Hello! For those who are unaware of who I am, I am the one and only... bogtro(ll)! Last trials, I unsuccessfully challenged TorB in the final battle, losing 5-2. This time around, I come back stronger than ever before.
Any semi-educated voter will notice my effective disappearance during Phase 2. I'll explain this a bit. I was set to play 5 opponents during this phase. Restrictions weren't announced until the phase started, so I needed a few days to deckbuild before I was ready to play matches. That weekend, I had an event during which I had no internet access, so the earliest I could play was several days after the Phase began. After my return, I sent messages to all 5 of my opponents. Of these, 1 did not respond, 1 did not respond until very shortly before the deadline, 1 offered a single time (which was 5 AM for me) than dropped off communication, one gave a range of times but was not around during them, and one offered a titanpad link that had been dormant for many days.
Obviously, this does not absolve me of responsibility, but it provides some insight into why I was unable to complete matches. The final day of the deadline I was again away without access, which would not have been a problem had we not left it so late. I'm actually somewhat surprised that rulings weren't made in my favor for some of the matches, but so goes it (what is F anyway?).
Now that that's dealt with, let's move on. Assuming I do participate in the next War, which should happen barring any extremely inconvenient scheduling, it will be my 3rd and hopefully 2nd with Darkness. I spent War 4 with Team Earth under kirchj's guidance. During that time, we were effectively eliminated by Darkness, giving me some insight into preparing for them. The next War, after my unsuccessful Master bid, I was accepted onto the Darkness team under TorB. Darkness has almost always been my favorite element, though I slightly preferred Fire in my early days (but seriously, who didn't like Fire?). This time around, I make a second bid at becoming the Master of Darkness, hopefully with more success than last time.
So what can I offer over the other candidates? All 3 are well-qualified for the position, and all love Darkness. In such a crowd, I can offer PvP experience, both with Darkness, against Darkness, and generally, a willingness to put in the necessary effort, and some of the best RNG that elements has ever seen (ask ji =D). Simply put, I feel like I'm better qualified than the other candidates, and so I deserve your vote.
Now on to the audience!
Spoiler for Questions:
Spoiler for ji412jo (Finished):
1- ( to all challengers ) I would like to know if you guys have full upgraded darkness sets, and if not, how far you are to getting it.
I do not have fully upgraded darkness sets, but I have sufficient electrum to make one should I feel like it. I spend a lot of electrum on non-darkness cards for support (e.g. Ghosts).
2- ( Bogtro ) I've known you for a while now, and tbh i was rooting for you. how can you explain your semi-MIAness in phase 2?
Welp, see above. Hurricane+Busy Schedule+Opponents/Me procrastinating=epic fail. Thanks though
Spoiler for Gandora (Finished):
Question to everyone: If you had to do a 
deck, what strategy would it rely on and why? (Build the deck or just mention some cards and explain the synergies).
It is a sad reality that Water and Darkness have no direct synergies. The first deck that I thought of was some sort of way to utilize Nymph's Tears, which is really the backup plan for "hurr i have to use water here lets use tears and call it original trolool." With the recent buff to Nymphs, this is a viable strategy. Unfortunately, tears just doesn't work too well with Darkness. The nymphs it creates have no really good targets, are fragile, and expensive.
However, the below deck is surprisingly efficient, and illustrates the power of soft synergies:
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
5ib 5ib 5ib 5ib 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5up 5up 5v1 5v1 5v1 606 606 606 606 606 606 8ppDarkness is one of the few "complete" elements, having CC, PC, decent attackers, healing, soft CC/PC protection, denial, etc. However, it has a few weaknesses, namely that it is slower than other elements and it lacks efficient CC (Drain Life being pretty inferior to Fire Bolt by direct comparison). Squids mitigate both these issues, as it allows the deck to set up slower due to stalling, and they are one of the most efficient CC cards in the game. The Steals and Nightmares are interchangable for more offensive firepower, or perhaps a stiletto, but the idea is to deny everything (quanta, hand, creature field, permanent field) of the opponent.
For those not impressed with all kinds of talk trying to justify the deck, I'll just add that the winrate seems to be well over 80%, both from playtesting and simulation (the heck is Funny MMA pictures?), which doesn't play the deck particularly well.
Spoiler for Laxaderp (Finished):
Darkness is one of the complete elements, but it is generally a very slow element. It takes time to get stuff going, and you don't see it having blazing fast rushes like death and fire. Could you build a darkness "rush" with 2/3 in element cards? Upped is allowed.
Darkness really isn't a good rushing element, being more focused on control and consistency. However, upgraded it becomes far more efficient. Gargoyles in particular become 5:darkness for 7|3, which is quite a good deal. Vampires, while not a "rushy" card, are effectively 5:darkness for 8|3. Vampire dagger is 2:darkness for effectively 12 (!) damage.
The deck below is a slight modification of what I usually use for farming. In particular, Pests are replaced by Towers for speed, and the number of Steals are shrunk in order to speed up the deck.
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t5 7t9 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7tb 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7tf 7tf 7tf 7tf 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 7um 8ptAlthough this really isn't the fastest rush by any means (slightly under 8 TTW says the sim), but it more than makes up for it with consistency and great EM potential. Vampires, already fairly cost-efficient, as well as Daggers, provide enough healing that EMs are more dependent on what order your creatures attack than if you'll be able to outrush. The sim says well over a quarter of wins are EMs.
Spoiler for mrpaper (Finished):
What do you think is missing (if anything) in terms of darkness card to be a favorite for winning the war?
Darkness is generally regarded as one of the "complete" elements. In particular, it has decent attackers, PC, CC, healing, and denial. However, Darkness' only CC card is Drain Life, which is just a very ineffective card when compared to other bolts.
Some sort of effective single-target CC for Darkness, or even an AoE, would do much to propel it above other elements. The main weakness of Darkness is its ability to be consistently outrushed. It simply lacks the offensive firepower to keep up with rushes such as from Fire or Death. A more effective CC card would do much to curtail the inherent offensive firepower of such elements, and make such matchups far more balanced.
Spoiler for ARTHALLCAPSIOS (Finished):
to all candidates: Do you think Parasite is underpowered and underused? If yes, how it can be improved?
Parasite is the Darkness card most in need of a buff. While it has a useful ability, it necessitates a duo with Death. Compare to Toadfish, which is 5
for 6|4+infection, while Parasite is 2
for 1|1+infection. The only real use Parasite sees is in a Deathstalker+Nightfall deck, an experiment that I've used several times in PvP with little success.
Besides this, like I said last Trials, Parasite is misplaced in Darkness. The mechanic of infection fits far better in Death (hence the Death ability). Parasite has several ways to be buffed satisfactorily.
The most obvious way is simply buffing the stats. Parasite being something like 3|2 (4|2 upped) would cause it to see far more use, as the offensive capability of decks utilizing it goes way up. Another simple fix is to make the card a "mono-card," e.g. where the ability activation cost matches the summoning cost. This would probably be better done by making Parasite a death creature than making the ability Darkness, as it would seem to fit better in that element.
Spoiler for Absol (Finished):
To Bogtro and Rutarete: How does being in Team Darkness in War#5 change your PvP experience?
Being a member of the team (and General for a brief period
) helped me to get a stronger sense of the PvP scene from Darkness' point of view. Though I have significant PvP experience, much of which utilized Darkness, there doesn't really exist any PvP event on the magnitude of War. I believe that being on the previous War team helps me to be better qualified to lead such a team, especially as little has changed in the way of War-legal changes since last war.
To all: How would you improve the community if you become the Master?
Well, the most important part of being a Master is being War general, which really is what Trials is about. Anything else that a Master can do to improve the community can be done just the same as a non-master, such as deckhelp and reviews which I would plan on doing.. That said, as Master I will cut the national debt in half, drop unemployment under 5.5%, establish healthcare for everyone, champion small business, establish new trade routes with Latin America, get energy independent, and do a bunch of other stuff that I'll decide on after you vote for me.
Spoiler for furballdn (Finished):
Darkness is one of the most complete elements, but what is it missing? How would you patch this gap?
This is very similar to mrpaper's question. Like I said there, it lacks both effective CC and rush potential (see Lax's question). This gap can be patched easily - either rework Drain Life or introduce a new card so that Darkness has CC as effective as Fire Bolt, Rage Potion, or Lightning. Also a possibility is to add an additional source of midrange attacker (in addition to Gargoyle), which would significantly increase the rush potential.
I don't see much cloak usage. Build me a deck with 4 of them!
Cloak could use a minor buff, but it is still a very underrated card. Many decks that I use utilize cloak because Darkness' creatures are so fragile. Admittedly though, I usually use them when I'm playing against an opponent that I can expect to bring control.
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5uk 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5ul 5uo 5uo 5up 5up 5v2 5v2 5v2 5v2 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 606 8ptA fairly simple beatdown. Black Dragons are pretty strong, but they suffer from relatively low HP which make them fragile. Cloak removes this weakness, and allows big 10-atk beatsticks to smash down on your opponent.
What does the element of darkness mean to you?
Pure awesomeness. When Darkness works, it wins with little risk, while still keeping games exciting enough to be interesting. The combination of fun and efficiency makes Darkness my favorite element to play with.
Spoiler for Elbirn (Finished):
My question to all of you: Do you think you can lead Darkness to win War 6, and why? Say I wound up on your team. What makes you qualified to lead me? What makes you worthy of replacing ToRB?
Darkness does have the potential to be a war winner, and I think that I have the experience to lead such a team. While some elements such as Fire or Aether can be said to be "stronger," Darkness is always a perennial contender which only needs a small shove to finish on top.
I've participated in two wars now, one with Darkness and one without. This gives me unique perspective into preparation with Darkness and preparation against Darkness, allowing me to effectively strategize both ways.
Replacing TorB is obviously a huge challenge. However, assuming he doesn't return to defend, it has to be done by somebody. Given this, the question is no longer who can replace TorB, but who can best fill the empty seat left by TorB. This may seem like meaningless semantics, but there is a real difference.
In addition, I too would like to know how you plan on contributing to the community in general. There is more to Mastership than war after all, and I'd like to see some glory brought to this element.
See my response to Absol.
Spoiler for deuce22 (Finished):
To those not named Annele, why should I vote for you given your inconsistent performance in phases 1 and 2? (please don't write a book)
Well, see above for my explanation of what happened in Phase 2. Given that I really didn't do battles this phase for reasons above, the next closest thing we can look at is last Trials' battles. During those, my performance was strong against high-end PvPers. I've done fairly well in most PvP events, and do well in other PvP-related areas.
In terms of Phase 1, not really sure what you're referring to. I scored 9 points, same as Annele, and my format for task 3 was evidently so good that it was also used by other submissions (furball/Cal). Since this is a pretty strong result and I like to think the work was quite good (you may disagree, but I wouldn't really change anything in hindsight), let's utilize it as an example of what I can do with the proper internet access and time.
Of the contestants in these Trials, I am the only one who participated in Darkness Trials last season. I was also on the Darkness war team, which finished fairly well. Both of these speak towards my qualifications. The timing of the unfortunate events were... unfortunate, but assuming that a power-sucking hurricane won't tear by again during mastership, I shouldn't have that issue.
Annele is definitely a hard worker, but the fact remains that being a master is mostly about effectively leading a war team. As far as I can tell, it must be said that Annele's PvP experience, especially with Darkness, is limited. While this doesn't in of itself mean that she wouldn't be a good master, experience is usually helpful.
Small update: As of 8:46 PM EST 11/1/2012, all questions in-thread have been answered. I'll be going away tomorrow with limited internet access until Monday, so any questions between now and then may not get answered for a bit.
Poll
