Platinum Mind-Reader [Un-Upped/Upped][Gold/Platinum][EM][Fun]

[Asterix3]

(I'm a newbie to the forum, but have played almost 3000 games of elements, fyi)

I've been farming Platinum decks with this:

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6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6uq 6uq 6uq 6uq 77f 7ai 7ai 7k2 7km 7km 7km 7km 7km 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7t9 7t9 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 80d 80d 80d 80d 80d 80d 80j 80j 80j 80j 80j 80j 80s 8ps

PROS:
-Every game is different (and therefore fun) as you essentially play your opponent's deck
-Huge cash due to EM and around 180 hp. (see below for rough breakdown of electrum gains)
-If you're going to lose, you'll usually know it within a few turns (except for poison decks...could go either way and can take 15+ turns to find out)
-The slight variant of this deck (see below) still works COMPLETELY UN-UPPED. Obviously not as effective (I used on Silver and Gold instead) but the reason I could upgrade to this is by using the un-upped version

CONS:
-Games can be quite long (usually 20+ turns)
-large deck means unpredictable draw (hourglasses help counter this though)
-Upped version is extremely expensive
-about a 25% win-rate

WHY I LOVE THIS DECK:
Most wins are EM and, thanks to the SoDivs, it's often EM at around 180 hp...so upwards of 500 electrum per win. Win rate isn't great (about 25%), but that's still about 125 electrum/game not counting cards won (and odds are that every 16 games you should win two in a row, giving you a nice spin).  Plus, any card you win and don't like is likely to be a rare and even more likely to be upgraded, therefore worth over 1000 electrum.

HOW TO PLAY:
1. Start putting up shields when your opponent is 1-2 turns away from killing you (sooner if he has permanent control)
2. Get Mindgates in play as soon as possible (this is crucial as you need your opponents cards to win in most cases. be careful not to use too much aether on mindgates in the early game though...you need shields)
3. Get Hourglasses in play (this ensures you get to the mindgates and phase shields quickly, also AI targets hourglasses over any other permanent if it has permanent control, therefore saving your shields and mindgates)
4. Be careful to avoid decking-out...note that most platinum decks draw 2 cards (therefore will deck-out much faster if you can keep their hand empty). You will win many games by out-decking your opponent, so this is extremely important. (Maybe use and eternity and a photon if you're afraid of this)
5. Use miracle + heal the turn you are going to win on to get EM. (sometimes it is necessary to use miracle earlier to save yourself, in which case you wont get EM...this is a call you'll have to make after some experience with the deck)

NOTE: every game will be different in the mid-game as you are using your opponents deck. This makes thing exciting, and you will learn alot about different strategies. You also have an advantage because most human players can play smarter than the AI, meaning you can out-play the computer using his own cards

UN-UPPED VARIANT (also replaced shards, miracle and aether nymph with stone skins and heals)
Use against Gold or Silver decks

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 58v 594 594 594 594 594 594 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rl 5rl 5up 5up 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 623 623 623 623 623 623 8ps

HOW TO PLAY UN-UPPED VARIANT:
1-4. Same as above
5. Use stone skin + heal once you have the max earth quanta you think you will get (sometimes it is necessary to use stone skin and/or heal earlier to save yourself, in which case you wont get as good (or any) EM...this is a call you'll have to make after some experience with the deck)

ORDER TO UPGRADE:
1. Add Miracle and shards as soon as you get them in place of 4 heals and all stone skin (after getting miracle you really only need one heal, the other one is there just as back up/in case one is near the end of your deck)
2. 5 of the Hourglasses
3. SoSer (as you get them)
4. Shields
5. Mindgates
6. Rest of Non-pillar (don't think the order matters too much, upgrade the cards you like using)
7. Aether pillars (I often find that one extra aether to be a game-saver in shield building)
8. Quantum pillars
(alternatively, if you plan on using other quantum/aether decks as well, upgrade the pillars after the hourglasses)

[whatifidogetcaught?]

Only a 25% win rate? How often do you get special spins? I understand that this deck is fun and different, but some people do not have the patience for a 25% win rate.

That being said, I never truly found the perfect deck for the low-used Mindgate. Good ideas, I just feel that they can be altered.

[Asterix3]

Only a 25% win rate? How often do you get special spins? I understand that this deck is fun and different, but some people do not have the patience for a 25% win rate.

That being said, I never truly found the perfect deck for the low-used Mindgate. Good ideas, I just feel that they can be altered.

true, it is just a 25% win rate. But usually you can tell if you're going to lose in 5-10 turns...if you are, quit and try again!

[eaglgenes101]

I'd suggest SoBe in place of some of the shards (stoneskins for the unupped version). It can change the mindgated card as well as speed up draws.

[ThePolaris]

Well, you say it has some problems beating poison decks, maybe a Purify or two has a place in it, since its a rainbow. Otherwise, gonna try it out, I like huge timebows, and especially like Mindgate, so I hope it works nicely.

Gonna post here a few games I play with it, some modifications:

Spoiler for Hidden:

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4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4t6 4t6 4t6 5c2 5c2 5ia 5ia 5up 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61t 61t 61t 61t 623 623 623 623 623 623 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6rm 6s1 6s1 6s1 6s3 6s3 77f 7k2 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7t9 808 808 808 808 808 808 80d 80d 8ps

Total stats: 3/20
1 - Instant SoF, quit
2 - Aflatoxin+Poison, got me before I got any shields
3 - Air Nymph-UG deck, destroyed me, got a horrible draw
4 - Physalia-SoP, Mindgated two of his SoSa, that got me for a few turns, but failed to put out a shield (spent 1 too much  on Mindgate). Also, Purified a 30+ poison off
5 - SNbow, got out two Chargers and CP-d them, so shield wasn't enough
6 - Monodeath with SoF - well, why not SoF in a mono deck?
7 - Monolife, finally I managed to stall long enough for my two dragons from my SoSe kill him, EM.
8 - Monodeath no SoF! got my shields up, but no Purify, died from poison
9 - another Monodeath, horrible draw, mindgated a SoSa but had no HP to play it.
10 - SNbow, no PC he had a horrible draw, again my two dragons from SoSe were the ones to do the job. No Miracle for EM (would've been 250+ HP, mindgated his SoD 4x )
11 - some kind of bow, got a Trident out on turn 2, so no point playing.

That is 2/11, pretty bad stats, but I still like the deck.

Continued playing:
12 - Monowater, stole his Permafrost early, but a second one showed up, managed to EM him
13 - Monoaether+SoW AND SoF, stole his Electrocutor, but no way to deal with 20 dmg dragon.
14 - 120 card rainbow, quit when I mindgated a Miracle.
15 - Monodeath, mindgated a bunch of SoSa, but had no HP to put them out.
16 - DiscordBH, couldn't play anything.
17 - Monoair with SoFr, it goes through the shield.
18 - Double SoF on turn 2. No thanks.
19 - Monolight with Hope and Nymphs. No chance.
20 - Monofire, got a decent draw, and he destroyed a pillar, then both of my Mindgates. Way too much PC.

Is horribly vunerable to any kind of repeatable PC (especially SoF) and bad draws (and BH, but daah, its a rainbow). Needs a lot of fine tuning. Even when it worked, I still needed a lot more time to set up, than I expected (or most of the time I had).

[Asterix3]

Just beat a Platinum Deck that had a 27-2 record. I had 180ish hp and EM...3300 Electrum awarded

Doesn't happen often...but when it does it feels pretty good. I'd say that happens once every 100 games or so, so don't get your hopes too high.

I also modified the deck slightly, seems to be working better (I managed to beat FG Octane, though I did have a pretty good starting hand).  Added another Electrum Hourglass, Eternity & Photon (so you don't have to worry about running all your Hourglasses full speed), SoBe, and a couple stone skins. Removed some SoDiv and some pillars

Spoiler for Hidden:

Note: Pretty sure the shard of patience is useless. I put it in to keep from killing a player before I healed myself for EM, but it never shows up at the right time.

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4tf 4tj 594 594 5l9 5ro 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6rm 6rm 6rm 6s1 6s1 6s1 6s1 7ai 7ai 7k2 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 808 80d 80d 80d 80d 80d 80d 80j 80j 80j 80j 80j 80j 8ps

Thanks for that post ThePolaris. I'm also thinking of adding a purify or two, had thought of it before but was too lazy to think of changing things up .  Very true about the PC weakness, I usually just quit games that show signs of that

[ThePolaris]

Well, you are welcome. Mindgate is by far my favorite card (save for SoSe), and I really hope that we can make a useful deck out of this. However I still felt, that the deck is not dependant on the gates, but stalls for long enough for the creatures from SoSe kill the opponent. Therefore it is not optimal, so a) change it to stall better or b) change it to use Mindgates better. I have not too much experience in deckbuilding, so I hope someone will show up with a good idea.

[Asterix3]

Played around with this some more. New deck with significant changes: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,45470.new.html#new. Mainly removed SoSe, added Eternity + Photon, added purify, and scrapped a bunch of cards that, though usually powerful, weren't particularly suited to this deck (Pulverizer, Steal x2, Aether Nymph, some towers).