I just started playing Elements last week and I've spent most of my time in PVP1 polishing this up so I wanted to share what I've made. Why should/shouldn't you play this? Glad you asked.
Pros:
-Decent win %, over 60% if you play according to the tips below
-Good % of wins are EM because you spam Vamps
-Especially good vs Mono or Duo decks because they have more problems with Devs
-Cheap to build but can beat anything in PVP1 without needing shards or weapons
Cons:
-Games take longer than mono aggro
-Struggles to deny quanta vs Nova/Immolation/Quantum Pillar
-Folds to certain combos like Titanium Shield+Enchant Artifact, can lose to Nightmare or Aflatoxin
-Requires some math and knowing when you should/shouldn't play around sweepers, removal, shields
-Not fun to play against according to my opponents
And now the moment you've all been waiting for:
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5ut 5ut 5ut 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 61q 61q 622 622 622 622 8pu"Why are you playing _____?"
-14 Dark Pendulums and Mark of Aether: the Pendulums let you cast turn 2 Devourer, which is very important when you have multiples. You will sometimes get free wins from being on the play and choking their quanta off with Devourers. If I were to add a pillar it would be Aether (but I don't suggest it).
-2 Lightning: I wanted a few cards to slow my opponent down or deal with cards that are hard for me to beat. To that end I have 2 Lightnings and 1 Steal. Lightning seems to be the most efficient CC card in the game and let you kill Otys, Dragons, Fire Golems, and other things that would give you headaches otherwise. Steal obviously has a million uses--I've taken shields, Quantum Pillars, and weapons to good effect. You only have one though, so don't throw it away by taking something you could have beaten anyway.
"Why aren't you playing _____?"
-Drain Life: I've found that Lightning is better because it's cheaper and more versatile. You often have 2 extra Aether quanta on the turn you want to Fractal anyway, while I really hate using Darkness quanta on anything other than Devourers until I have several of them out.
-Shields: I tried Dimensional Shield and Dusk Mantle but they weren't as useful as often as the Lightnings and Steal. Occasionally clutch, but often dead.
-More Fractals or Minor Vampires: Drawing too many Fractals early sucks. It may not be fun to have to sit there and draw off the top for 5 turns after you use your first Fractal on Devourers, but you can usually afford to do so. I don't like to play Vampires out until I'm ready to Fractal them so 3 is enough.
-1 Black Dragon: Helps against stuff like Titanium Shield but Steal does a better job of that.
-Nightfall: It can keep you from decking, but it doesn't slow them down or help you combo out so it can be a bad draw a lot of times. Also would make the deck vulnerable to permanent control which you don't care one bit about right now.
-Stiletto: really good when drawn early but too poor when drawn late.
Play tips:
-Don't play any black cards until you Fractal your Devourers, unless you really have to. You almost always end up better in the long run if you hold your Minor Vampires and bide your time until you either are ready to Fractal them or have them quantalocked.
-If you only have one Devourer and are playing against a deck with CC, you probably want to hold it until you are ready to Fractal. It's a tough decision, and the dark quanta will help if it doesn't die. But it's really bad if they kill it and you don't have anything to Fractal as a result, when you could have done without the 2-4 extra quanta it would have generated.
-vs Mono/Duo: If you're on the play and have 2+ Pendulums and multiple Devourers, you're probably going to win easily.
-vs Rainbow: You probably aren't going to deny all their quanta but that doesn't make Devourers useless. You probably still want to Fractal them first so you have enough Darkness quanta to operate, but you don't mind doing it with more cards in hand because you don't need as many Devs in that case. Sometimes they'll draw few quanta sources and get locked anyway.
-vs sweepers: If they could have Pandemonium or Rain of Fire, usually hold 1 Minor Vampire after you Fractal them so you can reload off another Fractal if they wipe you. If you have their quanta locked obviously it doesn't matter.
-You have to make sure you can kill them before you deck yourself. Sometimes you'll lose games due to having 3 Fractals or all your Minor Vampires at the bottom, it's part of the game. A new battle is only a click away so don't despair.
Devtal isn't dead! I've played hundreds of games with this exact build and I think it's the best version there is. Give it a whirl and let me know how it treats you.
Guest Posts
I tried the Aether Mark, then a few mixes of pendulums and pillars, and this was the configuration I liked the best. 1-2 Aether pillars wasn't horrible, but seemed a bit worse. I don't think I'd run the shield in PVP as it doesn't improve your win percentage more than other things you could run there. It's totally a win-more card, but you can hold it until just the right time to secure EM. Drain Life does the same thing but doesn't steal games as often.
