Woo Longass post with answers go!
Graviton Mercenary and Colossal Dragon are widely considered UP. How would you change that?
Upped mercenary is good in my opinion. Unupped I still feel is balanced costwise, it just doesn't see a whole lot of play. And there is honestly nothing you could do to make it desirable in a rush as it does too little damage, compared to things like charger, even with its 5 cost. It has been discussed that the most efficient attackers in a rush are mid range hitters, for example, even thought they are cheap, you don't want to rush with dejavus. The only reason poison is worth it is because it avoids shields (I feel like rushing with spiders would be faster). To reiterate, it isn't UP, just because of it's niche, it won't be used in unupped play. You could always give it an ability, which I agree with vagman on. Maybe: Delay creature on your side of the map and give it 2 hp?
Massive dragon isn't bad, and I feel in certain decks it would still get some play. However, colossal dragon is outright terrible. It doesn't have enough HP to be useful, and honestly, who wants to gravpull a 10 cost card just to see it die a turn or two later? Likewise, you really don't want to catapult it, as armagio is half the price and does a better job. The problem is, dragons are all vanilla, and I believe they are rightfully so, so there is not much room for improvement. If dragons weren't vanilla, you could have fun, as in making this a normal dragon, but having it gain hp (kind of like gargoyle) with an activated ability. As far as I can see, the only real fix for a gravy dragon is to increase it's attack. Dragons shouldn't be cheaper than 10, and 7 attack is abysmal. What kind of dragon is only as powerful as a pheonix? Take pheonix as a balancer. It takes 2 CC to kill it, A gravy dragon at 15 HP would take 1 more lightning, but costs 3 more quanta. It is really not that much. I say increase the gravy and stone dragons attack by 2, and their cost by 1. (I find stone dragon weak as well). Do the same for massive dragon. People PU light dragons, now gravy dragons are pu-able as well. (looking back at this, I guess you really can PU gravy dragons. It's still very slow though, they could use an attack buff)
To all candidates: Create an effective deck which uses 5-6 unupped Graviton Fire Eaters.
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,44270.0.htmlFirst deck. Switch out a gravy pillar or 2 for another fire eater or two. If that doesn't count because of upped cards: just speedbuilt this:
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
55k 55k 55r 55r 55r 55r 55u 55u 55u 55u 55u 55u 560 560 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 5f5 5f5 5f5 5f5 8po
Great potential at damage, but a bit slow, so add in fire shields, which synergizes quite nicely with oty. Chimera for stallbreaker potential, plus to bail you out of sticky situations (graviton eaters actually have a decent amount of hp).
How do you think you could make gravity a force in war 6?
Gravity definitely hast the card base to be a titan in war. It's really hard to outstall gravity (momentum, acceleration, OTK potential), and Oty's stop most rushes in their tracks. Something I saw last war was a great mummy based, RT resistant deck, but I feel like gravity should make use of its fantastic stalling power, which it didn't do last war. Something that I think makes me a decent CL player is that I pull decks out of my arse. I like to think that it makes me really hard to predict. Granted, what determines war is a solid team, that tests. Testing is honestly a huge amount, and it means that we may have to cut down on the gravy parties, but it will be worth it.
Unupped gravy is regarded by most as the worst (mono) element there is. Why do you think this is and how would you fix it?
Elite Charger. Is the card OP? Should anything be done about it? What are your thoughts on it?
Chimera. The only uses you really see for it are in OTKs. Can you guys make a good deck with chimera that isn't cliche?
Cost wise, Elite Charger is OP. However, it is really something that gravy needs. Gravity has no flesh recluses, no phase spiders, the only way to get a gravy rush is in a duo with catatitans. Lets think of another case. Elite graboid is OP right? (just arguing this cost wise), if graboid was to get nerfed, earth still has steel golem, which is a fantastic hitter, it's cost effective, and has great hp. Gravy on the other hand, has nothing. You would be left trying to beat down your opponent with graviton guards, which doesn't work unless you fractal them. Charger may be theoretically OP, but it is overlooked, because it is a card that gravy solely needs. It
is gravy's attack force. Plus...
As to the chimera deck, see my firemaster deck
. The problem with chimera is that the only reason to use a chimera is when your opponent is blocking your creatures with a shield or your about to die. Generally, there is no need to use it. OTK's just use it as a sort of mass momentum, since it saves card space. Unfortunately Chimera is an expensive card that adds nothing to the the table, and has a chance of wiping out all of your creatuers. Granted, all your asking for is a non-otk, but that just means it is fairly situational. Generally it is not wise to turn all of your individual creatures into one larger one, for fear of CC, but here is something that takes advantage of not having momentum, and having decent HP.
Thinking about taking out a dragon for another pend, but this went 9/10 vs. ai3 (with an em), and the one loss was only by a turn (to the RT dune scorp deck). I played chimera in 8 of the games, and it saved my ass in 5 of them, plus got past a duck mantle in the 6th. Gravy has a very slow pugons, so this is a "defensive" version. Plus, this can't be trolled by PC like dim reliant builds.
What you think of changing the element of plate armor to gravity?
Gravity shield and Black hole are very game changing cards imo, but can be usless in certain situations. Would you change them to be more versatile cards?
Plate armor is fine in earth, as much as I would like an in-element buff to OTY's. As it is, it is easily splashable (as well as bb) just off the mark, so I don't feel like it is necessary. Plus, plate armor should keep its synergy with fire golems. Honestly, a +6 def in element buff to OTY would be OP. Upped OTY could eat 95% of the cards in the game.
Gravity shield is meh. It's not the greatest, but it has an amazing synergy with otyugh, and you can make a great earth/gravy stall (see my trials decks). Plus, plate armor should keep its synergy with fire golems. Honestly, a +6 def in element buff to OTY would be OP. Upped OTY could eat 95% of the cards in the game. If your going to include oty's (in upped play), you might as well include a gravy shield, especially since it shuts down the majority of decks that rely on blessing, CP, scarab decks, the like.
Now black hole. It's a great thematic card, and gives gravity a bit of healing, plus creates the great dbh deck. Unfortunately, it flat out sucks vs. monos/duos. In the upped meta, bhole just takes a bit of prediction, as it completely shuts down PSN's, kind of like purify destroys sosac based decks. It is also a fantastic counter to OTK's, which can work fairly well against slow gravity.
I would personally not change either, but if I had to change one, it would be BH (just because gravity shield is really good imo), BH is still fine, but the only thing I can think of to make it more versatile would be to drain 1/4 of current quanta (rounded to the nearest whole) + 1. So if opponent had 10 life quanta, it would drain 4 quanta, which is a bit better than the three. Upped card would be the same. This would help against OTK stalls, at 75 quanta, this would drain 19 quanta (this isn't even as much hp as a rainbow with 3 in each element), and it still retains it's ability to stall supernovas. (2 entropy quanta would be 0.5 quanta rounded up, +1). This simply gives bhole a more versatile use, and makes it stronger against monos, which it is very poor against right now.