Chrysora/Physalia:Chrysora and it's upgraded form Physalia represent a unique opportunity for repeatable, unblockable Poison damage. It's "weakness" is that it requires a second element to use, but Death and Water amplify each other's poisoning ability nicely, and poison is a mechanic that benefits a lot from that synergy.
Chrysora is in one key way more effective than Physalia at getting the poison out: because it has a zero attack power, it's never affected by enemy shields. That said, in most circumstances, Physalia's additional damage makes it the better choice.
Water's cheapest critter makes appearances in several major deck archetypes, from the classics like Speed Poison (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,365.msg3002#msg3002) to some very unique decks like Yaladilae's Poison Quartet (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,5725.msg69601#msg69601) anti-False God deck.
ProTips:- Make sure there's nothing more important to do with your
quanta before you mindlessly activate your Chrysora/Physalia. - If the opponent comes out with Otyugh or some other way to kill your little guys, consider what will happen if you play out any you have in reserve. Will you just be feeding him unnecessarily, or will you get the one or two extra points of poison you need to finish your opponent?
- Wondering whether to run Chrysora or Physalia in your upgraded deck? It's simple: run Physalia unless you're going for a control win with no permanent denial.
Flooding/Inundation:Flooding is unique in the Elements game in that it's the only non-Shield form of entirely automatic creature control, ensuring that non-Water opponents are limited to only 7 creatures. The loss of 3 Water quanta every turn means it doesn't work well alongside it's natural counterpart -- Arctic Squids, which also require 3 Water quanta every turn to do their thing -- but they do combine well with Ice/Permafrost Shield to keep the number of attacking creatures down to 3 or 4 on average.
Flooding isn't necessarily a great PVP card, as there are many PVP decks that are designed to work around only 1 or 2 creatures coming out. But against HBs and FGs which almost always eventually get more than 7 creatures out, Flooding can be hugely powerful. Paired with a bunch of Antimatters, it's possible to attain a nearly-complete Entropy/Water creature lockdown (and slapping Butterfly Effect on a spare Chrysora can complete the effect).
Flooding is too new to have seen a lot of refinement in it's use, but it still makes a showing in several decent decks ranging from the Fortress of Solitude (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,4539) anti-FG tedium deck to the aforementioned Poison Quartet (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,5725.msg69601#msg69601) deck.
ProTips:- Trying to quanta-balance (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,5676.0.html) a Flooding deck? I've found that, for every copy of Flooding/Inundation in your deck, count 15 points of "ability cost" in addition to it's casting cost.
- As a general rule, play Flooding when your opponent is at 6 creatures -- in order to draw out any possible permanent control and to avoid giving him the chance to get a 2nd attack off with his 8th creature.
- Playing against Flooding, don't forget that unless you have Water quanta, a Steal is as good as a Deflagration -- it'll end at the end of your turn.
Ice Shield/Permafrost Shield:Permafrost Shield is arguably the best defense in the game. It stops 9 out of 19 (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,4019.0.html) creature attacks -- just a heartbeat off of the power of Dusk Shield or Procrastination, and that's not taking into account that it also stops 2 points of damage from every attack that does get through! Only Hope or Dissipation Shield can achieve that kind of damage prevention, and it takes a lot of convolutions to get there. Ice Shield is almost as powerful, though against large-creature decks it does take second place to Dusk Shield and Procrastination.
Ice Shield's biggest weakness is Steal, of course -- it's hard to fight against, especially given unupgraded Water's lack of offensive ability. The best way around that, of course, is to pair it with Chrysora/Physalia so you can kill the opponent without attacking at all. As a special note, don't pair Permafrost
Both have starring roles in many anti-FG rainbows like PuppyChow's FG Killer (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,1748.0.html) and anti-HB decks like Iceburgs! (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,4511.msg64186#msg64186).
ProTips:- The freezing effect of Ice Shield can be useful to get out an Otyugh vs. Elidnis or Scorpio -- just wait until his Ulitharid(s) are frozen, and eat them before they thaw for the win.
- Against the likes of Miracle, who tend to get out a couple of huge creatures and then several moderate ones, tossing a Shockwave or two into your deck can turn the shield's stall into a more permanent demise for those big bruisers.
- If your opponent is low on permanent control, Permafrost + a few SoGs can hold off even a strong enemy for a long, long time.
