There are 14 cards out of 132 that interact with energy. This is a really small portion, but they are important part of the meta teams. Most energy cards are on mouths and tails, but some horn cards available. The only back part is for watering can, which is the most offensive plant part on back. 1 Aqua card (Nimo), 4 Beast cards (Rice, Goda, Cottontail, Imp), 2 bug cards (antenna-requires a chain so multiple axies with it, leaf bug-requires a plant card to activate so it's more of a plant card), 3 plant (Carrot, Serious, Watering can), 2 reptile (kotaro and iguana, both conditional on attack) no bird cards(but they got 0 cost cards so they can attack faster). So as you can see, all of them are used often in the most common teams and for a good reason. Energy gains in a team will help you do more actions against your opponent, so teams include 2-3 ways to do this. That is 4-6 energy more and 6 cards extra that you can play.
Stealing energy is a double edged sword. They are all 1 cost, so you don't actually gain on them, but the opponent loses one energy. If you succed, you get back the energy but if your opponent spends it or attacks later, you fail and the effect won't trigger. Serious is a staple for any plant, mainly because plant mouths aren't the strongest. But pure plants got higher HP and this is a good effect. Antenna isn't widely popular, mainly because people use it on expensive terminators (it's a bug card but bug base stats are really low), and they need 2 axies that have it, or 3, but this also makes a really tough opponent, as they got 4 or 6 cards from it and any time they got 2 on 2 different axies they can just steal your energy, so your only option is to spend it without thinking about card combos. And lastly the destroy, it's quite the same as stealing but won't refund if you succeed. Goda has a good baseline and the effect is really strong. I saw a few terminators emerging with this card and makes aqua matchups easier.
A healthy team has to have around 2-3 types of energy generating, too much will decrease your damage, not enough will make you fall behind in cards, 2 would be more optimal for damage but 3 will make draws more consistent. Zero cost cards can replace energy gain and sometimes got the same effect, and you can use them to test defences and outplay stun or fear that would make you lose a high attack card. For reference, an offensive aqua has 420 hp and a possible 100 shield, but usually 30-60. 4-5 cards should be higher damage than that, so around 110 without the class and card advantage. Using 1 energy or 2 on different axies will not give combo bonus, so only do that when you can secure a kill. Otherwise is best to play 2 cards at least per axie. Since you start on 6 cards 3 energy and gain 3 cards 2 energy, first 6 turns or until one of your axie dies you got 24 cards for 15 energy. This makes 9 cards flexible or unused. Each card has 2 occurrences until 8 or death of the axie, then you get a smaller deck of 16 or 8 and card draws are more predictable. This means in a standard front to back battle you need more flex cards on the tank and maybe midline. But also that high energy gain and card draw can help with consistency. With terminator backliners as opponents and increased combo bonuses on low damage cards, backliners also can use a zero cost card. Two might be low damage, once you run out of cards. Lets see PVE energy: you gain 3 energy and 3 cards per turn, if you skip a turn, you will gain more energy. Some cards gain energy for you.
The AI monsters can sometimes play more than 4 cards and their energy is similar to yours. For PVE probably you best to have 1 cost cards, You would use up energy too quick with 0 cost. As long as you kill one monster per turn, you are better off than waiting a turn. Also it's more base damage oriented, the more beefy your axies are the better. Usually most AI skills can be countered by killing them fast or healing and shielding each turn. IF you got card draw, you can use more cards and more energy so that can allow a few 0 cost cards. There are 20 zero cost cards out of 132, mostly bird and bug cards. Their effects range between 0 to 60 hitpoint change (the value of shield and attack added together), so usually utility cards played for their effects, except post fight which is a 110 point attack, but deals 30% damage to the maximum hp of the axie that plays it. This makes them around 2-5 times worse than 1 cost cards that are roughly 150 hitpoint change in average but they don't require waiting a turn, they can activate combos, get you out of stun or fear or just have a utility advantage. PVE maps can have multiple stages, usually 3 monsters are at each stage. When you finish a stage, you gain one energy and your cards reset to 6. You can't stock up cards, you will always have 6 starting at a new stage and it's re-shuffled. You can stock up energy, by delaying the last kill (only do that if you can survive with shields). You got 4 energy on the start of the new map level, and the AI has more as well. So first turn you have to decide between killing one unit at least or defending your tank. A lot of rules don't apply to the AI, they got no class, no weakness or strength, no card limit played a turn, this makes adventures more chaotic. But you can't lose game energy so that's why risking higher level maps can gain you overall more experience. |
Eight of the cards are having the keyword "Gain" (or generate). This means that you will have one extra energy if the conditions are met.
Nimo is the only aqua card that gains energy and the only free pure card for aquas. This makes the combo of Nimo+Nimo very powerful and kind of the only way of getting out of stuns free to play a nimo while stunned. That's why some bird cards gain popularity with aquas, they don't drop the speed but help with the terminators. Leafbug is another powerful card, it requires to be played with a plant card, otherwise the effect won't trigger, it's a bug card so you can't combine with itself. So it found the way into popular builds, some of the people use it for backline tanks that play 3 cards each turn, heal and disable opponents and stall until the curse kills the opponent. Cottontail also 0 cost for 0-30 (after s19) but can be a good utility. People don't like it because a beast with this card can't output damage. but is still a popular card in cheaper axies. Imp is another beast card with a medium damage but gives critical strikes give you energy, that's why is part of the RIMP (Ronin+Imp, and usually 2 nut cards) combo which gives guaranteed criticals and refunds the cost. With 2 imp you gain 2 energy per ronin which is kind of crazy. Carrot: the once famous vegetable which controlled the meta. uses 1 energy but if the opponent attacks into it, refunds the cost. So you don't gain much by it, but it's some shield. Also makes Pumpkin+Carrot combination good because the opposite effect, so if they attack you and won't get trough shield, then you get a card, if they get trough you get an energy. It has been losing popularity to the other tail parts. Still decent if you know you close to die, you still use for refunds, best case you survive, but also locks the energy away from stealing. Kotaro only gains energy when other axies are faster (not same speed faster by health, speedups and downs work tho), iguana when the target is buffed(only buffs are speedup and morale, attack up). So this depends on your opponent and so it's hardly usable. Watering can only triggers when aquas attack. But it's a ranged skill that has 45-80 attack and shield while every other plant card on the back is defensive. Around 35-40% of games you might meet an aqua or two, right now, so it can be useful, they won't be able to kill it with their tank only, so if you time it right it will help. Also can trigger multiple times for a crazy unlimited energy. As for PVP goes, energy is 2 a turn and 3 cards. You start on 3 energy. If you skip a turn you gain 2 more energy. Doing this can allow stronger combos that kill the opponent instantly. In PVP you got less energy than cards, so this will mean that you will have choices of what to play. You have 8 cards for each axie, 2 pairs each. you won't get any more cards until turn 8 or until one or two axies die. In 8 turns you will gain 16 energy, this is 19 total, so you can use 19 of the 24 cards in case no one dies. your front tank might be the most vulnerable so you should focus on him using his cards. If they are defensive cards, using them might not get you any advantage if the opponent won't attack, if he does he technically wasting cards and energy if it's blocked by the shield. This means 0 cost cards are more useful for PVP. You could technically have a few more 0 cost spread across the axies, not all of them on one axie, as it will decrease his potential damage. The 5 card difference means you should have a pair of 2 or 3 energy gains or 0 cost cards. One zero cost on each axie means you can play 3 cards a turn or do free actions like removing a debuff like fear or stun. Some techniques, strategies and concepts: -Stalling. It means you wait with spending your energy, to make your opponent play his cards. This can be a risky strategy if they can OTK you (one turn kill an axie from full health). But if your axie survives, you can react on their moves better. -Combo. There are special keywords on cards called combo, these got additional effects that trigger if you play them together. It requires more energy or cards to do that. Playing multiple cards with an axie also considered a combo, they will gain additional damage when you play it like that. This additional damage is added to the two or more cards total attacks (attack*skill/500) so around 6-9 damage for a high attack card based on his skill. This is additive to the class advantage and own class card advantage. It's roughly 5%. So for example Oranda is a 110 damage card, an aqua with oranda attacking another aqua or bird has no class advantage, it will deal 110*110%=121 plus the 7.7 combo damage. 128 (I think is round down). Playing a card alone has no combo damage so you better pair 2 energy and 2 cards (or a zero cost and 1) to do combos and maximize output. -Disruption. It means that you try to interfere with your opponents cards or energy to ruin their plans or mess up their ordering. -Saving up for late game. This means that you play cards to bare minimum, so you got an energy advantage after your first or first two axies die. Your opponent will spend 2 cards each turn and will end up in a disadvantage when it comes down to 1v1. Usually worth keeping one energy at least, to be flexible with the cards next turn. If you don't, you might get into a situation where you could stop an attack with 3 cards but only can play 2. -Tempo: if you got more energy and cheaper cards, and more ways to generate energy, your cardset or deck, can be considered the faster deck, you will have Tempo advantage. This means you will control the game by sheer speed and force the opponent into defending and reacting. Your goal is to kill your opponents axies as fast as possible, then win lategame by having more cards and choices, an early 3v2 can make them do mistakes, they might try to kill your tank with 1 card per turn and you outshield it. -Value: this means you got high cost high effectiveness cards and you try to gain the maximum value out of them by fulfilling their conditions, even if it means a slower gameplay. There is only one 2 cost card right now and it isn't even powerful, this might change later. The Tempo and value decks are kind of opposite, while tempo focuses on early kills and risky tricks to gain advantage, while value decks try to stall early game for a late game bonus is quality of cards. Since most cards are 1 cost, most decks are value based on default. But cards that stun or fear or gain attack after turns passed can be considered more valuable. |