protectonics

[dragtom]

A golem protector that has been Fenghuang'd gets, upon replay, damage reduction equal to its previous max HP.
Recently I've been using a DG grinder build around this concept.

0j6ru0477i05780067e2027hb027h8057nd027ng018pr

Strategy:
grow golem defender however much is needed.
Bring it out on the field, and instantly use fenghuang's ability on it. You can magma it up more if need be.
When the golem dies, it will return to your hand, remaining the modifications: it no longer can use its ability.
However, it now has damage reduction equal to its previous max hp.
At this point, use magma to heal up and/or protect your creatures, fenghuang everything, and then use one of the following win cons:

• Build up 10 UG with air nymphs for the win.
• use water nymph to get more nymphs, combine fire nymph with fenghuangs to get high damage output
• deck the opponent out

Wins are slow. Go for 500 HP EM's, it is usually better than trying to get more games in with this deck.

Spoiler for tips:

• Using magma on yourself while already at 500 hp simply heals you. Using this, getting a 500 hp EM is relatively easy.
• Golem retains PA if you bring it out on the field, stopping you from using fenghuang. Wait until after it died.
• AI values UG very highly. It can be used as protection against DG like antiaverage.
• if your hand is full, a fenghuang'd creature that dies goes to the top of your deck. This makes decking out the opponent way easier. You can even use this against DG with reflective shield- magma or oceanus will heal it back.
• If you use magma once or twice on a creature, AI uses almost no damage-based CC on it. The exception is poison.
• When going for a OTK with 10 UG, you can only play 5 magmas; otherwise, you'll run out of space.
• If you have enough quanta (8 ), you can play another defender after using the ability of the 1st one. Occasionally the 2 damage reduction may save you.

Spoiler for card breakdown:

used cards:

Mark of Air	The deck needs a lot of early, but after that it doesn't need any at all. Later it needs and , but I found that being low on is usually more of a problem
Material Tower	Required, obviously. While the deck could use more, you need to draw your combo early enough.
Protect Artifact	Absolutley required against some DG, a dead card against others. The exact amount can be tinkered with. Note that dead cards are slightly less dead if you want to deckout using fenghuangs.
Golem Defender	Essential, of course. Using fewer than 5 is not recommended.
Magma	The most important non-essential card in the deck. It heals you, it gives you max HP, and it protects your creatures - even if they have been fenghuang'd. Be liberal with using this on your creatures for protection. Do make sure that, in case of deckout, you can still kill them.
Oceanus	The ramping healing helps against incidental damage and poison. It also makes getting an EM way easier, and gives the purity bonus. It is often worth not using magma for a turn to play this.
Water Nymph	There are a lot of DG that have a reflective shield. Against those, water nymph offers an alternative win condition. Earth nymph isn't very useful, although occasionally the delay is just what is needed. Fire nymph is often the best thing to get. It can both be used as CC and ramping damage, and combines very well with fenghuang.
Fenghuang	Another essential combo piece. If you can afford it, keep the ability up on every creature you have.
Air Nymph	The main win condition, but with all the protection, having only 2 is enough. Do not underestimate UG as CC- it is very often used as such.

unused cards:
red cards are not recommended; yellow cards are worth trying out; green cards are probably good.

Trident	While you do have the quanta to support this, you do not early. By the time you can start using this, you already safely sit behind a wall. Against most DG, this is worse than Oceanus.
Bobbit Worm	You do not need this for protection- fenghuang and magma are enough. There aren't a lot of enemy creatures that have low enough HP while still being a threat.
Purify	There are a few DG that are fairly difficult because of their poison damage. However, packing 1-2 purify will not suddenly make them easy- and they do slow down your combo at the start.
Fire Nymph	Replacing Water Nymphs with Fire Nymphs makes the alternate win condition a bit more straightforward- no more randomly getting the wrong nymph. Additionally, it becomes quicker to get the CC up. The downside is that you cannot get as many creatures- making you weaker against antimatter, and other non-damage CC. Additionally, against some DG earth nymph is the the CC you need. Still worth trying out, and probably close to Water Nymph in effectiveness.
Earth Nymph	You do have the quanta to play and use this, although not on the golem in the way you'd use magma. It can stop DG like Higgs or Kichomo from outgrowing the protector, or against Cardinal or Antiaverage to stop problematic abilities. However, it does cost a draw, and after using BB once it is unlikely you'll kill the creature- so you'll need to keep BB'ing it.
Arctic Octopus	This would deal with the same problem as Earth Nymph, but its faster to play. However, while you do have enough , the same cannot be said for .
Vanadium Warden	This would deal with the same problem as Earth Nymph. It is faster to bring out, but can only deal with 1 creature at a time. It does combine well with Fire Nymph though- most problematic creatures are not airborne.
Steam Machine	This'd be another win condition. While it is reliable high-damage output, it does lack the defensive capabilities of the nymphs. Additionally, it is weak against non-damage CC.
Lava Destroyer	Very similar to steam machine. It'd be easier to play and upkeep, but does want protection right away, and it also ramps slower. It eventually having higher HP than Steam Machine isn't relevant.

Spoiler for DG breakdown:

tl;dr table:
(easy: always start. medium: start with a decent hand. hard: start with great hand only, can lose even after setup. skip: dont bother.)

easy	Antiaverage, Neysa, Suwako
medium	Akan, Anubis, Atomsk, Cardinal, Janus, Nosferatu, Odious, Sesha, Swamp, Thetis
hard	Bernoulli, Gobannus, Halwn, Hydrax, Kichomo, Loki, Lycaon, Matrix, Nirrti, Tatatitat
skip	Higgs, Kenosis, mirage, pele, perses, tempest

DG details:

name	DR	comments
Akan	7-24	magma can outheal fahrenheit. You need an air nymph fairly early, and a PA for protector. Whenever Akan ignites an UG, counter-ignite to clear all the spores. UG protects magma.
antiaverage	12	you need either a fire or earth nymph at some point, to deal with BE. Getting 7+ UG also works, though this isn't reliable. Dont go for a 1shot with just UG, as they have SoD. You can clear their board several times using fenghuang and magma to protect your own creatures. This gives purity bonus, and allows you to set up an UG 1shot with the remaining UG.
Anubis	13	you need to use magma a lot on your creatures to protect from poison. Wait with 1st fenghuang until you can use protector's ability next turn, or until you have magma. Don't overplay creatures, 1 air nymph to bring out UG, and 1 fenghuang will do.
Atomsk	14-28	You need to PA defender. Liquid shadow will be used on fenghuang if they have it, and after on any nymph you may have. If you can get a PA'd shield out, use fenghuangs as bait for LS at least 1 turn before playing nymphs.
Bernoulli	22-31+	Bernoulli grows extremely quickly in damage. If you cannot quite get the biggest shield out, you can make do with UG for CC. Fenghuang sometimes gets jet streamed- using magma once stops this. With a shield up, SoFr is still a threat.
Cardinal	~10+	You 'need' to get an air nymph out before SoFr is played. use UG regularly for the CC, also on eggs, but make sure to always have one for a new SoFr. Saphire chargers can be outhealed with magma + oceanus. A fire or earth nymph helps as well.
Gobannus	21+	You need PA against steal. Burn card is surprisingly managable. You can definitely lose from outramping daggers.
Halwn	9	Play as few creatures as possible; use magma a bunch on air nymph, at ~30 hp you can replay it together with a fenghuang to fully heal it.
Higgs	30+	Higgs needs to have a particularly bad start. Use magma a lot on protector if you can. Kill minotaurs when possible. Keep PA in hand until AI plays trident, then PA your towers. You may be able to get a few extra nymphs out this way.
Hydrax	30+	Get lucky with being able to fenghuang protector. Play all your creatures for more freeze targets. Make as many nymphs as possible, while also setting up UG. Don't bother protecting your creatures.
janus	14+	Try to get a bigger shield. Make sure you keep your HP high enough to survive chimera. AI uses chimera without it being a 1shot, so you can kill it with creatures.
Kenosis	8	Chargers will just kill you, with black hole + sabbath there is no way to get enough CC set up before that point.
Kichomo	30+	Protector only gives extra time against Kichomo. Setup with air nymph, and hope for an earth nymph to slow golems down. Do protect your creatures.  You do need a PA for your shield, but you can risk only getting that later.
Loki	20+	Jade shield prevents UG kill, so you'll need fire nymphs. If you can use them to kill a few Shrtigas, you'll have a decent chance of winning. earth nymph can also be used on Shrtigas if needed. Use magma to make your creatures healthy to deal with the poison. Spread out your damage from fire nymph, to deal with pacify.
Lycaon	20-35+	Lycanthrope damage will very quickly grow. Try to get as many creatures out as possible to reduce the growthrate- but only as long as you keep enough towers to get as many UG out as possible. If you can use fire nymph or UG as CC, you should do so. Make sure you keep enough quanta for the OTK. Earth nymph will help a lot. Antimatter will likely stop you from winning through only creatures, so UG is needed. Of course, spread out your damage for antimatter.
Matrix	7-20+	Lobotomizer is deadly, but there is only 1 in Matrix' deck. Psions can be outhealed with magma. Byts are a problem, especially when fractalled. Use fire nymph/UG on them, even if it doesn't kill. Dont make a single creature too high att because of PU. Besides lobo, there is no CC, so dont use fenghuangs ability if not necessary.
Mirage	2	You will deckout, every single time. If you do fight Mirage anyway, then you should use golem as a damage creature. Try to have more fenghuang'd creatures die in a single turn than you have handspace, for the additional time before deckout.
Neysa	8	Make sure to get the 8 DR, otherwise the stacking regen will overwhelm you. You can win through either deckout or damage. For deckout, you likely need to get a few UG to send creatures back to your deck. Bubble shield will reflect the damage, so dont wait too long to still allow a 500 hp EM. It is possible to clear Neysa's creatures with UG, for the creature overwhelm bonus. Neysa can get up to 22 creatures. Dont forget to fill your field with UG for even more electrum.
Nirrti	4	Nirrti will deck itself out, you just have to survive until that point. Play as many creatures as possible early, to draw out all the reverse times, so you can bring out the golem. Having golem have exactly 4 DR is ideal, so that arsenic kills it in 1 turn. You may have to magma a fresh golem, likely to be in the case of a RT. PA oceanus and golem. Get UG as midas' touch bait, to protect magma. After you are set up, you need to carefully balance how many creatures you play. You need to get RT out so that Nirrti's hand doesnt get clogged, but you also need to get as many magma out as possible. Using water nymph is probably a bad idea.
Nosferatu	10	You need to PA your golem, after that there is almost no way to lose. There is no relevant CC. Nosferatu does have a miracle, so try to win using UG.
Odious	10	Play as many creatures as possible to drain all RT/unsummon before getting your golem out. It can still take a few attempts. After, focus on generating quanta and getting an air nymph to stick. SoW on phase dragon can be outhealed, but dream catcher could deck you out. Silences are at this point mostly annoying. Odious has no defence and no healing, so you are very likely to get there- eventually.
Pele	10	play out a few creatures to bait out RT, before sending out golem. Tunneling will cause you to lose in a few turns. Procrastination and RT will slow down your UG creation a lot. Time terrors are a problem before you have a magma, but aren't significant after.
Perses	8-20	You need to PA your golem, obviously. You also need to PA your towers, otherwise you'll have no quanta. You also need PA your magma. Do get out UG as long as something more important is unprotected. If you can get crusaders to endow oceanus it can buy you a bit of time. Once debris barricade is out, Perses will even start destroying their own permanents. At this point, you can only hope to deck them out, though their hand will clog.
Sesha	18+	Sesha has a lot of ways to remove abilities. Using magma on your creatures will help. Getting your 1st feng to stick is the most difficult part. Once you get your golem out, try to get a lot of creatures with water nymph. While the damage does ramp, it typically doesn't go quite as high as other DG.
Suwako	5	Ignore frogs. Magma'ing your creatures a few times protects them completely. Try to keep up 2 UG at all times to deal with druids. Kill them whenever they pop up. You do not quite have the luxury to win in any way you want, though they are likely to deck out if you dont kill them.
Swamp	8	Magma on feng is essential to make it survive despair. It is difficult to find the quanta through pests at the start, but once you have 8 DR shield up you can take your time. Build up UG for a 1shot. Dont try to kill pests. With UG, fungus' poison will start hurting you, and trying to get a fire nymph costs too much quanta. You wont deck them out, as their hand clogs way too early with creatures.
Tempest	7+	Jade and reflective shield will be given to remove your golem. You can try to have Tempest get a bunch of phantoms before that happens, but then phantoms will be killing you. Their own reflective shield will stop UG win, so you need to win with creatures. In case they give a broken mirror, use water nymph as much as possible to prevent them from filling your board. Stormspike can draw your water nymphs, and will eventually deck you out.
Thetis	3	Dont play too many creatures, to ensure you can still play an air nymph after flooding. Only try to keep a single air nymph alive. At some point you can let it die, to replay it and fenghuang - letting feng die again. Oceanus will lower the amount you have to heal yourself over time.
Tatatitat	4+	You need to get magma out early enough to deal with the titans and catapults. Golem is unlikely to die early, but you dont need it. You need to beef up your creatures to deal with oty and overdrive, but then gravity shield will stop you. Fire nymph to deal with oty works best at this point. An overdriven titan can be problematic. Earth nymph can help, but that is of course dangerous because of catapult. Trying to be faster works best.

[serprex]

Kermit Purple on Discord was showing a deck they're starting with, happened to have fenguang/defender combo, reminded me of ideas on protectonics, but as a 30 card deck it's less of a stall & more like rolhope

With Boomstick

015990c6ru0177i0277l0177v02780027ee027dq017hd017hb017h8027nd027nc018pm

Without Boomstick

015990a6ru0177i0277l02780037ee027dq027hd017hb017h8017nf027nd027nc018pr

[Septima Rhay]

Sense opponent cc? Put out Lava with 1hp, Feng it, Bob it, back to hand, back to board with burrow.

Defender/feng is diminished here, more of a splash element, can lock down mid-game, but feng/bobbit combo to protect and control, itself, is the primary strategy. To burrow Nymph, burrow feng to grow bobbit (assuming Bobbit didnt eat an opponent).

0d4te025920259g025fa045j0045ot025ol015p0018pr

0b6ru0277i02780017dm027dq047hg047nd027n5027ng018pr