Speed mutation

[rainingblood]

Here's my attempt at a fun 30 card speed mutation deck for pvp/top50. I'm still experimenting with it, but it does have a pretty good win rate so far and not that many weaknesses that I'm aware of.

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Deck import code : [Select]

6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6u1 6u1 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u4 6u4 6u4 6u6 6u6 6u6 74a 74a 7dm 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7q1 7t9 8pj

In the first version of this build I used blessings, chaos powers, etc. to try and capitalize off the deja vu ability. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that well. For one thing, it uses up too many useful card slots in the deck. And second, the pumped up deja vu's would usually pale in comparison to an improved mutant. Though I still think the deja vu has a lot of potential for this kind of deck - fast, cheap, mutation fodder - so I retained all 6 of them.

In the new build, the supernova's provide just enough time quanta to fuel the deja vu's + all the potential mutation abilities. I don't use quantum pillars. I've found the right amount of amethyst pillars to be about 6 provided you take mark of chaos. It might also work with mark of time, but with an additional pillar.

The deck handles shields using 1 steal and 1 explosion + 2 momentum's. This tends to work out nicely. As for creature control, it can be a bit unpredictable, but mutating the opponent's units does provide some protection. I also found the ideal number of druids and improved mutations to be 3 of each. If the opponent dispatches the druids you can still get a strong mutant through with the improved mutation. While if you have too many druids you'll end up draining your life and entropy quanta. Last point, in terms of creature balance, 6 deja vu's + 2 werewolves guarantee's a creature in the first hand + it doesn't rely completely on the supernova for early mutations. Those are my thoughts. Let me know what you think.

[Dragoon]

Looks cool.  How does it fare against other speed decks like fire, poison, graboid/shrieker?  Do Devourers mess things up since you have a low pillar count?

[rainingblood]

I do find this deck a bit sluggish against other speed decks. Fire being the hardest, since it can out-damage me in most cases. The fire bolts and storms can be a problem. It'll depend a lot on skill though. Not playing too many creatures at once would be one way to deal with it. As for graboid/shrieker, I haven't played against it yet - I suspect it'll crush this deck. Against poison I think this deck actually comes up on top. The only defense for a poison deck is freeze/bonewall. Since I can mutate multiple creatures the freeze shouldn't slow it down that much. When it comes to bonewall the deja vu's multiply so quickly that I can bypass it without too many problems + momentum for my larger damage sources. The devourer issue is solved with supernova. The quanta distribution is surprisingly steady so I haven't run into any problems there.

Anyway, this deck isn't meant to be the be all end all. I was trying to find a fun speedy deck without being another predictable fire, poison, or earth clone. I'd still like to fine tune this build though. The one place I could make some interesting changes would be with the deja vu's. Six of them might be too much. I'd like to replace them with some other cheap creatures from another element, and if they can deal with the above problems in some way that would be a bonus. Otherwise, some other configuration. Hopefully, some of you seasoned players can clue me into a better version of this deck.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

You're not the first person to use Deja Vus as mutation fodder, lol. When I first started, I had a deck like that too (though it was rather large...).

As for the poison matchup. If I see Amethyst Pillars/Towers or an Entropy Mark, and my opponent plays a Supernova and then a Deja Vu, I can usually predict what kind of deck it is. Freeze the Deja Vu before it has a chance to split, or wait for the Druid to hit pay and then freeze that. It's a judgement call.

[Demagog]

I would think freezing the druid would be a better call. Especially if you have plaque/infect in your deck. If you can limit your opponent to only three mutations (using the spell card), you'll most likely win. If you freeze the deja vu, they can mutate it several times to give it something with high hp to resist poison, along with attack if it's a dragon. And before if they are smart and about to lose an unfrozen druid to poison, they'll have it mutate itself instead of the frozen/poisoned mutant (unless they play something else to mutate that isn't poisoned, or mutate the new creature first, then use a spell to mutate the druid). So freezing the druid would probably eliminate a lot of their options.

[rainingblood]

You're not the first person to use Deja Vus as mutation fodder, lol. When I first started, I had a deck like that too (though it was rather large...).

Well. They're an obvious choice, definitely. If there is any innovation it's in the tailored down 30 card format. The original idea, which I ended up scrapping was to use buffs and deja vu's and then duplicate them. In the first version of the deck it was pretty common for me to get out a couple 9/9 deja vu's using blessing, momentum, and chaos power. But like I said in the previous post, it's a strategic choice, since the mutation ability generates more threat than a few pumped up deja vu's. Though I'm sure everything's been tested to death already.

As for the poison matchup. If I see Amethyst Pillars/Towers or an Entropy Mark, and my opponent plays a Supernova and then a Deja Vu, I can usually predict what kind of deck it is. Freeze the Deja Vu before it has a chance to split, or wait for the Druid to hit pay and then freeze that. It's a judgement call.

That's fair enough, but there are 9 creatures in the deck, and since you can't freeze them all and since freeze only buys you 4 turns a few things will slip through, multiple deja vu's and werewolves can over power the bonewall and the improved mutations will remove some of the reliance on druids. That's just one scenario where I don't see poison having much of a chance. I'd like to test this more thoroughly, though I'll remain skeptical that this deck is weak against poison.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

The thing is, most poeple wouldn't mutate a frozen creature. Also, I don't run Plagues or Bonewalls in my Speed Poison. It's the standard one in the "Got Poison?" thread (Bone Tower x10, Congeal x6, Physalia x6, Deadly Poison x 6, Arsenic x2, Mark of Water). You'd be suprised how much of a difference four turns makes. My deck kills in 5-8 turns, so those four turns are more than half the game.

[rainingblood]

The thing is, most poeple wouldn't mutate a frozen creature. Also, I don't run Plagues or Bonewalls in my Speed Poison. It's the standard one in the "Got Poison?" thread (Bone Tower x10, Congeal x6, Physalia x6, Deadly Poison x 6, Arsenic x2, Mark of Water). You'd be suprised how much of a difference four turns makes. My deck kills in 5-8 turns, so those four turns are more than half the game.

I have more creatures than you have congeals - so all things being equal I'll mutate something. No doubt it would be a struggle against the build you're talking about. But again, there's a lot of unpredictability involved here, the mutations might provide devour or some other ability - and if I manage to get a mutated dragon on the table (which can be done in 2-3 turns if lucky) you'll be hard pressed to out damage me. Arsenic could be disabled early enough depending on the draw too. In any event, I wouldn't claim a win over this version of poison - there aren't many people sporting it from what I can see anyway. I'm more concerned with beating mono-fire since that seems to be one of the most popular decks.

[jmizzle7]

A good player using speed poison will only congeal the actual threats. The only way to truly test the matchup is to actually play against each other.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

A good player using speed poison will only congeal the actual threats. The only way to truly test the matchup is to actually play against each other.

I was just thinking about this while reading rainingblood's post. It would be more beneficial to me to Congeal creatures after they were mutated, saving my limited amount of freezing for the creatures with massive amounts of damage or annoying abilities.