Card Analysis for Darkness:
Devourer | Pest
Devourer, one of the iconic creatures for Darkness. Its ability drains one quantum from your opponent, then gives you one
.
This creature is the foundation of quantum denial, a popular strategy that denies your opponent of his or her quanta, and thus stops him or her from playing any cards. Its ability to steal quanta from your opponent fits perfectly into Darkness's theme of stealth and exploit.
Stats wise, Devourer doesn't look too promising: a measly 2 HP with zero ATK. However, the Devourer only costs
to summon, which means that you can often get one on the field on turn two or even turn one; the low summoning cost also means that you can simply splash a Mark of Darkness in your deck, and use your Mark to fuel the Devourers alone. The upgraded Pest has 4 HP, which means that it is strong enough to survive one Rain of Fire.
The Devourer is one of the few quanta-producing creatures in the game; and without a doubt, Devourer is the
best quanta-producing creature in the game. Why? Because of quanta
advantage. Devourer takes away one quantum from your opponent, and at the same time produces one Darkness quantum for yourself. The net quanta advantage is two, which exceeds all other quanta-producing creatures in the game. Unlike other quanta-producing creatures, the Devourer is not simply a "pillar"; with its denial capabilities, it is more
useful than a pillar. What's more, with one single
,
you can render Devourer completely invulnerable, via its Burrow ability; no other quanta-producing creature is capable of this. Devourer has an ATK of zero, which means that it would not attack and trigger enemy shield effects; not even Fire Shield can take it down. Simply put, the Devourer is a very useful card for an extremely low cost.
A single Devourer by itself may not accomplish much, because 1 quantum loss from your opponent will usually not hurt him. However, everything is more powerful in greater numbers. If you have six Devourers in the field, all of them burrowed, then your opponent essentially has six of his pillars negated. And aside from its denial capabilities, Devourers can also serve as quanta acceleration, enabling you to gather Darkness quanta quicker.
The Devourer, while useful on its own, can be very formidable when used alongside these cards:
Fractal | FractalFractal creates copies of the target creature in your hand until your hand is completely filled. You need to pay the quanta costs to summon those duplicated creatures, so creatures with low cost work best with Fractal. Looking at the cost of Devourer, you'll see that it is almost an ideal target for Fractal. After filling your hand with Devourers, you can play them quickly, generating more quanta for yourself and further denying your opponent. The truly frightening aspect of Fractal-Devourer denial is that
you can have up to 23 Devourers on the field at the same time; in most cases, if you manage to pull off this combo, your opponent is almost guaranteed to be caught in a deadlock, all of his quanta absorbed away and not being able to play a single card for the rest of the game.
Drain Life | Siphon LifeIn addition to denial, Devourers provide quanta acceleration. With six of them on the field and some Obsidian Pillars, you can gather
very quickly; with Fractal-Devourer, the speed at which you generate
is insane - you can easily reach 100
and far above. Drain Life is a very nice addition to a Fractal-Devourer deck, because its damage rely on the amount of
you have. Near endgame, you can unleash four to six Drain Life in rapid succession, instantly destroying your opponent and even giving you a chance to fully heal yourself.
Earthquake | QuicksandEarthquake is a very powerful Earth spell that instantly destroys three pillars your opponent controls. This spell is the other foundation card to quantum denial. If you have six Earthquakes in your deck, you can destroy up to 18 pillars your opponent has, which is more than most decks have; along with six Devourers, six more pillars belonging to your opponent are nullified. Your Earthquake can destroy your opponent's quanta source, while your Devourers slowly drain away what little quanta your opponent has remaining. What's more, using Earth in your deck allows you to burrow your Devourers, making them indestructible; it is almost like Devourer and Earthquake are designed to synergize with each other. Make an Earth deck with Mark of Darkness, and add a Titanium/Diamond Shield, some dragons, and maybe Basilisk Blood for stalling, and you've got a very solid deck.
Some other things about Devourer that you might want to know:
Devourer is one of the only cards with
two abilities, one active and one passive. Its active ability is Burrow, and the quanta-draining ability is passive, nameless and unique to Devourer. The passive ability
cannot be removed, which makes Devourer that much more awesome.
Devourer's quanta draining ability only works if your opponent actually has quanta. If your opponent has zero quanta, then Devourer will not produce
for you because there are no quanta to absorb and convert.
Burrowing halves a creature's ATK. If you buff Devourer with other cards such as Blessing or Chaos Power, then burrow it, its ATK will be halved like normal. However, if a Nightfall is on the field, it will give Devourer a +1 ATK bonus regardless of whether it's burrowed or not; same applies for Eclipse. Even if you burrow Devourer, play Eclipse, then unburrows it, its ATK would still be 2.
Because Devourer's quanta-draining ability is passive, it will always retain that ability even if the Devourer is a mutant. For example, if a Devourer is a mutant with
Destroy, it would still absorb one quantum per turn from your opponent. If you have a Devourer with an ability that costs 1
, it is literally the best mutant ever, because
it can generate its own source of quanta for itself. Fun stuff, eh?
WTF, 1000+ words!!!
I write way too much
OK, my other two card reviews will come tomorrow. Hopefully they won't be this long...
