You can still heal your kraken from time to time by casting a healing spell in some of your turn. If the opponent casts a creature in front of the kraken, it will be shifted by kraken's attack. So he will have to cast another creature after to still deal with the kraken, and you'll still be able to cast kraken's ability. Well, this combo seems quite HUGE. Kraken + solitude ? Oh my ! :-D
This isn't ever practical for a few reasons. 1. You can't cast refresh the same turn you use deep hunger. Deep hunger makes you lose one of each element for each destroyed creature. 2. Kraken's attack causes opponents to shift. This means the opponent gets free hits to you directly, and it's all too easy to put something like a valor in there and you're down real fast. Basically, Kraken is rubbish. I can't see any use for it except as a luxury creature if you're winning by a landslide, or your opponent is spamming Scyllas.... Even then, deep hunger will destroy all your elements so you'll be powerless. Kraken would be balanced if they just made you lose one of each element for casting deep hunger as opposed to losing one of each element for each creature. Then it would be at least on a par with chaos vortex.
I have to agree with Camzy here, the Kraken is like the Megaworm, seems great at first but easily mishandled. However, it's effect is good if you are in a pinch and have been saving up on water. I wouldn't recommend repeating the Deeper Hunger cast because it allows your opponent to pile up on mana while you go down to 0 everywhere. If not done properly it will quickly end the game in their favor.
New tactic Dark Mage is a highly underrated unit. Dark Mage + Dispercer/Tentacle = 2 mana Skeleton (you don't get the dispercer buff btw) Dark Mage + Berzerker. Cast with zerk until it's on 2 health to kill any creature with 16 health or less, then cast and you have yourself a skeleton to amp up death some more. Kills water trolls and monks brilliantly for relatively low cost. Great if you're going first in a match.
Yeah, although I lost a game once because I didn't dare play a megaworm and my opponent did. It's more useful than the Kraken though for sure.
Kraken should be a one-time use only anyway. It's a just in case you need to wipe the board card (like Vortex). I don't even think I have ever casted it without having enough mana to wipe the board.
Oh my god best game ever! Just played a guy in a match that lasted like 50 turns each. At one point, I was on 3 health. I'm pretty sure he could have finished me off because he had a Dark Druid. One spell and he would have won, but he must have overlooked it, and I rebounded with a rejuvenation and from there, I used my superior mana to hammer my way through. There was a point where he had 3 ethereals on the board too, and I couldn't get through. Best match I've ever been involved with, although I really should have lost. Dark Druid is an amazing unit. I was priming to bloody wind it, but he pulls out a hydra, and I couldn't. It heals amazingly, and does damage for spells too.
1. On the beginning of your turn you always have at least 1 Water. So you can cast Refersh and get 3 Water elements. Now you have 3 Water and you can cast Deep hunger. 2. Once you cast Deep hunger your opponent simply doesn't has any creatures anymore
BTW, I've just purchased DisplayRecorder from Cydia and tested recording Orions2. I've found it works on HVGA devices the best in MJPEG, High quality, right landscape; then, 6 minutes take about 1 Gbyte. Fortunately, I have a completely empty 32GB iPhone 3GS for this purpose So I can also include a lot of example videos in the Strategy Guide of actual play, discussing what mistakes I/the other folk did, what strategy did I/he use etc. BTW, if any of you also want to publish playback videos (Pavel, unfortunately, doesn't want to implement any kind of logging / playback), go for DisplayRecorder. If you don't have a 3GS (or a third-gen 32/64GB iPod Touch; I wouldn't go for second-gen iPhones or first/second-gen iPod Touches as MJPEG recording takes a lot of CPU) but a hi-res device (4th gen stuff or iPads), then, videos will take a lot more storage unless you reduce recording quality to Low. The, otherwise, vastly superior H.264 recording doens't work with Orions2, unfortunately (only with the built-in apps of the system and some games - e.g., Angry Birds). Dunno when I'll get the Strategy Guide ready; I have some other articles to finish first, which are of interest to a lot more people (for example, one on my great hack to vastly enhancing the video recording capabilities of the iPhone 4 - will also publish the app package in Cydia so you don't need to have Xcode and a dev license to deploy it; all about video playback on iOS, including EVERYTHING you can think of), and I do want to add some real videos for the Guide. Nevertheless, in the meantime, I keep telling you some of my strategies and will also post some more interesting videos to YouTube. BTW, I've just started a new backup blog, mostly on programming iOS and my hacks / findings: http://iosprogblog.blogspot.com/ It's just a backup blog (to make sure my articles remain accessible when iPhone Life / Smartphone Mag is down) so I've disabled commenting there (do it at the iPhone Life blog).
Looking forward to your guide very much! Also, any Youtube videos you post. Please be sure to alert us. Thanks!
O yeah you're right. Just re-tested, it works. Not bad, your opponent needs bloody wind or enslave, otherwise there's no stopping it.
Air Clone stalls it, as he needs 1 of each element to kill for every creature. Manicore kills it rightoff. 3 satyrs... Force of Nature + spell or two. Leaves user if no mana if its stopped they will lose really easy.
I just won a match even after being mana screwed in draft mode. I picked first for all elements, but somehow, started out with only 19 mana while he had 25. Luckily, blood ritual turned the game in my favor. That spell is a game changer. I maintain that if you have blood ritual and fire elemental where your opponent has neither, you have a 75% chance of winning if you know how to play at least decently.
Just played a VERY long and VERY interesting match against "Ahhhh". I had no mass destruction spells (e.g., the only two usable Life cards were Pure Heart - used it once mainly to get rid of his Undead cards - and Rejuvenation) while he had at least two of them (and used it quite often) so it became a VERY though one Will upload the videos ASAP.
Shadow clone doesn't stall it, the elements just get reduced to 0, it's not a requirement for casting. Satyrs do the job. Force of Nature cuts a lot of it out. It's ultimately not worth it, because as you said, once the chain stops, you're screwed because no mana, but it could be good if you have a big enough lead in health. Manticore does the trick too, sure.
Awesome! Looking forward to the vids. I'd like to record some matches, but I'm on an iPhone 3G haha, it's far too slow for that. O and sorry about the DC earlier. That was just my internet playing up.
You picked first and also played first? I know there's a quirk when we alternate and I've been mana screwed a couple of times (without having Blood Ritual) with that same setup. Pavel, if you're reading this, please implement alternating picks.
First: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqZDdBco1tY Second: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrAfyvI64A4 A quick note: if you do record your games, make sure you stop and restart every about 14 minutes (preferably while it's your turn so the opponent's moves do get recorded). The reason for this is as follows: - YouTube has a 15 minute restriction, which may apply to you as well (unless you have a paying account) - if you use the highest quality M-JPEG, even on an old HVGA iPhone / iPT (the preferred platform for Orions2 video recording), 10 minutes will take about 1.5 Gbyte of storage. If you, for some reason, break the 2G barrier, DisplayRecorder will simply crash when you open it for file listing. Nevertheless, the files still remain accessible under /Library/DisplayRecorder via, say, iPhone Explorer and remain playable (tested with a 2.7GB one). BTW, should you want to convert your HUUUUGE video files before upload, I recommend Handbrake the most. Just use its default mp4 output settings (CBR 20 quality, no resizing except for throwing away two scanlines -, no audio etc.). It'll convert even 20-minute M-JPEG HVGA 24 fps videos in 2-3 minutes (tested on my C2D 2.8 GHz late 2009 MBP 17). That is, it's REALLY worth converting the files! Should you need to cut your (too long assuming you've forgotten to restart video recording during playing) video file in half so that they can still be uploaded, use (after converting to an MP4) avidemux2. Load the file; make sure you Copy both video and (non-existing_ audio. Drag the slider to the end of the clip (e.g., the end of the first half, should you want to export the first half). Save the first file; name accordingly. Then, click the B icon (8th icon, to the right of a red A icon); this will mark the end of selection. To save the second half of the video, don't move the slider, just click A, and, then, moving the slider to the right end, B. Save this half too. Do NOT pay any money for any commercial mp4 etc. cutter the free(!) avidemux2 does this task (and a lot more) for free!
