Dark Metamorphosis - AI5 Grinder

[johannhowitzer]

Named after Alucard's blood-healing spell from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, this deck was created for the Trial of Light.  The combination of the two feature cards of this deck made me think of Alucard, a half-vampire with a righteous mission.

Vampire Dagger is one of the strongest weapons in the game, dealing 6 damage and healing the player for 6 - all for only 2 .  Of course any damage reduction shields will cancel the effect; this is a disadvantage of the Dagger compared to the Druidic/Jade Staves, which can continue healing even against a Bone Wall.

Crusaders are very versatile, able to grab your own weapon or adapt and grab your opponent's.  For 7 total, they become 9|7 vampires in this deck, a decent quantum-to-damage ratio even without the vampirism.  With the copious healing they offer, Half-Bloods can stack a lot of damage and you may still get Elemental Mastery.

Improved Blessing grants +3|+3, and at only 2 , they were a logical choice to boost the Crusaders' vampirism.

Dusk Shield seemed the best option for the shield slot, as there are plenty of Darkness quanta to spare unless you should be so lucky as to fly several Daggers.  It may be unnecessary, though, and if you have an extra Dagger, you can swap these out for a Dagger and perhaps an extra Tower.

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Deck import code : [Select]

7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jv 7jv 7jv 7jv 7jv 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7n2 7n2 7n2 7t8 7t8 7tb 7tb 7tb 7tb 8pt

If you happen to have three Towers in your opening hand, you can have a Crusader on the field on turn 2 - just in time to be ready to endow on a Dagger on turn 3, the earliest you can play one.

Playing tips:
- Whenever possible, fly your Daggers, then stack all the blessings on one, and use that flown Dagger for Endowing - the Blessing carries over to the Crusader too.  [pointed out by Higurashi]
- Priority with the light quanta is always endow, then blessing, then new Crusader.  Endow grants a far better boost to healing, while summoning provides no extra healing until the following turn.
- If you do not fear crippling creature control such as Rewind, Freeze, Lobotomize, etc., then you should use the Blessings on the first Crusader you play - the one in the center of the board.  This gives the greatest chance at an Elemental Mastery.



Winrate - 57%
Winrate after I started blessing Daggers - 68%

TTW chart:


Average TTW is 12.55
29% of wins were Mastery before blessing Daggers,
74% of wins were Mastery once I started blessing Daggers

Since I also recorded the elements the AI used in each game, I decided to tally the elements that defeated me most frequently:



The lighter-colored bars are total losses over all 70 games, while the darker ones are just counting after I started blessing Daggers instead of Crusaders.  Note the sharp drop in Water as a threat.

It's no surprise that Entropy was the toughest element in both cases; Antimatter, Maxwell's Demon, Pandemonium, Mutation, Discord, and Dissipation Shield all posed serious problems for this deck - it only got a 31% winrate against Entropy.  Apart from Entropy, Water, and sometimes Death, not many Half-Bloods stood a chance.  Poor Light NEVER broke me!

[Higurashi]

Since I see no mention of it, did you know that if you fly a Dagger and bless it, your Crusaders get the extra attack when Endowing? They don't get the HP from the Blessing, but it can let you heal for a lot more and do a lot more damage.

[jippy99]

Similar to my deck.  I definitely agree with Higs here.  Bless the Daggers before the crusaders.  There were times when I was playing with my deck that I ended up endowing the unupped dagger instead of the upped dagger because of this.  Blessing daggers=higher attack for crusaders and daggers=more healing.

[johannhowitzer]

This I did not know.  I had done no experimenting with Crusader until now, and didn't realize flown weapons could be targeted by endow at all.

Surprisingly, having only four Daggers instead of six has not been much of a problem.  Wins have usually been very decisive and losses equally so; close calls have been RARE.  Losses have been decided by cards like Bone Wall, Phase Shield, Lobotomizer, Antimatter, and Gravity Shield.

[jippy99]

This I did not know.  I had done no experimenting with Crusader until now, and didn't realize flown weapons could be targeted by endow at all.

Surprisingly, having only four Daggers instead of six has not been much of a problem.  Wins have usually been very decisive and losses equally so; close calls have been RARE.  Losses have been decided by cards like Bone Wall, Phase Shield, Lobotomizer, Antimatter, and Gravity Shield.

I experienced the same things.  Nmyphs tears to Purple Nymph killed me a few times, as did phase shield and bone wall.