Guest posts by xiongwen8

25

Patch Notes and Development News / Re: Elements 1.21

« on: March 19, 2010, 08:31:03 pm »

Good changes, Steal, Pulverizer and Eternity are some of the most ridiculously OPed cards in the game. I won't called this a nerf, because these cards needed some proper balancing long ago. Also at the other end, Vampire Stiletto finally gets a boost, it can finally compete with Druidic Staff (Although Vampire Dagger might need a cost increase). Excellent update, keep it up Zanz.

26

Air / Re: in development: shockwave

« on: March 19, 2010, 08:20:12 pm »

Hmm, considering the relative popularity of freeze, this could be a useful combo. This card have low cost (1 upgraded) and very high control potential (4 damage even without freeze), making it an excellent creature control spell. Although long-term sources of creature control are often preferred (e.g. Otyugh, Owl's Eye, ect.), and too many spells can clog up your deck (especially with Elements decks which are relatively smaller than other decks from other card games). However, I think this highly efficient card can overcome this. Very nice card.

27

General Discussion / Re: The Sundial Nerf: Analysis and Solutions

« on: January 29, 2010, 02:55:26 am »

  Hmm, congealing is an interesting idea for stalling and creature control. Although it is true that rainbow decks lack water cards, false gods usually can summon many creatures quickly, so that for congealing to be effective, it has to be fast and plentiful.
  Although congeal spells are cheap, and can help with stalling false gods, they are not a long term solution since false gods will summon additional creatures and 6 congeals might not be enough.
  So, personally I think having congeal spell cards would just clog up your deck. However, arctic squids does sound like a better long term and compact solution. These 2 all have pros and cons (arctic squids are costly and vulnerable), so I think some proper testing should settle matters.

28

Earth / Re: New Card: Basilisk Blood

« on: January 28, 2010, 08:52:13 pm »

  I agree with Essence that this card is too much of an investement to put into 1 of your own creatures considering the fact that first of all, just increasing a creature's health by large amounts doesn't make it invulnerable (e.g. fallen elfs, rewind, freeze, etc.). Also,  you'll be putting that creature out for 6 turns, which drastically decreases the value of that creature simply because it is out of the action for so long. In other words, using BB on your creatures and waiting for 6 turns is just not a good enough strategy, alot can happen in 6 turns.
  However, combining adrenaline with BB and possibly Otyugh does sound like a good idea, and also using BB with a damage absorbance creature (e.g. armagio). But these are rigid and specific combinations that might require a specialized deck.
  So overall it seems that Basilisk's Blood will be more useful to us as a creature control card considering its high stasis time.

29

Rainbow Decks / Re: The ULTIMATE False God killing deck!!!

« on: January 27, 2010, 02:00:09 am »

Then eternity is a must, and maybe 1 or 2 protect artifacts.
Also, if the deck needs to be trimmed, I would take out the sundials, Owl's eye, Graboid, a few towers and add an extra fallen druid, 1-2 Hourglasses, and 2-3 quints.
But then again, this deck would just look like any other post sundial nerf deck...

30

Rainbow Decks / Re: The ULTIMATE False God killing deck!!!

« on: January 26, 2010, 11:26:39 pm »

I think the main thing to consider when editing this deck is the sundial card. Ever since version 1.17 sundials have lost much of their usefulness. Someone needs to  come up with a good solution to provide this deck with good early defense and accelerated card draw without sundials. If someone does solve the sundial problem, I'm sure this deck will be again be:"The ULTIMATE False God killing deck".

31

Humor / Re: One of our members is a hacker!!!

« on: January 26, 2010, 11:21:30 pm »

Suck it up Scaredgirl, why can't you just admit you lost fair and square to [you]? Stop trying to get [you] banned to fix your broken ego.

32

General Discussion / Re: The Sundial Nerf: Analysis and Solutions

« on: January 26, 2010, 06:53:16 pm »

Possible Solutions and Deck Options

I agree with many players that some good solutions to the sundial nerf for rainbow FG decks includes:

1. Making decks smaller for more stable draws.
2. More Hourglasses for faster draws.

So generally, its seems that more speed is now the way to go. The decks nowadays are indeed faster and more stable. However, this makes the deck more vulnerable to FGs that are more control oriented, (Hermes, Rainbow, and lot more I think...) since less cards mean more chances that some key card(s) (e.g. the only fallen druid in your deck) could be taken out, thus severely lowering you chances at winning.

I'll try to post some good examples of decks that approach these problems soon.

33

General Discussion / The Sundial Nerf: Analysis and Solutions

« on: January 26, 2010, 06:52:48 pm »

  The Problem
 
  Personally, I think that the sundial nerf since version 1.17 has had a huge impact on FG rainbow decks. Most rainbow FG farming decks rely on heavy creature control and permanent usage. However, the main weakness with these decks (and generally with most large rainbow decks) is its slow and unreliable setup. In early stages of games against false gods, rainbow decks are often still trying to either draw key cards or get enough quanta while the false god has already summoned multiple creatures and then proceeds to quickly pound you into the ground.
  Scaredgirl has said herself that the sundial was:” The most crucial card", and rightfully so. Before its nerf, sundials were the perfect fix to the rainbow's weakness, allowing you cheap, absolute defense (no creatures attack for 2 turns at the cost of 1 or 0 quantum) and lets you draw 2 cards, thus giving rainbow decks fast, early defense and accelerated card draw leading to faster setup. Now, the nerf has not only cut its defense value in half (1 turn instead of 2) but also, sundials now give you no net gain in cards (since you only draw 1 card, you only gain back the card slot taken by the sundial card).
  Now that the sundial has become a mere shadow of its former glory, we need to move on and find another solution. But it won’t be easy, since most FG rainbow decks I’ve seen before version 1.17 had sundials. Although I won’t get into the issue as to whether rainbow decks should still contain sundials, I know that it is in our interest to find a solution to the rainbow deck’s once again, exposed weakness of slow and unstable card setup.
  Please reply with any comments to my rough analysis or potential solutions to this problem.