Phase 2 - Proving of Worthiness

[Kael Hate]

Thought I had to read somewhere that PuppyChow also has to complete this part. Terrokings entries are massive 400 word essays.

[PuppyChow]

  Precognition | Precognition



Precognition is a funny little card, and a relatively new addition (since December). It has two main abilities: 1) Look at your opponent's hand and 2) Draw a card. Both are worth the cost by themselves; electrum hourglass costs 2 time unupped and 1 time upped to draw a card. And the hourglass does not get the ability to see the opponent's hand. The precognition part of it helps to know when to play cards and when to hold back, while the card drawing part is a different monster entirely. The card drawing aspect can actually be used to make 24 card decks, in effect, because the idea is that your draw a precog, play it, and then draw something else. Making the card really not even there.

What decks do well with precognitions?

• 30 card rush decks with ample time towers do best with it, since it speeds the deck up by so much.
• Decks that require rushing through a deck very fast (though not false god farmers; hourglass is better for them) do very well with this card. For instance, it is an alternative to rewinds for a quicksand/graboid rush, or a deck based solely on 6 unstable gasses would do well with them since you draw through a deck so much faster.
• Actually, any mainly time deck with more than the bare minimum of time towers would do well to include a few, maybe 2-3, in the deck. Since, as before said, they are essentially a free card, the only negative effect they have is a no pillar draw where you can't play them. This is why you should only add them if you are confident you will still draw some towers. Anyway, though in this instance they don't serve to make the deck size smaller since you're only adding them, they don't make it bigger either and provide the benefit of seeing your opponent's hand

So any "pro" strategies I could use with this card?

• Be careful not to use it with 0 cards left; you'll lose. This goes for 1 card left too unless you'll win this turn or can rewind a creature directly after-wards.
• Don't try to include time in a deck solely for the use of precognitions. It ends up being a worse deck.
• Keep in mind that, when playing a deck upped, a time tower drawn after the precognition nullifies the precognition's cost. So you may want to take the risk to play it before another card. For instance, you have 4 time, a precognition, and a turtle shield. You could play the shield but then the precognition would be a waste. Instead, you may want to take the risk and play the precognition, hoping you draw a time tower next. If you do, you gain that time tower AND you can still play the turtle shield.
• Use it to determine whether or not to play a card. For instance, if the opponent has no creature control, go ahead and spam those dragons! If he/she has some though, you *may* want to hold back on the dragon. Or if it is a big mass creature control card, you should just play two or so dragons at a time.

What synergies does this card have?

• Time towers: Drawing it after-wards nullifies the cost.
• Silurian dragon: A staple for rush decks, and precogs make rush decks faster!
• Electrum hourglass: Increase the speed of hourglasses even more!
• Pharaoh/Scarab: Know what to do: rewind scarabs or keep them out, play them or not.

Reverse Time | Rewind



Many people think that rewind pales in comparison to eternity. I beg to differ. In fact, in many aspects, rewind/reverse time is MORE powerful than eternity. It has the surprise factor; your opponent won't know it's coming. And they can't stop it from coming. Also note that each of them costs your opponent a single draw, which can make or break the game.

What decks do well with rewinds?

• Probably the best deck is one that uses graboids and quicksands. Quicksands means your opponent will be forced to use their limited quanta supply to replay a card, or maybe even make rewind become an instant kill card and draw delay since they won't be able to replay it.
• Other forms of quanta denial do well with it too; maybe pests, discords, black holes, or any combination thereof.
• It even helps slow down rush decks without creature control; rewinding a dragon and costing them a draw can be a hinderance. Therefore, some mono time decks can make good use for them. Be careful though; in rush decks, it may be better to not use them and instead take more cards for making the deck faster.

So any "pro" strategies I could use with this card?

• Each can be used to rewind a card, keeping you from decking out one turn each.
• Rewind your own creature to take off any negative buffs like antimatter, fire storm, plague, and such.
• Try to target buffed creatures to rewind something, if possible.

What synergies does this card have?

• Mummy: Better than eternity since you don't have to have an eternity in play, and  amummy actually requires a reverse time effect. Obvious, ain't it?
• Quicksand: Deny opponent's quanta generation, then deny them quanta/creatures with rewind. Perfect situation!
• Discord: Spread out their quanta, then rewind a creature and they won't be able to play it.
• Black Hole: Especially against rainbows, once you take the quanta away and rewind it, they may rage quit since their sole creature just got rewinded.
• Pests: This slows down how fast they can replay their creatures by a lot.
• Electrum Hourglass/Precognition: Rewind your own creature to preserve it, and then redraw and replay it that very same turn with an hourglass or precognition!

Devonian Dragon | Silurian Dragon



Ah, the dragon. A staple of every element. Time, though, is fun because the names of them are so interesting. If you didn't know, both devonian and silurian are references to earlier time periods, devonian being from 416 to 359.2  million years ago and silurian from 443.7 – 416 million years ago. Both from the Paleozoic era. Now back to the actual card. The upped form is part of a three way tie for the second highest base attack out of all the creatures at a whopping 13. Something you wouldn't really expect from time, but helpful nonetheless.


What decks do well with these dragons?

• Obviously, they are a necessity in any mono time rush deck.
• Control decks lacking damage can make use of them too, just a couple though. (Maybe an anubis too if possible). For instance, immortal flying eternities is very slow; add a dragon to make it faster.

So any "pro" strategies I could use with this card?

• Not really. I mean, it's a dragon...
• Immortalizing these dragons, especially, is very useful. Gravity shield won't stop it, and then it isn't vulnerable to creature control. Also, time has better synergy with aether than fire's ruby dragon .

What synergies does this card have?

• Anubis: Immortal 13 attack dragons is scary. And both are time!
• Precognition: Rush decks are made faster with precognition, and precognition either helps draw a time tower, meaning getting the dragon out faster, or helps draw a dragon you need to be able to play.

[PuppyChow]

Oops. Sorry Kuro. I didn't see your post saying you were going to do precognition. If you want me to change it to a different card, I will.

Oh and to Kael: I would add quicksand as a synergy with eternity.

[Terroking]

Nice job you three. Also Puppy, precogs work well in decks that may have a fear of decking out, since you can bump up the deck size to say, 32 (An example) and then either play them as you draw them and see your opponent's cards, or save them in your hand , giving you an extra turn or two to win. Not many decks have fear of decking out, although it is helpful for those situations.

Also, both Air and Water dragons have 13 attack, but Water's costs only 11 , and has +1 hp, while Air's has 4 more hp

[Scaredgirl]

Yes, very nice tips from all 3.

[Kuroaitou]

Sundial - (Upgraded) Sundial


With a cheap cost of 1 time quanta (or nothing at all if upgraded), Sundials are a cheap card to include in any deck for a one-turn stall. Note though that the stalling effect doesn’t provide complete invulnerability – a Sundial only prevents all creatures (including yours) from attacking the round it is played. Weapons (not flying ones) and player-targeted spell bolts (i.e. Siphon Life and Ice Lance) can still be used to damage you. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of a Sundial should never be underestimated due to its simplicity – and that’s saying something for a type of clock that only works during the daytime!

Good cards to pair up with:

• Dimensional Shields: In several Duo time/aether decks, Sundials are used in combination with Dimensional Shields to prevent damage for extended periods. Having a Sundial or two can help them generate more quanta to bring up another shield.
• Hourglasses: In any rainbow deck, unless you’re saving up for multiple miracles, Sundials can assist with drawing cards in addition to your Hourglasses (even if it’s for one turn). The added bonus of the stall effect is a bonus when you want to draw more pillars or costly creatures.
• Bone Wall: If your Bone wall is low on counters, throwing up a Sundial can prevent all those nasty creatures from taking it down, and giving you an extra turn to build it up again (i.e. – allowing your poisons in a duo time/death deck to tick and potentially kill some of the enemy’s monsters to refuel your wall)

Additional Tips:

• Did you see the enemy toss on a shield that can damage your monster(s) (Fire Shield/Thorn Carapace), and you don’t have a card to destroy/steal it in your hand? Throw up a Sundial, and let your monsters live for one extra turn to build up some more creatures for a bigger assault, or possibly draw that one card to save you the trouble of having your creatures take damage.
• If you want EM (Elemental Mastery), playing this while having healing permanents up can help you gain full HP before winning the game.
• Sometimes, the AI or other players may have tools to remove your permanents (Steal and Explosion). If you aren’t sure, play one of these as a safety precaution before placing other important cards (bonds, graveyards, weapons) down.
• Upgrading the card will increase the cost of drawing a card by one light quanta, but without a casting cost, ANY deck can afford to use it with extra light quanta generation methods, or ones that may require a full setup/stalling time. It’s one of the few cards that have no quanta-specific cost (or cost at all, for that matter!), so it’s always a surprise to the opponent if you play one down in non-time deck.

Procrastination - Turtle Shield


Tired of dealing with shields that only reduce damage by one or two points against hard hitters? Let Procrastination be your best friend – unlike other shields that simply reduce damage outright per turn, Time’s unique shield will immediately stun the foe’s creatures once they attack. The ‘delay’ effect may only last for one turn, but the enemy also can’t use any active skills from their monsters (like mutate or devour), giving you a chance to take those creatures out, or play a card safely without worrying about the skills they could use. Overall, this shield effectively halves the total amount of damage a swarm of monsters can do throughout the game.

Good cards to pair up with:

• Shards of Gratitude: Hard to obtain, but a perfect combo if executed properly. While the shield prevents damage and skills going off for a turn, you’re still being healed for the same amount each round, regardless of the opponent’s (in)activity on the field.
• Plague (or anything that infects a creature): Poisons will also still tick even when the creature is immobilized in a bubble of time – thus, they’re wasting turns taking damage while stunned, and you’re still damaging them, albeit slowly.
• Otyugh: Certain creatures may have active skills to make them immortal on the following turn (Elite Shriekers and Pests); once they’re played, Procrastination/Turtle shield will give you a ‘technical’ two turns (the following turn they’re stunned, and once again when the delay falls off) to either remove their abilities or destroy them outright. Thus, Otyughs (especially upgraded ones) can be given a second chance to possibly eat them again during and right after they attack.

Additional Tips:

• Watch out for targets that are buffed with Adrenaline – they will still hit multiple times, and since Turtle Shield only affects them attacking once (the stun only affects their normal attacking rate), their extra strikes via Adrenaline will come through.
• Try not to constantly rewind creatures that are already affected by the stun and can be easily played again. By rewinding them, you essentially negate the effect of Turtle Shield and the opponent will replay the creature again. (This will also cause ‘rotating’ damage periods between delayed and non-delayed creatures, which could ruin the long-term effects of halving damage)
• Creatures with Momentum will unfortunately bypass the stun effect. This includes a flying Titan (weapon).
• Having other shields besides Procrastination may just add space in your deck (unless you don’t have a way to protect them via Enchant Artifact); unlike other shields that may have time limits (Phase Shield), are luck based (Fog Shield), or can hurt you over an extended period of time (Dissipation Shield), Turtle Shield’s effect is a constant one-turn delay that will work the most consistently out of all shields, which means you don’t want to be replacing the shield with something else every so often if you can afford to. Permafrost Shield may last longer, and reduce all damage by 2, but the freeze is proc-based, and you can't always rely on percentage-based shields against significantly tougher monsters.
• Another fun tactic to use is having a Auburn/Earth Nymph out or Basilisk Blood to freeze really strong creatures for even longer periods of time. Try using it after the delay from the Turtle Shield wears off from their first assault - 7 turns of uselessness will definitely agitate the opponent, and if you throw a rewind on the creature when the stun wears off again, then you'll really be wasting their damage potential immensely

Fate Egg - (Upgraded) Fate Egg


Hard-boiled or raw, these little monsters can hide a potential wallop in them if you’re lucky enough. Fate Eggs cost a relatively small quanta cost to play for the first round, and have a one-time skill called ‘hatch’, which magically transforms them into another random creature in the game. The randomness can work both in and out of your favor. Perhaps you’ll obtain a decent phase spider or Abyss Crawler; other times you’ll be stuck with a Photon or Spark. Of course, there’s also the chance you can obtain a dragon, arctic squid, or even a nymph – the luck factor makes this card sometimes a pain to deal with, but if you want to toss the dice, the Fate Egg is Time’s one-shot lottery.

Good cards to pair up with:

• Quanta Towers: Sometimes, you get a card that has an awesome ability (Fallen Druid, Mind Flayer, Firefly Queen, etc.). Having a few cards to generate that other quanta can be a major factor in how your deck can turn the battle. Whether you need it for a devour, ablaze, or growth, you’re going to want to be able to use these abilities to their fullest to ensure that you have a field of deadly monsters. In addition to this, if the card is something you think is essential in your deck (or really good to keep), then the next card will seal the deal…
• Anubis/Quintessence: Pull up an Elite Dragon from your Elite Fate Egg? Immortalize it, and you now have a card that’s either pumping out the damage or causing massive creature control on the field that opponent usually can’t counter (namely because they couldn’t predict what was in it). You can also use the skill to make your egg survive through a thunderstorm or plague before hatching it.
• Fractal: If you’re sure that the opponent doesn’t have any cards that have massive creature control (Rain of Fire or Thunderstorm), using Fractal on one egg can give you an opportunity to mass produce a plethora of them on the field all at once. Unless you’re cursed, you’ll generally pull up at least one card that is moderately or severely strong, in which case you can immortalize with a Quintessence right after.

Additional Tips:

• Be careful on WHEN you immortalize the egg, should you have an ability to make it invulnerable. If you do it too early to protect it from threats, you may generate something absolutely futile (a Spark), which will waste the effects of your quanta.
• Aside from the synergy-cards above, health point buffing cards (Plate Armor and Blessing) will allow it to survive for a longer period of time without having to immortalize it, and may also allow it to damage before hatching.
• Remember that a Fate Egg (upgraded or not) is based on luck. If you’re truly serious about going against high-level AI opponents or other players, don’t rely solely on these cards to conjure heavy-hitters or controllers. Mix up other cards to give you a potential ‘X-factor’ with a Fate Egg if you truly want them in your deck. (There’s a reason why Destiny, the false god, isn’t the most impressive deity out of all of them)
• And yes, you have an equal chance of generating the same Fate Egg (Elite Fate Egg if you upgraded it) when you hatch it (with the same skill of hatch). If this happens, the computer simply hates you.
• Hatching an egg is different from Mutation – the card you conjure is a real card, in the sense that it will not have unusual abilities from its prototype or higher than normal stats.

Oh, it's okay Puppy. I'd figure your explanation is a hundred times better than what I could up with, not to mention I had more ideas with Fate Egg than Precognition anyway.

...as long as I didn't have to explain the strategy uses of Time Pillar/Time Tower, I'm happy... 

[Xinef]

Kuroaitou, in sundial's additional tips I'd add a warning that you should not use these (upgraded) in decks with very few pillars because of the auto-mulligan.

• Try not to constantly rewind creatures that are already affected by the stun and can be easily played again. By rewinding them, you essentially negate the effect of Turtle Shield and the opponent will replay the creature again. (This will also cause ‘rotating’ damage periods between delayed and non-delayed creatures, which could ruin the long-term effects of halving damage)
• Creatures with Momentum will unfortunately bypass the stun effect. This includes a flying Titan (weapon).

With eternity+procrastination a very nice combo is to rewind the creatures when they leave stasis. Maybe this does not reduce the damage you take, but still it effectively renders two creatures unable to ever use their abilities, while opponent has to pay for their cost each turn.

Against flying weapons... I don't see this mentioned in neither eternities nor rewinds tips, but rewind is the nemesis of all flying weapons except glories. And who quints flying titans?

For fate eggs, their synergy with should be mentioned. You can use supernovas to generate the quanta for skills and use improved mutations on anything weak you get from an egg to give it another chance.

Great tips anyway! (I guess I'll give you all +karma )

[Kuroaitou]

Kuroaitou, in sundial's additional tips I'd add a warning that you should not use these (upgraded) in decks with very few pillars because of the auto-mulligan.

Auto-mulligan? *looks up word*... I don't seem to see how a Sundial relates to stew... >_>

However, if by 'auto-mulligan', you mean 'higher chance' of decking-out/little quanta generation, then that's a good point I forgot to consider. I'll change it in a bit.

• Try not to constantly rewind creatures that are already affected by the stun and can be easily played again. By rewinding them, you essentially negate the effect of Turtle Shield and the opponent will replay the creature again. (This will also cause ‘rotating’ damage periods between delayed and non-delayed creatures, which could ruin the long-term effects of halving damage)
• Creatures with Momentum will unfortunately bypass the stun effect. This includes a flying Titan (weapon).

With eternity+procrastination a very nice combo is to rewind the creatures when they leave stasis. Maybe this does not reduce the damage you take, but still it effectively renders two creatures unable to ever use their abilities, while opponent has to pay for their cost each turn.

Against flying weapons... I don't see this mentioned in neither eternities nor rewinds tips, but rewind is the nemesis of all flying weapons except glories. And who quints flying titans?

For fate eggs, their synergy with should be mentioned. You can use supernovas to generate the quanta for skills and use improved mutations on anything weak you get from an egg to give it another chance.

Great tips anyway! (I guess I'll give you all +karma )

Thanks for the Karma. ^^;;;; When SG approves of ALL of the tips, I'll be sure to return the favor.

For the bolded part, I meant to clarify that someone should NOT rewind a creature that is affected by the 'stun' bubble and has no abilities, because it can be effectively ignored (the player can't deal damage with it nor use its abilities) until the next round of play. That is, if a Fallen Druid is stunned by the bubble, rewinding it negates THAT effect of Turtle Shield's delay, as the opponent could probably play it again, deal damage, and thus have 'rotating' damage periods (if the creature has an ability though or if it has Momentum, rewinding is going to be the best option in that case).

...I quint Flying Titans. XD (j/k)

I'll mention the part about the Fate Eggs however, for sure. Initially I was worried though that the card would have TOO many strategies/tips in comparison to the other ones (Turtle Shield/Sundial), so I didn't want to throw in so much when Sundial/Eternity/Scarab lacked paragraphs of ideas.

I still can't believe the trials are over. Things sure go by fast! ^_^

[Xinef]

Kuroaitou, in sundial's additional tips I'd add a warning that you should not use these (upgraded) in decks with very few pillars because of the auto-mulligan.

Auto-mulligan? *looks up word*... I don't seem to see how a Sundial relates to stew... >_>

However, if by 'auto-mulligan', you mean 'higher chance' of decking-out/little quanta generation, then that's a good point I forgot to consider. I'll change it in a bit.

By 'auto-mulligan' I mean this (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,4066.msg44485#msg44485)

If your deck has very few pillars (eg. rainbows with 1/3 pillars or less, poison rush deck with so cheap cards you can fuel it with only 6 pillars and mark, etc.) then including 0 cost cards like upped sundial greatly increases your chances of 0 towers in starting hand.

[Kael Hate]

Congratulations Xinef, you get to face PuppyChow for Master of Time.

[Xinef]

Thanks Kael Hate, both you and Kuroaitou did great job and both of you deserve a chance to fight PuppyChow. Still, right now I think I've made up my mind and I will not drop out, because I guess even if I'm quite busy with my studies and other projects, I'll still be able to spend some on these forums. At least enough to spread the power of amongst both newbies and veterans alike!

I also feel as if I learned quite a lot about during these trials... and if I beat PuppyChow, I'll be the second best Elements player, ever!

Overall, it seems our trial was the most competitive and intensive of all, but I guess and also come close, so I wonder how are these trials going to end...


Anyway, I still have to upgrade some cards to prepare to face PuppyChow, because even though I've my anti-FG Pharaoh deck fully upped, and ~60 upped cards right now, I still need some specific cards for this duel so... back to grinding

[Kuroaitou]

Thanks Kael Hate, both you and Kuroaitou did great job and both of you deserve a chance to fight PuppyChow. Still, right now I think I've made up my mind and I will not drop out, because I guess even if I'm quite busy with my studies and other projects, I'll still be able to spend some on these forums. At least enough to spread the power of amongst both newbies and veterans alike!

I also feel as if I learned quite a lot about during these trials... and if I beat PuppyChow, I'll be the second best Elements player, ever!

Overall, it seems our trial was the most competitive and intensive of all, but I guess and also come close, so I wonder how are these trials going to end...


Anyway, I still have to upgrade some cards to prepare to face PuppyChow, because even though I've my anti-FG Pharaoh deck fully upped, and ~60 upped cards right now, I still need some specific cards for this duel so... back to grinding

Good! I hate it when people have to drop-out when they've put in so much work into something they love (in this case, challenging the Master of Time for his position).

Life actually didn't come that close - Pepokish had excelled in all of the challenges essentially with flying colors, but he dropped out, so it went to the second person. With Darkness and Fire though, I could totally see the intensity between the challengers - a pity that some of the elements (gravity, water, etc.) were so immensely imbalanced in terms of who got more points, however. XD

Good luck Xinef, and again, congrats!  *does a pom pom wave thing*