The-Compeltely-Unoriginal-but-Semi-Original FGBow

[Andran]

You make a very good point with regards to when to stop hastening. There's certainly room for improvement in my game there. However, sometimes your setup isn't complete even though you're drawing near the end, so even if you stop hastening you are only postponing the inevitable. Anyway this deck is complicated to play since you need to figure out for each god what creatures to quint, and also figure out when to switch from defense to offense. You need to think a lot more compared to a time-deck with three quints (not necessarily a negative!). I'll keep practising...

Oh by the way, I absolutely love the Shards of Gratitude/Permafrost Shield combo. It can easily keep up forever against multiple dragons on its own, just awesome... Also, once you got the shield out against a god with small creatures such as Ferox it's pretty much an instant win.

[Silkenfist]

As to running out of time quantum, while I'm often stretched for it (usually against Miracle), I've never ran out. What I do is stop hastening at 6-10 cards (depending on whether or not I have the board under control). That gives you time to build up time quantum.

Against Miracle, I've found the Pulverizer to be my best friend. If you keep them below 9 Light Pillars, you can just two-shot it to death. (Not that Eternity would work just as well, if a bit slower)

To three quints, you don't really seem to understand this deck doesn't rely on damage output. It relies on gaining control. THEN, only AFTER you've gained control, do you work on getting fireflys out for damage.

There are some matchups where I found myself unable to establish control and had to rush in the last points of damage. For example Elidnis with some early immortal Specters. Or Scorpio when I had been hit by an early Arsenic for a few turns. Of course, these matches wouldn't be helped by a third Quint either

Notice I said fireflys. I almost ALWAYS quint the oty and FQ. The only time I don't is against Gemini, since you need the druid to stop the dragon spam.

As long as you remember to be careful with improving your critters. Getting beat up by your own TU'd dudes is fun not even once :/

Fireflys are 4/2, and once you get established, they are your main damage. While it isn't the fastest kill ever, it isn't the slowest either. Any mutants you get (if your druid survives) are just icing on the cake.

Don't forget that the Druid can be used to remove opposing threats, too. Together with Otyugh and/or Eternity, it can do a lot for your defense. Or in some desperate situations, even without them - fortunately most elements can't use the mutated abilities.

[Wisemage]

Im a bit confused, could you explain the strat a bit, im getting a bit lost through the thread (and psot another pic of the deck you use, if the one in the first psot has been modified)

[PuppyChow]

I haven't modified this deck yet.

And in effect, your strategy changes depending on the false God. I'll attempt to edit the god-by-god strategies.

[Clathius]

I am super grateful for your FG list particularily listing out their control elements.    If you were to be so inclined, a seperate thread listing the various FG, their control scheme, what they throw at you and what you need to either destroy or steal in order to slow them down would be invaluable to new players.   

[Silkenfist]

Just finished my century batch for this deck. I'll give you my statistics and impressions below. I didn't submit statistics to ElementStatistics (yet) because I don't record Elemental Mastery.

Chaos Lord: 9-0 It is theoretically possible to lose against it but since the deck usually doesn't use its mutations too early, even luck can't save it most times.

Dark Matter: 0-4 The matchup is not quite as horrible as it may seem. If it doesn't get a Nymph early on, you have a fighting chance. In two games I was only 2-3 HP short of stabilizing before the Chargers did me in. Don't resign immediately and let the AI work for the win.

Destiny: 2-1 Easy matchup. The one loss stems from a horrible misplay where I tried to rush against an Eternity without having drawn all of my control cards yet. After a few Reverse Times later, I had nothing to stop a lucky mutation... as long as you remember not to do stupid things like that, you're fine.

Divine Glory: 0-1 I'm just glad, I didn't have to face it more often. If you're opening hand doesn't contain a lot of tempo (like, 2nd turn Druid-tempo), feel free to resign immediately.

Elidnis: 4-2 The matchup is quite fun because it is a bit unpredictable. I highly recommend Permafrost Shield because sooner or later, there will be too many immortals for you to handle with a Bone Wall. Also, it enables you to just let the Pufferfish live. With some luck, Elidnis wastes a Quintessence on them that they don't have for an actual threat later on. I also use Quintessence on the Druid almost all times - I just don't feel like slugging through the defenses with a FFQ alone.

Ferox: 2-0 Pity I didn't get more matches. If you aren't rushed to death early on (unlikely), you just have a walk in the park.

Fire Queen: 5-1 Not much to fear. One loss from a game where I saw about one pillar/nova each before dying. Without bad luck, you should only remember not to waste your Firestorm too early (because several FFQ's can rush past one established Oty).

Gemini: 2-2 Pretty much anything can happen. One loss from getting rushed early by Recluses, one loss from when I got a good mutation and Gemini used TU to kill me with it. Maybe it is a good idea to save the quintessences and just use them on your good mutations (if you haven't had with an Electrocuter)

Graviton: 0-2 I didn't get much play in those two games. I guess you can win if you establish an Oty in time, but I'd be surprised if your odds got anywhere near the 50%-mark.

Hermes: 1-2 The good news is, that it at least kills you quickly. In the game I won, I found the combo of FFQ (protected) and Bone Wall to be quite effective. Hermes uses Firestorm whenever it sees three creatures and doesn't pause for one turn to let the Bone Wall fall.

Incarnate: 6-2 One loss from a horrible draw where I got rushed by vampires (kinda embarassing) and another loss from a misplay (I didn't play aggressive enough and got stalled by a Bone Wall when my Eternity lurked at the bottom). Except for freak occurrences, there really isn't much to fear. Once again, keep the Firestorm in your hand until it has maximum effect.

Miracle: 7-3 Only one of the losses can be explained with a misplay of me (I went astray on the touchpad and used the Hourglass instead of the Eternity next to it. Oops). Two games actually went down against a quick squadron of Dragons. Once you've survived these, you're golden.

Morte: 5-1 There is not much that could go wrong. The loss came from a game where an early Arsenic stood uncontested for a bit too long. I recommend, using some of your control cards early to keep the RoL out. Even an unprotected oty and and early Firestorm are possible - not having to deal with Angels (and Miracles later) is worth it.

Obliterator: 3-2 This is another matchup where I rely on the Druid rather than the FFQ. You can't establish the Eternity cycle reliably and it might take a bit too much time to get past a Diamond Shield. Of course it also helps a lot when you are the one who has the Pulverizer established first

Paradox: 2-0 Take care of everything that is getting big as soon as possible and try to win without Mutants. Not much to fear, except for one luck TU strain and even that can be prevented easily.

Rainbow: 0-10 I don't know what has to happen in order to win... even my neigh-perfect draws get shot down by Rainbows massive card advantage. Even an early Oty got overwhelmed by sheer number once. I guess you could go for a purely defensive setup and try to have Rainbow draw itself to death, but honestly - I lack the stamina for that.

Scorpio: 7-3 You'll lose a few matches if you fail to deal with the threats early on... leave the Pufferfish and Arsenic uncontested for one turn too many and you suddenly have 25 poison counters that you wil never be able to offset. When there is no Ulitharid, you can try tossing out the Druid as bait to let it waste some Congeals on it.

Seism: 4-5 I can't be sure 100%, but I think it uses Rewinds too conservatively. Try to get an early Oty, even unprotected. Other than that, just hope that it runs out of Quicksands soon enough for you to set up before the Shriekers knock you out for good.


Unfortuntately, I failed to replicate PuppyChow's score, which is largely due to a few misplays (touchpad and stupidity...) and some scores being a bit too low compared to what could be expected of the match long-term (Miracle, Incarnate, Destiny, Gemini). My corrected score is at 56%, which is quite respectable nonetheless.

What I would suggest to try in the future:
- Replace one Shard of Gratitude with Feral Bond: There are some matches where 20 HP per turn just aren't enough. One Bond might help to keep you alive in the lategame. Aims to increase scores against Elidnis, Scorpio and Seism. Against Hermes/Graviton it might improve or might not work at all since it reduces your early defensive potential. At least you lose quickly if it fails.
- Replace the Pulverizer (or the Improved Steal) with the third Quintessence. This one is quite speculative and will jumble the match scores a bit. Hopefully, you can establish a protected Oty quicker and improve your score against some Gods where you have to set up quickly to achieve anything, like Hermes, Graviton, Dark Matter, et al. Of course, giving away some of your permanent control hurts you in other matches. Against FFQ the additional Oty protection will about keep the balance but your score against Scorpio & Morte will suffer since the danger of an early Arsenic is exacerbated. Against Gods where you need the permanent control later (Gemini!), you just use the extra Quintessence on the Druid and have it dig for a mutant with the appropriate ability.

[PuppyChow]

- Replace one Shard of Gratitude with Feral Bond: There are some matches where 20 HP per turn just aren't enough. One Bond might help to keep you alive in the lategame. Aims to increase scores against Elidnis, Scorpio and Seism. Against Hermes/Graviton it might improve or might not work at all since it reduces your early defensive potential. At least you lose quickly if it fails.

That's an option so I'm not going to say don't do it because it sucks. It doesn't suck.

But against Elidnis you either always use permafrost shield (no bone wall). Usually the big ones will eventually get frozen and then you can heal back to full. Or just never let it get big immortal specters . If I can't get an oty out, I usually play eternity early and rewind it or play a druid and quint that and start mutating all the big specters.

Against Scorpio you usually lose early. As long as you gain control semi early with an oty or a stolen permafrost shield or a permafrost shield of your own, the poison essentially stops. Then all you need to do is draw through your deck as fast as possible to get all those sogs. Hopefully, each sog eventually equals 5 poison counters you can have, and since you were drawing through your deck fast you usually get the druid and queen out faster too. Then you win before scorpio can get over 20 poison on you, and if it does, it's usually only by 1-3. (In which case you're losing 1-3 hp per turn, but you'll still easily beat scorpio). The only time you're really hurting is an early arsenic.

Against Seism once you get an immortal oty established and eat those dangerous basalt dragons, the 20hp four sogs heal is very much enough, especially with the permafrost shield freezing even the burrowed creatures.

- Replace the Pulverizer (or the Improved Steal) with the third Quintessence. This one is quite speculative and will jumble the match scores a bit. Hopefully, you can establish a protected Oty quicker and improve your score against some Gods where you have to set up quickly to achieve anything, like Hermes, Graviton, Dark Matter, et al. Of course, giving away some of your permanent control hurts you in other matches. Against FFQ the additional Oty protection will about keep the balance but your score against Scorpio & Morte will suffer since the danger of an early Arsenic is exacerbated. Against Gods where you need the permanent control later (Gemini!), you just use the extra Quintessence on the Druid and have it dig for a mutant with the appropriate ability.

With some gods, yes your performance may improve (but I disagree with the graviton one; I commonly make do without an immortal oty if I have to, and many games I've lost simply due to an early titan). But with every god that has no creature control, those quintessences are just dead cards. Against each of those you would then have 3 dead cards instead of 2, which can make a big difference. If not in the actual win %, with speed.
your win percents would also suffer greatly against gods like Incarnate and Morte, since you would only be able to destroy one graveyard or one arsenic. If anything, I would replace the steal and keep the pulvy.

[Differ]

- Replace one Shard of Gratitude with Feral Bond: There are some matches where 20 HP per turn just aren't enough. One Bond might help to keep you alive in the lategame. Aims to increase scores against Elidnis, Scorpio and Seism. Against Hermes/Graviton it might improve or might not work at all since it reduces your early defensive potential. At least you lose quickly if it fails.

That's an option so I'm not going to say don't do it because it sucks. It doesn't suck.

Because you already have healing, Feral Bond does not contribute much to winning. If you have lots of creatures, you are more likely to have board control, and then you don't need it. If you don't, it will not help you as muchand it costs more than Gratitude. It is like adding extra cards - sure, your hourglasses will let you draw more, but if you're down there you are probably already winning.

However, Feral Bond lets you pop the Miracle + Bond mastery combo for an extra 60 gold.

But against Elidnis you either always use permafrost shield (no bone wall).

I think that bone wall is useless now that the AI does not target it. The other walls are better.

[PuppyChow]

I use perma frost (if I have it) until I think I can keep a bonewall up for the rest of the game. Usually that means bone wall + fire storm with immortal oty out. It helps get masteries easier since you aren't taking residue damage that gets through the permafrost.

And against many gods like Miracle, Incarnate, and FQ, it really does help win.

[Scaredgirl]

I like this deck.

One thing you might consider doing is a "noob version" of this deck without those 4 x Shards of Gravity. I'm willing to bet that less than 0,5% of Elements players actually have 4+ SoG's which makes this a real niche deck.

I do understand that replacing those 4 x SoG's changes the deck a lot but it's still something you might want to consider trying if you have time.

[CelestrialDreamer]

a very nice deck i used for ~53% win rate
hard to EM is no good, but i am happy as long as i can win
i copied the whole deck besides pulvy, which i replaced with ImSteal
i found that it is hard to use oty and pulvy at the same time since this deck depends on supernova heavily to gain quantum
i often emphy my gravity pool after pulling out the oty and can hardly generate 2 gravity / round for both
another steal is better in my opinion since it is avaliable in very early game
i love to steal EE from firequeen so that my oty dun need to be quinted
or to mess destiny up by reducing her draws
oh, and stealing graveyards fast enough is surely wonderful

[PuppyChow]

I like this deck.

One thing you might consider doing is a "noob version" of this deck without those 4 x Shards of Gravity. I'm willing to bet that less than 0,5% of Elements players actually have 4+ SoG's which makes this a real niche deck.

I do understand that replacing those 4 x SoG's changes the deck a lot but it's still something you might want to consider trying if you have time.

SoGs are becoming easier and easier to get. It's really not that hard to get them anymore, since almost every rainbow in the T50 uses them not to mention farms.

Anyway, I have a few decks stored on my computer that don't use SoGs. I just haven't tested them enough since I'm still testing my rainbow. And the ones on my computer are all pretty different; they're around 40-42 cards.

So I'll make one, it'll just take some time .

(Oh, and you could try the sogs replaced with 2-3x feral bond. That could work...)