4th Trials - [Life Finals] willng3 5-4 ak65ala - Saturday 1400ish GMT

[willng3]

Dun dun dun~

[ak65ala]

Will the favored new "master of life" take the trophy & the title, or will the underdog steal the show? 

5:1 odds! (based on community vote)
Battle 1: 0-1

by ak65ala

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5bs 5bs 5bs 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5de 5de 5de 5on 5on 5on 5on 5on 5on 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7aj 7aj 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7n5 7n5 7n5 8pr

Air vs. Death.  won toss, lost.
Pillar + Pend draw for myself, one pend for will.  He got out some early poison then I followed it up with a dragon + eagle's eye.  Fairly even till the bonewall.  Took too long to break it down and poison got me.

Battle 2: 1-1

by ak65ala

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4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vc 4vg 4vg 4vo 4vo 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5de 5de 5de 5de 6u7 6u7 6u7 6u7 6u7 6u7 7al 7al 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pj

Entropy vs. Light.  won toss, won.
Drew a good portion of quanta.  Will played a few leaf dragons.  I had one antimatter in hand, waiting for some dragons.  3 came down at once.  Drew up to 10 quanta sources, sweating, not seeing my shield or anymore antimatters.  Drew a 2nd antimatter right when I needed it, sitting at 4 life and taking him down.

Battle 3: 2-1

by ak65ala

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5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5de 5de 5de 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 622 622 622 622 7ac 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ak 7al 808 808 808 808 808 808 8pu

Aether vs. Fire.  lost toss, won.
I saw fire and knew... great.  Rain of Fire.  Then I remembered I had 1 Jade shield in this deck. Drew it turn 5 or so.  So happy.  Fractal came around turn 10 and grabbed his dragons and won.  Curious to see if Will had bolts.

Battle 4: 3-1

by ak65ala

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5bs 5bs 5bs 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rg 5rh 5rh 5rh 5rh 5rh 5rh 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7aj 7aj 7al 7al 7bu 7bu 7bu 7qc 7qc 7qc 8ps

Time vs. Air.  won toss, won.
Didn't like the matchup.  Knew he was going to have some good CC.  Favoriable draw with 2 pharoahs.  Quick deja-vu to throw him off.  Built up and dropped both pharoahs then started building my army.  Bonds kept me alive and the pharoahs lasted long enough.  He popped an adrenaline staff on the last turn, luckily I had exactly the damage needed to kill him then.

Battle 5: 3-2

by ak65ala

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55k 55k 55k 55k 560 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5c3 5de 5de 5de 745 745 745 745 745 745 749 7ac 7ac 7ac 7al 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pl

Gravity vs. Aether.  lost toss, lost.
Total destruction by willing.  Turn 1 frog, turn 2 frog... turn 4 fractal, turn 5 win.  I had a hand cloged with dragons, and only drew 2 quanta sources.  Played 1 charger, 1 staff before I got stomped.

Battle 6: 4-2

by ak65ala

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4tc 4tc 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5c8 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 5v1 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ak 7ak 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7t9 7t9 7t9 8pt

Darkness vs. Earth.  won toss, won.
Such a favoriable matchup for me.  Got out a turn 1 scorpion, drew of my my guys in the first few cards.  Stole the staff, stole a shield on turn 7 and then it was 3 turns of nightmares.  Willng3 did his best to heal through it all, but the poison buildup (36 at end) was too much.

Battle 7: 4-3

by ak65ala

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5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5lk 5lk 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 5lm 7ac 7ac 7ac 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 8pq

Light vs. Life.  Lost toss, lost.
Had 2 dy-syncs here.  Finally connected with a trash hand, 2 dragons, 3 santuary and only 1 quanta source + one RoL.  6 turns from andrenaline life goodness and I was done.  My 1 shield hope was not enough.

Battle 8: 4-4

by ak65ala

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58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 594 594 594 594 594 596 596 596 596 596 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c6 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 7aj 7aj 7am 7am 7am 7am 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pm

Earth vs. Life. Lost toss, lost

Battle 9: 5-4

by ak65ala

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5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c2 5c2 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5ib 5ib 5ib 7aj 7aj 7al 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7gp 7gp 7gr 8pp

Water vs. Life. Won toss, won.
Fool me once... fool me twice.  Went a heavy CC deck, and it paid off.  We did have a few bitter Dy-syncs... which I hate winning after those.  Waited for a thorn carapace, froze with squid once his guys were poisoned, healed and built up to victory.

[ak65ala]

Decks and comments posted.

Please, if I did something illegal, or we played out the final duel due to dy-syncs improperly, I will gladly admit my mistake and make amends to what is required of me.  I don't want there to be any bad blood that comes out of this all.  It is a game and fun >> drama any day.

Edit: Yep, deck 4 I have 15 upgrades.  Late night deckbuilding >.< So there is one infraction.  I shall wait for kevkev's verdict on this mess.

[MrBlonde]

Unforutunately that likely means games 4 is a win instead of a loss for Willng and you will end up losing 3-5. Same thing happened to TNG last trials vs me causing him to lose to me after he won 5-4 because of an illegal deck. Sucky, sucky, way to win or lose because of all the hard work put into this. Can't stress enough to double check and double check your decks.

Even reminded Xnoize a few times to make sure his decks were correct and checked my decks before i even started my PvP battle each match. Sorry Ak65ala but i highly doubt a favorable verdict will be coming down here because of precedents in prior events.

[willng3]

Well I thought this had been decided, but it appears there are a few complications still.

Game 1:

by willng3

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52l 52l 52o 52o 718 718 719 719 71a 71a 71b 71b 71b 71b 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pk

Countered.  I literally just modified this deck prior to going to sleep last night, and I think that the modifications saved me here.  Sniping Scorps was largely useless due to Bone Wall.  Poison killed him quickly.  1-0

Game 2:

by willng3

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5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 7af 7af 7af 7af 7af 7af 7al 7al 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pq

Bit of counter play by ak here, but it was a very close duel.  I believed it would be a stall deck from the size of it, therefore I played Sundials as soon as I possibly could to get my damage out as fast as possible.  I was 4 HP from winning:  If I had drawn so much as 1 more Leaf Dragon at almost any point in the game I would have won.  1-1

Game 3:

by willng3

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5bt 5bt 5c4 5c4 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dn 7dn 7do 7do 7f2 7f2 8po

RNG screwage round 1.  I drew one Fire Lance in the middle of the duel and then never drew any other direct damage dealers for 18 cards of my deck before I was killed. 1-2

Game 4:

by willng3

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5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5og 7an 7an 7an 7an 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7n0 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n5 8pr

RNG screwage round 2.  The duel lasted for a good long time with me failing to draw a single Fog and drawing a Staff on the turn before I lost.  He split a Deja Vu on the last turn, killing me with exact damage.  2 Adren'd Eagles on the field in addition to an Adren'd Staff would have meant a win on the next turn if I had another one...   However this duel appears to be disputable because of the fact that he exceeded the allowed upgrades.  1-3

Game 5:

by willng3

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5de 5de 5de 5de 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 809 809 809 809 80i 80i 80i 80i 80i 8pu

Pure rush.  Don't know why I didn't use more of these decks.  Frogs spammed the field without delay and I played a BLight last turn for exact damage.  Crushed.  2-3

Game 6:

by willng3

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5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c3 5c3 5c5 5c5 5c5 5de 5de 5de 6rm 6rm 6rm 778 778 778 778 778 77c 77c 77k 77k 77k 77k 77k 77k 78q 78q 78q 78q 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 8pm

With his Gravity deck gone I believed that it was now safe to use this deck.  Of course this naturally means that he picked the deck with Steals in it   Not like it mattered, my Shields came far too late.  Very nice deck choice.  2-4

Game 7:

by willng3

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5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ae 7ae 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7an 7an 7an 7an 7an 7an 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pn

I had enough of bad draws and decided to unleash the wrath of one of my signature decks (simple, but nevertheless).  Impossible to keep up with my speed, he was rushed over 3-4

Game 8:

by willng3

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5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ae 7ae 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7an 7an 7an 7an 7an 7an 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pn

Again, I was not going to let RNG deprive me of another win.  Outrushed again.  4-4

Game 9:

by willng3

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5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ae 7ae 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7an 7an 7an 7an 7an 7an 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pn

Unfortunately there was a bit of controversy over this duel as well.  On the first duel where we actually managed to connect he announced that he had an invisible hand and could not play.  I played through to see if it was possible to just end the Trials with this duel and received this result:
It should be noted that had ak been in control of this game that he would have held off on playing Squids to instead Freeze my creatures as they emerged.  However, the Squids were inconsequential when considering the fact that without his Carapace he would not be able to hold off my rush nearly as successfully.  And based on what the AI has played, his Pends' positions and his remaining quanta, it would have been at least 3 more turns before he could play a Carapace to destroy my rush completely.  Regardless, I dislike drama or even the slightest insinuation that my opponent might be lacking integrity during a duel, therefore when I asked ak if we could just call the match and he said no, I had no problems with just redoing the match.
However the second time the odds were not in my favor and he stopped my rush abruptly, allowing him to come out with a win.  It's difficult to realize that arguing your case over a previous duel might have allowed you to come out victorious and I was admittedly angry at myself for not following through with this, but I had decided to replay that match and therefore any previous results are considered void.  I would not and still will not argue this case to the overseers given that it was an agreed rematch and therefore this is my loss.  4-5

And yes, I believe that due to the technicality involved in deckbuilding during game 4 that this will become my win as rules are rules.  This is upsetting, yes, and as always it sucks to lose/win over a technicality (or a desync as ak stated earlier), but it's like you said, fun > drama any day.  I will wait to hear an official ruling from kevkev, but for now I'm forced to say that rules are rules.

[ak65ala]

Unfortunately there was a bit of controversy over this duel as well.  On the first duel where we actually managed to connect he announced that he had an invisible hand and could not play.  I played through to see if it was possible to just end the Trials with this duel and received this result:
It should be noted that had ak been in control of this game that he would have held off on playing Squids to instead Freeze my creatures as they emerged.  However, the Squids were inconsequential when considering the fact that without his Carapace he would not be able to hold off my rush nearly as successfully.  And based on what the AI has played, his Pends' positions and his remaining quanta, it would have been at least 3 more turns before he could play a Carapace to destroy my rush completely.  Regardless, I dislike drama or even the slightest insinuation that my opponent might be lacking integrity during a duel, therefore when I asked ak if we could just call the match and he said no, I had no problems with just redoing the match.
However the second time the odds were not in my favor and he stopped my rush abruptly, allowing him to come out with a win.  It's difficult to realize that arguing your case over a previous duel might have allowed you to come out victorious and I was admittedly angry at myself for not following through with this, but I had decided to replay that match and therefore any previous results are considered void.  I would not and still will not argue this case to the overseers given that it was an agreed rematch and therefore this is my loss.  4-5

And yes, I believe that due to the technicality involved in deckbuilding during game 4 that this will become my win as rules are rules.  This is upsetting, yes, and as always it sucks to lose/win over a technicality (or a desync as ak stated earlier), but it's like you said, fun > drama any day.  I will wait to hear an official ruling from kevkev, but for now I'm forced to say that rules are rules.

I think it is ... disruptive ... to post a screenshot that shows you winning against and AI.  You're analysis is flawed in the fact I had 2 Permafrost Shields and there was more than enough water quanta to play those.  The drama caused by this dy-sync was... un-needed.

This should be a cut an dry decision by kevkev.  I messed up in deckbuilding so that win should be overturned and you should have the mastership.  I make mistakes, I am human.  I enjoyed my trials and was glad to reach these final battles (even under a technicality, of everyone leaving...).  Whatever the decision is in the end (I feel kevkev should give it to willng3),  it's just a forum title.  I am pleased with proving my skills in deckbuildling (that one illegail life tower did not make a difference, really) and my ability to overcome such odds (14-26 upped cards).  I apoligize to everyone who was rooting for me, I am sorry for letting you all down.

Amazing duels Willng3.  I am very pleased it came down to the 9th game.  Couldn't have asked for anything more.  You are an amazing player and wish you well in the coming war.

[MrBlonde]

Also i don't think a game that an opponent doesn't play a single move (invisible hand) should ever be counted as a win or loss unless under DIRE circumstances (like 20 desyncs or something). IMO that's just a waste of time and actually on the flip side i feel that this is not fair play by the other player* since they get to see exactly what the other player is playing giving them undue advantage. Especially since this is the first duel played.

In the end this is irrelevant BUT because of things like this i would like some type of "fair play" rule where upon desyncs or invisible hands unless instructed otherwise immediately exit.

*In no way do i think Willng is an unscrupulous player by any means, i think he's quite honorable.

[Jappert]

About the only thing that hasn't been discussed yet are the decks used.

I just LOVE that flying adrenastaff/OE deck. Inventive to combine healing and the 7 damage adren statistics into such a deck, really nice one.
Same goes for the Deja-Vu/Pharaoh/Bond deck, very nice synergy but hard to pull off. I like when people try to pull off combinations like those!
The deck Ak used in battle 8 resembles a deck terroking used in last Trials (earth/Life stall with carapace) I think the warden wasn't released yet at that point though.

Inventive deck building on both sides, seems like basic Rush decks like Frogtal and mono Life did their job being both fast an reliable though. Would have been an awesome final if it wasn't for the drama. None of you two should feel bad about yourselves, mistakes are human like Ak said. Congrats to our new Master!

[willng3]

I think it is ... disruptive ... to post a screenshot that shows you winning against and AI.  You're analysis is flawed in the fact I had 2 Permafrost Shields and there was more than enough water quanta to play those.  The drama caused by this dy-sync was... un-needed.

I'd just like to note that my reasoning for this post was to address any drama that was brought up in chat.  I completely agree that it was tactless of me to try and argue this case in chat, but I wanted to address it before someone came along and said that "Oh and that last game should have been willng3's" because I'm completely fine with accepting my loss there and want to put that behind us.  I understand it comes across as me still trying to argue my case, but in truth I was summarizing what had already been discussed without making any further analysis.  My comments after the replay were intended to close discussion on this matter further because it doesn't matter.

Amazing duels Willng3.  I am very pleased it came down to the 9th game.  Couldn't have asked for anything more.  You are an amazing player and wish you well in the coming war.

Likewise.  I would greatly like to see you fight by my side during the upcoming War, if possible.  You have a degree of skill that I rarely see among players and are truly a respectable player.  You have earned both my respect and my praise after this long, long road.

[kev]

ak's Time duo is a forfeit loss, so willng3 wins 5-4.

I'd like to thank ak for behaving with the maturity befitting a Master.  Honestly I wish you could both be Masters as you're both so obviously qualified, but the new jerkface Warmaster won't allow it.

It's an unfortunate way to end Trials, but ultimately willng3 triumphed over a very worthy opponent.  Congratulations to willng3, the new Master of Life.

[Jocko]

Actually kev, its 5-3. -1 for ak +1 for will.
Doesn't make much of a difference, though.
Too bad you played that tower, ak. You've proven yourself worthy.
And, congrats will. I hope you do well.

[DrunkDestroyer]

I enjoyed going down this one. Very tense, and I did scroll down a few times, just to check out the outcome, and scrolled back up because, I have some self control.
The final verdict... what happens happens, I'll ignore that.


But man, ak's decks in Battle 4 and Battle 6, those are beauties.
Deja vu, and all those scarabs with Bonds... I never would have thought of that.
And using nightmare on your own elements cards. That is one smooth deck, I really like it.
Grats, more than impressive.

Also, Will's 2nd deck. The sundials seem exceptionally adaptable. Great stall/rush you have going there.
And ak's 2nd deck (mostly because I made a similar one for my own games)