Psiontal. The very word struck fear to all without a reflective shield. A single utterance of its name will be followed by countless echoes of ‘Nerf pl0x!’ It is the true representation of Aether, having played perhaps the greatest role in Aether’s
everlasting three-term long reign.
To me, Psiontal will be my first true grinder. Back when I was just entering into the forum, I was suggested by former Master of Aether, Higurashi, to build Psiontal to grind Bronze Arena and AI4. I searched for the deck on the forums, copied and modified it, and since then I’ve only moved forward in my elements career. For grinding, my preferred mod is 1 Lobo and 5 Psions; in testing I found this build to be far superior to the standard PvP build. But today we aren’t here to talk about Psiontal the Grinder, we are here to talk about Psiontal the Totally Abused War Deck.
Psiontal refers to any deck using the combination of
Psions and
Fractal. This allows you to multiply the strong spell damage of Psions, allowing you to build up a nearly unstoppable army. Psiontal is a greatly versatile deck, with 11 mods devised so far. It is also extremely strong, with a
25-7 record or
78.13% win rate record across all Wars 6 and 7. (During war 6 it was a
12-3 record or
80% win rate while in War 7 it was a
13-4 record or
76.47% win rate) However, it's greatest asset is that it's a mono, allowing Aether to pack several copies of the deck and transmute cards to form it again if it somehow loses a match.
At its core, Psiontal uses the following cards:Psion: The primary attacker of the deck, Psions feature the amazing feature of Spell Damage. So unless the opponent brings a Reflective or Emerald Shield, they can expect to be zapped to death. Psions have a nifty 4 HP which allows them to survive all Area of Effect spells used once. Psions are also the choice upgrade for Psiontal; the +1 attack for no extra cost really multiplies through Fractal over the game. A standard Soldier Psiontal will spend all 3 upgrade slots on Psions.
Fractal: Fractal is perhaps the strongest card in the game, as it provides its user with a card advantage which isn’t seen anywhere else. A single use of Fractal will probably provide you with enough creatures to finish off your enemy in no time. Also, against a stall multiple Fractals can slowly fill up your board, allowing you to burst right through your opponent’s defenses.
Fractal does lose some utility in the mono
build of Psiontal, as it drains all remaining
quanta on use. It prevents the Fractal from having any immediate effect, and forces you to discard one of your precious Psions at the end of the turn. However, thanks to the consistency of a mono you will have loads of quanta piled up the turn after Fractal. After that, it’s pretty much gg unless your opponent has an answer.
Some other cards which are generally brought in as Support:Dimensional Shield: Dimensional Shield plays a great role in Aether’s matchup, so far that we even have a forum banner: “Reigned by Dimshield n00bs”. Dimensional Shields instigate the opponent to always think around it, since facing a Dim deck without an answer will almost always result in a loss. You can even
lose vs. Dims with 3 PC, as demonstrated here.The general build of a Psiontal will include Dims; they allow you to slow the opponent down as the Psions slowly chip away at their health. Facing a Dim Psiontal without an answer… yeah, you can go cry in the corner now.
Lightning: Lightning is the most effective single target CC in the game, and can take out a significant majority of the game’s creatures by itself. When the opponent is expected to bring PC, Lightnings can provide the stall instead of Dims. Lightning can even
take out the unupped form of the unupped Blue Nymph, which is a staple in Air’s monstrous Fire Duo with some good RNG (a deck which has troubled
since its inception).
Lobotomizer: Lobotomizer is a great utility card in many matchups. It can remove pesky creature skills and shield bypass, which hurt Psiontal quite a bit. Lobotomizers can also be used to remove spell damage from Psions in the face of a reflective shield. While this tactic will usually be too slow for the win, however one might just pull through.
Phase Recluse: With 7 attack for only 4 quanta, Phase Recluse is Aether’s rushiest creature. While it lacks durability, this isn’t too much of a problem with Fractal. Several Psiontal builds also include 2-3 Recluses to provide a faster rush if the opponent has no shields, or to get around reflectives. You can also use only Fractals, Recluses and Psions en masse while packing minimal control/stall to get a resilient super rush. However, Phase Spider, the unupped form, isn’t really viable for the deck so it consumes precious upped slots.
Here’s the very first Psiontal used in War, at the very dawn of War #6:Basic Psiontal
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61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 622 622 622 625 625 625 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80l 80l 80l 8puThis mod has been used 7 times throughout the two previous wars, and it's still undefeated. It’s Psiontal at its simplest; however, more complex mods have been created for specific matchups.
Let’s have a list, shall we? In order of their appearance in War:Bolt Psiontal
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4su 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 622 622 622 622 625 625 625 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80l 80l 80l 8puBolt Psiontal replaces all of its dims for lightnings, which allow it to face decks with shield bypass and creatures with strong abilities more efficiently. It was Aether’s deck vs. Entropy during
three War 6 matches, all of which Psiontal won easily. It also worked well against
Air’s Blue Nymphs in War 7, until Air got around to upgrading them.
Strategist’s Psiontal
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61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 622 622 625 625 625 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80l 80l 80l 8puThe Strategist role during War 6 allowed you to remove 6 cards from your deck before each game. This allowed Aether to field Psiontal with the power of the Basic mod and the Bolt mod combined.
Crispy Psiontal
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4su 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61u 61u 622 622 622 625 625 625 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80l 80l 80l 8puOriginal Mod was -1 Lobo, +1 Fractal. Thanks to the power of electrocution, Lobos can play a great role in Psiontal. It is the most widely used mod so far, with 8 matches over two wars and a 5-3 record. This is the mod I’d recommend for normal PvP.
Recluse-Bolt Psiontal
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4su 4su 4su 4su 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 622 622 622 63a 63a 63a 63a 80g 80g 80g 80g 80l 80l 80l 80l 81q 8puThis deck runs both Recluses and Psions for a diverse offense, and using cheap lightnings allows it to rush hard. Usually it is used only by the General or by consuming relics, as its best performance is with both Psions and Recluses upped. It has been used thrice over the course of Wars 6 and 7, winning all of its matches.
Extra Crispy Psiontal
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4su 61o 61o 61o 61o 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61u 61u 61u 61u 622 622 625 625 625 625 625 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 808 81q 81q 8puA deck specifically brought in due to a mindgate.
It worked wonders against Water’s NT deck.Rushy Strat Psiontal
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61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61r 61r 61r 61r 61r 61r 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 622 625 625 625 625 625 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80g 80g 80g 8puA strategist deck with better options to rush.
It was brought to face Air’s iconic Fire Duo with Blue Nymphs. While it was statistically good, it was hit hard by RNG.
Midways Psiontal
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4su 4su 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61q 61t 61t 61t 61u 622 622 622 625 625 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80g 80g 80g 8puThis deck features all of the usual support cards. This helps mitigate a few weaknesses, but removes some of the strength of the other more focused mods as well.
It was used once by Aether as a counter to the fearsome Gravity in War 7.Deflag Psiontal
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5f6 5f6 5f6 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61u 61u 622 622 622 624 624 625 625 625 80g 80g 80l 8poPerhaps the most creative Psiontal built for War, this mod deviated from standard support cards while bringing cards like Silence and Deflagration. It was most likely brought in to counter Sundials/Sanctuary/Dimensional Shield utilizing stalls.
Of course it ended up facing a suicide and we never got to see it in action.RT Psiontal
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5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 622 622 622 63a 63a 80l 80l 80l 80l 80l 8psIt was included in Aether’s spoils in War 7, as a counter to Air’s iconic Fire Duo with Blue Nymphs. However,
Air reverse mindgated it both times it was used, and so it resulted in a fail.
Rushy Rush Psiontal
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4su 4su 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 622 622 622 624 624 624 624 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80g 80g 80g 80g 80g 80l 80l 80l 80l 80l 8puThis deck also scrapped the usual support of dims and lightnings for Silence.
It set up creatures really fast and then silenced the opponent for the win.
War statistics for each of the mods:| Psiontal Mod | Wins | Losses |
| Basic Psiontal | 7 | 0 |
| Bolt Psiontal | 5 | 0 |
| Strategist’s Psiontal | 1 | 1 |
| Crispy Psiontal | 5 | 3 |
| Recluse-Bolt Psiontal | 3 | 0 |
| Extra Crispy Psiontal | 1 | 0 |
| Rushy Strat Psiontal | 0 | 1 |
| Midways Psiontal | 1 | 0 |
| Deflag Psiontal | 0 | 0 |
| RT Psiontal | 0 | 2 |
| Rushy Rush Psiontal | 1 | 0 |
Well, thanks for reading everyone! I hope my textwall provided an enlightening read on
's strongest mono. Zawad out, peace!
