xujhan@hotmail.com Civilization Comparison and Deck Samples ~ Xujhan Hello Pojo-goers! This is my first yammer here, though I've been meaning to write one for a while. And it's 4:30 a.m. here as I'm typing, so any spelling mistakes I make are not my fault. There's a few things I'll talk about, as well as some decks I'll share. You might want to go grab a snack, cause it's going to be a long one. First of all, I'll give MY overview of the civilizations, seeing as everyone's opinion is slightly different. Nature/Green: My favourite civilization, just as it was in Magic. I don't know why, but I love green. I just do. Focuses: Mana Acceleration, Creature Swarming Main Creature Type: Beast Folk Notable Cards: Bronze-Arm Tribe, Barwhip the Smasher, Deathblade Beetle, Natural Snare, Dimension Gate Common Deck Combinations: Nature/Darkness (control), Nature/Fire (beatdown), Nature/Fire (mana destruction), Nature/Water (control) Nature is easily the fastest civilization of them all. It's also fairly balanced, splashing in elements from other civilizations. It's main focus is on making mana, and lots of it. Cards like Bronze-Arm Tribe, Poisonous Mushroom, Silver Axe, Mighty Shouter, and Fighter Dual Fang all give easy mana. The other main focus is fast creatures, almost as fast as the Fire civilization. Cheap creatures like Burning Mane, Steel Smasher, Poisonous Mushroom, Essence Elf, and Barkwhip the Smasher are all very chep to cast. Dimension Gate and Rumbling Terrahorn also get creatures from your deck, which is very useful. Essence Elf and Elf-X also make your spells and creatures respectively cost less, making Nature by far the fastest civilization. Nature's evolutions, Beast Folk, are very powerful, laying down fatties starting on turn three or four. Nature has also borrowed unblockables from Water, and mana destruction from Fire. While it is not as good in these two areas, it makes Nature an excellent secondary civilization for your deck, or can stand on its own. About the only combination not commonly seen is Nature/Light. Fire/Red: Popular among newbies and little children. Can anyone say "Bolshack Dragon"? Focuses: Rush, Creature Destruction, Mana Destruction Main Creature Type: Humans Notable Cards: Deadly Fighter Braid Claw, Armored Blaster Validos, Scarlet Skyterror, Crimson Hammer, Tornado Flame Common Deck Combinations: Fire/Nature (beatdown), Fire/Nature (mana destruction), Fire/Light (defensive beatdown), Fire/Darkness (destruction) If Nature is the fastest civilization, then Fire comes in a close 2nd. Red has the fastest creatures in the game, using Deadly Fighter Braid Claw, Immortal Baron Vorg, and Brawler Zyler to break quick shields. It also has creature removal, in the form of Crimson Hammer, Tornado Flame, Rothus, and Scarlet Skyterror. Fire's evolutions are also fast, costing only 3 and 4. However, by itself, Fire tends to run out of steam after the first few turns, so it can take a lucky draw to defeat a skilled opponent with a Mono-Fire deck. Red's secondary focus is mana destruction, of which it is the unrivaled champion. Using cards like Engineer Kipo and Bolzard Dragon, mixed with Nature cards, you can insure that your opponent will never be able to cast anything from his hand. Fire does not support as well as Nature, and so is usually the focus of a deck, backed up by another one (or sometimes two) civilizations. Human decks are also an option, trying to play as many quick creatures as possible then killing your opponent with Armored Blaster Validos. Water is the only card that does not commonly support red. Water/Blue: More of a civilization for experts, at least if to be used well. Slow, but powerful if it survives. Focuses: Bounce, Blockers, Card Draw Main Creature Type: Liquid People Notable Cards: Aqua Hulcus, Crystal Paladin, Brain Serum, Spiral Gate, Crystal Memory Common Deck Combinations: Water/Nature (control), Water/Darkness (control), Water/Light (blockers) Blue is a very intersting civilization indeed! Brain Serum, Thought Probe, and Plasma Caser all give crazy hand advantage. Spiral Gate, Teleportation, and Aqua Sniper bounce creatures to your opponent's hand Candy Drop, King Depthcon and Crystal are all unblockable. That sounds amazing, right? Well, it is. Water is the crazy civilization, giving you cards while running around your opponents blockers in a variety of ways. It also has a good stock of its own blockers. Water's main downside is that it has a VERY high mana curve, with the good cards not appearing till turns 4,5, or 6. That's where Nature comes in. Nature gives you mana, while Water gives you nasty things to do with that mana. Water can also lend its efforts to Light or Darkness. Personally, I love the Water/arkness denial deck. Bounce, discard, kill, repeat. Truely evil. Water is a mediocre support colour, prefering to be the centre of attention. It works very well in combination with Darkness or Nature, or all on its own. Liquid People decks are very fun, and very lethal. Turn two Hunter Fish, turn three Aqua Hulcus, turn four Crystal Paladin. Smash. Twice. Fun. Darkness/Black: Definitely an experts only civilization. Anyone else using the 'good' Darkness cards will end up killing themselves. Focuses: Hand Destruction, Creature Destruction Main Creature Type: Parasite Worm Notable Cards: Horrid Worm, Chaos Worm, Death Smoke, Terror Pit, Lost Soul Common Deck Combinations: Darkness/Nature (control), Darkness/Water (control), Darkness/Fire (destruction) Darkness is THE control civilization. You want creature kill? Death Smoke, you've got it. You want more? What about Terror Pit? Still not enough? Slayers. How about some Chaos Worm, Critical Blade, and Vampire Silphy while you're at it. Get the idea yet? Then there's Horrid Worm, Dark Titan Magnin, Ghost Touch, and Lost Soul. All the hand destruction you could want. Now do you get it? Discard, kill, repeat. That's what Darkness does. It kills things. Then, when it's done killing things, it kills MORE things. It will keep killing things until you bop your opponent with an Ultracide Worm, or likewise big thing. At that point, they'll have: no hand, no field, no shields, and no face. About the only thing that Darkness doesn't cremate is mana, which is where Fire comes in. I've you've ever seen a Darkness/Fire deck working properly, you'll know how nasty it is. Horrid Worm, Bolzard Dragon, Death Smoke, and various other things ensure that your opponent ends up on the underside of your Deathliger's foot. Black also has a slew of 'suicide' creatures. Blockers that die when they block, slayers that kill when they die, and Marrow Ooze, that just plain dies. Darkness works fairly well as a support civilization in any slow or slow-ish deck. Keep your opponents cards going to the graveyard until you get the cards you want, and then proceed to smash face. Highly effective, highly cruel, highly fun. Light/Yellow: The last civilization, and my least favourite. Light excells at making the game go nowhere in a hurry. Focuses: Blockers, Tapping Opponent's Creatures Main Creature Type: Guardian Notable Cards: La Ura Giga, Gran Gure, Ladia Bale, Holy Awe, Diamond Cutter Common Deck Combinations: Light/Fire, Light/Water Ah, Light. Everyone's favourite "You can't hit me" civilization. The best blockers in the game, by a long shot. That itself should give away that Light is the stall civilization of Duel Masters. Also, Light has a couple shield trigger tap spells, Holy Awe and Solar Ray, that can ruin your attacking plans. The main Mono-Light deck focuses of many, many, many, far too many blockers, and Diamond Cutter. With a good hand, the game will usually be won around turn 7-8. With a bad hand, get ready to lose. This deck hates Critical Blade, Crystal Paladin, and Scarlet Skyterror. It doesn't really love unblockables either. However, Light's tap spells and blockers work very efficiently. Turns 1-4, play the corresponding blockers. Turn 5, play Toel, Visier of Hope. Turn 6, cast Holy, and laugh as they die to your blockers, which them magically untap themselves with Toel's effect. Sheer cruelty, if it works properly. If not, well, too bad for you. That's what you get for running a stall deck. For combining, Light is probably the worst civilization. It can back up Fire, o be backed up by Water, and that's it. Light really prefers to be by itself, in a Diamond Cutter deck. It works elsewhere, but that's where it's best. Anyway, that was my lengthly introduction. Hungry yet? I warned you it would be long. And I'm just getting started. You might want to go get that snack now. Or another if you've finished the first one. Next, I'll give some of my decks, explanations, and ideas for decks I might make into the future, along with their corresponding explanations. Beastdown Mono-Nature 40 Cards Creatures: 32 4 Poisionous Mushroom 4 Burning Mane 4 Steel Smasher 4 Bronze-Arm Tribe 4 Golden-Wing Striker 4 Fear Fang 4 Barkwhip the Smasher 4 Fighter Dual Fang Spells: 8 4 Dimension Gate 4 Natural Snare Beasts, beasts, and more beasts. Nice, simple, and fast. Almost always have something for turn two, and always have something for turn three. A common hand might go: Turn 1: Mana Turn 2: Mana, Poisonous Mushroom, Mana Turn 3: Mana, Bronze-Arm Tribe, Mana, Barkwhip the Smaher, and smash two shields. As you can see, the deck works FAST. Also, it love to play against rush decks. I let them peg of a couple shields, killing their creatures once they're tapped (see, Steel Smasher can be good), then bring out the Barkwhips and proceed to demolish. If the game lasts long enough, Dual Fang gets to be the finisher, getting rid of blockers and shields in a hurry. This deck doesn't really fear creature kill, as there's always another beast folk to fill the empty spot. Blockers only last a short while, then they die to Barkwhips. The blockers that can survive Barkwhip can get to die to Dual Fang. Poisionous Mushroom and Steel Smasher make good mana, though they are also useful when cast. Bronze-Arm Tribe is excellent for evolving, seeing as he is only a meagre 1000 after giving you his mana. The Natural Snares are there for any really big threats. Or those accursed Gran Gures. This deck has yet to fail me, and rarely loses. Denial Water/Darkness 40 Cards Creatures: 20 2 Hunter Fish 4 Aqua Hulcus 3 Aqua Soldier 2 Revolver Fish 2 Crystal Paladin 1 Plasma Chaser 1 Crystal Lancer 2 Bloody Squito 4 Horrid Worm Spells: 19 2 Spiral Gate 3 Brain Serum 3 Crystal Memory 2 Critical Blade 4 Death Smoke 4 Terror Pit 1 Lost Soul The point of this deck should be obvious. Kill things, and keep kiling things until there's nothing left to kill. All the black cards do this. Every last one. Bloody Squito will usually kill something when it blocks, because the only big things it'll be bocking are huge evolutions that I don't have time to Death Smoke/Terror Pit/Spiral Gate, etc. The Lost Soul is in there for heavy control decks that like to build up their hand, or to destroy key cards like Diamond Cutter and Holy Awe. Everything else should be self-explanatory. Draw, kill repeat. I love this deck as much as I love my Beastdown. Denying all your opponent's moves is very, very fun. And there's nothing funnier than Critical Blading a Ladia Bale. Well, Death Smoking a Hasuna is fun too. And Spiral Gating an Explosive Fighter Urcarn. That's a laugh. Mana Destruction Nature/Fire 40 Cards Creatures: 23 4 Bronze-Arm Tribe 3 Mighty Shouter 2 Silver Axe 2 Fortress Shell 4 Engineer Kipo 3 Rothus the Traveller 3 Bombersaur 2 Bolzard Dragon 1 Scarlet Skyterror Spells: 17 4 Crimson Hammer 4 Tornado Flame 2 Dimension Gate 4 Mana Crisis 2 Natural Snare This deck I'm still making, but this is what I've designed and it works in theory. Use Crimson Hammer, Tornado Flame, and Rothus to keep your opponent's field clear. There's a Scarlet Skyterror in case they manage to get up a wall of blockers, and two Natural Snares that are for emergency use ONLY! If your opponent gets out something BIG, like a Ladia Bale, then Snare it. Otherwise, try to stick to using Fire creature kill, as it doesn't give your opponent mana. Normally, that doesn't really make a difference, but in this deck, it's counter-productive. I always save it for really big things, in case they get out. Don't be afraid to be suicidal with the Silver Axes, becuase this deck wants as much mana as possible. The more you have, the more reckless you can be with Kipos and Bombersaurs. If the game drags on, Fortress Shells can assist in making sure that your opponent is helpless. You'll notice that the deck has no double breakers or really powerful creatures. It doesn't need them. In fact, don't attack your opponents shields at all until they have no mana and no creatures. Once they're helples,, you don't have to worry about giving them cards. Diamond Cutter Mono-Light 40 Cards Creatures: 26 4 La Ura Giga, Sky Guardian 4 Senatine Jade Tree 4 Dia Nork, Moonlight Guardian 2 Szubs Kin, Twilight Guardian 2 Gran Gure, Space Guardian 2 Phal Eaga, Dawn Guardian 2 Toel, Vizier of Hope 4 Larba Geer, the Immaculate 2 Ladia Bale, the Inspirational Spells: 14 2 Solar Ray 4 Logic Cube 4 Diamond Cutter 4 Holy Awe The point behind this deck should be fairly obvious also. Keep blocking, then block some more. There are 16 blockers, not counting the Ladia Bale. Toel is good in combination with Holy Awe, and the ability to attack tapped creatures. Highly effective against power attackers such as...Bolshack Dragon! Phal Eaga is to get back Holy Awes and Diamond Cutters for re-use, and is also a guardian, making him eigable for evolution into Ladia Bale. Larba Geer is an alternative Holy Awe, comboing well will Diamond Cutter. For 8 mana, you can tap all your opponent's blockers and go after all their shields. Or, you can play a Toel instead, go after their blockers, then untap and get ready to block their attackers. Either strategy works. Solar Ray is useful for tapping a particular threat and then attacking it, and is also a good shield trigger. This isn't a deck that I would personally use (I actually built it for my brother), but I like it none-the less. It should win a fair number of games, barring a lot of Critical Blades and Scarlet Skyterrors. That wraps up my article for today. Feel free to copy any of these decks and try them yourself. I'm still fiddling around with all f them to see what works and what doesn't. If you play one and have a particular flash of insight, or just a few questions/comments, go ahead and send them to me. If you want to comment on the article, make a suggestion, or point out a spelling mistake, go ahead. Or, if you just want to talk Duel Masters, I'm usually on-line. Email me or find me on MSN at Xujhan@hotmail.com Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you listened to me and got that snack while you had the chance. ~Xujhan _________________________________________________________________