Deck 2 : Tidal Wave

This is the deck that won the Staff Tournament! It's called the Tidal Wave for a couple of reasons: First, it's an Air/Water deck. It would make a lot of sense to call an Air/Water deck a "water spout" (a tornado at sea), but "water spout" just sounds too dumb. Second, the Tidal Wave deck is all about speed - your opponents are in over their heads and washed away before they even know what hit them!

The key to a speed deck lies in your bankable cards. The aim of the game is to bank 21 points - there is another way to win, but I'll leave that for someone else to discuss. 21 points is simply the way to go. Most games that are evenly matched are won or lost based on which player draws the most bankable cards, so you want to be the player drawing cards that bank for 4 points (I'll call them fours for short).

For a real speed deck, you should consider having as many as 20 fours in a 40 card deck. This sounds extreme, but it works. Look at it this way: If you are banking fours, you will win the game with 6 cards in your bank. So if you win 6 contests in a game, but you didn't win the game because you were drawing cards or banking twos, then your opponent didn't really beat you - your deck beat you.

This is not to say that the person with the most fours wins - you do still have to actually win contests! So lets get to the cards that win contests for the Tidal Wave:

Deck Strategy

The important faerie type in the Tidal Wave deck is Water. And the Water pet to watch is the Poogle! The basic Poogles are all rare, so it can be hard to put together a Poogle deck, but it's well worth it, and all because of the Poogle Racer.

• Poogle Racers move without tapping, so if there is ever an empty arena, the Poogle Racer can, and most probably will win that contest.
• The Poogle Racer is the ultimate combo card: whether combined with a powerful equipment or a good SHH, everything that is good is better on a Poogle Racer! For example, Jhudora's Storm would be a very effective card with Poogle Racers in play.

The Basic Poogles have fairly equal stats across the board, so you don't have to worry about getting too many of them the way you would with Grarrls, for example. This kind of versatility gives this deck an early advantage - you are banking cards while your opponent is fumbling with the "wrong" pets.

The ideal situation for this deck is to have an Eyrie in the Strength arena and Poogles in two of the other arenas. Don't waste much time attaching equipment to your pets in the early stages unless they are really outmatched, but don't bank your equipment either - you should be banking fours, after all! The deck is loaded with Experienced pets, so it shouldn't take long to get a couple of them out.

When you get a Poogle Racer into play, it may not be a bad idea to put some equipment onto him, so that he can be a threat in arenas other than Agility. At least one Poogle Racer should be strong enough to take on Villains across the board so that you can unblock empty arenas. The Sceptre of Banishing looks very good on a Poogle Racer. Jerdana's Orb and the MSPP also serve this same purpose.

You may not always want to beat Villains, though. If your opponent has a lot of Villains, and especially if those Villains are Shadow Usuls, you may want to focus your attention on one or two arenas. This is where the Poogle Apprentice comes in handy. If you put a Poogle Apprentice in the Strength arena with a Battle Eyrie, you'll have a base of 20 and two dice rolls - even the dreaded Grarrl Gladiator will lose over 70% of the time against that team. Your opponent will quickly be sorry for playing so many Villains!

Other Cards of Note

Malevolent Sentient Poogle Plushie - The MSPP is always a handy card to have around. It's most useful against Villains, who all crumble before it. It's name provides you with a couple of good vocabulary words, too - look them up and impress your teachers! But be warned, the MSPP won't help ward off bullies.

Eliv Thade - A very handy Villain. If you are outmatched in the Intelligence arena, Eliv Thade will be glad to block it up for you. On the other hand, if you don't want to play him, you can put him in the Strength arena or Agility arena on your turn where you can beat him easily. Since he untaps you and gives you a card, you're basically just replacing him with another card! Another possibilty: You can put him in the Agility arena if your opponent doesn't have any pets in there to prevent your opponent from playing a Shadow Usul on you! It's good to have choices.

Juppies - Ok, they're just Juppies. Four point items just aren't all that exciting - there are no holo fours or rare fours, but if it makes you feel better, you can load up on uncommon fours like these.

Slorg Trails - Remember how I was saying that the Poogle Racer is a great combo card? Well, this is one of those combos. Pull your Poogle Racers out of arenas that your opponent's pets are in, and maybe even move your other pets out, too. A couple of these in a row, and you'll have ample time to defeat any (non-Usul) Villains, bank some points, attach some equipment, and get back to fighting without ever giving your opponent a chance to do anything but draw cards! Never play 3 Slorg Trails in a row, though - you may win the game, but it's not worth losing a friend over! J Boogie still won't talk to me!