Alright enough reflecting, time to add my two
- I think Morm is spot on with the Firestall idea. If you ask me, those duels from last Round were part of a plan to set up their strategies for this Round. Everyone should be able to note that every one of
's decks were designed to break through defenses and pulverize the opponent's creatures. I'd be willing to bet good money that during the next round Air is going to switch its tactics and go for a more defensive approach as an attempt to counter the decks that try to stop the creature blitzkrieg from taking place. The best ways I could see to do this would be to a) Use a stall (Light, FFQ, Bone Wall, etc.) b) Use Quints to counter CC (kind of a weak strategy, but still viable) c) Splash more control in with their rushes (AM, Lightning, etc.) or d) Use stall breakers (EQ duo, PU Dragons, etc.). Firestall answers almost all of these decks assuming that we add the right cards to the deck we're using. DD has a certain love for Dragonflies, so Thorn Carapace would need to remain upgraded. Rage Potions are recommended for the faster decks. Our biggest problems with this deck would be facing Dragons. I'm not the expert on stalls though, so I don't know what other cards we'd like to add; I've heard ideas of Mitosis Dragons, Bonds, and Heals. Which build do we think would be most effective against the decks I've mentioned above?
- Darkness fell into my trap last round. You see, the benefit of providing information for others to see is that because they know I am aware of our weaknesses they are inclined to assume that I will do everything within my power to cover up that weakness. Therefore Devtal was a highly risky deck to use last Round. I must say, however, that I was very surprised by Darkness's choice last Round. Apparently they assumed we were going to go for a full out rush to prevent healing and denial antics, but what's more surprising is that the team itself didn't seem too enthusiastic about their deck choice either. Are they lost for answers against us already? Seems like an opportune time to catch them off guard.
Last Round we displayed two decks which were not designed to be breakneck rushes, but instead found ways to circumvent counter methods to those rushes. This is enough information for opponents to believe that it is safe to take things at a slower pace. I can see Darkness using several decks next Round and they're all either slow paced or focused on control. One of the highest expectations is Devtal; our decks last Round probably demonstrated a weakness to quanta control which would make them a tasty snack for Devtal. Easiest ways to counter Devtal are to either use a Sancstall or a Nova deck, with the former being the hardest counter of the two. I've looked at all of the decks that Darkness used last War and the biggest counters that I could see against this deck would be another Sancstall (with Drain Life) or a PU Dragon deck. If we choose to use Mitosis Crusaders in addition to Sanctuaries then neither of these two decks is a problem. We can either use Thorn Carapace or Jade Shield here, but the idea of Stealing Thorn Carapace is obviously going to be problematic. If we can't afford to use this fat of a deck due to vault restrictions then the Monk deck is probably our best bet.
- I'm forced to listen to Higurashi's wisdom regarding this element from last War. Water has a very clear weakness to any decks that do not rely on creatures; the main reason they became such a feared Element last War is because people continued to use decks littered with creatures against them; Water is a very, very controlling Element so it makes sense that people lost so many times with those tactics. However, there is another way to exploit that weakness without going completely creatureless: Fractal. Higurashi must have used Fractal decks 2 rounds in a row against Water last War and won each and every single one of those games. Why? Simple: Even with the amount of control that Water possesses, it is near impossible to keep up with that kind of spamming power. We can use Dim Shield to protect ourselves in case they do go rush on us and then use Frogtal to bring the pain; with the Deflag nerf, splashing PC is going to be much more difficult. Discord is probably the biggest problem in this case, but unless they're using that funky Discord/BH deck from last War, Dim Shield is going to bind Discord back in place quite nicely.
- Really not sure about this one, but EQ seems like the obvious answer. I don't know what kind of a build we'd want to use yet.
- The worst I could see them doing against us this round is either using a Scarab deck of some type, some duo with Wings, or a funky Rainbow similar to what they used last round. AdrenaVamps sounds like a good answer here.
- This...is going to be difficult. From my experience it's very, very difficult to counter any of Entropy's Nova decks with a Nova deck of our own. But what other options do we have, honestly? Sanctuary isn't as effective counter as you would would expect when you consider that their decks are practically built on getting out a Discord as fast as possible and denying the hell out of you. BHs further complicate things. On the opposite end of the spectrum they have pretty lethal stalls of their own to hit us with. So do we try to build a specific counter to a deck in particular or do we try to hit them hard before they can hit us? I'm thinking a Grabbow is the right way to go here. However, based on experience from being on Team Aether and having to face Sancstalls countless times: I highly advise that we bring 2 Arsenic with us.
- Their decks seem built to counter Wings. Morm speaks truth when he says that they can't counter every Wings deck though. I'm going to assume that we're going to with a Dragon build for this. I'll think about what this one needs a bit more.
- Elemental opposite...what do you have in store for us this time. Water/Life duo seems like the obvious answer here...but I have my concerns.
1) Aether duos. They used quite a few against Life last War, one of which was able to beat a Water/Life duo. Life did manage to beat a Dragon Fractal, but it seemed like that required a certain amount of luck to pull off.
2) Discord/BH. I don't think they'd want to use this against us this time, but who knows really.
Meh we really don't have many other options here.
For the record: I'm not intending to use that denial deck during this round, it's a surprise tactic if nothing else and will likely only be needed when our Vault becomes more and more unstable.
