| October 2016 | | War Continues! |
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 War has moved into Round 5, with unexpected event cards changing up the rules each and every round. Gravity, Air, and Darkness currently lead in the standings, but despite discard costs rising no teams are out of the running yet!
- Sign-ups have started for Double Double Double Double. Sound complicated? It's nothing of the sort - it's a double-elimination tournament where all games are two to win, all players are entered in the bracket twice, each player gets two elements, the number of upgrades doubles each round, each game has two players...well, maybe that last one is normal for EtG. Join today!
| | | | - 3 TO's, 3 Elements, Half-Life 3 confirmed. September 3rd's 3x3 unupped Speedbuilding tournament was the start of a brand new Speedbuilding September! Players had three trios to choose and build decks from (
 ,  ,  -  ,  ,  -  , , )! In the end, it was none other than hainkarga who claimed the number 1 spot in this tourney! Here is a brief interview:
Congratulations, haink!
- What once was old, is now new! September 10th's Unupped Speedbuilding Rerun was Speedbuild September's second tournament for this seasonal event! A TO rolled a 1d100, and each number represented a tournament based on how old it is(how many weeks ago from current tourney), and players had to build decks accordingly. When the show was over, glennfoo stood as the star on the stage, with his decks! A small interview below:
Congratulations, glen!
- What's in a name but just letters of text? September 17th's unuppped Name a Speedbuilding game was for sure a lively tournament for our third seasonal tournament. TOs chose a name to start with, and any cards that started with the letters of that name were allowed (with bans where needed). glennfoo won once again, scoring two victories in a row, with his amazing decks! Here's a short interview:
Congrats, glen!
- Here comes the diceroll! ...aaaaaand it's Ash Eater. September 24th's Upgraded Dice Speedbuilding was the capstone to end our Speedbuilding September! At the start of the tournament, TOs randomized a card for each round, players must include this card 6 times in every deck that round. It was kirbylover314 who stood triumphant over all others in this tournament, with his mysterious decks! A quick interview follows:
Congrats kirby!
| - Season 3 Leagues of 2016 have started! Start now and claim your place for fame and glory (and prizes)!
- Championship League: Aves and worldwideweb3 are currently tied for 1st place with 1510 points each. However, with a total of 5 matches having been played, it's still very much anyone's game this early in the season!
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- Even Odd 2: Even Odder in which players play as personalities in the psyche of the psychotic host Linkcat was there and gone in a flash, lasting only three rounds - just long enough for RootRanger to emerge as victor.
- Coders and Hackers compete for control of a server in the territorial Code Crash by fabian771. Sign ups are ongoing; if it sounds interesting you should definitely take a look.
- Mafia 63 rages on, hosted by none other than the wonderfully corrupt skyironsword. Strawberries have taken only a single ice creamy loss so far, but it's still anyone's game!
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- Council is now hiring one new League Organizer, go apply while you still have the time!
Tea Time with dark ripperBelow is the portion of an interview: Your name 'dark ripper' makes me think of a darkened Jack the ripper, has he had any influence on the choosing of your name? If not, how did you come to choose your name? (mathman101)
Indeed. dark ripper derives from Jack the Ripper. I originally wanted my name to be Jim the Ripper but it was taken, then I tried several other names like Jim Ripper, Jimmy Ripper, those names with capitals, numbers, but no luck, after a while i settled with dark ripper. I started using the name Ripper in my net games names about 7 years ago btw.
What keeps you coming back to the EtG community? (Lunaris)
Chat. I've already left the forums once because I more or less got bored of the game. I came back cause I missed the chat, the people I had awesome discussions with, and the crazy talk from time to time. Till then Ive considered leaving again a couple times, but I doubt Ill be ever again able to completely stay away from this wonderful community and its members
If you were to add a 13th element, what might it be? (Silver Emerald)
Hmm...
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New Members
Spoiler for Introduction posts: Here are the members who posted in the Introduce Yourself board within the past month. Just click a certain name to be redirected to the corresponding introduction post. Don't be rude, say hello to newcomers!  |
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 747 747 747 747 747 747 749 74d 74d 75m 75m 75m 75m 75m 75m 77f 77f 77g 77g 77g 77g 7gq 7gq 7n0 8pmDeck review and name by Basman-1453
Card by card:
Gravity Pendulums: Because even the most OP cards can never be casted without paying the quanta. More seriously, this deck arguably revolves around Graboids, Graviton Guards, and Pulverizers, demonstrating the strong bond Gravity and Earth have.
Nova: Because even the most OP cards can never be casted without paying the quanta. More seriously, aside of the extra quanta boost for Gravity and Earth (which this deck would have no trouble producing), you'll also need some Time to Evolve those Graboids into a veritable terror, as well as Water and Air for, respectively, Purifies and Improved Fog.
Elite Graboids: One of the offensive star of this deck. Three Earth for a 2/3 creature might not sound much (and indeed it is), especially if you don't read the fine prints. They're burrowed upon entry, and you can Evolve them as Time allows into a terrifying 10/4 monster that can protect itself from hostile CCs.
Graviton Guards: The other offensive star of this deck. Two Gravity for four attack might not sound much when you compare it to Life's Giant Frog, but seven (!) hitpoints is nothing to sneeze at, making it a very durable, efficient beatstick.
Pulverizers: Four Earth for five damage is nothing notable for a weapon, especially one that's upgraded. Its ability, though, is the reason why we're using this rather than a Gavel (which will deal seven damage per turn for just two random quanta, thanks to this deck's Mark of Earth). For two Gravity (three for unupgraded Pulvies), it lets you Destroy any one permanent -- be it an annoying shield, a dangerous weapon, or even a mere pillar -- per turn over the course of a match, potentially changing the tides of the battle.
Improved Fog: Hax shield. Seriously, though, it lets you evade physical attacks 40% of the time that (hopefully) it can buy you enough time to assert field dominance.
Gravity Shield: Creatures with high Attack tend to have high HP as well. This shield lets you evade physical attacks coming off creatures with more than 5 HP, protecting yourself from the stronger attackers.
Gravity Forces: A pretty versatile spell that lets you get rid of a hostile, problematic creature or protect yourself in a pinch. Considering this deck's offensive nature, it's mostly the former.
Purifies: While Purify's regeneration is almost pointless in itself, the fact that it nullifies poison (to save yourself) and especially Sacrifice effect (to bust your opponent's protection) is priceless.
Strategy:
Play your cards as fast as possible and let your creatures loose in the field, gnawing away your opponent's hit point. You might want to reserve Gravity Force on game-changing enemy creatures rather than wantonly using them on whatever, and you should reserve Purify just in case Shard of Sacrifice rears its ugly head.
Strengths:
This deck is at heart a rush. As such, your enemy will have to either outpace you in the damage race or stall you out, neither of which are very easy to do without the necessary cards. Elite Graboids and Improved Fog are absurdly cheap for the power it can bring, which helps the deck to keep its speed ahead of the opponent's rush. Stally deck, on the other hand, will have to deal with Pulverizers destroying their setup, opening them up to your critters.
Weaknesses:
As with all rainbows, an untimely Black Hole can quickly ground a rainbow to a halt. Not only it vacuums (amongst others) the Time you'll need to Evolve your Elite Graboids, the healing it gets off a rainbow is pretty significant. It also have limited CC, leaving you vulnerable to creature damage once you ran out of Gravity Forces. Rewinds can also be a problem, considering that chances are it's going to be used on the costly Elite Shriekers rather than the much cheaper Graviton Guards.
Although stally decks does have to deal with Pulverizer, dedicated stall decks that can deal with it will, more often than not, proceed to "take care" of your creatures' attack, one way or the other. Even then, this deck will have to draw their Pulverizer early enough to actually destroy the stall's setup and defeat it before this deck runs out of cards.
Alternative deck choices(1):
On formats where Shards of Sacrifice are restricted, you are probably better off replacing Purifies with Rewinds or Thunderbolts to help with CC. A Mirror Shield can also be useful if you're expecting a deck heavy on spell damage.
Swapping a few Elite Chargers in place of Graviton Guards can be tempting thanks to the Charger's ability to bypass shields, but it might strain your Gravity quanta too hard after Pulverizer usage.
(1) When the deck performed, the user was restricted from using, amongst others; Reverse Times, Lightning, and Sapphire Chargers. They were, however, free to use Shards of Sacrifice. Also, the user have to have at least half of their deck consist of Gravity cards.
This Card review was written by Hyroen
Air is commonly seen as the element of movement and grace. With built in mechanics of freedom, and with a heavy emphasis on Creature Control, Air is typically not too concerned with what you throw at it, because as long as its pieces come together, Air will win with a boom through explosives or soaring dragons and wyrms or it will win while sniping down all creatures that dare attack it and finish its opponent while the dust settles in silence. However, Air is not an element known for its Permanent Control, and though not all elements should need PC to be successful, Pineapple's interpretation of Air Permanent Control in Tornado makes so much sense in so many ways. It's soft and cheap effect is reminiscent of Fog Shield and its similarity to Dusk Mantle, while its form of Permanent Control is a fairly accurate portrayal of the possible turbulance that a Tornado can be, tossing everything around!
Permanent Control
Tornado | Tornado functions effectively as a cheaper form, less consistent form of  Steal, being very splashable as well in Rainbow decks or even in Trios due to its low cost and repetitive potential. However, its cheaper cost comes with a drawback, that it can be used by both players, as it switches ownership when used. This further works against the Air elemental because, one of its most potent cards, the Shard of Freedom functions best when left untouched by any form of Permanent Control. On the other hand, it works very well with the shield Wings, as all Air creatures but the Blue Nymph are airborne, and even if the opponent Windsweeps Wings towards themselves, it will be of little use. As such, if planning on using Tornado, while an interesting form of Permanent Control, it's a good idea to take some time to assess how effective the Permanents of your deck would be against you. Lastly, with a bit of clever use, against players it can also be used to play mind games. If Tornado is played early on, preemptively, it might discourage the opponent from playing vital Permanents of their deck. Otherwise, it should be used in response to Permanents being played, though keep in mind that Tornado is subject to summoning sickness just like every other card!
Here is a deck designed by Hyroen that shows an effective way to use Tornado | Tornado!
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4t9 4t9 4t9 7ms 7ms 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mv 7mv 7mv 7n5 7n5 7n8 7n8 7n8 7n8 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7te 7te 7ti 7ti 7ti 7ti 8pt
(Relics represent Tornado)
The opponent can't target what they can't see! Using Cloaks, this deck attempts to capitalize on the concealment in allowing Windswept Permanents to be more difficult to return to their owner, with only Cloak being visible. Furthermore, Cloak protects the frail Damselflies and the investments made in Sky Dragons that have been targeted by Liquid Shadow, which should really only be healing the damage that has actually managed to sneak through both Wings and the Eagle's Eye. Fortunately, in the typical scenario, the opponent will not be able to make too much use of either Wings or the Eagle's Eye as the former will let all your airborne creatures through and the latter will likely not have the cost to snipe down creatures (which should ideally be covered by Cloak to begin with).
Last month, we saw that  Light could be powerful on its own and can at times use a little help from cost conversion. This month, we see a card that beautifully represents the mechanics and thematics of Air while being given a suitable cost as well. Air Tornado is the Permanent Control card that it has waited for for a long time and if Zanzarino were to release a patch right now, Team Air certainly wouldn't mind this addition in their duels throughout the remainder of War!
Good luck to all teams in War!! Click HERE to find out more about War 10!!
Be sure to view more of Pineapple's work in the Card Ideas & Art!
Can anyone guess the element of next month's Card Idea of the Month?
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
Trivia Question of the Month A fact which relates back to Elements will be featured, with a question one month and its answer in the next.
(Please read and try before consulting Wikipedia.)
In recognition of cooling and chilling as well as some spooky traditions of October, this month's trivia pertains to Death.
The modern celebration of Halloween loosely derives from which of the following?
Spoiler for Last Month's Trivia: Q: Which of the following sets of equipment can be used to start fires in a reasonable amount of time? Assume an outdoors, forested environment. A: See the following list! - Rope x1, Wood Salvage x10
- Pinecone x3, Rusty Shovel x1, Spoon x1, Flint x2
- Paper x365, Flashlight x1
- Sunglasses x1, Signal Mirror x1
- Steel Wool x1, Calculator x1
Many thanks to:
-CleanOnion for Forum Games Section.
-dark ripper for the interview.
-Basman-1453 for DiotM.
-Hyroen for CiotM.
-all readers for reading
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