The following discussion pertains to Shakar's Revenge (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,14435.0.html)<---follow link!
Shakar's is arguable the most profitable upped fg farmer, renown for it's modest win % with lightning (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,1985.0.html) fast matches!
This guide should be useful for noobs, experienced players, and stat gurus all alike!
If you like fast money with blatant disregard for your score, then this might be the deck for you. If you have ever been accused of having a short temper, punched a kid for looking at you wrong, kicked a dog, then save your keyboard and mouse! This is probably not the deck for you as it can be highly frustrating and requires patience.
There are several variants, but I chose four for the purposes of this study. The strengths and weaknesses of each variants will help to explain why each was chosen. Without further ado, onto the main event!
Basic strategy:
Shakar's has a combination of cards that is played in order to absorb enemy damage and ultimately, send it back to the enemy to create victory. The combo consists of the following four cards: Voodoo Doll (doll), Basilisk Blood (BB), Gravity Force (GForce), and Twin Universe (TU).
The combo is fueled by quanta produced by Supernovas (SN), Entropy Pendula (Pendy), or your mark (aether). There are other variants which use an entropy mark, but those are not used for this study.
The way the combo works is to play the doll, BB it, gforce it.... wait for damage to lower the doll's health, then spam TU on it. BB & gforce are used together in combination and can be played in any order for the combo to work.
Generally, you will need the cards and quanta available to play a doll, 2-3 BB's minimum, 1 gforce, and 2-3 TU's. There's alot more to it, both false-god specific and deck dependent than that, but stick to the aforementioned as a basic strategy
Primer to advanced strategy: "Shakar's slang" (self-made in origin)
"protected doll" - A doll with BB played on top of it
"hanging dangler" - An unprotected doll
"meat shield" - A doll played with gforce on it when you have a backup doll or gforce coming for the purposes of BBing it and playing the combo on it
"Late-game heroics" - Any manipulation of the combo after it has been played (more on this in advanced strategy)
Advanced strategy and tips: (lists are good)
1. Play a protected doll immediately after the FG has played a weapon. This will reflect petrify damage back on the weapon and save yourself from further damage and weapon effects. This can be a game-changer against several gods.
2. Use a hanging dangler to absorb plagues, virus effects, fire lances, thunderbolts, etc. to reflect them back on their FG.
3. Use a hanging dangler if you are scrambling for options and there is a chance the FG has a gforce in their hand to start your combo. This can be revealed to you, in particular, via precognition. Be sure that the opponent does not have too much damage on the board, otherwise you are committing doll suicide.
4 It's sometimes necessary to play a defensive BB. Examples include preventing early poison damage from physalia, controlling momentum damage from creatures, stopping fallen druids from mutating dolls, stopping gravity nymphs from spamming black hole, etc.
5. Additionally, its sometimes necessary to burn a TU on an opposing creature, and then gforce it's copy or some other nasty creature. Examples include abnormally large creatures from miracle, paradox, or TUing something without momentum to gforce a creature with momentum.
6. A meat shield can be thrown out to help stall while attempting to draw more cards to setup your combo. It's recommended that you have backups of each card unless you are trying to pull off some late game heroics.
7. Make sure you calculate damage carefully on your gforce'd/BB'd doll and know when it is time to play your TU's. If you are waiting on quanta but your doll will die, remember that you can always TU a TU'd doll later.
8. #7 is generally a form of late game heroics, but know that not all is lost if you have TU'd a doll and still have enough HP to live another turn. You may still draw a key card, including another BB, an extra gforce, a crucial TU, etc.
Variant 1:
The "Regular" Deck6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 74d 74d 74d 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 7qb 7qb 7qb 7tg 7tg 7tg 80b 80b 80b 80b 80bStrengths:
-very straightforward
-3 dolls, 3 gforces
-Some precogs for peeping opponent's deck
God-by-god stats:
version 1.26
False God EM Won DO Lost ACL CW Total Win Rate
Chaos Lord 0 0 0 4 0 0 4 0.00
Dark Matter 0 3 0 3 0 0 6 0.50
Decay 0 1 0 6 0 0 7 0.14
Destiny 0 1 0 4 0 0 5 0.20
Divine Glory 0 5 0 3 0 0 8 0.62
Dream Catcher 0 8 0 7 0 0 15 0.53
Elidnis 0 4 0 4 0 0 8 0.50
Eternal Phoenix 0 1 0 5 0 0 6 0.17
Ferox 0 2 0 9 0 0 11 0.18
Fire Queen 0 1 0 6 0 0 7 0.14
Gemini 0 1 0 4 0 0 5 0.20
Graviton 0 4 0 9 0 0 13 0.31
Hermes 0 1 0 6 0 0 7 0.14
Incarnate 0 2 0 6 0 0 8 0.25
Miracle 0 3 0 9 0 0 12 0.25
Morte 0 5 0 2 0 0 7 0.71
Neptune 0 4 0 3 0 0 7 0.57
Obliterator 0 2 0 9 0 0 11 0.18
Octane 0 0 0 3 0 0 3 0.00
Osiris 0 4 0 6 0 0 10 0.40
Paradox 0 5 0 3 0 0 8 0.62
Rainbow 0 5 0 9 0 0 14 0.36
Scorpio 0 3 0 11 0 0 14 0.21
Seism 0 2 0 2 0 0 4 0.50
Total 0 67 0 133 0 0 200 0.32*ACL & CW not tracked within this table.
Variant 2:
The "5-precog" Deck - The "Jen-i" Deck6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 74d 74d 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 7qb 7qb 7qb 7qb 7qb 7tg 7tg 80b 80b 80b 80b 80bStrengths:
-Most straightforward
-Quick and easy
-Minimizes wasted draws
-Can work magically due to 5 precogs
Weaknesses:
-Can have difficulty drawing the combo due to 2 dolls and 2 gforces
God-by-god stats:
version 1.26
False God EM Won DO Lost ACL CW Total Win Rate
Chaos Lord 0 0 0 7 0 0 7 0.00
Dark Matter 0 2 0 7 0 0 9 0.22
Decay 0 2 0 3 0 0 5 0.40
Destiny 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0.00
Divine Glory 0 2 0 3 0 0 5 0.40
Dream Catcher 0 6 0 5 0 0 11 0.55
Elidnis 0 5 0 10 0 0 15 0.33
Eternal Phoenix 0 3 0 10 0 0 13 0.23
Ferox 0 3 0 5 0 0 8 0.38
Fire Queen 0 2 0 7 0 0 9 0.22
Gemini 0 2 0 7 0 0 9 0.22
Graviton 0 1 0 9 0 0 10 0.10
Hermes 0 1 0 5 0 0 6 0.17
Incarnate 0 3 0 5 0 0 8 0.38
Miracle 0 3 0 3 0 0 6 0.50
Morte 0 1 0 5 0 0 6 0.17
Neptune 0 5 0 5 0 0 10 0.50
Obliterator 1 2 0 8 0 0 11 0.27
Octane 0 1 0 10 0 0 11 0.09
Osiris 0 6 0 4 0 0 10 0.60
Paradox 0 2 0 1 0 0 3 0.67
Rainbow 1 4 0 3 0 0 8 0.62
Scorpio 0 0 0 9 0 0 9 0.00
Seism 0 3 0 7 0 0 10 0.30
Total 2 59 0 139 0 0 200 0.30*ACL & CW not tracked within this table.
Variant 3:
The "Accessory" Deck6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u7 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 74d 74d 74d 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 7k0 7tg 7tg 7tg 80b 80b 80b 80b 80b 80eMirror shield, electrocutor, and antimatter are generally considered the most useful accessories and I would agree after rigorous testing. I felt including one of each of the three was the best way to avoid quanta conflicts and double draws for a specific accessory. Every wasted draw in Shakar's is a killer!
Mirror shield - can prevent direct damage to your HP and is extremely useful at times, particularly vs. Octane.
Electrocutor - can help to stop momentumed creatures, FQ spawn, Osiris spawn, uncontrollable growth, gravity nymph spam, amongst other things. Probably the most useful accessory, but draws from your main quanta pool.
Antimatter - Helps to prolong matches to draw more cards as well as counter large opposing creatures.
Strengths:
-Does a great job of prolonging matches with accessories
Weaknesses:
-Accessories may get in the way of the combo
-May actually slow farming down (as supported by data seen below recorded for Fgei (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=14626.0))
God-by-god stats:
version 1.26
False God EM Won DO Lost ACL CW Total Win Rate
Chaos Lord 0 1 0 4 0 0 5 0.20
Dark Matter 0 1 0 8 0 0 9 0.11
Decay 0 1 0 4 0 0 5 0.20
Destiny 0 3 0 6 0 0 9 0.33
Divine Glory 0 2 0 2 0 0 4 0.50
Dream Catcher 0 3 0 7 0 0 10 0.30
Elidnis 0 4 0 6 0 0 10 0.40
Eternal Phoenix 0 1 0 8 0 0 9 0.11
Ferox 0 2 0 9 0 0 11 0.18
Fire Queen 0 5 0 8 0 0 13 0.38
Gemini 0 1 0 7 0 0 8 0.12
Graviton 0 3 0 7 0 0 10 0.30
Hermes 0 1 0 6 0 0 7 0.14
Incarnate 0 1 0 5 0 0 6 0.17
Miracle 0 2 0 6 0 0 8 0.25
Morte 0 1 0 10 0 0 11 0.09
Neptune 1 9 0 2 0 0 12 0.83
Obliterator 0 2 0 3 0 0 5 0.40
Octane 1 4 0 5 0 0 10 0.50
Osiris 0 5 0 8 0 0 13 0.38
Paradox 0 5 0 2 0 0 7 0.71
Rainbow 0 2 0 3 0 0 5 0.40
Scorpio 0 1 0 7 0 0 8 0.12
Seism 0 1 0 4 0 0 5 0.20
Total 2 61 0 137 0 0 200 0.31*ACL & CW not tracked within this table.
Variant 4:
The "Full" Deck6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 74d 74d 74d 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 7tg 7tg 7tg 80b 80b 80b 80b 80b 80bThis is the variant I came up with after may games played and a lot of thought put into it. The premise is that there are, in order, main problems that stop Shakar's from winning:
1. Not drawing the combo
2. Not drawing a Pendy/SN to start the combo
3. Not having enough quanta to play the combo
This variant leaves 3 dolls and gforces to try and keep the chances of drawing the combo high, but adds quanta to address problems 2 & 3. It also adds an additional TU to increase the chances of drawing more of those to utilize the additional quanta. More TU spam is never a bad thing.
Strengths:
-Attempts to address all major Shakar's problems
-Adds quanta/TU for more TU spam, getting cards out early, late game heriocs
Weaknesses:
-Deck can feel clogged at times with no precogs
*note - I was convinced this deck was the way to go through 150 games of testing, with a win % around 40%, then the next 50 games were miserable and I am not so much convinced anymore.
God-by-god stats:
version 1.26
False God EM Won DO Lost ACL CW Total Win Rate
Chaos Lord 0 1 0 5 0 0 6 0.17
Dark Matter 0 1 0 10 0 0 11 0.09
Decay 0 6 0 6 0 0 12 0.50
Destiny 0 3 0 3 0 0 6 0.50
Divine Glory 0 2 0 2 0 0 4 0.50
Dream Catcher 0 9 0 7 0 0 16 0.56
Elidnis 0 5 0 6 0 0 11 0.45
Eternal Phoenix 0 3 0 3 0 0 6 0.50
Ferox 0 1 0 3 0 0 4 0.25
Fire Queen 1 3 0 8 0 0 12 0.33
Gemini 0 2 0 12 0 0 14 0.14
Graviton 0 2 0 6 0 0 8 0.25
Hermes 0 1 0 6 0 0 7 0.14
Incarnate 0 7 0 4 0 0 11 0.64
Miracle 0 2 0 3 0 0 5 0.40
Morte 0 2 0 5 0 0 7 0.29
Neptune 0 4 0 5 0 0 9 0.44
Obliterator 0 1 0 3 0 0 4 0.25
Octane 0 1 0 5 0 0 6 0.17
Osiris 0 4 0 8 0 0 12 0.33
Paradox 0 2 0 7 0 0 9 0.22
Rainbow 0 1 0 6 0 0 7 0.14
Scorpio 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0.00
Seism 0 4 0 7 0 0 11 0.36
Total 1 67 0 132 0 0 200 0.32*ACL & CW not tracked within this table.
4-variant comparison & Fgei:| Variant | Time (min) | Time (hrs) | Games | Wins | Losses | EMs | Win Pct. | Win Rate | Fgei (n) |
| Regular | 500 | 8.333 | 200 | 67 | 133 | 0 | 33.5 | 0.32 | 3195.6 electrum/hr |
| Full | 512 | 8.533 | 200 | 67 | 132 | 1 | 34.0 | 0.32 | 3129.5 electrum/hr |
| Accessory | 554 | 9.233 | 200 | 61 | 137 | 2 | 31.5 | 0.31 | 2822.9 electrum/hr |
| 5-Precog | 506 | 8.433 | 200 | 59 | 139 | 2 | 30.5 | 0.30 | 2991.7 electrum/hr |
*Assumed card spin-win-rate = 35%
**Obviously, more testing is needed and I will continue to update, I just wanted to get the data out there.
And finally,
Detailed God-by-god breakdown:Chaos Lord: Win 9.1%
You may want to play your doll + BB to petrify the weapon slot, although discord may actually help you in reallocating quanta if you can spare the damage. Fallen druids and mutation are my nemesis. I know there are ways to use it to your advantage, but I’m not very good at having that work out for me.
Dark Matter : Win 20%
Hope to draw a lot of pendulums early, and only play SN when you are ready to lay down doll + BB + BB + gforce. You will need to play a defensive BB if DM plays a gravity nymph unless you have an electrocutor (which you probably won’t be able to or want to play against DM anyways). Pray for the best.
Decay: Win 34.5%
Really just a race of your quanta against his pests. Play everything as it comes, you can even get him to waste some life siphons on unprotected dolls, but you will usually end up waiting to see if he plays an eclipse before your quanta runs out so you can TU spam his damaging pests.
Destiny: Win 33.3%
You will have to play a defensive BB against fallen druids. Straightforward otherwise.
Divine Glory: Win 52.4%
Hope to have the combo quickly and draw supernovas because he will explosion your lands, limiting the ability to play your TUs. I generally don’t feel like I’m in the safe zone until I get 4 BB’s because his damage comes in 8’s, making 100 a much better number than 80. Straightforward match, the only real trick is to try and BB an early doll in order to minimize damage while you build your combo.
Dream Catcher: Win 50%
One of the easier matchups because the damage just doesn't come quickly from DC and his butterfly effect doesn't have as big an impact as it does vs. other FG farming decks. There is one tricky play you will have to watch out for. Discord will mix your quanta up, meaning you will want to have played a SN; however, he has 2 black holes, which means you would want to have held onto your SN's. I go ahead and just play them since he seems to generally play discord first. Lock the discord down with a protected doll ASAP.
Elidnis: Win 40.9%
Straightforward battle here. Beware of Elidnis' TU spam as you are trying to calculate damage against you. Precogs can help you see this coming to some extent.
Eternal Pheonix: Win 23.5%
Damage comes faster than almost any other false god here so hope to draw your combo early and pray for as many BB’s as possible because damage is difficult to predict from EP. Beware of Fire Lances dealing death blows. One could argue that antimatter against Crimson Dragons can give a stall advantage in deck/combo building.
Ferox: Win 23.5%
Ferox is fast. His speed is your biggest enemy. Damage is fairly straightforward although a Jade Dragon or two might throw off your damage calculation. Don’t be afraid of CC because he has none.
Fire Queen: Win 26.8%
Try and absorb damage with your gravity pull before his damage gets out of control. Electrocutor is your best friend if you have one. One of the few battles where an early mirror shield can help you immensely in building your hand for the combo. Again, try and petrify the weapon slot to prevent excess damage before you put your combo out.
Gemini: Win 19.4%
Defensive BBs and defensive gforces may be the only way you can manage a win if his momentum gets rolling, literally. That being said, put your doll out there sooner rather than later because much of his damage will bypass your gforce anyways.
Graviton: Win 24.4%
Damage comes quickly and is primarily unstoppable. Play your doll and grav force early, oftentimes before its ready because you will need to soak up as much damage as possible before momentum kills you. Similar tactic as Gemini, but harder. Unlikely victory here.
Hermes: Win 14.8%
Damage can come from Hermes faster than almost any other god due to cheap growing creatures so you will have to move quickly. Calculating damage against yourself or your doll is a little easier than some of the other rush gods as growing creatures. Once again, beware of fire lances dealing unexpected death blows.
Incarnate: Win 39.4%
Go for vampires with your electrocutor if you have one. There are two things, to me, that are difficult when facing Incarnate: 1. Vampire damage has recently been updated so it leeches off gravity pull, meaning you will have to put more damage on your doll before winning 2. Retrovirus/Boneyard combination can make calculating your damage a bit tricky as 3 damage splits into several 4’s with eclipse/boneyard on the board so just beware of your surroundings. That being said, it’s a fairly easy match to win if you draw the combo.
Miracle: Win 32.3%
Straightforward battle except keep in mind that damage can either come modestly or at a speed that is impossible to build against. Antimatter can be good here or even consider burning an early TU or TU+Grav Force to counter huge creatures. Late game heroics are not possible due to his miracles, so be sure to finish him off with your combo.
Morte: Win 24.1%
If you try and move too quickly, bone dragons can spoil your day. If you try and stall for more cards, poison can spoil your day. Its ok to play several hanging danglers if you want extra damage on Morte.
Neptune: Win 57.9%
Fairly straightforward battle here. Damage probably comes least quickly with Neptune than vs. any other false god. I pray that I would get to fight Neptune every time, but I prefer winning over a challenge. Don’t be afraid to play TU + gravity force on an arctic dragon if an early one comes and you have the extra quanta/gravity force while you wait for a doll or more BB. You can let your hp run fairly low against Neptune, but I would caution a little against shockwaves. Try and play an extra doll to draw these out for extra damage if you have the means.
Obliterator: Win 22.6%
You can play a hanging dangler if you need a gforce! Ok, I just wanted to say hanging dangler, but its true. One can make a strong argument for a deck with antimatter vs. Obliterator and you may even consider playing a defensive BB. Similar to Gemini/Graviton in strategy.
Octane: Win 21.4%
This one is a fast race to the finish line. You’ve kinda gotta play this one by feel, but generally put your dolls on the board asap, because every little damage you can put back on octane counts. Ideally, you want Octane playing few UG’s with his weapon slot frozen and a board with 2-4 owl’s eyes. Hard to win.
Osiris: Win 42.2%
Another battle where an early mirror shield could hypothetically help, although damage usually spins out of control quickly. More worrisome to me are the trebouchets. I recommend starting your gravity force combo early >50 hp if you have the cards to do so because of trebs and momentum.
Paradox: Win 51.9%
Straightforward match except damage comes quickly and is REALLY unpredictable in calculating due to déjà vu splits, blessings, and TU spam. It seems like every time you have a nice comfortable BB cushion on your doll with gravity force applied, Paradox senses it, spams about 4 or 5 TUs on a giant furball, and squashes your hopes and dreams of winning.
Rainbow: Win 35.3%
Watch for his hourglasses to speed up the match and damage so be careful with your calculation. Try and build your hand as stout as possible before going. You definitely want to play an early doll and try to BB his owl’s eye if you can to prolong things. If you are in desperate need of a gravity force you can try and entice him to play his on your doll. Precog can help you see this coming.
Scorpio: Win 12.1%
Generally his poison degen gets going too quickly for you to get organized, but I'd imagine this win percentage is a little low. Get your doll out early because he doesn't have alot of physical damage and you will die too soon if you don't start working down your doll's hp early
Siesm: Win 33.3%
Try and play your lands one by one due to explosion, or double stack when they are giving aether quanta. Damage calculation is a bit unpredictable due to dragons and shriekers so err on the side of extra BB’s.All Win percentages are generalized to the case of all four variants so should be considered carefully as such. Please refer to individual variants for more specific information.
Special thanks to Jangoo for creating the Shakar deck and Fgei!
Guest Posts
I will fix it sometime when I go back for edits. Also wanna clean up the god-by-god charts for each variant.