I pick this deck, played during game 8 by kae:
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4ss 4ss 4ss 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rm 5ro 5ro 5t2 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5us 5us 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7t5 7t5 7ta 8ptI'm fond of this deck mainly because I like denial decks; I find that I don't feel pressured as much when playing them, and lose a lot less because of it.
This deck is actually pretty good against Time. Time is not a cheap element most of the time, so Devs are an excellent denial option, especially since they also make yourself go faster in terms of
. Couple that with HGs and Eternity and with a decent draw your opponent won't be able to keep up. By no means is such a strategy perfect, though. One of Elements' best aspects is that every deck can be countered, meaning there is no perfect strategy.
Let's look at the deck's strengths and weaknesses:
- + This deck has a heavy form of denial in Eternity, Nightmare and Devourer. By combining these three cards, you can slow your opponent's draws and furthermore force discards, which hurts your opponent a lot, especially when your opponent has a poor quanta draw or expensive cards.
- + The denial aspect of this deck allows for it to not pack as many aggressive cards. Eclipse works well with Devourers, and helps the deck's wincon a lot.
- + Hourglasses speeding up the deck allow it to be bigger at a decreased cost, and provide a way to use the excess
, considering the little amount of other Time cards in the deck. - - This deck is heavily dependant on Hourglasses due to the very small amount of damage cards it has against its size. Any draw denial will hurt it a lot, or even late Hourglasses.
- - Sanctuary is able to block both Devourers and Nightmares, and with no Steal in the deck, just one will completely kill the deck's denial.
- + It will never deck out because of Eternity; Devourer is an optimal target for it.
- + Drain Life can make use of the excess , which will prove useful in reducing enemy HP later in the game, especially because of the deck's strategy. Eternity can already deal with creatures, so their use as CC is less necessary.
- - Both Eternity and Nightmare can be played around, by bursting and by holding cards, respectively. One workaround can lead to the other, to make matters worse. However, Devourer helps a lot when dealing with bursts (by delaying the turn the burst occurs).
- - Devourer can be counterproductive to Nightmare. Devourer reduces your opponent's ability to play cards, which forces their hand to clog up and make Nightmares less effective. Nightmare already clogs the opponent's hand, though, so this happens anyway.
With this in mind, I present you this counter:
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5lc 5lc 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5rh 5ro 5ro 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 5t2 7k0 7k0 7k0 7k0 7k0 7k2 7k2 7k2 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 8pqLet's see.
Sanctuary makes Devourers and Nightmares dead cards.
Mirror Shield reflects Drain Life, and reduces the power of Eclipse.
Holy Lights are there to kill the Obsidian Dragons; by far the most dangerous creatures.
No creatures on my side (Deja Vu is RT fodder), so Drain Life is a dead card. So is Eternity as CC.
kae's deck can do up to 102 damage (OTK!) in a single turn:
─12 from Devs + Eclipse,
─28 from the Obsidian Dragons + Eclipse,
─10 from the Devonian Dragon,
─4 from Eternity,
─32 from both Drain Lifes at 73-75
,
─and 16 from Nightmare.
What my deck does about this:
─Sanctuary denies Nightmare, reducing 16 damage,
─Mirror Shield absorbs 1 damage from all creatures/Eternity and denies Drain Life, reducing 42 damage.
This 58 damage reduction leaves only 44 maximum damage in a single turn when both Sanctuary and Mirror Shield are in play, which comes from the creatures and Eternity. Of course, this is more damage than the six Sancts can handle; which justifies the inclusion of the Holy Lights and Miracles. The Holy Lights will kill a Dragon each, reducing 26 damage, leaving only 18 damage to deal with. The Sanctuaries can deal with that. Miracles are there as a precaution; if Holy Lights aren't drawn in time, they will be necessary.
The OTK is already out of the realm of possibility even with only one of Sanctuary and Mirror Shield, and with 11 in 42 cards being one of either, it's highly unlikely that not one is drawn, much less with hourglasses in the deck.
Eternity and Deja Vu will prevent deckout, and because of Sanctuary, Nightmare and Devourer won't be able to stop you from infinitely using RT on the Deja. Meanwhile, Eternity will poke at kae's deck, and with no healing, will eventually deal 100 HP worth of damage. An early Eternity can also help slowing down kae's deck.
