Neutral deck (no elemental creatures)

[Thumpasaurus]

This deck is partly for fun (tried to avoid too much repetition, so not all are selections are for purely strategic reasons), but it's also designed to be effective:

Neutral (27 or 54%):
Amber Mosquito x1
Archbishop x1
Astral Queen x1
Baldanders x1
Battle Gear Alpha x2
Battle Gear Beta x2
Borgess x2
Cleric x1
Collosus x1
Cyclops x1
Decoy x1
Doppleganger x1
Fighter x1
Horned Chameleon x1
Leoknight x1
Little Gray x1
Migoal x1
Ninja x2
Samurai x1
Sanctum Guard x1
Tyrannosaurus x1
Wonder Wall x1

Items (11 or 22%)):
Battering Ram x1
Claymore x1
Counter Amulet x1
Dragon Helm x1
Gaseous Form x2
Lance of Odin x1
Nuclear Fusion x1
Prismatic Wand x3

Spells (12 or 24%):
Binding Mist x1
Evil Blast x1
Growth Body x2
Haste x1
Holy Word 0 x1
Land Protection x1
Manna x1
Quicksand x1
Soltis x1
Telekinesis x1
Vitality x1

The Borgess and Astral Queen really work well to boost all the neutrals. It has a pretty good variety of different creatures, items, and spells, but remains effective for general use. Cards like Decoy, Doppleganger, Little Gray, Migoal, and Wonder Wall can be really annoying to many people, particularly with a deck designed to strengthen neutrals. Archbishop is good for countering spells.

Comments?

[MmmLilith]

Yes....'cause we all have 'Soltis'!

[Thumpasaurus]

Oops, sorry. I completed my deck, so I was just trying to play around using different cards. Soltis isn't terribly useful, it's just in there for fun. Anyone looking to try this deck without it, substitute Soltis with a fun spell of your choice.

[TheTampaCepter]

That is really a cool deck. I will have to check that out myself!

[Thumpasaurus]

Just an update. I have been very successful with the deck listed above in multiplayer games. After using it, I made some refinements for effectiveness. Here is the current version that I am using. It is a little more optimized and designed to handle a few more situations. Spells or items should be tweaked depending on who your opponent is and what kinds of spells they like to use.

Neutral (26 or 52%):
Amber Mosquito x1
Archbishop x1
Astral Queen x1
Baldanders x1
Battle Gear Alpha x2
Battle Gear Beta x2
Borgess x2
Collosus x1
Cyclops x1
Decoy x1
Doppleganger x1
Fighter x1
Leoknight x1
Little Gray x1
Lunatic Hare x1
Migoal x1
Ninja x3
Sanctum Guard x1
Tetramorph x1
Tyrannosaurus x1
Wonder Wall x1

Items (11 or 22%):
Gaseous Form x3
Lance of Odin x1
Nuclear Fusion x1
Prismatic Wand x3
Stink Bottle x1
Talisman x1
The Hand x1

Spells (13 or 26%):
Binding Mist x1
Evil Blast x1
Growth Body x2
Haste x2
Land Protection x1
Mutation x2
Remove Curse x1
Soltis x1
Telekinesis x2

[James]

I have a simple question here, is this a real life deck, or your deck in the video game? Cause if it's in the game, I wouldn't recomend it for it has no chain able creatues. But, since I've only seen and played the video game, I'm not sure if there are chains in the real life game. So I'm going to mosy on over to the rules to look.

[Thumpasaurus]

I don't think you quite understand how chains work. Chains are made by owning multiple lands of the same color, increasing the value of the land and the cost of tolls. It doesn't matter what kind of creature you put on the land, you can still make chains regardless of whether their colors match. The disadvantage of neutral creatures is that they do not get territory bonuses. Territory bonuses add +10 HP per land level in combat to the creature, if it matches the color of the land.

This means, the drawback of all neutrals is that they don't get those extra HP in battle, not that they can't chain land for extra value and tolls. However, this deck contains the Astral Queen, which can instantly put camouflage on every creature on the board. Camouflage allows every creature to gain territory bonuses (those extra battle HP), regardless of what kind of creature or land they are. Neutral creatures also have the advantage of using the Borgess. Unlike the "lord" characters, who boost their respective colors +10 HP, the Borgess boosts neutrals by +20 HP (and is not nearly as difficult or costly to play). Thus, once you've got an Astral Queen and Borgess in effect, your neutral creatures are pretty tough to beat in combat.

And again, there are no problems making chains with neutral creatures. In fact neutrals generally make chaining easier, as neutrals never have territory restrictions (land types they can't inhabit) or require prior ownership of land types before playing, unlike elemental creatures, who often have various restrictions.

Also: To my knowledge this game isn't available as anything other than a video game. So yes, I am playing the video game.

[WhoseYerLilith]

Plus the added bonus of having an Archbishop to remove the camouflauge effect on your enemies makes the Borgess+Astral Queen+Archbishop combination even deadlier. I have a simaliar deck, but choose different neutral creatures, Ill post it later- I like yours though, Thump.

[Thumpasaurus]

Yeah, those 3 cards are definitely a great compliment to each other. My deck started off just for fun, but it's changed quite a bit to be even more effective, once I realized how well neutrals can work. I've changed it even more (may post later on), removing some creatures and adding more spells. I'm trying out more of a 40% creatures/ 20% items / 40% spells distribution in my decks now...

[Look at the name]

Oh, I apoligize, I wasen't thinking about this. What I really ment to imply, was that his monsters wouldn't get any land effect bonus stats.


I was merley having a small brain freeze, as it was pretty late in the morning for where I live.

[James]

Woops, once again I apoligize for my lack of brain power here. That guest post was mine (after just changing my password). I'm just really out of it this week I guess...

[Daimaoh34]

Thumpasaurus> Is this deck relatively slow? Or does it run decently fast? I was thinking of making a neutral deck in the future for 4-player games, and since my friends all play very aggresively, a slow deck just withers against them.

[Thumpasaurus]

What exactly do you mean by slow? I have used this deck and won against other people, though effectiveness of any deck depends on how your opponents' decks are constructed and some amount of luck.

I can tell you that playing an all neutral deck makes it very easy to get established on the board, because you can ALWAYS play ANY of your creatures (no sorts of territory limitations). And there is no bad land for you (never have to worry about land transformations). The one notable drawback is the dependence on the Astral Queen, which you can only have one of.

Also, my new version (which I haven't posted yet) has more spells, including extra Haste and Holy Word X, so in that sense it is "faster" (again, I'm not sure what you mean by slow). I've also removed some of the "fun" cards such as the Battle Gears. Those can actually be fairly effective, but aren't ideal cards because they are so contingent. And more scrolls and 4 ninjas are a good thing! ;D For a neutral deck ninjas are BOTH one of the best offensive and one of the best defensive creatures--useful in all situations.

[Daimaoh34]

When I said "slow" I meant it more like: "Does it take a while for your cards to get established on the board?"

And I believe you answered my question when you mentioned the fact that all neutral creatures don't have any land restrictions, so you can plop down creatures anywhere on the board.

Although like you mentioned the stability takes a while to establish by waiting for the Astral Queen. But I guess you could solve that with a few quick Camoflouge (sp?) in the book.