8th Trials - Phase 3 Community Vote [Darkness]

[CCCombobreaker]

Phase 3 - Community Vote

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 as THE representative for their element.  If you do not have any preference for who should be Master, or cannot decide between the candidates, please select the "None Worthy" option. 

To help you make the best decision possible, feel free to ask the candidates questions.  Both challengers and defending Masters ought to answer the questions in this thread to help the voters make the best possible choice.  Please put all your answers in a single post (employing spoiler tags is recommended).  Also, challengers should include in that post a link to your Phase 1 submission post.


Questions and answers may begin now that this topic is posted.
Voting will begin when the polls are up at the official start of Phase 3.
Phase 3 ends when poll expires.

Odii Odsen's responses
ji412jo's responses
Regyptic's responses

[vrt]

Dear candidaddies,

What is your favorite shade of black?

[Regyptic]

Hello everyone.

I don't suppose I have very much chance of making the final battle at this point but I'll do my best to answer your questions anyway.

Before answering questions, I'd like to talk about my 'worthiness' for this role. Obviously I'm the 'newbie' here, ji412jo having trialled many times before and Odii being the defending Master and a great PvPer, so I'm the one who has to prove that I deserve to compete.

Firstly, I was an active member of team Darkness last war. This taught me a lot about the element, particularly in a War setting and was the main force behind my decision to trial for Darkness. The 6 Grabbow round 2 in particular was interesting in terms of what it showed about our opponents view of the element. I also had Darkness as my 'personal' element in the recent Team PvP event in which my team achieved second place.

From this trials I achieved the maximum points from Phase 1 with a bonus point for my 'War Golems' submission and for Phase 2, although I ended up with fewer points, I had the same match win-loss as ji412jo and won our head to head.

Overall, most of that doesn't really matter. All I would like is a chance to face Odii in the final battle and, if I'm worthy, I'll beat him there. If not then I guess I'll have to come back next trials.

There's probably lots more I could say and I may add to this later if I think of it and if it isn't covered by the questions.

Spoiler for vrt:

What is your favorite shade of black?

As far as I'm concerned, true black is the complete absence/absorption of light. Something difficult for us to experience. This probably makes it my favourite as it's such an interesting concept. I really would like to 'see' some vantablack. As you can probably tell, I'm more of a scientist than an artist.

Spoiler for TribalTrouble:

What has been your darkest moment?

If you don't mind I'll answer this in elements terms. For me the most painful difficult moments are in team events such as War when you feel like you're letting everyone down if you lose. Other than that probably not having the time to complete my matches in the World Championships last year. It came at a really busy time and I just couldn't play 5 matches in a week. It was partly disappointing as I'd won my first 2 games 3-0 (including against the eventual winner) and the prizes were so good, but also I really don't like being unreliable.

Spoiler for Blacksmith:

Darkness has in 7 wars only been among the 6 best twice. Why is that and what would be needed to change that?

I can't speak for much before last war but I think a large part of it is that, although Darkness is a great element, in a War or limited PvP setting it can be quite predictable. People quickly come to expect Devourers or Ghostmare and so bring Nova/Sanctuary to counter. This heavily weakens some of Darkness' most powerful decks. Other elements might have similar obvious counters but often these are cards not as commonly seen in War vaults.

In terms of how to change this, other than by adding new cards into the game, Darkness teams have to be a little bit more creative. Force opponents to think about what to play rather than just 'send the Grabbow'. Obviously it's always a difficult to be both creative and competitive, although I think we made a good attempt last War and was disappointed we didn't manage to finish slightly higher.

Spoiler for andretimpa:

General, unoriginal, question: I know you all want to lead War, but which of you are willing to lead a team in Brawl (basically, would jijo repeat the experience, did Odii enjoy the event enough for it and what are Reg's thoughts about it?)

As long as there are less than 12 teams in Brawl it seems strange for them to have direct elemental affiliation and without this it wouldn't seem right for Masters to be default team bosses. However, if there was a Team Darkness next Brawl and I was Master I would consider doing it as part of the duty to be the elements representative on the forum.

Spoiler for Laxadarap:

Realistically, do you think you can topple aether? Whats so new/not new this time (more important part)?

Yes. With deuce becoming War Master, I think Aether will struggle to get a team quite as good as it's enjoyed recently. Obviously a lot depends on who ends up as General. Also, from my experience with War, all it can take is one unlucky round and you can suddenly find yourself in a difficult position.

Spoiler for CrockettRocket:

Regy, my question for you: Whats your schedual look like during war and brawl? Do you think you could manage your time well enough to enter in these time consuming events?

Well, assuming it starts not long after trials finishes then I'll have plenty of time for War as I shouldn't be too busy. Even if I don't get the Master title I intend to enter War. Brawl, who knows. That's a few months away yet.

Managing my time shouldn't be much of a problem. I've been in 2 previous Wars and have been one of the more active members of the team both times. Just because I don't post often it doesn't mean I'm not around and when an event like War is on I'd be in the team chat as often as I could.
 

Spoiler for ji412jo:

Do you want the master title only to be war general, or do you intend to represant the darkness all over the forums, to embody the dark in your acts, to be the black lord we see in war brawl tournaments events competitions etc.

I entered trials because I wanted to win the title of Master of Darkness. Being War general would be a bonus. I'd really like a chance to improve on the result we had last War and being general would be the best way to do that.

As sinister as 'embody the dark in your acts' sounds, I agree that Mastership is about more than just War and, as Master, I would do my best to represent the element within the forums.

Spoiler for hainkarga:

Explain shortly what one of my favourite quotes means as well as you can.

Wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein. / When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

I looked into this quote and it seems that the longer version is;
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."
In this context, the second part seems to be an extension of the first. That is, if you spend too long surrounded by 'darkness' then this will bring out the darkness within yourself.

Spoiler for Vangelios:

I like the darkness element and of the all candidates here, I like music and like many
if is to choose an anthem to darkness, which would you choose?

I'll go for Street Spirit (Fade Out) by Radiohead. Here's a quote from the singer Thom Yorke about the song, "It is the dark tunnel without the light at the end... 'Street Spirit' is about staring the f--king devil right in the eyes... and knowing, no matter what the hell you do, he'll get the last laugh."

Spoiler for Odii Odsen:

If you become Master of Darkness, would you pick me for your team? Or let's make it a little bit more difficult; Regyptic, if you have to choose between jijo and me, who would you pick? Jijo, if you have to choose between Regyptic and me, who would you pick?

I would seriously consider a bid on each of you. Of course it depends in part on the auction rules and bidding strategies etc. If I had to choose then I would pick you over ji412jo as I know you're a good team-mate from last War where as I do not really know him.

Spoiler for Frozengaia:

Other than ghost of the past and spark and singularity, what is your favourite/most creative target for nightmare? What card is your favourite to flood your opponent's hand with?

I don't suppose I have a 'favourite' Nightmare target. I tend to end up using it on Darkness creatures a lot, especially in limited PvP. Most of the time the target doesn't matter as long as your opponent can't play it. However sometimes, even if they could play the Nightmare'd creatures, it can be worth it for the healing, damage or draw denial. In fact, the most 'creative' uses of the card are probably not about which creature it's played on but more about how you're using it to control the game.

Spoiler for Submachine:

What do you think about me as a community member? If you could put me on a scale between 1 and 5, where 1 is and 5 is , where would you put me based on my shown behaviour?

I have to say I've personally never noticed any 'dark moments' from you. I've only witnessed someone who is friendly and has put a lot of time into this community. So assuming you mean as good and as bad on your scale (even though I'm not sure I agree with this association ) then I'd give you a 1.

What is your favorite deck that you are always happy to use - regardless of how effective it is? What attachment do you have to ?

There are lots of decks that I enjoy using. The standard Mono Darkness will always be one of my favourites as I spent so long grinding Bronze arena with it for Shards when I first started; probably around 1000 games. Similarly, when I first started grinding False Gods I used RoL/Hope a lot and this is still one of my favourite decks to use against them and against Plat even if it isn't always the most effective. In particular, I sometimes like to throw Light Nymphs in there as an alternative to Dragons. I also have an attachment to Lycan decks since one of those gave me my first ever Arena rank 1 way back in Bronze.

Some of my favourite decks to play though are a few of the daily False God prediction counters. I love seeing Fire Queen or Eternal Phoenix on the Oracle screen as the counters are just so great.

Spoiler for farscape:

If I apply to participate in War, would you bid on me, and max how many cards ? 

Well you don't have much PvP Event experience so you're unlikely to go for more than a couple of cards. As for whether I'd bid, that depends on the Auction rules, your card pool, what other generals bid and whether Darkness was in your favourite elements. However, you did pretty well in the Computer Simulations event which took a decent amount of testing and deck building skill so I'd probably consider you over some other War newbies.

[MyNameIsJoey]

Hello Everybody!

I'm ji412jo, and have been trying to become the master of darkness for a while.
But most of you will say, why don't you prove us you'd be a good master? We want more than words.

Last trials I have proven my determination, doubling my score in a week, and this time around, I actually proved I'm a good pvp player. Won phase 2, getting the most points out of any darkness trials member.

Someone has once told me ''More than words, is all you have to do to make it real'' This is my time, I've done more than words, and I'm here to convince you to vote for me.

Spoiler for phase 1:

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/trial-of-darkness/8th-trials-challenger's-entrance-55046/msg1146488/#msg1146488

Spoiler for vrt:

Honestly, before your question I had no idea there were ''shades of black''. For me, black was black and that was it. So I did a bit of research and fell on wikipedia(yayz) and chose fmr one of those. I personally really like  Midnight Blue (#191970)

Spoiler for tribaltrouble:

I'd have to say the loss of my grandmother. I would rather not go in further details.

Spoiler for blacksmith:

There are plenty of things tot ake in consideration when leading a team to war. It is not possible to be perfect in every single aspect, but you gotta make as less mistakes as possible.
A winner is not the one who makes the most good moves, it's the one that won't make the bad moves.

Spoiler for andretimpa:

I would definitely lead a brawl team again. Was a great experience overall.

Spoiler for laxadarap:

Well, deuce won't be general for one. Deuce having a lot of winning experience sure is a tough man to take down. But here I am, trying to prove I can be a good master, and a good general. I think my biggest positive point is my will. I will do all I can and even more to win war if I'm the darkness general.

Spoiler for McNuggets:

What happened in brawl is that I felt cheated. This can't really happen in war, in war if we were to do well in the first 4 rounds and then go 0-6 or whatever in round 5, ofcourse I'd be mad, but more at myself then anything.

Spoiler for hainkarga:

To me, it means that when you do something for a while, you become it. It means, for example, that if you act like you're so sure to win in the 7th trials of darkness, that you will come off as arrogant. It means that if you start beingan ass, people will also start being an ass. The ''abyss''' , the world, people, everything reciprocates.

Spoiler for vangelios:

Despite the lies that you're making, your love is mine for the taking, my love is just waiting to turn your tears into roses

Spoiler for master of darkness:

without hesitation you, because I don't know regyptic well.

Spoiler for Espithel:

Honestly, unless it's a ghost, what to nightmare really doesn't matter. Just use it on a creature he cannot play.

Spoiler for submachine1:

I would give you a 

Spoiler for submachine2:

You see me as death because when you joined the forums I was commander of the death guild. I did not choose to be in the death guild, though, I was placed there.

Spoiler for farscape:

Depends on a lot of things, but honestly, I don't know you well and therefore you don't have much chances as of now.

[TribalTrouble]

What has been your darkest moment?

[MyNameIsJoey]

What has been your darkest moment?

can you further explain your question?

[TribalTrouble]

What has been your darkest moment?

can you further explain your question?

What has been your hardest, most stressful and tragic moment?

[Odii Odsen]

Odii Odsen 

First: "Vote based on who you think would make the best Master of that element." and not who makes the funniest/most creative answers or something.

I will only answer to questions which really are about the Mastership, War or other Events (which have any relation to this title). Because this is no tea time with Odii.

Please understand, that I have no time to answer "off-topic" questions. (You must know, I actually like them.  )

Spoiler for Blacksmith's question:

To all trialists.

Darkness has in 7 wars only been among the 6 best twice. Why is that and what would be needed to change that?

1. General stuff

• Darkness isn't a (I call it) supporter Element like Aether for example. The amount of good working decks like duo's is much lower than with other elements. Playing with darkness during war is always a hard challenge IMO.
• Darkness only has one important/well known stall. And my experience is that stalls were something like the "key" in wars.
• With a limit of upps, and I have to say that 9|6|3 upgraded cards in a deck is a bit too less for darkness. Building nice rushes is just possible with a good mono deck.
• Conclusion: Compared to the most successful elements like Aether, Air, Fire and Time, Darkness lacks on stalls and fast rushes. Combos with other elements are also too simple and especially too slow in a shardless "meta"
• A solution is to find new decks. Last war team darkness played a darkness/death duo very successful. The idea came from CCCombobreaker. This should be a motivation to test new ideas in every form. Like to find counter against specific elements and try to drop some of the "old" decks. But more under point #2...

2. Last war (#7)

• This was my first War in Team Darkness and my first war as General. It was always one of the goals to bring decks which nobody expect. (But who isn't trying that?) We had success with this "strategy". I have to bring that darkness/death deck as an example again. We brought Voodoo's back to war
• The standings often shows the hard and not always the fair part. To remind you: Darkness was a long time during last war in TOP4. Unfortunately we couldn't stay there, because of some mistakes we all learned from. Btw. did any other element faced that many Generals and Lt.'s from other elements like us?
• I am sure no other element faced that many rainbow decks like us. We always had to salvage from boring rainbow decks. This sucks. Really! Why? Because we planned to salvage some specific cards we needed for some decks we wanted to play. But if you have to salvage from rainbows the whole time you need either very much patient or plan with "useless" cards and build more rainbows. Probs for mrpaper's idea in the suggestion and feedback thread of war for the new salvage system at this point!
• To repeat it: Darkness didn't have an easy time last war with all that circumstances (and war rules like they are at the moment aren't comfortable with some elements like darkness and life) BUT: We missed top 4 actually pretty close and I am still sure and proud that we played a good war against all that rainbow decks. Just what I can remember: After round 2 we faced 8 rainbows with graboids and 4 other decks.

Sorry for grammar.

Spoiler for vrt's questions:

Odii Odsen 

First: "Vote based on who you think would make the best Master of that element." and not who makes the funniest/most creative answers or something.

I will only answer to questions which really are about the Mastership, War or other Events (which have any relation to this title). Because this is no tea time with Odii.

Please understand, that I have no time to answer "off-topic" questions. (You must know, I actually like them.  )

Spoiler for Blacksmith's question:

To all trialists.

Darkness has in 7 wars only been among the 6 best twice. Why is that and what would be needed to change that?

1. General stuff

• Darkness isn't a (I call it) supporter Element like Aether for example. The amount of good working decks like duo's is much lower than with other elements. Playing with darkness during war is always a hard challenge IMO.
• Darkness only has one important/well known stall. And my experience is that stalls were something like the "key" in wars.
• With a limit of upps, and I have to say that 9|6|3 upgraded cards in a deck is a bit too less for darkness. Building nice rushes is just possible with a good mono deck.
• Conclusion: Compared to the most successful elements like Aether, Air, Fire and Time, Darkness lacks on stalls and fast rushes. Combos with other elements are also too simple and especially too slow in a shardless "meta"
• A solution is to find new decks. Last war team darkness played a darkness/death duo very successful. The idea came from CCCombobreaker. This should be a motivation to test new ideas in every form. Like to find counter against specific elements and try to drop some of the "old" decks. But more under point #2...

2. Last war (#7)

• This was my first War in Team Darkness and my first war as General. It was always one of the goals to bring decks which nobody expect. (But who isn't trying that?) We had success with this "strategy". I have to bring that darkness/death deck as an example again. We brought Voodoo's back to war
• The standings often shows the hard and not always the fair part. To remind you: Darkness was a long time during last war in TOP4. Unfortunately we couldn't stay there, because of some mistakes we all learned from. Btw. did any other element faced that many Generals and Lt.'s from other elements like us?
• I am sure no other element faced that many rainbow decks like us. We always had to salvage from boring rainbow decks. This sucks. Really! Why? Because we planned to salvage some specific cards we needed for some decks we wanted to play. But if you have to salvage from rainbows the whole time you need either very much patient or plan with "useless" cards and build more rainbows. Probs for mrpaper's idea in the suggestion and feedback thread of war for the new salvage system at this point!
• To repeat it: Darkness didn't have an easy time last war with all that circumstances (and war rules like they are at the moment aren't comfortable with some elements like darkness and life) BUT: We missed top 4 actually pretty close and I am still sure and proud that we played a good war against all that rainbow decks. Just what I can remember: After round 2 we faced 8 rainbows with graboids and 4 other decks.

Sorry for grammar.

War has too much drama. Inability to relativate and have a bit of fun on your own expense makes it unlikely you'll do well to avoid drama. Not taking the time to crack a joke but writing that silly essay? Voting for someone else.

It's sad to see you were ignoring my first sentence. How ever, drama can't be solved with jokes. Just to argue in your way.
Also, Darkness had no drama and no penalties last war.

vrt, I am not a funny guy, sorry. To answer your first question: pitch-black. 

Spoiler for andretimpa's question's:

@Odii. About the amount of rainbows, the main reason we in were sending them was to get around possible devourers.

General, unoriginal, question: I know you all want to lead War, but which of you are willing to lead a team in Brawl (basically, would jijo repeat the experience, did Odii enjoy the event enough for it and what are Reg's thoughts about it?)

Yes, I enjoyed brawl. Even some of the Artist tasks. Maybe you can remember that barouqe Mummy from Death Dost Dominate, which I made with some cool overwork effect by rob or the drawing from round 5. It was just annoying (again) to had some inactive player in team like in all "big" events. I can imagine to lead a brawl team, but it is to far away to decide this now, especially because I have to defend my title first. But to be honest, the master title is more a war thing for me.

Spoiler for Laxadarap's questions:

Realistically, do you think you can topple aether? Whats so new/not new this time (more important part)?

Of course! Who is saying the opposite has no idea. No new things so far. They will come during building the next vault, with more focus! Also, people won't go with many rainbows next war agianst darkness, just because we had a really good score against rainbow decks. This could be affect on the salvage. Darkness don't profit much from rainbow deck salvages.

Spoiler for CrockettRocket's questions:

Odii, are you the sort of teammate that would help your teammates build better decks or would you primarily focus on your decks to ensure victory for yourself and expect your teammates to do the same?

Of course. Otherwise I wouldn't say it that often that I prefer an active team. I want teammates I can dicuss with about deck building, new ideas, stratagy and all the other war stuff. Regyptic was a very loyal, nice, active and helpful teammate. I would play another war with him again! Just for you, cause you didn't know much about him

Another question for odii.

You take your PVP very serious, when choosing teammates would you go for activeness or most skilled players?

I probably would say Skill > Activity before I entered my first war. But in fact activity is more important than skill. Skill doesn't help me if that member never shows up for discussions or ideas. The best combo is Activity + Skill of course. That's a seldom combination. But actually every team needs at least one or better two of this type of player. To be realistic I am also very satisfied with high activity + a little bit war experience.

Spoiler for jijo's questions:

My question to other darkness people:

Do you want the master title only to be war general, or do you intend to represant the darkness all over the forums, to embody the dark in your acts, to be the black lord we see in war brawl tournaments events competitions etc.

I already answered a similar question. But my first priority is the role as General if I am Master of Darkness. Then I try to represent it also in other competitions, but its more a question of time than of will. Also I often help people especially in Chat with decks and of course I helped a lot with darkness decks. Of course it always depends on the activity of the forum. Darkness sections are more or less "dead". But what you wanna discuss there?

Spoiler for hainkarga's questions:

Explain shortly what one of my favourite quotes means as well as you can.

Wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein. / When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

I am not a lyricist or something. But I guess this quote says: You become that what you want to see/be. Since the absyss can be understand as something negative, you can also understand it like: You definitely fail if you doubt in yourself.

Spoiler for Vangelios questions:

I like the darkness element and of the all candidates here, I like music and like many
if is to choose an anthem to darkness, which would you choose?

Darkness is a quite, deep element imo. Hiding, but watching.
I chose this insturmental, because I think it fits pretty good to the mood of darkness.

Spoiler for Frozengaia's questions:

Dear all darkness triallists:

If I had to pick an element to trial it, it would either be darkness or entropy.
I'm more swayed towards entropy because the only card I love in darkness is nightmare. But I love that card to bits. Favourite card in all of elements, it is.

Other than ghost of the past and spark and singularity, what is your favourite/most creative target for nightmare? What card is your favourite to flood your opponent's hand with?

Well, actually every creature my opponent can't play. It is very situational, depends on the decks. If I need damage from him, because of SoSac, I cast nightmare on his creatures. It's usually effective against Fractal decks and stops your opponent to draw a new card. This makes him slower. Or even nice as finisher. I like this card, too. It has so many ways to be usefull in a match.

Spoiler for Submachine's questions:

Sadly everything that darkness resembles is far from me, so I don't really know how to find it out who would represent it the best...
Or is everything really that far from me? Maybe you noticed, but I have my dark moments sometimes. I have a question that can help me decide who judges darkness the best way.

Question to all:

What do you think about me as a community member? If you could put me on a scale between 1 and 5, where 1 is and 5 is , where would you put me based on my shown behaviour?

Based on your behaviour? Sub, you became an important member in this community in a very short time. I respect your tasks you do as volunteer. I mean, you are a great and patient TO. Always a pleasure for participants when you are hosting. For me, my relationship to other community member always begins in form of PvP. And you became a part of this PvP community. You are getting better and better. Sacrifice Event is a very good example for this. I am watching you  And don't forget your effort in Council and high activity on forum. Like I already said, you became an important member in this community. And how I know you, you were always friendly and helpful. So for me you are a clear 5

Question to Odii Odsen:

Why didn't you choose as one of your main elements in Sacrifice or 3-man Team PvP?

Good question. I thought this will come soon. But the reason is pretty simple. Because of the auto bans like BW, GotP, Devourer and Dim Shield, I wasn't very motivated to play Darkness in this meta. I mean, I probably wouldn't play Ghostmare or something, but it's just a good way to scare my opponent, that he always has to think I could play it, if I want. And this factor vanished when I saw bans. Especially it was sad to see Devourer were banned. So I decided to find the strongest elements combination that is fast with rushes when both players may use a high amount of ups, breaking stalls and building some control decks. And, not forget the Blue Nymph bonus. I think I tried also to find an advantage here, that I have that many of them gurls. And really, I don't regret my desicion here, my only mistake was, that I sacrificed too less cards. The result was to face Jen-i. I think it was 18 vs. 6 ups. I really should sacrifice more. But this happens and I learned from this mistake.

About TPvP: Actually I wanted to start with . My team mates and me thought about good and innovative combinations. We came up with the idea, that stalls can dominate there. Again, I decided for for an air combination. Air became more and more insteresting for me. I played mono darkness for years in PvP, before I was Master of Darkness. I just needed a break and learn to play with other elements, too. I think this was a good excerice to see new aspects of other elements and this helps me to find new ways to combine them with darkness. For my next event, I probably will choose again. Starting to miss it

Question to Odii Odsen:

What do you consider the second favorite element of yours?

One year ago, I probably would say but now it is definitely . I like this element. IMO Air has the hottest nymph and it's a very creative element. You have so many ways to combine it with other elements. I just like it. Air is my #2.

Spoiler for farscape's questions:

Question to all candidates (challengers and old master too):

If I apply to participate in War, would you bid on me, and max how many cards ? 

The first time I read your name was during Phase 3 last trials. You asked for the "darkest" card in this game.
Then I saw your name more often in other threads and in an event, I think it was that deck simulation event.

I didn't see much of you reagarding PvP, nor I know how active you are.
I am searching for active player with (at least) a bit war experience. If the teams are bigger (like 6 member), I am always open for 1 or 2 war newbies. But I expect activity from them. Player without war experience are usually cheaper than player with war experience. So I think you would be a very nice alternative, since I think you are smarter than the usual player. But before I bid on new player or player I don't really know, I search a conversation to the player I wanna bid on.

How many cards I would bid depends on the auction rules. Of course I would try to get you as cheap as possible, but I think also other Generals would be interested in you. And another important thing is the favorite elements in your app.

[Blacksmith]

To all trialists.

Darkness has in 7 wars only been among the 6 best twice. Why is that and what would be needed to change that?

[vrt]

Odii Odsen 

First: "Vote based on who you think would make the best Master of that element." and not who makes the funniest/most creative answers or something.

I will only answer to questions which really are about the Mastership, War or other Events (which have any relation to this title). Because this is no tea time with Odii.

Please understand, that I have no time to answer "off-topic" questions. (You must know, I actually like them.  )

Spoiler for Blacksmith's question:

To all trialists.

Darkness has in 7 wars only been among the 6 best twice. Why is that and what would be needed to change that?

1. General stuff

• Darkness isn't a (I call it) supporter Element like Aether for example. The amount of good working decks like duo's is much lower than with other elements. Playing with darkness during war is always a hard challenge IMO.
• Darkness only has one important/well known stall. And my experience is that stalls were something like the "key" in wars.
• With a limit of upps, and I have to say that 9|6|3 upgraded cards in a deck is a bit too less for darkness. Building nice rushes is just possible with a good mono deck.
• Conclusion: Compared to the most successful elements like Aether, Air, Fire and Time, Darkness lacks on stalls and fast rushes. Combos with other elements are also too simple and especially too slow in a shardless "meta"
• A solution is to find new decks. Last war team darkness played a darkness/death duo very successful. The idea came from CCCombobreaker. This should be a motivation to test new ideas in every form. Like to find counter against specific elements and try to drop some of the "old" decks. But more under point #2...

2. Last war (#7)

• This was my first War in Team Darkness and my first war as General. It was always one of the goals to bring decks which nobody expect. (But who isn't trying that?) We had success with this "strategy". I have to bring that darkness/death deck as an example again. We brought Voodoo's back to war
• The standings often shows the hard and not always the fair part. To remind you: Darkness was a long time during last war in TOP4. Unfortunately we couldn't stay there, because of some mistakes we all learned from. Btw. did any other element faced that many Generals and Lt.'s from other elements like us?
• I am sure no other element faced that many rainbow decks like us. We always had to salvage from boring rainbow decks. This sucks. Really! Why? Because we planned to salvage some specific cards we needed for some decks we wanted to play. But if you have to salvage from rainbows the whole time you need either very much patient or plan with "useless" cards and build more rainbows. Probs for mrpaper's idea in the suggestion and feedback thread of war for the new salvage system at this point!
• To repeat it: Darkness didn't have an easy time last war with all that circumstances (and war rules like they are at the moment aren't comfortable with some elements like darkness and life) BUT: We missed top 4 actually pretty close and I am still sure and proud that we played a good war against all that rainbow decks. Just what I can remember: After round 2 we faced 8 rainbows with graboids and 4 other decks.

Sorry for grammar.

War has too much drama. Inability to relativate and have a bit of fun on your own expense makes it unlikely you'll do well to avoid drama. Not taking the time to crack a joke but writing that silly essay? Voting for someone else.

[andretimpa]

@Odii. About the amount of rainbows, the main reason we in were sending them was to get around possible devourers.

General, unoriginal, question: I know you all want to lead War, but which of you are willing to lead a team in Brawl (basically, would jijo repeat the experience, did Odii enjoy the event enough for it and what are Reg's thoughts about it?)

[Laxadarap]

Realistically, do you think you can topple aether? Whats so new/not new this time (more important part)?