The Essential Newbie FG FarmerI seem to be putting my name on a lot of Aether decks lately...hrm...Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
55r 55r 55r 55s 55s 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 61q 61q 61q 61r 61r 61r 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 621 621 621 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 7n2 7n2 8plInspired by Amilir's Titan FG Deck (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,4383.0.html), I just spent the whole night testing an almost-unupgraded dual-element version of the same thing.
I haven't recorded my stats because I was mostly exploring the concept, but my impression is that it's around 30-33%. Not bad for a deck with 2 upgraded cards and 2 rares. Certainly it's a good starting place to build toward a more upgraded FG farmer.
The basic strategy is simple: Quinted Oty for control, Dimension Shields for defense, and Animated PU'd-several-times Titans (or something nasty of the opponent's) for the kill.
Here are my strategy notes for each God:
Graviton: Ditch. Momentum and Explosions combine with the fact that your Otys are useless to make this a basically impossible fight.
Decay: Ditch. You're dead from quanta stall, and he'll steal your weapons and shields given the chance.
Octane: Kills your Shields too fast to keep up. Ditch.
Dark Matter: Ditch. Momentum kills this deck. If you add a Lobotomizer, you stand a slim chance, but it's still slim.
Rainbow: Ditch. Steals and Deflags your shields too fast to keep up.
Gemini: Ditch. Momentum breaks your shields, and Lobo removes your Momentum so his shields stay up. If you've got a Lobo in your deck, you MIGHT have a chance.
Obliterator: Ditch. For God's sake, just Ditch.
Eternal Phoenix: Ditch. Explosions are bad.
Divine Glory: Ditch. Explosions are bad.
Hecate: Ditch. Steals suck, and even if you do manage to get past that and start your DimShield chaining, she'll kill you just by Rage Potioning and Poisoning her Voodoo Dolls before you can get the combo out.
Jezebel: Ditch. 8 Steals mean you have little chance, and she's likely to steal your own Aether Pillars/Pends and turn them into nasty little 8|4 attackers that will slowly render your Otys obsolete along the way.
Total DITCH: 11 of 29
Akebono: Very Hard. This one is entirely luck -- he only has 2 Momentums and 2 Titans in his deck, but if he draws either one, it's game over for you. Your Lightnings can be thrown at his face, your Otys are completely useless, and you basically have to get lucky enough to draw Titan+Animate+Parallel quickly enough that you can cast them all as soon as you have the quanta -- so if you don't see Titan+Animate in your opening hand, you should probably just bail.
Elidinis: Very Hard. Basically, you have to get a Quinted Oty out, and then use lightning on a pair of Abyssal Crawlers, and eat both of them -- then you're big enough to eat the Ulitharids and Puffer Fish. He'll probably build some massive Forest Spectres Fortunately, Elidnis can't do crap about your Shields, so you have plenty of time to make it happen. Put out an Animated Titan out ASAP even if it gets Lobo'd: it'll draw out his Congeals, and you need them drawn out. Play the 2nd Oty ASAP for the same reason. With maybe 7 or 8 turns left, PU his biggest spectre (hopefully at least 20/21 by now) at least 3 times if you hope to power past his Bonds. Even if you can pull all of this off, it's still 50/50. Good luck.
Scorpio: Very Hard. You have to get an early Quinted Oty to eat the Physalia, AND a constant string of Dim Shields until your Oty can catch up with his swarm, AND get your Titans out and PU'd fast enough to deal 200 damage in 11 or so turns (because that's how long it'll take his Poison alone to kill you.) This is ALMOST a Ditch, but look at your hand first. If you have Quint+Oty and either Titan or Animate, it's worth hanging on to see if you can snag the other by Turn 4. If you don't, quit.
Seism: Very hard. You've got many more Aether pillars than Gravity pillars, so play your Aether pillars first to keep him from nuking your Gravity pillars. Basically, you have to get lucky and save up enough to PU a Siluran while also keeping up enough Aether quanta to keep your Dim Shields up.
Chaos Lord: Very Hard. He'll Mutate your Titans, Steal/Explode your Shields, and either get Momentum mutants or just pop Unstoppable on a random Chaos-Powered-to-Hell creature. It's not impossible, but it's nearly so.
Serket: Very Hard. With Serket, you have to accomplish three things, any one of which is relatively easy, but doing all three at once is difficult. First, you have to get your first Dim Shield up before you have more than 5-6 poison counters on you. Second, you have to KEEP chaining Dim Shield until she dies, because she'll very rapidly build up lethal damage on you. Third, you have to draw enough damage to kill her before your Dim Shield run out. She lacks shields, so feel free to PU her Adrenalined creatures (especially Flesh Recluses and Deathstalkers) in order to get that done -- you can't afford to wait around for your own Titans.
Total VERY HARD: 6 of 29
(17 of 29 are Very Hard or worse.)
Destiny: Kinda Hard. You have to save your Quints for your Titans so that she doesn't use Eternity to turn them back into weapons, which means your Otys are on their own. Then again, if you can get an Oty down in a hurry, you can often eat those Fate Eggs before they turn into anything annoying, which helps a lot. Having a Lobo for this fight helps a lot, too.
Fire Queen: Kinda Hard. All that healing from Bonds makes this a tough one; you basically have to get out a Quinted Oty really early and then power-shield until you've eaten everything on the board. Fortunately, your Titan's HP means you can put them down without too much caution and they'll be effective once you get that healing killed down. Just don't be surprised when she suddenly busts out with massive Fire Lances and kills you with no warning at all.
Neptune: Kinda Hard. Only Animate your Titans if you can also Quint them in the same turn, because they WILL die to Congeal+Shockwave if you don't. Avoid Shielding for as long as possible to make sure that your shields are consistent enough for the slow damage of 1 Quinted Flying Titan + 1 Titan in your hand to kill him in time.
Hermes: Kinda Hard. Pop out an Animated Titan at the earliest opportunity, it'll keep his Fire Bolts off of you. Similarly, an early Quinted Oty will save you a lot of grief. Use Lightning wisely to knock Lava Destroyers back into Devouring range. Firewall will rapidly put the kibosh on your Devouring, so eat as much as you can before it hits. All that said, allow Hermes to build up one really big Golem, and PU it once it hits 20 ATK or so. Keep in mind that he will eventually Explode one of your shields and hit you for a round, so try to start the Shielding process very early to buy yourself enough HP to take a round or two of damage.
Total KINDA HARD: 4 of 29
(21 of 29 are Kinda Hard or worse.)
DreamCatcher: Widely Variable. Unless you can get a FAST Quinted Otyugh (and eat some Deja Vus or some other small critters) or better yet, a Lightning Bolt to take out that early Butterfly'd Abomination, you're screwed. Even once you've done it, you have to watch for another (and if she Quints it, you're done all over again.) That said, barring that odd Quint, once you've got a protected Oty down, you tend to be OK. Just wait on Animating your first Titan until you can PU it at least twice to avoid getting your offence Congeal/Shockwaved into oblivion before it can really get started.
Morte: Widely Variable. Lots of early Poison combined with a late-game Miracle can make this an impossible match -- but if it doesn't happen that way, a Quinted Oty can annhilate most everything that comes out, and your Titans will ignore Bone Wall and survive Plague to kill him off pretty effectively.
Total WIDELY VARIABLE: 2 of 29 (23 of 29 are Widely Variable or worse)
Incarnate: Pretty Easy. No Oty required; just get your Titan out early and wait until you can PU it once before you Animate it. Of course, a Quinted Oty helps in that you can eat the Bloodsuckers that WILL eventually kill one of your Titans. Like Osiris, delay Shielding - it's better to take 40 damgae in the early rounds from 2 or 3 creatures than fail to draw your shields when his field is full and you die in one round.
Ferox: Pretty Easy. Hide behind your Shields early, and eat RoLs until you can eat Leaf Dragons and Giant Frogs until you can eat Cockatrices until you can eat Jade Dragons. PU his Jade Dragons rather than your Titans.
Miracle: Pretty Easy. Hide behind your shields and wear him down with a Titan and an Oty (eating fireflies until you can eat more important stuff). He'll pick a Light Dragon and Bless it to death. PU it 3-4 times once he's close enough that a sudden attack like that will kill him, but before he thinks to cast Miracle.
Paradox: Pretty Easy. Parallel an Oty early to keep on top of his swarm, and then Parallel it again later once it's become HUGE from eating all of th e little critters. If you can manage to get on top of the RoLs before he builds up enough Light quanta to cast Miracle, you're golden.
Osiris: Pretty Easy. If you can get down an early Oty, you can eat the first few Scarabs that show up, and slow the wave down so that you can wait until you only have 18 cards left in your deck before you put down that first Dimensional Shield. From then on, you're golden: just wait for him to deck out.
Don't bother playing any creatures you can't Quint, because Eternity will just pop up and make you less likely to draw the necessary Phase Shields in time.
Lionheart: Pretty Easy. With no way to bypass or remove your shields, and an amazing ability to draw himself out of cards, Lionheart will die via deckout unless your shields are all at the bottom of your deck. There's only two tricks to it; just Lightning the first Crusader or two before they can Endow in order to slow the damage down a bit, and
don't ever play a Titan unless you can Animate and Quint it on the same turn -- the last thing you want to do is give any of his Crusaders Momentum.
Total PRETTY EASY: 6 of 29.
