Guest posts by KeeperofDreams

73

Politics / Re: American Civil War: a mind-opening perspective

« on: December 10, 2011, 04:49:14 am »

Having a very educated wife from the South and being from the north myself it was interesting to see differences and similarities where we are told their is a latter.

In regards to the American Civil War, it seems the south are taught a form of apologetics similar to most German's have in regards to WWII.  The state's rights thing is one form of it.  But as all things many things are muddier than they seem.  A lot of the propagandized history wants to have the North as the good guys.  The truth is many in the north weren't for freeing the slaves either, they were for holding the union together. 

Of all the American history, the most interesting in terms of propaganda is the Revolutionary War, my wife is a direct decedent of the Henry line, as in Patrick Henry.  The family stories of what really happened in regard's to Henry and later is son are very very different then what I know I was taught.  But the whole the red coats are coming, the red coats are coming...  he was looking for a safe house to be hidden away...  it was more the red coats are coming for ME.   Oh and the state of Kentucky, which was handed to Patrick Henry, his son gambled and boozed it away.  Our founding fathers were not so Heroic as we would like them to be.

74

General Discussion / Re: [Unofficial] Competition : AI4 Slaughterfest

« on: December 10, 2011, 04:34:19 am »

Sorry was at work and had a slow day so I finished up my testing of these, then went to post the results, but I did have one thing to complete and found myself in a rush.  I'll get that post cleaned up in a bit.

75

General Discussion / Re: not enough unupgraded rainbows!!

« on: December 09, 2011, 09:23:39 pm »

This is what Odii Odsen put in for the AI4 Non-Upgraded Competition

It's showing promise, and better than that piece of crap I posted above

by KeeperofDreams

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vn 52l 58v 58v 592 592 5ii 5ii 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5oj 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rr 5rr 5rr 5rr 5uo 621 621 8pq

76

General Discussion / Re: [Unofficial] Competition : AI4 Slaughterfest

« on: December 09, 2011, 08:48:58 pm »

I'm doing 30 35 games for each deck, it's all I really have time for:
I am also passing on the Upgraded AI4 decks, because there are just so many with near 100% win rates.
I'm not seeing many others posting results yet give some a try will you whomever is looking...  I kind of feel like a jerk as the only who who submitted and giving most of the decks a test.
I've also added a comment on how the deck seem to play and how I played it, if it doesn't seem right, tell me how I might be playing this wrong and test again.
(I had posted results of Jappert's deck playing an un-upped version because it was originally just an un-upped game.  I have taken those results down because it really wasn't the posted deck and later their was added the upped version and I didn't want the results confused.)

Here are my results so far:
Ranked in win rate order...  (NOTE: Winner is actually win's per hour, inwhich is current: Sevs')


Ralouf1's un-upped deck:

by KeeperofDreams

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5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rl 5ro 5ru 5ru 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 622 8pu

Games	Win Rate	Wins per hour
35	.4571	8.8

COMMENT: During my test got a good win percentage for un-upgraded.  You might briefly think the shields to play like a delay deck; however I found it's more of get the key cards in your hand as quickly as possible.  Get a ghost in play fractal and just spam the field with more ghosts every turn you can.  Careful play is required to make sure the shield chain is not broken most games.  Anti-perm control hurts this deck in painful ways.  I can see results in testing varying depending on what your playing against  and some combos that feature perm control can make this deck a boom or a bust.  Also some elements creature control is better, those who can start knocking down those ghost's quickly also can sour this deck if you don't have the electrum support in your draw order.

My deck (KeeperofDreams)

by KeeperofDreams

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5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5uq 5uq 5ur 5us 5us 5us 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 606 606 606 606 606 8pt

Games	Win Rate	Wins per hour
35	.4	6.9

COMMENT: This is a deck I used for Hal fBlood farming along with a AI3 farming variant back many revision back.  I figured it lost some power when I made my submission and it has.  It requires the vampires for most of the damage now, where originally, when you could build up more than 75 electrum.  So, now as it plays, it very much requires using the Steals very closely, mainly against an opponent's shields as usually fire shield does well against fire creatures, etc, against rainbow that has a bad draw, steal the quantum pillars to keep them from building up on your out of control.  Using the Drain Life's for CC versus the 16 damage against AI has shifted mostly for CC now.


DonceB's deck

by KeeperofDreams

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5c3 5c3 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5up 5up 5up 5uq 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5v2 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pn

Games	Win Rate	Wins per hour
25	.36	6.4

COMMENTS: This deck only has one Nightfall, but that Nightfall is a difference of 4 damage and 4 heal per adrenalin-ed vampire in play, often three vamps could be maintained in play, and that 12 damage/12 heal a turn would have made for more likely wins.  I want to see if this a fluke or this is the deck's Achilles heal.   Just fresh off 10 more runs,  and up to and as I suspected it's win rate is dropping.  The losses were decisive and frustrating and the wins decisive and without much fan fair.  It matches up against some elements very well and very weak against others.  The Nightfall although is important to get out, most of the losses were when the pillars or in general electrum was not matching up well, or there was just too much creature control.  It does have the most EM wins out of the decks and still up to 10 more to get, so for an unupped deck, this has the most money per game overall.

regen2k9

by KeeperofDreams

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4te 4te 4te 4te 4te 4te 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61u 61u 8pt

Games	Win Rate	Wins per hour
35	.3714	5.9

COMMENT: Basic same defense plan as Ralouf1's, but uses Shard's to do the damage.  Hold onto one Lightning Bolt for final kill, especially against shield's that can block your weapon damage.  It has less worries against some forms of perm control with lobotomizer.  It takes longer to complete than Ralouf1's, but the shield chain is easier to maintain.  Do not start your shield chain too early here.  Because of the later start in the shield chain is often needed, as well as the longer time it takes to get the kill in, results in a slightly less win rate and slower win rate than Ralouf1's.

Sevs'

by KeeperofDreams

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4ta 4ta 4ta 4ta 4ta 4vj 4vj 4vj 5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rm 5rm 5rm 5rm 5ro 5ro 5t2 5t2 5t2 8pn

Games	Win Rate	Wins per hour
35	.2857	9.1

COMMENT: This deck either will just work or just now and you know how the game is going to go within just a few turns.  One of the fastest win rates, if I dropped from each game I knew I was going to lose at and just quickly picked up the next the wins per hour would be much higher.  For this competition it's not got a great win rate.  But it does work as a grinder approaching it from just wanting some spins. 


Djhopper's deck TEST: 

Games	Win Rate	Wins per hour
15	.266667	4.4989

COMMENTS: 
Original was: 30/0/0 So I think DjHopper took some my comments and realized, oh shoot.  As a hope deck it's now viable under it's new form.  It still struggles in the beginning getting the hope up quickly enough, poison in general, fire, water, really jam it up with the creature control.  However, it has the hit power available to take down an AI4 now and if the setup gets going and has that tide turn effect no EM's but it can win now.

Odii Olsen's deck:

Games	Win Rate	Wins per hour
35	.1428	1.810

COMMENT: Lacks either enough shielding or enough time electrum to get past the risk of very bad draws.  If I could get a shield up in place fast enough and keep it, it wins.  Given my results versus UTAlan's, I think I got a lot more bad draws than he did when testing this.  The quintessence on the steam machine or a couple steam machines out early leads to a very dominating win.  I think it's very interesting that that Odii's deck did the best with UTAlan's and the worst with my testing...  I think we need at least a third person testing and posting to see, to break the division here.

77

General Discussion / Re: I really don't understand why this deck is winning... thought I would share:

« on: December 08, 2011, 09:43:08 pm »

Thx, glad someone likes it,
and yeah, hit the CCYB and go grind  

On the Side:
The upgrade would give win at turn 6 instead of turn 7 if you are perfect with it.

And yes, you must empty your hand before fractal of everything you can, then fractal, then dump all but one spark.
If you end up with two sparks and a vulture is out, play the extra spark, keep it at one spark in hand, except right before fractal, at all times until all fractals are used.

78

General Discussion / Re: [Unofficial] Competition : AI4 Slaughterfest

« on: December 08, 2011, 07:08:40 pm »

by KeeperofDreams

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5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5up 5uq 5uq 5ur 5us 5us 5us 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 606 606 606 606 606 8pt

Haven't played this in a long time, so I don't know if it'll work against AI4 with the recent changes, (AI improvements, no last turn heal from the dagger, can't get over 75 electrum), but a long time ago this is what I used. 

79

General Discussion / Re: I really don't understand why this deck is winning... thought I would share:

« on: December 08, 2011, 06:47:36 pm »

mwaetht, ralouf1
The point is it's, a sketchy deck, it's got a single gimmick and no way to defend itself, it's not meant to win, klown420 gets it though.

But to answer the question more directly, The soul catcher isn't needed, it's really just up there as a 30th card, except in one condition, to beat out an early bone wall or hope for a break in dimensional shields, the sparks would feed the wall only, and are not by themselves a kill against a break in dimensional shield chain.  You need a lot of something more perm to wipe the wall, or do a kill in a chain break.  So it's to feed a set of fractaled vultures just in case.  I remember when playing around with this deck when I first built it, I was using boneyards or bonewalls to further take advantage of the death effect, but at the amount of electrum those cost and only getting one death point a turn they can force you to be holding onto a card during the early turns, which means one less spark per fractal in your hand.  Which is in most cases the difference between a win and a loss, in the end the only thing that was fast enough and gave a chance at beating some of it's weaknesses was that one soul catcher.

The win draw is:
Basically, on turn 3 you want a vulture and a set of fractal sparks, which would result in 21 damage, and a 7/9 vulture, turn 4 is 28 damage total, turn 5 is another fractal spark of 56 total damage and a 14/15 creature, turn 6 is 70 total damage and turn 7 is another round of fractal sparks for for 106 total damage. 

Again a bone wall, a few early quakes, faster deck, or chained dimensional shields or just about any upgraded deck would knock it down.

80

Politics / Re: election 2012

« on: December 08, 2011, 05:10:34 am »

Why the hell am I posting about politics, eh, I'm bored...

To the down to Gingrich and Romney portion of this thead: Belthus is pretty much on the money
The Republican base has been switching between various anyone-but-Romney candidates.
Exactly, because, Romney does not represent a good victory for them.  He is a Mormon which alienates hardcore christian conservatives and can alienate up to 70% of the populous.  The Mormon Church also scares a lot of people who know how it operates and does not want to see it gain more power through Mitt, and this bothers of a lot of those who have a Corporatism agenda.  Also Mitt, a more traditionally modern liberalism view point, and so comes across as a flip-flopper which does not help him with the Tea Party portion of the Republican party.  As far as getting people from the left to sign on, at first it sounds good, but then his silver spoon background quickly dissolves that thought.

So what about Bachmann?
Bachmann was put up by certain Fox executives who were looking to front a candidate.  They thought she could pander to the Tea Party.  Which she does, and that's about it.  Which makes her fall real flat.

What about Perry?
Perry rose out of the collective ashes of Bachmann and the many other candidates who were 'Tea Party' style candidates...  the problem with all of them is the problem Perry hit.  They all operate on their convictions and feelings but once presented with needing to know the actual comings and goings of the government they are made fools of.  Which, ultimately is what Romney did to him in the debates.

What about Cain?
Cain's pedigree was different, it was from the business centric portion of the Republican party, and so was a strong candidate.  He talked simple, had simple plans, all sounds good.  Except, he had a messy background as many executives have.  It was not the existing scandals that brought him down, it was the future scandals we won't know about.  But he said, "Their could be an infinite [I think he meant untold] number of these types of accusations coming out.  Which is why he was now reconsidering."   Politicians get defamed daily, they only start running scared when someone comes close to the truth and it's enough to ruin something very important to them.

So we have Gingrich?
Well not really, twice his campaign has already blown up.  He's got two things, he is known as one of the key visionaries behind modern conservatism and all of his scandals are known of so nothing new there.  The problem is as darkrobe pointed out, he has all the weakness of all the other candidates.  Which is why is campaign has already blown up twice.  I think we are just waiting on the third and final time.

So is this it, Romney the eventuality?
Not really, there is one candidate doing better than Romney that isn't Gingrich, he's won the CPAC poll every year since Obama came to office, he has consistently been one of the top 3 in every straw poll this campaign season.  However,  the media will not speak his name, and nearly everyone will say, he's not viable.  Maybe he is not, but that person is Ron Paul.  Only a couple problems with Ron Paul, he's old, he's old school conservative to the point of near anarchy, and he has true strength in his convictions where he is not very bribe-able.

Does it matter, honestly, against Obama, either of the three have about the same chance against Obama.  Obama, has shown to be better at the terrorist warfare thing than the Republicans which is a bit of a shock.  Has good international policies.  However, locally here, lost a lot of democratic support for failing to capture the brief moment he had with Congress to really push their agenda, instead of socialized medicine we got subsidized insurance companies, and instead of legalized pot, we got a harder crack down, his hand got forced on gay marriage and gay's in the military, but he wasn't pushing that, he even backed RIAA policies.   Finally, to add insult, has only strengthened the laws and policies that were put in place by Bush Jr.  In other words he makes a better Republican than most Republicans.  Honestly, I don't understand the Republican fight against him,  and when they do it always threatens the economy in very bad ways on things that as he would put it "Why? That is part of their job, they won't even do that?" 

So what's it down to, The Republican Acting Democrat versus a Mormon/Anarchist/or Drunk.  The vote will come down to how much have the Democrats become disillusioned with Obama.

81

General Discussion / Re: I really don't understand why this deck is winning... thought I would share:

« on: December 08, 2011, 04:09:48 am »

Oh, that's interesting, I didn't know that. 
Thanks for the correction, thought it was because I got three EM in a row...  I've done it only twice... and the other three wins in row I've gotten, at least one was not an EM, and I didn't get the 4k, so I thought it had to do with 3 EM's in a row...

Now, that makes me just want to try grinding platinum again, but not today, not today...

82

General Discussion / Re: I really don't understand why this deck is winning... thought I would share:

« on: December 08, 2011, 03:57:12 am »

To: furballdn, or fractal the vulture, then another round of sparks.

To: dragonsdemesne, Yeah, that's what surprised me, it's been a long time since I did PVP, but missed chatting with people during the game and the computer doesn't exactly send a "gl hf".  In the past the decks where a lot more put together then the ones I played against today. 
So yeah, as I said the deck is not really meant to win and that's kind of the point: Every 'winning' deck I have was not 'winning' today, even my favorite grind deck that has a >90% win against AI4, can beat about half the FG, only about 25% win on platinum, but when it wins it's an EM, 400 plus electrum and have gotten 3 EM in a row their too (did you know you get a x10 bonus for 3 EM in a row on platinum, over 4000 electrum on the third win.)  But not today, today my only wins came from the only place I don't normally play and with a deck not really meant to win...  so...  hence the post, it's the 'I'm having really bad luck today, let's trick the fates' deck.

83

General Discussion / I really don't understand why this deck is winning... thought I would share:

« on: December 08, 2011, 03:36:26 am »

Like most people I figure, people like to come up with decks for giggles and so I came up with many what I call gimmick decks, decks that don't necessarily win, but sometimes do, but use a neat trick, or a combo that's not normally practical but get's a comment or two.

Today's been a largely bad elements day for me, I'm tired of AI4 grinding, I've tried to go grind against the arena, and can't get any wins in platinum or gold, and no more than one or two wins in bronze or silver.  No matter what deck I switch up with.  It's just not my day.  In fact, I seem to have fallen behind on the Shards gathering, and over the past week, it seems to be I need more shards to compete to get shards, the few times I get to the special spin, it's a loss or just all weapons.

So I said, hey, why not take one of your for fun decks and just start doing PVP1 with it, if your going to lose, you might as well chat with someone while you do it. 
To my surprised, 10 wins in a row, WTF?, so here is my lucky deck of the day, if you are having one of those days where nothing that normally works isn't working, take this out for a spin in PVP1, and see if you also have a little luck:

by KeeperofDreams

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52k 52k 52k 52v 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61p 61p 61p 61p 61p 61p 622 622 622 622 622 622 8pk

84

Forum Game Archive / Re: The Three Word Game!

« on: December 06, 2011, 08:06:56 pm »

The man named Jeremiah the Belligerent ate a banana shaped like Don, which tasted bad because it was actually a fish. When he realized that the bannana had tricked him he decided to throw sandals at it. The next day he tickled a heel drawn into the sand. It came alive and attacked Jeremiah with its noodley and completely unreliable leather whip. Jeremiah proceeded to thrust vulgarly at it. "Surrender!" Jeremiah shouted. He shall not be made fun of on this day. He felt bitter at the woman who sold him the leather whip enchanted with fire magic. She was weirdly-shaped with a large pimple and apparently cherished her pimple over Jeremiah's life. Feeling distraught about his life, he ate his inner fear. Doing this, he died.  His body