War #12 - Voices of the Fallen

[deuce22]

and  are the TOP  in the last war pratically with the same rules...  is a disappointment, Big disappointment but  is the ASTRONOMICAL disappointment, impressive really!!! I'm not a fan of Hainkarga skills but probably alone him should be very better that this with , well and for Manu if serves of consolation Afda did bad war when was general in the first time, but in the War VIII without Sofree...

For the record, only darkness had a better record than air through 7 rounds...by a single game.

[Vangelios]

and  are the TOP  in the last war pratically with the same rules...  is a disappointment, Big disappointment but  is the ASTRONOMICAL disappointment, impressive really!!! I'm not a fan of Hainkarga skills but probably alone him should be very better that this with , well and for Manu if serves of consolation Afda did bad war when was general in the first time, but in the War VIII without Sofree...

For the record, only darkness had a better record than air through 7 rounds...by a single game.

But darkness lost the most of matches in the beginning when are fews discards instead of after when the discards are practically the deck and was more wisely with vault large (102 more cards)

[ARTHANASIOS]

We did well!

We used our prophetic powers to guess our opponent's decks correctly most of the time, with an overall mediocre success. In general, I am really happy with the result.

I like to thank Mobian and D2D for bringing Team to the position it is today. Gratz guys!

[dawn to dusk]

Omfw just pick up the SoV Dials
"Nah it's worse than PDials" <-- Me

I do regret not picking up the SoV Dials, against the better judgement of Mobian who really wanted it, and for good reason. Obviously can't complain about 4th/5th, and low vault prices only somewhat has to do with that (small team cost, imo, was the bigger thing) but we did get some good rounds and we were able to become a competitive team in war. Mobian and Arth were great teammates, and good luck to both of them with whatever they choose to do after war!

Good games folks, and good luck to the teams remaining. Obviously I would like to see a new team win war, but even if Darkness wins they're playing great and would totally deserve it.

PS: Bless the WM. Fantastic people

[Mobian]

We had a good run and I learned a lot from this. Sadly, I feel my affinity for jank may have cost us a couple crucial rounds, but in all fairness, it also won us an important match against Time. Good luck to the remaining teams, and , you better win this!

[Kalinuial]

Team Earth – it’s time for us to burrow deep and slumber peacefully.  I’m really proud of our effort this war. I’m also quite please we could have fun planning our battles and talking about the real important things like banana milk.  None of us warred for Earth before.  In fact, two of us had not warred before.  But that didn’t stop us from being a strong and proud Earth team.

Jen-i a.k.a “Strange doctah” and “Jen-i-roh”
A truly invaluable member of Team Earth. Very active and contributed to basically everything.  His experience helped guide and focus our efforts where they needed to be.  He’s a great deckbuilder.  The beautiful Pony stall was 100% his creation and it deserved better usage and success this war than it was given.  Jen-I was a good mentor for me.  What I appreciate most about Jen-I is his winning attitude.  His mindset was always believing Earth could dig its way forward.  This helped me not give up hope and prepare for the next round at 100% effort.  Thanks, Jen-i, for everything.  I’ll be emailing you some whiskey, soon.

Immortal Feud a.k.a. “The Gunslinger” and “Shockbuster” and “Twinkle-Toes”
This guy has confidence.  This guy has swag.  If you’re not careful, he’ll take you home in a bag.  As you can see from his recent WC tear, he’s not one to take lightly.  I remember one round where he built a bow in 3 minutes and was like “Yup, that should do it vs Entropy”.  I said “hmm, yeah but let’s test these ideas”.  He’s like “nah, it will work”.  After 10-15 hours of testing on my end, I concluded Immortal’s deck was the way to go.  He’s sees the meta and matchups very well.  Good luck in WC and your next PVP escapades!

Kalinuial
I did okay this war.  I worked very hard before and during war.  I was often overwhelmed with data, options, and decisions.  It seemed to take me forever to make simple decisions.  Going in to war with little PVP experience and no war experience, what I feared most was playing like an amateur and giving away wins. I was especially worried about this while being in the general's seat.  Instead, I consistently performed well after clicking “duel”.  Although my lack of knowledge and experience was clear, I think I contributed much to the team and did my part to keep things moving forward.

I’ve learned a lot this war, not just about EtG but about myself, personally.  I’ve learned how many people want to have the influence and prestige of leadership, yet don’t take the responsibilities seriously.  Leadership is truly difficult.  I also learned that I must work on fixing my loser’s mentality for the sake of personal growth.  This mindset is thinking before each duel “I’ll probably lose”.  The mindset robs us of our potential, even if that potential outcome is losing.  It’s an energy sink.  In real life, this is akin to losing belief in yourself and the life you want to live, and instead just settling.  I’m glad this war experience could help bring this issue more to my attention.  So, I’ll take a step in the right direction and correct myself:  I did more than okay this war and I know that whatever I do next, I’ll be a better, more confident me.

Others
Thanks to all war participants for giving us great battles.  Sportsmanship was present almost always.  I’m very grateful to all participants, especially the veterans, for giving us first timers this war experience.  It’s a really cool event and I hope it survives to see many more instances.  Thanks to the Warmasters for managing this event for our pleasure.   Special shout out to Team Air for impressing in the first half of war and well done to Light and Entropy for digging in deep for so long.  Congrats to Darkness and Time for outlasting us all. 

Spoiler for Something fun:

Round 8 vs. Entropy

Spoiler for Match image:

The real school photo

[Wyand]

(Started this post after R10, but WC and personal life happened.)

Let's start at the very beginnings.

Lost my Trial final against iancu 2-5. It may look bad, but don't forget I started playing competitively in late March.
Besides tourneys I had only 12 Lives as a real experience in PvP.

Then iancu sort of retired from competitive play. Then shockcannon got appointed as Entropy General.
Then I got appointed as Entropy General. Meanwhile I got freaked out even told ddevans that if they
don't want to appoint me, ok fine, let's move on. (I knew it will be very detrimental on my life, since I don't like
doing things half-hearted.)

Meanwhile. Ppl in chat: "- when will bidding start? - ah probably the weekends!". At that very evening:
hey, blind bidding, you have 48 hours. I had no experience, no time to dig up forums, only thing I knew
that last War TorB was the most expensive player around 4800. OK, let's make it sure, 5000 on
immortal feud, Blacksmith and Aves. Hm-hm. Let's rank immortal only 3rd. I never considered what will
happen if I get both players for 5k... I simply thought others may bid high, too. The reason I preferred
them in Team Entropy because they seemed very experienced, battle-hardened players, and I felt Aves
has an affinity for stats. I wonder how far we would have got having +2000 more points on Vaultbuilding.

War!

We had an interesting Team, since Blacksmith was 3 times Master/General of Earth, Aves was General
of Darkness in War 10, and I was an almost total noob. Being the appointed leader (as a newbie) of two
veterans can be hard. I think our teamwork was good. Blacksmith helped a lot with his insights and
rainbow expertise, while Aves had some crazy ideas (remember that Maxwell's Demon deck against Air? )
and was a great catalyst when I seemed to think too much before deadlines.

Stuffz I enjoyed in War.

The beautiful competitive nature of this huge event. As I mentioned in my NL interview that it gives a little
peek to us mortals what is it to be the trainer/manager of an important sport team. Week by week you must
give your best, analyze your opponents, figure out possible strategies, sample their thinking.

R5 and R7 win against Air. These wins felt really special. Stalling Light 2 times, hehe. R8 win against Darkness
- breaking a looooooooong losing streak against them! R9 SoV-trolling of Aether. 4-0 in R4! Having a personal 11/2 W/L ratio.

Stuffz I didn't enjoy in War.

The huge stress that comes with the aforementioned situation. I can safely say it was the most stressful 3 months
in my life. Because it is not just about the brutal workload of testing, doing statistics etc. The responsibility.
I had periods in my life when I worked 12+ hours daily, those were less stressful, that's for sure. At the end
of R7 my mind was in shambles. In the last 3 rounds I was less focused, and I'm really thankful for my
teammates for being more active that time (especially in R8 when I had to take a few days off for my health).

And mistakes were made... R1 we were even joking about what if Darkness only sends a mono against us...
and bam, a mono comes. R3 loss against Water, played that deck due to a last moment problem.
R8 playing that weak DBH against Earth... oh my, that hurts, because the initial idea was playing Dim Dragons,
since I noticed Earth salvaged Wings for sure... Not enough bravery in R10...

Summarizing.

Team Entropy had a great run this War. Look at those predictions! Most of the ppl ranked and at the bottom.
When War started I was like "ok, don't fall out first", then "ok, let's beat shock!", then "hm, we might even get
better than Air", then "hey, we have a chance for 3rd-4th place!". We almost achieved this great feat, but "almosts"
never count in competitions, so what will you see in statistics that Team Entropy placed 6th and had a 22/17 W/L ratio
which is currently the 3rd best in percentages.

Great job, Aves and Blacksmith, I'm eternally thankful for your work. Team Entropy stepped down proudly.


ps: Thanks WMs for keeping this great event alive!