DeathKnyte's Dark Platinum Decks

[DeathKnyte]

Level 68 Health Points 188/190 Max Upgraded 60 Oracle Upgraded 5 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 2:3 Electrum Earned 24 Rank 451 Rating -106 Age (days) 1 Thumbs Up? 0 Thumbs Down? 2

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7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ai 7am 7ba 7ba 7ba 7t4 7t4 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t9 7t9 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7tc 7tc 7tc 7ti 7ti 7ti 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pn

Didn't do too well, so I'm going to pull it.

I suspect that with the dexterity of the deck, 10x mitosis cards must have clogged some draws with cards that had to wait a few turns before being played.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 68 Health Points 196/200 Max Upgraded 30 Oracle Upgraded 4 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 1:1 Electrum Earned 12 Rank 343 Rating -32 Age (days) 2 Thumbs Up? 0 Thumbs Down? 1

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748 748 748 748 55o 55k 576 5uu 5uu 5uu 5uu 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t8 7t9 7tb 7tc 7tc 7te 7ti 7ti 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pl

Wanted to try these big hulking chunks of beef with liquid shadow. I figured they could take it for a few turns. But, with such few plays and the Oracle's new card of the day, I'll pull this deck early and try the next one...

[Chapuz]

I'm seing a lot of good material in this thread, go on!
I'm gonna add it to the bottom of my 'How to become rich fast' tutorial soon.

It also seems you NEED that 6 Supernovas 

[DeathKnyte]

You know, Chapuz, I don't know what to say other than; I appreciate you considering this, and I certainly hope it will help any one interested in dark arena decks.

On another note; I have been fortunate to have been selected as a player of Team Darkness for the upcoming war (#8).
With that however, comes a pile of work and attention devoted to that cause, and my arena decks are likely to "ride out" longer than I normally let them used to, until the work load eases somewhat.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 68 Health Points 136/200 Max Upgraded 30 Oracle Upgraded 4 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 32:10 Electrum Earned 480 Rank 566 Rating -120 Age (days) 6 Thumbs Up? 8 Thumbs Down? 24

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77m 77m 77m 77m 596 593 594 594 5v1 77j 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t8 7t9 7t9 7tb 7tc 7tc 7tc 7ti 7ti 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pm

Hokay, this deck merits a little history...

A while ago, I was playing some PvP against a player known as Jen-i (who happens to be the current Master of Light). I thought I was doing pretty good, with various decks we were using - at least I felt like I was holding my own - until he started pulling out these Iriduim / Vanadium Wardens against me. At first, I kind of discounted them as "speed bumps", because I figured I had enough reserves to bulldoze past them eventually. But no... These guys turned out to be immovable obstacles, which efficiently shut down my big hitters, and I eventually succumbed to the assorted "riff raff" creatures, which accompanied them.

Lesson learned - and never forgotten.

So then, when the Oracle offered me this card, I did not hesitate to withdraw the old deck, and construct one around them.

The concept was the same as when I had played Jen-i, but instead of accompanying damage dealers, I chose a more dark route (not that you should be surprised anymore) of quanta denial (pests), steals for annoying permanents, and some siphon life's for early creature control. A few stone skins to augment my own health, a couple of earthquakes to totally upset the opponent, some cloaks to counter any possible early otyugh decks, and a "surprise" nightmare to finalize the package.

In testing, I could not beat it with any deck I thought would be a good counter. After my arena deck beat me 20 times, I was satisfied and let it ride.

Note that: On the opening screen you see an iriduim warden with an accompanying earth mark. Now what kind of deck would you expect from that?

On day three, the deck broke the top 30's rankings (it may have gotten higher, but with my efforts focusing on war, I check the arena just once a day lately), and gradually descended to where it is now, at which point I will pull in favor of the next Oracle card.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 68 Health Points 168/200 Max Upgraded 30 Oracle Upgraded 4 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 4:4 Electrum Earned 60 Rank 493 Rating -125 Age (days) 5 Thumbs Up? 1 Thumbs Down? 3

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711 711 711 711 52h 52g 52g 52g 52g 6qq 6qq 710 710 710 710 710 710 713 713 713 713 713 713 71b 72i 72i 72i 7gq 7gq 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7ti 7ti 8pt

This was supposed to be some kind of creature rush, that would overwhelm the player in 8 turns or less.
Eclipse to augment the stats, and cloak to protect them (unless from AoE spell effects). Vampire dagger and Bone wall for staying power, till the creatures got going.

In testing, it was susceptible to PoisonDials SoSac, so I squeezed in a couple of purifies, as the "surprise" card for those users. The quantum pillars were to provide the necessary water quanta (I did not use water pillars, as that would immediately warn the player that I was packing purifies, thus the use of quantums instead).

Somehow, it did not fare well. Only 8 plays in over four and a half days too...

[DeathKnyte]

Level 68 Health Points 192/200 Max Upgraded 30 Oracle Upgraded 4 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 17:9 Electrum Earned 276 Rank 497 Rating -107 Age (days) 3 Thumbs Up? 6 Thumbs Down? 11

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7n5 7n5 7n5 7n5 5ol 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 7n0 7n7 7n9 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7ti 7ti 7ti 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pr

With five weapons being obligatory, I didn't want too many cards just sitting dead, and from prior experience, the eagle's eye is quite good when flying. Meaning not that easy to kill, decent damage, and added creature control on top of that, due to the sniper ability.

I forewent any quanta denial, choosing instead to go with vampires, both for health point transfers, and it makes people using PDials a difficult effect to also overcome.

Threw in some SoFree's for extra punch and evasive ability for the air units, while the cloaks were to protect the vampires.

Balanced the quanta, found there was excess air left over, so augmented a few extra cards to help round out the deck; improved fog shield, shock wave, and the "surprise" sky blitz.

In testing it performed well, with all types of opposing decks. I'm sort of scratching my head as to why it performed below my testing par (?).

Any ways, compared to the prior deck, this one recieved quite the number of plays, at least.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 69 Health Points 169/185 Max Upgraded 20 Oracle Upgraded 3 Mark Multiplier 3X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 17:3 Electrum Earned 240 Rank 291 Rating -26 Age (days) 4 Thumbs Up? 3 Thumbs Down? 14

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7qb 7qb 7qb 5rr 5rr 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 5t2 5t2 5t2 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 7q0 7q3 7q8 7q8 7qe 7ri 7t4 7t4 7t9 7t9 7t9 7th 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8ps

I wanted to use this Precognition card, as I figured it would be good in the hands of the AI.

At first, I tried to speed up a classic mono darkness deck, but could not figure an efficient way through powering it with the mark alone. Like it didn't perform well in tests, seemed to burst, then slow, then burst, etc. I didn't like it, so after six configuration attempts (yes it took over an hour just tinkering with a focused configuration - testing was beyond this time), I settled on a complex variation of "reversed ghostmare".

When the player enters the opening screen, he sees the precognition card with the time mark, so figures it will be some type of sped up mono time deck. But as the game starts to unfold, surprise - a ghost of the past, nightmare, stealing, reversing, machine(!).

I had a lot of fun tinkering the pre-sets, because I don't have that many upped time cards. So went all out and used a triple mark, while reducing the points for upped cards (only 20), which is low for a deck in platinum arena, and a somewhat lower than normal health (185 max life). This was all necessary, in order to balance the quanta demands, with what I thought should be an average opening draw while using just about every upped time card I have in my pool.

I won't bore you with explaining all the little nuances in the deck, but once all the parts start to "click and hum", this thing becomes downright lethal - very quickly. I suppose this influenced all the hate it received when people lost against it (?).

I could easily leave it for a couple more days, but today's oracle card is too good to pass up, so I'm pulling the above deck now.

All in all, quite a satisfactory outcome, and a real joy was had in trying to make it all work like clockwork.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 69 Health Points 1/195 Max Upgraded 60 Oracle Upgraded 5 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 41:10 Electrum Earned 600 Rank 283 Rating -1 Age (days) 8 Thumbs Up? 9 Thumbs Down? 32

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7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t8 7t9 7t9 7t9 7ta 7tb 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pt

Drain (Siphon upped) Life from Oracle and therefore a specific focus on making that card as effective as I know how, within a classic (upped) mono darkness deck.

I added a bit more quanta sources, to really ramp up the rate at which I could accumulate it, plus quanta denial to the opponent from pests, which in turn convert that into more dark quanta, which fuels the siphoning. During testing, it was not uncommon to have reached 75 dark quanta by turn 5 in the pool, and with a potential 10x siphon cards, this deck often went for alpha strikes - directly onto the players health.

I did not track this decks progress (war is taking a lot of my time and concentration), however judging from experience, I would not be surprised if it broke into the listings on the first page. Also note that it was still winning games after 6 days, so even though it had virtually no health itself, this deck is still very lethal and can quickly cripple a player that has no quanta protection.


Edit: The electrum and thumbs count is off, because after a couple of days in the arena, a miss-click with the mouse withdrew the electrum it had accumulated to that point.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 69 Health Points 191/195 Max Upgraded 60 Oracle Upgraded 5 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 5:2 Electrum Earned 60 Rank 374 Rating -47 Age (days) 2 Thumbs Up? 0 Thumbs Down? 5

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7qe 7qe 7qe 7qe 7qe 7q0 7q4 7q4 7q5 7q5 7q5 7ri 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t8 7t9 7ta 7tb 7ti 7ti 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8ps

Ja, another Ghost of the Past card, like the recent one I had. But I didn't want to make another "Nightmares of the Past" type of deck, so decided to use them within a traditional mono dark concept, as the damage dealers.

I threw in some hour glasses, to speed up the deck, hoping that it would work against the traditional platinum grinders. A couple of reverse times to ward off any opposing creatures. The "surprise" card of this deck was that there was no nightmare. So players, once they realize that it is mixed with darkness, would hold back cards, so as to protect their own card trays.

It performed okay in tests, although I knew it was not as efficient without nightmares.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 69 Health Points 184/200 Max Upgraded 30 Oracle Upgraded 4 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 22:5 Electrum Earned 372 Rank 216 Rating 2 Age (days) 4 Thumbs Up? 9 Thumbs Down? 13

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7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 5um 4vl 5f4 5ia 5og 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6u5 6u5 74f 74f 74f 77j 7ai 7km 7t6 7t9 7tc 7ti 7ti 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 80k 8pt

Yup, that's correct. If you look at, and then study it closely, it's chock full of cards you would absolutely hate to have played against you.


I didn't feel like making another classic mono Darkness deck, so soon after the last one, so thought a bit on how I could come up with something a little different.

After tinkering with a few ideas, the deck gradually grew into a quanta denial monster, with shards of void applying pressure on the player to hurry.

Quanta scrambling (discord), pillar destruction (quicksand), quanta stealing (black hole + pests), all the while being relatively immune to it myself, as the quanta pillars provide enough of something (and anything), for the deck to play it's own cards, and if the cloaks also come into effect, then it's all over in less than 8 turns. Various supporting cards included, to heal the deck and demoralize the opponent.

In testing, I was only able to beat it with a concentrated rush type of deck - if the arena deck also received a bad opening draw.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 69 Health Points 1/200 Max Upgraded 30 Oracle Upgraded 4 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 39:3 Electrum Earned 768 Rank 1 Rating 270 Age (days) 8 Thumbs Up? 25 Thumbs Down? 14

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7ms 7ms 7ms 7ms 5oc 5oc 5og 5pu 5pu 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mv 7mv 7mv 7mv 7mv 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7oe 7oe 7tb 7te 7te 7te 7te 7te 7th 7ti 8pt

I got this idea while trying out some variations on decks in our current war.
(I'll edit into this post, how this came about, at a later date.)

Since a pillar card is so easy to integrate into a deck, I could concentrate on the focus.

Setting up sky dragons, with liquid shadow applied, and with the shards of freedom, their attacks were augmented, as well as by-passing any shields. At full power that's 26 life taken from the player, and then transferred to the deck, multiplied by the number of such said creatures on the field. (In one test, I went from 100 life to 0, in 6 turns.)

Whatever deck I tried, or imagined that might have a chance, was never able to beat it in testing.

The "surprise" in the deck, was that there was no steal cards. After some thought, I decided that I would rather have the vampire dagger as a weapon, and not anything the deck would steal from the player.

Defense was provided by the SoFree themselves, with added cover from the cloak. A nightmare was included, for any player which figured this was just another sky rush with some steals, and therefore try and outpace the deck by playing his hand out quickly.

On day 4, the deck had broken into the top 10 ( rank 7 when I had checked in on it), and slowly climbed up. It reached rank 1 yesterday (day 7), and held it's own until the turnover time. I will likely retire it later on today.









Platinum League Leaderborad view.

Spoiler for Hidden:

Edit #1: The deck was retired the next day, at a record of 44 - 6.