7th Trials - Phase 3 Community Vote

[Onizuka]

Phase 3 - Community Vote

Phase ends when above poll expires.

It's time to vote for your favorite Master candidate!  Every community member has one vote. You can change your vote at any time as long as there is still time on the clock.

Vote based on who you think would make the best Master of that element. Do not vote based on who is the best player or who you know personally. Try to pick someone who you think would help the community the most.  Feel free to ask the candidates difficult questions to help you make your decision.

[Jenkar]

Hi. Ask questions, get cookie, get answer.

Spoiler for Onizuka:

Do you plan to general your element for war?
If nothing changes, do you plan to attempt to lead your element in brawl?

Yes, if i'm still on the forums then.
No.

Spoiler for Shrink:

To all Trialing:

What is your favorite deck, including your element, and for what reason has this deck become
so important to you?

Entropy/air Stall.
Strong, won me quite a few games vs Hyro.

Spoiler for Jen-i:

Only sissies have been or will ever be part of team air - how do you respond to this fact?

Go go winning wars by accident.

Spoiler for Pella:

To all:
Describe your plan for coordinating efforts among your War team across global time zones.

Edit:  I left a word.

Get the best people i can that are generally in the same time zone. If not sufficient, stay up late/wake up early, and have a chat to fill the small gaps this leaves.

Spoiler for Chapuz:

Let's make them throw some mud,

@All trialers with 3 or more people in their trials element: Which of your competitors deserves the Master title the least?


*makes some popcorn and sits back*

ignoring the fact that hyro went AWOL, i'd say ops. Not that he's bad, but he went to air after choosing time. Imo, while he has some experience with air (see budo), he's far from being on the same level in my eye as the other challengers.

Spoiler for Opsinis:

Would you rather have a master well-versed in the forum only or well-versed in Elements the Game only?
Explain.

Forum only.
Being a master gives you the opportunity to impact your element's viewing in the community. If you're asocial, you won't get new fans for the element and it will, at best, stagnate. See nils & gravy for this.

Spoiler for justaburd:

Chirp? Chirp chirp trill chirp?

Yep, there's chicken stew for dinner tonight. No, i don't know where your children are - definitely not in the stew.

Spoiler for Marsu:

How and where are you connected to the Element you are trialing for outside of Elements the Game?

I need air to breathe. And i like winds. Not much, eh.

Spoiler for Zso_Zso:

Question to all  contestants:

What's the best  -  duo deck in your opinion ?

Lightstall. By an enormous margin.

Spoiler for Belligerence:

@All Trialists/defending masters:

If your first choice element was full, would you switch to another element? If yes, what element and why. If no, why?

Water, because it's my second fav element.

Spoiler for bogtro:

To everyone:

Design a card that is more or less balanced using typical balance formulae, yet would increase your element's power significantly. In other words, identify where your element is weak and design a card to remedy this.

Ash stays the same.
Art from : http://sandara.deviantart.com/art/phoenix-282288129
Maybe would go -1 cost for the unupped version.

Spoiler for ji412jo:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 7dg 7dm 7dm 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7n4 7n4 7n4 7n4 7n4 7n4 7n9 7n9 7n9 7n9 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8po

Quite nifty, those 14 attack phoenixes. Nice burst potential.

Spoiler for RR:

You are to ask yourself a question you can't answer, trials related. What do you ask yourself?

What was your least favorite moment in all the trials you took part in?

Spoiler for rob77dp:

To all Trialists:

Reveal to the voters your current maximum lift on the bench press.

*Edit:  added a word.

No idea, it's been a while since i tried real bench pressing.

Spoiler for farscape:

To all air trialers:
What is the largest airborne creature in real life that is NOT a bird ?

Pterosaurs were pretty big. Iirc.

Spoiler for Jen-i answering other trials questions:

That's what your mother said today.

Spoiler for tikotribe:

This time I'm having some trouble deciding on who to vote for in some of the elements, so I'm tossing the coin.

I don't know many of you trialists personally, and I don't have the necessary chat-time to actually get to know you better - I can look up both your ingame and forum "qualities" (which I did), furthermore, awards and staff positions aren't that impressive to me in case of mastership: So please, tell me about yourself, the person behind that avatar and hundreds of (well-planned) posts and quotes.

You're free whatever to answer, it may or may not be a deciding factor. Thanks.

Well, that's one innovative question
I'm a 20 year old, male, informatic student. Physically i'm pretty lean.
There's not much i really have to say about myself, really. The only thing that seems to be of interest is my moral convictions that :
a) There's no aim in life that is transcendent,
and
b) My attitude towards a random personn that i do not know is indifference at first. This point may seem of little worth to some, so let me devellop : I do not care one bit about people i have had no interaction with. To me, there's no intrinsic value to being a human being.

Oh, and i play drums, and hate the sun.

[Opsinis]

Good luck to my current fellow Trialists!

Spoiler for Jenk's Qs:

"do you consider yourself the best possible master for your element? If so, why. If not, who is in your eye, and why?"

I don't consider myself the best possible master for Air. If I'm completely honest with myself and my ability, I know that both Jenk and Hyro have a much stronger bond to Air, are much more familiar with it, and have the necessary PvP skill. Since Hyroen is not in the poll, I won't consider him in this question. My answer is Jenkar, he is obviously the best possible master, his skill, veteran-ship, and likeable personality make this decision easy.

Does honesty get me anywhere?


"Name one song that represents your element in your eye."

Skyfall by Adele.

Couple reasons: It reminds me of the deck.
Adele is incredible.
The song itself is very powerful, yet calming. Really reminds me of a storm, and weather.
The 007 movie is lovely.

Spoiler for Oni's Qs:

"Do you plan to general your element for war?"

Yes.


"If nothing changes, do you plan to attempt to lead your element in brawl?"

Yes.

Spoiler for Shrink's Q:

"What is your favorite deck, including your element, and for what reason has this deck becomeso important to you?"

I've grown attached to FractalFly decks.

I love the idea, but more importantly, in my recent PvPing I've used this type of deck. This is one of the decks that always make me smile.
Do I always win with it? No.
Do I always love using it? Yes.
Are there other likeable Air decks? Yes.

Spoiler for Pella's Q:

"Describe your plan for coordinating efforts among your War team across global time zones."

Long nights. Early mornings. Flexibility.

I feel encouragement/happiness is the key.

Spoiler for Chapuz' Q:

Which of your competitors deserves the Master title the least?

Dangerous question is dangerous.

Let me give you a little insight on my struggle here:
I will not lie about my fellow Trialists, I will not lie about myself, I dislike excessive self-deprecation, but sometimes it's just the brutal truth.
I'm sure we all know that this is fun.

Who deserves it the least: Me

I originally wanted to go for Time Trials, then Viney knocked me out.
I lead the Time Brawl team.
I don't have nearly as strong connection to Air as the others.
My PvP skill lacks.... well, existence.

Spoiler for Opsinis' Q:

"Would you rather have a master well-versed in the forum only or well-versed in Elements the Game only?
Explain."

If, and only if, a Trialist somehow managed to win the title of Master, then I'd much rather have that person be well-versed in the forums.

This is a struggle I have personally. Game-wise, I'm not too great. Forum-wise, I consider myself well-versed. I see a lot of things, I have three shiny titles.
I say this to say that I would definitely sympathize with the master who was great in only the forums.

I think we've reached a point where vets (masters included) are terrifying to new people. Being well-versed in the forum makes thinking of these "vets" as normal people a little easier, rather than imagining them as some god who's the master of ______.

Spoiler for Marsu's Q:

"How and where are you connected to the Element you are trialing for outside of Elements the Game?"

Should I take this very literally I would say, I breathe air, so there.

Getting deep: One of our neighboring towns/cities there is/was a huge steel mill. ((You see steel mills were incredibly important in the area, but they were being shut down and basically half the people in the area were layed-off.)) The town is notorious for having a bad smell and much polluted air.
The towns are decently rival-ed against each other and I've always supported my town based on that conflict.

I hope that answers a fraction of the question, at least.

Spoiler for Belligerence's Q:

"If your first choice element was full, would you switch to another element? If yes, what element and why. If no, why?"

Well, this happened to happen to me. Time was my first element, Viney kicked me out. (It's okay  ) So I jumped on over to air.

IF someone would have kicked me out of air, I would have gone to another element, not sure which, but I woudl be sure to be in Trials?

"What a jumper! He has no loyalty, stone him!"
Well, that's hardly true. I had clear ties to both Time and Air, Brawl Team and Guilds, respectively.
I feel everything is a learning experience, one thing I really need is more PvP knowledge, so what I did was join trials and put on my learning hat. I just wanted to learn with Elements I had more experience with and knowledge of.

Spoiler for bogtro's Q:

"Design a card that is more or less balanced using typical balance formulae, yet would increase your element's power significantly. In other words, identify where your element is weak and design a card to remedy this."

Here's my attempt at a card.

Spoiler for Blimp:

NAME: Gunner Blimp ELEMENT: Air COST: 6 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 0 | 11 TEXT: :Gun Blast Destroy one permanent and 1 random creature is hit by debris and loses 1 HP.	NAME: Cannon Blimp ELEMENT: Air COST: 6 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 0 | 13 TEXT: :Cannon Blast Destroy one permanent and 3 random creatures are hit by debris and lose 1 HP.

ART: Wikipedia Commons here IDEA: Opsinis NOTES: This is a card creation for bogtro's question in the 7th Trials. SERIES:

Does Air already have PC? Well, soft shield-PC from SoFre, but that is often taken out of PvP gameplay.

I think this card would be a great/fun addition to Air's cards since it harvests a synergy with Fire and provides hard PC with a little risk, and it's thematically sound.

Spoiler for RavingR's Q:

"You are to ask yourself a question you can't answer, trials related. What do you ask yourself?"

Without checking, who was the 2nd Master of Air?

Spoiler for Jen-i's Q:

"Only sissies have been or will ever be part of team air - how do you respond to this fact?"

Jealous is turning him/her as green as a really green bean.

Spoiler for ji412jo's Q:

"I love the concept of airborne creatures ever since it has been included. Can you build an original ( no need to be all that effective ) deck using skyblitz?"

Me too

Spoiler for Deck:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

7n9 7n9 7n9 7n9 7n9 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7qc 7qc 7qc 7qc 7qc 7qc 7qu 7qu 7qu 7qu 7qu 7qu 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 7ri 8pr

I'm unsure if this is original or not, but I love time, and I truly think that this is a fun deck. Sure it lacks PC, and CC is a hard price.

Spoiler for Zso_Zso's Q:

"What's the best  - duo deck in your opinion ?"

Sooo many decks can be good.
In Trials I was proud of a stall with solar buckler and miracle, so I'll go with that.

Spoiler for Could be improved, Trials deck:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5li 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oh 5oh 5oh 5oh 5oh 5ok 5ok 5ok 5ok 5ok 5ok 5on 5on 5on 5on 5op 5pu 5pu 5pu 5pu 7jt 7jt 7jt 7k2 7k2 7k2 7k2 8pq

Spoiler for farscape's Q:

"What is the largest airborne creature in real life that is NOT a bird ?"

Is a bat, acceptable? I'm almost sure it is considered to be not a bird.

If not, I'll say a blimp, because they are impressive, they can be massive, and they're cool. (Steam Machine is a creature in Elements, so why not, right? [please])

Spoiler for justaburd's Q:

"Chirp? Chirp chirp trill chirp?"

It's a possibility.

Spoiler for Jen-i Rebuttal Q:

"What do you think is wrong with RR that he has to ask suck silly questions?"

Too much pasta.

Spoiler for rob77dp's Q:

"Reveal to the voters your current maximum lift on the bench press."

The bar..... 

Spoiler for Tiko's Q:

"So please, tell me about yourself, the person behind that avatar and hundreds of (well-planned) posts and quotes. "

Thank you for asking this. I think it is an incredibly meaningful question.

Who I am behind the purple name....?

I'm male, for the record. Currently my career is student, and I love it. I've found that learning strikes something with me that nothing else does. Almost to the point of obsession.
I have an active and whole family, mostly everyone here is happy, no major splits. I spend too much time on the computer  But I love to swim, and my pool is the idea place for me in the summer.

More personality-wise or mannerisms-wise I'm a control freak. It has perks and setbacks, but control is simply my favorite. I tend to be quite organized, and I prefer following the rules and sticking to a planned way of doing something.

Of course, that doesn't mean I am a conformist. I think conforming to things which one doesn't agree with is bad.

Also, I like to write, as you can see this is a little lengthy, and recently I've been terribly compelled to write poetry, it's kinda nice.

Lovely questions Tiko, thank you.

[Belligerence]

Eh, grabbing a spot for Q&A answers.

Good luck to everyone :3

Spoiler for Jenkar:

@all contestants : do you consider yourself the best possible master for your element? If so, why. If not, who is in your eye, and why?

(separate question) Name one song that represents your element in your eye.

The best possible master? No, claiming that would hardly be fair. I honestly think Jenkars experience, devotion, and skill do Air sufficient honor for him to claim that title. I... Air is my favorite element. Far and away, easily. But claiming its my favorite isn't the same as being the best possible.

Take it Back - Pink Floyd Good thing this one is pretty opinionated, since this isn't something stupid like Thunderstruck or Learning to Fly. I honestly don't know why I chose this song. I guess it just fits for me.

Spoiler for Onizuka:

Do you plan to general your element for war?
If nothing changes, do you plan to attempt to lead your element in brawl?

I would if I could. Warmastership makes doing that not possible.
No.

[/quote]

Spoiler for Shrink:

What is your favorite deck, including your element, and for what reason has this deck become
so important to you?

Skyfall by ilovecandy

This one has a fairly lengthy backstory. When I first started Elements, I was drawn to both Life and Air. Neither really had anything to keep me focused on them, but I loved the concept. When I first found the forum, I stumbled upon Skyfall. In many ways, this was the defining deck for me. This was it. Everything worked together, everything fit, everything... was perfect. I spent hours upon hours just playing with it in Trainer since I couldn't build it in the actual game. As I became more and more involved in the game and community, I found that... not many decks had the fluidity that Skyfall had. It wasn't the Entropy or the Aether that drew me to it, however. It was the Air that held it all together. I still load it up on occasion just to grind.

As a side note, Skyfall is a very large reason for Air being my favorite element.

Spoiler for Pella:

Describe your plan for coordinating efforts among your War team across global time zones.

I can't General for Air this War, but if I was faced with this problem, I would address it in a couple ways:

My work schedule is... erratic. Because of this I can be up super early, or stay up super late to meet up with people on strange time zones. Communication is important for War, so being able to work with all the members of the team is a good thing. 

Also, using a chatpad like Titanpad can help ease communication from one timezone to the next.

Spoiler for Chapuz:

@All trialers with 3 or more people in their trials element: Which of your competitors deserves the Master title the least?

I refuse to answer this question. Attacking one of my competitors isn't in the spirit of what I had in mind when I joined for this.

If this doesn't sate your clear desire for aggression, I pick myself as least deserving.

Spoiler for Opsinis:

Would you rather have a master well-versed in the forum only or well-versed in Elements the Game only?
Explain.

Probably the most interesting question so far. I like it. I'd probably rather have someone well-versed in the forum. In order to even become a master, you need 50,000 score in the game, so you should have at least a fair-solid grasp on the game, as well as your element. I chose forum skill vs. game skill because, for most purposes, masters "lead" their element publicly. On the forum. Being a master but never being on the forum kind of defeats the purpose of going for it, at least in my opinion. Also, in order to receive mastership, you need to have a degree of skill to be able to defeat the other challengers and/or the defending master. Naturally I would prefer someone with skill in both forum and game.

Spoiler for Jen-I:

Only sissies have been or will ever be part of team air - how do you respond to this fact?

If you enjoy something, it shouldn't matter what connotations are attached.

Spoiler for justaburd:

Chirp? Chirp chirp trill chirp?

Chirp chirp chirp? Trill chirp. Chirp!

Spoiler for Marsu:

How and where are you connected to the Element you are trialing for outside of Elements the Game?

Air is all around us, in us. Without it, we wouldn't exist, we wouldn't be here asking questions about it.

Spoiler for ji412jo:

I love the concept of airborne creatures ever since it has been included. Can you build an original ( no need to be all that effective ) deck using skyblitz?

I've had a fascination with Skyblitz for a long time. Probably my favorite deck (that I've made), if not my most efficient deck, is Blitzing Spirits:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 5c1 7an 7an 7an 7an 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7gp 7gp 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7n9 7n9 8pp

Epi gets Skyblitz out faster. Permafrost doesn't see much action, but is useful on occasion. Feel free to drop in a couple Life dragons instead. Unupped Spirits so you can get them out faster.

Those that were with me during War 5 with team Life might remember me suggesting this deck... maybe possibly more than once.

Spoiler for Zso_Zso:

Question to all  contestants:

What's the best  -  duo deck in your opinion ?

I had to think about this one for a while. There's Blessed Wyrms/Blessed Pegasus. Blessed Pegasus can be a mono, and Blessed Wyrms is fast, but fragile. Damage ramps up quickly, but it's possible to outrush. Flying Glories is slower, but has more stall to it, as well as being CC resistant. None of these take advantage of the fact that Air has some of the strongest, repeatable in-element CC, and Light has pretty cool cards that work well in multiple decks. Therefore I choose:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

7k2 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7k5 7n0 7n0 7n2 7n2 7n2 7n5 7n5 7n5 7n5 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 7oe 8pq

Strong CC and fairly fast. Only thing I could ask for is a bit of PC, but oh well.

Spoiler for farscape:

To all air trialers:
What is the largest airborne creature in real life that is NOT a bird ?

Brief searching seems to indicate Quetzalcoatlus. Those familiar with mythology might recognize Quetzalcoatl as the name a god, so anything named after it must be pretty freaking awesome.

Spoiler for bogtro:

To everyone:

Design a card that is more or less balanced using typical balance formulae, yet would increase your element's power significantly. In other words, identify where your element is weak and design a card to remedy this.

Sonic Boom    3

Deal 4 damage to target creature/player.
12% chance to destroy a random permanent.

Shatter         3

Deal 4 damage to target/creature player.
20% chance to destroy a random permanent.


Notes: Cannot destroy pillars/pendulums

I feel this would be an interesting card. Air's largest weaknesses are PC, CC, Shields, and lack of Pc. Also no healing, but whatever. I didn't want a card that would displace any of the other PC cards, and SoFr covers CC and Shields pretty well. Shatter plays on one of Air's strongest points (CC), and expands by adding a chance to destroy a useful permanent. I feel it doesn't displace Shockwave or Lightning, while also having a special niche that it fills.

Spoiler for RavingRabbid:

You are to ask yourself a question you can't answer. What do you ask yourself?

Is upped or unupped Firefly Queen used more often?

Spoiler for rob77dp:

To all Trialists:

Reveal to the voters your current maximum lift on the bench press.

*Edit:  added a word.

I haven't bench pressed since 9th grade, which was... 5-6 years ago.

Spoiler for Tiko:

This time I'm having some trouble deciding on who to vote for in some of the elements, so I'm tossing the coin.

I don't know many of you trialists personally, and I don't have the necessary chat-time to actually get to know you better - I can look up both your ingame and forum "qualities" (which I did), furthermore, awards and staff positions aren't that impressive to me in case of mastership: So please, tell me about yourself, the person behind that avatar and hundreds of (well-planned) posts and quotes.

You're free whatever to answer, it may or may not be a deciding factor. Thanks.

Hmm, an interesting question. I view myself as an honest person; sometimes brutally so. I won't lie or deflect the truth to spare someone's sense of self importance. If you're wrong, I'll say it. If you ask me a question, I'll give you the truth, whether it's what you want to hear or not. Also, I tend to stand by my opinion. If I find something to be either right or wrong, I'll speak up and defend my point of view. I'm not incapable of backing down - often enough, I find myself wrong, or missing a bit of information. I always prefer to admit I don't know something and go learn it, than bluff my way through life with no idea of what I'm doing (this kind of ties in with my honesty). These traits are why I picked Belligerence for a forum name; while I don't actively seek arguments and disputes, my personality and point of view sometimes end up thrusting me into them. It's also why my post count is so low; I've been here since... December 2011 or so, but only barely have 300 posts.

There's me, without breaking down my personal life or going too far into detail.

[justaburd]

* justaburd chirps and cocks his head. You get a sense that you probably won't see any answers to your questions. But why would you expect a burd to answer anything, really? You also feel that burd intends to ask Jenkar to lead, but where you got this feeling, you don't know. Nevertheless, you're pretty sure your... intuition... is correct.

[Jen-i]

Only sissies have been or will ever be part of team air - how do you respond to this fact?

[MyNameIsJoey]

I love the concept of airborne creatures ever since it has been included. Can you build an original ( no need to be all that effective ) deck using skyblitz?

[Helston]

Those that were with me during War 5 with team Life might remember me suggesting this deck... almost every round.

I thought that was only once, and I shot it down as quick as anything.

On the other hand, I'm only just beginning to appreciate how awesome Forest Spirits are.

[Belligerence]

Thought I suggested it at least 3-4 times, mostly during Support matches. Either way, I can't bother looking it up, so I'm content to say I just suggested it once lol

[Zso_Zso]

Question to all  contestants:

What's the best  -  duo deck in your opinion ?

[justaburd]

Spoiler for justaburd:

Chirp? Chirp chirp trill chirp?

Yep, there's chicken stew for dinner tonight. No, i don't know where your children are - definitely not in the stew.

* justaburd is sure it's not 10 PM yet.

[Captain Scibra]

This one is easy.  Jenkar.