Guest posts by rainingblood

37

Duo-Decks / Re: Rage Armor

« on: December 26, 2009, 11:37:10 pm »

I did the same thing with flying Titans (8/70) so I didn't need unstoppable. It worked surprisingly well, rewind was a pain though. It was basically that with Animate Weapon instead of Unstoppable.

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,1470.0.html (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,1470.0.html)

Aye, the titan would be great as well. Though your version could use gravity force in order to turn the titan into a damage sink. I'll have to give that a try.

38

Duo-Decks / Rage Armor

« on: December 26, 2009, 10:54:15 pm »

The deck below is the result of some experimenting I did in the trainer. It uses the new rage elixir to what seems to be great effect. Since the Armagio has 30 health you can play as many as 4 rage elixir's producing a 26/6 or 27/7 unstoppable creature. The other strength to this deck is the insane defense. With a total of 6 Armagio's you can absorb as much as 180 damage. The 30 card format also makes this an easy and reliable set up. Let me know what you guys think.

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744 744 744 744 744 744 744 744 744 744 746 746 746 746 746 746 74a 74a 74a 74a 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dr 7dr 7dr 7dr 7dr 7dr 8po

39

Rainbow Decks / Re: rainbow reloaded - false god's (no sundials)

« on: December 26, 2009, 02:31:25 am »

Are 6 hourglasses really worth it? I know that's the main strategy, but I'd think they would clog up your hand.

I think it's a necessary sacrifice in order to ensure a consistent 2nd or 3rd turn hourglass. It's the linchpin of the entire deck.

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Rainbow Decks / Re: rainbow reloaded - false god's (no sundials)

« on: December 26, 2009, 01:46:07 am »

This deck seriously lacks early game defense, just like all other non-Sundial False God decks. No sundials = No high winning percentage (you can quote me on that).

It'll require more testing to be sure. But from experience play testing this deck it has proven consistent enough to warrant the elimination of sundial entirely. You can judge for yourself of course. I think we can bear 8-9 turns unprotected against most gods. The key then being to amplify card drawing power, quanta generation, and control as efficiently as possible. With 6 hourglasses you should be able to get one on the table by turn 2-3. At that point it's simply a matter of being able to set up the deck's control strategy by turn 8-9, which will depend on how quickly you can leverage the firestorms, otyughs, graveyards, and feral bonds. This is the reason why I put 3 of each. Everything else is more or less a support card. I think it's unproductive to focus so much on sundial. Personally, I'd like to see a strong version of an immortal otyugh deck, or something else playing off the alchemy set.

41

Rainbow Decks / Re: rainbow reloaded - false god's (no sundials)

« on: December 25, 2009, 07:17:23 pm »

If mark is time, why don't you have an eternity. Won't you deck out against miracle?
I guess you base your luck on getting enough damage/tricks from mutated skeletons.
I guess, until someone gets quintessence, they could use anubis instead?
My supernovas tend to stuck in with time mark too.

I think the key for not decking out is to pulverize miracles light towers. With a sufficiently strong army, he will probably get in one miracle, but two is unlikely. I haven't decked out yet. Besides, I find eternity sucks up too much time quanta. I thought about using Anubis but haven't had time to test it yet. Hopefully, quintessence makes it into the game soon. Being able to get an immortal druid or otyugh on the same turn will probably make up for some of the recent changes.

42

Rainbow Decks / rainbow reloaded - false god's (no sundials)

« on: December 25, 2009, 03:09:12 am »

I decided to make a new deck considering the recent changes. It's a simple rehash but I think it works above 50%. Instead of sundial I trimmed the deck a little and added 6 hourglasses. The main strategy is pretty concentrated and straightforward. Filter through the deck with the hourglasses. Drop otyugh, bonewall, graveyard, firestorm, feral bond, and druid as soon as possible (hold off on quintessence or protect artifact if facing creature/permanent removal). The deck works fine without the quintessence right now, although it does add a nice edge against hermes and company. Everything else should be pretty self-explanatory.

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6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u6 6u6 717 717 717 71b 71b 74b 74b 74b 77f 77f 77i 77i 7am 7am 7am 7do 7do 7do 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 80d 80d 80h 80h 8ps

43

Trio & Quartet / A working mutation deck

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:32 pm »

I find that with any less pillars it takes too long to get a druid out. The problem with a druid is that it's expensive but has very little hp, so if I have to wait, the opponent can get out an oty, an ulitharid, hell, if I can get it out before they have a chance to play firebolt/ RoF, then next turn I create a mutant that will hopefully survive the onslaught.

That makes sense. Though I think that every deck has a weak point. Having more pillars for druids might give you a bit of an edge against a heavy creature control deck. But you'll be more likely to get bad draws against most other decks. Also, you might not be able to draw multiple druids in order to take advantage of the additional pillars - pillars which could have been replaced with more creatures - giving you faster damage output. The deja vu's are a nice example - even if I can't mutate them they can rack up some damage faster than you might expect. With that said, my own deck is weak against creature control, but strong in other areas. I figured it was a fair trade off. I also experimented with improved mutations - the spell - which could be one way of bypassing otyugh's and the like. But here again, I'd have to drop some druids or creatures to make it happen, which could make the deck unstable + they can be highly unpredictable. I'm beginning to think some thunderbolts or congeals could be a nice complement instead.

leaf dragons are cheap fodder as well as useful. The problem for me would be : 1)you still gotta make sure they survive 1 turn to use the ability. 2) You're losing light quanta, which are useful for daje vu-ing golden dragons, and I like to keep my options open for the occasional devour/ablaze etc.

Any player worth their salt wouldn't waste creature removal on the leaf dragons. I've had this happen only once in the past 100 games or so (in pvp). They're just not a likely target. If anything, the druids are going to take the blows. Even so, it's not like they're that essential anyway. The possibility of deja-vu'ing a golden dragon is incredibly unlikely. Either way, I've never been short on light quanta. If you get more than 1 supernova you don't have to drain all of the light quanta on the leaf dragon. I find just using it once to get 4 life quanta is enough of an edge to fuel the druids.

The turtle shield though I find very useful most of the time. Other than crippling most decks, it's good to slow down fed otys so you can get out a druid and mutate them, and basically slow down all kinds of nasty things. I never play it without an explosion on hand though. Someone stealing them would only be rainbow (in which case you're f***ed most of the time, this being the least of your worries) or darkness, both of which, by the way, become easy with a 1st/2nd turn pulv.

See, now that's interesting - I actually have a pretty high win rate against rainbow decks. Since they tend to be slow I can manage to get a nice army out before they're even ready to fight. Then it's just a matter of using the explosions at a few critical points. The only exception is when the rainbow deck uses heavy creature control. It's a cakewalk otherwise. As for the turtle shield I can see how it might help. But then you wouldn't be able to use deja vu's. Besides, having only 1 in the deck makes it unreliable.

The druids themselves become fodder once there are more than 2 on the table. With more fodder, you're more likely to get that in your starting hand than druids, which are the essential card. Also, having 1 druid out and lots of fodder (which would happen) isn't very useful, because you can only mutate once a turn.

Agreed. I also mutate druids quite a bit. About your other point: both our decks use 6 druids - so no matter how much fodder is in the deck it doesn't change the probability of drawing them. The difference as I see it is that I can draw a druid + fodder very consistently - whereas if I had less fodder I might only have the druid with nothing to mutate or be forced to mutate an additional druid. The next point is that having a lot of fodder on the table isn't a problem really. For one thing, as I mentioned above, the fodder itself can rack up some nice damage on its own. I tend to mutate everything that I draw, as long as I have a druid or two out. The life quanta isn't an obstacle. The fact that you can only use the ability once per turn isn't really a limitation either since you'll be mutating at the same rate no matter how little or how much fodder you have - both decks have 6 druids. It's a question of which support cards give you more of edge. I just think you get more utility out of the fodder than you would otherwise.

Thanks for the input, and perhaps we should duel sometime to see which deck works better.

Sounds good. I'll look for you online.

44

Trio & Quartet / A working mutation deck

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:32 pm »

Hey, we just played against each other. So I can say that the deck does work. I would make a few suggestions though: 1) bring it down to 30 cards (to make it more efficient and consistent), 2) reduce the pillar count - I'd recommend 7-8 depending on the mark (the pillars use up too many useful card slots and the deck doesn't use all that much quanta anyway), 3) I'd drop the pulverizer and turtle shield (I look at it this way: every deck has at least some permanent control - if you only have one or two they'll be disposed of pretty quick + they can be used against you if your opponent has steals, 4) there aren't enough cheap creatures for the mutation ability - I use leaf dragon and deja vu. The leaf dragon is underestimated, especially in this type of deck. In my current mutation deck, I can usually get out a supernova, druid, and leaf dragon on the 2nd turn - giving me 5 life quanta for mutations - which is plenty to get something good on the table. Once you've used up their ability they're ready for mutation. No comment on the deja vu, they're vital imo.

Here's the current version of my speed mutation deck (updated from a previous post):



Mark is Entropy

45

Rainbow Decks / Speed mutation

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:31 pm »

The thing is, most poeple wouldn't mutate a frozen creature. Also, I don't run Plagues or Bonewalls in my Speed Poison. It's the standard one in the "Got Poison?" thread (Bone Tower x10, Congeal x6, Physalia x6, Deadly Poison x 6, Arsenic x2, Mark of Water). You'd be suprised how much of a difference four turns makes. My deck kills in 5-8 turns, so those four turns are more than half the game.

I have more creatures than you have congeals - so all things being equal I'll mutate something. No doubt it would be a struggle against the build you're talking about. But again, there's a lot of unpredictability involved here, the mutations might provide devour or some other ability - and if I manage to get a mutated dragon on the table (which can be done in 2-3 turns if lucky) you'll be hard pressed to out damage me. Arsenic could be disabled early enough depending on the draw too. In any event, I wouldn't claim a win over this version of poison - there aren't many people sporting it from what I can see anyway. I'm more concerned with beating mono-fire since that seems to be one of the most popular decks.

46

Rainbow Decks / Speed mutation

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:30 pm »

You're not the first person to use Deja Vus as mutation fodder, lol. When I first started, I had a deck like that too (though it was rather large...).

Well. They're an obvious choice, definitely. If there is any innovation it's in the tailored down 30 card format. The original idea, which I ended up scrapping was to use buffs and deja vu's and then duplicate them. In the first version of the deck it was pretty common for me to get out a couple 9/9 deja vu's using blessing, momentum, and chaos power. But like I said in the previous post, it's a strategic choice, since the mutation ability generates more threat than a few pumped up deja vu's. Though I'm sure everything's been tested to death already.

As for the poison matchup. If I see Amethyst Pillars/Towers or an Entropy Mark, and my opponent plays a Supernova and then a Deja Vu, I can usually predict what kind of deck it is. Freeze the Deja Vu before it has a chance to split, or wait for the Druid to hit pay and then freeze that. It's a judgement call.

That's fair enough, but there are 9 creatures in the deck, and since you can't freeze them all and since freeze only buys you 4 turns a few things will slip through, multiple deja vu's and werewolves can over power the bonewall and the improved mutations will remove some of the reliance on druids. That's just one scenario where I don't see poison having much of a chance. I'd like to test this more thoroughly, though I'll remain skeptical that this deck is weak against poison.

47

Rainbow Decks / Speed mutation

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:30 pm »

I do find this deck a bit sluggish against other speed decks. Fire being the hardest, since it can out-damage me in most cases. The fire bolts and storms can be a problem. It'll depend a lot on skill though. Not playing too many creatures at once would be one way to deal with it. As for graboid/shrieker, I haven't played against it yet - I suspect it'll crush this deck. Against poison I think this deck actually comes up on top. The only defense for a poison deck is freeze/bonewall. Since I can mutate multiple creatures the freeze shouldn't slow it down that much. When it comes to bonewall the deja vu's multiply so quickly that I can bypass it without too many problems + momentum for my larger damage sources. The devourer issue is solved with supernova. The quanta distribution is surprisingly steady so I haven't run into any problems there.

Anyway, this deck isn't meant to be the be all end all. I was trying to find a fun speedy deck without being another predictable fire, poison, or earth clone. I'd still like to fine tune this build though. The one place I could make some interesting changes would be with the deja vu's. Six of them might be too much. I'd like to replace them with some other cheap creatures from another element, and if they can deal with the above problems in some way that would be a bonus. Otherwise, some other configuration. Hopefully, some of you seasoned players can clue me into a better version of this deck.

48

Rainbow Decks / Speed mutation

« on: December 15, 2009, 10:10:30 pm »

Here's my attempt at a fun 30 card speed mutation deck for pvp/top50. I'm still experimenting with it, but it does have a pretty good win rate so far and not that many weaknesses that I'm aware of.

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6u1 6u1 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u4 6u4 6u4 6u6 6u6 6u6 74a 74a 7dm 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7t9 8pj

In the first version of this build I used blessings, chaos powers, etc. to try and capitalize off the deja vu ability. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that well. For one thing, it uses up too many useful card slots in the deck. And second, the pumped up deja vu's would usually pale in comparison to an improved mutant. Though I still think the deja vu has a lot of potential for this kind of deck - fast, cheap, mutation fodder - so I retained all 6 of them.

In the new build, the supernova's provide just enough time quanta to fuel the deja vu's + all the potential mutation abilities. I don't use quantum pillars. I've found the right amount of amethyst pillars to be about 6 provided you take mark of chaos. It might also work with mark of time, but with an additional pillar.

The deck handles shields using 1 steal and 1 explosion + 2 momentum's. This tends to work out nicely. As for creature control, it can be a bit unpredictable, but mutating the opponent's units does provide some protection. I also found the ideal number of druids and improved mutations to be 3 of each. If the opponent dispatches the druids you can still get a strong mutant through with the improved mutation. While if you have too many druids you'll end up draining your life and entropy quanta. Last point, in terms of creature balance, 6 deja vu's + 2 werewolves guarantee's a creature in the first hand + it doesn't rely completely on the supernova for early mutations. Those are my thoughts. Let me know what you think.