Yea, I have great inventive deck names -_- Heres the deck, followed by strategy.

Gladiators
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Ironsides, Levels 1 and 2
Ironsides, Levels 3 and 4
Version Nine, Levels 1 and 2
Page, Levels 1 and 2
Poc Shot, Levels 1 and 2

Reinforcements
------------------
Jean Splice

War
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3x Double Team
3x Spiked Fist
3x Arm Blade
1x Gelhars Spear Lobber
1x Sunder Maul
1x Gandrels Axe
1x Assault Jumppack
3x Rocket Launcher
3x Experimental Magenta Pill
3x Adrenaline Shot
2x Exo-Skeleton
2x Kung Fu Dodge
1 Trauma Kit


Cybernetics
----------------
2x Bomb Blastic
1x Nutatal Boom-Rang
1x Arachnabots
3x Phase Blades
1x Supply Bot
1x Siphon
1x Spare Parts
3x Bombers

Bio-Tek
------------
3x Cornea Explosion
3x Festering Stink
1x Peptide Growth Hormone
2x Jagged Bones


This deck is missing alot of cards still, like multiples of alot of the pumping cards, and Version 9 levels 3 and 4 -_-. BUT, the deck still runs pretty well. Here is the general strategy.

Basically, pick any one Gladiator and pump them to INSANE levels. Get it to the point where you have a +4 or +5 damage bonus. With Ironsides at level 2, your dealing 7-8 damage a hit. Your going to want to than use your Bio-Tek cards, Cornea Explosion and Festering Stink, to make it near impossible for your opponent to protect or intercept for their best Gladiators, and blow away your biggest threats in one turn. Using Double Team, you can effectively deal alot of damage with even 1 or 2 Pump cards. Any of your gladiators become huge threats easily, and you should be dropping at LEAST one Gladiator per round. With Double Team, even bruisers like Prince of Gates drops in one shot. The only thing that can really hurt this stuff is Psi decks, or any deck witha lot of anti Pump cards. Even than you should be able to drop enough Pumps to make it not matter.

I have a deck very uch similar to this,but I must recommend replacing Ironsides with Freakshow,therefor you get mystic for some healing.Since your glads are gonna be taking some heavy heat,from your opponent.Oh and watch out minion swarm,since that would put a kink in your plans.

I only have level 1 and 2 of Freakshow currently, so this works slightly better. Minions cannot intercept or protect, so they do not stop me from killing off key Gladiators, but I do see what you mean in the way that they will overwhelm me easily since I have no answers to them. I could run some Bio-Tek Minion control in here, as they have alot of answers, and I know War has a decent one as well.

I have been working on lists for decks out of cards I do not own, but I do not want to post them until I know it works, which can only be done by playtesting with them. The final version of this deck actually drops Cybernetics in favor of Mystic, to get some powerful healing, and to make use of Support, which can allow my Pumped Gladiator to attack more than once.

Actually, Royal Guards and Gravel Spirits are the current minions that can intercept. If you are playing a Portal Deck or a mystic deck, or even one that plays both, you will have to worry about those minions.

Also, you would really have to worry about a psi/mystic deck. The amount of pump removals and special ability cards that they have can play havoc on your deck. Inner demons, Alter Ego, Mistaken Identity, Confused Alliance, Weakened Thought, and Combat Mind Trace along with the healing from mystic would drive your deck crazy.

The problem I have found with pump them up big decks is that they cost alot to maintain. To help mitigate that cost, you may want to add in energy collectors and possibly nano-mites. They are cheap to maintain and it can get you back some vital CP to use during the wave as compared to using it all to maintain.

I had some other ideas, but I am at work and the darn phone keeps interupting me. So I'll get back to ya if I can think of any other suggestions I had.

Yes, very true on the Minions that can intercept, but again, I have Festering Stink, which I merely play on my opponents card I wish to attack, and no one can Intercept for him. Cornea Explosion is used for if they have a single Gladiator unset in order to Protect someone. Those two cards help make sure I get to my target.

I do imagine Psi and Mystic decks would be incredibly painful actually. Than again, when you look at most games, you have the extremely offensive deck design, and than the reactive control deck which usually is great at beating it. There seem to be so many ways to go in this game, I love thinking of different ideas. I just wish more people by me played it.

As for Energy Collector...its ok, but something stands out to me...Energy Collector costs 2 to play...than 1 to activate to gain 3...the turn you play it, you gain no CP for the turn effectively, and you get a set minion who cannot deal damage. So for the turn you play it, you gain a net advantage of -1 card that you true, and you lose flow to play it. Now, the next turn, it has a one CP maintence...and costs one to set. So your gaining a net one CP that turn. So in order to gain ANY advantage off of the card, you need to keep it in play for an extra wave. This makes it incredibly iffy to use. Flame Spirit, on the other hand, does suffer from the same issue a bit, as it needs to remain in play an extra wave to really show off its ability, but it can deald amage, and costs health, not CP, to gain CP, which leaves you at an advantage.

I am less afraid of Portal and Mystic as I am of a good Psi deck, which if done properly has a good chance at eating this deck alive in all seriousness. My experience in TCGs has shown me though, that no deck can beat every deck consistantly. Decks usually have a weakness. This deck seems to me like it would compete well with most types of decks. Of course, in this incompleted version, Im sure it is less than competitive, but once I get all the cards I need, it only gets better.

Festering stink is'nt exactly the best card to use if you don't want your opponent to intercept.Since you would haft to time it to where msot if not all his glads/minions were set before you played it.Otherwise once you played that and your opponent's glads are'nt set,you would also be in a world of pain,as well as your opponent.PLus if you pump one of your glads up to where hes doin six admg a flow,and they play inner demons on you,you just possibly lost the match.But you also haft to look at the good,Six admg a flow is'nt exactly pandu.So I think the deck is pretty good.It needs a few cards (But whos deck does'nt) and after you have some more matches you'll know what you want in it,and why you want it in there.Besides people over the internet,can only rate the deck from how it looks,not the way you play it tho.Iam not sure if that made sense,but if you play ti right it could be a winner.


So good luck!

Okay, I think I am able to type for a little bit, so let me try to ask a couple of questions.

Okay, to play Cornea Explosion you need to get either Pago or Poc Shot to level two. When do you plan on doing this? It will make a big difference on what cards you are able to play and when. For example, if you level up Pago at the end of the first wave, you will not be able to play arm blades, Helhars spear lober, exo-skeleton, and kung fu dodge until the third wave, Gandrels Axe until the fourth wave, and never play your Assault Jump Pack. Or you can wait until the end of the third wave to level up Pago, but you won't be able to Cornea explode until then. Plus you won't be able to play your level three war until the fourth wave, etc....

So, if you are set on playing cornea explosion, I would take out any level 4 war cards you have future plans on putting in. I would also make my level three card plans as if I can only play them in the last wave and load up on more level 1 and 2 cards. Also keep in mind that Cornea explosion is expensive to play at 4 cp, especially if you are upkeeping a weapons or having to play new ones that were lost in the previous wave. It is an awsome card, but it is only good for the wave and if you need it for the next wave, it is another 4 cp.

Also, when you talked about energy collectors only being good for the money, you forgot that you can, if you want, put pumps on them and then use them to attack. It isn't the best use of pumps, but if your opponent doesn't expect it and their gladiators are set or unprotected, it will give you another attacker. I only mentioned energy collectors to gain cp as you cannot get a flame spirit with the gladiator team you are playing.

Portal decks will mess with you more than you think if they are playing P.K. If you attack anyone other than P.K., opponent pays two and your attack cannot be modified by weapons. So all your pumps would be put to waste unless you attack P.K., but then we start getting into all the what ifs that do no good on message boards.

Other than that, your deck is very solid for what it does. Just decide on what order you plan on doing things, and tune your deck from there.

Okay, so I head downstairs to get the mail when it dawns on me that Pago is also a war gladiator. So forget about some of the things I said about the level 2 cards, but not about the rest. Take out any level 4 cards and put in level three cards under the assumption they will not come out until the fourth wave.

Also, this means that you really need to protect Pago until the third wave. Since he is what is going to help you bring out the more powerful level 2 War cards, you need to make him last until then or until you get your level 2 cards out during the second wave.

Your deck is really good. Just tune it up and have fun slaughtering the opponents.

Actually, I agree 100% on the Cornea explosions. I will drop them as I get more cards.

And Oh Yeah, P.K. is insane. I used it against my friends War deck and he hated me.

Also..yo say that What Ifs are not good online...I beg to differ. Id rather get into discussions about all the possibilities, as I dont think anyone is a master at this game yet, and the more detailed we get into discussions, the better, as long as people dont get into stuff like " Well if my deck gets this going, YOU CANT WIN! " When used in constructive comments, some of the best fixes can result. You need to anticipate every move, and personally, I am too new to the game to know what to expect. I think I can come up with some good offensive ideas, but when it comes to what opponents can respond with, I am too much of a novice to know currently.

As long as I know that is your thought behind it, I will gladly ingage in a what if situation with you any time. I was more worried about you thinking I was trying to start a flame war or any thing to that effect.

So, here goes my thoughts on what if with P.K. He hurts any massive pump deck because of his ability. The best thing to do is to take him down early and hard. But your opponent knows this. So, he is most likely going to spend all his time in the back row. You can attack him, but it can be protected or intercepted. You do have Festering stink, but that only stops intercepting, not protecting. Timing the attack on P.K. with a gladiator will be one of the hardest things to do in this situation.

So, you need to use any type of xdmg cards you can on him. Your rocket launcher, natatul boomarang, and bombers are all good choices. When you attack with a gladiator, you need to make sure you are using a gladiator that has phase blades. That way, you will still get some damage on him. The more damage the better since he only has 6 life.

Finally, there are a couple more (I can't think of them off hand) of war cards that can do xdmg to opponents. Add them to your deck. Xdmg is the most effective way to do the damage you want on who you want. This will help greatly with the P.K. situation you can come across against portal decks.

I know all about flame wars, and its great that you tried not to start one. Ive been doing TCG Message board stuff since 1999 with Pokemon. Ive also been the webmaster on the best competitive site for that game in the past 2 years. ( Yes, the game is still going, and all the decks that won at Gen Con and Origins this summer were created there )

Unfortunately, my knowledge in Ophidian is dwarfed compared to Pokemon -_- I do think that using Xdmg cards would work vs him...but what about this sort of strategy...

You can attack P.K. with your other Gladiators. If they intercept your other gladiators, they get set. Therefore you can either let them set all their gladiators intercepting your attacks and attack with your pumped guy last, which stops them from really going offensive with gladiators. BUT, seeing how they would likely run Portal, that idea of blocking their offensive is ineffective really. It still wears them down for your attacks to get through. Also, it says that when I declare an attack vs anything but PK you can use it...I am 99% sure that means if I declare an attack on PK and they intercept or protect, they still cannot reduce my damage and their stronger gladiator takes full damage.

Another answer I have to Portal decks would be Bombers...takes out a LOT of Minions...still, some of the higher level Portal stuff can survive bombers...I wish I had more people to playtest against, as its hard to do all this in theory :P Also...Im going to post my UPGRADED War deck ( which has any cards created in it...so no, I dont own it yet )

Well, you can attack P.K. with all of your gladiators, but if he is in the back with all three of his glads up front, they can protect him without setting and now you are facing three unset gladiators against your set glads. Counting on how they took the attack, they could all be hurting a little, one alot, or whatever. In order to get the most out of this strategy, you need to make sure that all your glads have some kind of pump on them to deal good damage. Otherwise, they might not protect P.K. against one or two damage just to be sure that your glads are set and able to be attacked by the minion swarm and their gladiators.

You are right in your assessment that if you declare your attack against P.K. and they protect or intercept that you can still do your full pump damage against that gladiator. However, with your set up I would make sure I was using phase blades during those attempts. That way you can be sure to still do damage to both P.K. and the target that protected or intercepted.

Also keep in mind while playing a portal deck, especially if they have Prince, that you will probably see Royal Guards starting in the second wave. That added protection will help save a gladiator from taking massive damage. After all, they are only a minion.

Also, bombers do a great job of stoping most 1st level minions. However, there are some that do have two life. So watch out for those. Also, once the second wave starts, you start seeing the two damage minions. My favorite being bone beasts. Also watch out for portal transport from a portal deck. They may use it just to get their minions to the front so they don't have to worry about the bombers.

I agree. Theory sucks. I have people to play against, but I can't get my schedule to coincide with theirs because of work. So, I spend alot of time theorizing and little time actually playing.

Those are all good points. Another option, although highly unpractical, is to run them out of CP to use the ability. I would never count on it though.

100% right on not setting if protecting and how that hurts. BUT, that also means they cannot really attack you in fear of leaving themselves open. Lets say they have Prince of Gates ( my favorite card in the game, HANDS DOWN ), Mannequin, PK and Little Jinx. PK is in the support zone. Personally, even though PK is a harassing little #####, I would still love to take any of the others down in place of the low VP inoffensive PK. In the long run, taking out any of the other gladiators is more effective and reduces the threat to you. Especially if you do it every turn. Royal Guards, on the other hand, will be an EXTREME pain.

Do you know if they have an Apprentice Patch for Ophidian yet? For those who do not know what Apprentice is, it is a computer program originally made for Magic but later adapted to other games ( I used it for Pokemon ) so you can play online against people. Its a free download too. That would solve SO many problems if you ask me...

my deck currently runs 3 royal guards, 3 iron monsters, and pk
:cool:

I normally start jinx in the support field, with pk, princ eof gates and the fallen one in the action. Then I use presence to get iron monster or zwazaw,or senet if I don't have either pump removal , enough cost effective minions, or an iron moster in my hand, normally against massive pumps I play zwazaw to start negating any first pumps they might have thought of playing, and normally forcing them to go for pk, however he is fairly heavly protected, once I drop an iron monster my following turn, it starts gettign interestingyou want to attack iron monster but I could set pk or jinx , to intercept you will normally do this with pago/poc shot, either you end of giving me free cheer since pk is not the first target I pay two cp to reduce the modified weapons if any and then take -1 because of iron monster. Believe me it really becomes a pain when the following wave I start dropping royal guards and more cost effective minions :) I feel fairly confident against any war/pump deck, the bombers do seem interesting though, it would eb a fun match up :)

Oh yeah...thats a very good deck you use ( Portal ). Portal is my first love, and Prince of Gates is my idol :P The bombers are very effective but often Minion swarms can be too strong. I have no fought many minion decks with this, but i fought my friends deck like this with my minions before. Royal Guards can be very very cheap, yet beautiful, and Iron Monster is so amazing. I love it.