Maxwell's Demon
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Contents
Overview
Only a few creatures within the game are capable of directly killing hard-hitters such as dragons or Lava Golems. Maxwell’s Demon is one of them. Players who control Maxwell’s Demon can use the ability, Paradox, on creatures with a higher ATK stat compared to their HP, instantly killing them.
General Use
Quick Facts:
- Costs 5
for either version of Maxwell’s Demon. - Its ability, Paradox, can instantly kill creatures with higher ATK than their own HP; has no effect on creatures with equal stats.
For a moderate cost of 5 quanta, Maxwell’s Demon can be summoned onto the field by the player for either version (unupped or upgraded). Although its ATK stat is relatively low, its ability, Paradox, can be a force to reckon with. Paradox will instantly kill any creature that has a higher ATK stat compared to its HP stat. With this ability, a majority of high-powered rush creatures can be easily destroyed. The Fire element for example, has a wide range of creatures that will easily be held victim to the Maxwell’s ability due to their offensive nature, while creatures from Gravity may not fall as easily (due to their reverse in stats of high HP and low ATK). Note that regardless of how high the respective stats are (say, a buffed Jade Dragon with 24 ATK and 21 HP), as long as the creature’s ATK is higher than its HP, Paradox can target those creatures.
It’s important to note that the Demon is vulnerable to its own ability when unupped. With stats 3|2, careless players who may impatiently click (or double-click) the ability may accidentally kill the Maxwell’s Demon instead. Upgraded though, the Demon’s HP is raised to 3|5, making it immune to its own skill aside from other CC effects that could instantly bring it down to range again.
Synergies
Only a few shields are capable of damaging or permanently removing creatures off the board; Fire Shield | Fire Buckler will always cause non-momentum to take 1 damage upon attacking, making it one of the best permanents to pair up with the Demon. Fire Shield will inevitably harm attacking creatures, bringing them within range of the Paradox ability. In addition, unless the opponent has packed both copious amounts of permanent and creature control, the addition of both of these cards will often kill many types of frail monsters that hit the enemy’s field.
The other more noted shield, Thorn Carapace | Spine Carapace, will also damage enemy creatures over a longer period of time. Although this shield is more expensive (7 
quanta vs. 6 or 4 
quanta), Thorn Carapace’s poison can last on multiple creatures and cannot be healed as easily (the poison builds up). In addition, unless the enemy has applied Momentum on their creatures, immortalizing poisoned creatures generally spells a death sentence. Thus, it becomes a choice for the player to either immortalize their creatures and hope they survive the poison long enough, or take their chances of trying to heal or preserve their creatures by their own targeting effects while facing a Demon’s Paradox.
In some cases, certain creatures with extreme amounts of hit points become a huge hassle to take down. Spending resources on damaging CC effects can be costly in a deck around speed; Antimatter | Improved Antimatter is the other way to get around this issue. While the Demon can take care of more frail targets, Antimatter can be used on high ATK|HP creatures that can’t be easily taken down. The fact that both of these cards belong to Entropy can create some sinister mono-Entropy combinations. The healing from Antimatter is another bonus to include it alongside the Maxwell’s.
Other Cards With Synergy
Other CC cards ( Pandemonium and Chaos Seed) can sometimes help in mono-Entropy decks in case the Demon gets killed early on. Discord can serve as a powerful denial weapon to make card play incredibly difficult for enemy opponents, especially if they have to make choices in which creatures to play to avoid one’s CC cards. Adrenaline can be fun to apply to a Demon to its 3 ATK for either version (12 damage total), and for those who prefer pure domination types, the Amethyst Dragon alongside a few Demons can make a surprisingly fast deck in the upgraded environment.
Conclusion
Despite its simple ability, newer players forget how vicious the Maxwell’s Demon can be in any game, unless they have a variety of counters to protect their creatures given their stats. When it comes down to brute force, Maxwell’s Demon is a subtle card that may talk lightly with its low stats, but carries a big stick with its serious mechanic.
Popular Deck
Maxwell's Silver...Buckler
5if 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6ts 6ts 6tt 6tt 6tt 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u7 77f 77f 7ah 7ah 7ah 7dl 7dl 7dl 7k6 7k6 7k6 7k6 7k6 7q5 7q5 7q5 80h 80h 80h 80h 8pj
(Shard of Gratitude was changed to Sanctuary due to the 1.32 change)
