5th Trials - Phase 3 - Community Vote

[kev]

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.

For reference, here are the 5th Trials Standings (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,35936.0.html) and Phase 1 Submission (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,35922.0.html) threads.

[Kuroaitou]

Another Trials, another intense question...

Q: “Although Earth’s popularity (in both the forums and in decks) isn’t dwindling by any amount, Earth doesn’t appear to have that ‘WOW’ factor that some of the other elements have brought (specifically, in terms of their outgoing masters as well as what work they’ve done on the forum, in events, or in chat). If you were to become Master of Earth, what would you change to provide a better interest and respect for Earth players and the element itself?”

[Sevs]

I am going to use this post to answer all the questions and concerns.

A little about me.

Game Experience

• 2 Wars under my belt ( and  )
• Won 2 tournaments(Placed highly in several others)
• Some Event PvP experience (Falling Empire, TCOBO, 3Man PVP)
• A little over 2 years of game experience (350k score)

Forum Experience

• 1750 posts of good feedback and hopefully useful suggestions.
  
• 1 year 2 months of forum time (lots of time to get a feel for the community)
  

Why run for Master of Earth?

 I have really loved the aspect of leading a team during war. I had a chance to for the latter rounds of Team  and had some say with the direction of Team  last war, but i have always wanted to take the reins and try my hand leading a team for war. As for the element of earth, Before kirch, Earth has always been the same old boring element, not the type of innovation that makes war and elements so special. With a rise in new earth decks coming to the surface, I wish to be part of that movement and enable the creativity.

Another Trials, another intense question...

Q: “Although Earth’s popularity (in both the forums and in decks) isn’t dwindling by any amount, Earth doesn’t appear to have that ‘WOW’ factor that some of the other elements have brought (specifically, in terms of their outgoing masters as well as what work they’ve done on the forum, in events, or in chat). If you were to become Master of Earth, what would you change to provide a better interest and respect for Earth players and the element itself?”

I guess i am not really sure what you are asking but I almost feel that Earth's popularity is actually growing. Maybe that is cause just about everyone from the War #4 earth team, really got into it and pretty much converted everyone that wasn't Mith and Kirch into Earth lovers. I would not change a lot but with more success and most importantly more fun, earth's progress can only improve.

Also earth carries that stigma that it relies upon graboid to really be a successful element, but I think that can be changed with more innovation. If I become master of Earth, expect to see some very new stuff.

And now, we're talking about rush decks. Elite Shrieker vs Steel Golem, what should you use?

You have Earthquake in element, but would you ever use Trident?

At this point, would you mind telling me a song that reminds you of ?

As for elite shrieker and Steel Golem, It entirely depends on the deck, if you are using a duo or a grabbow about 80% of the time i would use steel golem because it costs 1/2 as much. and you wont get that kind of quanta early enough for shrieker to be useful. However there are some cases where you need the damage, expect gravity shield, need the upgrades for other things, that Shrieker is the better choice.

Once again entirely depends on the deck, Trident is much slower and takes up the weapon spot used by weapons that have much better synergy with earth, (Discord, Pulvy to name a few). But things like a watergrabbow is not out of the question.

As for a song this one is tough, I dont think i can name a specific song, but possibly some attributes about them. When you first think of earth, sometimes i see it as sort of a serene calm element, but when in battle, the large creatures attacking and everything getting destroyed, pulvy and EQ, makes me think of metal. I came across this song a while ago, but i think it suffices Fear Of The Dark - Graveworm (

)  Not my style of music at all, but still a great song.

Earth haves a lot of good strategies: One of the fastest rushes(graboid rush), best PC in game(in my opinion), healing, stalling, denial.

Q:"Can a 50% earth deck have more than 3 strategies at the same time(Denial must be EQ and PC must be Pulvy)?"

Of course. The first one that comes to mind is pulvybow, If EQ was not banned during trials, the pulvy bow i used would have EQ's replace the Antlions.

But another route is follow the stalling aspect of earth. something like this. Using SS, wardens, and pulvy to stop creatures and perms, while EQ slow the opposing deck for the earth quanta to build. As i made this on the fly, I cant say i have every used something like this, but as death has shown in the previous wars, EQ and SS are a pretty deadly combo.

by Sevs

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

594 594 594 594 594 596 596 596 596 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 77c 77c 77c 77f 77f 77f 77i 77i 77j 77j 77j 77j 77j 77j 77k 77m 77m 78q 78q 78q 78q 8pl

And possibly another route, follows one of draw denial, simply running nightmare's off the novas in a grabbow. My arena decks is currently undefeated with this strategy.

by Sevs

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 74f 74f 74f 74f 74f 778 778 778 778 778 778 778 77f 77f 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 77g 77j 77j 7gq 7gq 7th 7th 7th 7th 7th 8pl

it contains denial (EQ,BH) Pulvy, grabbow speed, hand/draw denial(nightmare).

Sevs
During last auction, I had bid on you. Were you hoping you'd get another bid so you wouldn't have to be on Team Light? Were you glad it was Earth?

To be honest, Before war #4 came around i started preparing decks for various teams( gravity, Light, earth, and darkness). Teams I knew could do much better in war than shown in previous years. And then when your bid came up i was happy because i knew if the right people put the effort into light, it would do well. When earth came it was a huge surprise because i didn't think i was worth that much. And through team earth developed a real liking towards earth. I liked the way things turned out, and wouldn't change it.

I feel Earth has underperformed a little bit in Wars. Am i wrong? Our am i overestimating the strength of comparatively to other elements.

I wrote this in the Team Earth Pad, but Earth has a major downside in that it cannot make simple duos that others can with a mid range attacker. Without upgrades, graboid is out only cheap attacker. hematite golem is way to weak and slow unless upped. Thus later in wars it is much harder to stray from the decks you first bring and designed because you can't just throw in cards from your salvage. We were able to do that to an extent last war with our grabbows so we lasted much longer than the previous wars.

  has some of the strongest spells in the game. to make up for not having a strong attacker
  has wyrm, buy also alternative ways of winning like UG
  has gargoyle
  has mummy, recluse
  has abom
  has phoenix golem
  doesnt have one hence their trouble in war
  cockatrice and frog but both weak to CC/shields
  pegasus, and archangel
  gotp and has some of the best perms in the game (sundial eternity HG)
  Toadfish abyss

  has steel golem

The point is we need to use our upps more efficiently if we are going to have a better late war success. This was something i/we didnt realize till it was too late. Using this knowledge, I think if Team is under my leadership will do well this coming war.

[Sorry if this had been answered before by you]Sevs: What made you choose earth over your options you had been considering in chat?
All others: Create a limerick about antlion.

It was down to and but at one point you need to make a decision and I thought about it for a long time and came to the conclusion that I would enjoy Earth more. I feel like I can do my part on improving an element that isn't looked upon in the greatest of lights and I have a bunch more experience with earth than any other element.

Limerick

The tiniest of critters, the Antlion
but all the creatures are dyin'
For CC is around
and golems are downed.
The spirit and  courage of a lion

Close enough to limerick?

@sevs,CCC, and mrpaper.
what else do you think a good master should do besides do his best in war what are your other goals/reasons for becoming a master.

One of the biggest thing about being a master is just being there to promote you elements as well as give back to the community. Those who joined will always remember that kind master of Earth that helped them build their first legit deck and answered all their questions.

@CCC and Sevs: Last war, our main late-war problem was NoTP. With the advantage of hindsight, design a deck, not involving Sanctuary, that would be both an effective deck against NoTP and simultaneously nicely fit into a vault.

The problem we had with Notp was that the first 2 times we tried to just throw a bunch of CC at it because it only has 6 creatures. The mini firestall was sort of forced out of necesity, and SS would have been nice instead of EQ. We had a few decks that would do decently against NotP but we lost them all around that round. Once the denial is in place there is not a lot stopping it so the best way to counter that is the deny them faster, so Disc EQ should do alright. but the easiest way to counter NotP is to deny it that 6 time quanta to get started.

• What is the most important quality for a Master to have?
• Aside from War General and Brawl Leader, what roles would you like Masters to have?
• As a War General what qualities would you look for in players during the auction?
• Using the past as a backdrop, talk about whether Wardens have a place in War.

Sorry for all the questions.  I've made decisions on 10 elements and this isn't one of them.    I’ll be voting pretty much 100% based on responses in this thread.

Questions are good, either you get an answer to what you didn't know or you are back to where you started, never worse. lol

The most important qualities for a master to have is leadership, outgoingness?, and fun.
Maybe not the appropriate word choice there but the point is portrayed. How well you do in war isnt a factor for the most important qualities, look at torb or Raving, not exactly the highest place war finishes but great masters. They made an impression on others in chat, war, other events, and now look at the following of each of those elements.

Roles of a master.
Besides those 2 titles (2nd one is iffy because of SG's inactivity), They should just give back to the community, I remember when i first started with the forums to get advice from a master was pretty exciting.

Players for war
I would probably bid on a few people i know wont give up on me halfway through. a couple people with some ingeniuty. and of course you've got to take the risk and 1-3 new members, that go for cheap and have the possibility of becoming great. and welcome them into the community.

Wardens
They are the most unique form of cheap CC. besides squid, they are the only CC that can switch targets. so early game you can delay those golems, late game you can stop those dragons. Over the long run they can be costly, but they are also great for drawing out CC. Last war we were able to incorporate them into several of our decks, grabbows,   whoel world(can fractal them), monos, duos, everything. But they are ineffective against certain elements, and should be used with caution.

Agh, so many good candidates here. I have to go for Terroking though, with mrpaper being a reallyreallyreally close second.

Why thank you.

[RavingRabbid]

And now, we're talking about rush decks. Elite Shrieker vs Steel Golem, what should you use?


You have Earthquake in element, but would you ever use Trident?


At this point, would you mind telling me a song that reminds you of ?

[Calindu]

Earth haves a lot of good strategies: One of the fastest rushes(graboid rush), best PC in game(in my opinion), healing, stalling, denial.

Q:"Can a 50% earth deck have more than 3 strategies at the same time(Denial must be EQ and PC must be Pulvy)?"

[CCCombobreaker]

I'm really not sure where to start.. perhaps with my deep and undying love for antlions (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,16848.msg462709#msg462709)?  or maybe with wink toward the cool earth art (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,31863.msg431202#msg431202) I made for the last war (that link goes to the earth forums, which may still be locked to outsiders... :-( )?  Perhaps for my creative deckbuilding (earth legal Firestall!)? 

My name is CCCombobreaker, and I want to be Master of Earth.  I was drafted onto team earth last war by Kirch, and being on that team left an indellible impression on me of what Earth stands for, and I strongly desire to continue that legacy of teamwork, hard work, and doing work.  I know entering into war has one concrete goal: FLAWLESS VICTORY!!!  But I also readily acknowledge that war is also about networking in the Elements community and sharing an experience together that should not be forgotten (and hopefully that no one should want to forget).  I know the work it takes to do well in war, and still acknowledge our Lady RNG and her hand in all that takes place in the world of Elements.  I believe morale is the cornerstone of a winning team, but that "testing testing testing" is the hallmark of a winning round. 

I know I have not been around as long as some of my fellow try-ees, nor have I the accolades that are displayed by shiny icons underneath my avatar.  I have a lower game score, fewer forum posts, less reputation, and have been in less wars than most of them.  But I promise lower taxes, a better economy, more jobs, and ANTLIONS FOR EVERYONE!!!  Thank you very much, and may RNG smile upon us all!

And why thank you dear sirs for asking such thought provoking questions.

Q: “Although Earth’s popularity (in both the forums and in decks) isn’t dwindling by any amount, Earth doesn’t appear to have that ‘WOW’ factor that some of the other elements have brought (specifically, in terms of their outgoing masters as well as what work they’ve done on the forum, in events, or in chat). If you were to become Master of Earth, what would you change to provide a better interest and respect for Earth players and the element itself?”

I think earth generally attracts people of an earthy type.  No one thinks of dirt as flashy.  Most people don't find mud, rocks, or sand as sexy (by themselves :-P ).  I haven't been around long enough to know the masters before kirch very much, but even if he isn't widely regarded as "OMG AWESOME", he is due a great deal of respect both for the team's performance last war, as well as a number of other community projects he has been involved in.  I think earth is a sort of under-the-radar element in a lot of ways, and were I to become master I see no reason to change this.  I'd rather attract hard working down to earth players that really are deserving of respect (even if others continually overlook them) than people that want the hype and the spotlight.  I think our team last war earned a great deal of respect for the element as well.  At the end of the day Elite Antlions are better than Ball Lightnings.

And now, we're talking about rush decks. Elite Shrieker vs Steel Golem, what should you use?
You have Earthquake in element, but would you ever use Trident?
At this point, would you mind telling me a song that reminds you of ?

Steel golem in probably 90% of all possible machups.  They do the same damage over the first 2 turns for the same (total) quanta (assuming you use elite grabboids) OR the steel golem come out probably 2 turns sooner than straight elite shrieker, so it takes 3 turns for the shrieker to catch up (if it lives 3 turns at all), and your extra quanta could go to cast a second golem much sooner.  The golem gets to keep swinging in almost all cases, but the shrieker just may not make it.  If you are forced to burrow you are doing less damage... and in some of the earth rushes there are synergies for Steel golem that just aren't available to elite shriekers (rage pot, acceleration).  And I consider fractal golems a rush really... and fractal elite shriekers just wouldn't function fast enough to be a rush.

Trident... well, there are some pretty solid Water duos for earth, and I lost to a trident deck once in trials (but he never got to use the trident on me...) so yeah I can imagine scenarios where trident makes it into the vault and sees a match or two.  I know it's a little slower than EQ but against fracal decks or maybe even a ghostmare it can be crippling if it comes out early and you can keep hammering away at the quanta.  A lot of teams threw some crazy splits at earth last war though, which is always a concern.  Definitely wouldn't runa  trident vs a Lt or Gen, but it is a card that can win games by itself.

A song that reminds me of earth... hmmm.... I really like Frontline by Pillar (

) because it incorporates that undaunted spirit of hard work that I associate with the element.  But I could also go with I Wanna Rock by Twisted Sister (

) for reasons that feel really obvious.

Q:"Can a 50% earth deck have more than 3 strategies at the same time(Denial must be EQ and PC must be Pulvy)?"

Thanks for clarifying those categories for me.  Yes, although I feel like by answering this question with specific decks I've designed I am giving you masters a leg up for the next war.  I think the Pulvvy-Bow earth used last war incorporated PC and into a decent rush, and adding 2 or 3 quicksands would still fit into the deck.  I've toyed around with a version of the firestall from last war that includes EQs... making it Denial, Stall, and OTK (potentially).  A gravvy duo could use Pulvies, EQ, catapults and BBs to get PC, Denial, and OTK potential.  How viable some of these decks are in a war meta depends on team matchups mostly, and obviously some would be more tedious, but all have some potential and incorporate multiple strategies while remaining 50% earth.

CCCombobreaker
Shouldn't you be going for Death Master? (lulz:joke)
Your trophy case is very empty. Have you been close? What did you bring to the table as a member of Team Earth last War? Please be specific.

*edit* Nice play off my name and Blonde's streak as master *edit*

Um no.  In fact last war I banned Death and Darkness from bidding on me because I have a strong belief that how I represent myself in games affects who I am outside of them.  I would not want to be a member (or master) of team death or darkness in real life and hence would not want to play one in the game.  For that same reason last war during the prisoner's dilemma round I chose Honor even though it was probably more advantageous to choose Betrayal.  I believe that there should be honor even in war, and refuse to put a knife into anyone's back, even an enemies.

I have been close.  I placed second in a tournament.  And have won at least a couple matches in several others against very worthy opponents.  I have been in the BL for 2 seasons prior to this one and while I did not place, I've had strong records and I think am widely respected in the league both for my approach to the game and demeanor as well as my often creative and effective decks.  I got crushed in TCOBO, but it was my first PvP experience in the community.  I did fairly well in metamorphosis, and my TPvP team did "ok".  Personally I am much more comfortable in a meta I have had a chance to work with before...

And I did a lot of deckbuilding and testing last war for team earth.  I think I was sort of cast as the mad scientist of the team... coming up with deck idea after deck idea, and I was taught the prudence of then rigorously testing all the decks, which weeded out most of them, but yeilding some real gems.  Often when kirch was unsure of how to complete or tweak a deck he consulted me because I refuse to limit the possibilties of deck design.  Not all the decks or matchups I worked on were victories, but I think only 1 was a real disappointment, which was my match with Willing were I totally misjudged their vault content.  I was also the guy who often got "well this is what's left in the vault... build something", which I actually enjoyed.  I also know what some of my weaknesses and inexperiences are, which will help me draft key team members to fill support me in those areas.  I think I will be a great master, but I think a large part of that is that I know how to build and maintain a strong and involved team.  I was also a pretty strong duelist last war, I only really made errors in 1 match, and in the later rounds my "upsets" of then Lt Mrpaper of aether (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,33859.0.html) and Gen MrBlonde of death (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,34147.0.html) were pretty big wins.  That deck against MrPaper is a great example of my creative deckbuilding.

For that same reason last war during the prisoner's dilemma round I chose Honor even though it was probably more advantageous to choose Betrayal.  I believe that there should be honor even in war, and refuse to put a knife into anyone's back, even an enemies.

There certainly can be honor in death. Anyhow i digress, onto my question.

I feel Earth has underperformed a little bit in Wars. Am i wrong? Our am i overestimating the strength of comparatively to other elements.

I believe one can certainly die with honor and in some cases kill honorably.  But my objection to representing death is grounded in my belief that life is inherently valuable and that I should always hope for life over death.  I would not accuse you or any other member of death or darkness of being evil, but for me those elements have that feel, and so I would not want to represent them.  Which is a related to my objection to betrayal as they both are minor forms of playing a role.  I would not directly associate death and darkness with dishonor - I simply would not want to represent myself with death, darkness, or dishonor.

I definitely felt like last war we performed very well, and we can trace our "downfall" to a few clear mistakes (37card immortal....) and then some really bad RNG down the stretch (then faced darkness 4x in a row).  We also had an off round in Rd 6 (3-5), which complicated the vault for the remainder of war.  That round we were really short some people during the majority of the preparation stage (including our master), and it showed in the results.  I refuse to place the blame on Kirch alone, because other people were absent as well and those of us that were still there probably didn't step up as much as we needed to (although it was a lot to ask of us).  But the fact remains earth had THE BEST win % of any team last war.  We stayed on top of the charts for almost the entire war, and it's hard to ask for much more than that.  The event cards towards the end really messed with us (and other leading teams) and I still think had the format of the war not been fundamentally altered to force an end in 10 rounds (or all those ghostmare matches) we would have won.  That said we didn't win, and event cards do change war a lot at some stages, and if I am to be master (and to lead Earth to victory) I will have to better adapt to the event cards than Earth did last war.  But I just refuse to give any credence to the idea that Earth underperformed last war.

I cannot personally speak to under-performance in previous wars as I was not a member of those teams or really around at that time.  I've look at all the war 3 matchups, and a lot of them look very winnable in theory looking back, but I don't know what the vaults were like in each round, or if people made play errors, or if the team just didn't have the will to fight at some point.  There are a lot of things that can undo a good team.  Earth is one of the more powerful and versatile elements, but there are many other factors that must be accounted for between "Earth has good cards" and "Earth should win wars".

@CCC
what else do you think a good master should do besides do his best in war what are your other goals/reasons for becoming a master.

I think every player on a good masters team should be a better player after the war than before it.  No player should be at the same level of matchplay, deckbuilding, and strategizing they were before the war.  That means involving the whole team in each part of the process at some point.  I also think the master should make a point to be present in chat and the forums more than they were before.  As a master you lead a team representing an element, but since war is the biggest even in Elements, each master is also an ambassador for the game, there first responsibility is to their team, but they also have an increased role as a leader in the Elements community.  They should weigh in (thoughtfully) on important community happenings and game issues, and they should make a point of being a positive figure for new community members.  During the war itself it is hard to find time to be in the mentor program or be critiquing deck ideas or new card ideas, but in the space between wars I think it is beneficial for the whole community if Masters show interest on these ideas (especially the ones in their element).

My goals or reasons for becoming a master... well I feel like between my little blurb at the top and all my other answers I have revealed a lot of my motives and qualifications and beneficial qualities.  I think being a master is both a really awesome privilege and important responsibility.  I want to mentor new members of the community and train them to one day be masters themselves.  I think that my outside the box deckbuilding can really make war more interesting in a lot of ways.  I am hoping to lead Earth to a war victory.

CCCombobreaker: Create 5 haikus and a limerick about antlions.

*EDIT* Totally misread that it was limericks not haikus *EDIT*

I am so glad you asked!  I have been preparing these every since Antlion was the featured card... actually that's a lie... I've been writing love poems to antlion since before I joined the forums but never really knew where to post them.  So here are my 5 best haikus:

There once was an Antlion named Andy
Who thought mono- decks were dandy
he'd EQ your stack
as his Shriekers attack
all while eating some tasty rock candy

1.
           Antlions are so great
   their burrows are underground
          rainbows of awesome
2.
           Andy the Antlion
   asked me to be his best man
          we are bestest friends
3.
          Burrow Burrow BAM
   In your base killin your mans
         Antlion assasins
4.
         I asked my antlion
   friends and they all said I'd be
        best Master of Earth
5.
         Antlions love grabboids
       C- C- C- COMBO BREAKER
         you see that coming?

@CCC: Last war, our main late-war problem was NoTP. With the advantage of hindsight, design a deck, not involving Sanctuary, that would be both an effective deck against NoTP and simultaneously nicely fit into a vault.

I still think the earth legal firestall is a solid NotP counter that fits nicely in the vault.  NotP has a hard time dealing with 12 CCs, and against darkness's NotP PC is crucial to remove the oh-so annoying Vamp daggers.  It's important that the deck still be 38 cards so you can always play for the deckout if you have to.  They shouldn't be able to draw lock you hard enough since a lot of the cards you can just hold onto and play as needed... it's just important to always try to have at least 6 cards in your hand.  By turning their RTs into dead cards they can't abuse you quite as bad either.  And Rage pots are a nice addition to the vault that fits into other decks (raging golems, Nix'em, etc).  You will have deflags in the vault. period.  So you are only kind of stretching for firebolts, but I think it's worth it.

Disc-EQ is also a pretty mean NotP matchup, although if they have a Gen running it the split can be ridiculous.  But the discord definitely slows down the ghosts which in turn prevents nightmares for a while, sometimes giving you a solid window to victory.

Also Bogtro... nice avatar   *wink wink*

• What is the most important quality for a Master to have?
• Aside from War General and Brawl Leader, what roles would you like Masters to have?
• As a War General what qualities would you look for in players during the auction?
• Using the past as a backdrop, talk about whether Wardens have a place in War.

I'm not trying to dodge your first question, but honestly I don't think there is any one quality that is most important.  I could probably narrow it down to 3 though: Determination, Motivation, and Skill.  If a leader gives up then the team cannot function, if a master cannot bring out the best in his teammates then the team will fall short, and if you don't have skill you probably can't become a master because the trials are not easy.

I think there should be some kind of connection between the masters and the council.  I think masters should not only be leaders during the war but also leaders of the community as a whole.  The council system was recently berated and altered... and the jury seems to still be out on if things are really improving.  With a bi-annual war cycle and 12 (13 sort of) masters, having each master serve on the council for 3 months during their tenure seems quite reasonable.  You could still have dedicated council members, but coupling those who are appointed to serve primarily in that role with the support and different perspectives of those who have then earned a place seems like a good way to put the masters skills and ideas to better use for the community as a whole.

I think the most important thing to look for in picking a team is understanding what those individuals want to get from being a part of a team and part of the war.  People that are in it just for themselves or just to win make bad teammates and often can drag down part of the team with them.  I'll be looking for people that want to be part of a team, that want to become a larger part of the community, people who show a willingness to learn and work hard, and people who aren't afraid to take calculated risks.  I'd rather have a team of people who want to get better than a bunch of players who think they are "already there".  I know I'll still need some veterans, experienced leaders and strategists, to help me run the team and direct and teach the newer players, but they need to be people that want to teach and aren't done learning themselves.

The Warden is one of my favorite earth cards.  I don't have a lot of war experience to look back to, but my round 2 match vs Aves (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,32678.0.html), I requested that Kirch allow me to put wardens into the deck because I really think 1 or 2 wardens can make an unfavorable matchup a very winnable one.  And in that match the wardens definitely won for me.  Looking through my trials decks you could probably see I am a lot more willing to run stalls than many other players, and though I used them sparingly in trials, in the actual war meta they become much more valuable (when you don't really have to worry about fractal EVERY MATCH).  Any deck with 8-10 creatures is significantly slowed down by a deck with 2-4 wardens.  And unlike BB, you can make an evaluation every turn of which creature is the biggest threat and nullify it.  You can also run wardens alongside hard CC (lightning/shockwave/ragepot usually) and not risk BBing a creature to slow it down and later being unable to kill it.  I feel like Earth has underutilized Wardens in the past, but I think they have a very important place in the War meta.  It isn't EQ or grabboid (which everyone seems to always try to plan around), but other teams should really be wary to send a 8 creature 0 CC deck at Earth...

Question to all four of you:
I won't vote for you. Whom should I vote for and why?

Sevs.  All last war he was a major part of Earth's success.  His organizational and strategic skills are right there at the Master level.  Had I not entered trials for the same element as him, I definitely would have given him my vote in a heartbeat.  I know TK has a lot of experience and that mrpaper is an excellent duelist, I just think Sevs brings the whole package to the table.  I can't think of another person I'd rather be master of my team and/or master of Earth.

I feel like asking the same question as in death : You become master of earth irl, and are granted one power. What do you choose?

I always kind of thought an IRL master of earth would be like Leto II from God Emperor of Dune.  Super strength, Giant grabboid like form.  Super strength, eats sand through his skin, although the supreme precognitive powers might encroach a little bit on what a master of time should have...  If all that is going a little too far, I would definitely settle for just the ability to make anything mineral-ish (stone or metal) change shape at my touch, which is a lot like the alchemy in Full Metal Alchemist, although I would be limited on what materials I could use it on.  Seems both awesome and Master of Earth relevant.

[majofa]

The following questions/comments will be sharp and pointed. They may hurt your feelings, but they are meant to help me and the community see how you handled adversity and tough questions. So, don't take too much offense to it, I'm gonna be grilling everyone. Also, I don't hate any of you, it's just my RL interviewing being used for the community vote.

Terroking
It's been two terms since you were Earth Master, what have you learned from watching Kakerlake and kirchj33 as Masters?
CCCombobreaker
Shouldn't you be going for Death Master? (lulz:joke)
Your trophy case is very empty. Have you been close? What did you bring to the table as a member of Team Earth last War? Please be specific.
mrpaper
Members of Team Rainbro were talking big about how they were the dominant force in PvP, yet there were individual players with more success than their whole team combined. Did that whole thing die off?
Sevs
During last auction, I had bid on you. Were you hoping you'd get another bid so you wouldn't have to be on Team Light? Were you glad it was Earth?

[Terroking]

Ah... Questions, questions.

This post will answer all of them, though it is currently a work-in-progress.

Kuroaitou

Q: “Although Earth’s popularity (in both the forums and in decks) isn’t dwindling by any amount, Earth doesn’t appear to have that ‘WOW’ factor that some of the other elements have brought (specifically, in terms of their outgoing masters as well as what work they’ve done on the forum, in events, or in chat). If you were to become Master of Earth, what would you change to provide a better interest and respect for Earth players and the element itself?”

I believe that, card-wise, most people just don't see Earth as interesting enough. All it's got is hitters and mostly just other generic effects, which can all be seen on other cards in other elements as well. It lacks, to the untrained eye, pizzaz.

While this is certainly true at first glance, people who take the time to play with all of it's cards often find that it has surprising depth and complexity as well as a variety of options. Due to the nature of how society works on these forums I feel the best way to represent an element is to do well with it in PvP events or similar, War being the big one. Earth has always done well, all we need is a little luck we've been denied to go over the top.

RavingRabbid

And now, we're talking about rush decks. Elite Shrieker vs Steel Golem, what should you use?
You have Earthquake in element, but would you ever use Trident?
At this point, would you mind telling me a song that reminds you of ?

Q1: Hmm... It's actually a much more complex question than yes or no, I have used both to great success. It really depends on the rest of the deck and how much quanta you are using. I'm a huge fan of Steel Golem for it's resilience and cheaper cost, allowing you to build the rest of your deck much more freely. Shrieker does certainly provide a much better card:damage ratio, though it is more fragile. Burrow is also not irrelevant either. I think the real answet o this question without being given any specifics is that you should use both, it's typically what I do when available. Shriekers give you inevitability and dragon-sized guys for cheap, and Golems get out fast and are hard to get rid of.
Q2: In fact, I used Trident to a fair amount of success in the PvP section of this Trials. It's much more powerful than EQ once online, the only hindrance is that it's much slower and requires you to commit to an otherwise awkward element. It is a wrecking force when pulled off, though, as it's much, much harder to play around than EQ. If you draw too many of a single quanta source you're pretty much dead. EQ is generally more useful, though, being faster, less commitment, and the first one is harder to deal with. (3 , a turn, and then 3 is quite a lot compared to an instant 3 , even more so when upped)
Q3: After a long and laborous process during which I had to cut out a bunch of stuff that, while the word "Earth" was present in the title or lyrics, really had no merit outside of that. I got a bunch of very good suggestions too but for my own reasons decided to go with The Battle of Five Armies, which I believe was part of LotR?

calindu221

Q:"Can a 50% earth deck have more than 3 strategies at the same time(Denial must be EQ and PC must be Pulvy)?"

Hmm... I guess you're asking for a decklist here?

by Terroking

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

74i 74i 74i 74i 74i 778 778 778 778 778 77a 77a 77a 77a 77a 77a 77f 77f 77j 77j 77j 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 8pl

If so, I think that satisfies the criteria. You can go out blisteringly fast with one or more Golem+ODs out quickly, and if your draw isn't fast you can typically draw one of the Quicksands early and hit their quanta hard. You also have pulvy to remove any game-breaking permanents, and it also makes your QS more effective as it prevents your opponent from playing their pillars one at a time (You can just blow them up) and also takes out small one-stack quanta sources very efficiently.

majofa

It's been two terms since you were Earth Master, what have you learned from watching Kakerlake and kirchj33 as Masters?

One of the biggest things I learned has been the strength of Earth QP bows and the raw power of BB, I had known each was powerful before but never truly realized just how good they were. Not speaking in terms of the cards, though, I definitely learned a few things about activity and it's role in mastership. I also got to see two different Earth masters lead Wars, one was my general, the other was my opponent, and having those two perspectives gave me a lot more insight than the hectic role of general.

MrBlonde

I feel Earth has underperformed a little bit in Wars. Am i wrong? Our am i overestimating the strength of comparatively to other elements.

I think that Earth has almost always done well in War, being powerhouses sometimes and just chugging along in the middle of the pack the rest. More than once we were the dominant force during the early stages, but were consumed by having to play more matches and losing our good decks to RNG. Some may choose to see this as an excuse, which of course it is, but it is also very true. I also believe that often Wars can be decided simply by whether or not a certain team decides to send a certain deck instead of sending a different one, and while you can try to predict your opponents usually it really does come down to guessing.

Onizuka
The questioner is trolling
I can't tell if he's rolling
With laughter at Antlions
For they are Steel Golem's scions
This may win me votes in the polling!

DevilLoss

having been a master already for earth what has made you want to become the master again and what will you do differently if anything at all.

Earth is, very simply, my favorite element, and I don't think it would be unreasonable to say I have equal or better knowledge of it's workings than most others. I think I definitely have some new plans for War, and all other plans I have are still malleable or probably never going to be finished.

kevkev60614

What is the most important quality for a Master to have?
Aside from War General and Brawl Leader, what roles would you like Masters to have?
As a War General what qualities would you look for in players during the auction?
Using the past as a backdrop, talk about whether Wardens have a place in War.

Q1: This has been answered many times, many ways, but I think that  PvP and deckbuilding prowess, very closely followed by activity, are the things I most want in a Master, and the things I try hard to display myself.
Q2: I am actually quite fine with only General and Brawl Leader being the required actions for a Master, I know that I myself have found it hard to keep up with just the Generalship those during pressing times, although I can definitely say that should another similar event arise, Masters should play a part. What I cannot advocate, however, is the way in which Masters were restricted during other PvP events, back in the days when PvP events were almost brand-new, it had very few upsides and substantian downsides for Masters who participated, leading to less fun.
Q3: I try to look for the same qualities that I would in a Master, generally, as these are what I feel make one a good player, and in my opinion any good player who can get the RNG to go his or her way is qualified for mastership. To put it explicitly, I need to know that I have at least a solid core team that can between themselves build, test, and play properly and actively, and try to cover up the weaknesses of the rest of the team, if there are any at all.
Q4: Wardens are a very good card, and in my opinion quite underutilized. In a full-on stall they're typically better than BBs, as they can lock down the best creature every turn, beginning on turn 1, whereas some other CC options would require you to take damage from that Abyssal Crawler to save your CC for the Dragons you know will come afterward. Their ability to kill creatures is not irrelevant, but it is had to utilize properly, and it is simply a worthless strategy against certain elements due to an abundance of Airborne creatures. There are certainly one or two Earth decks that could be improved with the addition of Wardens, I realized this during War 3 but did not get any chance to ac on it, I suggested their worth in War 4 but not as adamantly as I should have, I think.

Kakerlake

I won't vote for you. Whom should I vote for and why?

Uurg... I don't really want to make anyone feel bad :/ Kakerlake, y u post unique and difficult question?

I think... I'd have to go with Sevs here. I know both CCCombobreaker and mrpaper are incredible players as well, and mrpaper probably has the most PvP experience, but Sevs I feel outclasses both other contenders in non-PvP areas, and has shown willng to donate his time to the community. I by no means intend to say that mrpaper or CCC do not, but feel I am forced to make a decision that I should  hope to never have to make.

Jenkar

I feel like asking the same question as in death : You become master of earth irl, and are granted one power. What do you choose?

Pretty sure Earthbending is he clear answer here, no contest.

Aaaand I think that's it. I know some of my answers will lead to less votes, but in my opinion, if someone alters their vote due to an answer, they probably shouldn't or wouldn't have been voting for me anyway.

[MrBlonde]

For that same reason last war during the prisoner's dilemma round I chose Honor even though it was probably more advantageous to choose Betrayal.  I believe that there should be honor even in war, and refuse to put a knife into anyone's back, even an enemies.

There certainly can be honor in death. Anyhow i digress, onto my question.

I feel Earth has underperformed a little bit in Wars. Am i wrong? Our am i overestimating the strength of comparatively to other elements.

[Onizuka]

[Sorry if this had been answered before by you]Sevs: What made you choose earth over your options you had been considering in chat?
All others: Create a limerick about antlion.

[DevilLoss]

@terro,
 having been a master already for earth what has made you want to become the master again and what will you do diffrently if anything at all.
@sevs,CCC, and mrpaper.
what else do you think a good master should do besides do his best in war what are your other goals/reasons for becoming a master.

[majofa]

CCCombobreaker
Shouldn't you be going for Death Master? (lulz:joke)

MrBlonde is the longest running Master.... your name is CCCombobreaker.... (lulz:joke)