

Using any third party program to play elements might result in a temporary or permanent ban of your account.

So yes, it does

314

Nerf This Card! / Re: Dive (Active Ability)

« on: July 29, 2010, 08:34:43 pm »

Combo is broken anyways because the attack buff will go back down after a turn or two, i forgot which. (with TU combo)

From a few quick tests on the trainer, it looks like the buff will only go down after the ability is used on the new creature, ie.

Play 5/3 elite wyrm.  Next turn use dive, it becomes a 10/3.  TU it and you have 2 10/3 wyrms.  After you attack, the original one goes back down to 5/3 but the copy remains 10/3.  If you don't use dive the next turn, it STILL remains as 10/3.  If you use dive, it becomes a 20/3 for one attack, then drops back down to 5/3.  If you TU the 20/3 one and use dive on that one next turn, it becomes a 40/3 which STILL reverts to 5/3 after attacking.

I would say the only "nerf" (really more of a bug fix than a nerf) that dive needs is to make it work properly with TU (and any other cards with similar issues) so that the attack drops back down to normal immediately after the first attack rather than only after the ability is used again, thus preventing someone from making progressively larger creatures with each copy.

315

General Discussion / Re: Virus and Spark

« on: July 23, 2010, 12:26:05 am »

ray of light and something else have the same art too, I forget what, though >.<

Nova?

316

General Discussion / Re: Elements "metagame" transforming in the future?

« on: July 22, 2010, 10:28:51 am »

Instead of reactionary spells, why not just add some spells or permanents that make things cost more or trigger counter measures automatically? There was a thread about "trap cards" before, my suggestion there was to require a price (Like 3 random quanta) to to place any card face down (To add on to the surprise factor, minus the mark and pillars you're using) and then having to pay another price (whenever possible) for the effect to activate automatically when your opponent meets the trap card's requirements?

sounds like a good idea to me.  That way your opponent would know that you played a trap(and if they were paying attention, perhaps even the cost) but not which specific trap you played, at least until after the first time the trap is triggered.  Effects could include simply damaging or destroying the first creature to trigger it, causing some creatures to not attack or even to attack their owner instead, or even destroying/damaging only creatures in certain slots.  A trap which for example destroyed all attacking creatures in even numbered positions could force entire new strategies on what order to play cards in(as well as subtly nerfing Fractal since that would cause a player to play several of the same creature all at once, half of which would then die).

317

General Discussion / Re: Elements "metagame" transforming in the future?

« on: July 20, 2010, 07:06:45 pm »

So out of curiosity, are you guys saying that reactionary spells could be good for Elements, if we wished to see some sort of metagame shift?

No, in fact as I said in my previous post, I think it would be difficult if not impossible to have spells like that in Elements(at least at anything close to the level that M:tG had) due to it being an online game.  Consider the example I gave before for an M:tG turn and imagine what it would be like having to pause after each one of those spells for at least 30 seconds or so(to allow for lag etc.) and see if the opponent wanted to respond in some way.  Or worse yet:  Your opponent is attempting to cast Fractal:  Cancel/Allow?

318

General Discussion / Re: Elements "metagame" transforming in the future?

« on: July 20, 2010, 08:59:02 am »

There are some Hideous differences between Magic and Elements which changes how the metagame is looked at.

1. 100 life 30 cards vs 20 life vs 60 cards. One of these environments is much more extreme meaning that a slight adjustment in a crads mechanical value can change the whole environment if measured correctly (Magic). The other is a brutes lounge area where you need to draw and put your muscle on the table and you're unlikely to win without it.

2. Draw Game vs Non-Draw Game. Magic cards and draw are designed to aid the Toolbox player they get what you need to fulfil the task you need to do. In any competition environment for magic less than 1% of drawn cards are redundant. In Elements your draw is limited to top deck and luck. To get an advantage you need to simply draw / mutate as much as possible and hope an answer comes into hand.

While those may be significant differences, I think you actually missed the most important difference between Magic and Elements, namely the fact that Magic allows you to REACT to every move your opponent makes whereas Elements is strictly turn-based(largely made necessary by the fact that elements was designed for online play where having to stop after each spell to see if anyone wished to respond would be almost impossible). 

Whereas in Elements, a player simply draws a card, casts whatever spells they can, and then attacks, a turn in Magic will often be more like this:
Player A attempts to cast spell
player B counterspells
A counterspells the counterspell
B casts deflection changing the target of the original spell

Player A declares attack with 3 creatures
B unsummons 1, lightning bolts a second, killing it, and blocks the third with one of his own creatures
A attempts to cast a spell destroying the blocking creature, B responds by unsummoning it instead
etc.

The ability to react to every attempted move in this way gives non-creature spells much greater power in Magic than in Elements where a creature is normally guaranteed to get at least one attack in before the opponent even has a CHANCE to react to it being cast.

319

Series / Re: Advanced Spells - Spells that consume all quanta of an element after use

« on: July 11, 2010, 01:01:01 pm »

So hyperdrive and then play something like fractal kills you? Since hyperdrive would make you lose all your life when fractal trys to take it all? XD

Technically I would say the "consumes all quanta" on those spells is part of the EFFECT of that spell rather than the COST and therefore it should not automatically kill you like that(though to keep this card at all balanced in combination with fractal or miracle, something like this would have to be done anyway).

Even with this restriction though, I would argue that allowing any quanta to be used to pay the cost of this card makes it very OP.  Consider an opening hand of 4 quantum towers, hyperdrive, 2 elite phase dragons.  On turn 1, before your opponent has any chance to react, you now have dealt 20 damage to him and have 2 untargetable 10/6 creatures in play.  It cost 28 of your own life to do this but since he can't do anything about your dragons, they will easily make up for that on the next turn and even without playing anything else after that, you have a 5 turn kill.  Ruby dragons would be even more damage at a lower life cost but at least could be killed the next turn.

320

Deck Help / Re: Trying to make an original deck

« on: July 02, 2010, 05:31:19 pm »

So I'm basically looking at cards in the bazaar and try to make an original deck, but before I go buy it, i want to know if they can easily beat lvl 5s and fg.

Best way to find out is go to http://www.elementsthegame.net/trainer (http://www.elementsthegame.net/trainer)
Pick a mark, click All Card, All Quests, More Money! and then build the deck and test it out there