DeathKnyte's Dark Platinum Decks

[Lech]

Nice to see myself as #2 on last screen despite just level 60. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of good darkness decks in this section and former thread (gold league).

What is representative suite of test decks ? I don't have enough upped cards to test typical plat grinder, so what problems your decks in general have against swallow and poisondialsosac/SoBSoSac poison ?

[DeathKnyte]

What is representative suite of test decks ?

I don't have enough upped cards to test typical plat grinder, so what problems your decks in general have against swallow and poisondialsosac/SoBSoSac poison ?

I started writing a huge post on how I test my arena decks, but after re-reading through it, it looked like a huge guide on "How to Test Your Own Arena Deck".  I think someone else should publish one, so I scrapped it.

Here's the condensed version...


I use (in order of importance) the following decks in tests against my own arena decks:

- 1.32 PoisonDials SoSac (This is a stall.)
- A slightly modified SoB Air Rush (This is a rush.)

If the arena deck performs well, then I usually forgo the remaining, unless I'm tweaking (tuning) for something in particular. If so then:

- Swallow
- My own variation of Classic Mono Darkness
- A slightly modified Pestal 101
- My own variation of New Old Times FG OTK

Others, which you think might be used, can be found here (scroll down the post till you come to "Platinum (upped)").

If you don't own all the cards for these decks, then I suggest you use the EtG Trainer. Of course, load the code of your own arena deck as one representing a False God, to get the health and double draw simulated.

If you study either the decks I use in testing or some others listed in the Farming Statistics forum, you'll see and identify their vulnerable areas.

Usually, my arena decks don't have problems against either PDials or Swallow. If they do, I tweak them accordingly - or as best as I can figure how - without them suffering to anything else I can imagine people would use. The "trick" is to attack these vulnerable areas, and (or) frustrate the effectiveness of said decks.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 69 Health Points 168/200 Max Upgraded 10 Oracle Upgraded 2 Mark Multiplier 3X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 31:5 Electrum Earned 528 Rank 41 Rating 160 Age (days) 5 Thumbs Up? 13 Thumbs Down? 18

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6ts 6ts 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vh 4vh 4vh 4vh 4vh 4vh 50u 50u 50u 5uk 5uk 5up 5up 5up 5up 5up 5up 5v2 5v2 5v2 606 606 6u9 7t8 7t8 7tb 7tb 7td 7td 7td 8pt

I could have left my previous deck longer, but when the Oracle gave me another pillar (amethyst this time), I couldn't resist the challenge of another deck attempt with one.

Originally, I was trying to configure some kind of pandemonium / discord / SoV deck, but as things turned out in tests, it gradually evolved into a variation of a common deck known as "Lycan Steal".

I play a simpler version of the deck  in PvP-1, so have a good idea how it performs with human opponents, and against various deck types they bring. So with an extra 5 cards required to the minimum of the deck size, and tacking advantage of the double draw ability - I tried to enhance it with some extra cards that reinforced the core idea, as well as with some that support it too.

First thing you might wonder is why so few upped cards? Because I don't have that many upped entropy cards, and those that I do, didn't fit well with the final concept. Any ways, no need for them - as long as a deck is well constructed. With the extra points left over, I went with a triple mark multiplier, to help the deck get going (with its stealing), early.

Steal was expanded to the maximum (12 cards total), as this was the main way of controlling opponent quanta (pillars / pendulums) and whatever other permanents they dare play. Cloak was to protect the lycans, especially the first turn they are played, as this is when they are the most vulnerable, it also doubles as a layer of protection for the decks' own permanents. Doubling of the dusk mantle and vampire dagger, was not as much for draw chance, but more to replace whatever items were stolen by the deck.  The three vampires were added after some close games in testing, as a little more security to achieve victory, through health point transfers. One upgraded pandemonium was the "surprise" card in the deck.

I played a few games against it, every day it was up - just to remind myself each time - of how frustrating it was to play against it...

[DeathKnyte]

Level 70 Health Points 192/200 Max Upgraded 60 Oracle Upgraded 5 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 5:4 Electrum Earned 72 Rank 489 Rating -124 Age (days) 3 Thumbs Up? 1 Thumbs Down? 4

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7gp 7gp 7gp 7gp 7gp 7gq 7gq 7gq 7gr 7gr 7gr 7gr 7gr 7hi 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t9 7t9 7tb 7ti 7ti 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pp

I thought that this would have promise, but for some reason it kind of failed.

I tested it quite a bit, because I was trying to balance the quanta. I either had too much water, or too much darkness, depending on the configuration I was tweaking at the time. Finally settled on "dark first - water second" pendulum flip flop.

It performed brilliantly against PDials, and very well versus Swallow. I can't really figure how it performed below par, once in the arena. Perhaps it somehow got subsequent bad draws, with all the shields being present in the deck, which would lead to a slow start (?).

[DeathKnyte]

Level 70 Health Points 184/200 Max Upgraded 60 Oracle Upgraded 5 Mark Multiplier 2X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 3:4 Electrum Earned 48 Rank 652 Rating -132 Age (days) 4 Thumbs Up? 1 Thumbs Down? 2

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7n4 7n4 7n4 7n4 7n4 7dk 7dm 7dm 7dm 7dm 7dm 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7n0 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7t9 7t9 7tb 7tc 7ti 7ti 7ti 7ti 8pt

Hmmm.... This is my second "not so great in the results" deck in a row. Hope I break out of the cycle soon.

Any ways, I originally was working on some kind of unstable gas deck, powered by the elite fireflies, of course. But in testing the deck kept on blowing up all the fireflies, and subsequent UG's were just dead cards. So I scrapped that "brilliant" idea, and gradually worked my way to what you see above.

The idea was to deny permanents, through the explosions and steals, while whittling away at the players life with the help of the SoFree's. Damage output wasn't that great, but if the player had no pillars, pendulums, shields, or weapon - then the deck had time while the player sat helplessly waiting for the end to come.

Went okay in testing, but the amount of actual tests were short and limited, as the current war has picked up again. Looks like it could have used more, as the results definitely show I missed on some key point, somewhere.

[DeathKnyte]

Level 70 Health Points 1/200 Max Upgraded 10 Oracle Upgraded 2 Mark Multiplier 3X Card(s) per Turn 2X Deck Size 2X

Win:Loss 25:9 Electrum Earned 444 Rank 570 Rating -114 Age (days) 10 Thumbs Up? 12 Thumbs Down? 13

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6u9 6u9 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 50u 50u 50u 50u 50u 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5v0 5vi 5vi 5vi 5vi 5vi 5vi 7gq 7n0 7t9 7ta 7tb 80a 8pt

All right, I got this idea from a deck I was using in PvP-1 (minus the shards of void).

It's obviously a stall, but it has the potential of causing moderate (severe - if the player is careless) damage over time.

In the arena deck I threw in the SoV's, as an added point of pressure on the player, where their life is going down, making any pandemonium + doll masses a potential killing blow. This is the reason I kept the upped cards to a minimum. A few utility cards were thrown in too, just so the opponent never knows what might come out of the deck.

The deck actually did quite well; it broke into the T25 rankings on day 3, but on day 5 it suffered 4 losses in a row, and then it started to slide till it was out of the top 500. I let it sit an extra day, because of both real life activities and the current war taking my time.