The Journey Begins

[Shrink]

The Quest for the Elemental Shield - Rules
Original idea by: Shrink   |   Developed by: Shrink   |   Art by: None yet   |   Organized by: ??


Teams will fight for pieces of the Elemental Shield, a prized possession with unbelievable power.

1. HOW TO SIGN UP?
Anyone with a forum and a chat account can sign up for this event. After reading the rules post in the sign-up topic for the event. If there is no topic or it is locked then the event is not active.

Maximum amount of participants for this event is 36. If the event is full, you can still sign up as a reserve player, and will get a chance to join the event if any of the 36 players doesn't show up during round 1.

2. THE STORY
The story of the Elemental Shield begins with an old knight. He once fought in many battles, wearing colorful armor representing all of the elements. What was even more interesting was the shield he carried. Its gems glowed in the heat of battle, denying anything that came its way. The knight was impervious to all elements' effects, yet wielded all their power. Before his life was soon to end, he prevented anyone from having the same power he had - He shattered the shield and sent the pieces all over the world.

Hundreds of years later, each element's guild/warriors had discovered a separate piece of the shield. They would battle for them all.

3. TEAMS
There will be twelve teams of three -representing the twelve elements-
- You may sign up as a team or an individual (who will later be placed on a team)
- Please designate what element you want your team to be under (unless you are signing up as an individual)

4. ELEMENTAL POWERS

Each element is given a special ability (may that be a buff or debuff):

Spoiler for Hidden:

Light Team may use the mark without the shield piece. (No other cards may be used without the piece.)

Darkness Team may use the mark without the shield piece. (No other cards may be used without the piece.)

Air Team may use the mark without the shield piece. (No other cards may be used without the piece.)

Earth Any team with the shield piece may only have up to two Graboids in a deck. Team may have three.

Gravity Team may use the mark without the shield piece. They may also have up to two extra upped cards. (No other cards may be used without the piece.)

Entropy Team may use the mark without the shield piece. (No other cards may be used without the piece.)

Fire The team with the piece of the shield may only have up to two spells of that element. Team may have up to four.

Water Team may use the mark without the shield piece. (No other cards may be used without the piece.)

Life Team may use the mark without the shield piece. They may also have up to two extra upgraded cards. (No other cards may be used without the piece.)

Death Any team with the piece may have up to two poisons. Team may have up to four.

Aether Any team with the piece may use up to two thunderbolts Team may use up to four.

Time Team may use the or mark without the correlating shield piece. (No other or cards may be used without the piece.)

Special thanks to RootRanger and everyone else who helped with the Elemental Ranking Study.

5. DECK BUILDING
The first shield piece each team "finds" will be different from their element!

Banned Cards:
Dimensional Shield
Devourer
Bone Wall
Earthquake
Discord
Fire Bolt
Ghost of the Past
As well as all shards!

Each element is only allowed to use decks with cards of their element unless the team owns a shield piece.

- Decks are allowed to be changed between duels.

- Upgraded cards are also limited!
  - You receive the ability to use two upgraded cards for each shield piece your team owns.

Each shield piece has its own individual element. Each elements' team will start with a piece representing a different element than their team.
-Each deck is allowed to have as many elements as pieces a team has.

For example:
Team has won the piece and piece
-- They may build with all three elements

Any team without any pieces may only use their own element.

Your mark must match your team's element or a piece of the shield's element that you own.*

*Unless otherwise noted in the "Elemental Powers" section.

6. DUELS - FIGHTING FOR PIECES
All duels are best two of three!

At the beginning of each round, players from each team decide who will be the Hunter, while the other two players are the Guardians.
--Hunters = attackers
--Guardians = defenders
Guardians will decide if they split the pieces they own between themselves or if one will hold them all.

If a guardian loses who is holding more than one shield piece, they will lose all of them, so keep that in mind!

When hunter wants to fight another team, they must PM the guardian they would like to fight.

The hunter from each team is allowed to declare an attack against an opposing team once a round.

Each guardian is only allowed to be attacked once per round as well!

On the first day of each round, all hunters will declare an attack against a pair of guardians. If more than one hunter declares an attack against the guardians, the two must decide who they will fight over the next three days. The other hunters who are not chosen must then attack another pair of guardians.

The team member that's attacking has up to three chances to fight for the shield piece based on the following:
- When a hunter declares an attack on another element, they must also declare who they are dueling for the piece. (One of the two guardians)
- The guardian does not say whether they have the piece until the end of the duel.
- If the hunter wins the battle, but the guardian does not have the piece, the hunter receives another chance to declare an attack.
- No hunter may switch out with a guardian from their team.
If the guardians win any round before their piece is taken, the battle is over.

Only attacking teams may take pieces.

Each team is given three attacks per round (Four Days) . Even if a team does not have a piece, they may still attack. No team may launch an attack on another more than once in any round.

7. AFTER DUELS
Winner should post a new topic in the "Battle Results" section, along with short description of how the match went. Both the winner and the loser are required to post pictures of both their deck. Along with the battle results, each team must post whom they have attacked and defended against.

Round 1 is over when the first four days is over - then the next one begins.

8. WINNER
After 8 rounds are over, the two teams with the highest amount of pieces will fight in a final battle.

Players will be randomly matched up with their opponent.
Duels will be out of five.

First team to have two victorious players is the winner.

9. REWARDS
The members of the winning team will receive this forum award icon: *coming soon*

[ralouf]

Interesting idea and the story is very interesting, as the deckbuilding.

As Root mentionned in chat, allowing fully uppgarded deck will reduce the numbers of participant and finding 36 player who want to play this event and who have lot of fully upped deck is gonna be hard. You can put a limit like 6 or 10 upped cards.

You trolled me :p very good event for me I hope it'll live

[JonathanCrazyJ]

very fun idea, question, you said

Even if a team does not have a piece, they may still attack.

so there are no eliminations? it just keeps going untill someone has all 12? seems a bit long, or have i misunderstood?

[Shrink]

very fun idea, question, you said

Even if a team does not have a piece, they may still attack.

so there are no eliminations? it just keeps going untill someone has all 12? seems a bit long, or have i misunderstood?

You understood correctly but the pieces are very powerful seeing that they give different element and upgraded card opportunities, so it would quite difficult to defeat another team without a piece.

[JonathanCrazyJ]

ok, well so long as the event wouldnt drag on for weeks because of this, i think it could be a nice addition, because it means the losers will get to keep playing till the end. however you might ee alot of inactivity if people effectively have no chance of winning, but have to keep playing anyway...


EDIT: 100 posts!!

[Shrink]

This is event is pretty much completed. I am looking for someone to create a design for the Elemental Shield and the award icon.

If you have any other concerns about balance, please bring them to my attention.

[MyNameIsJoey]

the way i see it, this event is way too long. An event should aim to be around 30 days long. So , if you really plan on making the rounds a week long, you can make 4 rounds. Perhaps make it so that the winning team is the team that has the most pieces after those 4 weeks? Or make the rounds last 4-5 days, which makes the event last 7-6 rounds, and make the winning team the one holding the most pieces at the end.

If you take my idea here, also add what happens if 2 teams are tied at the end.

Nice idea

[Shrink]

the way i see it, this event is way too long. An event should aim to be around 30 days long. So , if you really plan on making the rounds a week long, you can make 4 rounds. Perhaps make it so that the winning team is the team that has the most pieces after those 4 weeks? Or make the rounds last 4-5 days, which makes the event last 7-6 rounds, and make the winning team the one holding the most pieces at the end.

If you take my idea here, also add what happens if 2 teams are tied at the end.

Nice idea

Thank you for the suggestions. I think I will shorten round lengths and limit the number of rounds. After rounds are over, the two teams with the highest number of shield pieces will face in a final bout.

I will modify the OP soon.

EDIT: Modified!

[TStar]

My greatest concern is with initial balance.  Not all elements are equal in their ability to use mono decks, even with an off-element mark.  This ruleset particularly makes cards like Discord incredibly powerful.  It also strongly favors elements with good shields since they can use them to create nearly unbeatable monos against elements that do not contain PC cards.

I'm also worried that the rules set up a situation that favors a frontrunner far too much.  Being able to use additional elements is a HUGE benefit, but you also all them to have not only a deck diversity advantage but an upgraded card advantage as well.  Imagine or getting the cards from each other to play grabbows for example.  That's going to difficult or impossible for most teams to beat, especially with an upgraded card disadvantage.  I'm very concerned that the rules create a serious balance problem that could ruin the fun for many people.

[Shrink]

My greatest concern is with initial balance.  Not all elements are equal in their ability to use mono decks, even with an off-element mark.  This ruleset particularly makes cards like Discord incredibly powerful.  It also strongly favors elements with good shields since they can use them to create nearly unbeatable monos against elements that do not contain PC cards.

I'm also worried that the rules set up a situation that favors a frontrunner far too much.  Being able to use additional elements is a HUGE benefit, but you also all them to have not only a deck diversity advantage but an upgraded card advantage as well.  Imagine or getting the cards from each other to play grabbows for example.  That's going to difficult or impossible for most teams to beat, especially with an upgraded card disadvantage.  I'm very concerned that the rules create a serious balance problem that could ruin the fun for many people.

I feel that the "Elemental Powers" section describes well enough that there won't be much of a chance for even your example to happen.

Each elemental team starts with a piece different from their team's element, so there really is no initial imbalance. The reason the Powers section was put in place was to provide a balance after some teams lost their first piece and became a mono. Cutting down the number of grabboids a team can use to two (team is allowed 3) seem very reasonable. Also, the nerf to Discord, only allowing it to be used by team , seems to have some legitimacy.

[TStar]

Yeah, I saw that you changed that in your last edit.  Initially you didn't have those restrictions.

It's a good start but there are still other cards you need to account for, like Earthquake for example.  You also haven't addressed the problems of a lack of PC vs. strong shields.  Aether, Air, Entropy.....all practically auto-win against some teams if they don't have a shield bypass available and that's not the full list.

You still haven't really addressed the elemental strength issues.  Giving 2 extra upgrades really isn't going to make a big difference.  They still don't compete with most other elements in this format simple because they lack an effective shield and their creatures are expensive and low on damage compared to other elements.  Take a look at War to see the relative weaknesses some elements have compared to others.

[Shrink]

Totally aware that this has not been posted in for a long time, but I modified a lot of it, and I think it's a worthy event now.