Steam and Skulls (1.27 - FG Grinder)

[Dragoon1140]

With the inclusion of Skull Shield, I wanted to make a decent FG-grinding deck out of it.  However, packing a ton of Protect Artifacts for everything is less than convenient.  I then starting messing around with the Cloak buff and, much to my surprise, the AI didn't target Cloak.  At all.  Thus, I starting mixing and matching things with the help of chat and came up with Steam and Skulls.

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u7 6u7 715 715 71c 74b 74b 7ba 7ba 7ba 7h2 7h2 7k2 7n5 7q5 7q5 7ti 7ti 7ti 7ti 80h 80h 80h 8pj

This is the 'skeleton' of the deck, pun intended.  How you play the Cloaks and the Quints depends on the False God.  Hermes, for instance, requires that one plays Steam Machine very early with no Quint or Cloak so that Hermes wastes his Bolts on a 15 HP creature.  The lack of permanent control is (mostly) intended, but I've yet to see how I can add regular permanent control into the deck.  I had a Butterfly Effect in place of an Antimatter for a while, but it floated in my hand most of the time.

Also, I made this deck -before- Sanctuary was announced, so perhaps it will have its place in this deck.  Assistance in testing or comments as to how to improve the deck will be most appreciated.

[TheIdioticIdiot]

jade or mirror shield will be great additions

[Tea is good]

do you need quints if you have cloaks?

[Dragoon1140]

The only problem is that Skull Shield is the primary defense of the deck.  Adding another shield that is useful against two or three False Gods and useless against everything else is rather cumbersome.

do you need quints if you have cloaks?

Games do not last 12 turns, and mass-cc is still a worry. 

[wavedash]

Why three Quints? You really only need two.

[darkfrogger]

so he can get a quint earlier in the game and besides having two quinted steam machines hammering away at your opponent is awesome

[Newbiecake]

Another deck abusing the stupidity of AI not targeting Cloak. Skull Shield is only effective against EP and Hermes, -maybe- DG and Gemini?

[iKevinly]

Woah woah woah, Cloak isn't targeted by Computers?

-mind blown-

Does anybody know if, say you've been drawing a huge amount of Rays of Light, and then you use a Cloak.
Would a FG like Hermes still Rain of Fire 'randomly'?

[Shantu]

Yes, they still detect the number of creatures you have. You gotta love AI-hax.

[godofdeath500]

If your going to add a puvly or two, you might also want to add a few PAs, since the AI now puts weapons and shields above Hourglasses in priority. But I like the idea of using cloak to hide behind.

[tttt]

If your going to add a puvly or two, you might also want to add a few PAs, since the AI now puts weapons and shields above Hourglasses in priority. But I like the idea of using cloak to hide behind.

Since when is this? Today I have played a few games and the AI is still targeting glasses first.

I'll test the deck, if cloak is overlooked by the AI it may serve some purpose. Overall I find it not very useful with it's short duration.

[Dragoon1140]

Too many people are jumping on the Cloak train for the AI to stay the way it is.  Because of it, I'm going to lock the thread.