4th Trials - Phase 3 - Community Vote

[kev]

Phase 3 - Community Vote

Phase 3 has ended

 

It's time to vote for your favorite Master candidate.

 

Every community member has one vote. You can change your vote at any time as long as there is still time on the clock.

 

Vote based on who you think would make the best Master of that element. Do not vote based on who is the best player or who you know personally. Try to pick someone who you think would help the community the most.

 

Feel free to ask the candidates difficult questions to help you make your decision.

[Onizuka]

First things first. I would like to give a HUGE thank you to anyone who has supported me throughout trials and my Elements career. People who have reassured me on my abilities and capablities as being a possible master, people who have let me bounce ideas off them, and people who have simply thought I would be the top challenger (even if I wouldn't win!). You don't know how much this means to me. Without your support I would have never been able to make it to where I am now.

Things you should know about me.
1) I like Darkness. A lot.
2) I like PvPing. A lot.
3) I think I'm pretty good at 2. Most of the time.
4) I am active in this community.
5) I know I could be a great master.
6) I like Darkness. A LOT.

Personality interview/question time #4! ^^;

Q: “Although the images aren’t as scary, the creatures and overall theme of Darkness can inspire a thematic fear in several people (Devourer = maggots or slimy critters for example). That said; do you have something you’re scared of? Be honest. <=)”

This took me some time to think about. Natural fears like death I wanted to rule out. After considering this for a while, I finally nailed it down to being betrayed. To put my complete trust in someone and then for it to all be in naught, that's just completely devestating to me

@Onizuka & YoungSot : I don't know any of you very much, what about you can make me think you would do better than the other contestants?

Beat them and you using trial rules . But in all seriousness, I don't think any of us would be better than anyone else. We all love Darkness, we all are fairly active members of the community (maybe I'm more active and Wiz and Sot lurk a little more, idk), and we're all experienced PvPers both in tournies and war (although my fairly often bad luck strikes most often when in tournies). I think a vote for any 4 members of trials is a worthwhile vote.

If this card was introduced into the game: What impact would it have? How would you utilize it? What decks would you build? How would it change ? (You don't have to answer each question individually)

I think this is more of a fun card than anything. Its high cost makes early denial outside of a deck that focuses with Darkness unlikely, and I much rather have an equal cost of devourers. If I wanted PC, I would use steal. If I wanted to stop creature abilities, I would use Liquid shadow/Cloak/Massive denial. I don't think it would change darkness that much, its simply too slow of a card in my eyes to do anything that Darkness can already do well.

But before I answer questions I have a question for the challengers: "What would make you a better Darkness Master than me?"

I think you're the best Master has had, and possibly will have. You are social, active, capable, have great ingenuity (See Trials deck and LSbow), was a great general and is a great PvPer. That being said, as long as you're able to beat the top competitor, then I believe you rightly are a better master than any of us. But once you have lost your ability to defeat us in PvP, then I believe any one of us could become a better master.

Darkness is one of my top 3 favorite elements, if not my favorite, but it was sad to see them finish 8th this last war, a big improvement but still in the bottom half. What are some possible things that went wrong last war? what are some things you would stray away from as a result of last war?

1) Be less predictable.
2) Have better counters to a few decks in particular.

Are you evil IRL? Why do you like darkness?
Explain.

1) Not evil. If I was you'd all be living in Onitopia
2) I like having control in duels. Being able to absolutely quantalock an opponent, being able to eliminate all their creatures and permanents, is an absolute joy to me. It has variety, it has fun, it has everything I need to never give Darkness up.

My task is...Make an deck featuring buffed vampires.

by Onizuka

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

6u2 6u2 6u2 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 713 7ap 7ap 7jv 7jv 7jv 7n9 7t6 7t6 7t6 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 8pt

Buffed vamps and devtosis rainbro <3

What is your favourite deck, and why?

I can't really say I have a favorite deck. I frequently fall in love with  ALOT of decks, but my current and most likely one of my longer lasting ones is A Better Way to Pestal- Jen-i's Entropy Trials Deck (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29127.0.html). Its a rainbro, yet its pestal. What could be bad about it? And a possible 2nd turn fractal is just amazing<3(Lose flip 2pends+5super novas+1fractal/dev, next turn draw one you don't have)

Please link/post a piece of writing (no restrictions) that you feel represents most.

I actually think what really defines  is using the enemy's resources against them. I think War #3's Darkness Strategy thread (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,23481.0.html) does this very well, using what all the other teams have given us and using it against them. Incidentally, I think our salvage threads do this better, but that doesn't have the Master of the Wall of Text posting in them .

Break the night with colour, and show me the brightest side of darkness.

Okay. I'm going to do this in a purely Elemental way. When you consider brightness, you probably consider  . Holy flash, Miracle, the light card background. So I'm going to show you what I think is the most known  / duo(/trio) Vader Sader (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,18038.0.html). Everyone probably knows some form of this deck, and when I think of a light/darkness duo this certainly comes to mind (even though its a trio ).

Darkness as an element right now focuses extensively on 2 main themes.

"Using your opponent's strength against him."
and
"Stealth"

If you were to bring in another theme to Darkness that makes sense in context to the element, what would it be?
What might be a card that could use this theme effectively?

This might fall under Stealth, but durability is a pretty big part of Darkness. Gargoyle buffs it out of most CC, Devourers burrow, nightfall boosts defense as well, and cloak gives protection from single target CC. I'd like something that boosts stats under cloak, which would fall under stealth too

[YoungSot]

First, a quick summary of why I joined Darkness trials:

1. Fun! My goal as a trials participant is to have fun, and hopefully help others have more fun at the same time. If I gained the Master title, I would take this attitude with me. I would look to make the War experience even more interesting and enjoyable. I would try to think up creative ways to promote the Darkness element, such as competitions and events with a Darkness focus. I think you will all agree with me that we do our best work when we enjoy what we are doing.

2. Darkness! The game of Elements is well balanced, and I can find strategies and cards I like in every element, but taken as a package, I find Darkness is my favorite. It has a balanced set of tools that allow it confront and counter a wide variety of threats, and it's card set is well suited for control and domination decks, which are my favorite decks to play. It also has a fun set of themes, stealing your opponents resources and assets to use against them, deception and cunning, etc. It's a theme that encourages back and forth games, with each new card swinging the balance of the game back into it's player's favor or shutting down an opponent's strategy. Games like that keep you mentally on edge the whole way through!

3. Community! I am still relatively new to the Elements community, having first started getting seriously involved after being picked for team Aether in War 3. Elements is a great game, but it's the forums, chat, and events that really make it shine, and I'm looking for ways to contribute back. If I don't win Mastership this first attempt, I will of course be back next trials, to try again. Win or no these trials are a great way to push yourself into learning a lot about your element, and I would recommend participation to anyone looking to expand their elements experience.

Now for the fun part of Phase 3: questions! I'll try to keep this updated as new questions come along.

Q: “Although the images aren’t as scary, the creatures and overall theme of Darkness can inspire a thematic fear in several people (Devourer = maggots or slimy critters for example). That said; do you have something you’re scared of? Be honest. <=)”

Failure. (the possibility of failure can sometimes prevent trying in the first place. Which is a terrible shame.)
And needles. (whenever I pick one up I'm afraid they'll go straight through my finger without me noticing. I'm not sure why.)

@Onizuka & YoungSot : I don't know any of you very much, what about you can make me think you would do better than the other contestants?

A tough question, as the other challengers each have many good things going for them! I suppose if I had to pick something to identify me compared to the rest of the participants, I would return to my first point above. Elements is a game, and thus it's greatest purpose is to provide fun! As the Master of Darkness I would share that purpose, and my focus would be on approaching each of my duties (War, cards, helping with decks, etc) and looking for ways to make them more enjoyable and interesting for all involved.

But before I answer questions I have a question for the challengers: "What would make you a better Darkness Master than me?"

Tbh, I don't know you that well TorB (my loss eh?), so I would have a hard time making a comparison to you. Maybe at some point we'll be involved in War or some other event together, at which time I promise I'll compile a list of your faults. =P
From what I do know, I think you have done, and would probably continue to do, an excellent job as Master. I do however think that there is something to be said for fresh perspectives. Different people will tend to focus on different areas of the Master's responsibilities, so as long as the candidates are well qualified, simply being new to the position is in many ways a positive. Either way, we challengers are here to keep you on your toes, so that Darkness is sure to have a capable Master!

Are you evil IRL? Why do you like darkness?

Evil? I strive for morality above all other considerations, but of course I fail quite often too.
And I'll echo my fellow participant's responses, that darkness is not meant to be evil, but rather is about cunning, stealth, denial, and using your opponent's resources against them.

Darkness is one of my top 3 favorite elements, if not my favorite, but it was sad to see them finish 8th this last war, a big improvement but still in the bottom half. What are some possible things that went wrong last war? what are some things you would stray away from as a result of last war?

While I was not part of team Darkness last War, I was privileged to join team Aether, an experience which gave me many first hand glimpses into what makes a great War team, and also the weaknesses of the War event. What would I change? It once again comes back to my first reason for joining trials. Fun! War is an epic event, that unfortunately can easily turn into an epic chore. I will suggest improvements to how War is done that hopefully make it more fun, and as Master of Darkness I would run my war effort with the goal in mind of keeping the experience enjoyable. A team that is enjoying itself will be able to put more effort into War, and do better because of it.

My task is...Make an deck featuring buffed vampires.

Well, since genuinecowmeat already gave examples of Adrenavamps and a CP vamps, I'll go another route. Here's a buffbow I'm playing around with:

by YoungSot

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 71e 74a 74a 77m 77m 7an 7an 7jv 7jv 7n0 7td 7td 7td 80b 8pt

This creature is airborne. This can target any creature or permanent in play that has an Activated Ability - yours or your opponents. That may not seem that great, but there's a little more to it. If you use one of your opponent's abilities, they won't be able to use it, because it will still be in 'cooldown' during their turn. For creatures that have any kind of growth ability, the spirit gets the stat increase. In addition to using your opponent's ability, it also uses their quanta for the ability. So it can be a form of pseudo-denial.
You can use your opponent's Hourglass to draw cards for yourself.
You can use a Lava Golem to grow your own creature.
Does your opponent have an Otyugh? Have it eat your opponent's creatures and you get the stat gain.  (yes evil)
I'm sure there are many more uses for this ability.

If this card was introduced into the game: What impact would it have? How would you utilize it? What decks would you build? How would it change ? (You don't have to answer each question individually)

It's not a card you can easily build a deck, around since it relies so heavily on what your opponent brings (great for many FG oracle decks though). As far as meta game influence goes, I think it would be comparable to some of the more powerful nymphs. It's only played for it's ability, it has the potential to completely mess up an opponent's strategy, but it goes down pretty easily to CC. It's the sort of card that I'd add to a deck when I have a few card slots to spare, since it's a gamble, but also adds a lot of fun/power against the right decks.

What is your favourite deck, and why?

I'd say SNbows, because I love being able to have a very functional skeleton deck, while changing out various cards to fit the opponent or just for fun.

Please link/post a piece of writing (no restrictions) that you feel represents most.

Coming Soon!

Break the night with colour, and show me the brightest side of darkness.

That's not so hard. *uses Nightmare* There how's that?

I also submit this as another answer to Kuro's question.

Darkness as an element right now focuses extensively on 2 main themes.

"Using your opponent's strength against him."
and
"Stealth"

If you were to bring in another theme to Darkness that makes sense in context to the element, what would it be?
What might be a card that could use this theme effectively?

Fear/Despair/Psychological Warfare is a theme that already has some presence in darkness due to the nightmare card, and I think it would be nice to flesh those themes out with some new cards. An example card might use mechanics like "lower the attack of every non-darkness creature by 2" as a spell, which would give darkness AoE soft CC with a unique feel.

[Kuroaitou]

Personality interview/question time #4! ^^;

Q: “Although the images aren’t as scary, the creatures and overall theme of Darkness can inspire a thematic fear in several people (Devourer = maggots or slimy critters for example). That said; do you have something you’re scared of? Be honest. <=)”

[MyNameIsJoey]

DARKNESSSS

I think everybody knows i love darkness by now .

Alright now, for my darkness questions:

@Onizuka & YoungSot : I don't know any of you very much, what about you can make me think you would do better than the other contestants?

@WizardCat : I've known you rom last trials, but you don't speak much in chat, and I don't see you post often in forums. Would we hear from you if you became master?

@TORB: You have won the last trials , and you have just been a master. What have you done more than other masters to prove you were worth the position you were given? And do you ahve any plans for the future?

More questions will come later, don't worry, i simply don't have much inspiration right now.

[TheonlyrealBeef]

Aw, my speech got ninja-ed, some impression that must make, but eh, ninjas need sleep too :p

Either way, I hate spamming so all answers will show up here, most questions I have probably answered before here (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,20043.0.html), but feel free to ask regardless.

But first, let me tell something about myself:
        I've already been master for one term now, and I kind of OCD-ed the Darkness (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/board,66.0.html) section which should look really neat now, aside from that I was, of course, the general of team Darkness. I thought up a lot of decks, put in a lot of effort and we got no penalties and ended up with a winning record. In the end me thinking up a lot of decks might've proven fatal since a lot of the decks used last round were more of the same, which is bad (for as far as other, decent decks could've been created at all).
        Either way, here I am again, and this time as a Master instead of a challenger, I do not expect any speech to persuade anyone into voting for me, but I hope past experiences with me or my answers to your questions will. I learned more creative Darkness decks during my Mastership, or simply their effective builds. But there is so much more to learn, and with new cards coming continuously new decks will be available before you've discovered all the old ones.

tl;dr: I'm not less enthusiastic in being a Darkness Master than I was before.

But before I answer questions I have a question for the challengers: "What would make you a better Darkness Master than me?"

Personality interview/question time #4! ^^;

Q: “Although the images aren’t as scary, the creatures and overall theme of Darkness can inspire a thematic fear in several people (Devourer = maggots or slimy critters for example). That said; do you have something you’re scared of? Be honest. <=)”

[Semi-sarcasm]I'm scared of questions.[/Semi-sarcasm]

Seriously though, big, fast bugs creep the hell out of me.

Alright now, for my darkness questions:

You have won the last trials , and you have just been a master. What have you done more than other masters to prove you were worth the position you were given? And do you have any plans for the future?

I stuck around for one, that already makes me more worthy than half of the masters :P

Aside from that there's what I said in the speech and how much I did in war. My goal was to end higher than last war and it succeeded, next war I'd have the same goal again and have at it, who knows...

Are you evil IRL? Why do you like darkness?
Explain.

Darkness isn't evil and neither am I. Well some of my thoughts are but harnessing power is all about resisting corruption. I like Darkness for being (imo) the most versatile element and because I like hiding.

Darkness is one of my top 3 favorite elements, if not my favorite, but it was sad to see them finish 8th this last war, a big improvement but still in the bottom half. What are some possible things that went wrong last war? what are some things you would stray away from as a result of last war?

Darkness became predictable by having several decks of the same type, it doesn't matter how good your decks are, if they're more of the same you can counter them all with a single deck. That on top of Darkness' strategist leaving halfway lead to our downward spiral. Oh, and don't forget the crappy byes >_>

The solution seems simple: have your weaknesses covered and your usual counters countered. To actually build decks for that and be able to fit them in your vault, that is the challenge of vaultbuilding.

My task is...Make an deck featuring buffed vampires.

Upgraded, or unupgraded? Unupgraded you won't have to look further than the adrenavamps I made for war

Code: [Select]

5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uq 5uq 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5v2 5v2 5v2 5v2 606 606 606 606 606 606 606Upgraded CP Vamps would have my preference, lemme see... :

by TheonlyrealBeef

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

6u1 6u1 6u1 6u1 6u1 6u1 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u5 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t8 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pj

This creature is airborne. This can target any creature or permanent in play that has an Activated Ability - yours or your opponents. That may not seem that great, but there's a little more to it. If you use one of your opponent's abilities, they won't be able to use it, because it will still be in 'cooldown' during their turn. For creatures that have any kind of growth ability, the spirit gets the stat increase. In addition to using your opponent's ability, it also uses their quanta for the ability. So it can be a form of pseudo-denial.
You can use your opponent's Hourglass to draw cards for yourself.
You can use a Lava Golem to grow your own creature.
Does your opponent have an Otyugh? Have it eat your opponent's creatures and you get the stat gain.  (yes evil)
I'm sure there are many more uses for this ability.

If this card was introduced into the game: What impact would it have? How would you utilize it? What decks would you build? How would it change ? (You don't have to answer each question individually)

It seems as though even the description can't be elaborate enough, as it's not a simple mechanic, a kind of card that I'd rather playtest before evaluating :P
Regardless, the creature seems extremely vulnerable to cc with high cost and only works when you have plentiful quanta available, hence I would think it to best fit in either a denial deck, where you can take your time after your opponent is denied anyway, or, more likely, a rainbow. Possibly introducing a viability for a Darknessbow rather than being just another creatrue in an Entropy/Time-bow. Being quinted and having Permafrost and SoGs keep you alive will let this creature plenty of room to wreak havoc with it's ability.
So:

• Impact: new rainbows.
• Utilize: in a rainbow.
• Build deck: good ol' Timebow with this thrown into it instead of Druids+FFQ.
• Change Darkness: more viable to be the core of a Rainbow deck, unlikely to seriously affect Darkness monos, though denial duos might be able to use it (if the stuff to use it on isn't denied before it appears to be corrupted).

What is your favourite deck, and why?

As I already stated here (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,20440.msg284367#msg284367): Pestal (with -which is obvious for me- vampires)

by TheonlyrealBeef

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t8 7ta 7ta 7tb 7tc 7tc 7tc 7td 7td 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 80i 80i 80i 80i 80i 8pu

It's one of the most consistent denial decks that also utilizes Vampires' healing like no other deck. First locking down the opponent and then quickly healing what little damage comes through. It even has a chance to beat Cremation rushes due to the sheer amount of quanta drained, combined with Siphons to eliminate early threats. In other words, it has a chance against almost any deck, at least until Sanctuary came out.

Please link/post a piece of writing (no restrictions) that you feel represents most.

What better to choose than the Darkness propaganda from last war? (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,22502.0.html)

Break the night with colour, and show me the brightest side of darkness.

Brightness within the Darkness? I present to you the moon!

Blue skies lit with eerie moonlight. Who hasn't ever stared at this sight?

Darkness as an element right now focuses extensively on 2 main themes.

"Using your opponent's strength against him."
and
"Stealth"

If you were to bring in another theme to Darkness that makes sense in context to the element, what would it be?
What might be a card that could use this theme effectively?

I personally think a third theme is already in Darkness, but strengthening that theme might be good: "Crippling your opponent."
Not just to use the strength drained against your opponent as your own, but cripple for the sake of crippling. Currently Darkness needs to combine with other elements to do this best (Earthquake, Fractal, Mitosis, Adrenaline), so some form of creature multiplication, or pushing creatures to the limits (somewhat like adrenaline, but not for attacks but abilities or something) would be good.

[PlayerOa]

Are you evil IRL? Why do you like darkness?
Explain.

[Sevs]

Darkness is one of my top 3 favorite elements, if not my favorite, but it was sad to see them finish 8th this last war, a big improvement but still in the bottom half. What are some possible things that went wrong last war? what are some things you would stray away from as a result of last war?

[Calindu]

My task is...Make an deck featuring buffed vampires.

[majofa]

This creature is airborne. This can target any creature or permanent in play that has an Activated Ability - yours or your opponents. That may not seem that great, but there's a little more to it. If you use one of your opponent's abilities, they won't be able to use it, because it will still be in 'cooldown' during their turn. For creatures that have any kind of growth ability, the spirit gets the stat increase. In addition to using your opponent's ability, it also uses their quanta for the ability. So it can be a form of pseudo-denial.
You can use your opponent's Hourglass to draw cards for yourself.
You can use a Lava Golem to grow your own creature.
Does your opponent have an Otyugh? Have it eat your opponent's creatures and you get the stat gain.  (yes evil)
I'm sure there are many more uses for this ability.

If this card was introduced into the game: What impact would it have? How would you utilize it? What decks would you build? How would it change ? (You don't have to answer each question individually)

[the dictator]

What is your favourite deck, and why?

[Jenkar]

Please link/post a piece of writing (no restrictions) that you feel represents most.