Elemental Fusion (Zaladar)

[NachyoChez]

Since I first started playing card game with magic in the fourth(ish) grade, Mill decks have always been my staple tried and true method of victory. I find that forcing players to battle you in unexpected ways pushes the boundaries of skill and helps guide the meta (when enough people do it, of course) into a stronger format. That being said, I've tried multiple ways of doing so in this particular game, much to my rating's dismay. I've tried plague-lock, but it was too inconsistent on it's ability to lock the board. Finally I made a second account to protect my rating from the abuse.

I then tried Moonstalker, and while the lock on the board was severe and long lasting (13 turns pretty consistently) once the lock was broken at the end all the creature control in the world couldn't protect me from what came next. This put me back to looking at my good friends the Elementals for answers. Eternal Renewal would help me hold out on the life loss from decking, but there were no good life gain options (personal opinion). This time I started looking into the allies, and found that Shadow Allies had quite a bit of umph in the defense department. So I got to work trying to fuse an ally based-stall deck that could carry the potential to hit hard if the opening present itself.

May I present the 1.2 build of Elemental Fusion:
Hero:
Zaladar (Elementalis hasn't been tried yet, I just love Zaladar's board clearing ability and he prevent an opponent from locking their deck by maxing their hand to stall me out)

Allys:
Spark x4 (Decent one cost drop, if he swarms late game then he's only benefit. My perfect answer to Blake)
Infernal Gargoyle x4 (Hard to kill, long lasting, good damage. He's exactly what the deck is designed to do)
Deathbone x3 (Taking some advice from the replies, I gave him a try. Punishing Mages as well as giving me a viable way to deal with 4+ hp creatures? Yes please.)
Chimera x3 (A recent addition, his ability to switch is one I'm hoping will help me better control the flow of the game!
Plasma Behemoth x3 (This guy is an offensive powerhouse. He rarely survives his first turn in play without being infused, but that's because of just how truely terrifying he is.)

Abilities:
Bazaar x4 (This fuels both my mill deck parts by speeding my foe through their cards, and it also power my aggro side by making sure I always have some. The double edged sword of beauty.)
Life Infusion x3 (Quickly became a staple in the deck. It combos well with 3 of my allies for a late game powerhouse or damage sponge.)
Bad Santa x4 (Quick way to power myself up early game, or wear my opponent out late game.)
Mind Control x4 (Creature control + Damage rolled into one? Yes please.)
Eternal Renewal x3 (This card is more powerful than I originally gave it credit. Completely refresh my deck after my opponent's run out? Completely undo the massive board control of other decks? Or, you know...Sac it early game.)
Armor of Ages x4 (Unless you're a mage, you literally can't touch this.)


I know running two themes seems like it's destined to fail, but aside from some consistency issues the deck runs well. Just not so well I couldn't use a little advice from the community!

Mages are the bane of my existence. I literally cannot seem to find the way around them. I've taken on the biggest decks that I can at my rank, and none of them give me an issue. Except mages. Even the terrible ones slap me around!!!

Help?

Edit 1: Updated the deck to the most current revisions, actually got it down to 40!

"Nachyo Average Easter Egg Hunt!" 1:Arthyle rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes with the cold water from the basin in his tent; a rare treat in the middle of the Gaderi deserts. The war had taken its toll on every country, yet his soldiers persevered through the difficult campaign without complaint.

[MattOG]

Firstly shriek is god-like. Why?

Armor of Ages x4 (Unless you're a mage, you literally can't touch this.)

Because any shadow can "touch" your AoA into your graveyard for 1cc and 1 res.....
Amongst the millions of bows, swords, and other abilities, I find it invaluable.

Blood lust is either a "hold onto it for high late game suprise damage", or "yay, now my snake can kill any 3 health creature on T3"... I use it in both ways, it helps, but it may not suit this deck if you get them early on.

Bad Wolf I'm not going to talk about. Ok I am, I hate it, use Deathbone. The extra +2 damage per time he's killed is invaluable. Couple that with the eternal renewals and you've got +8 to +10 extra damage right there.

Life infusion works well in two ways. With a shard, it can undo the health drop for massive damage and a higher staying power of your allies. For best results, drop a gargoyle/Plasma and infuse them. An infused gargoyle is pretty crappy to deal with, they soak a lot of damage. Get 2 of them on board, and it's close to gg already. (Obviously ignoring the ol' tidal wave thing)....

Lastly, the hero... yes Zaladar is good, and may actually work better within the "theme" of this deck. But if you want true mill potential, elementalis is the way to go. 1CC (snake, spark) and 2SE to heal 5 health is good. They got a nerf with the change to MC, meaning you can't steal an ally, attack and then sac it for health, but Elementalis is still the true mill deck of SE.

[seedog]

Try Zhanna.
Elemental mill is dead in 1.26, at least very inconsistent compared against 1.25

[NachyoChez]

Firstly shriek is god-like. Why?
Because any shadow can "touch" your AoA into your graveyard for 1cc and 1 res.....
Amongst the millions of bows, swords, and other abilities, I find it invaluable.

I get WHY most people include it, but to be honest I never find myself using it. Gwen is the biggest item user I've faced, and aside from a terrible draw on my part she's rarely an issue for me. I might make room for them again later, but I was just resourcing them over and over.

Blood lust is either a "hold onto it for high late game suprise damage", or "yay, now my snake can kill any 3 health creature on T3"... I use it in both ways, it helps, but it may not suit this deck if you get them early on.

It was just acting too inconsistently. I love the card, running it in 4s in my other Zaladar deck, but in this one it was just muddling me up. Mayb another run in a future revision!

Bad Wolf I'm not going to talk about. Ok I am, I hate it, use Deathbone. The extra +2 damage per time he's killed is invaluable. Couple that with the eternal renewals and you've got +8 to +10 extra damage right there.

Thank you for talking about him. Following your advise I dropped him and replaced him with Deathbone, who has been invaluable for board control. Ramming him into a 4+ defense creature has saved me multiple times already!

Life infusion works well in two ways. With a shard, it can undo the health drop for massive damage and a higher staying power of your allies. For best results, drop a gargoyle/Plasma and infuse them. An infused gargoyle is pretty crappy to deal with, they soak a lot of damage. Get 2 of them on board, and it's close to gg already. (Obviously ignoring the ol' tidal wave thing)....

Bumped it up to four after I got the hang of it. Behemoth, Chimera, and Gargoyle all become obnoxiously over powered when given a little infusion. Chimera is a new add with very little testing, but so far they pack the punch I need!

Lastly, the hero... yes Zaladar is good, and may actually work better within the "theme" of this deck. But if you want true mill potential, elementalis is the way to go. 1CC (snake, spark) and 2SE to heal 5 health is good. They got a nerf with the change to MC, meaning you can't steal an ally, attack and then sac it for health, but Elementalis is still the true mill deck of SE.

Sadly the mill potential has become more of "backup" strategy, most games are won by sheer brute force and the ability to wait it out until my foe's defenses simply have nothing left. For this deck I think Zaladar was the right choice.

Try Zhanna.
Elemental mill is dead in 1.26, at least very inconsistent compared against 1.25

As a pure mill, I can't disagree. But as a hybrid I'm actually having some great success testing this deck. A day or two more of favorable draws and it moves into the place of my "main" deck!
As for Zhanna, tried her first. I wasn't too pleased with her mill capabilities. I realize it was mostly my inability to control her correct, but it just felt to sluggish and inconsistent. Moonstalker ended up locking the board for a long-term mill than she did, by a long shot.


By the by... anyone have advice on mages/direct damage? Currently they're a pretty gaping weakness in my ability to win consistently!

[JZ1MM4]

all the threads talking about Elementalis are speed weenie decks, but since you guys seem to know a lot about milling, here is my 1-day-old elementalis mill deck (needs A LOT of tweaking, looking for help on this):

Elementalis

2x deathbone
3x brutalis
4x snake
2x belladona
4x spark

2x conversion
2x soul reaper
2x transference
2x eternal renewal
4x shadowspawn
2x shriek of vengeance
1x bazaar

All that i have is whatever i got with 2 elemental starters and the gold from selling the cards nobody uses in them. I will probably drop the belladonas and add 2 deathbones just because she usually gets killed before i can use her and deathbone provides insurance with his ability. The conversions might be able to be dropped in favor of two more transferences, and would it be a good idea to swap two shadowspawns for two more eternal renewals. give me your thoughts...please!!! I'm a little new to elementals having played Eladwen until i earned enough crystals to get two elemental decks, so i could use senior expertise.

[NachyoChez]

all the threads talking about Elementalis are speed weenie decks, but since you guys seem to know a lot about milling, here is my 1-day-old elementalis mill deck (needs A LOT of tweaking, looking for help on this):

Elementalis

2x deathbone
3x brutalis
4x snake
2x belladona
4x spark

2x conversion
2x soul reaper
2x transference
2x eternal renewal
4x shadowspawn
2x shriek of vengeance
1x bazaar

All that i have is whatever i got with 2 elemental starters and the gold from selling the cards nobody uses in them. I will probably drop the belladonas and add 2 deathbones just because she usually gets killed before i can use her and deathbone provides insurance with his ability. The conversions might be able to be dropped in favor of two more transferences, and would it be a good idea to swap two shadowspawns for two more eternal renewals. give me your thoughts...please!!! I'm a little new to elementals having played Eladwen until i earned enough crystals to get two elemental decks, so i could use senior expertise.

I will tell you, point blank, that Mill is the HARDEST deck to run in SE. Running your opponent out of cards isn't enough, you have to fend them off while the deck burn kills them. The problem is that stalling effectively only works for so long. If you genuinely want to run mill I HIGHLY advise switching to Wulven or Zihanna. However, I know the appeal of wanting to run opposite the herd, so I'll try to help on this one.

First:
I only work on 40+ card decks. Especially with mill, you can't afford NOT to run at 40+.

Second:
Bazaar and Bad Santa are ABSOLUTELY a MUST in a mill deck. You need them, and I advise you run 4 of them. No amount of defensive playing will hold an opponent off forever, and these cards will speed up to process so that you can claim the win, as well as make the deck burn at the end heavier and thus actually useful.

Third:
Deck building 101. Never run 1 of any card. Never. Never. Never ever. It lowers the odds of getting the cards you need, will always find a way to pop up at the wrong times; it's just plain bad. Remember this moto: "If it's worth running, it's worth running 2".

Fourth:
Your creatures will fail out on you after turn 5. Bella isn't a bad card; she just draws a lot of heat because of her offensive capabilities. Plasma Behemoth misses you. He loves you. Let him join you! Deathbone is meh on his best days, terrible on the norm. Drop him, and add in Gargoyle. Now there's staying power! Also, for defensive play Life Infusion is pretty amazing. It combos VERY well with Plasma as well as Gargoyle.

Five:
Mill with elementals will be inconsistent. It's a sad fact; I'm saying it from experience.

Six:
Mind Control +4.


I know that a lot of the advice seems general, but that's because the fine tuned numbers don't exist. I have yet to get any version of this running like I'd want; if you're able to then awesome! I just wanted to give more of an overview so you at least have a starting point.

GL and HF!

[theberkin8or]

By the by... anyone have advice on mages/direct damage? Currently they're a pretty gaping weakness in my ability to win consistently!

Get rid of the renewals and the mill strat and replace it with Soul Reapers

[Reshiram99]

Get rid of the renewals and the mill strat and replace it with Soul Reapers

Soul Reaper sucks. I'd much rather add Conversion.

[theberkin8or]

Soul Reaper sucks. I'd much rather add Conversion.

If you say so but if with the number of weenies and draw in this deck soul Reaper is going to heal a lot more life and doesn't put you down two cards. It is however obviously not compatible with the renewal strategy.

[JZ1MM4]

in response to nacho, i am just jumping into this after running an Eladwen deck since February. i have heard (and seen) that wulven decks not only suck but also piss me off. this being said, i know zhanna and jericho are the new hard hitters, and as you can see i like to stray from the norm. i just dont really like soul reaper because i never know when the best time is to use it. so, this being said, i owuld be willing to use another shadow ally, but not wulven. i wasn't going for purely mill but also life drain to a lesser extent. and my shadow/elemental collection is still small, so tell me what is absolutely necessary (as i am low on gold atm)