Darkness Trialist CactusKing, ready for interrogation! Do your worst!Here's my
Phase One Submission.I'll start with the obvious;
Darkness is and always has been my favourite element. I enjoy it because of the unique playstyle, the ability to use the opponent's good luck against them with cards like nightmare, devourer and steal.
Yes, I'd be happy to general team Darkness, and maybe even lead us in Brawl if elemental affinities are something they want to bring back.
Why vote for me over the world champion and three-time master? Let's leave PvP out of the vote, that's what the final battle is for. I intend to bring about change in War for Darkness - to play it differently, breath new life into old tactics. My consistently high activity in this community means I know who the rising stars are, and will build a team based on player's potential. We've all seen what TheonlyrealBeef can do as general, and unfortunately it wasn't enough for a podium finish. Yes, it's been a long time since then, and it could be blamed on any of the rules from the time, but that's our only indicator as far as War goes.
Now for some highlights from my interrogation...What is your definition of Leadership
Leadership is about recognising the strengths of your team, and playing to them. A leader shouldn't play the perceived 'best' strategy if your team can't execute it as well as an off-meta alternative. This mindset builds trust between you and your team, you know they'll do their best if you let them play to their strengths. It can also give you the element of surprise, something I'm quite fond of as a darkness player.
Which element do you consider the anti-you? Which ones rubs you the wrong way or resonates least with you personally? Please help us understand why this is the case.
This would have to be gravity. To me, it represents clunkiness, and being too big to support itself. I've never been good at building gravity decks, and it makes for arguably the worst darkness duo in the game. Darkness is about subtlety and calculation. Gravity is about kicking the door down and charging head-first at your opponent. They don't mix.
Name two previous/current masters (you can include yourself if you wish) who you respect and have been excellent trialists, generals, and representatives of their element. What traits do these two individuals share? How are they different?
I'd be a jerk not to include Physsion here. Over the course of War he trained me from the failure I was in the last trials into someone capable of reinventing the way darkness is played. It's a shame he isn't defending, but real life comes first. Odii Odsen was also a great help in Team Darkness but we didn't get to chat as much due to time zones. He has this way of just... winning everything; which I learned mostly comes from predictions. Playing with them helped me strike a balance between aggression and patience, which is an absolute necessity to use darkness effectively.
Everybody (should) know each Element has its own trait, its strenght and weakness. Being a Master means to know them perfectly.
Said that, explain what's the strenght and weakness of your Element, and, if you had the chance to add just one card (creature, spell, PC, CC, etc...) to your Element, what would it be and why?
Thanks.
I'll skip the usual speech about being a ninja. The power of darkness is in overwhelming your opponent slowly. A player adept at darkness can swing the tide of battle without the opponent even realizing. They think that big yellow indicator on your health bar means you're being rushed down, overlooking the fact that their own maximum hp is being lowered, and the darkness player's shield and dagger keep them far from death. Or maybe you use pests to keep their abilities at a minimum, and although you aren't doing much damage either, your quanta is building up and you have six Drain Lifes in hand. This unique, yet highly varied playstyle is what makes darkness such a good element, despite it being so different to the others. That said, there are definitely things darkness could do better, and if I were to add just one new card it's a tough choice between a mass-CC spell (think dry spell but it sucks HP) or a nice cheap creature with high damage, something like giant frog but edgier.
Since adding another mass CC card would be bad for our poor cloaks, I'm going with a new lowrange attacker card.
For everyone that Trials for their favourite element:- If you end up not becoming a Master for your favourite element, will you consider an approach from WMs to General your second-fave/third-fave/what-have-you element? (Quite unlikely, but hey
)
For the sake of argument, assume that you are not a WM yourself, just in case you're thinking 'I'm a WM, there's no way the WMs will approach me to Gen'.
My second-fave/third-fave/what-have-you elements to general are highly competitive for a spot on the team (the likes of aether, air, fire would be preferred, but earth or entropy could be interesting too), so as you say this is unlikely. If the WMs think I'm the guy for the job, I'd be glad to take it on.
@both
If you have played Pajama Sam: No Need To Hide When It's Dark Outside, do you agree with how darkness is portrayed in that game? Explain.
If you have not played the aforementioned game, what would you rate Dusk Mantle on a scale of 1-10 and why? 1 being you hate dusk mantle because it is the most OP card in the game and 10 being you have embraced darkness so well that it has consumed your soul and now you find pleasure in torturing other players with the raw power of its 100% blocking rate. I will know if you lie to me.
I haven't played it before.
To be honest, Dusk Shield isn't much better than fog, and the extra cost hardly seems worthwhile to me (unless quanta restrictions make dusk mantle preferable). Like many strategies, it seems much less OP when you actually play with it compared to when it first beats you. Darkness isn't exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to defences (at least, in-element), so it definitely has its uses. But is it OP? Certainly not as much as fog. 6/10
Any opinions on Simon Belmont's addition to Smash Ultimate? How will you protect your vampires/bats?
I haven't played smash with any real effort since Brawl, can't stand the new controls tbh. Unlikely I'll be playing smash ultimate, and I haven't played Castlevania at all ever. (did try to play Mirror of Fate when it came out but it wouldn't run on my ds for some reason, and Belmont isn't even in that one iirc). So I really don't have an opinion on this, sorry.
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