25
Tournament Archive / Re: Eastern Tournament - 26 March 2011 - Fate - Unupgraded
« on: March 26, 2011, 07:26:07 am »
1st round:
TombSimon 2 - 1 sebysebyseby
TombSimon 2 - 1 sebysebyseby
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27
Auction Archive / Re: TombSimon
« on: March 17, 2011, 09:42:32 pm »
Updated with new rares - now I also have a full number of Druidic Staffs, Tridents and Vampire Stilettos 
28
Auction Archive / Re: TombSimon
« on: March 17, 2011, 12:18:54 pm »
Thanks, Zeru 
Just another bump in case anyone wants to change their minds
Just another bump in case anyone wants to change their minds
29
Auction Archive / Re: TombSimon
« on: March 15, 2011, 01:27:44 pm »
Just updated with another Green Nymph - which really also makes me a potential candidate for Team Life 
30
Auction Archive / Re: TombSimon
« on: March 14, 2011, 11:08:36 pm »
Haha, free advertisement spots 
Updated with +3000 score, changed favs, and massive card boost
Updated with +3000 score, changed favs, and massive card boost
31
Auction Archive / Re: TombSimon
« on: March 14, 2011, 10:49:49 pm »
Actually I was stumbling between Aether and Death for the last pick
Update to come in afew minutes
Update to come in afew minutes
32
Propaganda Archive / Re: Entropy
« on: March 11, 2011, 02:34:32 pm »
Nice banner - it's cool that everyone has their own oppinion about what it pictures
I have some ideas for the Entropy Songs:
Gorillaz, Little Pink Plastic Bags. Couldn't find it on GrooveShark, but I think it fits with that pink (Entropy!) plastic bag, just floating around randomly, no-one knows where it's gonna end up.
Or if you want less sense and more randomness:
http://listen.grooveshark.com/s/Too+Much/2X3ldk?src=5
Bonaparte - Too Much
Or if you want less order and more chaos:
http://listen.grooveshark.com/s/Stuff+Is+Messed+Up/2pZLpB?src=5
The Offspring - Stuff Is Messed Up
I've also got something for the speech.. Her comes: SHEER RANDOMNESS!
"Look in your heart, and you will find Chaos; cows with whiskers, blue jeans and peanuts. All around you between the worlds you are surrounded by flying flags and raspberry bushes and creepy yellow Abominations.
We are the ones shattering your glasses. The ones turning to turn away when no-one is and will remember. Discording, discarding, disregarding, whoof!
Look at Zeru, Master of Entropy, the Chaos Lord, reigner of all that is random and train-station. Werewolves are a matter of Antimatter. Where are you when your hips go bees?
Entropy is all over the place, whatever you say, wherever you walk, whoever you spit in the eye, it is Entropy! You cannot control it; there is nothing to control, you cannot feel it, it just follows you, you cannot see it, but youcan taste it, and it tastes just like chicken!
FTW!
I have some ideas for the Entropy Songs:
Gorillaz, Little Pink Plastic Bags. Couldn't find it on GrooveShark, but I think it fits with that pink (Entropy!) plastic bag, just floating around randomly, no-one knows where it's gonna end up.
Or if you want less sense and more randomness:
http://listen.grooveshark.com/s/Too+Much/2X3ldk?src=5
Bonaparte - Too Much
Or if you want less order and more chaos:
http://listen.grooveshark.com/s/Stuff+Is+Messed+Up/2pZLpB?src=5
The Offspring - Stuff Is Messed Up
I've also got something for the speech.. Her comes: SHEER RANDOMNESS!
"Look in your heart, and you will find Chaos; cows with whiskers, blue jeans and peanuts. All around you between the worlds you are surrounded by flying flags and raspberry bushes and creepy yellow Abominations.
We are the ones shattering your glasses. The ones turning to turn away when no-one is and will remember. Discording, discarding, disregarding, whoof!
Look at Zeru, Master of Entropy, the Chaos Lord, reigner of all that is random and train-station. Werewolves are a matter of Antimatter. Where are you when your hips go bees?
Entropy is all over the place, whatever you say, wherever you walk, whoever you spit in the eye, it is Entropy! You cannot control it; there is nothing to control, you cannot feel it, it just follows you, you cannot see it, but youcan taste it, and it tastes just like chicken!
FTW!
33
Random, Normal and Elder / Re: New Elder proposal
« on: March 10, 2011, 12:52:24 am »
I think it would be great, if the Elders displayed ALL rares (except Shards). Decks with Trident and Eternity are really what we need
34
Auction Archive / TombSimon
« on: March 06, 2011, 09:06:31 pm »
Buy A Slave
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Air 
Earth 
Fire 
Gravity 
Life 
Light 
Time 
Water | Why I would make a good War team member |
| Why wouldn't you pick a sensible and reliable new, but very active, player who has got tournament experience (participating in everyone the last two months) and who knows how to build unexpected but working decks, a cheap player who can buy his price back many, many times?? I'm adapting to everything! |
35
Tournament Archive / Re: Western Tournament - 5 March 2011 - Synergy - Unupgraded
« on: March 05, 2011, 07:31:02 pm »
Round 1:
TombSimon 2 - 0 Tots_ITA
TombSimon 2 - 0 Tots_ITA
36
Trio & Quartet / Mutation Rush, upped, for Top 50 - with extensive tactics guide!
« on: March 03, 2011, 05:56:56 pm »
Voodoo Dolls with Steal for 3
14/7 Dragons with Dive for 3
Devourers generating quanta for their own Growth ability for 3.......
The list seems endless. This is why I find Mutation (especially Improved Mutation) one of the best cards in the game. More so when you combine with Parallel Universe to make new, stronger Mutants with different abilities. So this is why I figured out this potentially fast Mutation deck to kill those dreaded Top 50 decks.
I posted the prototype of the deck in the deck help section (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,20190.msg273878#msg273878), and with some advice I've come to this solution:
NOTE: lately I’ve run with three Pendulums instead of the Towers, and it seems to run far more smoothly, even though the lack of
Since then it's been added up to a 100 games with this deck against Top 50 to show some stats (all games against Farms are excluded):
Win: 57%
EM: 6%
TTW: 8.8
TTW details:
5: 4
6: 3
7:5
8:13
9:15
10: 6
11: 2
12: 2
13: 4
14: 1
8.8 turns to win? Isn't that a little slow for an upgraded deck?
Yes indeed, it would be slow for a typical rush deck meant purely for AI3. But this is top 50, and Shards of Gratitude, nasty Shields and rainbowcontrol get in your way more often than not.
And, as I said, this is potentially a fast deck. 5 turn win isn't that bad. And hypothetically if you are REALLY lucky it can pull off a 3 turn win (and 4 turn win against HB). But sadly I haven't experienced this myself
So how to play the deck?
Well, it's pretty simple - as simple as Entropy can be anyways
Amethyst Towers, Pendulums and Novas (remember they have to be unupped for this to work fast enough, you would have very high percentages for a Mutation on first turn. A first turn dragon is always handy. And soon more weird creatures will follow. When you've spared up enough quanta Twin Universe your best Mutant to make another one even stronger. Soon your field will be filled with weird spawnings of pure randomness!
But, as it is, over 100 games with this deck have taught me that the strongest possible creature isn't always the best choice for Twin Universe. In very rare cases your opponents creatures will be even better (laugh Voodoo or Golem decks right in their faces), but only if they have at least 5 more Attack than your strongest Mutant and possibly a useful ability too.
Sometimes your abilities are the key to make a good offense (Steal, Destroy, and Devour are often what you need to defeat some opponents), and if your strongest Creature has a really life-saving ability, you would much prefer to copy a little less stronger creature for the chance that you might actually get to use its skill. Quanta are tight, and you've only got up to 6 quanta for each Element - except Entropy and Aether - so the abilities of two Twin Mutants might block each other out.
Mean people would demand the Photons to stay in your hand, so they don’t get killed before you can mutate them. But if the Photon has been out for just one turn when you mutate it, you can use its ability the same turn. This could pretty much save you in hard cases, and other times it’s just nice to have the Dive or Déjà vu one turn earlier
To play out your Photons in the first turn (if you can’t get a Mutant there) is also a good way to draw out Sundials, Phase Shields, Rewinds and Antimatters which you don’t want on your precious Mutants. But always keep one Photon in your hand so you don’t get surprised by Plague or Fire Buckler. And remember that if you manage to get out that first turn Mutant the AI will always target that instead of your measly Photons, so your instant-abilities a secure with Big-Brother-Mutant nearby.
Improved Mutation is my absolute favorite Elements card and no wonder why. It’s very obvious how to use it in this deck; use it on your Photons. Most of the time.
If you have an over flood of Improved Mutations in your hand and enough quanta you should use the Mutations repeatedly on a Photon until you get a desired result. If your Mutant has an Attack of 3 or lower and a useless skill it’s best to re-mutate it before you do the copy – it will seldom become worse.
It’s worth noticing that if you get a Mutant Devour, don’t EVER re-mutate it. It obtains its passive skill, thus generating quanta for itself while draining your opponent. Devours are very good candidates for Twin Universe. Even though they start with an Attack of zero they can built up pretty fast with Grow, Ablaze, Lycanthropy and Déjà vu. Once I first saw my measly 0/4 Devour grow into 4 Devours, one of them with 15 attack and enough quanta to grow even further I’ve never questioned the usefulness of these creatures.
The last cards to discuss are the Chaos Power. Always use them on the creature you are about to TU (not the strongest and not as soon as possible if you hope to get another, stronger Mutant). Unless you have a creature with Dive which has quanta fuel to use the skill a few times – no matter the attack of the creature, because then your Chaos Power will get double effect.
Chaos Power is in the deck mainly to make stronger Mutants. And it would be pretty silly to leave the best buff card in the game out if the deck has capacity for it.
Don’t play Novas before you need the quanta unless Devours or Discord is suspected (or you hand is filled).
Congratulations if you’re still with me
Now I’ll have a look at the different Mutant Abilities:
Hatch: The Mutant just turns into a new Mutant, so it’s like a cheaper re-mutate (except the fact that you can’t use the new Mutants skill right away). Use it only under the same circumstances as re-mutate or as an emergency if you’re going to lose in the next few turns anyways – Mutants sometimes turns the tide.
Freeze: Very good CC if it can be used consistently. Save it for your opponent’s biggies. Also a good counter to Antimatter.
Burrow: Pretty crap if you get this, unless the Mutant is very vulnerable to CC and half of its Attack isn’t such a big deal. Remember that you can’t re-mutate the creature and use it skill instantly if you borrow it (because you need to use its skill to get up again first). Also note that Graboid-Mutants are borrowed from the start so these can’t be mutated again. A Graboid with borrow is just crap. A Graboid with Steal, Destroy or Devour is win!
Destroy: Something to hope you can use instantly if your opponent has Eternity, Lobotomizer or a tough shield on the field. There’s not much to say about this other than it’s not recommended to TU a Mutant with this skill if you have got an almost just as good candidate.
Steal: Same as above. You should aim for defensive Permanents (Permafrost Shield or SoG). If the opponent has Pillars/Pendulums of the element that your Steal-Mutant is using and there are no other good target keep stealing those to deny the opponent and fuel further steals and abilities of the creature’s copies.
Dive: This skill is just insane on a buffed Crimson Dragon. Remember to use Chaos Power on Diving Creatures, and use the skill as soon as possible – unless of course the opponent has Sundials or Phase Shields out >.<
Heal: One of the more useless abilities. Only use it if your big bad hard-hitter is about to die from Fire Buckler or Poison or else keep the quanta for other Mutants of the same type.
Momentum: Without doubt the best skill for Top 50 farming! Because Momentum sticks to your Mutants even if you Parallel Universe them or re-mutate a little Mutant with Momentum to get a bigger one with Momentum and another skill! Always PU a Momentum-Mutant (try to say that quickly five times in a row) so those pesky Phase Shields and Permafrost Shields won’t stop you.
Paradox: Great CC again. Try to save it for the big hitters. Works especially well with Infection or a stolen Fire Buckler.
Lycanthropy: Really great if you have the quanta for it. It’s a Chaos Power at full potential and it’s great before a TU. Use it as soon as possible.
Scavenger: Not one of the best skills either since decks usually has to focus on the skill to include it. Works well against Firestalls or if you’ve got a Mutant with Devour for consistent use. But hey, it doesn’t cost quanta and you can always re-mutate it so it’s not that bad.
Infection: Don’t use this skill unless you really need to get rid of that creature (or has a Voodoo Doll Mutant to use it on). It’s generally not worth the quanta waste, because you could have a Mutant with Devour or Paradox later to finish off the job more quickly. If you’re opponent packs a lot of Twin Universe, though, and you’ll win within a few turns, you could use it on your own Mutants to keep the opponent from gaining Mutant buff for copying your creatures. (see below).
Gravity Pull: This skill should only be used as a life-saver if your health runs very low. Otherwise keep the quanta (and the creature alive) for other skills. Of course, if the Mutant is a Voodoo Doll use the skill as soon as possible.
Devour: The best CC you can get. On an Armagio this is just insane but Golden, Basalt or Massive Dragons can also be turned into super-Otyughs. This is one of the skills to save quanta for and not recommended to TU if you have alternatives. Chaos Power on such a creature would be ideal if you need that one or two points of HP to kill your opponent’s big hitter.
Mutation: Great if you have excessive Photons in your hand or just got unlucky on the other Mutations. Otherwise save the quanta. Can also be used in emergency-situations. Just note that this is a regular Mutation, so often the creature will turn into an Abomination or maybe die. It can be used as CC though, and as a counter to Gravity Shield.
Growth: There are worlds between Growth for one cost quanta and Growth for two cost quanta. For one cost just use it as much as you can unless you need the quanta for some important control. For two quanta Growth you should only use it once and save the rest for its copies.
Ablaze: Same as Growth. You should always prioritize Growth instead of Ablaze, since it also gives HP (unless of course, you’re up against a Gravity Shield).
Poison: A good ability, use it as soon as possible in the first part of the game. Later you may find the quanta needful for another skill instead.
Déjà vu: THE best skill to have on your first turn Mutant. This one makes 3 turn kill possible. It’s like a very cheap TU and treat it like it is (so Chaos Power that creature and so on). Late game you might find that you’ve run out of quanta, which is really sad. This is one of the cases for which it’s important to save quanta.
Immaterial: Actually this is often a bad skill to get on your Mutants. Yes, the creature is untouchable, but you cannot re-mutate it, if it’s bad, can’t buff it and worst of all: can’t TU it. Only if you’re up against very hard creature control or Eternity this is what you hope for.
Oh, and in the very soon-to-come 1.27 patch three new abilities will be added. I’ve only experienced them once, when I was testing for the latest tournament in the trainer, but here are my initial thoughts:
Mitosis: Only with Aether or Entropy creatures this is good for its full potential, and unless the original creature has a very useful skill quanta should be saved. On Dragons this is just insane though. Always prioritize for the sake of the rush!
Endow: This is very situational, but if your opponent has a good weapon it’s a great buff and a way to a new ability. Great against biting weapon farms though. Maybe I should add a Dagger to the deck just for the buff.
Guard: I’m not really sure whether this is good or bad. It’s bad for the rush, since it keeps the creature from attacking (poor Dragons). But it’s good for the control part since it turns the Mutant into a very good creature killer. On small creatures I guess it’s good, but quanta should be saved for something better, like Freeze.
Because of its adaption this deck has few weaknesses, but here are they and their counters:
Antimatter: The aim of the deck is to build up high-attack Mutants, which could be entirely spoiled by late Antimatters. Fortunately, the AI has a tendency of throwing out Antimatters as soon as possible, so they can be lured with Photons. Otherwise there are other counters to Antimatter. Re-mutating is one of them, obviously.
Just TU the Antimattered Mutant first, because it will make a complete un-Antimattered and buffed Mutant to cancel out the other one. Also the ability Freeze (especially on the creature itself) is good to keep it from attacking. Devour should aim to kill the Mutant if it’s able. In the new patch, Guard would also be a possibility here.
Eternity: Probably the biggest thread. Regular Rewinds can be driven out with Photons without great loss. But Eternity basically turns your precious Mutants into their regular creatures – in your hand, where you can’t summon them. AND it denies you precious draws.
If an early Eternity is out don’t play creatures at all, until you have at least two Photons and at least one Improved Mutation. Then play your Photons, let the AI Rewind one of them, Mutate the other one and hope for Steal/Destroy to use right away. If the opponent has a creature with Butterfly Effect, you could also TU that twice. Late Eternity is not as bad, but can still manage to take down the deck within a few turns.
Lobotomizer: Since if your Mutants get Lobotomized they do not only lose their skill but also their Mutant status. So if you copy them it will just make an exact copy of that buffed creature. It doesn’t necessarily stop the deck but it slows it down, which could prove to be fatal. Especially against mono-Aether so you have no method of dealing with Phase Shields.
It’s countered just like Eternity; a Photon out, mutate it next turn and hope for Steal/Destroy. Also Mind Flayers/Ulitharids could be a problem, but they are easier to get rid of with Mutant skills or Improved Mutation.
Plague: For some reason, if Mutants get Plagued they lose their Mutant skill too. It’s the same problem as Lobotomizer only that your Creatures also get killed. This also counts for Retroviruses but not Infect skills. There is really no counter to this, just remember to check, if your creatures are still Mutants before you copy them.
Arctic Squid: Getting your Mutants constantly frozen is very annoying and very hard to deal with. The “play-more-Photons-than-your-opponent-has-Squids-and-Mutate-the-unfrozen-one-next-turn-and-hope-for-some-CC-skill”-tactic is one way to counter this. If your creatures also get frozen again and again, remember to copy the strongest creature whether it’s Frozen or not, so that when the ice breaks from their backs simultaneously (the AI doesn’t freeze frozen creatures), the Squids/Octopuses will have a hard time to freeze all the strong Mutants.
Of course you could also mutate the Squids and hope they don’t get something crazy. Other creatures which are recommended to mutate is: Otyughs, Pharaohs, Mind Flayers, Purple Nymph and basically everything very big and intimidating.
Gravity Shield: Yes, the top 50 doesn’t use it much but if you ever encounter it you’ll see why it’s so dangerous. All mutants have very high HP because of the buff. Momentum, PC-skills and Fire creatures are what you should hope for. Otherwise infecting your own Creatures wouldn’t be bad either.
And for the round-off, I've got some screenshots from Top 50-games so you can see the deck in action:
This is why we love Mutation!
Mutation deck, as it should be
This is why we hate Eternity...
Mutation vs. Mindgate = SHEER CRAZINESS!!
4 turn win is possible - still hoping to get down to 3 turns someday...
So that's basically it. Hope the few of you who aren't asleep by now enjoyed this. And I really hope this isn't just a waste of space
14/7 Dragons with Dive for 3
Devourers generating quanta for their own Growth ability for 3
.......The list seems endless. This is why I find Mutation (especially Improved Mutation) one of the best cards in the game. More so when you combine with Parallel Universe to make new, stronger Mutants with different abilities. So this is why I figured out this potentially fast Mutation deck to kill those dreaded Top 50 decks.
I posted the prototype of the deck in the deck help section (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,20190.msg273878#msg273878), and with some advice I've come to this solution:
NOTE: lately I’ve run with three Pendulums instead of the Towers, and it seems to run far more smoothly, even though the lack of
Since then it's been added up to a 100 games with this deck against Top 50 to show some stats (all games against Farms are excluded):
Win: 57%
EM: 6%
TTW: 8.8
TTW details:
5: 4
6: 3
7:5
8:13
9:15
10: 6
11: 2
12: 2
13: 4
14: 1
8.8 turns to win? Isn't that a little slow for an upgraded deck?
Yes indeed, it would be slow for a typical rush deck meant purely for AI3. But this is top 50, and Shards of Gratitude, nasty Shields and rainbowcontrol get in your way more often than not.
And, as I said, this is potentially a fast deck. 5 turn win isn't that bad. And hypothetically if you are REALLY lucky it can pull off a 3 turn win (and 4 turn win against HB). But sadly I haven't experienced this myself
So how to play the deck?
Well, it's pretty simple - as simple as Entropy can be anyways
Amethyst Towers, Pendulums and Novas (remember they have to be unupped for this to work fast enough, you would have very high percentages for a Mutation on first turn. A first turn dragon is always handy. And soon more weird creatures will follow. When you've spared up enough quanta Twin Universe your best Mutant to make another one even stronger. Soon your field will be filled with weird spawnings of pure randomness!
But, as it is, over 100 games with this deck have taught me that the strongest possible creature isn't always the best choice for Twin Universe. In very rare cases your opponents creatures will be even better (laugh Voodoo or Golem decks right in their faces), but only if they have at least 5 more Attack than your strongest Mutant and possibly a useful ability too.
Sometimes your abilities are the key to make a good offense (Steal, Destroy, and Devour are often what you need to defeat some opponents), and if your strongest Creature has a really life-saving ability, you would much prefer to copy a little less stronger creature for the chance that you might actually get to use its skill. Quanta are tight, and you've only got up to 6 quanta for each Element - except Entropy and Aether - so the abilities of two Twin Mutants might block each other out.
Mean people would demand the Photons to stay in your hand, so they don’t get killed before you can mutate them. But if the Photon has been out for just one turn when you mutate it, you can use its ability the same turn. This could pretty much save you in hard cases, and other times it’s just nice to have the Dive or Déjà vu one turn earlier
To play out your Photons in the first turn (if you can’t get a Mutant there) is also a good way to draw out Sundials, Phase Shields, Rewinds and Antimatters which you don’t want on your precious Mutants. But always keep one Photon in your hand so you don’t get surprised by Plague or Fire Buckler. And remember that if you manage to get out that first turn Mutant the AI will always target that instead of your measly Photons, so your instant-abilities a secure with Big-Brother-Mutant nearby.
Improved Mutation is my absolute favorite Elements card and no wonder why. It’s very obvious how to use it in this deck; use it on your Photons. Most of the time.
If you have an over flood of Improved Mutations in your hand and enough quanta you should use the Mutations repeatedly on a Photon until you get a desired result. If your Mutant has an Attack of 3 or lower and a useless skill it’s best to re-mutate it before you do the copy – it will seldom become worse.
It’s worth noticing that if you get a Mutant Devour, don’t EVER re-mutate it. It obtains its passive skill, thus generating quanta for itself while draining your opponent. Devours are very good candidates for Twin Universe. Even though they start with an Attack of zero they can built up pretty fast with Grow, Ablaze, Lycanthropy and Déjà vu. Once I first saw my measly 0/4 Devour grow into 4 Devours, one of them with 15 attack and enough quanta to grow even further I’ve never questioned the usefulness of these creatures.
The last cards to discuss are the Chaos Power. Always use them on the creature you are about to TU (not the strongest and not as soon as possible if you hope to get another, stronger Mutant). Unless you have a creature with Dive which has quanta fuel to use the skill a few times – no matter the attack of the creature, because then your Chaos Power will get double effect.
Chaos Power is in the deck mainly to make stronger Mutants. And it would be pretty silly to leave the best buff card in the game out if the deck has capacity for it.
Don’t play Novas before you need the quanta unless Devours or Discord is suspected
(or you hand is filled).Congratulations if you’re still with me
Now I’ll have a look at the different Mutant Abilities:
Hatch: The Mutant just turns into a new Mutant, so it’s like a cheaper re-mutate (except the fact that you can’t use the new Mutants skill right away). Use it only under the same circumstances as re-mutate or as an emergency if you’re going to lose in the next few turns anyways – Mutants sometimes turns the tide.
Freeze: Very good CC if it can be used consistently. Save it for your opponent’s biggies. Also a good counter to Antimatter.
Burrow: Pretty crap if you get this, unless the Mutant is very vulnerable to CC and half of its Attack isn’t such a big deal. Remember that you can’t re-mutate the creature and use it skill instantly if you borrow it (because you need to use its skill to get up again first). Also note that Graboid-Mutants are borrowed from the start so these can’t be mutated again. A Graboid with borrow is just crap. A Graboid with Steal, Destroy or Devour is win!
Destroy: Something to hope you can use instantly if your opponent has Eternity, Lobotomizer or a tough shield on the field. There’s not much to say about this other than it’s not recommended to TU a Mutant with this skill if you have got an almost just as good candidate.
Steal: Same as above. You should aim for defensive Permanents (Permafrost Shield or SoG). If the opponent has Pillars/Pendulums of the element that your Steal-Mutant is using and there are no other good target keep stealing those to deny the opponent and fuel further steals and abilities of the creature’s copies.
Dive: This skill is just insane on a buffed Crimson Dragon. Remember to use Chaos Power on Diving Creatures, and use the skill as soon as possible – unless of course the opponent has Sundials or Phase Shields out >.<
Heal: One of the more useless abilities. Only use it if your big bad hard-hitter is about to die from Fire Buckler or Poison or else keep the quanta for other Mutants of the same type.
Momentum: Without doubt the best skill for Top 50 farming! Because Momentum sticks to your Mutants even if you Parallel Universe them or re-mutate a little Mutant with Momentum to get a bigger one with Momentum and another skill! Always PU a Momentum-Mutant (try to say that quickly five times in a row
) so those pesky Phase Shields and Permafrost Shields won’t stop you.Paradox: Great CC again. Try to save it for the big hitters. Works especially well with Infection or a stolen Fire Buckler.
Lycanthropy: Really great if you have the quanta for it. It’s a Chaos Power at full potential and it’s great before a TU. Use it as soon as possible.
Scavenger: Not one of the best skills either since decks usually has to focus on the skill to include it. Works well against Firestalls or if you’ve got a Mutant with Devour for consistent use. But hey, it doesn’t cost quanta and you can always re-mutate it so it’s not that bad.
Infection: Don’t use this skill unless you really need to get rid of that creature (or has a Voodoo Doll Mutant to use it on). It’s generally not worth the quanta waste, because you could have a Mutant with Devour or Paradox later to finish off the job more quickly. If you’re opponent packs a lot of Twin Universe, though, and you’ll win within a few turns, you could use it on your own Mutants to keep the opponent from gaining Mutant buff for copying your creatures. (see below).
Gravity Pull: This skill should only be used as a life-saver if your health runs very low. Otherwise keep the quanta (and the creature alive) for other skills. Of course, if the Mutant is a Voodoo Doll use the skill as soon as possible.
Devour: The best CC you can get. On an Armagio this is just insane but Golden, Basalt or Massive Dragons can also be turned into super-Otyughs. This is one of the skills to save quanta for and not recommended to TU if you have alternatives. Chaos Power on such a creature would be ideal if you need that one or two points of HP to kill your opponent’s big hitter.
Mutation: Great if you have excessive Photons in your hand or just got unlucky on the other Mutations. Otherwise save the quanta. Can also be used in emergency-situations. Just note that this is a regular Mutation, so often the creature will turn into an Abomination or maybe die. It can be used as CC though, and as a counter to Gravity Shield.
Growth: There are worlds between Growth for one cost quanta and Growth for two cost quanta. For one cost just use it as much as you can unless you need the quanta for some important control. For two quanta Growth you should only use it once and save the rest for its copies.
Ablaze: Same as Growth. You should always prioritize Growth instead of Ablaze, since it also gives HP (unless of course, you’re up against a Gravity Shield).
Poison: A good ability, use it as soon as possible in the first part of the game. Later you may find the quanta needful for another skill instead.
Déjà vu: THE best skill to have on your first turn Mutant. This one makes 3 turn kill possible. It’s like a very cheap TU and treat it like it is (so Chaos Power that creature and so on). Late game you might find that you’ve run out of quanta, which is really sad. This is one of the cases for which it’s important to save quanta.
Immaterial: Actually this is often a bad skill to get on your Mutants. Yes, the creature is untouchable, but you cannot re-mutate it, if it’s bad, can’t buff it and worst of all: can’t TU it. Only if you’re up against very hard creature control or Eternity this is what you hope for.
Oh, and in the very soon-to-come 1.27 patch three new abilities will be added. I’ve only experienced them once, when I was testing for the latest tournament in the trainer, but here are my initial thoughts:
Mitosis: Only with Aether or Entropy creatures this is good for its full potential, and unless the original creature has a very useful skill quanta should be saved. On Dragons this is just insane though. Always prioritize for the sake of the rush!
Endow: This is very situational, but if your opponent has a good weapon it’s a great buff and a way to a new ability. Great against biting weapon farms though. Maybe I should add a Dagger to the deck just for the buff.
Guard: I’m not really sure whether this is good or bad. It’s bad for the rush, since it keeps the creature from attacking (poor Dragons). But it’s good for the control part since it turns the Mutant into a very good creature killer. On small creatures I guess it’s good, but quanta should be saved for something better, like Freeze.
Because of its adaption this deck has few weaknesses, but here are they and their counters:
Antimatter: The aim of the deck is to build up high-attack Mutants, which could be entirely spoiled by late Antimatters. Fortunately, the AI has a tendency of throwing out Antimatters as soon as possible, so they can be lured with Photons. Otherwise there are other counters to Antimatter. Re-mutating is one of them, obviously.
Just TU the Antimattered Mutant first, because it will make a complete un-Antimattered and buffed Mutant to cancel out the other one. Also the ability Freeze (especially on the creature itself) is good to keep it from attacking. Devour should aim to kill the Mutant if it’s able. In the new patch, Guard would also be a possibility here.
Eternity: Probably the biggest thread. Regular Rewinds can be driven out with Photons without great loss. But Eternity basically turns your precious Mutants into their regular creatures – in your hand, where you can’t summon them. AND it denies you precious draws.
If an early Eternity is out don’t play creatures at all, until you have at least two Photons and at least one Improved Mutation. Then play your Photons, let the AI Rewind one of them, Mutate the other one and hope for Steal/Destroy to use right away. If the opponent has a creature with Butterfly Effect, you could also TU that twice. Late Eternity is not as bad, but can still manage to take down the deck within a few turns.
Lobotomizer: Since if your Mutants get Lobotomized they do not only lose their skill but also their Mutant status. So if you copy them it will just make an exact copy of that buffed creature. It doesn’t necessarily stop the deck but it slows it down, which could prove to be fatal. Especially against mono-Aether so you have no method of dealing with Phase Shields.
It’s countered just like Eternity; a Photon out, mutate it next turn and hope for Steal/Destroy. Also Mind Flayers/Ulitharids could be a problem, but they are easier to get rid of with Mutant skills or Improved Mutation.
Plague: For some reason, if Mutants get Plagued they lose their Mutant skill too. It’s the same problem as Lobotomizer only that your Creatures also get killed. This also counts for Retroviruses but not Infect skills. There is really no counter to this, just remember to check, if your creatures are still Mutants before you copy them.
Arctic Squid: Getting your Mutants constantly frozen is very annoying and very hard to deal with. The “play-more-Photons-than-your-opponent-has-Squids-and-Mutate-the-unfrozen-one-next-turn-and-hope-for-some-CC-skill”-tactic is one way to counter this. If your creatures also get frozen again and again, remember to copy the strongest creature whether it’s Frozen or not, so that when the ice breaks from their backs simultaneously (the AI doesn’t freeze frozen creatures), the Squids/Octopuses will have a hard time to freeze all the strong Mutants.
Of course you could also mutate the Squids and hope they don’t get something crazy. Other creatures which are recommended to mutate is: Otyughs, Pharaohs, Mind Flayers, Purple Nymph and basically everything very big and intimidating.
Gravity Shield: Yes, the top 50 doesn’t use it much but if you ever encounter it you’ll see why it’s so dangerous. All mutants have very high HP because of the buff. Momentum, PC-skills and Fire creatures are what you should hope for. Otherwise infecting your own Creatures wouldn’t be bad either.
And for the round-off, I've got some screenshots from Top 50-games so you can see the deck in action:
This is why we love Mutation!
Mutation deck, as it should be
This is why we hate Eternity...
Mutation vs. Mindgate = SHEER CRAZINESS!!
4 turn win is possible - still hoping to get down to 3 turns someday...
So that's basically it. Hope the few of you who aren't asleep by now enjoyed this. And I really hope this isn't just a waste of space