In War 2 I started a thread like this for each Element and
came in 3rd place. In War 4 I didn't start a thread like this for any Elements and we came in 12th place. So at risk of being master of the obvious, I think these threads might actually be helpful to us. However, while I wanted to personally point out some of the greatest weaknesses and strengths of Life, I think it will be much better if anyone else decides to start a thread like this for the other Elements. As a newbie in War 2 doing these threads caused me to consider a great deal about the Elements we would be facing later, and it also gave me a chance to listen to and observe random pieces of information that more experienced players had to offer. In short, it's a great learning exercise for the entire team.
Strengths 1) Rushing ability. Having tested various fast decks against AI3 for over a year I can tell you that unupped Mono Life is the fastest mono Element in the game that there is; upped is also extremely fast, but loses out to Fire by mere fractions of a fraction of a turn. Frogs are practically unparalleled in rushing ability, and Adrenaline is the greatest quick damage booster in the game that there is. Cockatrice is also a nice cheap attacker that is sturdier than the Frog but serves nearly the same purpose. Its creatures are cheap and it also possesses Mitosis for creature spamming.
2) Dragons. This isn't something that you normally hear when discussing the strengths and weaknesses of Life, but it's very true. Emerald Dragon is both extremely durable (one of the few Dragons that is NOT within Lightning KO range unupped) and relatively cheap for its stats. Ice Dragon costs the exact same as Emerald Dragon, but has one less attack. It's quite honestly the one card in Life's arsenal that doesn't make the entire Element roll over against any creature control-heavy deck. Jade Dragon boasts an amazing 9 HP, but unfortunately once HP reaches over 5 or 6 it's not that impressive to have more of it. Furthermore, the increase in cost sometimes makes Emerald Dragon a better choice anyways since it can be played faster.
3) Stalling ability. Though I say this is a strength, Life's ability to stall is still very limited, but it can still do it. In conjunction with other Elements that stalling ability is increased greatly, however. Heal is very effective at offering a quick boost in HP when needed, though this won't usually matter much if you're using it in a semi-rush. Stalls benefit quite a bit from Heal however since it's basically up to 120 extra damage the deck can take before submitting to defeat. When you consider this type of power in something such as a Firestall, that becomes a very big threat. Druidic Staff is also very effective, basically serving as a Shard of Gratitude in weapon form which can oftentimes be more useful than Heal in the right situation.
4) Duo-creation ability. Mitosis and Adrenaline basically make any Duo deck with Life possible. Say we salvage Hermatite Golems during a Round. Next round we can use a Mitosis Golem/Adrena-Golem deck. This becomes very, very useful during the later Rounds when we become stretched thin on cards to use for our decks.
Weaknesses 1) Creature Control. My god is this a weakness. Aside from Emerald Dragon, anything that Life throws out is instantly destroyed by Lightning or Shockwave (unupped). This is particularly annoying because the strongest cards (debatable) that Life possesses (Adrenaline and Mitosis) are completely destroyed by this creature control. This also in turn makes cards like Empathetic Bond nearly useless because it can't keep creatures on the field long enough to take advantage of that healing. This is going to be something that needs to be taken care of when considering a matchup against nearly any opponent.
2) Shields. While -1 and -2 damage reduction shields can be pretty annoying, the most devastating shields to Life are undoubtedly Dimensional Shield and Wings. The only way that Life on its own can counter Dimensional Shield is to use Forest Scorpion, the amazing 1|2 powerhouse. Under most circumstances you would be lucky to have the Scorpion attack 3 times before being blocked off completely. Wings is also a huge problem because really the only -great- creature that can get around Wings in Life is Emerald Dragon. While Forest Spirits can get around it and are pretty menacing later in the game, Air also has Shockwave, Unstable Gas, Owl's Eye and Thunderstorm to kill it as soon as it hits the field. Oh and Life has absolutely no way of destroying permanents on its own; talk about balance, right? Last War, Life saw a lot of counter play by these two shields, so I'd like to fix that issue as best as possible.
3) Duo synergy. It seems weird that I would list Duo creation as a strength, but synergy as a weakness. But it's true: While Life is able to easily create synergies with just about any Element, the diversity and strength of those synergies is lacking quite a bit. I mean just think about it: If all of its synergies consist of Adrenaline or Mitosis use, then just how unpredictable can you really be? It's still the same creature spamming/rushing that can be seen in a Mono Life, just with a few tricks. This may become an issue in the middle War stages if we're forced to create synergies based on Vault limitations; early Round victories are especially helpful in this case.
4) Quanta generation. This shouldn't be a problem given that nearly all of Life's cards cost next to nothing to play, and yet it is. Discord disrupts rushes, making a deck easier to counter before it has a chance to burst damage (however I'm not really sure how the Discord nerf affects this now). Discord breaks stalls by making the more expensive cards (Feral Bonds, Mitosis, either Shield) significantly harder to play. Earthquake destroys Pillars and Pends and slows down just about any Life deck. And while Entropy has Nova and Fire has Immolation to counter EQ, Life's greatest defense against that card is...Rustler. Just about anyone could sneeze and kill that poor thing. I ban both of these cards every single Trials for the simple reason that they're annoying as hell to deal with.
Got something else you want to mention/discuss? Feel free to post below.
