Maxwell's Silver...Buckler

[jmdt]

Sal--LOLZ: You went (vampires/steal) and I went (sundials). 

A few reasons behind this rework of v4.0:
=The unused quanta in the rainbow version were bugging me
=The size constraints of the deck made hourglasses seem necessary (though costly) if you were to add any more cards
=With only 2 antimatters in the deck, you need to draw them early or take a beating waiting for them
=A stolen/destroyed shield makes for a very bad day

The solution was to add:
Sundials: were untapped, they're cheap, they stall the attack, they speed your draw
Protect artifact: there's room for these with the added drawing power, the buckler now has a chance to stay put

The deck is big, but the redundancy of the needed cards + sundials helps immensely.  Not sure if the added cards are just bloat or if they really do help.  Your thoughts are appreciated.

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And while this doesn't prove anything, it was nice to nearly EM Dream Catcher (quinted physalia at the end of the match poisoned me): (http://imageplay.net/view/m7Gbd87408/DCsoClose)

How is the winning % of this version?  The higher number of cards definately solves the deckout issues.

[Boingo]

Well, you are certainly safe from decking out.  But it isn't that promising--the easy FGs are beatable, but it doesn't have the quickness you  need to beat the tougher ones.  Despite 3 fire bucklers, you don't draw it early enough it seems.   And while the sundials give you a turn's respite, if the creatures don't attack the buckler can't do its damage.  Here's a sample of this evenings adventures:

Destiny              1-0
Ferox                 1-1
Neptune            2-0
Paradox             2-0

Dark Matter       0-2
Decay                0-2
Divine Glory       0-2
Dream Catcher  0-2
Eternal Phoenix 0-2
Fire Queen        0-1
Graviton            0-1
Hermes              0-1
Morte                0-2
Obliterator        0-3
Octane              0-1
Rainbow            0-2

[jmdt]

Too small we deck out, too large we don't get the cards we need.  Such is our conundrum atm.  When I get time I will try to figure out this deck.

[Fallower]

Can't you just add one eternity to solve deck out problems? o.o

[jmdt]

Can't you just add one eternity to solve deck out problems? o.o

What do you plan to rewind?  You would have to add a RoL as well to prevent deckout.  Just not room in a small deck (35 cards) for this.

[Fallower]

A maxwell demon? You should have the entropy to summon them each turn...

[Sal]

The 2nd or 3rd Mind Flayer would be the logical Eternity target since you just need one out in the field anyway.Maybe even the 2nd Spectre aswell.
The problem with Eternity is the low tower count.You don´t ever want to draw it untill you are close to decking out and even then your  will only buy you 2 or 3 additional turns because of the Quanta base.
You might aswell add 2 or 3 more copies of "usefull" cards you want to see for the same result.

From my observations decking out was rarly a problem. Most games ended with 10+ library cards and only a few went down to 5 or less (i kept track of that for statistics).

Currently toying around with different ideas but might get back into this after a few days.

[Clathius]

Have you considered replacing fire shield with carapace which allows you to switch spectre for lava destroyers?

Anti-matters would become far less useful since creatures already poisoned will die.   You could replace those with pandemonium which would serve as both CC and a random source of damage.

It also seems like this deck is screaming for a graveyard and fallen druid.    You might even be able to just remove the spectres and replace with the graveyard/druid killing engine (see the can haz more draw deck).

[jmdt]

Have you considered replacing fire shield with carapace which allows you to switch spectre for lava destroyers?

Anti-matters would become far less useful since creatures already poisoned will die.   You could replace those with pandemonium which would serve as both CC and a random source of damage.

It also seems like this deck is screaming for a graveyard and fallen druid.    You might even be able to just remove the spectres and replace with the graveyard/druid killing engine (see the can haz more draw deck).

It actually started out with carapace and destroyers and we made the switch to bucklers and spectres later.   The bucklers are faster.  I tinkered with the graveyard/druid combo here, but the spectres give a more reliable damage output.

[Sal]

So if you want to play a "large" list with Hourglasses and Eternity there you go:

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I know that list is quite bulky with 55 cards and lots of copies of the same cards.Well it does what it is supposed to do. Simmilar to the smaller lists that rely on drawing Nova you rely on drawing Hourglasses with this.

Instead of adding a 3rd Spectre i went for Anubis + Pharao while upping the Flayer Count as i always wanted to. Feel free to cut it down a bit.Only played this a couple times so far and can´t really tell anything about a winratio.



I really like the Anubis + Pharao interaction - your damageoutput is virtually open ended with this during Eternity-looping. Plus you go through your deck quite fast with those 6 Hourglasses.

Might want to cut a few duplicate copies to thin the deck down and maybe squeeze in another Pulvy and maybe another PA. It "feels" pretty solid even with that huge size.

[Phdinpain]

Ok so after playing with this for about a day i made some changes..... its HUGE full 60 card screw with people deck for fun.... and get this... 43% FG kill ratio so far and even EM'ed Dark Matter post is on work comp but i showed jmdt the pic earlier. So with out furthur adu.... the HUGE version of this incredibly fun deck. lol

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It is a lot like sal's deck he made of it.

[Sal]

Here are a couple "Ultra-Slim" Versions:

Notes:
I tried to fit in Eternity at the cost of speed (only a single Spectre) while reducing the decksize.
Eternity is fueled by the Pendulums (activate and loop the 2nd Deamon or Flayer) - so you really can´t afford to loose a single Tower (a 3rd PA could fix this).
Only a single Spectre in there so you will have to use Eternity more often than not.You rely on Novas to play the non- cards.

This version is relying on Butterfly Effect instead of the usual Pulvy, so its permanent control is not reliable enough (you have to draw a Flayer and BE), its still better than nothing.I would still prefer "standard" 40 card version over these.



Decklists

30 card PA

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Pretty much as slim as it can get. I miss the 3rd Buckler and some sort of carddraw.

31 cards Hourglass

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This one is replacing Protect Artifact with Hourglasses and runs a 3rd Fire Buckler.I really prefer versions with PA though.

35 cards Hourglass + PA

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35 cards hurts the "Nova" rate (might take too long to draw the 2 you need in time) while there is pretty much everything in this.Also it is less likly to get the Shards you definatly need.

I just felt like sharing this, up to you to fine tune the lists.