Feel free to ask any questions you might have on this thread -- I'll be replying to them in the thread, and also sticking my responses here
Hi, I'm Pika
This is my second time running for the
Trial of Aether, and both of my journeys so far have been exciting and fun. Since last Trials, I have learned a lot more about Aether and had the opportunity to show the community that Aether is truly a powerful and versatile element that's much more than just Dim Shield spam.
In the previous
Trials, I won two of three matches in the Battle Phase (winning against icecoldbro (War II's General of Aether) and Dragoon1140 (War II's Lieutenant of Aether), and advanced to the Final Battle, where I played an exciting series of games against Higurashi and lost 4-5. So far during this season of Trials, I received the bonus for best overall Phase 1 submissions, and won all three matches in the Battle Phase (against UTAlan (member of War III's Team Aether), mrpaper (member of War II's Team Aether), and scauduro221095).
During
War III, I served as the
Lieutenant of Aether and played a crucial role in the organization of our resources -- from making finishing touches for deckbuilding and S/D/C before each round's deadline to tracking our overall Vault progress with a simple and intuitive spreadsheet that I created, I ensured that Team Aether remained free of Vault penalties throughout the entire War. In addition, I played a major part in creating Team Aether's signature deck archetype in War III -- Bonebolt (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28445.0.html) -- and also helped my teammates evolve the base deck skeleton into various forms that had many different uses. From shutting down creature rushes to breaking stalls, Bonebolt is a highly adaptable deck.
On the battlefield, I finished with a record of
8-5, including a few matches that were won through particularly good play (see Game 1 of Round 7 (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,26752.0.html) and Game 2 of Round 9 (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,27308.0.html) in particular). I'm proud to say that I've been part of the driving force behind
Team Aether (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/board,233.0.html)'s dominance over the 12 opposing teams in the first half of War, and contributed to its 2
nd place finish.
Outside of War, I've managed to place 3
rd in two tournaments:
2 Powerful (Western) (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,23906.0.html) and
Buff Up (Western) (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,24292.0.html), in which I defeated various skilled and high-calibre players such as TStar, TheonlyrealBeef, Zeru, Onizuka, and SpikeSpiegel. I am also a participant on Team Delta in
Draft II (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/board,275.0.html).
On the forums, I am a
League Organizer (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/board,78.0.html), and I have been diligently updating the standings, answering players' questions, making announcements, and also auditing League results for the entire duration of League season 2/2011. Being a League Organizer requires the ability to communicate effectively with others (as part of answering questions from League players, and also internally with the rest of the LO team), attention to detail (since League audits require the auditor to check over 1400 match results to ensure that all of them follow the rules), and dedication (even with War and exams going on, I still manage to update the standings at least once every two days). These qualities are highly important for anyone who wishes to become a Master to have.
As a candidate for the title of Master of Aether, I can proudly say that I possess qualities that embody the spirit of Aether as an element. I am fun to be around and even downright silly when I want to, much like a wacky Mindgate; but I am also able to be serious when work needs to be done, much like a stern bolt of Lightning. Like
itself, I get along with nearly everyone
I truly believe that I can bring something new to the table -- a new dimension previously unexplored -- and represent the element of Aether as well as the previous holders of the title if I become the next Master of Aether.
Questions and AnswersTough choices... time to bust out my Trials #4 questions. 
Q: “Suppose that the Phase Spider never existed (or better yet, that the spider belonged to another element, like Life). If you had to add a creature to the Aether element to replace the spider, and the replacement was based off a real-life animal, what would it be? No need to add a mechanic to the creature, I just want to know what would embody Aether.”
I know, a Pikachu! :
D
Oh wait, a "real-life animal" -- well, that takes a bit more thought
I would choose the chameleon as a replacement animal mascot for Aether. The chameleon's ability to blend in and adapt to its surroundings fits in well with Aether's philosophy of being the element of duality. Plus, the concept of changing the element of creatures/permanents as an activated ability opens up some new interactions and design territory
Question for the challengers.
"Aether has performed miserably the previous 2 wars and with Higurashi leading the way showed how dominant Aether can be. What makes you a better candidate then Higurashi?"
While Aether's performance in War I left much to be desired, I wouldn't say that its War II showing was particularly bad; 5th place is still above average (same goes for you, Team Death of War III!
).
The way I see it, Higs and I are equals in terms of our suitability for the title of Master of Aether. We each excel in different things -- Higs can remain calm under pressure and is a bit more serious, while I have a keen eye for detail and can be a bit more light-hearted when the situation calls for it. Both of us are more than capable of assuming leadership for Aether and showing the community its awesomeness
Aether, another element that i love a lot.
This is an element in which i have a hard time finding questions to ask, though, but here goes, i guess.
Apart from fractal uses, which element do you think synergises (idk how to write that?) the best with aether and why?
Aether is more than just Fractal -- there's plenty of powerful cards in its arsenal like Lightning, Parallel Universe, and Dimensional Shield. Note that Aether and Fire are tied for being the element with the fewest number of cards, and that Aether has way more "weird" cards that aren't able to be used in every deck
+
= Bonebolt (aka the deck that terrorized War III with its unpredictability and variety of win conditions that range from just pure poison damage to Fractalling Mummies or Bone Dragons)
Simply put, Bone Wall + Lightning = PURE WIN.
Honourable mentions: +
= PU Phoenix (a deadly Firestall counter)
+
= PU Azures with Spiderwings (Wings + Phase Shield + Phase Spider = even more creature hate)
And why wouldn't other contestants be able to do as well / better than you?
While my three fellow challengers all have potential, Higs and I still surpass them in a few areas such as leadership, experience, and reputation. Higs and I have led Team Aether to a spectacular finish in War III, we're both relatively well-known and are friendly with many people in the community, and I've been actively contributing to the forums for over a year and a half.
With time, I can see my fellow challengers (especially Alan, as he has trained under Higs and me during War, and is making a name for himself as being a developer of various Elements tools) being accomplished players in their own right
Perhaps i misremember last war. 5th place is indeed not a miserable showing although last war the end standings were kind of skewed. Entropy was so dominant last war but until round 7 it really was just a three team race with Entropy, Fire and Death with everyone else just surviving.
Point taken.
This War's results were much closer because Aether had quite a few problems with the RNG (like losing some favourable matchups, losing because of a coin flip, and losing due to a best-of-one round)
Q: If Pokemon switched to using the 12 elements from Elements, instead of the 17 type system, which Pokemon would be from the element of Aether? Original 151 only.
With cards like Thunderbolt and Ball Lightning, the Electric type is well-attuned with the element of Aether (yay, Pikachu!) Since Aether also deals partially with the mind and various support tricks like Mindgate, Silence, Parallel Universe, Fractal, and Dimensional Shield, the Psychic type also fits well.
Coincidentally, Electric and Psychic are two of my favourite types (Ghost is a close third) :>
Aether is one of the most popular elements, why do you think so?
Explain.
Aether is like an onion. It has several layers of complexity that take a certain amount of experience to delve deeper into -- there's something for players of all skill levels to like.
For many novice players, Aether is all about two things: immaterial creatures (
Phase Dragon,
Immortal) and
Dimensional Shield. Having creatures that are immune to most forms of creature control is awesome, and being able to block all non-momentumed creatures and weapons is even more awesome. These two concepts are enough to form the defensive deck archetype of mono-Aether, which is a staple of Bronze League opposing decks, PvP1, and Half-Blood farming. Dimensional Shield alone has two (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,10171.0.html) different (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,21824.0.html) nerf threads, the first of which has spawned over 9 pages of discussion. Disgruntled newbies often scream "Dim Shield is OP!" without even thinking about its numerous counters. The dominance of mono-Aether among newer players definitely has something do with it
As players experiment with deckbuilding, they discover that there is one Aether card that forms an instant combo with almost any low-cost creature card:
Fractal. The ability to break the "maximum 6 copies of non-Pillar/Pendulum" rule is gamebreaking, and that sheer card advantage forms the basis of several popular decks. To name just a few, there's
RoL/Hope (Fractal Ray of Light + Archangel / Light Dragon),
Pestal (Fractal Pest + Vampire / Gargoyle / Black Dragon),
Fractix (Fractal Minor Phoenix),
Frogtal (Fractal Giant Frog), and
Fracharge (Fractal Elite Charger). Breaking a fundamental rule of the game has never been so full of win.
Beyond those four cards, players skilled with the element of Aether discover that there are two deceptively boring cards that are just waiting to be taken advantage of. These cards are
Parallel Universe and
Lightning. Creating extra copies of a creature is perfect for both large creatures (both Dragons and buffed Growth creatures) and creatures that have been hit with a slew of buff spells. Lightning is the most powerful direct-damage creature control spell for its cost (outside of the three Bolts) -- many creatures are not able to withstand a 5 HP hit, and it can also be used on the opponent as a finisher if necessary.
The truly experienced will be able to use Aether's set of "strange new toys" to their fullest potential:
Mindgate and
Silence. The former is another gamebreaking card when used correctly, while the latter is deadly for mindgames, breaking shield chains, and generally preempting the opponent from saving themselves with game-changing cards like Miracle, Dimensional Shield, Wings, and Sundial.
In short, for every playstyle and skill level, there is an Aether card that appeals to players.
As a Master, how do you think the concept of could be expanded on in Elements the Game?
(Note - This does not necessarily have to be about new cards.)
"Aether is the domain of the immaterial things; it is where the stars reside and the media where all the energy waves move. Aether elementals excel in manipulating the dimensions and electricity; most of the creatures they generate are immaterial." -- Zanzarino
As it stands, Aether has three main defining abilities: manipulation of space (Dimensional Shield, Phase Dragon, Immortal), electricity (Thunderbolt, Ball Lightning), and the mind (Mindgate, Silence). Exploration of some ideas that can tie these concepts together, such as cards like Luminiferous Aether (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,7231.0.html) and its ability to generate light and electricity, will give Aether a way to tie in those specialties and create an even more coherent image of what its elemental philosophies are.
More pragmatically, Aether would like a more cost-effective mid-range attacker than Immortal, preferably one that's less fragile than Phase Recluse. However, the existence of Parallel Universe and Fractal prevent Aether from having cost-effective creatures from both ends of the spectrum (Fractal creates problems with cheaper creatures, while Parallel Universe complicates more expensive creatures) and cause Aether to turn to other elements for its firepower. Some simple, yet elegant ideas such as Psionist (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28117.0.html) and Dimensional Wolf (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,26219.msg356372#msg356372) may be able to mitigate this problem.
This ability only works with damage reduction shields.
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)
This card is begging to be used with Fractal, since one of the biggest weaknesses of Fractalling low-cost creatures is that damage reduction shields greatly reduce their damage output. Aetheric Swirl counters that weakness almost perfectly, and if added to the metagame, it would send Fractal over the top in terms of OPness, and we'll probably see full-blocking shields like Dissipation, Dimensional, and Wings enjoy a surge in popularity.
As fellow team members most of you, I believe you should be able to answer this correctly.
It's something very crucial to understand to have success in War.
Simply:
Aether is a particularly unique element, for one main reason.
What is it that makes Aether so unique inside the War metagame?
Aether's specialty in the War environment is versatility, which stems from three key cards: Lightning, Fractal, and Parallel Universe.
Lightning is a cost-effective and powerful piece of creature control (2
for 5 damage) that wipes out most creatures, and can also be used as a finisher on the opponent. The combination of Fractal and Parallel Universe allows Aether to effectively use almost any off-element creature as its win condition -- Fractal is used for spamming low-cost creatures, while Parallel Universe works well with high-cost creatures.
Aether's card pool is high in utility, and requiring only 50% Aether cards in War decks means that it's entirely possible to make duos with every element by taking the 10-15 off-element cards and adding some appropriate utility cards and Aether Pends to it.
What is your favourite deck, and why?
I like Bonebolt (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28445.0.html) :>
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52q 52q 52r 52r 52r 52r 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 61v 61v 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pkBonebolt is one of those decks that possesses cards that have deep synergy with each other, while still being highly customizable in terms of what its objective is -- from crushing creature rushes to breaking stalls, there's a variant of Bonebolt that does it.
Question Time!
After current master Higurashi almost lead aether to its first war victory, what would you do to prepare for next war to ensure that this does not happen again and that aether does win its first war?
Ban event cards that add more cards to Vaults, prevent other teams from turtling up at the 60-71 card sweet spot, and bribe the RNG so that we don't lose because of a cointoss / the opponent drawing their lone Deflag in a best-of-one round?
In all seriousness, Team Aether did almost everything it legally could to ensure its success. The only thing that I would have changed in hindsight was to suicide at least once in Round 12, so that we could have saved some more cards for Higs and me to use in the endgame.
Please link a song which you think represents / feel like Aether.
Here's something a little bit on the weird and interesting side: The Legend of Mario (
)
The seamless meshing of music from two completely different game franchises creates the feel of duality that is embodied by Aether.
Aether has been my favourite element when I started the game, when Phase Dragon was not immaterial.
The question is: if Phase Dragon was de-immaterialed (with consequent stat adjustment to 9|6 and 10 , 12|6 and 11 ), what would change in Aether?
The combo of Phase Dragon + Parallel Universe would open up again. Before Phase Dragon was made immaterial by Zanz (with a cost increase to 13 | 14
), that combo was commonly played in a rushier style of mono-Aether -- think DragonPowa (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,17091.0.html), but with more durable PU bait, and greater stability.
The traditional defensive mono-Aether (with Phase Shields and Phase Dragons) would be slightly less effective due to the need for either Quintessence or Immortal to provide immaterial creatures. Elite Immortal might actually see play now that it's the only naturally immaterial creature. Turquoise Nymph will be slightly less useless in mono-Aether, and there might actually be a need to use Quintessence in mono-Aether.
Each of you challengers has a very difficult (arguably impossible) task this round, which is essentially explaining why you would be a better master/general of than Higs. Unfortunately, MrBlonde has already asked this question. So instead, I pose 2 other questions:
First, what was Higs' most successful quality during war 3 (not including drafting me or anything else auction related)? Whomever writes the same answer that I am thinking of automatically gets my vote.
Secondly, as general of team , what strategy do you plan on using for the auction in War 4?
Higs was always confident with the skills of her team members in all areas of War -- from playing to deckbuilding and vault management, and she put a lot of trust in the choices that we made.
If I were to have enough time to devote to War (for the entire duration of the event -- I will only play if I can finish what I start) and act as the General of Aether, then I would follow a methodology similar to Higs' in War III. I would look for a small number of War veterans who are skilled in at least one portion of the War preparations (deckbuilding, S/D/C, Vault management), will be able to stay and devote time to War for the entire event, and would like to play for Aether (bonus points if they did play for Aether before). The rest of the slots would be filled in by less-known players who have a strong desire to play for Aether, the motivation to stay active for the entire duration of War, some PvP skill (previous participation in Tournaments or PvP Events, especially team-based ones, is an asset) and a fair number of the commonly used unupped rares.
Q:
If you had to chose , what card would you remove from your element , and why?
Hm. I'd have to remove Immortal, since it has the greatest amount of overlap with the other Aether cards (Phase Dragon also comes into play immaterial, Phase Recluse is another mid-range attacker), and it doesn't see as much play as the creatures that it shares a niche with.
