Hello poxers, Kaervas here. Welcome to the first installment of deck building weekly. Each week I’m going to be describing different theme decks and combinations. For this first post I’ve decided to describe a combination cyclops and beast deck. Cyclops in particular received a couple neat new toys in this expansion that make them much more competitive in the 200 - 500 range of rank, and even higher. So, without further ado:

Full Faction SP Cyclops/Beast Deck
Cyclops Chieftain x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 57 hp, Boost Cyclops 2, Magic Bomb 3 - 100 Nora

Cyclops Nemesis x2
Upgrades: 11 speed, 58 hp - 50 Nora

Alpine Cyclops x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 53 hp - 75 Nora

Cyclops Seer x2
Upgrades: 9 speed, 49 hp, Afflict 2, Poison 2, Sustain - 74 Nora

Venegeful Cyclops
Upgrades: 9 speed, 55 hp - 75 Nora

Cyclops Battlefiend
Upgrades: 7 speed, 60 hp, Unstoppable - 73 Nora

Cyclops Youth
Upgrades: 9 speed, 46 hp - 61 Nora

Moga Cannon x2
Upgrades: 11 speed, 54 hp - 79 Nora

Pit Wolf x2
Upgrades: 45 hp, Rabid 3 - 56 Nora

Voil Transporter x2
Upgrades: 41 hp - 60 Nora

Hyaenid Spearmen
Upgrades: 9 speed, 48 hp, Poison 1 - 71 Nora

Clay Form
Upgrades: None - 85 Nora

Avalanche x2
Implant x2
Slaver’s Whip x2
Magnify Beast
Echo Chamber x2
Rock Trap
Tribal Post

Champions: explained
This deck has a few combinations going for it. Naturally there is the obvious cyclops angle - getting a chieftain and an alpine cyclops out will give the rest of your cyclops nice mobility and good stats, particularly damage. The Nemesis are your main damage dealing force, hitting for 18 under boost extremely cheaply (alpine cyclops hit for a solid 16 as well) - use implant on them if the Earthmover is about to be an issue. The seers are your general support option from the cyclops side, they can do some healing, be a pain with afflict and poison 2 and are great holders of the slaver’s whip. The youth provides cheap anti-equip and also can be used in combination with afflict. The Battlefiend is great if you can get him out early and go through a couple implants - you can get him over the threshold quite rapidly through use of drive and boost, only 2 deaths are needed (which means he keeps his massive defense). The cannons and Hyeanid provide the long range power, Pit wolves block, optimally with magnification to help, and do great DoT. Voil transporters let your cyclops move around more easily and can equip the whip for driving purposes.

Spells: explained
In the non-champion corner we have a fairly diverse spread. Magnify is obvious, as are avalanche and echo chambers. Implant combos very well with the cyclops nemesis and provides additional damage if necessary. The slaver’s whip gives access to drive when you need it, which can be a great boon - boost + drive can make units hard hitting fast. The possession angle is also useful as a utility effect - you can do fun tricks like possessing someone and using them to drop a rock trap, relocating a possessed unit into your army for killing later, or possessing after an Earthmover nemesis has used his create chasm ability and using it’s chasm to your advantage. Even when these opportunities don’t present themselves, it is useful on a transporter or seer, who don’t need to attack constantly.

Discuss this on PoxNora Forums

Kaervas Assistant Game Designer

When the acquisition of PoxNora and its dev team to SOE was announced on the PoxNora forums, the first reaction was panic. Hardcore, long time players were concerned that their special, relatively small independent game and community was going to drastically change. I think this is a common reaction of most communities that are formed around independent games, which are at some point acquired by the bigger fishes, and I think that it’s just and normal. However, as many of you know, from John Smedley’s post, that’s not what’s in store for PoxNora.

GROWING PAINS
In the coming months there will be some restructuring in regards to the community of Pox – I like to think of it as growing pains. These are necessary and healthy. My goal through all of this is to make sure that the PoxNora Community is able to continue to adapt and grow into the strong, socially empowered community it is.

FORUMS
Contrary to what some of you may think being acquired by a large, successful gaming company will do wonderful things for PoxNora, especially in regards to the community development. In the coming months we’re going to be moving over to SOE”s forum structure – I’m very excited about this, as it will allow for the Community Team to help out when needed, and will also allow for easier navigation throughout the many forums on station.com. It will be much easier for newer players and even those coming from another SOE game to interact within the PoxNora community. “But what about my posts Hawk!? What about all the hard work I’ve put into our current forums?” – Our goal is to transfer all preexisting threads and post to the new forum structure. I will be announcing all of this as it begins to take place.

DETAILED ATTENTION
Up until know I’ve been your community manager and your customer service support lead. It’s been a lot of work for one person, even with the help of our QA department sharing the responsibility. Many of you have experienced this, especially during and around our expansions. In the coming months all of the PoxNora customer support will be moved over to SOE’s support team, this will accomplish two things. One, it will allow me to invest my full attention to community management, development and events and it will allow the support and customer service of PoxNora to have the full amount of dedication it much deserves. This will take some time; so let me thank everyone ahead of time for your everlasting patience.

PLAYER/COMMUNITY GROWTH
You’ll also see more of an overall integration of PoxNora’s community into SOE’s community. This means more communication, more interaction in game and forums, more events, more friends. Not to mention, you may even find a new game by meeting someone new in the larger community. I’m most excited about the growth of our player base. ☺

I’ve greatly enjoyed being PoxNora’s Community Manager/Support Lead and look forward to the great things this acquisition will continue to bring. To all our hardcore, dedicated Pox players – Thanks for your support, thank you for the fun and life you bring to our community. Stick with us, its only going to get better.

Discuss this on our forums.

Cheers.

Hawk Community Relations Manager