Guest posts by couponlady

1

The Arena / Re: It's time for action

« on: September 10, 2011, 04:59:15 am »

I don't want a nerf either. We just have to admit that some cards in the arena environment are more efficient than in the classical PvP one. Those cards (IMO: SoG, immolation and SN) remain without a good counter (in the player side of the arena environment BH happen to be too slow to be really efficient without nymph). With such counter cards a greater number of deck would be efficient against the unimaginative fire decks (immorush and fire stall). Would be left only the most efficient imaginative and hot one (which is perfectly fine). The other cards which became very efficient in the AI side of the arena environment (the denial one: BH, Silence, Nightmare, EQ ...) already received a nerf (no chaining of more than 2) and already have counter cards (sanctuary, PA etc...).

I understand what Jappert said about building deck specially efficient against fire decks. It might be a acceptable short term solution but It does not solve the problem: monotony. First not everybody reads the forum and/or is able to build such efficient decks. Second, even if you can you still have to fight a great majority of those decks.
I realized today that some people are so unimaginative that even when they don't get a fire card from the oracle, they keep the same 30 card fire deck and put five dead oracle cards to go to the 35 card limit! They might even have a more efficient deck that way that if they tried to create one from scratch (you know brainless is brainless). This should not be.

It's not just Fire decks that are the problem. A lot of times I get stuck playing against rainbow decks with lots of good cheap efficient creatures. There are many decks that use cards like Supernova. Once the opponent plays supernova I already know I probably lost game. The current #1 Gold Deck in the Arena is a Ghost of the Past Nightmare deck.  It seems like these nightmare decks have become more popular. I was playing against a dark deck earlier and realized he was playing with Nightmare's. Once the opponent played some Time Pillars/Towers  I knew I was probably going to loose. I wonder what card these people get from the Oracle? It seems like more people are making decks with Ghost of the Past and Nightmare.

Last card I got from the Oracle was a Fog Shield. I know it's not very creative but I decided to make a fire deck with Fog Shield. I figured since an upgraded Fog Shield cost only 1 it could work well with Immolation. Are the Sog's what makes the fire decks difficult to beat? Is it the Immolation's? Is it the big creatures like Fire Golem, Crimson Dragon or Fire Spirit?

2

The Arena / Re: Banning Supernova, Quantum Tower, and SoG from Arena (Yet another new poll)

« on: August 04, 2011, 12:08:06 pm »

I do get annoyed at many of the Gold Decks I loose to playing The Arena.  I started playing Gold decks and they can be really annoying.  A lot of the decks do use Quantum Towers. Also a lot of the decks will use the same cards like Steal, Explosion and Antimatter. It doesn't really matter what there quantum mark is because they are using Quantum Towers.  I was lucky enough to loose to a mono rush deck with Forest Scorpions, Cockatrices and Frogs. This deck made me think about when the oracle gave me a Forest Scorpion. I decided that I would make a mono deck but I didn't do as well. I wasn't thinking about how to put a Forest Scorpion in a rainbow deck. It seems like a lot of people use the card the oracle has given them and they still try to make a rainbow deck. It is annoying but I do think there shouldn't be a ban on any cards.

3

The Arena / Re: Most annoying decks in the Arena

« on: August 03, 2011, 04:48:53 am »

I hate mono gravity they drop black hole after black hole

Sometimes it seems like that's all the decks play Black Hole. Sometimes I end up loosing a bunch of games because I end up playing against decks with Black Hole. I play a Pestal deck and Black Hole usually causes me to not have enough Aether Mana to Fractal anything.

4

The Arena / Re: Most annoying decks in the Arena

« on: August 03, 2011, 01:32:21 am »

I think the most annoying deck is anything that can be considered a rainbow deck. I notice a lot of decks will play with cards like Steal, Mindgate, Electrum Hourglass, Pandemonium. I'm playing the Gold League and it seems like at least 1/2 of the decks all use Steal. I have also seen many that use Pandemonium.  It seems like most people take the card they are given from the oracle and still they make a rainbow deck. I guess it's a lot easier to make a rainbow deck than to try and make a mono or duo deck with the card you were given. Last time I visited the oracle I was given Forest Scorpions. So I decided to make one those mono rush decks with fast creatures. I wasn't thinking about using the Scorpions in some sort of rainbow deck.

5

Duo-Decks / Re: Pestal 101

« on: July 16, 2011, 12:58:12 am »

I usually play a similar deck, with a few changes. My deck is:

 2 vampires
 3 siphon life
 1 vampire dagger
 3 obsidian towers
10 pendulum
 6 devourer
 3 steal
 5 fractal

You do not need 6 fractals. No eclipse. Eclipse can be a weakness against fire shield and thorn carapace. This deck wins in AI3 ALWAYS!!!!!. My personal statistics in AI3 is 97 wins 0 losses. The number of devourers must be greater than the number of pillars of the other player. You can steal pillars. Siphon life is used against opponents creatures at first.

 It's a fun deck, but there are better decks vs FG.

I like eclipse because it can help your vampires actual do damage. If your opponent is able to play any shield that reduces damage by 2 or even 3 your not going to be able to deal much damage. If I'm only dealing 2 life a turn with Vampires I'm probably not going to gain enough life from what ever damage the opponent is dealing. If you play against Ferox it really helps having Eclipse. I lost a game against Ferox just because he had too many Feral Bonds. He was able to get 7 Feral Bonds out and I wasn't able to deal enough damage to counteract the life gain. I was able to Fractal one of my Black Dragons. I didn't enough slots available to play more than 2 Dragons. I eventually had to quit because I couldn't do enough damage to kill the opponent in one turn. The next time I played Ferox I knew to leave slots open so I could fractal and play extra Black Dragons.

I do understand your reasoning for not wanting to play Eclipse. I know the Fire Shield can be a problem against Pests if you do have Eclipse out. If you go against other Death or Darkness decks Eclipse could hurt you more than it helps. I had been playing Black Dragons but have taken them out. I now have the deck at 50 cards instead of 60. I'm running
5x Fractal
5x Pest
5x Vampire
4x Improved Steal
4x Quicksand
3x Improved Dusk
2x Eclipse
2x Electrocuter
10x Obsidian Tower
7x Aether Tower
3x Stone Tower

6

Duo-Decks / Re: Pestal 101

« on: July 15, 2011, 08:22:25 am »

Do you play with any weapons in your deck? I have been running Electrocuter and the Vampire Dagger. Now I'm fooling around without the weapons in my deck. I have added 6 Earthquakes and 2 Stone Pillar/ 2 Stone Tower to see what happens.

7

Duo-Decks / Re: Pestal 101

« on: July 15, 2011, 01:20:38 am »

Some thoughts to maybe help you :

6 fractal are far too much I never use 6 fractal in a 30 cards deck (5 mostly in pestal/rol hope/fractix and sometimes 4 in fractix). I almost never miss them and on the contrary I had sometimes had too much of them in mah hand.

Pestal exist since a long time as an FG farmer (look in the archive) but isn't really efficient.

I met 1 pestal in CL out of 100 matches (and lost cuz is dusk mantle stopped 7 creature out of 8 while he was at 10).

Steal is a very very good card, for example if you opponent is low on pillar in the beginning you can steal them to win. you can steal an annoying weapon or a good shield too or something else which can help you to win. When I used this deck against plat league I ran 4 steals.

in win rates RoL hope is at 40% and CCYB 55%. Only I've GotP Time is higher than 60% (it has 67% in fact).

The number of fratal you want to play depend to the number of cards you have in hand.. if you have 3 fractal in hand it takes a lot of place..

How many cards do you run in your pest deck? I currently have 60 cards in my deck. I'm running 6 fractals. I'm also running 6 pests, 6 Improved Steals, and 5 Vampires. The other cards in my deck are 3 Dusk shields, 2 Black Dragons, 2 Electrocuters and 2 Vampire Daggers.

I can't seem to make my deck any smaller. Originally the deck was 50 cards. I decided to add some additional land and later some extra cards. I originally had 3 steals in the deck and now I have 6 in the deck. You can always find some of your opponents to steal. I know steals can sometimes clog up your hand. My deck currently has 16 Obsidian Towers and 10 Aether Towers. I have the Aether Mark so I don't need as many Aether Towers. I wanted to make sure I have enough land in the deck. Some decks like Decay I can loose to pretty often. It's usually because I don't get enough land in my hand.

8

Duo-Decks / Re: Pestal 2.0

« on: July 13, 2011, 08:41:24 am »

First off, 6 is too many Fractals.  Even RoL/Hope runs with 5, and I would argue that Fractal-ing RoLs is more vital to that deck's success than fractaling Pests is to this one's.  Also, by reducing the number of Fractals you have, you can in turn take out an Aether Tower or two and replace them either with Pends, or any combination of Steals, Dusk Mantle, and Vampire Dagger.  Before you decide that I'm wrong out of hand and disregard this (I promise, I have read all of your previous arguments), please take into consideration what I say.

First off, the fact that you label this "Pestal 2.0" can be very misleading to a new player.  This could very well lead them to believe that this version is better than other posted versions and, to be perfectly honest, it's not better.  Not necessarily any worse, either, and that's one of the beautiful things about Pestal; the fact that there are so many different ways to play it depending on what you think may be coming.

Also, when it comes to adding in Steals, this is a very effective weapon since the goal is to achieve a quanta lockdown, or very close to it, of your opponent.  If you are able to get that lockdown, but they are in turn able to get out a troublesome permanent or two (Fire Shield, for instance) and then you are able to Steal that permanent, you then have that game won.  In essence, they're using their last gasp of quanta to play something that could possibly buy them the win, and you are in turn snatching that hope from them.  You're giving yourself another out, another win condition, which will always be superior to having only one.

As for the Dusk Mantle and Vampire Dagger, well, see above about win conditions.  The more things you can give your opponent to have to worry about, the better.  Also, there is exponentially more CC in game than PC, so they can do wonders in the early game, especially if your hand gets flooded with quanta producers and Fractals.  In fact, the two of them put together can almost win a game for you by themselves.

These suggestions will not cause this deck to beat all others, but the intent is instead to make it more viable against a wider variety of decks.  Happy elementing!

How can you make this deck so it has at least a 60% win percentage? I started playing False Gods instead of Half Bloods because you can get only upgraded cards. I earn money faster this way but I do loose more often. I can beat at least 50% of the decks. It all depends on what cards I draw and what the opponent gets. If I go against Ferox I can beat him. If he first gets Leaf Dragons and it takes him at least 3-4 turns to get his bigger creatures, I'm fine. If he starts playing his 5/3 or 5/5 within the first couple of turns then I'm dead.

There are a few decks that give me problems. Eternal Phoenix can be really hard. If he fractals a bunch of his 4/1 guys I'm already dead. I don't think I ever beat him. Gravitron is another deck that causes problems. He will use unstoppable so his Elite Chargers keep growing. I end up taking mass amounts of damage and dying. I also have problems with Dream Catcher. I don't like playing against him because he uses Butterfly Effect giving one of his creatures the ability to destroy. If I have a dusk shield now he has a creature with the ability to destroy it. If I don't get an Electrocuter before he uses  Butterfly Effect then basically there is no point in me playing any of my weapons or shields or my eclipse. It will just get destroyed.

He also has the Purple Nymph with the ability Antimatter. If he gets the Nymph out I'm probably dead. At this point there is no reason to play any Vampires. He will just antimatter the Vampire. Now instead of dealing damage to the opponent I have to take that damage. I like playing this Pest deck but wish I could there was some way to beat some of the harder decks.

9

Duo-Decks / Re: Pestal 2.0

« on: July 12, 2011, 10:53:34 am »

I made myself a pest deck. I have Aether as my mark for the Fractals in my deck. I was thinking of adding Pandemonium to my deck. If you upgrade the Pandemonium you have good creature control. Is there any way you could try making a Pest deck with Pandemonium.  I looked at the False God decks and really like the Pest deck. Why doesn't the deck have Upgraded Pendulums instead of Upgraded Pillars. Upgraded Pendulums would make the deck go faster. I was thinking you could just use Upgraded Pendulums and this would allow you play Pandemonium.

10

General Discussion / Re: kill streak

« on: July 12, 2011, 01:31:09 am »

The longest streak I remember having is 4 games in a row. I have been able to do this both playing half bloods and playing the arena. One time i tried playing silver level on the arena and I was able to win 4 games in a row. The 5th game I got mana screwed and lost. I have also played against Kroning and know how Vulgar he can get. I played against him today and he said he was going to report me. He said he caught me using the N word in a previous game. He said I was racist. I know he can be vulgar and he doesn't really seem to care what he says to other people he plays.  I have played against him multiple times and he seems to be an easy player to beat.