defense decks organization

I am now using Ogre spam.

Dracorex, 6x Ogre, Gorivore, 2x Asylum, Blood Wall

ikkyu88 wrote:

New def deck running:
Emanuel, Pantheon Progeny, Sundering Ogre X2, Utopia Beacon, Patrol Cruiser X2, Sustained Wall, Pantheon, Gatling Tower, Unstable Dynamo

Seems to be working fine.

This is a pretty minor point, and I really don't mean to call you out, but this seems to be increasingly popular (there was a deeply flawed thread about this on public forum) so I think it's worth addressing.

Wall cards are not good with Emanual on defense. The whole point of using Emanual is that he can take damage every turn without being hurt. Walls erase this advantage. The ONLY time a wall would be useful with Emanual is if the other side would have done 8 damage and killed him, and getting an extra turn will make a difference. So when you play a wall with Emanual, it is a totally dead card (besides abilities) until your opponent does 8 damage in a turn. If they kill the wall before they would have done 8 damage in a turn to your commander, the card is totally wasted.

To summarize, it is very unlikely the card will randomly be played at a time when a) your opponent is about to do 8 damage to your commander AND b) getting an extra turn will win you the match. Without these two conditions being met the card is wasted, and these two conditions are too rare for it to be worth a spot in your deck. Another card like Gatling or Silo or Beacon that survives longer while decreasing your opponent's ability to do 8 damage in a turn is pretty much always going to be better.

Actually the sustained wall card with the ogres gives it one to two more turns come out, its more used as a round stall then anything to get the big hitters out, especially when dealing with fear decks... There were some wars where the attack decks were more fear then anything...

Its moot now since I switched cards anyways...

we still dont have many members posted here. this is important, please write your deck possibilities here

i currently do have a trident spam with freddie, but i can switch to strike, fear, or nearly anything you mentioned above.

aapje666 switch between dalia + 8 path + full power + relinquish power and draco + 5 ogres + raz heir + gorivore +ravenous dredge+ 2 asylums

sometimes also my surge deck - atlas + niaq + tiamat + predator + omega + dozer + hierophant + patrol cruiser + ravenous dredge + 2 emp

i still dont have a lot of members here. please write your def possibilities

I can make strike, pathrazers, and ogres. My SC spam would still be a bit weak.

I can build Strike, SC spam, Fear/Pathrazer, Ogre, various cheap spams (Trident, Hatchet, Brawler).

My current defense deck is
Draco+7 Sundering Ogre+ Ravenous Dredge + 2 Asylum.

I have access to all non-WB stuff non-homeworld stuff (Carriers, Azure, Apollo, etc...)
Before HW, I was using Carrier Spam (Draco+Apollo+Niaq+Elemental+Gorivore+2 Azure + 4 Carrier).
I could go back to that if that's a hole in our defense and we have too many Ogre, otherwise, I'm going to work on improving my Ogre spam.

my def deck
Emanuel - Holy Beacon, Utopia Beacon *2, Command Center, Missile Silo
Acropolis, Gatling Tower *3,Bridge of Destiny

atm I have set [LtW] (Fighter Jet, Hunter, Monsoon X, Niaq, Omega, Pathfinder, Predator, Psycho, Teslatank, Tiamat)

I have 5 Ogres, Azures, Hatchets, Skimmers, Salvagers & SC each...

updated first post

Since I never seem to be on at the same time as kfsw, I will state here that I will run the Skimmer defense with Thadius

Leader: Emanuel

Legendary: Apollo

Assault: 2x SC
Pantheon Progeny
Utopia Beacon

Structure: 2x Gatling Tower
Missile Silo
Acropolis
Bridge of Destiny

imo we should start talking about rhino-def-decks...

I could put up [Empress] (3x Rhino, 3x SC, 3x Vigil, BoD) or [Empress] (Guerilla, 3x Rhino, 4x SC, Acropolis, BoD)

bambam91 wrote:

imo we should start talking about rhino-def-decks...

I could put up [Empress] (3x Rhino, 3x SC, 3x Vigil, BoD)

good idea. build it. anyone else for rhinodeck?

bambam91 wrote:

imo we should start talking about rhino-def-decks...

I could put up [Empress] (3x Rhino, 3x SC, 3x Vigil, BoD)

I just ran this through my surge gauntlet...

loses badly to SC (2 decks tested, 72% and 85% surge)
loses to fear (GS, pathrazer both ~65%)
close to a wash versus skimmers (37%-58%, but numbers would increase with manual)
beats ogres (20%-42%, but prolly closer to 35%-65% on manual)
beats strike (10%-40%, but again would see big boost with manual)

I haven't tested enough defensive decks with this methodology to know exactly how this all stacks up, but my guess is this puts it a bit below the level of decks we want to include in our defense.

For comparison, I just did the same test (although slightly less thorough) with Tabitha,Abominable Raksha,Wasteland Skimmer(7),Rox Chainblade,Executioner (my current defense).

beats SC badly (2 decks tested, ~5% and ~10%)
beats fear badly (GS and Pathrazer both below 10%)
beats other skimmers badly (again around 5-10%)
beats ogres (15-25%, would be higher on manual)
close to a wash against strikes (20-45% but would be a lot higher on manual and my strike decks are flawed)

Obviously this analysis is far from perfect as the true win rate I have experienced with this deck on defense is much closer to ~40%. Also, there are surge decks I did not test such as structures and mimic that perform much better against Skimmers than Rhinos. Still, I think the five deck types I tested are among the most popular and that this comparison holds some value.