| June 2017 | | Welcome, Our New Masters! |
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- The 11th Trials reached an incredible conclusion, with a dramatic mix of returning heroes, brand new champions, and crippling defeats to the might of STANDIN! The Final Battles were intense clashes, and all participants put on a great show and gave detailed match reports for your viewing pleasure. Check out the spoiler below for a rundown of the victors!
Spoiler for Trials Final Battles: Defending Master or First Challenger | Interesting Deck | Result | Interesting Deck | Second Challenger | | Spoiler for Game 4 (Loss): Despite a partial mindgate, not drawing a Pulvy for Zawadx's dims cost deuce22, but it's still an excellent build! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 59c 59c 59c 61o 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 77f 77f 77f 808 808 808 808 80g 80g 80g 80g 80g 80g 81q 81q 81q 81q 8pl | 5-4 | Spoiler for Game 2 (Win): The Fire Bucklers decimated deuce22's defenseless Rays of Light! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 61q 61q 61q 61q 61q 63a 63a 63a 63a 7dg 7dg 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dk 7dl 7dl 7dl 7dn 7dn 7dn 7f2 7f2 80f 81q 81q 81q 81q 81q 8po | | | Spoiler for Game 5 (Win): A fun little exercise in quanta management, and a lovely way to bring nymphs... without bringing nymphs! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 7f2 7f2 7f2 7gk 7gk 7gk 7h0 7h0 7h0 7h0 7h0 7h0 7i6 7i6 7i6 7n0 7n0 7n0 7n4 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pp | 5-3 | Spoiler for Game 6 (Win): Incredibly, Hyroen managed to send Shard of Wisdom / Reflect... against Flying Glories! An impeccable mindgate... if he meant it! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 5lg 5lg 5ok 5ok 5op 6rb 7ms 7ms 7ms 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7mu 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 80h 80h 80h 816 816 816 816 816 816 8pu | | | Spoiler for Game 1 (Loss): Physsion said he would have used this beautiful deck with incredible synergies... until it faced Ghostmare and was countered. unfortunately this happened in game 1, but we appreciate the build nonetheless! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 5up 5v0 77e 77e 77e 77e 77e 77e 77m 77m 77m 77m 77m 7hi 7hi 7hi 7hi 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7tg 7tg 7um 7um 8pp | 5-3 | Spoiler for Game 6 (Win): A fast, durable domin deck with decent bypass damage! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 5up 5up 5v1 5v2 5v2 5v2 606 745 745 745 745 745 745 747 747 747 747 747 74i 74i 7tb 7tb 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pl | | | Spoiler for Game 4 (Loss): A gung-ho, aggressive deck that just couldn't deal enough poison counters in time... Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4sk 4sk 52g 710 710 710 710 710 710 710 710 710 710 718 718 718 718 718 718 71a 71a 71a 71a 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7n2 7n2 7n2 8po | 3-5 | Spoiler for Game 1 (Win): Excellent bypass deck with durable dimensional defense! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 52o 52o 52o 52o 542 542 542 542 61o 61t 61t 61t 61t 61t 62m 62m 62m 63a 718 718 71a 71a 71a 72i 72i 808 80c 80c 80c 81q 8pu | |
| Spoiler for Game 7 (Win): A more amphibious version of the classic Grabbow! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5og 71a 778 778 778 779 779 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7ae 7dm 8pn | 5-2 | Spoiler for Game 5 (Loss): Earth's Cata-Titan just couldn't outpace the max-hp gain of Blacksmith's stall. Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 55s 55s 55s 55s 55s 561 561 561 595 595 595 595 595 595 5aa 5aa 77i 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 8pl | | | Spoiler for Game 8 (Win): Who knew Shard of Serendipity was a stall card? Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4sa 4sa 4sa 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 4vp 5ia 5ia 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6ts 6ts 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6uq 6uq 6uq 6uq 6uq 6uq 6ve 6ve 71b 71b 7tb 8pj | 5-3 | Spoiler for Game 8 (Loss): Incredibly fast, but draw dependent, chaos fueled rush! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4vh 4vh 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 626 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 6u2 71a 74a 74a 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7q1 7q1 80m 80m 80m 80m 8pj |
| | Spoiler for Game 5 (Loss): An interesting 31 card domin deck, hiding durable Golems behind Diamond Shields, using Fire Nymphs to stall or rush depending on the match-up... but it couldn't do much against poison! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 5fk 5fk 5fk 5gi 5gi 5gi 778 778 77a 77a 77a 77a 77a 77a 77c 77c 77c 77i 77i 77i 78q 7dm 7dm 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 8pm | 5-2 | Spoiler for Game 7 (Loss): Sadly trios such as these are hard to balance, but still a brave attempt at DBH in a Fire deck! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4vl 4vl 55v 55v 55v 55v 5f6 5f6 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 6u5 6u5 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 8pl | | | Spoiler for Game 6 (Win): A more aggressive version of a classic Cata-Titan! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4sl 4sl 4sl 4sl 55k 576 744 744 744 744 745 745 745 745 74c 74c 74c 74c 74c 74h 74h 74h 75m 75m 75m 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 8pl | 2-5 | Spoiler for Game 5 (Loss): Trying to set up Twins of Overdriven Guards while impeding your opponent with Silences is an innovative idea, but it just didn't come off on the day. Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 576 75m 75m 747 747 747 747 747 74i 74i 74i 74i 80k 80k 80k 80k 80b 80b 80b 80b 80b 8pu |
| | Spoiler for Game 5 (Loss): If only you could have the mark bonus on two shards at once! Only healing 3hp per SoG meant that this Void deck just couldn't last long enough. Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4sn 4sn 4sn 5bs 5bs 5de 5de 7ai 7ai 7ak 7ak 7ba 7ba 7ba 7ba 7jo 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7tb 7tb 7tc 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 8pt | 1-5 | Spoiler for Game 2 (Win): One drawback of buff cards like Mitosis and Adrenaline is that they make valuable CC targets. Countering that with air creatures and Shard of Freedom made this a fast and durable stallbreaker! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c9 5c9 5c9 5ok 5ok 5ok 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7bu 7bu 7bu 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 8pn | |
| Spoiler for Game 3 (Win): All of the most dangerous enemies are ones you underestimate. From Solaris's perspective, this looked like a firestall, forcing him to rush his vampires right into Shard of Sacrifice! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4sq 4sq 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 5fu 5fu 5fu 5fu 5fu 5fu 5m6 5m6 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 5rp 71u 71u 71u 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7k2 7k2 7k2 7km 7km 7km 7km 8po | 5-2 | Spoiler for Game 1 (Loss): Just couldn't get enough damage fast enough to beat through Jen-i's Miracle! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4sq 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5l8 5mq 5mq 5og 5og 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5oi 5pa 5pa 5pa 5pa 7jo 7k1 7k1 7k1 7k1 7k1 7k1 7nq 7nq 8pr | | | Spoiler for Game 4 (Loss): An interesting take on Cata-Titans, sacrificing numbers of the combo cards an favor of drawpower to get to the ones you do have. Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 561 561 5rk 5rk 74c 74c 74c 74c 74c 74h 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 8pl | 1-5 | Spoiler for Game 3 (Win): An interesting take on a Speedbow, using Poisons instead of Graboids to deal slow and steady bypass damage! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 5lg 5og 5rg 5rg 5rk 5rk 5rr 5rr 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 718 718 718 718 77a 7gm 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7qe 7tb 80g 8pj | | | Spoiler for Game 1 (Win): Who knew Adrennastaves was a water deck? The Puffer Fish make great Adrenaline targets with that sweetspot of 3 attack, and the staves give them time to work! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 5c5 5c5 5c5 5c5 5cg 7an 7an 7an 7an 7an 7gu 7gu 7gu 7gu 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7i6 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n2 8pn | 5-1 | Spoiler for Game 6 (Loss): This version of water's Void Dials is more aggressive, and allows for more targeted CC, but loses out on the potential board clearance of Desiccation. Still, an excellent effort and elegant deck! Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 4sp 4sp 5i4 5i8 5i8 5i8 5jm 5jm 5l8 7gk 7gk 7gk 7gk 7go 7go 7go 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7tb 7tb 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 7u2 8pt | |
- With so many shock results this year, The 11th Trials Betting was a topsy-turvy affair, with betters finally being rewarded for taking risks! Eventually, Basman-1453 and kaempfer13 were rewarded for their daring with a crisp 10k Electrum code each!
- The 3rd Grandmaster Battle is down to its final showdown, and defending Grandmaster Physsion's 4-1 lead has been decimated by Afdarenty's immense Phase 2. The epic, 3-Phase, Best of 17to25 clash is on a knife-edge with The Master of Air leading 8-6! Can Physsion pull off another final phase comeback, or will we see a brand new Grandmaster crowned?!
- Draft is back on track with TheonlyrealBeef stepping up to run the event! Stay tunes as we see which team truely navigated their draft with the most diversity and efficiency!
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- Have you ever wished more cards followed Chimera's example and got a swanky foil version? Well, in Art Competition: Foil Art, they can! Submit your alternative art for an Elements card of your choice! It can be anything from the beautiful to the abstract, just so long as it's different!
- In a tight tiebreaker vote, JonathanCrazyJ proved himself a Guildmaster in Deckbuilding Competition: Hierarchy... JonathanCrazyJ created a fictional Guild called "The Guild of Mirrors." he outlined a series of four decks detailing how the Guild of Mirrors harvests sand, smelts it down, carefully spreads it into shape and then magically glazes it to allow the world of Elements to experience vanity.
- CleanOnion won the hectic Writing Competition: Fractalore! He gave us the slightly chaotic multiplication-by-fractal of a group of rather frustrated and somewhat squashed Graviton Mercenaries. One thing's for sure, the one sitting at the desk (the one now, for convenience, called 'Desk') was the original. And 'Floor' is rather less comfortable than 'Pillow!'
- As always, remember to make sure you don't miss out on new competitions by signing up for any or all of the Competition Mailing Lists!
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- Every success has its roots. May 6th’s Foundation goes back to basics, banning all non-pillar quanta generating sources. Although mono decks dominated this tournament, we still managed to see a few surprises! In the end, mathman101 came out on top, cementing his position as a talented player with his 6th tournament victory!
- A mother's love is unconditional and eternal. Mother's Heart was a touching tournament full of and creatures, but only spells from non - / elements were allowed. worldwideweb3's love of the heart kept him pushing the rounds all the way to the top, congratulations.
- What’s life without some playful fun? Boring, probably. In May 20th’s Mischief and Mysteries, damage dealing spells were banned and only creatures whose attack was less than their health were allowed. Using only 3 decks, TheonlyrealBeef managed to sneak away with yet another tournament victory, congratulations!
Spoiler for Hidden: Did you like the tourney in general? How about the rules? Fun, many matches were close, and meta wasn't quite what I feared it would be. And not correctly guessing the meta but still winning is always fun :3
How was it different? I feared more Flying Weapon decks. Adrenastaves, Catitans, I don't recall facing either.
When, for you, was the most exciting moment of the tournament? Finals, I started out 0 - 1. Then with the help of some solid deck choice and a bunch of rng, I ended up winning still.
In just a short sentence, or even one word, how would you summarize the whole tournament? Boom!
- Ban it once just because you can, ban it twice for a safety cushion, and ban it a third time for good measure. Triple Ban the name of the game for May 27th's tourney as players banned 3 elements for their opponents in this fairly unrestricted tournament. Congratulations to Aves for restricting his way to victory!
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- There is a whole new system in Leagues this season! The dual Leagues of Championship and Battle League has been distilled into one big party!
You can freely decide with your opponent the amount of upgrades and whether shards or rares are banned, and in the early stages of Elements League, JonathanCrazyJ has taken the top spot instantly with 1562 points! Get in on the action now!
- For those who can't decide on their own restrictions, there are Weekly Featured Rules to tickle anyone's fancy! Just hop into chat and ask around for a match!
- With succulent Nymph/Mark and Electrum codes up for grabs, there's no reason NOT to jump into Leagues! It's a great way for new players to pick up the meta in preparation for war, or more experienced players to strut their stuff, or even try out some fun deck concoctions to see how they do! What's more, the max number of games per opponent has been increased to 15, and you no longer have to wait 20 hours between matches! Get involved now!
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- The Pipeworks are once again under threat! Pipeworks II - by CleanOnion is simmering away, with the five factions spreading their territory, trying desperately to discover a way to save eachother... or just themselves. So far, all we know is that some factions are spying on others, and that a mysterious green apparition is... something else...
- The Mafia World Championships are underway! rob77dp is still alive and has somehow managed the highest post-count, as well as registering himself firmly on many players' 'town-read' lists. Will this mean he'll be picked off in the night, or is he perhaps a mafioso himself? Stay tuned to his match thread to find out!!
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All Over The Place!
- Two sister threads have materialized in the Humor section, all about viral meningitis. Oh, I may have misunderstood. There's one thread for posting What Goes Viral and one thread for Things That Should Go Viral! Go fill these threads with things that the whole world has watched, or should!
- DoctorC is gracing us with a spin-off of his Pixelated False Gods, he is now doing a normal Platinum Arena Deck account... but turned into awesome pixel art! Check out Pixelated Arena Decks now!
- It happens every year, but you'll never believe it was Elements' 8th Birthday this month! Higurashi baked some almost appropriate cake (blue, and shaped like a race-track, but at least shaped like an 8), and then handed out some pink cake to everyone, which seemed confusing. Still, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
- If you see or hear about an interesting thread that you think should be included in the newsletter, let the Newsletter Writers know, it may be included in next month's 'All Over The Place' section!
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Adrenadamseltosissofree
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c9 5c9 5c9 5ok 5ok 5ok 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7bu 7bu 7bu 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 8pn
Card by card: Adrenaline: Adds a lot of speed to the deck. It also interacts with Sofree in a way that the extra damage from sofree is calculated after the amount of attacks, so a Firefly (for example) will hit for 4x(3+2), so 20 damage. Also have to mention that, used on a damselfly, it will generate additional quanta.
Mitosis: Adds a further stall-breaking element to the deck, and by using it on Air creatures with sofree, you avoid the usual drawback of making a creature an easy CC target.
Firefly: Attackers which deal 3 damage, sweet spot for adrenaline, making it even sweeter of a spot with sofree. Also note that, with sofree, Air creatures can dodge spells.
Damselfly: Ever since sofree has been in the game, damsels have attracted a lot more attention. They are basically a pillar that helps the rush. Having also adrenaline to put on it in this deck makes it even more attractive.
Shard of Freedom: Shard of Freedom adds a lot of things to this deck: shield bypass and CC protection.
Strategy: When you are playing in trials, the most important thing is to understand your element's strengths and weaknesses. Life's main weaknesses are CC and shields. With Adrenaline and Mitosis being buffs on creatures that don't help the survivability of a creature, CC can just destroy decks. Same for shields, as has no way of going through them or destroying them. Shard of Freedom neatly addresses both of these issues to make your carefully crafted assault durable against anything except mass CC.
Strengths: Excellent rushing deck. Each and every card seem to synergize with each other. Adrenaline-Sofree-Firefly deals a mighty 20 damage, bypasses shields and is untargettable. And they can be played quite quickly as Adren-Damsel gives 4 quanta, all while dealing a lot of damage. Mitosis adds even more damage potential.
Weaknesses: As any deck with sofree, Mass CC will be able to cause massive damage, even more so in this deck. All creatures are untargettable, and therefore nobody cared about taking creatures that could survive damage. A thunderstorm will kill everything, leaving nothing to play with. While it does have Mitosis, I'm unsure it will be enough to stallbreak some of the bigger stalls. The deck, while it is fast on damage, is quite low on it.
Alternative deck choices: Being a deck that is:
- 50%
- Ignores Shields
- Ignores CC
I don't think there is any alternative to it. Which is why I picked it for DiotM. This in my opinion makes for a brilliant deck that uses life's strengths and tries it's best at dealing with it's weaknesses. Who knows? Maybe will surprise us, find more great decks, and make an actual appearance in war...
And congratulations to Mr Muffin for winning life trials!
This Card review was written by Hyroen
Card Art (recreated) by: Hyroen.
Earth as an element is of particular interest to me. As an avid Air Elemental, I feel like through consideration of the themes within Air, the themes of Earth also emerge because in some respects they can contrast Air. While Air is an element of freedom, flexibility and "lighter" versions of other cards, Earth is an element of investment, consistency and resilience. Due to these themes, Earthchild | Elite Earthchild by johannhowitzer, a fairly experienced veteran before the forum migration, would be an excellent thematic addition to the element of Earth.
Investment Damage
Earth is commonly known as a stalling element. With some of the bulkiest creatures in the game, the element finds little difficulty in playing many of its creatures with little to worry about. With Burrow being a common, if not signature ability, the element commonly is known for protecting either its creatures or permanents. At times, Shard of Patience is used to syngergize with not only the stalling aspect of Earth. In this respect, Earthchild may be similar to Antlion, however, Earthchild provides much more flexibility in that it offers more synergy with buffing cards such as Chaos Power, Momentum, Blessing, all of which belong in elements with powerful stalling capabilities. Furthermore, it still interacts with Shard of Patience quite powerfully, though Earthchild may be a bit more vulnerable to non-HP CC. As such, due to the unique synergies Earthchild provides as a beatstick within several different Duos, it also opens up the possibility for alternate win conditions e.g. Shard of Divinity/Sanctuary stall, Dissipation Shield/Antimatter stall, etc.
Here is a deck designed by Hyroen that shows an effective way to use Earthchild | Elite Earthchild!
Deck 1:
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink 6rp 6rp 6rp 77c 77c 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jo 7jv 7jv 7jv 7jv 7jv 7jv 7k6 7k6 7k6 7k6 7k6 7k6 7km 7km 7km 7km 7km 7km 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 8pm (Relics represent Earthchild)
Light & Earth combine to create one of the most feared stall decks in the game. While Shards of Patience can also be used to great effect with Earthchild, it would not offer too much more over Antlion, if anything. This deck in particular incorporates the powerful stalling capabilities of both Light & Earth, however, it also provides the potential beatstick power of a 40|42 Elite Earthchild, which can not be ignored, and with the right topdeck, it can come out in the first 3-4 turns too. Even with only 3 Improved Blessings, a 22|24 Elite Earthchild is nothing to take lightly. As such, with this deck it's important to gauge which deck you're facing and respond accordingly taking advantage of the stalling power in order to either blast through the opponent's HP or to whittle their deck away.
Earth is a thorough and defensive element. Known for its resilience in permanents, creatures and playstyle, any card which diversifies its synergies and win conditions is always welcomed. As an element of investment and consistency, Earthchild | Earthchild makes a potent addition to EtG and allows Earth as an element to solidify its synergies.
To see more card ideas check out the Card Ideas & Art section!
Until next time!
Many thanks to: -Aves for the interiew. -Hyroen for CiotM. -ji412jo for DiotM. -DoubleCapitals and mathman101 for Leagues and tourneys section. -all readers for reading
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