Heho everyone!
First of all: I love this deck. I loved that Dragon-Rush-Thingie for FG-Farming back those days before the AI got fixed and destroyed that cloaks, but anyway - i like the strategy!
And this one adds the Chimera-Vampire Combo in, which guarantees EM-Victories. Nice too.
So I tried the basic version and soon I got frustrated being rushed all over, numerous times. Well, I did some tweaking and this is what I got so far ... (Unupped cards are only in here because i couldn´t afford them yet ^^)
5bt 5op 5uu 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6rn 6rn 6rn 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6ve 6ve 711 748 74g 77b 7di 7jq 7q0 7q0 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7t5 80b 80d 80d 80d
CHANGES MADE (explanations following further down):- added in three Phase Shields for better defense options
- added in two Entropy Pendulums for better Supernova-Options
- added in one Massive Dragon, which can be super useful in some situations
- Kicked out: 1 Time Tower, 1 Twin Universe, 1 SoG, 1 Arctic Dragon, 2 Time Pendulums
NOTES AND THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CHANGES:- The Phase Shields and the Electrums in the deck synergize quite good for creating a chain-shield for 9 turns. Enough time to build up a killing blow.
- Those Entropy Pends feel a lot better, cause a clogged up hand with Supernovae simply sucks. And they still deliver enough Time Quanta to get that Electrum-Thingie going.
- The Massive Dragon serves two purposes: Firstly its really useful against Half-Bloods with lots of DD (Fire, Dark, Water, Air) or Infections (mainly Death). Together with Basalt Dragon and Golden Dragon we have three creeps which can pack quite a punch - Twin Universe brings even more versatility.
TIPS AND GENERAL STRATEGY:The simple strategy is to bring down those dragons and survive long enough to finish the enemy off. The combo which we need for this is Chimera+Sky Blitz+Liquid Shadow, which brings us a nice Elemental Master 80-90% of our wins. Killing really ain´t hard with this deck. Surviving long enough isn´t that easy though.
First of all: Don´t start chaining too early. In every game we want to wait as long as we can, until we drop the first Phase Shield. Always keep in mind, that you have to finish the game in about ~10 turns after the first shield. If you have to wait for Electrums too long, don´t drop that Phase Shield too early. Once we are into chaining, the deck becomes nigh unstoppable. Due to the SoG´s we don´t have to fear poison or Momentum too much. The AI prefers destroying/stealing Electrum Hourglasses before it will melt down your shield. So we are quite safe - for a while.
Next important thing are the dragons. We don´t have that many, and we´ve got one Twin Universe less than the original version of this deck. So try to play your dragons with some thinking. Enemies without any CC (Light, Nature, etc.) are easy - we don´t have to mind what we are playing. If the enemy has CC we have to think.
Always prefer to play those big dragons first (Massive, Basalt, Golden), because they can pack quite a punch. The fragile Dragons should be played with caution. Most of the games you can still win if you lose 1-2 dragons during the match. But if they flatten out too quickly, you won´t be able to bring down that killing blow. Your biggest enemy are Maxwells Demons: Only play your dragons he can´t kill and save the rest for the killing blow. This strategy requires some card knowledge and enemy knowledge, but you will get the feeling quite quickly.
One last word about discarding. This deck tends to end up with a clogged hand. So you have to think, which cards you can afford to drop off. Well I´m still working on this spot, but we still need some discarding strategy with this deck (sadly).
My personal priority list for this issue goes as following:
1. Supernovae/Electrum Hourglass: We have six copies of these in our deck. So if you end up with 2-3 Supernovae/Electrum Hourglass you can afford to lose one.
2. Twin Universe: Yes, it´s a versatile card, but we can still win without it
3. Dragons: In some situations you will be forced to lose one of your precious damage dealers. If your enemy has lots of CC you should maybe prefer to drop off something from your combo, but more of that later.
4. Liquid Shadow: It´s a pain in the ass to ruin that EM, but you can still win quite fast with Sky Blitz+Chimera. We want to win ^^
5. Sky Blitz/Chimera: These buddies share the last spot. Drop off Chimera if your enemy has no dangerous shields at all (Light, Earth etc.) - those dragons whomp in a lot of damage per turn and with a final Sky Blitz they can still win. Drop off Sky Blitz though if your enemy has impenetrable shields. In these cases we really need that Momentum on our Chimera
GOOD SIDES ABOUT THIS VARIATION:- We have got a good survivability against many Half-Bloods. Phase Shields and SoG´s do good stuff to keep us long enough alive. This Deck always almost wins in 12-15 turns, so the 9-turn Shield Chain really helps a lot. The SoG´s help against poison and add the possibility to drop the Shield Chain for a turn or two without losing too much life. They are also very good against Direct-Damage killings.
- After 81 rounds of playtesting (still working on this statistic) I´ve reached a ~60% winning rate. 41 out 49 wins were Elemental Masteries, so this deck definitely makes profit.
- Simply said: Funny gameplay. It´s a weird strategy you are running, but it´s fun and effective, once you´ve learned the ropes.
DOWNSIDES OF THIS VARIATION:- It runs a bit slowly. Matches are rarely shorter than ~4 minutes so it´s really no effective grinder. But for people who enjoy fun while gaming, this deck is really worth a shot.
- Still vulnerable against bad draws. A clogged up hand is the main reason of losing with this deck. Sometimes too much dragons, sometimes too much quanta, sometimes no Electrums at all. This is an issue I´m still working around. Already did some experiments with Sundials and Precogs to speed up things a little, but in the long run the SoG saved the day more often. If somebody has a good idea?
Well that´s it. Feel free to comment and tweak around. And lots of thanks to EvaRia for bringing us this nice deck