The "Back Door": A Variant Pillarless Golem Deck

[icybraker]

Why?

I wanted to tinker with the beautiful combination between Heavy Armor and Lava Destroyer.
I wanted to make my very own Golem deck.
I wanted to take advantage of the Heavy Armor + Rage Elixir combination.
I wanted a "backup plan" to a golem deck; that is, what do you do when you get horrendous draws, like what happened to me in the tourney?
I wanted to make a pillarless deck.
I was bored.

And thus...

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Icybraker's Pillarless Golem Deck.

The Quanta:
Simple. Cremate your Ball Lightnings for . Who needs pillars?

The Punch:
Play your Lava Destroyers. Against decks heavy on creature control, try to play them in accordance with Heavy Armor; for instant damage boosts, play them and Rage Elixirs. Play spare Ball Lightnings for a free 5 damage.

The Backup Plan:
Uh oh! I got a horrible draw!
Not to worry; you can always toss one or two Heavy Armors onto your Ball Lightnings if you lack Golems or Cremations. You can even play this deck without ever touching your golems, simply buffing up your Ball Lightnings. Use your Elixirs on opponent monsters when things are looking tough.

Pros:
Very fun to play. (Believe me.)
Fast; not as fast as the fastest of the speed decks, but it's up there, I think. Pillarless = awesome!
Not as easy to control as traditional golem speed decks, because it has HEAVY ARMOR !
Not as prone to bad draws as traditional golem speed decks >.<

Cons:
Not as fast as really really fast decks; I got outrushed by Graboids.
STILL prone to bad draws, simply because it lacks pillars.
Sometimes short on quanta if you're unlucky.

Usage:
Level 3 to great results (5/5 games won)
T50 to good results (4/5 games won. I hate those Graboids.)
PvP

Have fun!

[NotBadman]

Since Lava Destroyer cost 5 Quanta cremation only lets u play one....... and only 6 creatures to sacrifice, i guess the percentage of getting cremation and ball on starting hand with a lava destroyer isn't high enough for an early take down.... you are just leaning on 1 combo and this can easily be destroyed by:
  Paradox
  Freeze
  Anti Matter (!!!!)
  Infection stacks
  Mutation or even Improve

In my opinion this deck isn't that strong...maybe you take out 2 armors and 2 elixirs and add 4 phoenix because they do moderate dmg and can be used for cremation, but don't die

Greets,

[icybraker]

"you are just leaning on 1 combo"
So do most other Golem decks and many other decks out there.

Paradox and Antimatter, despite their awesomeness, are both rarely used. Antimatter can more or less destroy most Fire aggro decks anyways. Infection is also rarely used; outgrowing it also shouldn't be too difficult.

Freeze is a problem, but then again, it always is; my deck is not an exception to that rule. And Mutations can still be buffed in my deck by using Rage Potions and Heavy Armor.

Your Phoenix suggestion leaves me with 10 cremation targets, which I do not like. I'd rather just keep the Armor and the Elixir there; they make a very fun combo.

"i guess the percentage of getting cremation and ball on starting hand"
Again, see my "backup plan" section; also, it's higher than you may think. The Destroyers come later.

[CelestrialDreamer]

A Funny deck with the combo of rage-armor
I m afraid 6 Lightning balls and 6 cremations may result in bad draws easily since u must pair them up for fire quanta gain
Would replacing 2 armor/elixir with RoL a good choice?
i know that making it 32-card deck is not cool, but maybe an explosion or 2 can help.

[Xoned]

Nice twist on the classic Golem Rush. I would probably replace 1-2 heavy armors with Archangels.

[joob]

and only 6 creatures to sacrifice, i guess the percentage of getting cremation and ball on starting hand with a lava destroyer isn't high enough for an early take down....

Now, I'm pretty terribad with probabilities, but I'm pretty sure the chance of drawing at least one ball lightning and one cremation in the first 7 cards is around 69% (68.889%). If you go second, you've got an even better chance - around 76% if I'm doing this math correctly. That's plenty good enough for the deck to be viable, especially in addition to the other combos that are available.

I haven't tried this yet, but it looks quite fun and speedy. Also, like you say, pillarless is badass. Mostly negates denial from earth/gravity and dark(/fractal).

And btw, the 6x5 setup is nifty.

[icybraker]

I'm pretty sure the chance of drawing at least one ball lightning and one cremation in the first 7 cards is around 69% (68.889%). If you go second, you've got an even better chance - around 76%

That's exactly what I meant when I said "it's higher than you may think". Thanks for elucidating

And btw, the 6x5 setup is nifty.

The awesomest decks are the ones most simple. Glad you like it

Nice twist on the classic Golem Rush. I would probably replace 1-2 heavy armors with Archangels.

...
I can't play Archangels. I have no quanta. They would go well with my rage potions, though.

[sSethia]

Instead, of Ball Lightning, I would use Photons because sometimes, I find that I have the ball lightnings in my hand, but no cremation, so I have to discard a card or play a ball lightning and waste it.

[icybraker]

The problem with Photons is that they mess up my "backup plan" strategy - that is, using my Ball Lightnings as my main offensive. I can put a Heavy Armor on my Ball Lightning in order to allow for a strong surviving creature.

Plus, you can just slap down a Ball Lightning for instant damage in case you just want a little extra attack to finish the game a turn earlier.

Also, everyone uses Photons. It's time for something new

[xiongwen8]

Nice deck, the only problem I can think of is possible quanta shortage. Since you're relying on your mark and cremations for fire and earth quanta, I can imagine situations where you run out of 1 of the other. But hey, it wouldn't be a pillarless deck if it didn't have this problem.

[Bloodshadow]

Hmm... This deck actually has a lot more depth to it than other pillarless decks, whose only strategy is to rush your opponent. The Armor + Ball Lightning thing is one backup plan, and Rage Elixirs can be used as creature control. Hardly any other rush deck has such depth like this...

Me liekz this deck.

[ddviper001]

wasnt this deck killed when golemn went up to 5?