Post by Sathron on Apr 25, 2012 16:15:27 GMT -5
A lot of times you will see decks posted that require lots of rares or exclusives, but it's actually not necessary to use any rares or exclusives to win a tournament. I have made a few good decks on an alternate account using only starter deck cards, common cards, and promotional cards. However, this thread is not to share those decks, but to say that my playing of those starter + promotional card decks was informed by having played many different varieties of decks in TCG and knowing how they work and what their weaknesses might be.
Now new types of decks are always being created, but I'm going to list the deck varieties I am aware of here, so you can learn to be familiar with them. Anyone who can think of any major deck types I have missed are also welcome to list additions in a reply, and I will make edits from time to time to include any additional deck types that others suggest. Once you are familiar with the different styles of decks, you will play better with all of your decks.
Nature starter - although it probably goes without saying, you run into a lot of variations on the nature starter. The key with the nature starter is don't leave any columns open where the opponent has scored three or more cards, and try to take an offensive strategy, except where blocking mushroom giant warlords, or in early game, changeling sentry. Avoid blocking Arctic Frostfang unless you have Spin Attack in hand, as your opponent will generally keep Arctic Frostfang ready to help save attacking allies, whereas if you don't block it, they will usually hunt with it before attacking.
Machine starter - the other major deck you run into variations of, the machine starter has a couple of naturally strong low cost creatures, which basically equate to a 4 attack / 4 defense with powerups, and tricks to boost. One weakness is the dwarven digger, which actually doesn't normally get its double green flip in the standard starter; however, it is often better to block it so that your opponent will utilize his or her offensive tricks earlier rather than later. The other weakness is the Apprentice Smith, which is pretty weak without tricks to boost, the main ones being Hammer Strike and Going Nuts. Kart Driver can be problematic for a chaos deck with ability to continue attacking in adjacent columns, however if you can mount a defense, even as simple as using an Onion Breath, you can sometimes win the battle. One caution - be careful in assuming something is a machine starter, because there are some very well designed dwarf decks that in early turns look like a machine starter.
Newbie creature deck - although I haven't made a deck like this myself, I've played enough to know how they work. Basically, there is a much larger than normal percentage of creatures. This is the opponent who will always have a creature to play, often belonging to varying spheres, and on turn five and after, most of the creatures played will be heroes, often heroes that are out of their normal context like Bry or Shifty the Shuffler without necessarily chaos allies. Often this type of deck will utilize creatures such as Ninja Fairy Companion or Wolf Companion to allow allies to score extra cards, and sometimes it will utilize Eagle Courier Companion to boost attack rates all around. The strategy of this type deck is to get creatures out quickly to hunt and battle and overwhelm your opponent, counting on luck to beat even the most experienced players. The weakness of this type of deck is that the flip rate is low and often not the gem the creature is designed to work with, which means even though tricks such as Rain of Arrows may be utilized, a well-designed deck can often prevail in typical battles. To defeat this type of deck, you have to slow it down long enough for your deck to start working, using resources or tricks to destroy creatures or using various methods to stun creatures. Also, new characters tend to use their tricks early and often until they run out, even when tricks are unneeded (like when they are already winning by 4 or more before the flip), and sometimes they will waste more combat tricks if you use non-combat tricks, like a trick to draw a card, stun their creature, or turn over a resource. Since spheres are often mixed, unlike a normal deck where there is a 80%+ chance of a creature getting a powerup, their creatures will probably only get powerups 50% of the time, so if you see a changeling sentry and a dwarven digger side by side, you might try an attack when you normally wouldn't.
Giant Toad decks - there are of course different varieties of Giant Toad decks, but generally, they are nature decks with low cost animals that can be chased on turn four or after, and have plenty of yellow gems to stun your opponent with. These decks tend towards stunning, and have limited offensive capabilities, so the strategy is to stun and hunt. There are not always clear vulnerabilities to this type of deck, but one thing you can do is make sure to attack or destroy any animals in play, especially right before your opponent's fourth turn, so that your opponent does not have any easy creatures to be chased with a Giant Toad. It also helps to be able to stun allies of the attacking Giant Toad so they won't be able to hunt after the toad attacks.
Chase decks - any deck that properly utilizes Giant Toad, Troll Queen, Dwarf Mining Master, or Chugawug Captain can said to be in some sense a chase deck. However, there are certain resources, tricks, and heroes which can be used to truly make an effective chase deck. Those include machine resource You Go First (which allows you to draw cards equal to the cost of the chased creature), DoD Wizard hero (which allows you to gain coins when a creature is chased) and sometimes chaos creature Robgoblin Boss who gains coins when he comes into play, chaos resource Hold 'Em Down, which allows a creature to be chased in battle, order resource A Little Help, which allows a hero to be zapped and then bring a creature from the discard pile into play (which can be used to chase the zapped hero or another ally), and finally hero Brody Sparfist who destroys an opponent scored card when chasing a machine creature. Hold 'Em Down works really well with creatures that score a card when placed (such as Mushroom Giant Boss, Shifty the Shuffler, Pixie Troublemaker with ready ally) as well as creatures that stun an opponent when placed (primarily Banshee Boss) and gives an ideal use on defense for placing a level 20 Brawler DoD where it will be ready and get the extra +4 defense. Chase decks are most effectively made using a machine / dwarf theme, and in that case, sometimes the resource Long Shot is useful also to zap a machine creature and destroy cards with it before you chase it in later turns. Chase decks are hard to stop once they really get going, but they can be pre-empted in early turns by destroying key resources and hunting quickly and destroying creatures before they can be chased.
Draw decks - although Chase decks can draw you a lot of cards, I do not by default put them in this category, although it could be thought of as a sub-category. Draw decks are particularly decks where the creatures can draw cards based on powerups, winning battles, tricks, and certain resources, or where tricks are returned after use based on crushing or using Changeling Mage to redraw them from the discard pile. Draw decks can be made in any sphere, although often a good chaos draw deck will include a fair number of nature cards and include the chaos creature Vine Wolf Companion and the chaos draws (aside from playing tricks with Vine Wolf Companion) will largely be based on creatures dying, like Angry Yeti. Order draw decks will generally utilize Sam Potts in later turns to use discards for destroying opponent creatures. Machine draw decks are able to draw as many as two or three cards based on a creature powerup alone. Draw decks are hard to stop once they get started, so the best strategy is to look for ways to destroy creatures that draw cards in indirect ways, to make sure you only start battles you can win against such creatures, and to avoid or at least delay confrontation when possible.
Readying decks - I make readying decks with the best of them. Readying decks can be made in any sphere, but tend to be done most effectively in a chaos or chaos/nature mixed deck, often involving crushing in an attack, in combination with certain tricks, resources, or Ambrose Worcester. In machine, they can be made with Steam Engineer or Kart Driver, as long as there are plenty of green gems, or alternatively with Pit Crew Foreman (an exclusive who is generally not as useful as Steam Engineer). In order, the method used is to attack with a chugawug captain or wolf companion, generally using turbo charged or sprint. And in nature, aside from mixing in chaos cards, you can also use Come Get Some and New Growth (with plants). Readying decks can be slowed with cards like Spin Attack that zap or other cards that stun, if tricks are used to ready a creature during battle. Readying decks also tend to be strongest when attacking (with the exception of Steam Engineer decks), so you either need to put up an extremely strong defense or a very strong offense to succeed against this type deck.
Steam Engineer decks - based on using zappable resources to boost all creatures attack and defense while Steam Engineer is in play, usually with a mix of resources that are zapped at the beginning of the turn, and resources that can be zapped during battle. Steam Engineer decks tend to be less effective if you kill all the creatures each turn, so that Steam Engineer can only boost himself. They are also vulnerable to effects that turn over zapped or soon to be zapped resources, as well as to multiple engagements which erode the resources as they are used, and cards that will remove the Steam Engineer himself from play, such as Extends Claws, Return to Sender, Bullseye, or certain ninjas with the right powerup. If you can't kill the Steam Engineer himself, you should avoid blocking him so he can't ready an ally for an extra scored card.
Hunting ally decks - these decks often include elements of draw decks and readying decks and include such nature creatures as Changeling Ninja, Mutated Tree Soldier, Changeling Elder, and Briarwood Tree Soldier and often the resource Treeleaf's Retreat. The key to this type deck is that unlike typical attacks where you hunt then attack, with this type deck, you do your attacks (which provide extra hunts for a ready creature or creatures based on victory or a powerup or a crush) then hunt afterwards. These type decks are vulnerable to effects that zap creatures, such as Spin Attack, or to cards like One Foot in the Grave in combination with Briarwood Ninja that tend to kill off the allies, or to very strong defensive decks which win key battles. This type deck is also vulnerable to tricks or powerups that can stun allies before they get a chance to hunt, such as with Belch, Robgoblin Swindler, Scary Chest Thump, Security Bot, Giant Toad, Royal Archer, Pixie Commander, or Blue Blast. Treeleaf's retreat is of course vulnerable to being turned over by cards like Sneakiness.
Removal (or creature destroying) decks - often made with order cards, foremost Royal Archer, sometimes with a Pixie theme (which are often high flip decks), or to a more limited degree with nature cards using Extends Claws. This type deck tends to be vulnerable to creatures with high natural defense and strong offensive capability, as well as to decks with ability to retrieve creatures from the discard pile or draw decks with a good amount of creatures. This type deck can also be slowed with tricks like Briarwood Standoff or Sprint and having methods for readying your stunned creatures.
Quick score decks - traditionally made with machine creatures, especially certain drivers that score cards based on powerup and/or crushing, and of course the exclusive Breakthrough. However, decks involving Mushroom Giant Warlord and Easy Money or Shifty the Shuffler with hunting chaos allies could also be considered to fall into this category. Creatures that can score using coins fit into this theme as well such as Ninja DoD or Crafty Man-Eating Plant. This can be a difficult deck to counter, even if your deck does a lot of stunning. Lazi can be an effective hero to counter the powerup effect or the trick Pie in the Face can also come in handy on defense (I see new characters play Pie in the Face on offense, but they don't realize they are just keeping themselves from scoring). Bullseye can be useful as well, except against Speed Demon. Snowed Under can also be used as a stop-gap, preferably with a hero in play or using the chaos trick Corruption beforehand. The hunting varieties of this type deck can be countered by keeping columns blocked, especially those with three or more scored cards. If you are working against a shifty deck, it is advised to allow shifty to live (of course either keeping him blocked with a very defensive foe or perma-zapped or stunned), particularly when playing another shifty may win your opponent the game, so that your opponent has to chase Shifty before they can play another one, which generally they won't do.
High flip decks - these decks are designed to provide a high probability of giving powerups to dangerous creatures and sometimes as decks that take advantage of crush bonuses. Although any sphere can be made into a high flip deck, it is most efficiently done in a machine deck or an order deck with a couple of key machine tricks (namely Squeaky Wheel and Turbo Charged). It is hardest to do in a pure chaos deck, but still doable High flip decks often rely on tricks that would normally be risky such as Screw Loose or Storm of Hail. High flip decks tend to be vulnerable to decks with high offensive capability or extremely high defensive capability. High flip decks are also vulnerable to bad draws and not having a lot of creatures for early turns, and so can sometimes be overwhelmed in early turns.
High reflip or flip control deck - this is actually more of a playing style than a deck design as it to a good degree depends on the player discarding high flip cards and retrieving low flip cards from the discard pile, so that there will be mainly high flip cards in the reshuffle. Cards that support such a theme include Lucky Toad Companion, Dwarf Mining Master, Discovery, Squeaky Wheel, Fast-Talk, Blacksmith Brix, Chugawug Builder, Krash Kart, Robgoblin Mage, Animal Smuggler, Rock Toss, Shuriken Toss, Changeling Mage, Gloompetal, Digging for Treasure, Alive Again, Sport Shades, Miner DoD, and, to a small degree, Captain Chugawug. This type theme also works well with a draw deck. This type theme is weakened by quickly destroying low cost creatures as they come out (which lowers the flip rate on the reshuffle) and by limiting your combat encounters (which delay the initial reshuffle).
Double gem flip decks - this is generally a version of a high flip deck that is built around a double flip of a particular color, usually red or blue, sometimes green, not generally yellow. Double red gem decks are made from order and machine cards which generally create a removal or a quick score deck. Double green gem decks are generally made from machine cards, particularly Dwarven Digger and Lucky Toad, not really from chaos which does not have compelling arguments to use double green gem, and results in a draw deck, often a dwarf deck. Double blue gem decks are made from chaos and nature cards and often result in a readying deck with elements of a draw deck. Double yellow gem decks are mainly built around order cards which either result in a removal deck ala Briarwood Ninja or a stun deck ala Pixie Commander. Nature decks utilizing double yellow gems are just a form of a draw deck.
Robgoblin junkpile decks - aka low flip decks that utilize the high flip Robgoblin Junkpile card. These decks can be considered to be a specialized version of a Draw deck. These decks get creatures out quickly, often being able to have three creatures in play on turn 2. Often they have tricks to stun opponent creatures, and occasionally an odd hero to help score cards faster, like Shifty the Shuffler, or the DoD Level 1 hero that causes allies to hunt when first played, which of course can be problematic for using the Robgoblin Junkpile resource effectively. Robgoblin junkpile decks are vulnerable to decks with strong offense or defense or ability to quickly destroy low cost creatures (as with tricks like One Foot in the Grave, especially with a Thorns to get it played earlier), as well as to stun-resistant decks. Keep in mind that not every deck that includes Robgoblin Junkpile is built to effectively utilize that card. Sometimes people just use it as a high gem card and don't actually zap the resource until turn six or later.
Chugawug and other defensive decks - this type deck, usually mostly made up of order cards, is designed to make you attack very defensive creatures so that your creatures die. Some of the creatures are used to block in early turns and/or boost defense of allies. There is limited offensive capability, with readying capacity, but generally only against certain chaos decks with creatures having low natural defense. Most of these decks are designed to do their scoring on turns 4 to 6 or after. This type deck is vulnerable mainly to tricksters, as well as to kamikaze decks that will repeatedly attack in early turns to test how well the deck is actually built to get that red gem flip needed to boost defense.
Collect decks - this deck is built around creatures that provide certain bonuses once a certain number of scored cards have been collected in their columns. This type deck is most popularly done with Gadget Maker and other machine creatures, particularly because of the ability of certain machine creatures and resources to move scored cards around, but there are creatures with various collect type bonuses in each sphere. The best counter to this type deck is to keep your opponent from scoring as much as you can (which is a good strategy in any case). This type deck can be vulnerable to trolls that move the creatures around to prevent collect bonuses. In late game, this deck can also be vulnerable to a well designed Bry deck or to utilization of Long Shot in a machine deck, as well as direct destruction of the creature with the collect bonus by various means.
Hunting decks - decks built around scoring extra points when hunting. This type deck often has methods of stunning or bypassing combat. Cards used in such a deck might include Easy Money, Mushroom Giant Warlord, Shifty the Shuffler, and Stampede among others. This type deck tends to be suspectible to stunning and quick score decks.
Attack decks - especially chaos decks with lots of early game creatures that get +3 attack with the right powerup. This type deck is vulnerable on defense, especially to Kart Driver, or to draw type decks that have enough offensive ability to keep up with killing the new creatures as they come out. Can sometimes be countered by order decks that utilize powerful defensive tricks, such as Someone Your Own Size.
Hunt prevention decks - this is a rare sort of deck which is designed to be more effective in the late game and accomplishes holding off the opponent until then by playing resources that prevent him from scoring cards or destroys a hunting creature. The main resource utilized is Stuck in a Tree. Other possible resources include Briarmelon, Sleeping on Duty, Golem Rampage, and Rock Toss. Sometimes you just have to wait out this type of deck, particularly with thet Stuck in a Tree resource, unless you have a way to turn the resource over before your creatures hunt. Briarmelon is not as much of an issue. You just have to do your first hunt with a low cost creature that you don't mind dying, preferably something that will draw a card when it is killed like Angry Yeti. You don't see a lot of these type decks, particularly including Stuck in a Tree because that card has been bugged from the beginning and its effect is nullified if any sort of battle ensues prior to your opponent attempting to hunt.
Wall of Thorns deck - this is a variety of Draw deck based on the Wall of Thorns trick that generally involves changelings and the trick Dive Bomb and/or the chaos creature Vine Wolf Companion. This type of deck is always trick heavy and is vulnerable to bad draws, Briarwood Standoff (which can interrupt the chain of tricks), defensive battles, particularly in the early game, and in cases to decks with very defensive ability that can withstand an attack say with Wall of Thorns followed by 2 Dive Bombs (aka +6 attack).
Troll deck - basically a troll themed variety of attack deck with the added ability to move your opponent's creatures around and to do repeated kamikaze attacks in later game (as long as you have a Troll Queen in play and another Troll Queen in the discard pile). This deck has the same vulnerabilities as a typical chaos attack deck, and actually tends to be a little weaker on defense in early turns than some chaos attack decks you might make.
Sacrificial score decks - chaos decks designed to score attacking creatures or destroy an ally to score a card. This may include such cards as Good Times, Backstab!, Robgoblin Mage, Ninja Fairy Companion, Thugawug Sneak, and Nuggino the Swift. Support cards may include sacrificial creatures such as Angry Yeti and Zargolut's Essence, along with Cleaning House so that cards can be drawn when a creature is destroyed by Robgoblin Mage or Ninja Fairy Companion, and Tipping the Hive to replenish the sacrificed creature. Generally, the strategy of sacrificial scoring is not enough on it's own for a successful deck, at least not that I've ever seen or created, however, I have made a successful minor sub-theme of it in a chaos steamer & ambrose deck. Such strategies can be partially countered by such tricks as Bear Hug or Royal Decree. This type deck is vulnerable to having key creatures attacked, including the four listed above, except that in the case of Ninja Fairy Companion, its allies should be attacked and destroyed first before they can be sacrificed.
Unscore decks - these decks are designed to slow you down by taking away your scored cards, and are generally built around machine resource Long Shot (which zaps a machine creature to destroy two opponent scored cards) or more rarely around chaos-friendly hero Bry (who zaps a chaos ally to destroy an opponent scored card). Unscoring can also be done with hero Morningglory or the level 20 Warrior DoD hero as part of any sphere. Support cards for the machine version of this include Start Digging!, Undermine (in conjunction with various miners), and Brody Sparfist, as well as Dwarf Mining Master who can be used to chase a zapped dwarf. Support cards for the Bry version of this include Pappy Farnum who can ready a chaos ally for 3 star, various chaos allies, especially cost 1 chaos allies that can be readied with Lost and SRS Archeologist that can ready himself by zapping an ally, order resource A Little Help which can be used to zap Bry to bring Pappy Farnum from the discard pile into play or vice versa, and various cards to immediately ready creatures, including Column of Fire, Lost, Corrupted Gem, Hold 'Em Down, and Come Get Some, along with a small amount of cards that allow you to discard key cards to be brought back into play later with resource a Little Help like an extra Pappy or Bry or Pixie Troublemaker, which can be done with Shuriken Toss among other things. This type of deck is most vulnerable to quick score decks, readying decks, and removal decks, and to some degree to defensive/blocker or chugawug decks. In the case of a Bry deck, it is difficult to win once Bry is in play. If you do face a Bry deck, first destroy the chaos ally (cost 1 chaos ally first), then Bry, then Pappy if present. However, if the opponent has Snowed Under in play, avoid attacking any heroes until the resource has been expended. Machine unscore decks are generally paired with being another kind of deck as well, such as a draw deck, a quick score deck, or a trickster deck.
Trickster decks - this is more of a sub-theme in most cases, that is often built into quick score decks, unscore decks, and readying decks. Tricksters are creatures which attack versus the opponent creature's attack rather than versus the opponent creature's defense. Because of current exploits where crush is calculated on trickster's final attack value verus foe's final defense value rather than foe's final attack value, tricksters are currently often used in combinations to support a trickster crush exploit, such as Glimmer with Treeleaf's Retreat, From Above, The Boot, Shattered Mirror, and Game of Hide and Seek, or Mustang Alli (or Dwarven Builder) in combination with Start Digging!, Power Boost, Victory Lap, The Boot, Shattered Mirror, Mother Lode, and occasionally Krash Kart. A potential weakness of Trickster decks is that most tricksters only have an attack value of 3, so it's often possible to beat them on defense; and also most Tricksters are vulnerable to attack if you have at least some basic offensive tricks in your deck. Tricksters are also vulnerable to Steam Engineer decks, removal decks, chaos attack decks, and tricks that boost a creature's attack while defending, such as Bat Attack, Wall of Thorns followed by defensive tricks, Anesthesia, Sunder Forge Boot Stomp, Going Nuts, Onion Breath, and Raising a Mob. The exploit potential can also be limited by turning over crush resources, especially with chaos trick Sneakiness.
Invulnerability deck - this is a deck built around tricks, creatures, or combinations that make its creatures resistant to dying and in certain cases invulnerable to dying. Such a deck might include such cards as Arctic Frostfang, Ferocious Frostfang, Frostfang Wolf, Razor Teeth, Heavy Meal, Royal Decree, Sprint, Docaloc, Kirill Moonrunner, Nogg the Cruel, Tyrone Shadowshard along with some sort of Artifact Resource, Gloompetal, Garrison Gold, Geomancer Hailstorm, Azure, and Vittorio. Support creatures might include Pet Trainer DoD along with Frostfang Wolf or Ernie along with Ferocious Frostfang, as well as creatures that stun as a powerup. This type deck is vulnerable to readying decks, especially involving Ambrose, or possibly involving Kart Driver in a double flip deck. Also, this deck can sometimes be countered by targeting key creatures, such as the hero or creature that is making its allies invulnerable.
Double-flip or multi-flip decks - these are decks that, particularly in the late game, have tricks or creatures to provide extra combat flips. Such decks include heroes such as Ernie, Esther the Brains, Jammie Swiftsong, or Hildegarde, as well as cards such as Turbo Charged, Artifact Detector, Rain of Arrows, and Berserker Shout. Duelist DoDs are an effective supplement to this style deck which turn it into a late game draw deck. Generally the weak point to such decks is when you attack the key hero causing his or her allies to flip extra cards, however, this can be countered, particularly in decks with Ernie and Jammie Swiftsong with invulnerability tricks. Machine decks of this type can be particularly problematic with the triple whammy of Artifact Detector, Esther the Brains, and Turbo Charged, which would also be a collect deck to the extent that Artifact Detector is utilized. As this is largely a late game strategy, quick score decks are also a good counter to this kind of deck.
Escapist decks - this is a minor mostly chaos creature tactic where creatures are returned to your hand during or after combat based on a powerup or dying. Such decks include such cards as Invading Bixie Mage, SRS Thug, Pixie Troublemaker (which doesn't give you a choice on when it goes back to your hand), Hold 'Em Down, Send Help, and Run!. Cards that support such a strategy include Magic Unleashed, and in the case of Invading Bixie Mage, cards that take advantage of having one of your creatures die, such as Hooligan Archer, SRS Hunter, Cleaning House, Tipping the Hive, and cards used in a Sacrificial Score deck.
Fleeing foe deck - this is the flip side of the escapist deck, a minor mostly series II nature strategy, that allows you to send creatures in play back to your opponent's hand. Cards that support such a strategy include Gotcha!, Return to Sender, Bristlewood Arachnid, Moldering Fungaloid, Arachnia, Greed, Stampede, and cards that stun opponent creatures (especially at the beginning of the turn) allowing your creatures to hunt past them. This type deck works well against an invulnerability deck. Counters to this type of deck include creatures such as Shifty the Shuffler, Mushroom Giant Warlord, Ninja Master, and Banshee Boss which cause problems for this sort of deck when they are replayed.
Stun deck - stunning is a strategy that complements many deck types, including fleeing foe, attack decks, removal decks, robgoblin junkpile decks, new character creature decks, and hunting ally decks to name a few. Cards that can stun are too numerous to list. Stunning is a good way to slow down your opponent from scoring, and hopefully allow you to get in some extra hunts along the way, especially in nature decks. Stunning is also used in machine and order decks to open a column for key creatures to hunt which boost their allies combat stats when zapped, particularly Weaponsmith and Courier Eagle Companion. In the case of machine decks, this is generally done with Furnace Golem. Stunning is a common powerup for nature and chaos creatures, infrequent in order, and rare in machine. Nature, chaos, and order also have at least two tricks each that can stun, but the chaos tricks tend to be the most powerful. There are a number of order creatures that can destroy a stunned creature as a powerup and one which can destroy a creature about to be stunned by zapping. Giant Toad decks are a variety of stun deck. Each sphere has at least one resource that can stun as well; chaos is more powerful in this regard too, but also more costly in terms of coins. There are a number of counters to stunning, including readying decks, tricks and resources, creatures immune to stunning, pet trainer DoD, and certain creatures that can ready themselves and/or stunned allies. In certain cases, where an opponent is close to winning, it is adviseable to block but not attack a creature with a powerup to stun so that they cannot win with an easy hunt.
Zapping creature deck - this is a deck where a creature is zapped to boost stats of an ally or allies. This deck might include such cards as Power Nap, Weaponsmith, Sanctuary Courier, Courier Eagle Companion, Wizard Bat Companion, Spooked!, and Dominic the Brawn. Support cards may include such cards as Long Shot, Pet Trainer DoD, Chef DoD, Pastry Chef, Royal Mage, Pixie Troublemaker, Someone Your Own Size, Kart Driver, Gadget Maker, and SRS Archeologist. The weakness of this sort of deck is that often a player has to reserve a key creature to not hunt with, so it can take longer to win than other decks. If you find yourself playing against this sort of deck, it is often more effective to block the creature that zaps to provide a boost to its allies rather than attack it, especially where an order deck is involved, and to some degree a machine deck, depending on what resources and tricks are being utilized.
Theme decks - theme decks are defined by using a certain creature type that often also has certain keyword bonuses in combination with certain cards in game. Strategies vary widely depending on theme, so you will want to refer to other deck types as appropriate. Themes include goblin, troll, plant, animal, changeling, blacksmith/golem, dwarf, driver, chugawug, pixie, and ninja. Theme decks, especially pure theme decks, tend to have more difficulty being effective than other decks because of limitations in sticking to a particular creature type. For instance, it is difficult to make a good plant deck without using at least a few changelings. Also certain themes tend to have stronger early game or late game creatures, and generally not both. For instance, with drivers, Rip Ringa (a cost 2) may be one of the worst creatures in game, while there are a wealth of useful cost 4 and cost 6 drivers that can score you 3 or more cards in one turn.
Hope this is helpful as this represents many months of experience. Enjoy!
Thanks Archer for such great tips!
Now new types of decks are always being created, but I'm going to list the deck varieties I am aware of here, so you can learn to be familiar with them. Anyone who can think of any major deck types I have missed are also welcome to list additions in a reply, and I will make edits from time to time to include any additional deck types that others suggest. Once you are familiar with the different styles of decks, you will play better with all of your decks.
Nature starter - although it probably goes without saying, you run into a lot of variations on the nature starter. The key with the nature starter is don't leave any columns open where the opponent has scored three or more cards, and try to take an offensive strategy, except where blocking mushroom giant warlords, or in early game, changeling sentry. Avoid blocking Arctic Frostfang unless you have Spin Attack in hand, as your opponent will generally keep Arctic Frostfang ready to help save attacking allies, whereas if you don't block it, they will usually hunt with it before attacking.
Machine starter - the other major deck you run into variations of, the machine starter has a couple of naturally strong low cost creatures, which basically equate to a 4 attack / 4 defense with powerups, and tricks to boost. One weakness is the dwarven digger, which actually doesn't normally get its double green flip in the standard starter; however, it is often better to block it so that your opponent will utilize his or her offensive tricks earlier rather than later. The other weakness is the Apprentice Smith, which is pretty weak without tricks to boost, the main ones being Hammer Strike and Going Nuts. Kart Driver can be problematic for a chaos deck with ability to continue attacking in adjacent columns, however if you can mount a defense, even as simple as using an Onion Breath, you can sometimes win the battle. One caution - be careful in assuming something is a machine starter, because there are some very well designed dwarf decks that in early turns look like a machine starter.
Newbie creature deck - although I haven't made a deck like this myself, I've played enough to know how they work. Basically, there is a much larger than normal percentage of creatures. This is the opponent who will always have a creature to play, often belonging to varying spheres, and on turn five and after, most of the creatures played will be heroes, often heroes that are out of their normal context like Bry or Shifty the Shuffler without necessarily chaos allies. Often this type of deck will utilize creatures such as Ninja Fairy Companion or Wolf Companion to allow allies to score extra cards, and sometimes it will utilize Eagle Courier Companion to boost attack rates all around. The strategy of this type deck is to get creatures out quickly to hunt and battle and overwhelm your opponent, counting on luck to beat even the most experienced players. The weakness of this type of deck is that the flip rate is low and often not the gem the creature is designed to work with, which means even though tricks such as Rain of Arrows may be utilized, a well-designed deck can often prevail in typical battles. To defeat this type of deck, you have to slow it down long enough for your deck to start working, using resources or tricks to destroy creatures or using various methods to stun creatures. Also, new characters tend to use their tricks early and often until they run out, even when tricks are unneeded (like when they are already winning by 4 or more before the flip), and sometimes they will waste more combat tricks if you use non-combat tricks, like a trick to draw a card, stun their creature, or turn over a resource. Since spheres are often mixed, unlike a normal deck where there is a 80%+ chance of a creature getting a powerup, their creatures will probably only get powerups 50% of the time, so if you see a changeling sentry and a dwarven digger side by side, you might try an attack when you normally wouldn't.
Giant Toad decks - there are of course different varieties of Giant Toad decks, but generally, they are nature decks with low cost animals that can be chased on turn four or after, and have plenty of yellow gems to stun your opponent with. These decks tend towards stunning, and have limited offensive capabilities, so the strategy is to stun and hunt. There are not always clear vulnerabilities to this type of deck, but one thing you can do is make sure to attack or destroy any animals in play, especially right before your opponent's fourth turn, so that your opponent does not have any easy creatures to be chased with a Giant Toad. It also helps to be able to stun allies of the attacking Giant Toad so they won't be able to hunt after the toad attacks.
Chase decks - any deck that properly utilizes Giant Toad, Troll Queen, Dwarf Mining Master, or Chugawug Captain can said to be in some sense a chase deck. However, there are certain resources, tricks, and heroes which can be used to truly make an effective chase deck. Those include machine resource You Go First (which allows you to draw cards equal to the cost of the chased creature), DoD Wizard hero (which allows you to gain coins when a creature is chased) and sometimes chaos creature Robgoblin Boss who gains coins when he comes into play, chaos resource Hold 'Em Down, which allows a creature to be chased in battle, order resource A Little Help, which allows a hero to be zapped and then bring a creature from the discard pile into play (which can be used to chase the zapped hero or another ally), and finally hero Brody Sparfist who destroys an opponent scored card when chasing a machine creature. Hold 'Em Down works really well with creatures that score a card when placed (such as Mushroom Giant Boss, Shifty the Shuffler, Pixie Troublemaker with ready ally) as well as creatures that stun an opponent when placed (primarily Banshee Boss) and gives an ideal use on defense for placing a level 20 Brawler DoD where it will be ready and get the extra +4 defense. Chase decks are most effectively made using a machine / dwarf theme, and in that case, sometimes the resource Long Shot is useful also to zap a machine creature and destroy cards with it before you chase it in later turns. Chase decks are hard to stop once they really get going, but they can be pre-empted in early turns by destroying key resources and hunting quickly and destroying creatures before they can be chased.
Draw decks - although Chase decks can draw you a lot of cards, I do not by default put them in this category, although it could be thought of as a sub-category. Draw decks are particularly decks where the creatures can draw cards based on powerups, winning battles, tricks, and certain resources, or where tricks are returned after use based on crushing or using Changeling Mage to redraw them from the discard pile. Draw decks can be made in any sphere, although often a good chaos draw deck will include a fair number of nature cards and include the chaos creature Vine Wolf Companion and the chaos draws (aside from playing tricks with Vine Wolf Companion) will largely be based on creatures dying, like Angry Yeti. Order draw decks will generally utilize Sam Potts in later turns to use discards for destroying opponent creatures. Machine draw decks are able to draw as many as two or three cards based on a creature powerup alone. Draw decks are hard to stop once they get started, so the best strategy is to look for ways to destroy creatures that draw cards in indirect ways, to make sure you only start battles you can win against such creatures, and to avoid or at least delay confrontation when possible.
Readying decks - I make readying decks with the best of them. Readying decks can be made in any sphere, but tend to be done most effectively in a chaos or chaos/nature mixed deck, often involving crushing in an attack, in combination with certain tricks, resources, or Ambrose Worcester. In machine, they can be made with Steam Engineer or Kart Driver, as long as there are plenty of green gems, or alternatively with Pit Crew Foreman (an exclusive who is generally not as useful as Steam Engineer). In order, the method used is to attack with a chugawug captain or wolf companion, generally using turbo charged or sprint. And in nature, aside from mixing in chaos cards, you can also use Come Get Some and New Growth (with plants). Readying decks can be slowed with cards like Spin Attack that zap or other cards that stun, if tricks are used to ready a creature during battle. Readying decks also tend to be strongest when attacking (with the exception of Steam Engineer decks), so you either need to put up an extremely strong defense or a very strong offense to succeed against this type deck.
Steam Engineer decks - based on using zappable resources to boost all creatures attack and defense while Steam Engineer is in play, usually with a mix of resources that are zapped at the beginning of the turn, and resources that can be zapped during battle. Steam Engineer decks tend to be less effective if you kill all the creatures each turn, so that Steam Engineer can only boost himself. They are also vulnerable to effects that turn over zapped or soon to be zapped resources, as well as to multiple engagements which erode the resources as they are used, and cards that will remove the Steam Engineer himself from play, such as Extends Claws, Return to Sender, Bullseye, or certain ninjas with the right powerup. If you can't kill the Steam Engineer himself, you should avoid blocking him so he can't ready an ally for an extra scored card.
Hunting ally decks - these decks often include elements of draw decks and readying decks and include such nature creatures as Changeling Ninja, Mutated Tree Soldier, Changeling Elder, and Briarwood Tree Soldier and often the resource Treeleaf's Retreat. The key to this type deck is that unlike typical attacks where you hunt then attack, with this type deck, you do your attacks (which provide extra hunts for a ready creature or creatures based on victory or a powerup or a crush) then hunt afterwards. These type decks are vulnerable to effects that zap creatures, such as Spin Attack, or to cards like One Foot in the Grave in combination with Briarwood Ninja that tend to kill off the allies, or to very strong defensive decks which win key battles. This type deck is also vulnerable to tricks or powerups that can stun allies before they get a chance to hunt, such as with Belch, Robgoblin Swindler, Scary Chest Thump, Security Bot, Giant Toad, Royal Archer, Pixie Commander, or Blue Blast. Treeleaf's retreat is of course vulnerable to being turned over by cards like Sneakiness.
Removal (or creature destroying) decks - often made with order cards, foremost Royal Archer, sometimes with a Pixie theme (which are often high flip decks), or to a more limited degree with nature cards using Extends Claws. This type deck tends to be vulnerable to creatures with high natural defense and strong offensive capability, as well as to decks with ability to retrieve creatures from the discard pile or draw decks with a good amount of creatures. This type deck can also be slowed with tricks like Briarwood Standoff or Sprint and having methods for readying your stunned creatures.
Quick score decks - traditionally made with machine creatures, especially certain drivers that score cards based on powerup and/or crushing, and of course the exclusive Breakthrough. However, decks involving Mushroom Giant Warlord and Easy Money or Shifty the Shuffler with hunting chaos allies could also be considered to fall into this category. Creatures that can score using coins fit into this theme as well such as Ninja DoD or Crafty Man-Eating Plant. This can be a difficult deck to counter, even if your deck does a lot of stunning. Lazi can be an effective hero to counter the powerup effect or the trick Pie in the Face can also come in handy on defense (I see new characters play Pie in the Face on offense, but they don't realize they are just keeping themselves from scoring). Bullseye can be useful as well, except against Speed Demon. Snowed Under can also be used as a stop-gap, preferably with a hero in play or using the chaos trick Corruption beforehand. The hunting varieties of this type deck can be countered by keeping columns blocked, especially those with three or more scored cards. If you are working against a shifty deck, it is advised to allow shifty to live (of course either keeping him blocked with a very defensive foe or perma-zapped or stunned), particularly when playing another shifty may win your opponent the game, so that your opponent has to chase Shifty before they can play another one, which generally they won't do.
High flip decks - these decks are designed to provide a high probability of giving powerups to dangerous creatures and sometimes as decks that take advantage of crush bonuses. Although any sphere can be made into a high flip deck, it is most efficiently done in a machine deck or an order deck with a couple of key machine tricks (namely Squeaky Wheel and Turbo Charged). It is hardest to do in a pure chaos deck, but still doable High flip decks often rely on tricks that would normally be risky such as Screw Loose or Storm of Hail. High flip decks tend to be vulnerable to decks with high offensive capability or extremely high defensive capability. High flip decks are also vulnerable to bad draws and not having a lot of creatures for early turns, and so can sometimes be overwhelmed in early turns.
High reflip or flip control deck - this is actually more of a playing style than a deck design as it to a good degree depends on the player discarding high flip cards and retrieving low flip cards from the discard pile, so that there will be mainly high flip cards in the reshuffle. Cards that support such a theme include Lucky Toad Companion, Dwarf Mining Master, Discovery, Squeaky Wheel, Fast-Talk, Blacksmith Brix, Chugawug Builder, Krash Kart, Robgoblin Mage, Animal Smuggler, Rock Toss, Shuriken Toss, Changeling Mage, Gloompetal, Digging for Treasure, Alive Again, Sport Shades, Miner DoD, and, to a small degree, Captain Chugawug. This type theme also works well with a draw deck. This type theme is weakened by quickly destroying low cost creatures as they come out (which lowers the flip rate on the reshuffle) and by limiting your combat encounters (which delay the initial reshuffle).
Double gem flip decks - this is generally a version of a high flip deck that is built around a double flip of a particular color, usually red or blue, sometimes green, not generally yellow. Double red gem decks are made from order and machine cards which generally create a removal or a quick score deck. Double green gem decks are generally made from machine cards, particularly Dwarven Digger and Lucky Toad, not really from chaos which does not have compelling arguments to use double green gem, and results in a draw deck, often a dwarf deck. Double blue gem decks are made from chaos and nature cards and often result in a readying deck with elements of a draw deck. Double yellow gem decks are mainly built around order cards which either result in a removal deck ala Briarwood Ninja or a stun deck ala Pixie Commander. Nature decks utilizing double yellow gems are just a form of a draw deck.
Robgoblin junkpile decks - aka low flip decks that utilize the high flip Robgoblin Junkpile card. These decks can be considered to be a specialized version of a Draw deck. These decks get creatures out quickly, often being able to have three creatures in play on turn 2. Often they have tricks to stun opponent creatures, and occasionally an odd hero to help score cards faster, like Shifty the Shuffler, or the DoD Level 1 hero that causes allies to hunt when first played, which of course can be problematic for using the Robgoblin Junkpile resource effectively. Robgoblin junkpile decks are vulnerable to decks with strong offense or defense or ability to quickly destroy low cost creatures (as with tricks like One Foot in the Grave, especially with a Thorns to get it played earlier), as well as to stun-resistant decks. Keep in mind that not every deck that includes Robgoblin Junkpile is built to effectively utilize that card. Sometimes people just use it as a high gem card and don't actually zap the resource until turn six or later.
Chugawug and other defensive decks - this type deck, usually mostly made up of order cards, is designed to make you attack very defensive creatures so that your creatures die. Some of the creatures are used to block in early turns and/or boost defense of allies. There is limited offensive capability, with readying capacity, but generally only against certain chaos decks with creatures having low natural defense. Most of these decks are designed to do their scoring on turns 4 to 6 or after. This type deck is vulnerable mainly to tricksters, as well as to kamikaze decks that will repeatedly attack in early turns to test how well the deck is actually built to get that red gem flip needed to boost defense.
Collect decks - this deck is built around creatures that provide certain bonuses once a certain number of scored cards have been collected in their columns. This type deck is most popularly done with Gadget Maker and other machine creatures, particularly because of the ability of certain machine creatures and resources to move scored cards around, but there are creatures with various collect type bonuses in each sphere. The best counter to this type deck is to keep your opponent from scoring as much as you can (which is a good strategy in any case). This type deck can be vulnerable to trolls that move the creatures around to prevent collect bonuses. In late game, this deck can also be vulnerable to a well designed Bry deck or to utilization of Long Shot in a machine deck, as well as direct destruction of the creature with the collect bonus by various means.
Hunting decks - decks built around scoring extra points when hunting. This type deck often has methods of stunning or bypassing combat. Cards used in such a deck might include Easy Money, Mushroom Giant Warlord, Shifty the Shuffler, and Stampede among others. This type deck tends to be suspectible to stunning and quick score decks.
Attack decks - especially chaos decks with lots of early game creatures that get +3 attack with the right powerup. This type deck is vulnerable on defense, especially to Kart Driver, or to draw type decks that have enough offensive ability to keep up with killing the new creatures as they come out. Can sometimes be countered by order decks that utilize powerful defensive tricks, such as Someone Your Own Size.
Hunt prevention decks - this is a rare sort of deck which is designed to be more effective in the late game and accomplishes holding off the opponent until then by playing resources that prevent him from scoring cards or destroys a hunting creature. The main resource utilized is Stuck in a Tree. Other possible resources include Briarmelon, Sleeping on Duty, Golem Rampage, and Rock Toss. Sometimes you just have to wait out this type of deck, particularly with thet Stuck in a Tree resource, unless you have a way to turn the resource over before your creatures hunt. Briarmelon is not as much of an issue. You just have to do your first hunt with a low cost creature that you don't mind dying, preferably something that will draw a card when it is killed like Angry Yeti. You don't see a lot of these type decks, particularly including Stuck in a Tree because that card has been bugged from the beginning and its effect is nullified if any sort of battle ensues prior to your opponent attempting to hunt.
Wall of Thorns deck - this is a variety of Draw deck based on the Wall of Thorns trick that generally involves changelings and the trick Dive Bomb and/or the chaos creature Vine Wolf Companion. This type of deck is always trick heavy and is vulnerable to bad draws, Briarwood Standoff (which can interrupt the chain of tricks), defensive battles, particularly in the early game, and in cases to decks with very defensive ability that can withstand an attack say with Wall of Thorns followed by 2 Dive Bombs (aka +6 attack).
Troll deck - basically a troll themed variety of attack deck with the added ability to move your opponent's creatures around and to do repeated kamikaze attacks in later game (as long as you have a Troll Queen in play and another Troll Queen in the discard pile). This deck has the same vulnerabilities as a typical chaos attack deck, and actually tends to be a little weaker on defense in early turns than some chaos attack decks you might make.
Sacrificial score decks - chaos decks designed to score attacking creatures or destroy an ally to score a card. This may include such cards as Good Times, Backstab!, Robgoblin Mage, Ninja Fairy Companion, Thugawug Sneak, and Nuggino the Swift. Support cards may include sacrificial creatures such as Angry Yeti and Zargolut's Essence, along with Cleaning House so that cards can be drawn when a creature is destroyed by Robgoblin Mage or Ninja Fairy Companion, and Tipping the Hive to replenish the sacrificed creature. Generally, the strategy of sacrificial scoring is not enough on it's own for a successful deck, at least not that I've ever seen or created, however, I have made a successful minor sub-theme of it in a chaos steamer & ambrose deck. Such strategies can be partially countered by such tricks as Bear Hug or Royal Decree. This type deck is vulnerable to having key creatures attacked, including the four listed above, except that in the case of Ninja Fairy Companion, its allies should be attacked and destroyed first before they can be sacrificed.
Unscore decks - these decks are designed to slow you down by taking away your scored cards, and are generally built around machine resource Long Shot (which zaps a machine creature to destroy two opponent scored cards) or more rarely around chaos-friendly hero Bry (who zaps a chaos ally to destroy an opponent scored card). Unscoring can also be done with hero Morningglory or the level 20 Warrior DoD hero as part of any sphere. Support cards for the machine version of this include Start Digging!, Undermine (in conjunction with various miners), and Brody Sparfist, as well as Dwarf Mining Master who can be used to chase a zapped dwarf. Support cards for the Bry version of this include Pappy Farnum who can ready a chaos ally for 3 star, various chaos allies, especially cost 1 chaos allies that can be readied with Lost and SRS Archeologist that can ready himself by zapping an ally, order resource A Little Help which can be used to zap Bry to bring Pappy Farnum from the discard pile into play or vice versa, and various cards to immediately ready creatures, including Column of Fire, Lost, Corrupted Gem, Hold 'Em Down, and Come Get Some, along with a small amount of cards that allow you to discard key cards to be brought back into play later with resource a Little Help like an extra Pappy or Bry or Pixie Troublemaker, which can be done with Shuriken Toss among other things. This type of deck is most vulnerable to quick score decks, readying decks, and removal decks, and to some degree to defensive/blocker or chugawug decks. In the case of a Bry deck, it is difficult to win once Bry is in play. If you do face a Bry deck, first destroy the chaos ally (cost 1 chaos ally first), then Bry, then Pappy if present. However, if the opponent has Snowed Under in play, avoid attacking any heroes until the resource has been expended. Machine unscore decks are generally paired with being another kind of deck as well, such as a draw deck, a quick score deck, or a trickster deck.
Trickster decks - this is more of a sub-theme in most cases, that is often built into quick score decks, unscore decks, and readying decks. Tricksters are creatures which attack versus the opponent creature's attack rather than versus the opponent creature's defense. Because of current exploits where crush is calculated on trickster's final attack value verus foe's final defense value rather than foe's final attack value, tricksters are currently often used in combinations to support a trickster crush exploit, such as Glimmer with Treeleaf's Retreat, From Above, The Boot, Shattered Mirror, and Game of Hide and Seek, or Mustang Alli (or Dwarven Builder) in combination with Start Digging!, Power Boost, Victory Lap, The Boot, Shattered Mirror, Mother Lode, and occasionally Krash Kart. A potential weakness of Trickster decks is that most tricksters only have an attack value of 3, so it's often possible to beat them on defense; and also most Tricksters are vulnerable to attack if you have at least some basic offensive tricks in your deck. Tricksters are also vulnerable to Steam Engineer decks, removal decks, chaos attack decks, and tricks that boost a creature's attack while defending, such as Bat Attack, Wall of Thorns followed by defensive tricks, Anesthesia, Sunder Forge Boot Stomp, Going Nuts, Onion Breath, and Raising a Mob. The exploit potential can also be limited by turning over crush resources, especially with chaos trick Sneakiness.
Invulnerability deck - this is a deck built around tricks, creatures, or combinations that make its creatures resistant to dying and in certain cases invulnerable to dying. Such a deck might include such cards as Arctic Frostfang, Ferocious Frostfang, Frostfang Wolf, Razor Teeth, Heavy Meal, Royal Decree, Sprint, Docaloc, Kirill Moonrunner, Nogg the Cruel, Tyrone Shadowshard along with some sort of Artifact Resource, Gloompetal, Garrison Gold, Geomancer Hailstorm, Azure, and Vittorio. Support creatures might include Pet Trainer DoD along with Frostfang Wolf or Ernie along with Ferocious Frostfang, as well as creatures that stun as a powerup. This type deck is vulnerable to readying decks, especially involving Ambrose, or possibly involving Kart Driver in a double flip deck. Also, this deck can sometimes be countered by targeting key creatures, such as the hero or creature that is making its allies invulnerable.
Double-flip or multi-flip decks - these are decks that, particularly in the late game, have tricks or creatures to provide extra combat flips. Such decks include heroes such as Ernie, Esther the Brains, Jammie Swiftsong, or Hildegarde, as well as cards such as Turbo Charged, Artifact Detector, Rain of Arrows, and Berserker Shout. Duelist DoDs are an effective supplement to this style deck which turn it into a late game draw deck. Generally the weak point to such decks is when you attack the key hero causing his or her allies to flip extra cards, however, this can be countered, particularly in decks with Ernie and Jammie Swiftsong with invulnerability tricks. Machine decks of this type can be particularly problematic with the triple whammy of Artifact Detector, Esther the Brains, and Turbo Charged, which would also be a collect deck to the extent that Artifact Detector is utilized. As this is largely a late game strategy, quick score decks are also a good counter to this kind of deck.
Escapist decks - this is a minor mostly chaos creature tactic where creatures are returned to your hand during or after combat based on a powerup or dying. Such decks include such cards as Invading Bixie Mage, SRS Thug, Pixie Troublemaker (which doesn't give you a choice on when it goes back to your hand), Hold 'Em Down, Send Help, and Run!. Cards that support such a strategy include Magic Unleashed, and in the case of Invading Bixie Mage, cards that take advantage of having one of your creatures die, such as Hooligan Archer, SRS Hunter, Cleaning House, Tipping the Hive, and cards used in a Sacrificial Score deck.
Fleeing foe deck - this is the flip side of the escapist deck, a minor mostly series II nature strategy, that allows you to send creatures in play back to your opponent's hand. Cards that support such a strategy include Gotcha!, Return to Sender, Bristlewood Arachnid, Moldering Fungaloid, Arachnia, Greed, Stampede, and cards that stun opponent creatures (especially at the beginning of the turn) allowing your creatures to hunt past them. This type deck works well against an invulnerability deck. Counters to this type of deck include creatures such as Shifty the Shuffler, Mushroom Giant Warlord, Ninja Master, and Banshee Boss which cause problems for this sort of deck when they are replayed.
Stun deck - stunning is a strategy that complements many deck types, including fleeing foe, attack decks, removal decks, robgoblin junkpile decks, new character creature decks, and hunting ally decks to name a few. Cards that can stun are too numerous to list. Stunning is a good way to slow down your opponent from scoring, and hopefully allow you to get in some extra hunts along the way, especially in nature decks. Stunning is also used in machine and order decks to open a column for key creatures to hunt which boost their allies combat stats when zapped, particularly Weaponsmith and Courier Eagle Companion. In the case of machine decks, this is generally done with Furnace Golem. Stunning is a common powerup for nature and chaos creatures, infrequent in order, and rare in machine. Nature, chaos, and order also have at least two tricks each that can stun, but the chaos tricks tend to be the most powerful. There are a number of order creatures that can destroy a stunned creature as a powerup and one which can destroy a creature about to be stunned by zapping. Giant Toad decks are a variety of stun deck. Each sphere has at least one resource that can stun as well; chaos is more powerful in this regard too, but also more costly in terms of coins. There are a number of counters to stunning, including readying decks, tricks and resources, creatures immune to stunning, pet trainer DoD, and certain creatures that can ready themselves and/or stunned allies. In certain cases, where an opponent is close to winning, it is adviseable to block but not attack a creature with a powerup to stun so that they cannot win with an easy hunt.
Zapping creature deck - this is a deck where a creature is zapped to boost stats of an ally or allies. This deck might include such cards as Power Nap, Weaponsmith, Sanctuary Courier, Courier Eagle Companion, Wizard Bat Companion, Spooked!, and Dominic the Brawn. Support cards may include such cards as Long Shot, Pet Trainer DoD, Chef DoD, Pastry Chef, Royal Mage, Pixie Troublemaker, Someone Your Own Size, Kart Driver, Gadget Maker, and SRS Archeologist. The weakness of this sort of deck is that often a player has to reserve a key creature to not hunt with, so it can take longer to win than other decks. If you find yourself playing against this sort of deck, it is often more effective to block the creature that zaps to provide a boost to its allies rather than attack it, especially where an order deck is involved, and to some degree a machine deck, depending on what resources and tricks are being utilized.
Theme decks - theme decks are defined by using a certain creature type that often also has certain keyword bonuses in combination with certain cards in game. Strategies vary widely depending on theme, so you will want to refer to other deck types as appropriate. Themes include goblin, troll, plant, animal, changeling, blacksmith/golem, dwarf, driver, chugawug, pixie, and ninja. Theme decks, especially pure theme decks, tend to have more difficulty being effective than other decks because of limitations in sticking to a particular creature type. For instance, it is difficult to make a good plant deck without using at least a few changelings. Also certain themes tend to have stronger early game or late game creatures, and generally not both. For instance, with drivers, Rip Ringa (a cost 2) may be one of the worst creatures in game, while there are a wealth of useful cost 4 and cost 6 drivers that can score you 3 or more cards in one turn.
Hope this is helpful as this represents many months of experience. Enjoy!
Thanks Archer for such great tips!
I meant nice tips 
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