Dune Scorpion | Dune Scorpion

[Nume]

I could definitely see some mass control fg decks working great with this + nightmare. Get the poison up, use an alfatoxin or just play a 1/2 att creature, nightmare it, and the fg will poison himself and fill his field at the same time .

[Seravy]

I think "Whenever the opponent plays a spell, add one poison counter to the opponent" as a passive triggered ability would work much better than this complicated neurotoxin stuff.

1. You can stop getting more poison by killing the scorpion...effects that stay on permanently after the source is destroyed are generally very overpowered.
2. There is no need for yet another game mechanic used by only a single card (neurotoxin)
3. You don't need to hit with it so no need to add another element just for a buff spell, the card would work by itself.
4. Multiple copies stack, so half of your deck won't be completely useless after the first hit (all your additional scorpions and buff spells are quite useless after the first hit otherwise)
5. Much simpler and easier to understand. Requires much less card text than properly explaining neurotoxin would take.

It'd need an increase in cost though if it does stack...would be too powerful for only 3 quanta that way. Of course it's possible to make it not stack easily by changing the text to "Whenever the opponent plays a spell and another copy of this ability didn't trigger for that spell yet, add a poison counter to that opponent"

[jmizzle7]

Additional card text doesn't need to happen as you suggest, Seravy, because Neurotoxin doesn't stack. I don't think it is complicated at all. Once Neurotoxin is applied, every single card that is played by your opponent adds to the poison, exactly as the card states.

[Avenger]

Haha, this effect is fun. A totally new mechanic we could build other card ideas around.

[Xinef]

If anyone is interested, I used a Dune Scorpion deck for the Time Trials Phase 1.
I can't say the deck is really powerful, nor it is finely tweaked and tuned, but if anyone finds it useful as a source of ideas, you're welcome.

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=10367.msg140953#msg140953

And the deck itself:

Code: [Select]

6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 744 744 74a 7n2 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q3 7q3 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q7 7q7 7q8 7q8 7qc 7qd 80h 80h 80hI only used a single Scorpion, but with momentum+immortality and it was enough to form at least half of my offensive. Against dissipation shields, phase shields etc. it was my only offensive power, while against shieldless FGs it usually dealt around half of the damage.

[twinsbuster]

And the deck itself:

Code: [Select]

6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 744 744 74a 7n2 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q3 7q3 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q7 7q7 7q8 7q8 7qc 7qd 80h 80h 80h

I'll suggest down the deck size to 31 cards,
remove all hourglass (-4),
-3 Time Tower,
-1 Gravity Tower,
-1 Anubis,
-1 Turtle Shield,
-1 SoG,
+1 Eternity,
+1 Animate Weapon

In fact Dune+Unstoppable is not a must, since Pharaoh can do the job and also prevent deck out. What Dune does is faster the damage and ignore shields.

[smuglapse]

50 more games, for a combined total of 100
Chaos Lord 3-3
Dark Matter 3-5 (1 was EM)
Decay 1-0
Destiny 4-1
Divine Glory 1-1
Dream Catcher 4-1
Elidnis 0-1
Eternal Phoenix 1-7
Ferox 1-5
Fire Queen 0-4
Gemini 1-1
Graviton 1-2
Hermes 0-4
Incarnate 3-6
Miracle 1-1
Morte 1-3
Neptune 2-0
Obliterator 0-3
Octane 0-1
Osiris 4-0 (1 was EM)
Paradox 5-0 (these wins take way too long)
Rainbow 0-3
Scorpio 0-7
Seism 1-4 (1 EM)
37%

It is pretty powerful as a damage source, but you have to construct a deck around it for it to really add up--so it seems OK, balance wise.  I don't know how it would play out against a 100 HP opponent, though.

[Xinef]

And the deck itself:

Code: [Select]

6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 744 744 74a 7n2 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q3 7q3 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q7 7q7 7q8 7q8 7qc 7qd 80h 80h 80h

I'll suggest down the deck size to 31 cards,
remove all hourglass (-4),
-3 Time Tower,
-1 Gravity Tower,
-1 Anubis,
-1 Turtle Shield,
-1 SoG,
+1 Eternity,
+1 Animate Weapon

In fact Dune+Unstoppable is not a must, since Pharaoh can do the job and also prevent deck out. What Dune does is faster the damage and ignore shields.

Well, of course I based it on my experience with a Pharaoh deck, so the defensive part and the pharaoh-offensive part are similar, and only the gravity and Dune Scorpion part and some tweaks distinguish it from the standard Pharaoh approach I've used.

As for the suggestions, hourglasses are extremely useful both for the drawing power and for permanent control (protecting SoGs from deflags).
2 Gravity Towers was useful against Decay, Dark Matter and seems to fuel Scarabs better than one.
As for Anubises, yes, one might be enough, especially if it's only mark-powered, but it's nice to have it played early.
As for Turtle Shields, I'd sooner add another one, I've lost too many times due to not drawing one early enough.
+ Eternity + Animate Weapon... sonuds like a possible change, though increasing the deck size. It's a kind of both defensive and offensive card, so should not disrupt the defensive capabilities of the deck.

[collimatrix]

Dunno if it's been suggested before, but what if there were a separate card called the "dune scorpling" that's 2 to play 0HP/1, and 1 to grow into the dune scorpion proper and doesn't cause poisoning if ingested?  Then make the dune scorpion rare.

[jmdt]

Dunno if it's been suggested before, but what if there were a separate card called the "dune scorpling" that's 2 to play 0HP/1, and 1 to grow into the dune scorpion proper and doesn't cause poisoning if ingested?  Then make the dune scorpion rare.

I recommended something like that with the old version.  Looks like zanz wants to keep this card at 0 attack.  I really don't like 0 attack cards that can't use there effect out of the box.  I will rarely use this card if ever.  I way stick 1-2 in a pharaoh deck IF I ever make one, but that's about it.

[stinky472]

The new version is very cool. I was pretty worried about the old version because it would demolish all my control decks, all of which have a few essential cards: a couple of creatures, shields, and/or weapons which, when lost, would really destroy me.

However, I think it makes purify so much more important. I almost think upgraded purify needs to be colorless now to balance things out a bit and maybe do like +2 healing instead of +1 so that it's not completely useless against non-poison decks.

[RedWarrior0]

The new version is very cool. I was pretty worried about the old version because it would demolish all my control decks, all of which have a few essential cards: a couple of creatures, shields, and/or weapons which, when lost, would really destroy me.

However, I think it makes purify so much more important. I almost think upgraded purify needs to be colorless now to balance things out a bit and maybe do like +2 healing instead of +1 so that it's not completely useless against non-poison decks.

*repeated headdesk*

Upped Purify used to cost generic and does +2 healing.