The General - by RootRanger

[RootRanger]

Attention, soldiers! The dawn of the War is upon us! You will be serving as my  -

Gah! What was that?

Hm. It appears that my left knee has been punctured by an arrow of some sort. Shame. I had planned on using that one.

It seems I am in no condition to fight in the battlefield. But what I can do is select one of you as my replacement. In the coming weeks, I will present a series of challenges designed to narrow down the field to just one person.

The winner will become the General of Team Fire. Are you in?

[RootRanger]

Qualifying Round

The mark of a great General is the ability to predict his enemy’s movements in the battlefield and organize his own troops accordingly.

To qualify for this contest, you must present an example of your own ability to outmanuever your foes!

Include the following in your sign-up post:
- A link to a game you won by countering the opponent’s deck (games should come from PvP Events, Tournaments, and Trials)
- An explanation of why you expected your opponent to use the deck or strategy he ended up using
- An analysis of how your deck was most likely to win against the opponent’s deck

Players whose submissions fulfill the above critera will advance to the next round. Submissions will be declined if the game was won through luck rather than superior deck choice. A small advantage in future rounds may be given to players with extraordinary submissions.

The Qualifying Round has ended.

[iancudorinmarian]

[00:24:49] ‹RootRanger› I have absolutely no standards for who ends up being picked!

In that case, I'm in. I can lead two war teams, right?

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/three-man-team-pvp/three-man-team-pvp-7-round-7-(final-round)/msg1235513/#msg1235513

In G1 and G4, I countered this RootRanger guy. I heard he's pretty good, so that must count for something.

Why did I expect him to bring those specific decks? Easy. I just knew it. I analyzed every move of RootRanger for weeks before that match and found out his strengths and weaknesses. I was expecting him to try to use dims even though I have steals, just to catch me by surprise. And after that, I thought he might try to counter my psiontal with CC. And what is the best CC against a deck that buffs a single minion a ton of times? BB. (Well, RT is better, but he did not have that). So I expected him to go for / . Antimatters were countering a golem build he might go for, and I also added steals to get my stuff back in case he was going to pack steals himself.

My decks were most likely going to win against his because his options were pretty limited in terms of countering mine, so he had to mindgate perfectly to be able to win the match.

I actually beat the organizer. Twice. This has to count as "extraordinary submission", otherwise, reported for unfairness.

[RootRanger]

iancudorinmarian has qualified.

Note that players who are ineligible to be General of Fire may still compete, but at least 1 of the final 2 players will be eligible.

[killsdazombies]

This sounds fun c:


[00:00:00] ‹killsdazombies› I can start my post with a quote too


http://elementscommunity.org/forum/trial-battle-results/(trials-10-phase-2)-(life)kdz-3-1-willng3(life)/


In G3, 4 and 5 (Though game 3 I accidentally took too many of the upgrade type I loathed ,so it counted as a loss)


G3, Given willngs love of his nymphs, and the fact I didn't ban them, I assumed he would try to include them in most every deck, so I sat down and decided that if I couldn't really stop them when they were on the field (I was saving my heavy blocker decks for the endgame, as I was 1-1 at the time) I would just drain all the quanta I humanly could. I figured he would run a light or firestall, and stay beefed up with tons of healing, low and behold he brought light, but rather than the stall I was expecting, he tried to rush angels with miracles, though with no quanta either way he was a sitting duck


G4. The thought was that this was 2-1, my lead, so I figured in this position, I would take the strongest deck I could, which for life, seems to be a mono, and given his track record, I assumed this would be assured. Thus, I took my old trusty earthstomper and plopped a few diamond shields. The two damage per turn his chickens did was offset by the jade staves I included as well.


G5. In his position I would use my SoW reflect deck I used earlier, since I loved that deck the moment it was used on me, and it countered a large amount of the decks I tried to run, failing that I might run psions, but either way I would prolly use aether. I figured the best way to beat down an aether with no dim shields, was the rush the living heck out of it, and call it night. I had an astronomical amount of perm upgrades too, so I assumed I should take the safe bet and pack some in. Sure enough, his spell damage exclusive deck shuddered to a halt when met with one.

G3 - quanta denial into dust

G4 - Diamonds beat frogs

G5 - jade beats spells

[RootRanger]

killsdazombies has qualified. Am I correct that you intend to be General of Fire if you win?

[Vangelios]

Heya..... wierd, weird...

 When I hurt my knee was easier, practical and effective to choose a good general...
let's see if your method brings good results to great war 10 for fire...

[RootRanger]

Heya..... wierd, weird...

 When I hurt my knee was easier, practical and effective to choose a good general...
let's see if your method brings good results to great war 10 for fire...

If you are concerned that the challenges I have prepared will eliminate the best candidate, then worry not. But apparently a greater concern seems that the best candidate might not sign up...

[theelkspeaks]

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/trial-final-battle-results/(9th-trial-of-earth)-theelkspeaks-5-1-megron/

I discuss my gameplan and my countering a bit in the thread linked, but I'll go into more detail here.

I knew that I had a massive upgrade advantage, and specifically remembering Higurashi's comments about the DANIEELA-deuce Trials final, I was aware of the fact that a player with a massive upgrade disadvantage has the lode on them to avoid just dying to rush decks.  If you want to not die to rush decks, you have to play control decks, so I focused my bans for this Trials final on powerful control decks.  Having done so, I noticed one control-leaning discrepancy between our bans, that MegroN had banned Dim Shield and I had not.  I decided to focus on countering Dim Shield decks and trying to beat down as hard as I could with Earth rushes.  This highlights my approach to countering - presenting several diverging paths that all have a good chance of winning rather than predicting the specific deck.  My decks were high enough in PC to win against a control deck using Dims, fast enough to beat control decks without dims, and faster than MegroN's decks by more than a full turn thanks to upgrade advantage.

How were my decks most likely to win? Any of those several ways.  I knew that MegroN was a player who tended to play more rushes, but his upgrade disadvantage should have led him to play control.  I countered the decks he "should" play, while still making decks that beat the plan his player-tendencies would lead towards.  The latter is what happened - he played towards his player tendencies, and was overwhelmed by my midrange rushes.

[Solaris]

yolo

Today, we will be analyzing the counters present in my 10th Trials Match against JonathanCrazyJ of Water..

For our purpose of looking at counters, we will be looking at Game 1 and Game 5.

Starting off with Game 1, we both had all of our elements on the table. Naturally, Water struggles very much against Wings, as Water's only airborne creature is Ice Dragon, which isn't a fantastic competitive option, IMO. Additionally, since he has slim access to PC and bypass, a Wings OE deck is a very natural choice to make, if you're in my position. The chances of it succeeding were greater than the chances of it failing, so I played it. Paid off.

Now, we will shift to Game 5. Game 5 is a very different story, as our side-element numbers have dwindled down, and I believe he has access to and one other element that skips my mind. Earth is a very strong duo with Water, due to the oppressive qualities of Trident and Earthquake. Now, I wrack my brain in confusion, wondering how I can deal with this... Oh yeah, that totally underused card, Solar Shield! Assuming I got 3 quanta + a Solar Shield in my opening hand (not a tall order by any means), I'd have a somewhat steady flow of quanta. Now, I'd need something to heal me up decently, as denial will still slow me down a fair bit... but Miracle is expensive, and chances are I'll be facing denial... oh look, Darkness side-element! Took 3 cards that have healing + somewhat work well with Light, and coasted my way to a victory.

also I'm active as sin and that probably helps a bit

[RootRanger]

Following the qualification of theelkspeaks and Solaris, sign-ups are closed.

The first of three challenges will be posted later tonight.

I am glad to see a very solid group of participants, and I look forward to your entries.

[RootRanger]

First Challenge

The mark of a great General is impeccable clarity.

Our soldiers have assembled an excellent lineup of strategies to use against our enemies. Unfortunately, a nefarious spy has scrambled our information! It is up to you to piece it back together.

To advance to the next round, you must match the following five decks to their correct opponents: teams Air, Earth, Gravity, Life, and Time. You are given a few clues regarding what the opponents will use against you.

Spoiler for Decks:

Immogolems

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Deck import code : [Select]

4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 52q 5c1 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5l9 5l9 5l9 5l9 5l9 5l9 5rk 5v1 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7dq 7ds 7ds 7ds 8pm

Fractix

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Deck import code : [Select]

5f0 5f0 5f0 5f2 5f6 5f6 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 622 622 622 622 622 622 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 8pu

Jonnington Jr.

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Deck import code : [Select]

5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f5 5f5 5f5 5f7 5f7 5f7 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5li 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pq

Darkness Domin

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Deck import code : [Select]

5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f2 5f2 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5up 5up 5v1 5v1 7t9 7tb 7tb 8pt

Vault Leftovers

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Deck import code : [Select]

5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f2 5f2 5f2 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 7dn 7dn 7dn 8pu

Spoiler for Clues:

Two teams are using well-established Flying Weapon decks.
One team is using a Mono deck.
One team is using Fractal on a creature that costs 4 quanta.
The team with multiple creature control spells is using a Light Stall.

Send your submission to me through private message by filling out the form below with the correct team names (Air, Earth, Gravity, Life, Time).

Spoiler for Form:

Immogolems -
Fractix -
Jonnington Jr. -
Darkness Domin -
Vault Leftovers -

Correct answers will be rewarded with points, and players with more points will have a greater advantage for the final challenge.

The First Challenge has ended.

EDIT: I mistakenly made the post unclear about whether this challenge is a matter of elimination or points. I should clarify that there will be no elimination, but completing the challenge correctly (along with the second challenge, to be posted after this one) will award points. Players will then be given an advantage in the final challenge depending on how many points they have, and the winner of the final challenge will become General.