| August 2016 | | War is coming!
Council voting is up!
New Brawlmaster! |
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- The other fight for honor and glory continues! Budokan and the championship for the title of Budosei has claimed the lives of several brave warriors already, though the fate of several more Elemental challengers still hangs in the balance.
| - Card Design War 3 is winding down. Voting is ongoing now for the second finalist spot, and the final battle of wits and cards is just around the corner!
| | | - Time to ready the pesticide! July 2nd's Heart of the Swarm upgraded tournament was certainly a very buggy one! Players had to build decks based on the three Starcraft races: Zerg, Protoss, and Terran - and they could only use a race once per round. When the swarm cleared out, it was only Odii Odsen left standing, yet his decks remain a mystery to many. A small interview below:
- Dear old man Oracle, please bring me a nymph instead of childish toys this day. July 9th's Children of the Oracle unupgraded tournament started things off with a blast! Players had to pick an element to start with, and they picked more up with every round they won! By the time the ancient wheel stopped spinning, it was Submachine who sat there waiting, with his epic decks! A brief interview follows:
Congrats Sub! 
- Believe me, they are unstoppable! July 16th's My Balls are Bigger unupped tournament was an old favourite many loved! Players had to craft decks using only spark as a creature, and maximum deck limit was 35 cards. The one with the biggest balls by the end of the Tourney was none other than ARTHANSIOS himself, with his decks! Here is a short interview with him:
- "Master Dilgo, you cannot die." "Strong I am with the Gravity Pull, but not that strong." July 23rd's unupped Armedilgo Wars tournamnt was certainly a blast. Contestants had to build decks upon the use of Armagios, 2 for every other creature, max 3 none armagio creatures in a deck, and min 40 cards! When the dust of the war made way for light, it was DANIEELA who proved herself the soldier of this tournament, with her winning decks! Follow, would her interview, but unavailable she was for comment.
- The choice is yours......or maybe not. July 30th's upgraded Reverse Choice of the Community was certainly worth the extra tournament! Players were required to vote on four cards for each element, and by the end of the poll, the LEAST voted on were the cards that were made into the tournament! By the end of the day, it was none other than TheonlyrealBeef who won, with his outstanding Deck! Unfortunately, as this tournament was very close to the end of the month, no interview was given. Congratulations nonetheless, TorB!
| - Battle League: JonathanCrazyJ is looking to clean up as this season of BL wraps up after 92 matches, holding a distinguished 1589 points - 30 or more above competition in the league.
- Championship League: Odii Osen remains in a strong lead with 1596 points while 2016's Season 2 speeds towards its close after 125 matches to date!
- Two weeks left in the current Leagues! Cheer for your favorite players (yourself included if you'd like) and prepare for the opening of next season!
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| - Mafia 61, hosted by Linkcat, is an Elements Mafia about...er...Elements Mafia. Everyone is someone, but who is everyone? In case that wasn't clear enough, each player has a role based on another player of past or present Mafia games. Three days and nights in, casualties are at a minimum, though if an unexpected ability fires things could change at the drop of Link's hat.
- Relic Sweeper 3 by Kuroaitou has advanced several rounds since brave and probably foolish souls first entered the maze. Teams are scattered about and much of the topside has been mapped, but with 70 relics up for grabs and caves yet to explore it's still anyone's game.
- WELCOME TO THE PIPEWORKS. CleanOnion keeps the maps and the rules while five factions of subsurface inhabitants must face the reality of their slowly eroding world. Every faction has a purpose, but infiltrators and spies abound between the differing groups. Will they band together to escape or will factiousness and internal dissent see to it that few or even none remain?
- "It appears that my left knee has been punctured by an arrow...what I can do is select one of you as my replacement." As Fire Master RootRanger had other duties precluding his effective appearance in War, he hosted a forum game to determine his General. This challenged applicants on their abilities to work with and around various decks and cards. Congratulations to killsdazombies on this victory; whether his success carries on to War only the coming battles will tell.
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- Congratulations, Fippe94, our newest Brawlmaster!
- A belated congratulations to our newest Card Curator RootRanger!
- Voting for 12th council is currently up, go submit your ballot before it's too late!
Tea Time with CleanOnionBelow is the portion of an interview: Call it now - what is the outcome of Brawl 10? (RootRanger)
Close tie between team Meaning Of Life VII and team Zanzarino Abandoned Us, The Heartless Bastard. MOL7 juuuuuust about overtakes ZAUTHB because they won 110 challenges in the final round set by team Espithel's Solitude.
What role would you Brawl as if you weren't BMing? (JonathanCrazyJ)
Honestly - anything but Deckbuilder. I love doing art, but the only art I do these days is 3D renders which take foorrreevveeerrrr and as such aren't really suitable for Brawl. Writing is one of my favourite things, so it's a prime candidate, but I also really love the unpredictability of Forum Expert. Boss sounds good, but there's an opportunity cost between being able to name and bid on my own team; and being bid on myself (see narcissism in the last question).
If I really had to pick one, I'd go Writer. Then Forum Expert, then Artist.
Whose the sluttiest of them all? (Anonymous)
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who's the sluttiest of them all...
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New Members
Spoiler for Introduction posts: Here are the members who posted in the Introduce Yourself board within the past month. Just click a certain name to be redirected to the corresponding introduction post. Don't be rude, say hello to newcomers!  |
Deck Idea of the Month
The Cold Void by iancudorinmarianThis deck review was written by dark ripperHover over cards for details, click for permalink 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7go 7gr 7gr 7gr 7gr 7gr 7gr 7h1 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7t8 7t8 7tb 7tb 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 8pt
The deck featured this month was made by iancudorinmarian and Physsion.
Card by card:
Mark of Darkness: Since the deck revolves around SoV, mark of darkness is the obvious choice for this deck.
Shard of Void: SoV is the the heart of the deck. The rest of the cards in the deck want to stall enough for SoV's to chip away at the enemy's HP.
Arctic Octopus: The octopi are the main supportive cards of the deck. Even though they have low defense, their hard CC helps the deck stall enough.
Water Tower: Cause quanta never hurt anybody.
Water Pendulum: Cause more quanta never hurt anybody.
Vampire Dagger: It's OP. We know it. It's both great at stalling due to its healing and at offense with its 6 attack per turn.
Improved Dusk: Hax fits exceptionally well in this deck. Since both the dagger and SoV's are quite cheap, it's an easy way to stall your opponent's damage.
Inundation: Inundation is a situational card in this deck. Against some decks it will be useless but against some decks (e.g. fractal decks) it might be the difference between win and lose.
Ice Lance: Ice Lance can be used in many ways with this deck, but the primary role of this card is to work as a finisher after SoV's have eaten enough hp.
Strategy:
Play SoV's as soon as possible. You want to start chipping away your opponent's HP as fast as possible. After you start playing your SoV's you want to start stalling. Play your squids for CC and the dagger for sustain. Inundation might be a better choice against decks that play a lot of creatures, like fractal decks or pharaoh ones. Unless absolutely necessary, keep your Ice Lance on hand to use it as a finisher and keep stalling until you have chipped away enough hp with SoV's to finish off your opponent.
Strengths:
This deck is essentially a stall, so most rushes without CC and PC will struggle against it. You have great CC and sustain from daggers so low damage decks shouldn't pose a threat either. As of its nature SoV eats away HP so healing stalls will not work against this deck.
Weaknesses:
1HKO decks, mono air rush with SoFree, SoD/granite skin, poison, bolts, hard PC decks(pulvy), SoFo, and bad RNG are your greatest enemies. Stalls arent invincible after all, deal with it.
In contrast to  Fire's raging heat,  Water is or at least should be there to quench it. In Elements the Game, though the elements are largely seen as on equal footing, Fire has a tendency to be a bit too hot. Even for Water. With Espithel's Isol's Blizzard, players are stopped right in their tracks as the blizzard of Water rages on. Preventing creatures from attacking on the turn they were played puts offensive elements at a serious disadvantage and gives elements with many defensive options, such as Water, a clear advantage. Once the blizzard dies down, though, and that effect isn't as necessary, Isol's Blizzard can be sacrificed in order to breeze through one's deck, simultaneously drawing one card and freezing one target. This clever mechanic allows for the use of more than 1 copy of a shield in a deck and with a card as effective as Isol's Blizzard, you will certainly want a full 6.
Shield & CC
A shield effective at slowing down the enemy just enough to get more expensive cards out, Isol's Blizzard excels not only at freezing attacks, but in freezing attackers. Furthermore, the ability of Isol's Blizzard allows the shield to be a passing card, encouraging decks that ask for speed, or allowing larger decks to effectively have 1 card less for each Isol's Blizzard included. Representing the ebb and flow of even blizzards, the varying effects of this shield effectively allows a Water elemental to adapt to a variety of situations, stopping enemies cold in their tracks.
Here is a deck designed by RootRanger that shows an effective way to use Isol's Blizzard | Isol's Blizzard!
Deck 1:
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vf 52h 560 5bt 5f2 5op 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5ul 4t9 4t9 4t9 4t9 4t9 8pp
(Relics represent Isol's Blizzard)
Here we have a classic Dragon OTK that makes use of Isol's Blizzard for purposes of additional delay and card draw. The idea is to play your first Isol's Blizzard early in the game to cut off some of the opponent's damage, then play your second Isol's Blizzard as soon as you have the quanta for it by activating the one currently in your shield slot. Meanwhile, you can make use of Sundials to slow down the opponent's remaining damage and draw further through your deck.
What's interesting about Isol's Blizzard, compared to other shields, is that it is advantageous to draw multiple copies even against a deck without permanent control. The only other two shields which share this property are Dimensional Shield and Bone Wall, both of which are borderline too expensive for this rainbow.
Lastly, we have the Dragons, Sky Blitz, and Chimera. It's a well-established combo for dealing 100 damage in one turn, which is most useful when facing decks with strong control and stall capabilities. The use of both Sundial and Isol's Blizzard makes it almost-inevitable that you'll draw your Dragon combo - just watch out for Shard of Divinity!
Last month, we saw that Fire is classically seen as the element of fury and destruction, and in contrast, Water is classically seen as the element of tranquility, balance and tranquility. Isol's Blizzard brings together elements, allows the use of more than 1 copy in your deck, and lastly, beautifully represents the quenching of a raging enemy.
Be sure to view more of Espithel's work in the Card Ideas & Art section!
Can anyone guess the element of next month's Card Idea of the Month?
Thanks for reading! Until next time!
Puzzle of the Month
During the recent BrainBashers cipher convention, a binary code contest took place.
The contest consisted of a binary code transmission where the spaces between the letters were missing and there was no punctuation.
Each letter of the alphabet was translated into its binary equivalent based on its position in the alphabet:
a=1, b=10, c=11, d=100, e=101, f=110, g=111, h=1000, i=1001, j=1010, k=1011, l=1100, m=1101, n=1110, o=1111, p=10000, q=10001, r=10010, s=10011, t=10100, u=10101, v=10110, w=10111, x=11000, y=11001, z=11010.
What is the answer to the question being asked?
110011101001000100110011100110011110110
101100101100110010011101101001111010111
001010010000101011101011010110010110011
010010001111101011111000101001001101001
011111111010111001001000101110010000100
111010011100111011101100110011100111011
000011001011000110101101100111010010011
111111010111100011010010011001111111110
101100001100101011001111111110101
Trivia Question of the Month (As always, please read and try before consulting Wikipedia.)
In recognition of the many Elements in the upcoming War as well as the distinguished cards and decks expected to appear, this month's question is on the much sought-after nymphs.
Nymphs are originally known primarily from what cultural mythology?
Many thanks to:
-CleanOnion for the interview.
-dark ripper for DiotM.
-Hyroen and RootRanger for CiotM.
-ProBacon for Puzzle of the Month.
-all readers for reading
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