Two colours very often beat one in Culdcept Begins, but only when they can share a board well. Deployment limits mean certain elements actively block each other, so the land you develop ends up locking your own creatures out of it.

The pairings below work with that restriction instead of against it, and the two at the bottom are the traps to spot before you spend fifty slots finding out the hard way. Pick a combo here, add your favourite neutrals and spells and so on, and you're off to a good start.

Best Element Combinations

A book of decks in Culdcept Begins.
  • Fire and Earth. Fire wins fights it cannot hold, and Earth holds ground it cannot win. Pair them and each covers the other's failing, with Fire's first-strikers clearing squares for Earth's walls to settle on. The designers seem to agree, since Grimalkin is the one creature in the set that supports two elements at once, and those elements are Fire and Earth.
  • Water and Air. Air claims territory faster than any colour, then hands it to Water's negation walls to keep. Water's card draw feeds the swarm, which matters for an element that burns through cheap bodies at pace. Neither restricts the other's deployment, so your board never fights itself.
  • Fire and Air. Two aggressive colours stacked, with Attacks First on nearly every body and a tempo no defensive build can match. The catch is the missing back line, which lets a grinding opponent outlast you once your fragile attackers trade off.
    • Death Miasma punishes this pairing harder than any other in the game.

  • Water and Earth. The fortress, and close to unbreakable once it settles. Earth's regenerating tanks and Water's negation combine into squares nobody sane invades. Your problem is closing: land comes slowly and you win on tolls rather than force. A little luck-based, but very effective in the right situations.
  • Any colour and a heavy Neutral splash. Neutral creatures deploy anywhere without penalty, so they never clash with your primary element. A small package covers the jobs your colour handles badly, but it's more than viable to go all-in on neutral as a secondary, whether that means economy from Golden Totems or an answer to a fat Neutral anchor from Cleric. You can find great options in the Neutral selection to fit into any deck.

Combinations To Avoid

A tutorial scene from Culdcept Begins.
  • Fire and Water. This is almost too obvious. Several Fire creatures cannot deploy on Water land, and several Water creatures cannot deploy on Fire, so every square you develop shuts out part of your book. Kraken goes further and loses HP if you hold any Fire land at all.
  • Earth and Air. Less obvious than Fire and Water, but still rather obvious. The same trap on the opposing axis, and a worse one. Air has the longest "cannot be deployed on Earth" list in the set, so an Earth-heavy board strands your flyers in hand while your tanks refuse the Air squares.