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  1. #1
    Member Moonshine Fox's Avatar
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    Elementalis - The Buff shall inherit the Earth

    This is a deck idea I've been working on. The deck does well enough against low ranks and AIs but I've not actually pushed it to its limit because quite frankly I haven't really had enough time, nor skill to do so.

    Instead, I would like to discuss its merits on a pure theoretical basis. I'm not sure if that's okay to do here, or if you have put a deck through its paces in ranked before it's even worth discussing. This is my first deck I've ever posted on these boards, and I've largely kept my deck designs to myself because I've quite frankly never thought they were any good.

    Regardless, here's the deck, in all its glory.

    Cardlist
    ***HERO***
    Elementalis

    ***Allies (16)***
    4x Fire Snake
    4x Ironhide Karash
    2x Kairos Doombringer
    3x Xar Modulator
    3x Voracious Arachnid

    ***Abilities (21)***
    3x Conversion
    4x Mind Control
    2x Shriek of Vengeance
    2x Ley Line Nexus
    3x Super Focus
    4x Bloodthirsty
    3x Exaltation

    ***Armors (3)***
    3x Morphic Armor

    TOTAL: 40 cards + Hero

    Playstyle
    The idea behind the deck is to get one minion on the board and then buff it to the high heavens and win the game before your opponent can counter. Naturally this strategy is incredibly easily countered by Tidal Wave, Retreat, The Harder They Fall etc etc, so it's built with some backup in mind. The addition of Super Focus in the deck ensures that if you get board wiped, any minion you put on the board is still going to be somewhat of a treat. Even a lowly Fire Snake will be a 3/2 with attachement immunity, which is not to scoff at. Add in Elementalis shadow ability, and it's a 4/5.

    The deck plays a bit fluidly. There's no rigid order in which to play cards, but you have to work around your draw and what the opponent does. If you start with Fire Snake, Ironhide Karash and Voracious Arachnid in your opening hand, well congratulations! Your plan will most likely be to play for early board control and completely forgo Super Focus unless you suspect you will lose control, or the enemy begins picking your allies off one by one. The obvious punch of the deck is Kairos Doombringer, who provides you with a Steadfast (cannot be retreated, nor Exiled) minion that hits hard, has some health and will provide your lategame punch. He also counters the usual solution to Super Focused decks: Mass ally rush. Even if your opponent drops 6 minions on the board, thinking you can only kill one, Kairos will kill them one by one as they attack your hero. He's still killable by any kill-type removal (Tidal Wave, The Bigger They Are..., The Harder They Fall... etc).

    Sometimes you might keep board control with just a buffed Ironhide, and just keep buffing that, while keeping other minions on hand should the Karash be killed. I've even won games with my first Firesnake because my opponent didn't manage to kill it in time.

    Motivation for card picks
    Some cards may look wierd, and I'll try to explain:
    Xar Modulator: I picked this as a backup in case your "main" minion gets offed. You can then drop the Xar, buff it with the shadow ability, pull Exaltation from the graveyard and continue as before. It's quite a strong comeback, but it needs to survive the exhausted phase, obviously, so save any buffing (except possibly if you think they'll drop a lot of damage on it before you get to use it).

    Shriek/Ley Line: I've noticed that some items can really ruin this deck, so some basic item removal is there for utility, but nothing more.

    Bloodthirsty: Your draw can get really bad by the mid game as there is NO draw in the deck whatsoever. If you feed your minions regurlarly with Bloodthirsty you can get some draw out of that. It also synergizes hilariously well with Voracious Arachnid. You can get up to 3 extra attack per turn if you are lucky.

    Conversion: I know this seems strange, but there are moments when another minion on your hand would be a better play than the one currently on the board. For instance, you have a buffed up Ironhide Karash on the board, but a Xar in your hand. You can attack with the karash, Conversion it for a bit of healing (or a lot if you used your ability on it) and drop the Xar, pull Exaltatation/Bloodthirst from the grave, buff it with shadow and continue. You lose a touch of tempo, but gain some healing with it. I don't know if this is a great idea, but it has worked well for me.

    Mind Control: Well...obviously. Your one-stop easy removal of pesky fatties.

    Morphic Armor: This is a card I've found I very rarely use, unless I have two minions on the board and one is a Xar with an attachement on it. This isn't an ideal situation to start with, so I'm iffy on this pick. If there was any cards I'd replace in this deck, this would be the first to go due to it's expense and limited use.

    Pro's
    If your draw goes well and your enemy isn't sitting on a ton of removal, this deck can snowball to hilarious proportions in a hurry. It's also quite fun to play!

    Cons
    I need your help for this one. But a few cons are of course the fact that it's rather easily countered by liberal usage of Retreat (at least until you get Kairos/Exaltatation).

    It doesn't do well against rush decks. You simply don't get online fast enough to regain any semblance of control. Not even with your minor heals.

    Draw. The draw is far from fantastic. In fact, it's pretty darn bad, but that hasn't stopped me yet. Against ally heavy decks it does really well on the draw and keeps snowballing, but I'm imagining that on higher levels people simply won't keep feeding you allies, thus starving your draw (and snowball potential).

    Considerations
    I've thought of including Soul Reaper and Eternal Renewal in the deck. SR to heal up and kick out any allies you won't get back anyway, and then recycle all useful abilities and attachements back into your deck. I'm unsure if this is a good idea, as this deck has either won by the time this would be useful, or you have long since lost anyway.

    Draw. I'm not sure what a proper draw engine for this would be, outside of Bloodthirsty. Antimatter is so expensive and you risk drawing Karios+Exaltatation and being forced to off one. Easy pick if Xar is on the board, however. Or being forced to discard a Mind Control. Bazaar is unilateral and Bad Santa favors more rushy-style decks. Meh, I dunno.

    Conclusion
    So I'm aware this won't win any tournaments. Heck, it probably won't make it very far on the ladder, but I'd still like to hear some constructive criticism. Hear some outside input. Some ideas I've not thought of. Even if you end up hating the deck, tell me WHY so I can improve.

    Thank you for your time!

  2. #2
    DP Visionary FDL's Avatar
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    Two things stand out for me:

    Your ally count is too low and your early game is too weak for an Elementalis deck.

    I don't think I've seen a succesful Elementalis run less than 20 allies. The ally count is probably closer to 25 most of the time (unless you're playing the Meat Wagon + 35 allies list).

    I'll admit I haven't played Firesnake in Elementalis for a while but I don't quite see what it's doing here. IMO a core of 7 Karash/Harbinger, around 8 3 cc allies + 4 Bloodthirsty is a good building block for Elem. You'll win games off of those cards alone, then you can fill the rest of your deck with the cool stuff you want to pull off.

    No matter how you plan to win, Elementalis cannot afford to fall behind in the early game.
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  3. #3
    Member Moonshine Fox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FDL View Post
    Two things stand out for me:

    Your ally count is too low and your early game is too weak for an Elementalis deck.

    I don't think I've seen a succesful Elementalis run less than 20 allies. The ally count is probably closer to 25 most of the time (unless you're playing the Meat Wagon + 35 allies list).

    I'll admit I haven't played Firesnake in Elementalis for a while but I don't quite see what it's doing here. IMO a core of 7 Karash/Harbinger, around 8 3 cc allies + 4 Bloodthirsty is a good building block for Elem. You'll win games off of those cards alone, then you can fill the rest of your deck with the cool stuff you want to pull off.

    No matter how you plan to win, Elementalis cannot afford to fall behind in the early game.
    I admit I've been out of the "meta" for quite a while. Back when I played actively, Elementalis was a bottom pick no matter how you built him. Fire Snake's there for a turn 1 drop.

  4. #4
    Senior Member bobrossw's Avatar
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    yeah elementalis is potentially strong now because of the many tough to kill allies and allies with strong utility. Essentially elementalis can play a strong aggro deck, in which it presents new threats every turn, and leaves it to the opponent to play defense. Ideally, such decks overwhelm their opponent's defenses and are able to use ally abilities and stats to control the board. The key to that approach is to have a lot of allies. Using a more balanced elementalis, I think you'd probably run into the same problems he always had.
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  5. #5
    DP Visionary Preybird's Avatar
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    Im with Fou, im not seeing enough early pressure and Elementalis doesnt do come from behind victories easily (especially without haste and discard).

    I have always found ally flood is his best tactic, hitting the board with lots of allies then buffing one puts your opponent in a nasty position (deal with the stream of weenies or take hits killing the fatty. Rarely can decks do both.)

    Also Elementalis is still pretty strong, a couple seasons ago i got pretty high on the rating ladder using him exclusively. That being said that was pre Krygon and Dagger nerf.
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  6. #6
    Member Moonshine Fox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Preybird View Post
    Im with Fou, im not seeing enough early pressure and Elementalis doesnt do come from behind victories easily (especially without haste and discard).

    I have always found ally flood is his best tactic, hitting the board with lots of allies then buffing one puts your opponent in a nasty position (deal with the stream of weenies or take hits killing the fatty. Rarely can decks do both.)

    Also Elementalis is still pretty strong, a couple seasons ago i got pretty high on the rating ladder using him exclusively. That being said that was pre Krygon and Dagger nerf.
    I played him pre- DP, so that's a really long time ago. But alright, I can see your points and I agree. Elementalis does NOT play well from behind. He has zero chance of turning stuff around easily. Mind Control helps, but it's a 5 cost card and you generally can't drop anything on the board after that because you simply don't have the resources.

    I've since replaced the Morphic Armor with a Mocking Armor. Takes even more pressure of the minions on the board. I had a successful game against a Boris that kept blowing up whatever I put on the board (because I have a lot of cheap minions) but once Mocking came down, an Arachnid snowballed to high heavens and won me the game.

    But I can see your point. This probably works in low ranks, but once you get up among experienced players, established decks with more focus is gonna leave me without control.

    Thanks for your input, it's very welcome!

  7. #7
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    I wonder if Zaladar might be a better fit here. He has better board control, which better complements the "only one strong ally on the board" theme.

  8. #8
    Member Moonshine Fox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by abazigal View Post
    I wonder if Zaladar might be a better fit here. He has better board control, which better complements the "only one strong ally on the board" theme.
    I've been thinking this as well, although that somewhat diminishes the usefulness of Conversion, even though it was only really used to fully benefit from Super Focus. You also lose Elementalis' buff for even stronger solo minions. But it is absolutely a valid choice, and the additional board control offered by Zaladar's ability just might make the deck a little better.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Moonshine Fox View Post
    I've been thinking this as well, although that somewhat diminishes the usefulness of Conversion, even though it was only really used to fully benefit from Super Focus. You also lose Elementalis' buff for even stronger solo minions. But it is absolutely a valid choice, and the additional board control offered by Zaladar's ability just might make the deck a little better.
    I feel your pain.

    I suppose a case could be made for either voracious arachnid or murderous hulk. They can kill an ally without attacking.

    I love the card "superfocus" and have been trying to get it to work, but I find the benefits are just not worth the loss in tempo from leaving only one ally on the board at all times. Your opponent just needs to keep playing an ally every turn, and you will be stuck attacking it. There are just too many ways of tying up a single ally, from Jasmine, to ankle breaker to that freezing armour.

  10. #10
    Member Moonshine Fox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by abazigal View Post
    I feel your pain.

    I suppose a case could be made for either voracious arachnid or murderous hulk. They can kill an ally without attacking.

    I love the card "superfocus" and have been trying to get it to work, but I find the benefits are just not worth the loss in tempo from leaving only one ally on the board at all times. Your opponent just needs to keep playing an ally every turn, and you will be stuck attacking it. There are just too many ways of tying up a single ally, from Jasmine, to ankle breaker to that freezing armour.
    Or Voice of Winter, in case you need to play more minions after your first is killed. It does suffer a lot, I know. But I'm gonna keep trying to make it work. It probably won't, but I'll try xD

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