History VideoGame / Elements

* IncrediblyLamePun: The same symbol is used for Time and the in-game currency, Electrum. Like we've never seen that one before.

** [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Flooding Flooding]] doesn't affect Water creatures (which makes sense), but it also doesn't affect neutral creatures. What neutral creatures does the game have? Neutral weapons when made into creatures by Flying Weapon/Animate Weapon, and [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Malignant_Cell Malignant Cell]]. That's it. So why does Flooding not affect neutral creatures? Because if it did, it would affect Malignant Cell.
*** For that matter, how about Malignant Cell being a neutral creature in the first place? [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Aflatoxin Aflatoxin]], the card that generates it, is a Death card. So why is Malignant Cell neutral instead of Death? To keep it from being affected (read: buffed) by [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Nightfall Nightfall/Eclipse]]. See ExplosiveBreeder above.
** [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Mitosis Mitosis]] used to be usable on flown weapona, but after a GameBreaker combo is discovered (Mitosis [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Short_Sword Long Sword]]), it was changed. Now it can't target weapons.
** [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Shard_of_Readiness Shard of Readiness]]' effect: "Time creatures can use their skill twice this turn." What it doesn't say is that if you try to apply it again on the same creature on the same turn, it does nothing. This was because there was a particularly good AI grinder using the shard, and the in-element shards would have made it [[GameBreaker game breaking]].

* RunningTheAsylum: If the developer isn't keeping the game interesting, you can bet the fans will with [=PvP=] and Forum Events.
* SelfImposedChallenge: Some people try farming Silver Arena completely unupgraded. Some people try fighting a specific False God without any rare cards or upgrades. They succeeded.

* SleeperHit: At face value, it looks like another average CCG that could've easily died once the developer went on hiatus - however, the dedicated fanbase (see RunningTheAsylum) have made this game pretty durable when it comes to lack of updates.

* VoodooDoll: Darkness' card, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Voodoo Doll]], does all damage it takes to the opponent as long as it survives. Paired up with Rage Potion or Parallel Universe, it can deal huge amounts of damage fairly quickly.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Main_Page Right here.]]

* '''Earth:''' [[DishingOutDirt Earth elementals]] have power over minerals, metals and terrestrial beings. Earth creatures have special skills that can be used for protection, like burrow: when burrowed, a creature deals less damage, but can't be targeted by common skills and spells. [[StoneWall Earth elementals take advantage of advanced shields that will reduce the damage inflicted upon them.]]
* '''Air:''' [[BlowYouAway Air elementals]] control gaseous substances and airborne beings. The numerous air creatures take advantage of their freedom of movement to deal extra damage to their opponent.
* '''Fire:''' [[PlayingWithFire Fire elementals]] are highly destructive; they rely on skills like "Fire Bolt", or "destroy" [[KillItWithFire to wipe out the enemy arsenal.]] Fire creatures [[GlassCannon deal higher than average damage but are often brittle.]]
* '''Water:''' Ice, alchemy and aquatic beings are under the control of [[MakingASplash Water elementals.]] Some examples of Water elementals skills are: "Freeze", "Ice Bolt", and "Purify", which is used to remove poison. [[JackOfAllStats Water elementals have a good balance between offensive and defensive skills.]]
* '''Light:''' [[LightEmUp Light elementals]] dispense blessings and befriend angelic and righteous entities. Light elementals can exalt their creatures, heal them, or [[HolyHandGrenade deal damage to Death and Darkness elements.]]
* '''Darkness:''' [[CastingAShadow Darkness elementals]] are masters of subtleness; they can hide, absorb energies and manage the creatures that dwell in the shadows. Darkness elementals can rely on skills like "Steal" or "Dusk Mantle".
* '''Entropy:''' Entropy is randomness; it is that thing that makes a glass unfixable once shattered. Entropy elementals deal with disarray and chaotic creatures; [[StrategySchmategy they love to confuse their opponent and gamble with luck and probabilities.]]
* '''Gravity:''' [[GravityMaster Gravity elementals]] deal with mass and size; their ability to accelerate objects makes them formidable enemies. Gravity elementals have skills like [[ArmorPiercingAttack "momentum"]], that will make a gravity creature unstoppable and "gravity pull" that will waste the enemy attacks on a resistant or unessential creature.
* '''Time:''' [[TimeMaster A Time elemental]] has control over the order of the events; he can slow down his opponent, reverse his actions, or hasten himself.
* '''Aether:''' Aether is the domain of the immaterial things; it is where the stars reside and the media where all the energy waves move. Aether elementals excel in manipulating the dimensions and electricity; [[NighInvulnerable most of the creatures they generate are immaterial.]]
* '''Life:''' [[GreenThumb Life elementals]] rely on a wide variety of powerful and different creatures; they can heal themselves and improve their ability to summon creatures using skills like "photosynthesis".
* '''Death:''' [[BlackMagic Death elementals]] deal with poison and infections; they will slowly kill their opponent allies and make profit of the taken souls.

You can find the game [[https://etg.dek.im/ here]] and the forum [[http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php here]].

''[[http://www.elementsthegame.com/ Elements]]'' is an online, fantasy-themed CollectibleCardGame. As the online documentation puts it, "[[AGodIsYou The player is an elemental]], a spirit composed of an element; elements are the fundamental building blocks of nature. Each elemental has an arsenal of skills that can be used in a duel against another elemental; each skill corresponds to a card."

You can find the game [[http://www.elementsthegame.com/ here]] and the forum [[http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php here]].

* BalefulPolymorph: Entropy has Mutation effects, which change one creature into another, randomly generated creature. These effects can be used on your own creatures, or on your opponent's.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverKill: [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Sky_Blitz Sky Blitz]], which doubles the attack of all airborne creatures for one turn. Taken UpToEleven if used on Diving creatures.

** Nymphs are far worse. You cannot win any in the slots; it turns into a worthless "Relic" card that does [[VendorTrash absolutely nothing]]. You can only get them from the Oracle.

* GradualGrinder: This is Death's primary style, both against players and creatures. In this game, damage to the latter persists between turns.
** And one of Darkness's secondary styles. Players can build an enormous quanta pool and often do. A focused Darkness player can ''still'' keep an opponent almost completely quantaless for most of the game with a bit of luck, and with [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Nightfall Nightfall/Eclipse]], can do slow damage using the same creatures.

** There are also limits on the number of creatures in play (23).

* FairyBattle: Before the Arena became the new asynchronous PvP system, you could challenge AI-controlled copies of the Top 500 players' decks. Some players in the Top 500 would intentionally build their decks to include a few rare cards, but no way to play them, and no way to win the game; this makes those rare cards far easier to get.

* LuckBasedMission: The element specific weapons cannot be purchased and can only be obtained by rolling one of them randomly on the post-game slot machine, which already has a very dim rate for common cards, in a special spin of rares after winning a few arena games in a row, or as a daily giveaway by the Oracle (who picks one card among all the cards in the game). Any deck who aspires to have a decent chance at PvP or the False Gods requires at least 2 or 3 copies of the same weapon. Have fun.

* {{Metagame}}: Present in any organized PvP.

* PlayerVersusPlayer: A variation - while you can Random PvP players and selectively PvP friends, the organized PvP of the game happens on the official forums, with some events like Tournaments offering reward codes to the winners.

* RunningTheAsylum: If the developer isn't keeping the game interesting, you can bet the fans will with PvP and Forum Events.

* MoneyGrinding: [[CaptainObvious You need money to buy cards]], and you can also upgrade your cards for a whopping 1500 Electrum Coins each.

* AttackBackfire: One popular strategy for players with a Deck consisting of death cards is to use [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Aflatoxin Aflatoxin]] to turn an opponent's creature into a [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Malignant_Cell Malignant Cell]], allow it to duplicate itself until it fills the player's deck, then kill them all using [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Plague Plague]] or [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Thunderstorm Thunderstorm]], and gain an army of skeletons using a [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Boneyard Boneyard]]. The problem is that many shields block 1 or more damage from each enemy creature, and Skeletons only do one damage, so each Skeleton can end up being unable to hurt their opponent. To make things worse, players with [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Otyugh Otyughs]] or [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Scarab Scarabs]] will now be able to greatly buff their attack, and [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Empathic_Bond Empathic Bonds]] will allow the player to heal almost completely thanks to the Malignant Cells.

* BoringButPractical: [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Dimensional_Shield Dimensional Shield]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin blocks all attacks for 3 turns]]. It also happens to be one of the most annoying cards in the game to face.

* GlassCannon:

* GlassCannon: The [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Crimson_Dragon Crimson Dragon]] and its elite form, the Ruby Dragon. They do 12 and 15 damage respectively, but have 3 and 2 health points, the lowest of any dragon in the game.
** All Fire creatures have higher attack than defence, with [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Fire_Spirit Fire Spirits]] and [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Red_Nymph Red Nymphs]] as the only exceptions.

* ShoutOut: Players can summon an earth based creature called a [[Film/{{Tremors}} [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Graboid Graboid]] and then evolve it into a [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Shrieker Shrieker]].]]
** Also, [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Otyugh Otyugh]] and [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Mind_Flayer Mind Flayer/Ulitharid]].]]

* ThePhoenix: A fire creature, the Phoenix can resurrect itself after being killed and reduced to Ash, provided the opponent doesn't destroy the Ash as well.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverKill: Skyblitz, which doubles all airborne creatures attacks. Taken UpToEleven if used on Diving creatures.

** Which can be painful facing somebody who can simply ignore weak attacks. The more so if the rusher hit the creature cap early and lacks free space to summon anything effective.

*** Fallen druid/shaman: Any creatures will do, but the point is to get out enough fodder in order to mutate them all. Even though [[ConfusionFu you have no idea how you are going to end up]], done well you can have a diverse, powerful, an almost unstoppable army of creatures thanks to the druid/shaman.
*** Devour rush: Basically you try to get a lot of creatures out there in order to feed a creature with devour, see scarabs above. The whole rush part is getting enough food for the creature who devour to be unstoppable, capable of destroying any monster on the field and getting more powerful each time, switching to another tactic entirely.

* {{Cap}}: Your deck must be at least 30 cards, but it can't have more than 60. Also, you can never have more than 8 cards in your hand, and at the end of your turn, if you do have 8, you have to discard one. Other than pillars, you're not allowed to have more than 6 copies of any particular card in your deck. Finally, as of the latest versions, there is a cap of 75 for each individual type of quanta.
** Also, Stone Skin/Granite Skin gives you extra HP equal to the number of Earth quanta you have -- but only up to 73-74 because of the aforementioned limit.
** There are also limits on the number of creatures in play (23).

** Each deck also has strength and weakness. There's no "best deck."

** Another one which is more contained but powerful is Fallen Druid's Improve ability with an army of [[{{Mooks}} fodder]]. Improve will always give you a creature with higher than base status, give it a random activation ability, and it will keep any innate abilities (such as Voodoo Doll). The setup is shaky at best, a simple counter is to just kill the druid, but if it goes wild you may end up facing an army with abilities ranging from growing in power every turn to the wholesale destruction or theft of every permanent that isn't protected. On the same field.

** Basilisk Blood and Auburn/Earth Nymphs can petrify a creature, which prevents it from attacking for 6 turns, but also increases its health by a massive 20 hit points. Armagios are able to withstand more damage and act as shields for longer, Otyughs and Scarabs become able to consume almost any creature, creatures with Acceleration/Overdrive will live far longer, and anything poisoned can live for longer periods of time.
** Reverse Time essentially kills a creature and returns the card to its owner, preventing the creature from attacking and preventing its owner from drawing a new card - but this can also be used to cure a dying creature, or stop you from running out of cards.
** Rage Potions increase attack and reduce health by 5 points each, so it's a death sentence for anything with less than 6 health and a blessing for anything with more.
** Gravity Pull makes all creatures on one side attack a specific creature on the other. This will, of course, eventually kill that creature, but if the creature has particularly high health, it makes a nice human shield.
** Aflatoxin poisons a creature for 2 damage each turn. When it dies, it turns into a Malignant Cell, which will keep duplicating until it fills the board - in other words, using it on yourself grants you a ZergRush of creatures.
** Weakening any creature until it has 5 or less health will let it get past a Gravity Shield.
** Liquid Shadow will poison a creature, but will also give it the ability "Vampire", letting it return the damage it deals as healing.
** Adrenaline will make a creature attack multiple times per turn - but any poison damage on it, or damage from a shield, will also be taken multiple times per turn, so you can use it to make an enemy creature die faster, or you can use Adrenaline and Anti-matter on an enemy creature, which will force it to HEAL you multiple times.
** Any card that increases a creature's health (such as Blessing, Basilisk Blood, Plate/Heavy Armor) can be used to prevent it from getting past a Gravity Shield. Likewise, intentionally weakening your own creatures with Rage Potion, Shockwave, or some other card will enable it to slip past a Gravity Shield.
** Any card that increases a creature's attack but not its defence may leave it vulnerable to Maxwell Demon's Paradox ability. [[note]]Kills a target creature if its attack is higher than its defence.[[/note]]
* DiminishingReturnsForBalance: The Adrenaline effect gives a creature multiple attacks per turn. Bigger creatures get fewer extra attacks, and their attacks after the first will usually have less power.

* ExplosiveBreeder: The Malignant Cell, which has very little attacking power in a game where creatures normally can't intercept attacks. What it ''can'' do is copy itself each turn, and so can the copies, up to the hard limit of the number of creatures a player can have in play. Most decks' capacity to kill their own creatures is decidedly limited... this creature is built to be given to an opponent as cancer.
** Bonus point if the Malignant Cell is Adrenalined. It will create ''four'' copies instead of one, quickly filling the board.
** Time's Deja Vu (a weak flyer) also splits into two copies. While this erases the splitting power on the copies, this game has no creature tokens - the copies are ''real cards'', and so can be returned to the deck (which most Time decks can do ''ad infinitum''). When a card leaves play, it returns to its pristine state and original text... so a Time player need never run out of Deja Vus (or out of cards, for that matter).
* ExtremeOmnivore: Otyughs and Scarabs can eat pretty much anything, from germs to dragons, provided they're buffed enough.

** To elaborate: Desynchronization causes the AI to take over the opponent player (And of yours as well on your opponent's side). The actions of the (supposedly disconnected) player, however, clash with those of the AI as the game tries to reconnect both players. Side effects include but are not limited to: random healing, spell duplication, quanta screw, opponent summoning creatures at zero cost, opponent summoning ''your'' creatures, weapons played as flying weapons from the hand, and last but not least, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking mutual accusations of hacking.]] [[http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,2221.0.html Feast your eyes.]] Its been such a long lasting glitch [[LampshadeHanging it has its HUD icon now]].
* GlassCannon: The Crimson Dragon and it's elite form, the Ruby Dragon. They do 12 and 15 damage respectively, but have 3 and 2 health points, the lowest of any dragon in the game.

** And one of Darkness's secondary styles. Players can build an enormous quanta pool and often do. A focused Darkness player can ''still'' keep an opponent almost completely quantaless for most of the game with a bit of luck, and with Nightfall/Eclipse, can do slow damage using the same creatures.
* HumanPopsicle: Freeze, a Water card, which freezes target creature for three turns.

* KillItWithFire: Fire is an element known for its destructive power. It has the highest number of CC spell, like Fire Bolt, Rain of Fire, and Rage Potion.

* LightIsNotGood /DarkIsNotEvil: Elements themselves have no real scale of morality aligment : that's entirely up to the player's interpretation.
* LikeCannotCutLike: Averted. A Pulverizer can destroy another Pulverizer. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard It can even destroy ''itself''.]]
* LiterallyShatteredLives: Use Freeze and Shockwave on the same creature for this effect.

** Nymphs are far worse. You cannot win any in the slots; it turns into a worthless "Relic" card that does [[VendorTrash absolutely nothing]]. You can only get them on the Oracle.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: In addition to the creature, permanent, and spell cards the player character also has access to a variety of elemental shield cards. Its amazing how much the right type of shield can make or break a game.
* ManaDrain: Devourer, a Darkness creature, can absorb opponent's quanta and return it to the owner as Darkness quanta.
** A more extreme example is the Black Hole, Gravity's spell. It drains up to 3 quanta per element and return it as HP. This is the bane of rainbow decks everywhere.

** Aether can be far worse. Theoretically, an Aether player can set up to play up to 6 copies of every card you draw, on the turn ''before'' you even draw it. That includes your quanta generators, so they can ''use'' those cards. Realistically, they can often manage at least 2 of your cards to your 1. While humming "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better".

* NonElemental: Used to be impossible, after 1.29 patch which introduces "Second Generation Shard", it became possible to make a deck 100% filled with "Other" cards.

* NoobBridge: The difficulty spike from AI3 to AI4 and from AI4 to FG are quite high. You are expected to use upgraded cards on them, or else you will blow up your money trying to figure out what to do. Which brings us...
** CashGate: You need at least 9000 electrum (worth 6 upgrades) to gain at least 30% winrate against False Gods. Getting to 9000 electrum is the hardest part on the game, where each win only worth ~20 electrum and every card won worth only ~50.

** Presumably the same could be said with intentionally getting a malignant cell on your side of the field. It's supposed to fill up the side with borderline useless creatures. Using an Otyugh/Scarab or Fallen elf/druid on them simply means you get more fodder.
* NumericalHard: Anything above AI Level 3 requires decks specifically tailored ([[CashGate and upgraded]]) to defeat, more so the False Gods. As well as the Arena Decks which begin with player defined bonuses to compensate for the lack of a real player playing them.

** Flooding doesn't affect Water creatures (which makes sense), but it also doesn't affect neutral creatures. What neutral creatures does the game have? Neutral weapons when made into creatures by Flying Weapon/Animate Weapon, and Malignant Cell. That's it. So why does Flooding not affect neutral creatures? Because if it did, it would affect Malignant Cell.
*** For that matter, how about Malignant Cell being a neutral creature in the first place? Aflatoxin, the card that generates it, is a Death card. So why is Malignant Cell neutral instead of Death? To keep it from being affected (read: buffed) by Nightfall/Eclipse. For those who wonder why any of this would matter, Malignant Cell's effect is that it makes another of itself at the end of the turn. See ExplosiveBreeder above.
** Mitosis used to be usable on flown weapon, but after a GameBreaker combo is discovered (Mitosis Long Sword), it is changed. Now it can't target weapons.
** Shard of Readiness' effect: "Time creatures can use their skill twice this turn". What it doesn't say is that if you try to apply it again on the same creature on the same turn, it does nothing. This was because there existed a particularly good AI grinder using the shard, and the in-element shards would have made it [[GameBreaker game breaking]].
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: There are two angel cards on the game, the fire Seraph card and the light Guardian Angel card. Seraph is a high hitter which can pseudo-immortalize itself, and Guardian Angel can heal wounded creatures.

* PowerCopying: Crusader, a Light creature, can endow target weapon, which grants him the weapon's attack bonus and skill. This also works on the opponent's weapon.
** In lesser case, Mindgate and Parallel Universe.
* ReviveKillsZombie: The card "Holy Light" is primarily used to restore hit points, but when used against a dark or death aligned target it deals damage instead. (Usually more then enough to kill even the strongest creatures in one hit.)

* ShockAndAwe: Lightning, Aether's spell, deal 5 damage to target creature. Most creatures die to just one Lightning, while barely any creature would survive a second dose of it.
** To a lesser extent, Lightningstorm which acts as a mass CC, dealing 2 damage to all opposing creatures.
* ShoutOut: Players can summon an earth based creature called a [[Film/{{Tremors}} Graboid and then evolve it into a Shrieker.]]
** Also, [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Otyugh and Mind Flayer/Ulitharid.]]

* StrategySchmategy: Entropy cards are like these in general. Pandemonium causes a random effect on every creature on the field. Discord scrambles your opponent's quanta to random element. Mutation turns a creature into an Abomination or a random creature.
** Some non-entropy cards also work like this, most notably Fate Egg.

* SuperDrowningSkills: Any creature not Water elemental or Other elemental will drown under Flooding. Including the airborne creatures from the Air element.
** SuperNotDrowningSkills: On the other hand, Earth creatures like Graboid, Shrieker, and Antlion can survive a Flooding by burrowing themselves underground. Wonder how they could get enough oxygen there.
* TakenForGranite: Basilisk Blood, an Earth spell, grants massive HP bonus in exchange of delaying target creature for six turns.
** Gargoyle and a certain combination of Shard Golem also have Stone Form skill, which grants the same HP bonus though without the delay.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: A player starts with 100 Hit Points, gets one free Quantum of one element each turn from his Mark, and draws 1 card per turn. The False Gods start with 200 Hit Points, and draws 2 cards per turn. The False Gods also start with what is essentially two copies of a single normal deck. In short, they have twice as much everything as a normal player. Except for the Mark - they have triple the normal amount. For the False Gods, [[LampshadeHanging the game's pretty upfront about them not playing by the same rules.]]

** Subverted in the Arena, since you can also make an Arena deck which grows in level to become closer to False God's power. It's balanced since these leveled up decks are played exclusively by the AI for you against real players.

** It will also draws using the [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Golden_Hourglass Golden Hourglasses]] like crazy, often decking itself out in the process.

** If a deck has Quintessence and Dune Scorpions in it, the AI may grant the scorpion immortality before increasing its attack, robbing themselves of a very dangerous creature.
* AttackBackfire: One popular strategy for players with a Deck consisting of death cards is to use [[http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/Aflatoxin Aflatoxin]] to turn an opponent's creature into a Malignant Cell, allow it to duplicate itself until it fills the player's deck, then kill them all using Plague or Thunderstorm, and gain an army of skeletons using a Boneyard. The problem is that many shields block 1 or more damage from each enemy creature, and skeletons only do one damage, so each can end up being unable to hurt their opponent. To make things worse, players with Otyughs or Scarabs will now be able to greatly buff their attack, and Empathic bonds will allow the player to heal almost completely thanks to the Malignant Cells.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Some of the combos, while awesome in theory, could be quite hard to pull.

** Gravity's dragon has insane amounts of hit points, making it hard to kill, but also makes it one of the more expensive dragons, and it is even countered by Gravity's own elemental shield. This literally can happen if a user has a weight shield up and buffs the opponent's creatures to make them too large to hit.

** Each deck also has strength and weakness. There's no "best deck".
* ConfusionFu: Any deck relying on the Entropy element. Many cards have random effects, such as Fallen Elf/Fallen Druid, Mutation/Improved Mutation, and Pandemonium. By the end of any high level entropy deck match you will generally be wondering what just happened even if you win. That said, Entropy decks also have a chance of netting you a quick and doubtless win or might give you sub-optimal setups, but upgraded cards will make it more likely that the random effects benefit you. The question then becomes what kind of benefits you receive.

* ArtificialStupidity: While the AI is mostly competent, every once in a while, it will make some rather boneheaded moves. In particular, the AI doesn't seem to be able to realize that, "Hey, I've already got a weapon/shield, maybe I shouldn't play a different one."

** It will also draws using the Golden Hourglasses like crazy, often decking itself out in the process.
** There are three main uses for Armagios - using their Gravity Pull ability to turn them into human shields, using Acceleration/Overdrive to make them go from a StoneWall to a GlassCannon, or using the Catapult to fling them at your opponent. The AI has a tendency of trying to catapult them ''after'' doing one of the first two options.

* AttackBackfire: One popular strategy for players with a Deck consisting of death cards is to use "Aflotoxin" to turn an opponent's creature into a Malignant Cell, allow it to duplicate itself until it fills the player's deck, then kill them all using Plague or Thunderstorm, and gain an army of skeletons using a Boneyard. The problem is that many shields block 1 or more damage from each enemy creature, and skeletons only do one damage, so each can end up being unable to hurt their opponent. To make things worse, players with Otyughs or Scarabs will now be able to greatly buff their attack, and Empathic bonds will allow the player to heal almost completely thanks to the Malignant Cells.

* BoringButPractical: Dimensional Shield [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin blocks all attacks for 3 turns]]. It also happens to be one of the most annoying cards in the game to face.

* '''Time:''' [[TimeMaster A Time elemental]] have control over the order of the events, he can slow down his opponent, reverse his actions, or hasten himself.

** Also, it likes to bury immortal creatures, as if gaining the meaningless defense bonus was worth halfing the creature's attack.

** If a deck has Quintessence and Dune Scorpions in it, the AI may grant the scorpion immortality before increasing it's attack, robbing themselves of a very dangerous creature.
* AttackBackfire: One popular strategy for players with a Deck consisting of death cards is to use "Aflotoxin" to turn an opponent's creature into a malignant cell, allow it to duplicate itself until it fills the player's deck, then kill them all using Plague or Thunderstorm and gain an army of skeletons using a Boneyard. The problem is that many shields block 1 or more damage from each enemy creature, and skeletons only do one damage, so each can end up being unable to hurt their opponent. To make things worse, players with Otyughs or Scarabs will now be able to greatly buff their attack, and empathic bonds will allow the player to heal almost completely thanks to the Malignant Cells.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Some of the combo, while awesome in theory, could be quite hard to pull.

* CompetitiveBalance: Each element has it's strengths and weaknesses.

* ConfusionFu: Any primarily entropic deck. Fallen elves/druids, mutation/improvement, random effects on the creatures. by the end of any high level entropy deck match you will generally be wondering what just happened even if you win. That said, entropic decks also have a chance of netting you a quick and doubtless win or might give you sub-optimal setups, but upgraded cards will all push the randomness to a positive to be more likely to benefit, and then the question is what kind of benefits.
** Another one which is more contained but powerful is fallen druid's improve with an army of [[{{Mooks}} fodder]]. Improve will always give you a creature with higher than base status, give it a random activation ability, and it will keep any innate abilities (such as voodoo doll). The setup is shaky at best, a simple counter is to just kill the druid, but if it goes wild you may end up facing an army with abilities ranging from growing in power every turn to the wholesale destruction or theft of every artifact that isn't protected by creature abilities. On the same field.

** Basilisk Blood and Auburn/Earth Nymphs can petrify a creature, which prevents it from attacking for 6 turns, but also increases it's health by a massive 20 hit points. Armagios are able to withstand more damage and act as shields for longer, Otyughs and Scarabs become able to consume almost any creature, creatures with Acceleration/Overdrive will live far longer, and anything poisoned can endure longer periods of time.
** Reverse Time essentially kills a creature and returns the card to its owner, preventing the creature from attacking and stalling it's owner - but this can also be used to cure a dying creature, or stop you from running out of cards.

** Gravity Pull makes all creatures on one side attack a specific creature on the other. This is will of course eventually kill that creature, but if the creature has particularly high health, it makes a nice human shield.
** Aflotoxin turns one creature into a malignant cell, which will keep duplicating until it fills the board - in other words, using it on yourself grants you a ZergRush of creatures.

** Liquid Shadow will poison a creature, but will also give it the ability "vampire", letting it return the damage it deals as healing.
** Adrenaline will make a creature attack multiple times per turn - but any poison damage on it, or damage from a shield, will also be taken multiple times per turn, so you can use it to make an enemy creature die faster, or you can use adrenaline and anti-matter on an enemy creature, which will force it to HEAL you multiple times.
** Any card that increases a creatures health (such as Blessing, Basilisk Blood, Plate/Heavy armor) can be used to prevent it from getting past a Gravity Shield. Likewise, intentionally weakening your own creatures with Rage Potion, Shockwave, or some other card will enable it to slip past a Gravity Shield.
** Any card that increases a creature's attack but not its defense may leave it vulnerable to the Paradox attack that Maxwell's Demon uses.

* MirrorMatch: Aside from the usual, playing against a Darkness player can sometimes resemble one, when their deck can take your weapons, shields, ''and'' the pillars to power them. Or just appropriate the defenses you included against the usual mirror match...

*** Pharaoh/scarab: The closest to the traditional rush. The more scarabs there are, the more life they have. Pharaohs summon them. Scarabs also have devour, allowing any creature with higher life to instantly destroy a monster and gain a stat boost. If it gets out of hand, the scarabs are almost impossible to put down due to their numbers and durability, as well as clearing your field of monsters that aren't protected. Fortunately, if not fed, Scarabs on their own are rather weak, even with that life bonus.

* SchrodingersCat: An Entropy creature
** Also, Maxwell's Demon, another creature named after a thought experiment

* AttackBackfire: One popular strategy for players with a Deck consisting of death cards is to use "Aflotoxin" to turn an opponent's creature into a malignant cell, allow it to duplicate itself until it fills the player's deck, then kill them all using Plague or Thunderstorm and gain an army of skeletons using a Boneyard. The problem is that many shields block 1 or more damage from each enemy creature, and skeletons only do one damage, so each can end up being unable to hurt their opponent. To make things worse, players with Otyughs will now be able to greatly buff their attack, and empathic bonds will allow the player to heal almost completely thanks to the Malignant Cells.

** Basilisk Blood and Auburn/Earth Nymphs can petrify a creature, which prevents it from attacking for 6 turns, but also increases it's health by a massive 20 hit points. Armagios are able to withstand more damage and act as shields for longer, Otyughs become able to consume almost any creature, creatures with Acceleration/Overdrive will live far longer, and anything poisoned can endure longer periods of time.

** Presumably the same could be said with intentionally getting a malignant cell on your side of the field. It's supposed to fill up the side with borderline useless creatures. Using Otyugh or Fallen elf/druid on them simply means you get more fodder.

** Any card that increases a creature's attack but not its defense leaves it vulnerable to the Paradox attack that Maxwell's Demon uses.

* ExtremeOmnivore: The Otyugh can eat pretty much anything, from germs to dragons, provided he's buffed enough. [[ImAHumanitarian Including smaller Otyugh]].

* CursedWithAwesome: Many, many cards have this effect. Whether it's a curse or a blessing often depends on the situation.