| Permanents | |
Element Mark
The mark of earth is a permanent and fixed tool that mines one quantum of earth per turn. It is indestructible and cannot be changed during battle. The mark of earth is immediately established from the beginning of battle. It stands apart from the cards in one’s deck. Elementals can wield one element mark at a time, so the choice must be carefully considered. Artificial intelligence is capable of mining more than one quantum of energy per turn. For example, a False God can mine 3 quanta per turn via the element mark.
Mark of Earth Card
Mark of Earth cards are part of the deck and something to be drawn forth by design and chance. Mark of Earth cards are permanent and cannot be destroyed or manipulated only if the player is also using an Earth mark. They can stack. If the mark is different, say Aether, then the Mark of Earth cards stack like pillars, and are susceptible to permanent control. Mark cards are very rare, and are a sign of an Elemental with great experience, skill, and affinity for that element. | 
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| Semi-Permanents | |
Note about Semi-Permanents
We don't really use the term -semi-permanents- in elements. However, many cards we refer to as permanents are onlypotentially permanent. If one's opponent does not have permanent control cards, one's semi-permanents will be safe from destruction or being stolen. But that's not something one can guarantee or plan for when preparing for battle. The only way to guarantee a semi-permanent become permanent is to cast the earth spell, enchant artifact on it. This card can be cast once for each stack of pillars, towers, or pendulums.
Stone Pillars and Towers
Elementals who need ample earth quanta for battle will primarily include stone pillars in their decks. These cards stack in the row for permanents and collect 1 quantum of earth energy after each turn. The quantum mined from the previous turn will be available for use at the start of the next turn. There is an even more refined pillar, the Stone Tower, which immediately collects one quantum of earth when it is played. That quantum can be used before the turn is over. Pillars and towers continue to mine one quantum of energy after each turn unless destroyed or stolen.
Earth Pendulum
These cards mine energy from two sources. Once placed on the battlefield, pendulums mine one quantum of earth energy since the card is itself earth-based. However, on the next turn, the card will draw energy from the element mark. If the element is earth, the card will mine earth quanta on alternate turns. If the element is non-earth, such as entropy, the card will mine entropy quanta on off-turns.
Quantum Pillars
These cards mine 3 quanta each turn from any of the 12 elements at random. Therefore, quantum pillars can harvest earth energy, although not as quick or reliable as stone pillars/towers. | 
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| Spells | |
Nova/Supernova
Spell cards are used and then discarded. Once nova is cast, one quantum (or two quanta for Supernova) is collected immediately from each of the 12 elements. Unlike pillars and pendulums, a limit of six copies of Nova can be placed in a deck. Therefore, the earth quanta that can be mined from nova is 6 and 12 for Supernova. It's not a reliable source for earth-focused decks requiring lots of earth quanta. |  |
| Creatures | |
Gnome Rider & Gemfinder
Earth is such a great element, that certain creatures (Me and Jasper!) evolved to mine earth energy efficiently. Once we gnome riders are drawn from your deck, you must give us one earth quanta as a treat to entice us to dig for more. In fact, we will mine one earth quantum for you each turn. Our more "refined" cousins, the Gnome Gemfinders, are so crazy for earth that they will mine earth for you without a treat. We like to think of us gnome riders as better in business than our cousins. |  |
| Color | |
Earth is brown, right? Yes, that’s the most common color association with earth. But, it also has a remarkably wide range of colors in its arsenal. Soils can include yellows, reds, grays, and blacks. The color depends on the minerals and organic matter present in the soil. Soil with more iron will tend to look red or yellow, and soils with higher organic matter will look like dark browns and blacks. Water and air also exist in soil in varying amounts, and also affect the color of land. Gemstones (also part of earth) can have bright colors and have translucence, such as sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and diamonds. Here's a more in-depth treatment of gems, if you're interested.
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| Hardness | |
| Speaking of gems, another physical property is hardness, which is the measure of resistance to deformation from mechanical indentation or abrasion. In other words, if you hit something very hard, it will resist being bashed in. Something soft will give way. In the world of gems, diamonds are the hardest, even harder than titanium, which helps explain why the Diamond Shield provides even better protection from physical attacks compared to the Titanium shield. What exactly makes something hard? This involves a deeper explanation at the molecular level and is beyond the scope of this guide. But, you can read more here if you are interested. |  |
| Beauty | |
Is beauty a physical property? Maybe. Is earth beautiful? Answer: Of course! In fact, Earth is probably the most beautiful element of all. Earth often wins the Miss Elements contest. I mean take a look at our luscious nymph  -->. There's a reason why people get stunned just looking at her. Many elementals find earth very attractive. Are you still not convinced? Take a look at me, the proud Rowdy! Do you see my sparkling white teeth? Those lean, chiseled pectorals? Maybe I'll go for Miss Universe next year..
It’s also quite common for elementals to cheat on their mono-decks by dipping into our earthly richness. Are you surprised by earth’s beauty? You probably are. Know that Earth is usually humble. She doesn’t flaunt her beauty or dress provocatively. She doesn’t tease your mono-spouse about the illicit duo dances they’ve been doing just to make the headlines. Earth is totally secure with herself. |  |
| Mass, Weight, Force, and Gravity |
Creatures, shields, and weapons all have mass and weight, are affected by gravity, and can also have force. We will leave spells out of the discussion for now. Do all elements' creatures and objects share similar physical properties? Do hematite golems weigh more than lava golems? Do their weights change when they put on armor? Of course - their weight increases. But, by how much? We cannot say for sure because Elements doesn't provide clear scientific or quantitative information about the cards. But, we do have some quantitative information that may help us understand the overall physical properties of Earth's objects compared to other elements. The three quantitative statistics we have are (1) quanta required to use the object, (2) the object’s attack power, and (3) the object’s health points. These three measures do not directly tell us the measurements of physical properties, but they may be clues. Let’s look at this more closely:
Mass
Mass the measure of matter in an object. It's actually more complex than that, but we'll use a very crude definition for now. Let’s compare two earth objects without any gravitational effects (more about gravity below). A stone dragon costs 10 earth quanta, has 8 attack points and 10 health points. The sum of these numerical measures is 10+8+10=28. A gnome rider, on the other hand, costs 1 earth quantum, has 1 attack point, and 2 health points. The summer of these numerical measures is 1+1+2=4. So what do card costs, attack points, and health points really mean? Do they correlate to physical properties like weight, or a combination of physical properties? While not an exact science, we all likely agree that the stone dragon has more mass than the gnome rider, but we don't have information that explicitly confirm this assumption. We will need to look at some of the numerical patterns from the cards (more about that below).
Weight & Gravity
For an object to have weight, it must have the force of gravity active upon it; otherwise, the object’s weight is just its mass. Imagine a Colossal Dragon sitting at the core of the planet, the surface of the planet, at the top of a mountain castle, and floating in the highest layers of the atmosphere. Gravity has the strongest effect near the planet's core and least effect in the planet's atmosphere. Therefore, the dragon will weigh more at the core the planet than on the surface of the earth. It weighs even less on top of a mountain, and the least high in the atmosphere. To summarize, the strength of the gravitational field will affect an object’s weight.
Force
Let’s introduce one more concept, briefly. Force. There's all types of force. Weight is a force (downward). Force is essentially the push or pull of one object on another. Picture me, Rowdy the shrieker, having an argument with a lava golem. Things get heated, and I push the lava golem and he begins to fall down. The energy that I am applying to the lava golem's fall is a normal push force. The lava golem's fall in a downward direction towards the ground is also aided by gravitation force and its own weight. I'm also applying a frictional force when my feet push off the ground to direct energy towards the push of the golem. If you want to know more about force, check out this link.
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| How might the physical properties of an object relate to the object's card cost, attack and health? |
One hypothesis is that the {mass, weight and gravity combined} may correlate positively with the {combined card cost, attack, and health points}. Another hypothesis is that one of the card statistics links one-on-one with a single physical property. Let's try to see if we can find a correlation between elements' weight + gravity effects and their card cost, attack, or health. To test this idea, we will compare creatures and flying weapons from four elements: Aether, Air, Earth, and Gravity. These elements represent four distances from the planet’s core. Gravity is closest and has the strongest gravitational affect and should impact a creature’s weight the most. Earth is second closest, air third, and Aether is further from the core and should be least effected by gravitational pull. By comparing these four elements, we may be able to see some trends in card cost, attack points, and health points.
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| Digging Tunnels | |
| The first feature - my favorite. Earth's land at the surface is compacted, but still moveable. It can be dug or drilled through. The science here is pretty simple. Select a tool, such as a shovel, drill, or if you have a very hard pointy nose, and apply pressure to the surface of earth. If enough pressure is exerted, the ground will give way. Scoop and move loosened soil away. Special creatures, such as antlions, grabboids, and devourers have evolved to dig their own tunnels through earth efficiently. We can move above the earth's surface, but are fully affected by physical and spell attacks. When we are below the surface, we are burrowed. Moving from the surface to a burrowed position requires one quantum of earth energy (or one time quantum for grabboids). But moving back to the surface is easier and doesn't use earth energy. By being in a burrowed state, creatures are protected from most physical and spell attacks. In order to move through the ground efficiently, creatures contract their bodies. In doing so, their ability to deal damage is reduced. We can burrow ourselves, unburrow ourselves, and burrow again at will depending on the perceived dangers of the battlefield. Our neighbors, the grabboids, actually live in the ground most of their lives. They sleep in a protected space. But, they do get hungry, and when they come to the surface, a quick evolution occurs. They grow monstrously large and things can get quite rowdy. |  |
| The good ol' pin down. | |
| Have you ever had a friend who was an Iridium Warden? Let's just say, that when they get in trouble, their moms can ground them for a really long time.. Iridium Wardens have developed a useful, defensive skill called guarding. Guarding uses one quantum of energy. The Warden can choose a creature to guard, and in doing so, delays that creature from attacking or using skills for one turn. However, because the warden is using her energy towards guarding, she herself cannot attack. The exception to this is if the warden's weight/size increase considerably so that she acquires one or more attack points. In that case, the warden's guarding will inflict damage to grounded creatures. Guarding is unique to the Earth element. |  |
| Fortification | |
| There are many spells in elements that can fortify a creature's health and defense. Earth has two such spells - plate armor and stone skin. Plate armor is applied to creatures, giving them a boost to their health points. Stone skin is applied to the elemental in battle, increasing their hitpoints. Fortification is not a healing spell, but simply improves the health/durability of a creature or elemental in battle. Earth's particular spells provide a strong boost to hit points. This gives earth users the ability to take additional punches that otherwise would be the demise of others. |  |
| Fossilization | |
| Petrification is, in a way, a much stronger version of Guarding. Petrification is like getting a ton of wet sand dumped on you and then that sand hardens so you can't move. Once petrified, a creature cannot attack or use its skill for 6 turns! Another side effect is having one's health points increased by 20. This is because during petrification, the creature has somehow absorbed/melded with all that earthly goodness. |  |
| Permanentization | |
| We spoke previously about semi-permanents not really being permanent. That's because they are susceptible to spells such as earthquake, deflagration, and steal. Earth is the only element to offer a permanent safeguard for semi-permanents. The spell earth has is called enchant/protect artifact. This is cast on any semi-permanent, and once cast, that object cannot be destroyed or manipulated by an opponent. There are a few slippery permanents, like Shard of Patience, that can be "released" from the spell with the aid of the user. But, it still cannot be destroyed by an opponent. |  |
| Demolition | |
| Two signature earth features revolve around destroying things. Earth's classic spell, Earthquake, can target opponents' pillars, towers and pendulums. Earthquake is so powerful, it can destroy up to 3 pillars at a time. Earth's classic weapon is pulverizer, which can destroy opponents' semi-permanents, as well one's own permanents. These two cards alone, can literally turn the battlefield to one's advantage and make it difficult for opponents to draw creatures, shields, and weapons, or to cast spells. |  |
| Other features | |
| Earth offers many distinct features both for earth users and other elementals dipping into earth's goodness. Darkness users will find that their gargoyles will become much stronger by consuming a quantum of earth. Their devourers are happily protected by burrowing in earth's surface. Fire elementals must use earth's quanta to grow their fearsome lava golems. And water users will combine the powers of earth and water to destroy land using the Trident weapon. Earth also is advantaged with a 1+ attack bonus when wielding a hammer/gavel in battle. |
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| Final Thoughts |
What does the science basically say about  ? Well, that it is strong, colorful, and beautiful 
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