► Introduction:I always had problems with introductions, and I don't really feel much need for it either - for the ones who don't know me: feel free to ask questions, or just visit my profile page on the Forums as many things are already explained there.
Apart from that, I'm a (relatively) long-time player here on Elements, and I believe I made my love for the element quite obvious since.
► About Mastership and the Community:I have joined this community when most of the Masters had clear dedication to their element, and were also respected for their knowledge about the game; not "just" a title that was won through an event. At least I felt it this way as a newbie. Furthermore, I always viewed Masters more than simply a General for their Warteam - they were more like of a representative of that element, and that was also somewhat expected from them before. To my observations, these features are tend to die out completely with recent "generation-shifts" on the Forums which also has a bad impact on the 'atmosphere' itself. I may be idealistic about all this, but that's my opinion.
That said, I'm not really fond of the state of the current community, this includes the overall maturity and level of intellect. While I understand it's far better than most parts of the internet, I dare to say Elements have seen better times. It is also a reason for me hesitating in becoming a Master once again.
This may have costed me some of your votes, but I felt I had to be honest.
► Answers and Tasks:I'd like to point out one thing first: I'm rejecting any request that is clearly 'trolling', makes little to no sense, or would harm the future Team Water in any way.
The reasoning for this is that this Phase is here mostly for people who haven't made up their minds yet about who they want to see as future Masters, not to drudge the participants.
For example: If me making a deck with a bunch of Floodings (without pointing out any dedicated opponents, rules or restrictions) makes you think I'm worthy for Mastership, well, that is sad. There's (almost) nothing that haven't been done before.
Thanks for your understanding.
Spoiler for furballdn:
People constantly say that water is the most fluid element that ties everything together. I do not feel this way. Can you convince me?
No, I can't. Play extensively with Water for some time and judge it yourself.
Also your statement is somewhat out of place: it doesn't "tie everything together", it's just that it's way more easier to splash into/or incorporate other elements than others with various benefits as result (at least in game terms).
Should blue crawler be changed in any way?
No, it shouldn't. Any change would probably result in a cost change for the worst, and I would really like to see more vanilla creatures in the game. In addition, they're not that useless as most players see them, only that Toads are a much better option most of the time. See Graboids.
Spoiler for Laxadarap:
Water has the most forms of cc in the game. If you had to remove one of these cc cards, which would it be? And what would you replace it with?
None. They all have their uses and situations where they can be used better than the others.
Build a deck using implicit synergy.
Request denied. See the reasoning above.
Spoiler for Bootsz:
Elements has been through a traumatic period. We had a bunch of new shards and changes in a BIG update and then ... silence. SG disappeared and Zanz took indefinite leave. Our forums got rescued by some good people and chat got an upgrade (IMHO). It has happened before, but never quite like this.
What should the community do?
I realise this is an impossible question, in many respects. Perhaps "Nothing, carry on as we are" is a good answer. Maybe you have some ideas. I think the role of Master should involve more than just PvP. Let me see what you have in terms of "community thinking"?
Thank you Bootsz for the first real question I have read in this Trials so far. It is also a real hard one to answer.
In one part I already stated my views on the community in the introduction. In my opinion, before we had a one-man-army, called Scaredgirl who not only maintained the Forums as a whole, but came up with ideas quite regularly that kept people interested and often proved to be a source of inspiration for further development - small (or sometimes great) things that 'pushed' everyone and everything forward. But today, not only that I can rarely see a 'groundbreaking' idea or suggestion popping up amongst the unread posts; but even if there's a few good or great ones, somehow noone has the willpower and/or motivation to actually make something (close as good) out of it.
The best example for this is WoE maybe: It was one of the most promising things that ever happened on the Forums since War, but now it is nothing more than maybe a sweet memory for the ones who participated in testing. Everyone who is anticipating the "Big Relaunch of WoE" does nothing to actually make it happen, but instead is waiting for someone else to get things started.
I think the very first step would be that people should realize that they themselves alone are not the next best thing that will happen to the community - as it isn't heading anywhere this way. Like you said, we should start to "think as a community" and get things that we want done ourselves, because noone else will do it for us. We definitely shouldn't "carry on" like this.
I hope my answer is somewhat satisfactory.
Spoiler for Acsabi44:
What deck archetype do you see as the biggest "problem deck" for water in war?
I shouldn't answer this for the reasons above, but I find it pretty self-explanatory and others have already stated it.
Anything that gains an upper hand based on Water's cost-effectiveness, especially unupgraded. Many cards need a form of upkeep (in/off-element, pillars) to remain useful while being overall expensive and maybe slow even to some standards. Mostly, things like cheap CC paired with excessive damage reduction or forms of denial can easily cripple Water-wardecks if come unexpected.
Spoiler for Calindu:
What Weapon you would like to see Water receiving instead of Trident?
Why would I want Trident to be gone? It is a fairly powerful weapon in the right matchup in the right time, no need to get rid of it. I wouldn't mind another set of elemental weapons, though: In that case, maybe something like an inverted Arsenic would come in mind with medium-high damage. Something similar, like Anarook's old
Oceanus card idea.
Water can synergy well with almost every element, build a rainbow deck that uses those all, max deck size being 40 cards.
Request denied. See the reasoning above.
Spoiler for Absol:
Water is the element of synergy, but what element has the least synergy with Water? Why?
Design a new card which increases this weakest synergy.
If I had to choose, I'd say Earth maybe. Many 'meeting points' between the elements are impractical or redundant. And as for the card design, no matter how hard I would try, I probably couldn't come up with anything better than eaglgenes'
Sponge, which also covers a wide range of other solutions as well.