Flooding
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Contents
Overview
Flooding is unique in Elements in that it’s an automatic form of mass creature control, locking both fields in play. Upon use, both players have their fields' edges submerged in water, ensuring that a maximum of 5 non-Water and non-Other creatures can enter play without drowning in the abyss.
General Use
Quick Facts:
- Will kill all but the 5 first creatures summoned by both players, except if the creature is a Water or an Other creature.
- Will drain quanta according to the permanent order. If a pillar is placed first, a
will be generated before being absorbed. - Does not affect immortal or burrowed creatures.
Compared to the soft CC delay of Freeze or the ramp-up spell of Ice Bolt as creature control, Flooding is an all-or-nothing type of mass CC card; the creatures are killed or they survive. For 3 (2 upgraded) quanta, Flooding will enter play and instantly kill all creatures on the edges of the field after they've attacked (unless they are a Water or Other creature). Note that because Flooding kills after a creature has attacked, it's considered to be a reactive form of mass CC - similar to a damaging shield, except with a guaranteed kill rate given the right conditions. However, Flooding cannot target creatures that are normally untargetable (i.e. - immortal or burrowed), and as such, players can protect their creatures within the water by quickly Immortalizing them directly (not with Cloak). Like the environmental card Nightfall, Flooding affects both sides of the field upon entering play, so players need to be careful in what creatures they choose to play if they utilize this card in their deck.
Because of its potential to lock down an opponent's playing field to 5 (possibly worthless) creatures, Flooding has an additional cost; each turn, it drains one quantum from the user. This means that if the Elemental does not have the required to feed into Flooding, the effect will fail, and Flooding will automatically destroy itself from the field. Thus, both permanent removal cards and quanta denial can effectively remove Flooding from one's field. Also, Flooding cannot stack; multiple copies of the card in play will simply consume more rather than occupy more spaces in the field. However, Flooding is easier to replace than the costly Ice Shield, so having extra copies in case one is removed can be a safe tactic should a tactic revolve around the watery graveyard.
Synergies
Because the first 5 creatures an opponent controls can still kill, Arctic Squid | Arctic Octopus is a good creature to halt them. While rare, one Squid is enough to freeze 3 creatures back-to-back in a cycle, and the upgraded version can keep 4 creatures in ice blocks. Because of that, 2 of either the non-upped or upgraded creature are enough to 'field lock' an opponent and prevent any creatures from dealing serious health dents (or using their abilities, for that matter). Keep in mind that this tactic will eat up quanta quickly, so Water tacticians should adjust their deck accordingly to compensate for the increased demand.
An alternative to 'field lock' is to exploit the condition that Other creatures can still survive in Flooding. Using Aflatoxin | Aflatoxin, a person can poison one of the creatures in the first five spots (preferably the first), to mass produce somewhat useless Malignant Cells. As the Cells have only 1 ATK, most shields can easily block the damage; if the combo occurs early enough, the foe will have their first five spots infested with the cells, and be unable to play any card without risk for it drowning. Such a combo can be expensive and difficult to pull off, but is one of the most rewarding strategies if accomplished, as without CC to remove the Cells, the challenger's deck will usually falter and be unable to do anything in the long run.
For players who are more offensive in their deck design, Shard of Patience | Shard of Patience can be used to further buff water creatures. With a flexible quanta cost, the rare permanent will slowly begin to increase the damage (and health, if it's Water) of all ally creatures. Water creatures in particular will gain 2 ATK and 2 HP each turn, despite the stun. However, Water creatures in the Flooded zones gain a whopping 5 ATK and 5 HP per turn, acting as a continual and stronger version of Blessing. Given enough time, the Water creatures on the edges will become behemoths in their own right, dealing major damage to the enemy - but only after the shard is removed. It's important to note that not every deck will have more than 5 creatures in it, and as such, Fractal or other creature-generators may be needed to take advantage of this.
Other Cards With Synergy
Ice Shield can protect the user and also freeze any creatures that survive the Flooding, given that they aren't also affected by Momentum. Enchant Artifact can also be splashed in, or to be used as a duo to fuel Trident active ability, improving the synergy between Water and Earth denial in both creatures and quanta generation (pillars). Boneyard combined with Bone Wall can provide tremendous defense should the combo be pulled off successfully, as the opponent's creatures will drown and the Skeleton produced will also drown and fuel the Bone Wall.
Conclusion
Despite its drawbacks of a constant quanta drain and restrictions to creatures of its own element, Flooding's very presence poses the question: what creatures should enter play first? Without concern to the previous question, players may be too late to change their own line-up if the tides rise up...
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