| September 2017 | | Congrats to 14th Elements Council!
War is Upon Us! |
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- No new PvP Events have started this month, and there has been only minimal discussion about potential events to run since the major event War is fast approaching. Neither the 2016 WC Final, nor the Grandmaster Battle have been completed.
- The Elemental community grows restless as War slowly draws nearer and nearer. The WM's are hard at work and show it as they have brought out a more balanced and closer to a final revision of the market prices list. Also read up on the Official Rules so that you can be more prepared before you go and make an application in the Auction thread.
- The list of Generals has been revealed for the upcoming War. If you have a strong desire for any specific team, now is the time to cozy-up to the general, show them what you can bring to their team and let them know you want them to bid on you in the auction.
- In other War news, we went behind the scenes and asked the WM's a few short question about what makes a great War. Read these epic answers to learn about how much time and effort they put in, the secrets to the upcoming Event Cards, and much more.
Spoiler for Interview Questions: Thank you for taking the time to join us for this mini-backstage interview. Our readers would love to hear the secrets behind what goes into making a great war, and so we have a few questions for you today: 1 - What would you consider to be a change this year compared to previous years that will have the biggest impact on the participants? The new market prices we hope will make the market fresher, and the new auction system will make things more exciting. And we really hope you will have fun playing with the Super Event Cards!2 - Can you reveal to us an upcoming Event Card?  3 - Currently it is understood that Application submission will begin in early September. Any chance you could pinpoint a date for the official start for us? Yeah. It's August 28. It's definite now.4 - Is there anything else you can share with us from behind the scenes, that may not be known about the making of a great War? We considered Draft instead of Auction so that 9 teams wouldn't just bid on dragonsdemesne.
Then we decided we liked seeing that~Thank you for that riveting interview, and we look forward to seeing an awesome war this year. Stay tuned for the next behind the scenes when we come at you with something else new and exciting from another staff member's behind the scenes.
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- Journalism can be true with many facts, or utter nonsense with gibberish spread through out the sentences. Congratz to CleanOnion for his winning submission in the Yellow Journalism Competition. Read the stories he forged, and guess which is truth and which is gibberish.
- After many votes from the community and much work, the League of Battle Champions has ended with a winner. Congratz to andretimpa's winning submission set
   . We look forward to seeing these underneath the next set of League winners names.
- Campaigns, signs, slogans, and decks. This is what the Elelections Competition was all about when players created decks based off of a chosen political party. dawn to dusk has shown us what it means to tally up the votes, and create a winning submission. Congratz.
- Revivals of old competitions are always great to see, and the 9th rendition of MS Paint Card Art is no loss. Recreate the art of any in-game card using any basic art program similar to Microsoft Paint with a minor time constraint. Go create something now while their is still time to submit something.
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- Do you hear that? The Sound of Silence had players building decks based around the aether card silence on August 5th's tourney. Unfortunately either the theme was a bit tough to build around, or the time of the tourney was very bad as not enough people showed up and it had to be cancelled.
- What is more mysterious than not even knowing the rules? In August 12th's Speedbuilding: Hidden Rule tourney players were given a hidden rules minutes before the start and had to speedbuild based around those rules. Congratz to RapidStar_ as he mopped the floor with his opponents and won the tourney.
- Another old school classic tournament rear's it's head again. 6x6 Deckbuilding had players building decks based around a selected set of 36 cards on August 20th. Congratz to TheonlyrealBeef who managed to push his way to the top of the tournament circle.
- Three is a magic number, and completes what is uncompleted. August 27th had players building decks excluding all cards based on multiples of three in There is no Tri. phoenix1211 was the winner of the tournament as he tripled his way around his opponents.
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- League 2/2017 just finished! The last day started with worldwideweb3 in first place, with kaempfer13 and phoenix1211 in second and third place respectively. The day saw some intense battles and the final match between worldwideweb3 and phoenix1211 eventually decided the outcome, with phoenix1211 staying calm and taking the title! Prizes will be handed out soon if they have not been done so already. New league season has also just started, so get those games in early!
- For those who can't decide on their own restrictions, there are Weekly Featured Rules to tickle anyone's fancy! Just hop into chat and ask around for a match!
- With succulent Nymph/Mark and Electrum codes up for grabs, there's no reason NOT to jump into Leagues! It's a great way for new players to pick up the meta in preparation for war, or more experienced players to strut their stuff, or even try out some fun deck concoctions to see how they do! What's more, the max number of games per opponent has been increased to 15, and you no longer have to wait 20 hours between matches! Get involved now!
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- Toy Tanks has finished after 12 exciting rounds, and Linkcat has emerged victorious over his opponents. Both he and Ryli(2nd place finisher) will gain Master of Games points for their accomplishment.
- Mafia has restarted again and comes to us from host Linkcat with a Light Mafia rendition of the game. Watch as the participants battle each other with wit, skill, and hopefully some fun role based actions to kill each other off.
- Do you have an interesting idea for a forum game? Go post in the forum game ideas section or go chat with the Forums Games Organizer, Linkcat.
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All Over The Place!
- The Literary Arts section has flared up with several new stories or portions of stories from some of the writers in our community. Take a look over there and see what our members are creating.
- Over the last few weeks, the Arena rewards have slightly skewed their values. If you look at this image of some recent rewards, you'll see that gold as dropped to the cheapest payout and having platinum only slightly above bronze.
- We are always looking for more interesting facts and information to share with you in this section, so if you see something exciting happening on the forums that would fit here please pm the NLW team and share your thoughts.
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- Tournaments will again be replenished with new found creativity in our newly hired Tournament Organizers. Congratz to kaempfer13 and Ryli on your new staff position and we look forward to awesome tourneys.
Tea Time with antiaverageBelow is a portion of the interview:
What kind of dessert would you choose if you had to eat that and only that for the rest of your life? (Anonymous)
Gianduja. I love hazelnut chocolate.
Would you prefer shipping with person you don't like or shipping into a country you don't like. First one implies that people will mock you for it, and the second one - that you can't leave the ship on its way to the country and you'd have to be in said country for at least 24 hours. (DoctorC)
I don't quite follow. Am I choosing to be in a relationship with someone I dislike, or spending time on a ship with a person I dislike? That said, I love to travel, and would be totally on board with sailing to some randomly chosen country and spending time there. If it's a place I don't like for some unknown characteristic, all the more reason to go there and learn about and experience something new and difficult.
Sloths or Otters? (Anonymous)
Yes...
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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!  |
TUNE OF THE MONTH!
War is starting up, and nothing reminds us about that like seeing multiple applications being posted for the auction. Listen and find out what also reminds us that it is time for the big war event.
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4vj 4vj 4vj 55k 55k 55k 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 561 561 561 5lg 5oi 5rp 5rp 744 744 744 744 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pqThis DiotM is brought to you by Zyardran
Card by card:
Nova: For quick starting quanta. Also a source of extra quanta for low costing cards in this deck. Nova also doubles by creating extra unused quanta for your AW to use so that it does not take from needed gravity or light quanta.
Gravity Pillar and Gravity Tower: Consistent source of gravity quanta, without these you would have trouble getting your Titans and catapults out consistently and early enough.
Titan: Main part in the deck, massive HP when animated makes this good with catapult. Also the main damage source whether by direct damage, or thrown with a catapult.
Catapult: Used with Titan in this deck for massive damage vs your opponent.
Reflective Shield: A good backup in the case your opponent has brought a spell based deck.
Flying Weapon and Animate Weapon: Required for for the ability to catapult your Titans. also should RNG harm you by hiding your catapults, you can play multiple titans on the field with these to deal slow damage to your opponent.
Sundial: These will help delay the opposing damage from creatures to help find your key cards to set up the combo. By having light quanta in the deck, it also allows for extra drawpower to cycle through your deck quickly to aquire your key combo cards.
Strategy:
The main strategy of this deck is getting your titans and catapults out as early as possible. Since Titan has 50 HP when flown, it will do immense damage to your opponent when it gets catapulted. This is where the flying weapon card comes into play, because you can't successfully catapult Titan if it's not on the board. Reflective shield is a very good option if your opponent has spells such as Drain life or Firebolt.
Strengths:
This deck is a very fast deck, with enough quanta to get what you need as soon as possible and do the most damage. It does well against slow decks or stall type decks, by having multiple catapults you can throw all your titans at once for an one turn kill so that the opponent may not stall.
Weaknesses:
This deck is susceptible to counters such as PC, which could get rid of your catapults or non-flown weapons. Reverse time can also play an issue if a Titan is played on the board without catapulting it in the same turn.
Alternative deck choices:
Freeze could also be added in as an useful alternative, due to the effect that catapulting a frozen titan can do extra damage. Freeze could also be used as additional CC should you be unable to find your sundials early enough for slowing the opponents creatures damage.
This Card review was written by Aves
 Water is an element with a variety of defensive options high compatibility with other elements. Cards like Nymph Queen and Shard of Patience can find their way into any sort of duo or rainbow deck, and water has the highest number of off-element abilities in the game. Central to water's arsenal is the freeze mechanic, with a total of four cards using it in some form: Freeze, Ice bolt, Arctic Squid, Ice Shield.
OdinVanguard continues his series of alternate weapons as he delves into the possibility of a second weapon for Water.
Weapon Choice
Water's existing weapon, Trident shakes the  Earth by using the powerful Earthquake card as its ability, destroying up to three pillars in a stack. Throw in some Iridium Wardens and a Shard of Patience and there's the beginnings of a classic deck. However, trident's high ability cost and low damage means it doesn't go well if the quanta is not readily available.
Kelvin | Kelvin provides much higher attacking power, with 6 and 7 to trident's 3 and 4, providing more atk at a lower quantum efficiency. The new weapon's ability also provides a degree of control, but in a different utility. While earthquake is a stable, targeted ability destroying up to 3 quanta producers, the mechanic here is both random and scaling. Instead of a certainty of quanta control, a random card is chosen in the opponent's hand or deck, and made unplayable for 3 turns. Against a 30 card deck, this means that the initial chance for any given card to be frozen starts at around 10%, and increases as the game goes on and cards are put into play. While this is far less reliable, it also has more scaling potential, with more cards being frozen at higher quanta amounts. When paired with the freeze mechanic to deal with early threats, this weapon seems like a fine stalling control tool, especially when animated with multiple copies. Thematically, this makes a nice counterpoint to Shard of Bravery
Here is a deck designed by Aves that shows an effective way to use Kelvin | Kelvin!
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 6rk 6rk 6rk 6rk 6rk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7go 7go 7go 7gr 7gr 7gr 7gr 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 8pp
(Swords represent Kelvin)
This deck spams Arctic Squid and animated Kelvin to start an attempt at lockdown. The idea is for the hand to be completely frozen with the new weapon's mechanic, while any creatures that make it through are dealt with through the traditional Ice Lance and squid combo. Much like existing quanta-control based decks, such as pestal or DBH, setting up the conditions for a lockdown early are key. With all the quanta producers available it should be easy to gain a high amount of water quanta to slowly lockdown your opponents hand or deck as the weapons slowly stack their freezing abilities.
Water is a versatile element with many synergies. Kelvin | Kelvin takes an old mechanic and adds a new twist, giving a high powered weapon that takes itself to the spotlight.
To see more card ideas check out the Card Ideas & Art section!
Until next time!
Many thanks to:
-antiaverage for the interiew.
-Aves for CiotM.
-worldwideweb3 for Leagues section.
-all readers for reading
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