Deckbuilding 101: From Noob to False God Slayer

[plastiqe]

I understand why you didn't rank your decks now that I've seen all the flak I caught for giving Trident one star.  However...
..there is nothing stoping me from ranking them.  : )

And now, the top twelve jmizzle7 noobie decks - from the home office in Sudbury, On.

12th Light[/li]11th Air [/li]10th Entropy[/li]9th Gravity[/li]8th Time[/li]7th Fire[/li]6th Death[/li]5th Life[/li]4th Earth[/li]3rd Aether[/li]2nd Water[/li]1st Darkness[/li]

[xdude]

I understand why you didn't rank your decks now that I've seen all the flak I caught for giving Trident one star.  However...
..there is nothing stoping me from ranking them.  : )

And now, the top twelve jmizzle7 noobie decks - from the home office in Sudbury, On.

12th Light[/li]11th Air [/li]10th Entropy[/li]9th Gravity[/li]8th Time[/li]7th Fire[/li]6th Death[/li]5th Life[/li]4th Earth[/li]3rd Aether[/li]2nd Water[/li]1st Darkness[/li]

Did you actually do a carefully test? If not, how do you know that? If it's a matter of preference it's NOT helping the newbies. Light can bring out a dragon on turn 3 and than 1 every other turn. AND they never really go away. And you say light is the worst deck here?

[plastiqe]

You're right xdude, I haven't played with any of the decks here so the rankings are my preference.  But did you actually do a careful test?  How often does light get turn three dragons with one every other turn that never go away?  I put Light in 12th because I personally think the deck is one dimensional.

If my ranking the decks comes off as I'm knocking them, that isn't my intent.  jmizzle's decks do a fantastic job of answering the question a lot of new players will have - 'how can I improve my deck?'.  I totally respect that he wants to promote the element of fun (lame pun x2).

'Which is the best deck to start with?' is another question a lot of new players will have and I think it's a valid question.  Some of these decks are stronger than others and will take you further in the game.  Just because somebody is new to Elements does not mean you have to treat them with kid gloves.

[icybraker]

Ah, opinion lists. Time to add mine

1. Earth. Deadly fast, and inexpensive to boot. This is more or less the speed deck that other decks WANT to be.

2. Aether. It may not be as fast as other decks, but it's idiotproof. Invincible creatures, epic stalling; who DOESN'T like the airtight playing style of mono-Aether?

3. Darkness. Fun to play and very effective, with all the necessary elements to a good deck contained within this neat deck.

4. Fire. Again, very fast, and fun to play, also. Lots of variations you can try out with this nifty little thing.

5. Water. Sickeningly fast, comparable to the Earth deck, and the beautiful thing is, the damage STACKS UP and goes around largely unblocked.

6. Life. Quite fast and rather hilarious to watch your opponent being taken down by small little forest critters.

7. Death. Lots of damage, encompassing both the realm of hard-hitting dragons and poison.

8. Light. Makes great use of Blessings, and although it may not look like much, it shouldn't be underestimated.

9. Time. Reverse Times are super effective, Hourglasses speed it up, and Dragons make for good damage. Only problem is, the damage is easily stopped.

10. Gravity. The play isn't the most exciting, but Momentum sure helps in some situations.

11. Air. Only one kind of damage makes for an unreliable, although often quite fast, deck.

12. Entropy. Not the best offence, and certainly not the best defense, but at least it has some protection.

Yep, just like Plastique's, entirely open to opinion. And I agree with Plastique's last post.

[xdude]

You're right xdude, I haven't played with any of the decks here so the rankings are my preference.  But did you actually do a careful test?  How often does light get turn three dragons with one every other turn that never go away?  I put Light in 12th because I personally think the deck is one dimensional.

I have myself a fully upped deck which is almost like the deck over here and I have to say that I DO get out dragons on turn 2 at least in half of my games. I thought that unupgraded pillars would add another turn at max. And what do you mean by "one-sided"? I know light is not a very versatile element, but then again ALL rush decks are based on quick, powerful damage, therefore being one-sided.

[Delreich]

@Icy: Whether something is fast or not is not opinion. Go do the AI3 Farming Challenge (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,1874.0.html) to support your claims.
What I can say for sure is that Life and Earth (slightly modified) are very fast (average <80 seconds) and Water/Death is much slower (average about 120 seconds, based on 2x15 minute sample).

[Lanidrak]

Plus Karma for Jmizzle...

I'm thinking of making a tutorial to come just after this deck... Basically involving "Splashing Marks" and introducing effective Duo combinations... My immediate impulse will be to do a Death/Water Speed Poison, a Firefly Queen and a Graviton Fire Growth... Will work on it later this week when I have time, if that's cool with you Jmizz? Big respect for this post though.

[-Phiryos-]

Go do the AI3 Farming Challenge (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,1874.0.html) to support your claims.

Yep. So far only 3 almost "starter decks" have been tested, with Time being the slowest (for now).

I'm curious about Darkness and Fire.

[Patrick]

for the earth example can i thange my mark to time so i can evolve stuff

[Scaredgirl]

for the earth example can i thange my mark to time so i can evolve stuff

That's a good point.

The mark is supposed to be time, and it even says so in the text. The big Earth icon is there just to make it more pretty, but it also makes it more confusing. Jmizzle7 has to fix that somehow. Fastest way would probably be to just add some text under each deck image.

[icybraker]

I would make

"Change your mark to Time."

In huge, colorful text so no one can miss it.

[Essence]

There's a new standard for AI3 Air efficiency:

Mark of Fire
14x Air Pillar
6x Unstable Gas
4x Wyrm
4x Air Dragon
2x Fire Spirit

Works much more quickly and brutally than the currently-posted Air deck.