In reviewing this deck, I am assuming that the reader is familiar with the basics of how Blue Moon is played. I will attempt to give an idea of what it is like to play with this deck, its strengths and weaknesses, and what makes it different than other decks.

Artwork:

The Aqua deck has some of my favourite artwork: crisp, with blue/green backgounds. An underwater effect of murkiness is evident on some of the cards, but does not detract from the precision of the artwork. Creatures, humanoids, and settings are all interesting to look at.

Play:

Like the Pillar and the Flit, the Aqua can be described as an unusual deck. When we first got it, we couldn't win with it at all, until we got used to it. It has 7 cards with the Protected icon, which protects the card with it from negative effects. We thought this icon would be extremely powerful, but it doesn't come into play as often as we thought, meaning it is more powerful against some decks than others.

Early on we also had problems with running out of character cards, or not having one with a value above 0 for the contested element, until we got used to being able to play cards with near abandon, and using the Administer Water of Immortality leadership card which allows you to shuffle you discards into your draw deck. This deck also has some unusual power text, and rather odd conditions for its mutant.

When you get the hang of playing this deck, however, it is a fun deck to play, if less puzzling than you might initially think.

What follows is a description of the cards found in this deck:

Character Cards Without Special Power Text: There are eight of these cards, but only three of them have values in both elements: 5/5, 3/3, 3/3. The other five have a zero in one or the other element: 5/0, 3/0. 0/3, 0/4. 0/5, but all of these cards have the protected icon.
What the Aqua lack in high value character cards, they make up for in other areas.

Chrarcter Cards With Special Power Text: There are five of these cards. Yin (0/2) allows you to play your next booster/character/support card as if it had the free icon, as does Yang (2/0). These cards are excellent for boosting your score (and allowing you to draw more cards), and can also be very helpful for playing the Aqua's rather unusual mutant.

A Hoax traitor (2/2) ignores your opponent's icons except Stop. Oosa-Aqua-Epsilon (1/1), allows you to put any number of cards on the bottom of your draw deck. This is can be especially useful for your Leadership card that allows you to shuffle in your discards, your mutant, or in some cases the other character card with special power text: Oomola-Aqua-Delta. This card allows you to discard any number of cards--this is an excellent card to play at the end of the game if you are ahead.

Boosters: The Aqua have five very good boosters. Sudden Waterspout (2/0), and Instant Undertow (0/2) both have the free icon, and can really help to augment your character cards, especially when you have to play a character card that has a 0 value in the contested element.

A Flit traitor has values of 2/2, and Firewater allows you to increase your total power in fire to 7. Aquatic armour has a shield in both elements and brings the score down to zero.

Suppport: The Aqua have eight support cards. Two of them have the free icon (2/0, 0/2), and two of them have the Protected icon (3/0, 0/3). The free cards are extremely useful in much the same way that the boosters are, and the Protected cards can sometimes thwart your opponent's plans.

Irresistable Sirens is a very powerful support card that forces your opponent to discard a character card by the end of their booster/support phase, even if they retreat. This card can end a fight pretty quickly.

One of the Terrah's storm cards is in this deck (1/1), but cannot be paired. But there is a pair of Flood cards and if they are active at the end of your turn, your opponent must retreat. These cards are a guaranteed win.

Leadership: The aqua only have two leadership cards. Sprinkle Water of Tranquility forces your opponent down to five cards, which can be quite devastating if you are playing against the Khind or Hoax after they have made a big draw.

Administer Water of Immortality allows you to shuffle your discard pile into your draw deck. This means that you're not going to run out of cards in the endgame unless you want to, and that can be very helpful.

Mutant: The mutant has high values (7/7), but can only be played if your opponent has at least two more cards than you. There are a few situations when this can occur: if your opponent draws extra cards, or discards two of your cards, or at the end of the game when you are running low on cards (that's why you may want to place the mutant on the bottom of the draw deck if you get the chance).

You can also make it happen if you play a leadership card followed by Yin or Yang, and then your mutant.

Putting your mutant at the bottom of the deck doesn't always pay off, especially after you have shuffled in your discards. I like to keep the mutant handy if possible. It's not as limited as you initially might think.

Strategy/Tactics:

What is most different about playing with this deck is that you needn't worry about running out of cards. So you may find yourself playing a character card with a fire value of 0, and boost your score up to five with a free booster, and a support card. No need to worry about wasting the earth value on that character card, or the booster and support card, they can all come back to you after you shuffle your discards back in. You still have to make decisions, but you need to less hesitiant about playing cards compared to other decks.

Be sure, however, that you shuffle in your discards the turn before you want fresh draws because the leadership card does not allow you to immediately draw.

You should want to play as many cards as possible so you can draw as many cards as possbible, otherwise you may find yourself without character cards, or without enough booster/support cards to make your character cards worthwhile.

The cards allowing you to put cards on the bottom of the deck can be very useful in preparing your endgame. The mutant, Water of Immortality, the card allowing you to discard, or even just free boosters and support cards, are all worth putting at the bottom, depending on what you can afford to take out of your hand. This card also provides a good opportunity to make a much needed big draw.

The flood cards are very powerful, and sometimes playing just one of them will make your opponent hesitate if you are getting close to six cards.

As long as you keep a steady supply of new cards coming in, you should be able to find something that works with this resourceful deck.

Conclusion:

This deck can be very fun to play because much of the "should I save or spend" anxiety is absent. That is not to say that you play with reckless abandon, but you can play with less worry. You can come up with some pretty crazy combinations of cards to meet your opponent, even using 0 value cards to meet requirements, or just to get new draws.

This deck is not quite a one trick pony, but you definitely have to grasp the importance playing what's available to get more of what's available, if you want to do well with this deck. Once you get past this, the Aqua are not an overly sophisticated deck, but they are certainly enjoyable to play. I give this deck an 8.