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Zawadx · « **on:** April 30, 2016, 03:59:33 pm »

TIME TO ENTER THE TRIALS
HAS RUN OUT

Please make sure you've read the Rules very carefully. Also, here are the Phase 1 Rules.
To join these Trials, post in this thread a single post containing the following information:

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Remember, the Requirements to Challenge are:

30,000+ score in Elements
200+ forum posts
Joined the forums no less than 3 months ago (at the time of signing up)
Participation in at least three separate PVP Events (Leagues, War, Weekly Tournaments, etc.)

Spamming the forums to get those 200 posts is not allowed, and you have to provide a screen shot of your score.

A player may participate in Trials without meeting the 200 post and 30,000 score requirements if they are able to provide evidence of a significant PVP achievement. Examples of sufficient achievements are:

Winning a Weekly Tournament
A top 3 finish in either of the PVP Leagues
A top 3 finish in a PVP event
Finishing on 1 of the top 3 War teams
Becoming a Master of any Element

Note: In the event more there are more than four applicants (including the defending master) for one element, priority will be given first to players with the higher Phase 1 scores and second to a combination of score/post count.

Challengers:

Master dawn to dusk of

has his decision pending.

mathman101 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 30, 2016, 05:31:12 pm »

Spoiler for Requirements:

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Trials #1
Mastering The Cards

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killsdazombies · « **Reply #2 on:** April 30, 2016, 11:25:30 pm »

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Mastering the Cards

I decided, for my card spotlights, I would take a look at the lowest rated cards on life’s element subthread. This included Shard of Gratitude at 4 votes, Cockatrice at 5, and Jade Dragon at 6.

Shard of Gratitude

Spoiler for Shard of Gratitude:

Cockatrice

Spoiler for Cockatrice:

Jade Dragon

Spoiler for Jade Dragon:

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dawn to dusk · « **Reply #3 on:** May 01, 2016, 01:23:40 am »

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Mastering the Cards

Thorn Carapace is one of Life's two shields, and serves as it's only form of CC. This is, however, slow. But has an AoE effect to it that can bypass Immateriality and Cloak. Due to how slow it is, it sees most use as either a counter to a deck (like perhaps a RoL hope), or in a stall deck which can afford to take damage as long as there is a long term gain. This means, that if there is enough defense to back it up, a single Thorn Carapace can prove to be a powerful card, capable of stopping many decks.

Considering this, Thorn Carapace is best used alongside cards like Shard of Gratitude (in any life stall) due to its consistent healing, Stone Skin (in an Earth Life stall) since it provides a lot of short and long term bulk, and even sometimes Emerald Shield (in counter decks) to provide versatility.

Adrenaline is one of the most aggressive cards at life's disposal, and thus has a lot of use in many rushes and stallbreakers. It is a buff, meaning it can be removed with Reverse Time, and gives no stats meaning that the creature will still be susceptible to creature control, but it's main use is to provide a consistent burst to the opponent, and allow for creatures to be very cost efficient. This efficiency is reflected in the cost of Adrenaline, being cheap to use, and potentially giving large amounts of damage.

This card is best used with Horned Frog, as it is in-element with Adrenaline, as well as very cheap. Druidic Staff is another, albeit quite niche, use, and allows for it to heal 20hp per Stave per turn to the user, given that the weapon has been flown beforehand. Finally, it has great use with Momentum, as it can provide a small buff to a creature, increasing its effectiveness depending on what it is, and also gives the shield bypass effect which can greatly hinder the use of Adrenaline.

Empathic Bond is a scaling heal for life. Despite starting slow with few creatures, having multiple Empathic Bonds out with a near-full board can potentially heal for more than your full health every turn. It mainly only has niche uses, but can be used in various types of decks, from a stall-with-damage, to domination decks. It has troubles against cards like Rain of Fire and Thunderstorm, as AoE effects severely hinder Bond's usage. These cards are hard to fight back against, unless a card like Cockatrice is used to fuel the bonds which are surprisingly bulky against AoE spells.

These niche uses restrict the amount of plausible cards which can be used with Empathic Bond, however some of those cards which stand out are Mitosis, which is not only in-element, but provides a very consistent creature generation to fuel the bonds, aflatoxin which can double as a lockdown tactic, whilst still providing large creature generation. This can also be used alongside cheap creatures such as Horned Frog and Cockatrice, which are cost efficient, and provide useful offensive stats while still being useful contributions towards the Empathic Bond.

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willng3 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 13, 2016, 03:45:20 am »

Spoiler for Requirements:

Spoiler for Phase 1:

Spoiler for Task 1:

Mastering the Cards (AKA "Your word counts are now diamonds!")

Spoiler for Evidence of completion:

Spoiler for Adrenaline | Epinephrine:

Card 1: Adrenaline

Adrenaline and Epinephrine are simply one of the best damage boosters that this game has to offer and are in some cases essential for giving lower (0 to 3) Attack creatures usage in decks outside of gimmicks. Adrenaline's ability to tear down Bone Wall charges, delay turns, and freeze turns are all factors to be considered when expecting to face decks that could make use of those cards.

Usage #1: Small creatures with Abilities
Adrenaline's ability to increase the number of attacks from a creature per turn also gives it nice usability in conjunction with lower attack creatures with abilities, such as Ray of Light, Firefly, Devourer, Forest Scorpion, Minor Vampire, Druidic Staff etc. In this context, outside of having a

requirement, Adrenaline can see usage in a wide variety of deck archetypes, ranging from pure rush to some forms of stall. However, its best usage comes into play when the user is able to take full advantage of the creature that the spell is being applied to, as many of the creatures listed above are extremely frail and are very susceptible to almost all forms of creature control. Let's take a look at and discuss the implementation of some of these strategies.

Firefly	Spoiler for Example Deck #1: Firefly Swarm (with Queens): Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5lk 5lk 5lk 5lk 5oj 5oj 5oj 5oj 5oj 5oj 8pr` I had originally intended to use this deck in Trenzalore, though I never really had the opportunity due to other options seeming more appealing to me. Though incredibly simple, the beauty of this deck is effectively based on two different components. Firstly is the synergy of Adrenaline with Fireflies, a 3 attack creature which uses Adrenaline to attack four times for a total of 12 damage while also producing 4 Light quanta. The 15 Pend setup in this deck allows for Firefly Queens to be played as early as turn 3 relatively often, which also generally means that a Firefly can be expected to spawn on turn 4, with Hope being played as early as turn 6. The deck can also be reconfigured to cut down on other cards such as Hope and Adrenaline in exchange for Miracles. The second beautiful synergy with Adrenaline here is the interaction between FFQ and Adrenaline. Naturally Adrenaline doesn't do anything for FFQ's ability since it can only be used once per turn, but FFQ's respectable HP stat in conjunction with the magical 3 attack stat gives yet another 9 total damage increase with a creature that is significantly harder to remove from the field. This strategy also works well in full-offense by substituting Hope for Shards of Freedom.	Firefly Queen
Ray of Light	Spoiler for Example Deck #2: Faster than the Speed of Light: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `7af 7af 7af 7af 7al 7al 7al 7al 7an 7an 7an 7an 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7k4 7k4 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pn` I had actually submitted this deck as a Half-Blood grinder during the Proving of Worthiness Phase of Trials 6. I go into much more detail of the deck's function there, but basically the purpose of Epinephrine in this deck is to firstly get the deck up to speed by generating massive amounts of Light quanta early on in the game. Once setup has been achieved, it can then be used on Crusaders to mass produce healing for the remainder of the duel. Naturally similar tactics can be used with Luciferin but are much slower and more vulnerable to CC, since many of them also rely on Hope for defensive support. Losing a Ray of Light in this case is not the end of the world since in most cases the quanta has already been mass generated by the time the Ray of Light is recognized as a threat, which opens the gateway for Crusaders to come in and do their thing(s).	Luciferin
Devourer	Spoiler for Example Deck #3: Sluuuuuurp: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `7am 7am 7am 7am 7an 7an 7an 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7ta 7ta 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pn` I was somewhat surprised to find that a more refined deck featuring this combination of cards had not yet been posted to the forums (from what I could find), though I suppose it does make sense when considering the fact that Mitosis in most scenarios is much more beneficial when used with Pests. Epinephrine in this case can be used to increase the amount of quanta absorbed per turn (only from 1 to 2, however) but because Pests start with 0 attack, they require Eclipse as support in order to be able to do serious damage with Epinephrine, which then increases their damage output from 2 to 8. With Green Nymphs in place of Epinephrine, this deck likely becomes much more deadly.	Pest
Druidic Staff	Spoiler for Example Deck #4: Adrenastaves: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 8pr` Quite possibly the most infamous usage of Adrenaline in modern PvP environments, Adrenastaves is one of the few "mono" Life decks that can be expected to receive a great deal of competitive play. Not only do Druidic Staves typically remove Life's typical weakness to creature control with their sizable amounts of HP, but the 20 HP generated by the staves allows the deck to shrug off damage from many rushes and its rapid damage output can also give it some bite against slower decks as well. The 2 attack leads to problems against shields when decking out or OTK strategies become an option, which is why most variants of Adrenastaves will also incorporate cards such as Thorn Carapace, Green Nymphs, and Shard of Freedom into the mix. In environments where more upgrades are permissible, it also becomes possible to swap out Flying for Animate Weapons while also adding Explosions or Deflagrations for permanent control. Spoiler for Example Deck #5: "Monks": Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `7ac 7ac 7ac 7ak 7al 7al 7al 7al 7al 7an 7an 7an 7an 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 8pq` Monks is a deck name coined by former Life veteran ak65ala which represents almost any deck which makes use of Crusaders, flying Jade Staves, and Adrenaline. In fact, he actually posted a variant during Trials #4 for use against the Arena. Though the function of this deck is very similar to Adrenastaves, the addition of Crusaders gives the deck more of a bite versus decks with Shields while also giving the player access to yet more healing. Unfortunately upgrading Druidic Staves does come with the cost of decreasing the HP healed per turn from 20 to 15, but in Monks's case, this is mitigated by the addition of 6 Crusaders providing 15 HP of healing as well in addition to the Crusaders serving as magnificent Epinephrine targets both when Endowing the Jade Staves and when not Endowing them. Because Crusaders hit a total Attack stat of 7 when Endowing Jade Staves, this allows them to hit what is considered to be yet another magical number of Adrenaline/Epinephrine, which effectively gives them a total damage output of 15 instead of 7.	Jade Staff

Forest Scorpion	Spoiler for Example Deck #6: EpiChargers: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 745 745 745 745 74a 74a 74a 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7an 7an 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pl` A deck used by myself during the final battle phase of Trials 6, it boasts a great deal of speed as well as shield bypass, which is oftentimes something that Life struggles with. Scorpions in this case not only make excellent targets of Epinephrine but also allow additional damage to take place even if they are removed from the field, in the form of poison. Though Epinephrine unfortunately only increases the poison inflicted per Scorpion from 1 to 2, it still offers a potential solution to massive amounts of CC if played early enough in the duel. Spoiler for Example Deck #7: EpiPuffers: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5bs 5bs 5bs 5c1 5c1 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5ig 5ig 5ig 7gu 7gu 7gu 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 8pp` Used by Team Water during the previous War, this deck offers the same type of offensive advantages of Scorpions in the previous deck with the exception of the shield bypass given by Momentum. However, in exchange for this, this particular model also features additional Adrenaline synergy with Adrenastaves, which allows the deck to stall long enough for Puffer Fish damage to come into play. Nymph's Tears also help to provide additional support by spawning Green Nymphs in the absence of Adrenaline. Puffer Fish's higher HP stat also helps to avoid CC more so than Scorpions.	Puffer Fish
Minor Vampire	Spoiler for Example Deck #8: AdrenaVamps: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5uq 5uq 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5ut 5v2 5v2 5v2 5v2 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8pn` AdrenaVamps is a tricky deck to use simply because the fragility of Minor Vampires requires that Cloaks be used as protection from CC or else the deck will practically automatically lose. It also becomes much more potent when Nightfall is on the field and Minor Vampires are able to deal and heal 12 damage at a time, but we run into an issue at that point of having to pick and choose what cards need to be removed from the deck in order to draw Nightfall reliably, which is a problem that I commonly find when creating duos with Darkness. Regardless, if the pieces necessary for the combo to work are drawn, it may become quite difficult for the opponent to recover in time.	Cloak
Damselfly	Spoiler for Example Deck #9: Damsels Create Distress: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5c5 5c5 5p0 5p0 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7an 7an 7an 7an 7an 7an 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7n3 7n3 7n3 7n3 7n3 7n3 8pr` In this deck, yet again used by myself in Trials 6, we see two of my favorite combinations to use with Epinephrine: Damselflies and Elite Queens. Though I've already alluded to my reasons for loving the Elite Queen combination, Damselflies are a bit of a new addition that can be seen to serve a similar purpose to Ray of Light. However, I personally prefer to think of Damselflies as both vital quanta producers and great damage dealers. 8 total damage while generating 4 Air quanta per turn for the low cost of 3 Life quanta is certainly nothing to sneeze at, and it also helps alleviate this type of deck's dependence on Pendulums in order to fuel the quanta needed to play Elite Queens, Blue Nymphs, etc. And the best part of a strategy like this is that because it can setup so quickly, simply getting rid of a Damselfly isn't necessarily enough to repair the damage that it has already inflicted; by that point, the Queens will have likely become a much larger threat. Gnomes serve a similar purpose in Earth duos but instead usually opt for slower paced deck builds which may or may not incorporate Stone Skin and the like into the works.	Gnome Gemfinder
Horned Frog	Spoiler for Example Deck #10: Classic Mono Life: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 8pn` Commonly seen as the staple deck of Life's arsenal, this standard Mono Life rush ignores all forms of caution and instead focuses on pure, wholesome damage output. Horned Frog becomes the best target for Adrenaline in almost all scenarios, granting a total magical 9 damage boost. Cockatrice may also be selected for their additional bulk or due to lack of Horned Frogs at the time. Spoiler for Example Deck #11: Mono Life Revised: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `4sn 4sn 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5cg 5cg 5cg 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 8pn` With access to Green Nymphs, it becomes possible to construct a more durable version of the standard Mono Life rush while also removing some of the reliance on drawing Adrenaline in order to keep up the deck's damage output. As if this weren't enough, Green Nymphs also serve as an even better Adrenaline target than Horned Frogs and are self-sufficient. The revisions made here still offer next to nothing for bypassing certain shields but it certainly does help alleviate some of the deck's weakness to CC.	Green Nymph

Usage #2: Higher attack creatures with more durability
Outside of lower Attack creatures, more expensive creatures with 7 or 8 Attack points make excellent Adrenaline targets in decks that can afford to wait for the extra quanta generation to take place. In unupgraded play such cards include Phoenix (though it benefits much more from the effects of a Green Nymph than Adrenaline/Epinephrine itself due to its fragility) and Graboids/Shriekers. For upgraded cards, suitable targets include Elite Chargers, Archangels, and Massive Dragons, all three of which typically have enough HP to more readily look over Adrenaline's weakness to CC.

Phoenix	Spoiler for Example Deck #1: Phoenix Fervor: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5c7 5c7 5cg 5cg 5cg 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5f0 5f6 5f6 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 7dr 7dr 7dr 7dr 7dr 7dr 8po` This deck features two creatures which resilient to CC, Green Nymphs and Phoenix. As previously mentioned, though Adrenaline does work well on Phoenix as its 7 Attack yields an ideal damage boost of 8 points, because the effect is lost every time the Phoenix dies and is then Rebirth'd, it is more desirable to use Phoenix in conjunction with Green Nymphs who can otherwise reapply the Adrenaline every time that it is removed. Phoenix are notably hard to remove from the field as they effectively require 2 sources of CC to be used in order to remove for good, excluding some cases such as Liquid Shadow or Overdrive.	Green Nymph
Titan	Spoiler for Example Deck #2: AdrenaTitans: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 55t 55t 55t 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 74c 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 8pl` AdrenaTitans is a deck which has been used by Team Life in many, many Wars up to this point. Though it is not the most consistent or reliable deck, its ability to shrug off almost all forms of CC while also being able to ignore shields is something that can be quite useful to Life's other cards, especially when considering that in either its upped or unupped form, Titan is an ideal target for Adrenaline usage. In addition, its high HP stat makes it a suitable target for Gravity Pull in the event that the match becomes of a rush versus rush type of mirror match. Massive Dragon can be used to similar effect but while it is more consistent to play, it obviously comes at the price of lacking Momentum and of being much more expensive to play.	Massive Dragon
Graboid	Spoiler for Example Deck #3: Grabbow: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 590 590 590 5c2 5c2 5c5 5c5 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5f6 5f6 5og 61q 8pm` This deck was constructed by War 2's Team Life mainly as a means to get in on the Grabbow action, since it seemed like everyone and their mother was using it at the time. The interesting thing is that this Grabbow actually has some good in-element synergy by utilizing the fact that Shriekers are AWESOME Adrenaline targets. It also helps eliminate some of Life's CC weakness by enabling the player to keep their Graboids unevolved until an opportunity arises that makes such a play nearly risk free.	Shrieker
Archangel	Spoiler for Example Deck #4: Garden of Eden: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `7ad 7ad 7ad 7ad 7an 7an 7an 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7k2 7k2 7k2 8pq` I'm pretty sure I used this during Trials at some point but I can't recall when that would have been or who it would have been used against. Probably during Master's Tourney. Anyways, this deck utilizes Archangel's ability to self-heal and combines it with yet another 7 Attack Epinephrine sweet spot. As an added bonus, this tactic also allows the user to fall back on Improved Miracle for healing support in the event that rushing doesn't go as planned. This also makes decking out the opponent more of a possibility.	Improved Miracle
Elite Charger	Spoiler for Example Deck #5: EpiChargers: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 745 745 745 745 74a 74a 74a 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7an 7an 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7ao 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pl` Bringing this deck back for a second to emphasize the Chargers aspect a bit more. While it's true that Epinephrine can be used on Scorpions to good effect, it is also equally true that it has fantastic merit on Chargers, increasing their total damage to 15 per turn with a shield bypass ability. Additionally, Chargers can soak up a bit more damage and can escape the kill range of a good number of CC. If Unstoppable is used on a Charger, then this increases its total damage to 17 per turn with Epinephrine while allowing the Charger to escape even more CC.	Unstoppable

Spoiler for Mitosis | Mitosis:

Card 2: Mitosis

Mitosis oftentimes finds its place alongside Adrenaline as a powerful damage booster in Life's arsenal. While Adrenaline can be seen as a more rapid damage increase, Mitosis is oftentimes slower but yields substantially more ramp damage if not dealt with quickly. Similar to Adrenaline, Mitosis finds itself acting most efficiently with creatures that are either low in cost with high attack and/or powerful effects, or creatures that are more durable and are able to take more hits. Such targets include Pests, Rays of Light, Giant Frogs, Vanadium Wardens, Crusaders, and Emerald Dragons.

Usage #1: Cheap creatures with Abilities
Lower cost creatures have the benefit of potentially changing the flow of the game more quickly in the absence of creature control while more expensive creatures come out later but if used correctly can stick around on the field and continue to generate more and more damage dealers. Which of the two strategies is best for using this card is mainly dependent on what supporting cards are used to allow Mitosis to be used effectively. In some cases it's simply better to throw caution to the wind and attempt to spawn as many creatures early on as possible, while other times it's better to make use of cards such as Silence and Cloak for protecting creatures from CC.

Devourer	Spoiler for Example Deck #1: Devtosis: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5c6 5c6 5c6 5c9 5c9 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5up 606 606 606 606 606 7ap 7ap 7ap 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pn` Another deck featured in the most recent War, Devtosis differs from its Adrenaline variant(s) by primarily focusing on swarming the field with Devourers, completely draining the opponent's available quanta, and using Bonds in combination with the large amounts of creatures on the field to keep any creatures that are played before the lockdown occurs from depleting the player's HP. By far the best part of the Devourer + Mitosis combination is the fact that because Devourer's ability to drain quanta is Passive, Mitosis can be played on it without removing its quanta draining capabilities. Though Cloak can be used for extra protection in this scenario, it may not be necessary, especially if the Devourers are upgraded into Pests. Because this deck is quite passive, Black Dragons are viable options considering that the player has ample time to build up quanta until the Dragons can be played without fear of CC. Drain Life can also be used in this scenario, though Black Dragons usually are more effective with Mitosis.	Black Dragon
Ray of Light	Spoiler for Example Deck #2: Faster than the Speed of Light: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `7af 7af 7af 7af 7al 7al 7al 7al 7an 7an 7an 7an 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7k4 7k4 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pn` Revisiting this deck yet again to more closely inspect the synergy it uses involving Mitosis. With Mitosis, the Rays of Light in this deck can avoid certain death by having one RoL continually spawn more and more RoL to the field unless stopped. This allows the deck to take advantage of great synergy with Hope in the meantime. This combination could also incorporate the use of Feral Bonds but truthfully such a tactic is not needed with the defensive capabilities that this deck already provides.	Hope
Vanadium Warden	Spoiler for Example Deck #3: Warden Stall: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `594 594 594 594 594 594 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c3 5c3 5c3 5c3 5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 77m 77m 77m 77m 77m 77m 8pm` For this next deck, we see a full-blown stall which utilizes the delay capabilities of Wardens in order to keep damage off of the player for the rest of the game with the help of Mitosis. Vanadium Warden's 6HP allows it to absorb enough CC to allow it to spawn more of itself, which continually adds to the ability to delay creatures on the opponent's side of the field. But it is obviously impractical to continue to have to do this for the entirety of the game, which is where Thorn Carapace comes into play. The player simply needs to allow an opposing creature to become infected with one counter before using Wardens to seal it off until it dies from the poison damage. Empathic Bonds are also certainly viable in place of Heals, but may not provide enough healing to survive in the early to mid-game.	Thorn Carapace
Giant Frog	Spoiler for Example Deck #4: Mono Mito Madness: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ag 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 8pn` And of course one of the simplest tactics to use with Mitosis is to just rush like hell using low cost creatures from one element. As can be expected, this deck utterly fails against decks utilizing Dimensional Shields, Wings, or copious amounts of creature control, but can be utterly devastating otherwise. As opposed to the standard Mono Life rush, simply dealing with one creature in this case isn't always enough to end the swarm of creatures breathing down at your HP bar and the creatures can spawn fast enough here to where that possibility is very, very real.	Elite Cockatrice

Usage #2: More expensive creatures with higher Attack
As mentioned previously, another viable usage of Mitosis is to combine it with more expensive creatures that are considered stronger and also more durable. More expensive creatures will need ways to mitigate damage in the early to mid game, which may make cards such as Heal, Stone Skin, Miracle, Sanctuary, and Dimensional Shields very desirable.

Crusader	Spoiler for Example Deck #1: Faster than the Speed of Light: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `7af 7af 7af 7af 7al 7al 7al 7al 7an 7an 7an 7an 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7k4 7k4 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pn` And once again we find ourselves returning to look at the synergies involved in this deck, this time more closely inspecting the strategies involved between Crusaders and Mitosis. While sometimes it is perfectly viable to wait to spawn more and more RoL in order to guard your HP using Hope, having extra HP early on in the event of unexpected rushing is never a bad idea. To account for this, we have Crusaders providing the bulk of the extra healing in conjunction with Jade Staff. But sometimes it's not enough to have a few Crusaders scattered about and there are also other times where Epinephrine needs to be used on Rays of Light over Crusaders to avoid quanta starvation. Therefore in these circumstances it may be best to start spawning more Crusaders using Mitosis in order to continually Endow Jade Staves and continually raise the player's HP. Upgraded Crusader may be within Lightning range at first, but once it Endows a weapon it becomes a very good target of Mitosis by absorbing more than 1 form of CC under most circumstances.	Jade Staff
Steel Golem	Spoiler for Example Deck #2: MitoGolems: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 77a 77a 77a 77a 77a 77a 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 8pn` Rather than explain what amazing synergy is applicable for this deck, it's probably best to point out that this style of deck can be used for nearly any creature with similar stats and cost. Other examples may include Abyss Crawlers, Archangels, and Elite Chargers. In most cases these decks will find themselves slowing down the opponent's offense while gathering up resources to swarm the field with the creatures of choice.	Archangel
Emerald Dragon	Spoiler for Example Deck #3: Purebred Dragons: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5c9 5c9 5c9 5c9 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 8pn` Sometimes it's best to forgo complex strategies and just go for a deck which is a literal one trick pony. In this deck, the fact that Emerald/Jade Dragons have an abnormally large amount of HP (with respect to the other dragons) is used in order to continuously generate absurd amounts of quanta to generate as many Dragons as possible. They won't be easy to defeat and they can swarm the field unexpectedly fast. A Chimera can also be worked in with a Gravity mark and Emerald Pillars as a form of shield bypass, as otherwise this deck struggles versus Dimensional Shields. However, the deck will find itself unable to handle the speed of almost all pure rushes.	Jade Dragon

Spoiler for Rustler | Leaf Dragon:

Card 3: Rustler

Behold! 'Tis Rustler, the adorable, hardworking Life mascot. When not serving its main role as a bench warmer, Rustlers can be used for the purpose of granting explosive Life quanta generation, which can potentially lead to some pretty overwhelming swarming and/or rushing tactics. However, the biggest and most obvious problem of expecting such a strategy to work is that Rustlers are quite squishy, which becomes a very serious issue when also adding in the fact that Rustlers need to survive a turn in order to be able to make use of their ability at all. At times it is possible to use other creatures as bait to allow for a Rustler to enter the field unscathed, but oftentimes the creatures being sacrificed are the ones that a Rustler needs to use its ability to play and be of most benefit to the user. And unfortunately there isn't much of a way of getting around this problem. Because Rustler's ability practically demands that a duo deck be played from the start, it's hard to work in a third element that would allow for more protection for the aspiring little dragons. However, there are some strategies where Rustlers and Leaf Dragons can be viable and of use.

Nova	Spoiler for Example Deck #1: The Creation of Life: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bt 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5lf 5lf 5ok 5ok 5ok 5ok 5ok 5ok 8pr` This deck makes good use of the fact that Rustlers can be played quickly and easily at the start of most games using one Nova in order to attempt to swarm the field with Emerald Dragons, with the additional assistance of Adrenaline'd Fireflies. Spoiler for Example Deck #2: Faster than the Speed of Light: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `7af 7af 7af 7af 7al 7al 7al 7al 7an 7an 7an 7an 7ap 7ap 7ap 7ap 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7jp 7k4 7k4 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pn` Similar strategies that utilize Rays of Light can be used to similar effect by mass producing Light quanta to prepare the way for a Rustler to convert that quanta shortly thereafter. These tactics can work when not expected simply because some opponents may target down an Adrenaline'd Firefly or Ray of Light, thinking they are a bigger threat than the Rustler hiding in the player's hand, if the opponent even has enough time to draw and play that CC to begin with. Spoiler for Example Deck #3: Grabby Stomp: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `4sn 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 590 590 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bv 5bv 5c1 5cg 5cg 5de 5de 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7dm 7dm 80a 8pm` Rustlers can less commonly also be used in Life-based Grabbows, where they can be used in instances of quanta deficits in order to allow for low-cost Life cards to be played quickly and easily using quanta that is otherwise usually unused while also dealing a bit of chip damage.	Firefly
Immolation	Spoiler for Example Deck #4, 5, 6: Cannon Fodder: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `4sn 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 55u 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5c1 5c1 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fa 5fc 5fc 5fc 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7dp 7dp 8pn` Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 590 5bu 5bu 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5c1 5c1 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5fa 5fa 5fa 7dm 7dm 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 8pm` Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `4vj 4vj 4vj 55u 5bu 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5c1 5c1 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5f9 5f9 5f9 5f9 5fa 745 745 745 74e 74e 74e 8pl` Life-based Immolation decks can also use Rustlers as Immolation fodder for playing Phoenix or Lava Golems. Odds are that there are better and more efficient Immolation fodder to choose from, but if the need exists, Rustlers can also fill this need. I had half a mind to use these during the previous War but ultimately opted not to since they are all fairly inconsistent and prone to bad draws, as can be standard of Immolation/Cremation decks. Spoiler for Example Deck #7: Mutation Fodder: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vl 4vl 4vl 5bu 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5c1 5c1 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 6u1 6u1 6u1 6u6 6u6 6u6 8pj` On the subject of fodder, another Nova-based tactic is to use Rustlers as targets for Fallen Druids in order to potentially generate absurdly powerful mutants for absurdly low costs. In this scenario Rustlers can also be used as decoys to prevent the Druids from being sniped with CC early in the game. In both of the latter deck examples, the fact that Rustlers are quickly removed from the field at a time of the player's choosing circumvents their CC weakness, though it also may remove the potential benefit of using its ability as well.	Fallen Druid

Spoiler for Task 2:

Shard Revolution

Spoiler for Evidence of completion:

NAME:	Shard of Creation
ELEMENT:	Life
COST:	4
TYPE:	Permanent
ATK\|HP:	N/A
TEXT:	Randomly add a copy of one of your creatures to your hand. Add 2 copies if the creature's element is .

NAME:	Shard of Creation
ELEMENT:	Life
COST:	3
TYPE:	Permanent
ATK\|HP:	N/A
TEXT:	Randomly add a copy of one of your creatures to your hand. Add 2 copies if the creature's element is .

ART:	Zanzarino
IDEA:	willng3
NOTES:	Renamed to fit better thematically. So in case that's unclear, basically this shard randomly picks a creature on your side of the field and then adds a copy of it to your hand or 2 copies if the creature chosen is of the Life element. This effect occurs at the end of its user's turn. Ideally this effect would repeat for every copy of the shard that is on the field, effectively giving the player up to 6 different creatures each turn, but I'd be fine with the shard giving the player 6 (or potentially 12) copies of the same creature as well, since they'd be in the same permanent stack. Note that "a copy" refers to the creature in its original form; it will not copy over stat buffs or effects such as Adrenaline, Momentum or Liquid Shadow. The functions of this card are effectively two fold. Firstly, it essentially does exactly what I think that "Mitosis" should have done from the beginning, which is to duplicate creatures without giving Life yet another reason why it, as a whole, is weak to creature control. It can be very difficult for Life to make use of Mitosis simply because its creatures have a hard time sticking around long enough for Mitosis to have any real game-changing effect when it, in my opinion, should essentially provide Life with the same kind of wall-breaking force that Fractal does for Aether. As a bonus, this card actually helps mitigate CC since it should usually be easy to simply replace the creature that was just killed, minus the buffs that had been applied. It is a tool for swarming, which Life really, really needs more of than Mitosis at this point. Secondly, it removes what I consider to be an unneeded source of healing from the element. This is not to say that SoG in its current form is completely useless, but I simply have never found it to be of anywhere near the same magnitude of usefulness as, say, Sanctuary. I believe that Life as a whole at this point has enough healing effects to work with and doesn't need a card like SoG and instead needs assets to make better use of the healing it already has. Specifically, I'm referring to Empathic/Feral Bond since currently both of those cards remain harder to use due to Life's weakness to CC as alluded to previously. Adding this card as another permanent control target is yet another benefit in this scenario. Now, for balancing. To start with, I took Mitosis's cost and reapplied them to both forms of this shard. Ignoring the fact that shards seem to typically be priced as less costly than what I believe they should be balance-wise, I deducted one cost from both copies as personally I believe that Mitosis is also deserving of the same cost decrease in its current form. The Life bonus, while quite a bit more efficient in comparison to its usage with respect to non-Life creatures, is fair for 3 main reasons. Firstly, the user has no control of which creature is copied other than making sure that only one type of creature is on the field at a time. Secondly, replicating more Life creatures specifically may not be all that helpful considering that it doesn't really solve Life's problems when dealing with certain shields (looking at you, Dimensional Shield). Thirdly, as much of a benefit as two additional copies of cheap creatures may be, against decks that are heavy in quanta control, this tactic can backfire against the player massively. If the user is put into a situation where they are drawing to the point that their hand is full before the start of the next turn, then this means that they can effectively draw-lock themselves for the remainder of the game if they are not careful with how their cards are played. This type of tactic obviously helps versus Nightmare and Reverse Time/Eternity but becomes a huge liability when those cards drawn each turn don't help the situation at all. Because this card can serve essentially the same role as Mitosis, it would be easy enough to simply make a deck and replace Mitosis with copies of this shard. But I'm going to be a bit more creative than that (pretend that SoG in this case is Shard of Creation): Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] `7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7am 7am 7am 7am 7ba 7ba 7ba 7ba 7dm 7dm 7dm 7dm 8po` Now, it's still easy enough to say that this is just a standard Life rush with some healing and Explosion splash, but let's focus on where this would differ from a currently similar deck that would utilize Mitosis. I actually use a Mono-Life deck that is fundamentally similar to this that instead opts for Cockatrice, Mitosis, and Thorn Carapace over Giant Frog, SoC and Explosion. This deck addresses the weaknesses that that deck encounters by firstly ignoring most of the Giant Frogs' weakness to CC, which is the main reason why Elite Cockatrice would be used in a deck like this. Thorn Carapace mainly offers a way of dealing with opposing decks that block off most or all of your Cockatrice's damage while still chipping away at your HP with creatures that may become a serious threat if left alone. Explosion remedies that problem by giving the player a way of tearing down shields as needed, excluding Hope; I typically do not run Explosion in the current deck because it really needs all of the Life quanta that it can get. Explosion also serves as a fail-safe in the event that the player is put at risk of "draw-locking" themselves in a manner similar to what was described earlier. Feral Bond continues to serve the same purpose of keeping the player alive versus similarly fast decks while also ensuring that the player can stall out decks that don't rely on a great deal of damage and instead attempt to mitigate the player's damage. Lastly, SoC not only removes most of the Giant Frogs' weakness to CC, but also lets the player draw out some forms of permanent control that would otherwise be used to remove potentially lifesaving Feral Bonds from the field. It also generates creatures at a rate fast enough to where Feral Bond starts healing the player at an actual acceptable rate. Overall: faster setup, faster damage, faster healing, and more utility, but naturally these come with some drawbacks in exchange.
SERIES:

Spoiler for Task 3:

Starting Your Own Little War

Spoiler for Evidence of completion:

Tournament name: Lucky Number 7

In the spirit of Elements's 7th birthday, I elected to create a tournament idea that revolves around the number 7 as a theme. The rules of the tournament are fairly straightforward but I would expect would still lead to quite a bit of strategizing:

Special Rules

Always read the second post! It contains equally important information most of the time.
All decks must start at 30 cards in size.
Aside from cards that are outright banned and the deck size restriction, there are no deck restrictions. However, in order to win, you must deal the finishing blow with a card that deals 7 damage. If the last attack to hit either player's HP is greater than or less than seven, then that player will instead lose the game played. Screenshots taken of the last turn will be used as evidence in all circumstances.
Shard of Freedom, Shard of Focus, Shard of Sacrifice, Shard of Serendipity, Catapult, Dusk Mantle, Fog, Lightning, Fire Bolt, Ice Bolt, Drain Life, Shockwave, and Eternity are all banned

Most of the ban choices here are simply to prevent situations where people can kill themselves with a spell card and then play it off as either the opponent killed them without fulfilling the correct terms, desyncs, etc. Fog and Dusk Mantle banned to prevent situations where they block the 7 damage dealers but not the others. Eternity because focusing on decking out the opponent really shouldn't be the goal here. SoFr and SoFo because nobody likes them. Added Catapult because it's not always obvious how much damage it deals.

For actual strategy...well, there's a lot to choose from. You can either focus on ensuring that you win as fast as possible with 7 damage or you can try and disrupt your opponent's creatures while also aiming to deal 7 damage. Buff cards such as Blessing and Chaos Power suddenly become weapons that can change your opponent's Attack suddenly and cause them to lose the duel. CC can then be used to prevent your own creatures from screwing you over. For an example deck using Life:

Spoiler for SPOILER ALERT:

Revising the ruleset to be damage in multiples of 7 rather than exactly 7 would be acceptable as well.

Spoiler for War Bonus:

Spoiler for Brawl Bonus:

Spoiler for Loyalty Bonus:

Author

Zawadx

10th Trials - Challenger's Entrance https://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=61868.msg1231956#msg1231956

mathman101

Re: 10th Trials - Challenger's Entrance https://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=61868.msg1231972#msg1231972

killsdazombies

Re: 10th Trials - Challenger's Entrance https://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=61868.msg1231991#msg1231991

dawn to dusk

Re: 10th Trials - Challenger's Entrance https://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=61868.msg1231995#msg1231995

willng3

Re: 10th Trials - Challenger's Entrance https://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php?topic=61868.msg1232830#msg1232830