5th Trials - Phase 3 - Community Vote

[kev]

Phase 3 - Community Vote

Phase ends when above poll expires.

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.

For reference, here are the 5th Trials Standings (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,35936.0.html) and Phase 1 Submission (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,35922.0.html) threads.

[Calindu]

Hello elements community,

I am calindu221, but you can name me simply: calindu, calin or cal.
I came in the community last March, so I don't even have a year here but I started to learn quickly.
My first event was Grid, where I lost 8 of 10 matches, but I didn't felt bad at all.
Then I proceeded towards CL, where I had a negative record.The last CL was much better, being 2nd in it.
Then I played trough Draft, Raise the Stakes, Falling Empire(My best event in terms of W/l, winning all the matches), The Colosseum(reached semi-finals), TPvP and HPvP.
Finally played in War, team gravity, who came in 8th place.

 My user information:

• IGN: Calin221
• Score:245019
• Got a trainer edition

 Acomplishements:

Won 2 tournaments and came 2nd in last CL.


 Q and A:

Ohai! A first, quick question to both calindu & Onizuka (you can answer if you wish Jocko : Why did you go for entropy? While i see Jocko as extremely fit from chatting experience (exactly the personnality of an entropy master), i don't see why Onizuka (which i'd have seen much better in darkness or death trials) and, to a lesser degree, calindu, went for this element.

What are your motivations, your goal, and what does entropy represent to you?

Well, even if I was in gravity team for war, I always loved entropy, it started out because of discord.
Denial it's my favorite weapon, as you probably know from my CL opponents.
My motivation is to bring up a new style in entropy decks(look at my trials decks and you will understands my style pretty good).
My goal is ofc to become a entropy master and bring entropy a war title.
Entropy represents the hazard, the random, which can be very cruel or very good, depends how god wants.

^^^^ Here here. Don't know how Onizuka managed to get pulled into this (or calindu, for that matter), but to each his own. ^^;

That said, my question is more about War...

Q: “True or false; War should be based on luck/RNG as LITTLE as possible in order to promote ‘fairness’ between the competitors, and to truly measure adaptive skills, meta-gaming, and analytical deck-building between players. This means that Event Cards, rules, substitutes, and things that have a high probability of changing mid-way throughout war need to be removed in order to allow such fairness.”

Very good question Kuro!Well, as you know: In war 4 Light said that "United We Stand!" ended up by killing a lot of teams.In war 3 entropy could probably win the match against aether with discord, and aether could probably win against fire w/o those nightmares from fire.
My suggestion is to remove those types of events, by annalising the vaults before posting a event(I know it does take a lot of time, but would keep the luck as low as possible.
About rules: Rules must remain the same, changing the rules in a mid of a event may disarm some strategies teams adopted at start.
Substitutes: I agree, there are people better than most people, allowing the best player in team to sub all the matches wont be fair, but the no salvage rule really helps here.

calindu221
Onizuka will be battling in the finals.. so it's between you and Jocko. What makes you better than him?

Jocko is a wonderful pvp player as we were tied at the end of phase 2, so this doesn't make one of us better than the other.
The only thing that can count is probably me winning head-to-head match-up.

Entropy is one of the most if not most powerful Element in War format. Why are you applying for this Element? Is it because of relative strength and you like to be the best? I would like a full on honest answer here. Some people like to play underdogs and others like to play OP classes/races/etc, there are no wrong answers. Which are you?

I liked entropy since I discovered Discord power, which is relatively my favorite card.
And ofc, I do like to have a strong element, as entropy.

This goes to all of y'alls:

My question is this: How much of a decrease in effectiveness do you feel that Entropy faced with two of its most powerful cards, Discord and Antimatter, banned?

I knew from the start that I wont use Discord, but the Antimatter ban was the worst possible for me.
More than half of my decks used Antimatter at start, and to use them I had to change them, a lot.

This should be a tricky one.

When talking about entropy themes the word "random" is thrown around a lot. You can see it in the CIA, where roughly half the currently submitted (and presumably many others) entropy cards simply have the word "random" in them. It appears that "random" sums up most of what entropy is and does to many people. I would say that while randomness is a large factor in entropy, to focus on it entirely is missing the point.

How would you describe entropy without using "random" or any similar word?

Entropy is energy, pure energy, as you see from Supernova.

Quick question : can you surprise me with an effective nova based deck ?

The Titan bow! Is very fast, not prone to CC and it uses the awesomeness of nova to power it!

by calindu221

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 5oi 5oi 6u1 713 744 744 744 744 74c 74c 74c 74c 74c 74c 75m 75m 75m 7an 7dm 7n0 7n2 7n2 7n2 80a 8pl

The 2 unupped Flying Weapons are just here because you have enough air quanta to power those, I found that this is the best version.

And now, for something completely unrelated.


Make a 66% entropy deck centered about Mutation and Maxwell's Demon! And while at it, no Nova.

by calindu221

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

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6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6rn 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6tt 6tt 6tt 6tu 6tu 6tu 6tu 6tu 6u6 6u6 6u7 6u7 6u7 6u7 6u7 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 7aj 7ak 7an 7an 7an 7an 8pn

[Jenkar]

Ohai! A first, quick question to both calindu & Onizuka (you can answer if you wish Jocko : Why did you go for entropy? While i see Jocko as extremely fit from chatting experience (exactly the personnality of an entropy master), i don't see why Onizuka (which i'd have seen much better in darkness or death trials) and, to a lesser degree, calindu, went for this element.

What are your motivations, your goal, and what does entropy represent to you?

[Kuroaitou]

^^^^ Here here. Don't know how Onizuka managed to get pulled into this (or calindu, for that matter), but to each his own. ^^;

That said, my question is more about War...

Q: “True or false; War should be based on luck/RNG as LITTLE as possible in order to promote ‘fairness’ between the competitors, and to truly measure adaptive skills, meta-gaming, and analytical deck-building between players. This means that Event Cards, rules, substitutes, and things that have a high probability of changing mid-way throughout war need to be removed in order to allow such fairness.”

[Onizuka]

kuro and jenk y u ninja reserved posts.

Anywho, I may or may not answer questions. I may answer questions based on a flip of a coin for each, or a roll of a die to answer a maximum/minimum.
Don't know yet.

^^^^ Here here. Don't know how Onizuka managed to get pulled into this (or calindu, for that matter), but to each his own. ^^;

That said, my question is more about War...

Q: “True or false; War should be based on luck/RNG as LITTLE as possible in order to promote ‘fairness’ between the competitors, and to truly measure adaptive skills, meta-gaming, and analytical deck-building between players. This means that Event Cards, rules, substitutes, and things that have a high probability of changing mid-way throughout war need to be removed in order to allow such fairness.”

There is no fairness in war. The elements themselves bring unfairness to the War event.
If you want a true/false answer, I say it is false. War isn't fair. Doing things like substituting to use nymphs is fine. Having events that cost teams the event is fine. But doing the latter leaves resentment and the sense of being cheated out of a win. Doing things like that isn't healthy for the event. But this is purely what I would want war to be, so I rather have all options available than limit. If they truly wanted to test adaptive skills, meta-gaming, and analytical deck building, then being able to survive a change in plans shows that perfectly.
Vaults have a 100% chance of changing mid-way through war, lets get rid of those 

Ohai! A first, quick question to both calindu & Onizuka (you can answer if you wish Jocko : Why did you go for entropy? While i see Jocko as extremely fit from chatting experience (exactly the personnality of an entropy master), i don't see why Onizuka (which i'd have seen much better in darkness or death trials) and, to a lesser degree, calindu, went for this element.

What are your motivations, your goal, and what does entropy represent to you?

I went to entropy for a few reasons. The first off is that trials was severely underpacked. The amount of people who didn't do phase 1 (masters included) that either joined trials or dropped out doesn't seem right to me. Instead of going for a packed element like Darkness/Death/Aether/etc, I decided to attempt to balance out the trials. I limited myself to Air (2 challengers, no master), Life (1 challenger,master), Water (1 challenger, master), Fire (1 challenger, master), and entropy (2 challengers, no master). I did this with fellow trialer YoungSot. I feel that no one should be able to walk into a master battle. Fire eventually had 3 people+master by the time I decided to sign up, with one dropping out. I felt that ak had earned a second shot, but anyone coming in would be great for the element (Go go Bootsza). Air has two great people for it, as with Entropy. Light had 3 people by the time I signed up. Water gained kakerlake and I had high hopes that patch would join too. So I was at a conundrum. Where would I go? I ultimately left it to a metaphorical role of a die (go go random.org). Entropy managed to get on top. I would be somewhere else if it hadn't. I also don't believe in the "seeing a person as an element" being a reason to not go for a trial.

Motivations? Whatever I want to do. Seeing a balanced trials. The feeling after being truly able to tell someone that the games were good and not "Eh, pretty much the same as some round 1 tourney game".
Goal? Winning the 6th trials with the grandmaster title under my belt. If any master or challenger that plans to head the element under war has anything less than that I'm inclined to ask why.
What entropy represents? The ability to change a game in an instant.

Onizuka
How did you dominate Phase II?

A combination of a few things. Being able to predict to a degree what my opponents would bring, having purple nymphs to get around the antimatter ban. Removing most of the damage ability of gravity with the bans. RNG not spurning me overall as well, that was crucial part.

Also I have to keep up appearances, have to continue the x-0 in my phase two of trials

Entropy is one of the most if not most powerful Element in War format. Why are you applying for this Element? Is it because of relative strength and you like to be the best? I would like a full on honest answer here. Some people like to play underdogs and others like to play OP classes/races/etc, there are no wrong answers. Which are you?

I will not deny that entropy is strong. Because it is. I applied to balance out trials and RNG led me here. I like that entropy is strong, but every element is strong at something. Every element also has a fun factor ro it. Entropy exceeds in this with the RNG based cards it employs. I like playing both. Playing OP things are fun in the winning sense. Playing UP classes is fun. If you have ever played/heard about Team Fortress Two, I love to play the medic. Most games limit the offensive power of such classes (Maplestory cleric comes to mind, pre-genesis bishop. One of my favorite players was my STR Cleric, so lulz worthy). However, I prefer to play battle medic. The most fun games are 12x12 battle medic offs.

This goes to all of y'alls:

When playing you guys in Trials, I noticed that mini SNbows were used, and that there was little to no monos being used. My question is this: How much of a decrease in effectiveness do you feel that Entropy faced with two of its most powerful cards, Discord and Antimatter, banned?

You got tails.

This should be a tricky one.

When talking about entropy themes the word "random" is thrown around a lot. You can see it in the CIA, where roughly half the currently submitted (and presumably many others) entropy cards simply have the word "random" in them. It appears that "random" sums up most of what entropy is and does to many people. I would say that while randomness is a large factor in entropy, to focus on it entirely is missing the point.

How would you describe entropy without using "random" or any similar word?

While all the elements have this, I think "game changing" really fits entropy more than any other element. From to the quanta disturbing discord, to the creature negating antimatter, to the nigh impossible without a way around it dissipation shield, entropy has one drop cards in the plenty that effect the games they're played in drastically.

Quick question : can you surprise me with an effective nova based deck ?

Tails.

And now, for something completely unrelated.


Make a 66% entropy deck centered about Mutation and Maxwell's Demon! And while at it, no Nova.

Tails.

[Jocko]

Hello!
My name is Jocko, as you can see, and i'm currently one of the 3 challengers for entropy.
Not much of an introduction, so lets get to the questions.
Thank you for those kind words <3False. Though war should try to avoid relying on luck, you mentioned adaptability as one of the skills that war measures. Adapting to event cards and using them to your favour is one of the best ways to do that.Because i haven't won anyone, of course! I had my chances twice, once in a final battle vs TII where one card would determine the outcome and he ended winning 2-1, and another one i had to forfeit for personal reasons but ended up 3rd. I haven't played many tourneys yet so i'll hopefully catch up. I've played BL twice, first time during the extension and i only got to play 10 matches, and 2nd time I played for fun trying combos that no one had tried before. In PvP events, well... We placed in the top teams with team fire, though i can't take full credit for that of course. I consider myself to do a nice work in grid considering i was kinda noobish then, the same in draft. Being honest here, i never considered Entropy's strenght when applying for master. Entropy has been my first element when i registered, and since i upped my first Fallen Druid its been my favourite element. Just the fun i had with randomness is all i need to love Entropy.Lately in trials battles i witnessed some of entropy's magic when my Pandes and Chaos Seeds casted PU 7 times in the same battle. All those twists you can get, the risks, are what makes entropy so fun for me.

This goes to all of y'alls:

When playing you guys in Trials, I noticed that mini SNbows were used, and that there was little to no monos being used. My question is this: How much of a decrease in effectiveness do you feel that Entropy faced with two of its most powerful cards, Discord and Antimatter, banned?

I played no SNbows or bows at all and beat you, your argument is invalid.

This goes to all of y'alls:

My question is this: How much of a decrease in effectiveness do you feel that Entropy faced with two of its most powerful cards, Discord and Antimatter, banned?

So, now to the real question: I think that a lot. I surely wasn't prepared for the bans, so i had to adapt myself. Still, as I stated before, entropy has still amazing cards, making good monos and duos. (My stars were pande and diss shield. But the common Entropy rush did a nice work too)

This should be a tricky one.

When talking about entropy themes the word "random" is thrown around a lot. You can see it in the CIA, where roughly half the currently submitted (and presumably many others) entropy cards simply have the word "random" in them. It appears that "random" sums up most of what entropy is and does to many people. I would say that while randomness is a large factor in entropy, to focus on it entirely is missing the point.

How would you describe entropy without using "random" or any similar word?

Its hard. As you said, most of entropy now is focused on randomness. But that is partly Zanz's fault, since he first introduced the randomness in entropy cards. I'd describe it as unpredictable, which, though is a lot similar than random, isn't the same. Other word to describe it is "change". Entropy is all about change, conversion. Quanta (energy) to shield, cards to quanta, quanta to other quanta, attack to healing.
Or, to make it simplier, like my good friend Iman said it:
[23:09:39] Iman00b8 [»] Jocko: Pfft@Helstons Pony question. Simple answer: A thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work

by Jocko

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6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6ts 6tt 6tt 6tt 6tt 6u6 6u6 6u6 6u6 715 715 71c 71c 71c 8pk

[majofa]

The following questions/comments will be sharp and pointed. They may hurt your feelings, but they are meant to help me and the community see how you handled adversity and tough questions. So, don't take too much offense to it, I'm gonna be grilling everyone. Also, I don't hate any of you, it's just my RL interviewing being used for the community vote.

Onizuka
How did you dominate Phase II?
calindu221
Onizuka will be battling in the finals.. so it's between you and Jocko. What makes you better than him?
Jocko
You have zero PvP trophies, why?

[MrBlonde]

Entropy is one of the most if not most powerful Element in War format. Why are you applying for this Element? Is it because of relative strength and you like to be the best? I would like a full on honest answer here. Some people like to play underdogs and others like to play OP classes/races/etc, there are no wrong answers. Which are you?

[n00b]

This goes to all of y'alls:

My question is this: How much of a decrease in effectiveness do you feel that Entropy faced with two of its most powerful cards, Discord and Antimatter, banned?

[Helston]

This should be a tricky one.

When talking about entropy themes the word "random" is thrown around a lot. You can see it in the CIA, where roughly half the currently submitted (and presumably many others) entropy cards simply have the word "random" in them. It appears that "random" sums up most of what entropy is and does to many people. I would say that while randomness is a large factor in entropy, to focus on it entirely is missing the point.

How would you describe entropy without using "random" or any similar word?

[ralouf]

Quick question : can you surprise me with an effective nova based deck ?

Calin deck is something I never saw pretty nice deck mate !

[RavingRabbid]

And now, for something completely unrelated.


Make a 66% entropy deck centered about Mutation and Maxwell's Demon! And while at it, no Nova.