Grandmaster Battle - Rules

[Physsion]

Welcome, Elementals, to the first Grandmaster Battle in Elements history!

For the first time ever, a challenger has risen to fight against the reigning Grandmaster. In this epic clash, RootRanger, War #9 winning General and recently crowned Master of Fire, will battle five-time consecutive Master of Aether, three-time War winning General, 2014 PVP World Champion and reigning Grandmaster deuce22.

Who will master the Elements and emerge victorious from this legendary battle?




1. Grandmaster Battle Game Structure

• Competitors will play best-of-13 match.
• Games may be played over the course of multiple days, if the players' schedules don't allow for all of them to be played at once.
• Games will follow a Conquest-style format.
• Each player will prepare a total of seven decks for use during the event, and send these via private message to Trial Overseers Physsion and Zawadx.
• These decks do not all have to be prepared before the battle begins, but must be sent in before they are used in a game against the opponent.

2. Deckbuilding

• Shards are BANNED.
• Decks may be of any size, and may use any mark.
• All decks may feature a sideboard of up to 6 cards, i.e. before each game, each competitor may choose to remove up to 6 cards from their main deck for use in that game.
• Sideboard usage is optional. All cards included in sideboards must comply with all other deckbuilding rules, including the 21/10 card rules.
• Each deck may use a maximum of 18 upgraded cards.
• Each deck must contain a minimum of 40% in-Element cards, rounded up. This amount includes pillars and pendulums. Both the original deck including sideboard and the deck used in a duel must follow 40% rule.
• Each deck can NOT contain more cards of any single off-Element than it does of your in-Element.
• "Other" cards are considered off-Element for both players.
• Mark cards are treated as pillars of the Element whose quanta they produce for all deckbuilding rules.
• A maximum of 21 copies of each in-Element card, and 10 copies of each off-Element card may be used across ALL seven decks.
• For example, deuce22 may use 6 copies of Mindgate in three of his seven decks, and 3 copies in his fourth deck, totaling 21 uses, but his remaining three decks cannot use Mindgate at all. RootRanger may legally use 6 copies of Antlion in his first deck, 3 copies in his second and 1 in his third, but cannot use Antlion again in his other four decks.
• The upgraded and unupgraded versions of cards are treated as the same for this rule. So, if either player uses 6 copies of Flooding in his first deck, and 4 copies of the upgraded Inundation in their second deck, he may not use any more copies of Flooding or Inundation in his remaining decks.
• This number does not apply to pillar, pendulum or mark cards of any Element.
• Rainbow decks are allowed, but only for up to two decks for each player. The remaining decks must use a total of four Elements or less.

Spoiler for 40% rule:

Deck Size	Minimum Cards From In-Element
30	12
31-32	13
33-35	14
36-37	15
38-40	16
41-42	17
43-45	18
46-47	19
48-50	20
51-52	21
53-55	22
56-57	23
58-60	24

3. Match Rules

• In the event of a desync, both competitors should play out their game versus the AI on both sides.
• If the same player wins on both sides, they are considered the winner of that game.
• If the two "games" result in wins for different players, the game is voided, and players may not switch or modify their decks before the next game.
• If it is obvious that a game will never end (e.g. if both players have zero net damage output (where they can both heal off the damage done each turn easily) and will never deck out, and both players have no means of breaking the stalemate), that game is voided, and players may switch or modify their decks prior to the next game.
• In the event that an illegal deck is used in any game (whether that game was voided at the time of the match or not) the user of the illegal deck will be given a loss for that game, and their opponent a win.
• A win due to an illegal deck will not be considered to remove a deck from the player's choice as per Conquest rules.
• Losing access to the Elements the Game during a game (refreshing the tab, clicking on ad that isn't a popup type, closing the tab/window/browser/computer, power loss for any reason) counts as a loss, and a win for the opponent for that game.

4. Games

• Competitors will play a best-of-13 match.
• Games will follow a Conquest-style format.
• Each player may only use decks that have not yet won a game.
• Once a player has won a game with a deck, that deck cannot be used again for the remainder of the match.
• The first player to reach 7 wins, one with each of their decks, wins the match.
• The winner will reign as Grandmaster for the next term, until a new challenger is eligible for another Grandmaster Battle.

5. Post-Battle

• Once the match has been concluded, the winner will post their results in a new thread in the Trials Final Battle sub-forum with the subject:
       [Grandmaster Battle] Player_A 5 - 3 Player_B
       with the names and scores updated to reflect the outcome of the match.
• Both players will post the decks they used in the Grandmaster Battle. They must also include all sideboard modifications made before each game.
• They are also encouraged to write a short description of the battle, and include screenshots/videos of the games.
• Any posts made in this thread before both players have posted their decks will be removed.

[Avenger]

This is the time when I totally miss the spectator feature (((

[rob77dp]

Art credit?  ... or did I miss it in 1pt tiny-font somewhere...?  (That is a really cool marks-collide art though)

I want to see a 7-6, or at least whatever it plays out to be have it be recorded for re-watching.  SPECTATE *shakes fists*

[Physsion]

Thanks rob! I did the art myself last night - it's not perfect, but it's fairly close to how I wanted it to look. Cheers to Kamietsu for posting the mark vector thread here, even though they haven't asked for any credit to be given.

[deuce22]

can upgrades in each deck change from game to game?

[Physsion]

Yes, upgrade allocations may be changed in between games, as long as the total upgrade count after any modifications (including sideboard substitutions) is no more than 18. Six upgraded Pillars may be swapped out for six upgraded Pendulums, etc.

[deuce22]

Yes, upgrade allocations may be changed in between games, as long as the total upgrade count after any modifications (including sideboard substitutions) is no more than 18. Six upgraded Pillars may be swapped out for six upgraded Pendulums, etc.

So should we just submit completely unupgraded decks, then allocate our 18 upgrades when we duel?

[Physsion]

We'd prefer if you submitted the upgraded deck you planned on using at first, then you can let us know which modifications you made to it after each game. If it's easier for you, you can submit a completely unupgraded deck, just make sure you keep track of the upgrades you used in each game.

[RootRanger]

The first 6 games will be played on Saturday at 1700 GMT. I will be streaming.

[theelkspeaks]

HYPE

http://picosong.com/mKLN/

[RootRanger]

The first 6 games have ended 3-3. We each have 3 decks that won, 1 deck that has not yet won, and 3 decks that are unrevealed. The rest of the battle is scheduled for August 3, 1900 GMT.



EDIT: Match delayed at least 2 hours.

EDIT: Did I say 2 hours? I meant one day. You know, being off by a factor of 12 is considered accurate in astronomy.

EDIT: Games will be played sometime tomorrow. Will likely take place in two parts.

[deuce22]

I forfeit.

Rules were changed after they were posted. As a result, I played based on original rules and Root played based on most updated rules resulting in me playing 2 illegal games (1 won, 1 lost).

Would have been nice to have been notified of the rule change.

Grats Root