War is over... for now.

[Higurashi]

It's been a rollercoaster, but Fire has won War again. It doesn't matter though, because the real reward was working with the team I created.

We'll always have with us that we were part of Team Aether; that we showed the entire community what an element besides Entropy and Fire can do in War. We dominated War since Round 1 all the way to the late stages, and I admire all of you for your hard work.

We've all learnt a lot about this event, this game and its community. Thank you.

Thanks to pika - for being an amazing workhorse and doing all that boring paperwork we got so fed up with. For being the best lieutenant I will ever have, and for loving the element as much as I do.

Thanks to will - for all your deck testing, and for all your wit in conversation. You're the one person in this community who thinks the most like me. Whenever you reply to someone less eloquent on the forums, I usually nod and smile because it's what I would've said as well.

Thanks to Eva - for your experience and paperwork. We couldn't have come this far without you, and your energy and happy attitude has given us all motivation to go on.

Thanks to deuce - for backing us all up with an amazing amount of work. You're dependability personified to me, along with pika, and I knew you would be a great team-mate ever since I first met you.

Thanks to Alan - for your organizational skills and carefree attitude. You're one of those players who knows this is a game, and we all have more fun with it thanks to that.

Thanks to Sot - for your playfulness and devotion to the element. Spotting your potential in the auction was as easy as spotting a pink elephant on a grey battlefield, and that's how you have made this a more enjoyable experience.

Thanks to Fizzy - for always being around and supporting us. You'll see this once the secret sections open up, and I hope you do great in China and return to us when life permits.

Thanks to Dots - for stepping up when needed. You deserved a spot on this team from the very start. I knew you would be an excellent team-mate when I saw you in auction, and I hope you get the chance to join a team from the start in the next War.

[pikachufan2164]

Mood music :

Second place. Much better than what most of the community expected :>

Higs: Lady Aether. You made excellent selections on team members. You were always there before the deadline to make things instantly better just by checking over what we've done the night before. It's been a pleasure working with you, and I've learned a lot from this War -- just wait until Trials begins

Will: Insane deckbuilder #1. You always had lots of insight as to what our opponents were going to do, what works, what doesn't work, and all that important stuff. You tested our decks so thoroughly, and I must say that your eternal worrying was probably why we were able to get this far x)

Deuce: Insane deckbuilder #2. You worried as much as Will did. Need I say more? (I think excessive worrying is a key trait to becoming a great deckbuilder.)

Phys: Super-dedicated helper of awesomeness. You were the main reason why we got the epic Mindgate against UW with the ugly Hema Golem deck and went 8-0 that round. Thanks for braving that power outage in your area and staying up until 3AM to help me finish deckbuilding and bookkeeping duties that round.

Eva: Salvage guru. Thanks for all your insight during S/D/C and your idea of doing a general discussion thread for each round -- that probably helped us bind together all those tasks. Also, you're our lucky charm when it comes to playing PU Azure Dragon and Novagrabby :>

Alan: Spreadsheet wizard. You've definitely improved in your playing skill by a whole lot ever since Round 1. I should have left making the Deck Tracker spreadsheet to you; you probably would have found an elegant way to automate it and make life so much easier

Sot: Secret strategist. We didn't need to post strategy threads because our Mindgates are too awesome Thanks for all your help in testing, especially in those gruellingly long games of Devtal vs. Death's SS/EQ deck.

Dots: Survivor. We threw you into the deep end when you came in to replace Phys, and you fared well. You even managed to beat Dogg in your first match

Thank you, everyone. These four months have been some of the most challenging and rewarding times I've had in the forums, even amidst all the drama, RNG fails, and dozens of first-turn timeouts we've all had to face.

Side note: Congrats on winning War betting, Deuce

[willng3]

I felt the need to put a lot of myself into this response for some reason.  While I won't ask you to read this rather long message if you don't want to, I think I would be something good to do nonetheless.

The long, perilous journey comes to an end at last.  It's been fun working with all of you, much more fun than I could have imagined when I first signed up for War 3 many months ago.  It seems like every time I am drafted for War that I expect myself to come in with a sufficient understanding of the situation I've been drafted into...and yet every time I am proven wrong.  Last War I considered myself a newbie to the War scene, but an experienced player in the game itself despite having only played it for a few months at the time.  I learned what I could from the real pros that were on my team and left feeling as if I had just read and memorized an entire encyclopedia from cover to cover.  Then Trials came around, which I honestly believed with all of my heart that I would come out on top of.  But alas it was not meant to be...and looking back I'm honestly happy that I was not made Master of Life at that time.

It was hard deciding which Elements to choose to play for during this War and I sincerely believe that my first choices would have severely limited the amount of fun I had during War #3.  While Aether was not at the top of my choice list from the beginning, I had a lot of different factors to take into account when signing up this time.  If anyone's interested (Higs in particular) as to why Aether was not originally on my application, here's what I based my top 3 elements on in the beginning:
1)  Element loyalty.  I refused to abandon Life even if I had little faith in its Master's abilities.
2)  Fun potential.  I've enjoyed Napalm's company from almost the very beginning of my time with Elements and its Forum and was pretty sure that a War with her would be exciting.  That's not to say that Higs isn't fun as well, but Napalm is just...well, you know.
3)  Future teammate potential.  After seeing the players who added to their list of Elements, I was pretty sure that I could learn a lot from playing with some of them, so it went on the list as well.
4)  Master leadership potential.  In the end this didn't play as big a deciding factor as it should have.  As far as leadership qualities went, Higs was at the very top of my list before the Auction had even begun.  GG, though lacking in ambition and motivation, I also believed to be one of the stronger candidates of the 12.
5)  Element familiarity.  Aside from Fractal spamming, I was admittedly a serious noob when it came to wielding Aether as an Element which put it further down on my list.  Life and Fire I have played with extensively and Gravity was a familiar face as well.  The Elements I later chose when becoming a Mercenary were the ones I was the least familiar with (which is amusing because Darkness was the Element I started this game with).
After I learned that Loyalists required a 12 card bid, I decided to switch to Mercenary; I didn't think I was worth 12 cards at all despite being the most expensive bid of Team Life during War 2.  Higs didn't think so, however, which gave me a bit of an additional morale boost from the beginning.

When it came to addressing the War itself, I decided it would be best to begin preparations before the sections were even created to give the team extra time to make picks.  I had a high suspicion that I would be chosen as the Team's Deck Builder, so I went on a deck building frenzy to give us better ideas of what to use from the beginning.  I also passed on a few tricks of the trade I had picked up from the last War to increase our chances of winning further.
  Possibly the greatest thing I wanted to pass on to the team was a close-knit relationship with each other.  I thought it would be much more beneficial to all of us if instead of thinking of each other as mere people who happened to be on the same team, that we treated each other with a more dignified sense of respect and concern.  Higs had already wanted this from the beginning so I felt like this goal was much easier to achieve.  The atmosphere I felt here during the entire War was very pleasant, with only the occasional tension appearing when we came down to a deadline and were afraid of some decisions; I love this team for that.

Throughout the War I did my best to test decks and offer strategy suggestions because it was the only area of assistance I felt comfortable with; I'm horrible with anything that consists of managing a Vault and I'd probably screw something up numbers-wise when S/D/C time comes around.  I'm pleased to look back and see that I wasn't the only one who took that task so seriously.

  The beginning was great.  We came in, kicked ass, turned heads, and made enemies; what we did during this War I would like to think will cause no element to be underestimated based purely on card base/options ever again.  The times that each Round were posted sucked because I was rarely ever online/awake at those times, but I had more than enough faith that the rest of the team would have my back in case of an emergency.
  Towards the middle things started to become more stressful if only because my situation in the outside world became more demanding and I couldn't keep up with everything like I had wanted to.  So when things didn't go as planned I took it harder than I should have and I hate to think that this attitude may have become more and more infectious as the rounds continued.  Claims have been made that throughout this War we did too much complaining about RNG, Event Cards, etc.  Well you have to take things from our point of view:  You don't want to take things out on the opponent or teammates because that's unjustified, you don't want to take things out on yourself because that's self-destructive, so where else does that leave you?  At some point in time the stress involved with keeping up with the War became too much and I had to isolate myself in order to keep that attitude from carrying over into RL which was already hectic enough by itself.  From there I went into my insanity phase.
  At the end of the War the only thing that kept me involved in the Event at all was the team that I had already become a part of.  It felt like we should have won too many Rounds ago and yet here we were continuing to lose despite our obvious advantage throughout the early and middle rounds.  People take offense at the fact that we stopped caring about the outcome of the event, but you have to realize that what occurred was the equivalent of watching one's home burn to the ground right before your eyes; at some point you stop caring about the future outcome and just want to make it through the next night.  While I can't say I'm happy we didn't win, I'm very glad to see that we made it all the way to second place and put people in their places along the way; being silly and having fun interacting with each other all the time.  I will always remember that and am forever grateful for it.

  I am sad to say that there is a possibility of us standing on the battlefield together again during the next War...only this time we will be facing each other as adversaries and not as comrades.  But even still I like to think that in that circumstance we will enjoy interacting with each once more and reminisce of the good times yet again.  I've learned more about this game and this community during this time than I think most would learn in several years if they had not partaken of it as well.
  I will continue to support each of you with all my heart throughout your various projects here on the forums and I will never forget you.

TEAM FOREVER!On a more personal note :D

Hugs:  There is no one on this Forum who has earned the same or even greater respect than that which I have for you.  Your calm manner of addressing pressing problems as well as removing concerns from others with a serene but serious demeanor is something which I think gives a team the most stability deemed possible.  Hearing you state that you and I possess similar trains of thought is an amazing compliment and gives me tremendous hope for myself aspiring to be Master of .  Assembling this team was something that very few would have even thought to attempt, but you did and it worked to the favor of us all.  Thank you for that.

Pika/Silly electric mouse:  Your OCD was a big reason as to why we didn't receive a single penalty during this War.  And yet despite that occasionally frustrating quirk of yours, your silliness, enthusiasm, and dedication is something which makes you lovable by (almost) all.  There are some cases where tremendous amounts of work do not yield good results in return; this was never the case with you at all.

Eva:  There were several occasions where Vault management was left all to you and yet you bore that cross without hesitation each and every time such an occasion occurred.  I might still suck with remembering what in the world is remaining in the Vault, but I'd like to think that your influence has made me suck less in that endeavor.

deuce:  We didn't always agree and we both seemed to worry the most about counter decks for the next round, but in my experience that happens quite often in the deck testing "career".  I have to say that some of your remarks have gotten me some strange glances from my girlfriend from laughing harder than I probably should have.

Fizzy:  My favorite Slave!  It was sad having to part ways with you so soon; your quick wit, good humor, and sheer dedication was an excellent addition to this team.  Thank zanz that Higs spotted you, the diamond within a coal mine of other Slaves.

Sot the Great Demon Slayer:  It seems that Aether was full of quirky, humorous, and good spirited people this War and you were no exception to that fundament.  Thanks for the help with deck testing and bringing up things that the rest of us had neglected to realize.

Alan:  Organized and probably the person most unperturbed by what each Element would throw at us during the next round.  Calm, collected minds are always an asset to a team and it was great having you there to instill confidence.

Dots:  Great to have you pitch in during a rather pressing time of need, although I would have preferred you didn't have as much madness thrown at you as you did during that time.  Thanks for stepping up to the plate and trying your hardest despite it being a fairly new atmosphere to come home to.

And to the team as a whole:  Thanks for being so warm, friendly, fun, diligent, and supporting even during the worst of circumstances.  It was an honor fighting alongside each and every single one of you.

[YoungSot]

There were things I didn't like about War, and there were many more things which I really enjoyed. By far the best part of the entire War experience was meeting and working with such a fun and intelligent group of people. As a newcomer to the forums, you all certainly made for a great first impression, and you bear the principal blame for my desire to stick around and become part of this community. Because of you people, I've become addicted to these forums and I'm forced to spend countless hours of my life here.
It's all your fault.

Still, might as well make the best of it. War was fun and now it's over, but we're all still here, and I look forward to playing, planning, and generally having a great time with you guys for as long as we can stand each other! And then continuing on for about 2 weeks after that point.

thx again team Aether for a great War experience.

[pikachufan2164]

I lock all our old threads because I care, Will :>

Muahaha, the Elements forums have claimed another addict! >:3

On a more serious note (lol@Pikabeingserious), I present to you another wall of text. Excuse my incoherentness near the end. I was feeling really tired

I came back from a six-month long hiatus in October, and there suddenly were a whole bunch of people that I never met before XD

At that time, War was in its early stages, and it looked exciting. When War ended, I joined Trials on a whim, and had a blast during the PvP round and the Final Battle against Higs (the Proving of Worthiness and Community Vote rounds were less exciting, but it was still a good experience overall). After defeating me, Higs had been crowned with her Master title, and I looked forward to fighting alongside her in War III.

When application time finally rolled around, I signed up as a Loyalist. Six cards wasn't too expensive of a price to pay for a relative unknown, right? I chose because Higs had hinted that she was interested in having me on her team. was my next pick because Blonde is a skilled player and a great person to be around. I was hesitant in picking as my third element, but I figured that Zeru wouldn't bother trying to pick a player he doesn't even know for 6 cards.

Then the starting bid for Loyalists went up to 12 cards. I panicked. Was I even worth 12 cards? I talked to Higs, and she was fine with me staying a Loyalist so that she would have less bidding competition (like there was going to be any ). Blonde told me in private that he considered picking me, but 12 cards was a bit too steep of a price (side note: especially when he could choose from quality picks like Kev and xdude for the same price). Zeru? He ignored me, as I semi-planned x)

I got one bid: 12 cards from Higs. Team Aether it is Curiously, Will was also sold for 12 cards. I was totally overpriced

I essentially could do almost everything Will didn't want to do. Vault management? Check. Card counting? Check. Updating threads? Check. Will and Eva were the experts on what to salvage/discard due to their prior War experience, so I was covered. Then Higs appoints me with the Lieutenant position. I was rather surprised. Will had the upped cards and the skill to be second-in-command. I think Higs came to the conclusion that I would be better off with mod rights in the secret section so that my OCDness could take over when it came to updating the threads for each round

The eight of us gradually got to know each other better, and we really started to come together as a team when we started doing deckbuilding sessions together. In the first few rounds, we tried to do everything separately, but that wasn't a very efficient use of our planning time. When we did group deckbuilding sessions, we were truly functioning as a team instead of just 8 separate people doing their own thing. We worked hard and I stayed up until the early hours of the morning during deckbuilding to finish all the tasks before the deadline. Surprisingly, we did quite well. We were winning. It was glorious.

Then came Round 9. We lost so many of our key cards. Team morale just hit a low. But we'd keep moving on and completing the tasks that were required of us. RNG continued to taunt us with near-wins and losing due to the flip of a coin. By Round 12, I had started to take over most of the work because there was just a lack of interest from all of us. Things became disastrous once I assumed the role of lead deckbuilder. As the decks I built continued to lose, I felt increasingly like I was letting the team down due to my mediocre at best deckbuilding skills. At that point, it felt as if War had overstayed its welcome by about a month, and that we should have won one or two rounds earlier when we had such a dominating win record and still enough drive left in us to win.

Losing to Underworld in the best-of-one round added insult to injury when I saw only a lone Deflag in their deck, and they only managed to draw it after they subbed in Sevs (as LD had a terrible connection that kept on disconnecting after the first turn). When Death was sadly eliminated, I had a chat with xn0ize and found out that Entropy had been conducting secret negotiations with Underworld and possibly Fire to oust us. I was shocked and outraged at this new piece of information, but I kept my mouth shut about it because they obviously want to see more drama coming from us. By that time, War had gone way past its prime and was just dragging on and on because many teams turtled up in the 60-71 card sweet spot and hoped that RNG fail would take care of us -- unfortunately, it usually did. Through a surprising turn of events, we were able to make it all the way to the final battle. Round 16 was a refreshing ray of hope, as our morale finally went back up when Higs had eliminated Entropy. Alas, we lost the next match, leaving Fire as the winners.

We had exceeded all expectations. No longer was Aether a middling team that was predictable with Phase Shield spam. We worked together as a formidable team, and we got to know each other a whole lot better than in March. I hope that we all manage to meet again in a future event, but for now, we've developed a truly strong bond with each other. As corny as it sounds, this friendship and collaborative effort between all nine of us was more than worth the excruciating four months worth of planning and drama that we had to go through to get here.

[(...)]

Ok, i'm not good at writing long text so:
Thank you  for choosing me as replacement, it was a honor. I hope to be more useful next time(if i get in, obviously).

[deuce22]

If I were on any other team, I might have hated war. It was truly an awesome experience being able to work with each and every one of you. Everyone pulled their weight every week, and that translated into a lot of success. While it's unfortunate that we didn't win the war, we definitely showed how powerful and versatile can be.

Higs - thank you for giving me (as well as UT, Sot, EP, and dots) an opportunity to participate in war. Without you, we all would have had a life these last 4 months But seriously, you were an amazing general and you made war a lot of fun.

Pika - your hard work made war easier on all of us. You always had a positive attitude and always fun to work with.

Will - Despite some of your insane deck ideas, almost all of our successful decks were built and/or inspired by you. I know my constant second-guessing annoyed you at times, but I'm glad to hear I entertained you as well Good luck to you in trials, will be much stronger with you as their leader.

Eva - Your organization and devotion to the team is unbeatable. You (and Pika) were the main reason we never got penalized. I would definitely argue that you were the biggest steal of the war auction.

UT - You were one of the most active teammates, always in chat and always available to test decks. As will stated, your positive and calm nature was a huge asset to the team.

Sot - Always a fun time when you were around. Thanks for all your help with testing and all the long matches you had to play through.

EP - I would argue that you were the most important teammate. It wasn't until you left that things started to go a little downhill. We've had rough patches before, but you were always an important part in keeping our team morale up and making all the work we do in war worth it. Also, if we could include teammates in voting for sportmanship, you have my vote. Best of luck to you in China and everything thereafter.

dots - It was a pleasure having you join our team late in war. I can only imagine how difficult it was joining war so late and trying to get caught up to speed, but you came in guns blazing with deck ideas and lots of testing. You embodied everything we looked for in a teammate. I hope you are able to find a team next war and show how valuable you can be.

Lastly, without each and every one of you, I might have gone insane studying for my medical boards. I still don't have my score yet, but I know I did as well as I could have, which I owe in part to all of you.