MArcomage

@ dimitris: Have it in there.

@ Lord: I disagree. Typically Holy is gem-based, which is what the Undead need as well. While I don't disagree that Holy can provide stock, so does Soul sacrifice, Crypt, Crypt sentry, and Vampire countess. The same is true for Alliance.

True, the modified and new undead cards provide quite a lot of resources now. However Holy contains a lot more cards that can help. I'm not suggesting to use it as main keyword but rather as supporting. Angel, Fairy, Benediction, Gift from Heavens, Cathedral and Alastor are more potent than any other Undead resource gaining card. Also Knight Templar followed by Vampire is a killer combination. And with the cards I mention I'm usually able to play Undead Host, Spectral Dragon, Vampire Lord or even Undead Cavalry in a matter of a few turns. Once or twice I managed to get Assasin with Undead Host :P

I didn't use Alliance as my supporting keywords, since Alliance cards provide more recruits usually than gems. The bright side about Alliance is that you can mount up your defences. However, with Holy you can do the same using Divine Intervention and Crystal Golem.

Ok, let's build togheter a perfect direct tower damage deck, so we can see if it's really owerpowered.
this is my first try: http://yfrog.com/jmtowertdj
Plaese suggest cards to add (and remove) to make this deck the most perfect possible.

You also need to put some stock+ cards.
White lady I think is good for these situations (you bet that you'll always have more tower than your enemy). Also you could remove some of the Wall+ cards and put Waterfall and Oasis.

These are from my experience playing against these sort of decks. I've never had one, in fact I had but it was a complete failure :P

Also a magic card for -Tower decks, though a little bit expensive, is Sandworm. It's perfect counter for Lookout Towers, Citadel Towers and the like :)

wall+ cards are useful with elven archer and dark pegasus so I don't want to remove them.
but, after a few games, I see that it needs recruits+ cards. what could I add? siege preparation or colonialism? and wich card should I remove?

about white lady I think it gives low stock. and sand worm it's really expansive, but with more stock cards could work well. maybe I'll try

Fair Trade is almost necessary. You're almost guaranteed to be the one with lower stock and with expensive cards already in hand. The hope, of course, is to eliminate the tower before the increased Facilities benefits your opponent.

Ninja should be there as well. Losing production in most situations may seem like a bad idea, but removing things from your hand and using Far sight to gain 9 wall or 6 tower while taking 3 tower from your opponent, all possible while your stock has been destroyed, can prove essential.

I took Stone Gargoyle out of mine long ago. For that many bricks, you're better off using Common build cards or saving them for an Uncommon. You might consider Strive for height or Sea serpent in its place.

Fair trade and ninja are good ideas.
Please tell me also wich uncommon cards I should remove. or give me more uncommon slots.

I would remove Citadel. Whereas it does refund a lot of stock, you're likely to be prevented from playing it and end up accumulating a hand full of bricks-cost cards in the mean time.

Not sure of Paladin. You'll have to tell me how useful it's proving to be.

yep, i didn't use citadel too much.
paladin works great against rare durable tower+ cards (and work in progress), and also it's good with dark pegasus.

what about javeliner instead of stone gargoyle?

Oh, yeah. I have Javeliner. Its damage is small, but for its cost, you might find yourself using it just for Far sight once in a while. It's also good for Gentle Touch.

Seems noone wants to discuss how to make good overall good balanced deck.
Macromage is all about making good synergied decks. Add 1 or 2 wrong cards not useful cards in deck and your deck can go from really good to bad.

So far after few years away i have created really good overall longgame mode deck what i call:

Orc regiment deck:
Deck strategie is to build recruit count fast as possible. I have gotten 60 recruits on 13 turns many times. Same time adding deck most effective wall build cards to save time. What make this deck work is wish and second chance where u play best income cards and uncommons and discard hand to recive new uncommons and effective wall cards. I keep only 3 biggest damage attack cards from uncommon and all high cost damage cards from rares. Add best defence wall of glas, white order for incase and u ready to rumble.

currently i have near 2:1 win ratio with that deck.

and here is my link to orc regiment deck. Feel free to discuss
http://www.sendspace.com/file/e0m7vd

I'd make the following changes:
- remove Greed is good and replace it with Paladin, Lancer or Monster slayer
- remove Merchant and replace it with Breeze or Magic spring
- remove one of Devil or Ether dragon and replace it with Avenging angel

I disagree greed is has proven to be very useful card in my deck. Since i rarelly are behind with resources in game unless vs brigand it helps alot then drawed on 45 recruits etc. But i like idea having one banish uncommon ..i was thinking changing treant for ent softeining wall for low cost to finish with orc regiments.

Also merchant versility has proven most useful then picked early game or in middle game to get enough gems or bricks recruits to play fairy dragon, cathedral, treacherous artifact etc

improved version of orc regiment deck
http://www.sendspace.com/file/owgixx
better rare choise

To test my hypothesis that Illusion-based decks are underpowered, would you guys mind helping make the "perfect" Illusion deck? Does anyone even have one anymore?

I'm currently trying out an Unliving-Illusion deck, and I'll post some results when I get an adequate result.

If somone missing good undead deck then here is mine.
About deck:

What u want is to draw hand of full undeads so there is not much room for non undead commons in hand. Except imp chace great to convert beginning in game bricks to gems. Barbarian can changed for something else but i think 2 recruits for 7 damage is damn effective since u get 2 stock back. I tried something else then merchant but merchant is most realible to choose between recruits or gem gain. Your bricks are left most effective defence cards in uncommon. + one offencive card reserve forces what is good finisher or defence depending on game.

Your best friends are vampire countess and crypt what can game very short to gain needed resources for undead host. Only card what i would maybe change is fallen knight to lich but mostly i play vs hidden cards and with no farsights its not useful to hold lich in hand. About rares yeah there can change some to drop prince of thieves but overall i am happy with choise.

so here is the link http://www.sendspace.com/file/l1jqqk

jbryant3 wrote:
To test my hypothesis that Illusion-based decks are underpowered, would you guys mind helping make the "perfect" Illusion deck? Does anyone even have one anymore?

I'm currently trying out an Unliving-Illusion deck, and I'll post some results when I get an adequate result.

My illusion deck is only for fun and its statistics are quite bad (9 wins, 22 losses). here it is.
The first thing to think is about rares. Is it better having good rares easy to get using dream shift and veteran militia, or having bad ones so you could use confusion without regrets?
Then you need lot of gems, so cards like meditation and sacrifice are good. It's good also to have some common mages to use meditation bonus and rise magic using tokens. And a game with illusion could be quite long, so it's better have some magic+ cards. I like using mentor to boost Seiryu strenght, but there is always the confusion problem.

Illusion deck

It does not have very good statistics, only about 50% or less win rate and I haven't been playing it for some time. Illusion is a secondary keyword so you can't expect it to be your main force. I believe Unliving/Illusion is a the best combination, mainly because of the power of Unliving. Nature/Illusion is an interesting combo also but you need massive stock+ and gems+ cards.