Phase 1 - Proving of Worthiness

[Scaredgirl]

Phase 1 - Proving of Worthiness
Phase 1 has ended

Post your decks/screenshots/links/card ideas/articles here.

When you post more than one, please use "modify" and add them to your first post instead of posting on two different places. Thanks.

[bojengles77]

This is my Deck:

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6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6ug 71b 77f 77i 7am 7gp 7n2 7n2 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q3 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q7 7q7 7q8 7q8 7q8 7qc 7qc 7qc 7t9 80h 80h
I even beat Rainbow! Most of the wins were EMs, not that it matters, but the setup is strong with a nymph and infinite quintessences. It's a bit slow, but hourglasses and unlimited quanta make up for the deficit! This is like an inverted timebow!

I've beaten 12 gods with this since i built it this afternoon, though i somehow missed the SS opportunity on Incarnate's win TWICE  .

Here are the other 11 screenshots, i'll have the 12th up ASAP

Rainbow

Yay I beat Rainbow!!
Gemini

Obliterator

This Game took just over an hour.. I nearly decked out obliterator. And have you ever seen so many antimatters in your life??
Dream Catcher

Fire Queen

Ferox

Elidnis

Destiny

Chaos Lord

Morte

Osiris


Should be Incarnate here. K, finally beat Graviton instead.




I'm trying to add my Wikipedia article to the website, but I'm not getting a confirmation e-mail with my password so while I work on that issue, i'll post my article here. I hope this isn't a problem for the timebeing.

Wiki Article : Building a small rainbow deck

Rainbows have always been the subject of much controversy and complaining, because they are some of the most versatile and powerful of decks. As rainbow decks don’t have the card limitations of mono-decks or duo-decks, they can pull the most useful cards from each element and combine them to form a multitude of strategic options. Some of the basic questions that will be answered in this article are those such as “How many towers should I use in a rainbow deck of X size?”, “How much quanta is too much for one element?”, “how do I balance speed and control?”, and others. Rainbows are dangerous when used effectively and are difficult to counter, but let’s start with the basics and figure out how many towers one should put in a rainbow deck.

We’ll start with small rainbows

QUANTA PRODUCTION

The standard, and probably most effectual, number of towers for a thirty-card speed rainbow deck is five quantum towers. With this number of towers, there is a 76.39% chance of drawing at least one in your opening hand. Factor auto-mulligan into this statistic (auto-mulligan redraws your hand if you have 0 no-cost cards, one time), and there is a 94.43% chance of drawing at least one tower in your opening seven-card hand. Taking away one tower brings the statistic to 89.5%, a bit low to be consistent and too few for late-game quanta, and adding one tower brings it to 97.11%, not a large increase, considering the tower is taking the spot of another potentially useful card. Depending on the type of deck, this “5 tower” rule can most assuredly be broken.
   For example, a deck with heavy quanta usage, containing cards like Hourglasses, Eagles Eye, or other cards that are expensive to use, may be better suited with a 6th tower for more consistent use of those cards. Contrarily, a deck such as Antagon’s “PvP Graboid Rainbow”
(http://helltgivre.free.fr/elements/?mark=4sm&deck=z44saz24vhz64vjz252qz255qz5590z25c1z25f65i7z25ogz261q) might require less towers, since much of the damage comes from graboids, which are fueled by the earth mark. This deck also has novae, not supernovae, which are no cost cards and thus more likely to end up in your hand.

With 5 (or so) quantum towers in your deck, now it’s time to look for cards to make your deck fast and painfully brutal. Obviously 5 towers aren’t enough to fuel your deck for the entire game, but they are sufficient for extra and late-game quanta. However, the main sources of speed in a small rainbow deck are the novae. Whether you are running an upgraded rainbow deck or an un-upgraded deck, always pack 6 novae or supernovae. Novae give a rainbow deck an early game advantage in quanta production and are very reliable. Using one supernova produces 24 evenly distributed quanta, whereas 4 towers would produce the same quanta, randomly spread out. Novae produce 12 quanta, whereas 4 quantum pillars produce that amount in a turn, also randomly spread. Playing just 2 supernovas in one turn allows you to use nearly every card in your deck, while 2-3 novas do nearly the same thing! If you draw these cards early, you could have your entire hand on the field in a matter of a couple turns!



CREATURE CARDS

   What is the optimal amount of creature cards in a small rainbow, you might ask. Well, let’s try to answer that question. In many standard, upgraded speedbows, 10 creatures is the norm. At this point in deckbuilding, 10-12 card slots are taken by quanta producing cards, so there are now 18-20 slots left to work with (a few more if you want to go over 30 cards).

   Probably the greatest advantage of a rainbow deck is the ability to take the most powerful cards from each element and combine them into one deck. A good way to determine this for a speed rainbow deck is the ratio of a card’s cost to its attack. For example,  a Giant Frog has an attack of 5 and a cost of 2 , giving a ratio of 2.5 Anything in the 1.5-2.5 range is a good candidate to put in for the sake of damage. On the converse side, a poor choice for damage output would be a card like Fallen Druid, which has a .6 ratio (3/5).

   Damage isn’t the only important thing in a rainbow, however. Your rainbow deck must have a central strategy, and you need to build it with this strategy in mind. For example, my speed rainbow deck was built for quick wins, using mainly Wings and spiders for defense (6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u5 713 713 745 77g 77g 7ah 7dm 7dq 7gm 7ju 7n8 7n8 7q5 7q5 7t9 7tb 80a 80g). Aside from having creatures like Graboids for damage, I pack 3 spiders and 2 wings for control. These 3 creature cards happen to have good damage as well, but their main purpose in my deck is to create a line of defense along with wings to keep me alive long enough for my other creatures to do their job and take the win.

   Here is a list of creatures that have strong attack/cost ratio:

Werewolf
Elite Mummy
Flesh Recluse
Graviton Guard
Graboid
Steel Golem
Elite Antlion
Cockatrice
giant frong
Minor Phoenix
Abyss Crawler
Elite Pegasus
Phase Recluse


   Some creatures that both have good damage and a strong ability are as follows:

Ulitharid: Lobotomize is a strong ability for a cheap creature to have, and will take out threats from creatures like Otyugh, Flying Weapons, and others.

Archangel: Aside from having 7 attack and being very durable, the heal ability forces your opponent to kill any one of your creatures at one time, which can draw more than one CC card to one creature.

Lava Destroyer: Growth is a useful ability for both survivability and damage. Getting a growth creature into play early can be game changing later in the game.

Wyrm: Although dive is a great ability for increasing damage output, it also doubles offensive buffs. When combined with blessings, chaos powers, and Twin Universes, dive can be devastating.


CONTROL CARDS

   Depending on the type of rainbow you’re building, control cards will vary in number and variety. For a speedbow, as I have been primarily outlining, control cards should number from about 1-3 in each the creature and permanent control categories. With an offensively based Speedbow as I outlined before, Permanent control is more important to get rid of shields. However, the lightning can be very important in taking out detrimental creatures such as Otyugh or growth creatures.

   For a small rainbow, 1-2 permanent control cards and 1-2 creature control cards will suffice. With an offensively based deck, more permanent control cards are appropriate to take out shields or hourglasses (or discord against mono decks). However, for more stall oriented decks, additional creature control cards are important to take out long run “problem creatures” like Otyugh, Ulitharid, Fallen Druids, or other important cards. Control cards are much more simple than other aspects of deck building, though they are important nonetheless and a well-timed perm control card can change a game’s momentum.

A SMALL GUIDE TO PLAYING RAINBOWS
   
   The beginning to a match can be the most crucial part of playing with a rainbow deck. With the right amount of pillars, there should be about a 95% chance of having a tower in your hand. Play one tower no matter what if you have it, but be weary of your opponent’s deck. If they have an earth mark, you may want to keep in mind they could have earthquakes. Don’t be too hesitant to play towers, though, because getting 2 quanta early for Supernovas can make all the difference. When playing supernovae, also try to decide whether or not your opponent has black holes. Just like playing against Dark Matter, only play your novae and supernovae once you can play most, if not all of your cards. Otherwise, your quanta will just be destroyed by black holes.

Once you have your cards in the field, always be thinking about what control cards your opponent may have in their hand or their deck. If your opponent has a couple cards in their hand that you think they could play but they aren’t, they are most likely temporary permanents (sundials, phase shield, wings), or control cards. Try to play weaker permanents earlier or weaker creatures first and wait a turn or two to see if your opponent will play control cards early and unnecessarily. Part of playing elements is playing mind games with your opponent, and making the smarter move. Don’t rush headlong into every situation and play every card at once. Be reserved when you think your opponent is setting a trap for you, and set one right back.

I hope you’ve gained something from reading my guide on how to build a small rainbow deck. These principles were all described in the context of 30-35 card decks, but they can be extrapolated to other sized decks and still hold true.

   

[Xinef]

Ancient Artifacts series:

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,10663.0.html

A deck could consist of:

20 Time Towers
6 Shards of Gratitude
6 Hourglasses
2 Pharaoh's Scepters
4 Pyramid Shields
2 Mirage Jewels
6 Ancient Statues
6 Veteran's Amulets
2 Orbs of Sandstorm

You begin with towers, shields and SoGs to form a defensive. You keep many cards in your hand to have a steady defense while playing hourglasses to draw cards quickly. When you have 8 cards in hand play some permanent (Jewels if playing against permanent control, Scepter or Orb otherwise). Then when you feel ready, play a single statue, boost it with amulets, play the remaining statues and watch 19/20 creatures smithing opponent into ground.

Epitomizes Time's ways of 'waiting and gathering experience, resources and power to become stronger and better informed than opponent'.



Ok, my false god killer deck:

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6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 744 744 74a 7n2 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q3 7q3 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q7 7q7 7q8 7q8 7qc 7qd 80h 80h 80h
Done in trainer because I wanted to try using Dune Scorpion as an 'Impossible to counter win condition'.

All 12 screenshots. I also managed to beat Morte, but I was distracted and forgot to make a screenshot. Seism had a really bad draw (no pillars for the first few turns and by the time I defeated him he only played 3 pillars), Divine Glory similarly had no Burning Towers for the whole game and managed to fly only a few Glories, though she played 2 Miracles.



























The deck would probably work better with 2 quints, as it seems they are dead draws after the first one and are less of a priority than the shield, also tower count might need adjustments. Sundials are an optional addition (no card draw, just stall). Still, I've made all screenshots with the original deck, without any adjustments.

As for the decks weaknesses, it's really hard playing against permanent control (due to no access to PA) and against nasty permanents (most notably fire buckler and arsenic, as Dissip Shield/Phase Shield can be overcome with unstoppable poison while Bonds can be beaten with a Scarab swarm).

FG's I've faced a number of times but was unable to beat: Dream Catcher, Elidnis (strangely), Eternal Phoenix, Hermes
Met once and lost: Rainbow, Scorpio, Ferox, Miracle
FG's I've never met: Destiny, Obliterator, Paradox


The poison race with Scorpio was quite interesting, the number of poison counters at times being higher on my side, at other times higher on his, and if he had 100 HP I'd have 'almost' won

[Kuroaitou]

Part II: Card ideas-

Time-Hand Manipulation Series (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,10683.0.html)

For a deck idea:
Bone Tower x1
Time Towers x15
Electrum Hourglasses x3
Pyramid (upgraded) x3
Memory/Nostalgia x2
Elite Mnemo x2
Red Tortoise x3
Confabulate (upgraded) x6
Canopic Jar x1
Turtle Shield x2
Eternity x2

40 cards total.

Use Mark of Earth. (You may choose to add 1-2 Protect Artifacts for permanent protection, Upgraded Sundials for a small stun technique, or an Animate Weapon if you feel confident about using 'double denial' tactics).

Once you plant your Time Towers, you should have enough Time quanta generated in order to either bring out an Hourglass or Red Tortoise. With your Earth quanta, use the Red Tortoise's burrow technique in order to generate either more towers OR other permanents. If you're lucky, you'll get either an Hourglass, Sundial, or Pyramid. If you ever draw Confabulate, ALWAYS play it in order to ruin the opponent's flow (hopefully they'll draw it during a turn and thus be forced to discard it).

With any of the above three permanents, save the Sundial in case you're fighting a creature rush deck - if you generate one Hourglass in your hand and have a Nostalgia in your hand, use Nostalgia to replicate the Hourglass and plant them both simultaneously. Unless the opponent has tons of Permanent control, you'll begin your hand-manipulation skills at this point, drawing as quickly as you can. When you draw a Mnemo, play it AFTER you have a sufficient amount of Pyramids (2) on the board or an Eternity in your slot, and begin rewinding creatures off the opponent's board to boost its HP. Use Pyramids on permanents you don't need multiples of (Turtle Shields, Eternities, Canopic Jars, etc.) to also boost its HP. With the upgraded Pyramid, you should be generating 1 quanta on each use, thus allowing you to also use the Hourglasses to draw other cards or those same cards again to boost the Mnemo's attack.

Finally, if you have a Bone Tower and a Canopic Jars card, use it on the opponent's creatures with special abilities or high attack, and rewind them. They'll turn into Pharaohs, which (unless you're facing another mono-Time deck) will generally be a dead card for them to have.

So the basic idea is this:
-Play Turtles to generate permanents if you can. Customize your deck for full drawing potential (adding more Nostalgia cards to use on Hourglasses, Plate Armors for your turtles if you're afraid of damaging CC, etc.).
-Play Pyramids and Canopic Jars as safety precautions against Permanent control. Play Confabulate when you can to mess up your opponent's flow (this is vital if they're using any form of a rush deck).
-When you draw Mnemo, 'recycle' cards (via Pyramid/Eternity + Hourglass/Nostalgia) to boost its stats as much as you can. Use Canopic Jars if possible on hard hitting/dangerous creatures and rewind them to make them useless.
-Rinse and repeat the recycling effect, using Eternity or Pyramid for anti-deckout.

Your turtles will be able to do some decent damage in the meantime while being semi-protected against CC while burrowed. Your Mnemo's are your bread and butter of the deck, and thus, you should treasure them/be careful on when you play them.


Part I - Anti-False God deck

Deck:

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False Gods Killed:

• Chaos Lord

• Decay

• Destiny

• Dream Catcher

• Elidnis

• Fire Queen

• Gemini

• Incarnate

• Morte

• Octane

• Osiris

• Paradox

[Kuroaitou]

Before ANYONE questions my images, I fought the false gods in the trainer mode WITHOUT the "More Power" button, and because the towers/pillars have been updated with new art, some cards may look different.

Otherwise, I'm glad that all of us Time warriors got the job done before the deadline was over. Just says how punctual we are for such an element (pun intended) .