Elementalis 1.25

[Anthem33]

I played an Elementalis deck for most of 1.24 (some Mayija too) and originally dispaired of something working with 1.25 with all of the changes. After thinking about it more I'm leaning toward trying this deck. Unfortunately I'm primarily an iPhone player so I hav eonly gotten a chance to briefly play this on 1.25 vs the AI (I have tried to play in on the iPhone forcing myself to abide by the new rules as much as I can do so, but that is hard to enforce in the cases of transferrence and medusil).

The Deck:
Elementalis (30 cards)

4 Infernal Gargoyle
3 Medusil
2 Belladonna
4 Plasma Behemoth

3 Energy Discharge
4 Mind Control
2 Transference
3 Eternal Renewal

2 Shriek of Vengence
2 Armor of Ages

My thoughts:

This is an adaptation of the deck I had been playing in 1.23 and 1.24. I think in 1.25 there are two main routes you can go with Elementalis: small creature swarm or larger creature control. There might be other options, but I don't think that the substantially creatureless recursive decks will work with the changes to transference and HBM. The deck is the latter.

It plays differently in different situations. In some cases you can drop a few creatures and establish board control and win relatively quickly. Usually it is a longer term game where you struggle to gain board control with MC and Energy Discharge. One of the biggest weaknesses of the deck is gaining card advantage/a card drawing engine. In 1.24 Transference was really the card drawing engine for the deck.

Card Analysis:
Infernal Gargoyle & Plasma Behemoth- Pretty standard

Medusil - 3/4 for 3 with some board control abilities is good stuff. Better than Bad Wolf.

Belladonna - When you have board control it is a solid threat that must be dealt with and it replaces itself. When you don't have board control it is an insta-sac for 5 life that replaces itself. Sadly this is one of the closest things to card draw this deck has now.

Mind Control - I think I actually like this card in an elementalis deck in 1.25 better than in 1.24. With haste surprise it can be a 2 for 4 plus 5 health. Part of the advantage is not actually casting the card, but just in how it should impact your opponent's play if they are thinking about what you could do.

Energy Discharge - I'm not 100% sure about this anymore. The deck needs something other than MC for board control and reset. It is a lot harder to us enow with the sac and I almost wonder if it is worth the 5 life plus an ally. I often sac 1 on an initial draw.

Transferrence - Not 100% sure about this. I have 2 in because I don't think I always want to have it in my hand. However, I do think it is worthwhile for 2 reasons. 1) Access to cards from the opponent. 2) Causing uncertainty for your opponent as to what cards they have left. This deck will often go long and with the new mechanism your opponent doesn't know what you got. I think this uncertainty for good players may impact how they play more than the actual card draw. I could see using this and sacing the card most of the time just for this benefit.

Eternal Renewal - I play 3 because I usually want to keep 2 in the deck. I don't worry about one being stolen so much anymore, however I do like 3 and being able to sac the 1st one that I draw. I'm not a real probablility person, but it seems like this will make me draw the card about 1.5x more often than I usually would, but given that I get to sac the 1st one I draw all of the time means that in the early parts of the game I'm less likely for it to be holding a space in my hand.

Shriek - I'd really like to be able to have more of these. I'm thinking about dropping a medusil or energy discharge for one. Imo it is really hard to balance. I hate having a hand full of these when then deck I'm playing against doesn't run items, but it can really suck to not have one when you need it.


Armor of Ages - This is a very situational card. It is a life saver vs human hunters and pretty good vs human mages who run a lot of creatures. See N3rd4Christ's comments in his Gwenneth post http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....-Trusight-1.25 (btw N3rd, excellent signature). I sac it early vs many other opponents because 2 items vs 4 items removal usually doesnt fair well even if it would be helpful.

Any thoughts? I'll keep this updated as I get to play more 1.25.

[Killtrend]

-2 transfer
-2 AoA
-1 ED
-3 medusil
-1 behemoth
-1 renewal


I can't tell you exactly what to add... But weenies and pump.

You're welcome.

[path00]

question, why do you choose elementalis instead of zaladar for this deck,
zaladar seems better suited for establishing and maintaining control with these set of cards?

[Killtrend]

It's reference. I use Zaladar. I also -all ED and use infusion and sharp. See my sig

[path00]

apologize for confusion Killtrend, question was actually for the thread opener Anthem33
suspect its so that you can get rid of MC'ed allies with elementalis ability, but just wanted to understand the reasoning of elementalis over zaladar

[Killtrend]

Your right, his creatures with no recursion doesn't scream elementalis. Maybe he likes the card art

[Anthem33]

@killtrend - I definitely agree you can go with something much faster for elemental decks. However, in that case I do vastly prefer Zaladar as you yourself use. I think that is a good solid deck concept. The purpose of this deck post is a bit different; to see if it is possible to generate a slower control based Elemental deck. As an aside, while I do like the card art, there is more to it than that (the logic may be flawed, but there was some thought). Btw, I do expect that this deck would usually lose to a weenie version of a zaladar deck, but I think it might be advantaged relative to certain other deck types.

@path00 - Thanks for your question. I should have eloborated at the beginning. There are several reasons for Elementalis. One nice syngergy is, as you pointed out, being able to sac MC'ed allies when you are done with them. However, the general idea was to play a deck that had more of a medium term control focus.

Part of what I have been anticipating in the post resource destruction, post transference game is that the field could migrate to more resource heavy burn type decks, mostly Mayija and Gwenneth. One of the main problems I have had playing those decks personally is when your opponent has an open-ended self healing ability (either with Zhanna or Elementalis with eternal renewal). So, from that concept I tried to build something that has flexibility for control but with an agressive side (back in the old days when I played MtG I was a big red-blue fan).

Certainly with the creature base in this deck there are situations where it plays more like an aggressive, larger hitter zaladar deck. The hope was that, with more of a medium term focus you want each card that you draw to be a potential threat or utility (very rarely does a fire snake on turn 9 strike much fear into someone's heart).