PerverseSuffering wrote:Are decks of Wonders useless, then? Decks of Destruction have proven themselves useful indeed, too, if not used outright point blank.
Nah, they're awesome. But dangerous.
Potion: can cause Confusion or Degenration, and at higher power level mutation or cure mutation( which is annoying if you had been using high level Helix to get good ones)
Helix: at base level, as many bad mutations as good ones so this is like eating an ugly thing, this is dangerous! At higher level will be heavily weighted toward removing "bad" mutations and adding "good" ones. Although it can give you a good mutation that raises one stat you don't use at the expense of another one you were relying on, for example, so it's not completely safe even when it works.
Alchemist: mostly harmless, will waste a bit of gold (for a heal you probably didn't need).
Wild Magic: bad mojo, creates a miscast effect. The more powerful the deck, the more deadly the miscast. Can instantly kill a character at the highest level.
Sage: mostly harmless, it will divert XP to a specific skill, creating bonus XPs in the process. If it's a skill you have no use for, it'll waste a little bit, but you should be able to wait until it expires.
Focus: can kill you if you have a stat at 1, otherwise mostly useful. Except if one of your stats is too low, in that case you'll have to spend your level up bonus attribute to enhance the weak one rather than the strong one. Can become really bad if you draw too many of those as there's no real way to reverse the effect other than canceling out by using your limited free attribute points.
Shuffle: will move your stats around, so if you were relying on a specific repartition it can ruin you. It can be really good on a fighter who can now switch to sorcery, and races with overall good attributes everywhere are less likely to be terminally screwed over. Doesn't appear in Plain decks.
Experience : pure win, free levels. It's the one you always want.
With a mere plain deck, you can spam it relatively safely. If you start getting too many Focus cards, you cans top before it gets out of hand. If you draw potion it won't have lasting bad effect or kill you outright (because of course you aren't using it in combat), sage can give bonus XP if drawn on the right skill and can be ignored otherwise. Experience is still very potent and can make you gain multiple levels instantly. The only problem is Helix, but since it gives mutations 1 by 1 and the next Helix card has 67% chance of removing the mutation you just got, it's not too problematic. Not to mention you'll be able to correct it "safely" with high power helix cards later.
If the deck is more powerful, you need to triple draw or stack it. Too many cards are death sentence for your character and even the more benign cards like Potion have a good chance of wiping out your mutation set or messing it up with Potions of (Cure) Mutation. Triple Draw can let you benefit from more than a couple cards, unlike Stacking which will waste most of the cards, but if you end up with "Wild Magic, Shuffle, Wild Magic" ...
greepish wrote:Decks of escape are your stack decks. Stack for warp/portal/tomb. Drop plain ones (I dunno, some people probably burn through em, but I don't like the thought of drawing damnation).
You can't draw Damnation from a plain deck, it's Ornate-Legendary only (and very rare in Ornate decks).
Also, I wouldn't Stack an Escape deck, as most of the cards inside are really good, simply situational.
Escape is one type of deck you do NOT want to spam, because half the cards inside can kill you.
Portal: like a Teleport scroll, can save you or drop you into a deadly situation
Warp: Blink, ergo similar problems (albeit significantly reduced)
Swap: normally the escape is behind you, and the monster is in front of you, with the unexplored area behind, so swapping will cut you off from the safe area while throwing you in the dangerous one. Not to mention that if you need to escape because the opponents are becoming to numerous, Swap will most likely send you in the middle of their group to be tore to pieces
Tomb: burying yourself is a very effective way to kill yourself if you don't have Teleport or Digging yet.
Flight: while turning into a spider/bat will give you more speed to escape, it will also meld your armor. If you weren't in a situation that is trivialized by superior speed (like being cornered or trap both ways in a corridor, or against an even faster opponent), this can easily be the death of your MDFi...
Damnation: self-abyssing can save your life, but more often than not will end it.
(And unlike Wonders/Dungeon/Summoning, many cards inside will fail if used without a monster in sight, which will disappoint Nemelex)
But all the cards inside can easily save your life when used in the right situation. As long as you can dig yourself out, Tomb will give you the time needed to recover, and then move back to safety, the warpwright provides instant teleport, and Portal/Warp both work like classical escape tools. Velocity and Flight will increase your move speed which will save you in many situations where running is an option. As long as there are a lot of monsters, Banishment is pretty safe, and in that situation the Banshee can be an instant win button by scattering all the opponents at once (if they are susceptible, which is more common in the beginning of the game). When surrounded Solitude is similarly a good way to deal with the opposition provided they don't have a MR that's too high, and it's completely safe to use too!
Triple-Drawing will let you chose the card that is right for the situation you're in, without wasting too many cards. Stacking is nice, but what if you are in a mostly unexplored level and your Portal Card is covering your Velocity one which would have let you easily retreated to the stairs? Stacking doesn't let you choose the right tool for the job when you need it, it lets you know when you'll draw what and make sure you don't draw bad cards.
Saturday, 3rd December 2011, 20:34 
