13th Trials - Phase 3: Community Vote

[serprex]

Phase 3 - Community Vote

It's time to vote for your favorite Master candidate!  Every community member may vote on only one candidate. You can change your vote(s) 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 as THE representative for their element.  If you believe none of the Trialists should be Master, please select the "None Worthy" option. 

To help you make the best decision possible, feel free to ask the candidates questions.  Both challengers and defending Masters ought to answer the questions in this thread (and in the General questions thread) to help the voters make the best possible choice.  Please put all your answers in a single post (employing spoiler tags is recommended).  Also, challengers should include in that post a link to your Phase 1 submission post.


Questions and answers may begin now that this topic is posted.
Voting will begin when the polls are up at the official start of Phase 3.
Phase 3 ends when poll expires.

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

Here are my Phase 1 submissions.

Spoiler for shockcannon:

Explain why you are more noob than your opposing trialists. If you convince me more than the others, I may give you pity vote for being so noob.

This should be obvious. Next question!

Spoiler for DoubleCapitals:

To everyone who isn't playing STANDINs, who would you have liked to trial against?

Wait, am I supposed to answer this question? Just in case, the chance of being able to prove my worth against a frequent trialist of Gravity and one of the former Masters of Gravity is pretty much everything I could have asked for. Though I do wish MasterWalks was able to stick around for this Trials...

Spoiler for TheonlyrealBeef:

Here we go, all the classics:

Is the element you have trialed for your favorite?
If not, why have you chosen to trial for this particular element over your favorite?
What does the element you trial for represent to you?

In elements history, many have coupled being a Master to being War general, but there was a time when it was considered much more than that to some people.
What does being a Master mean to you?
What qualities do you expect from a Master, and do you aspire to live up to?

Yes. To me, Gravity is a turning point in my Elements career. It's the starting element that I chose where I actually started to invest more time into the game and learn to be better at it rather than use unoptimized 60 card decks. Granted, I'm still not the best at the game but I'm much better than when I first started playing the game (Then again, everyone was a beginner once...) To me, it seemed like Gravity was an underdog element in semi-upped metas due to how upgrade reliant it was. I guess that sort of quality resonated in me too.

I believe that being a Master of an elements means that you know how to use the element you represent to it's fullest potential, and can prove it. Nowadays, most of the stuff that the Master was responsible for (Managing Card section, for example) are irrelevant to Elements today so I don't think it makes much sense to add them to the meaning of being a Master.
The qualities of a Master I want to see and live up to are:

• Someone who knows how to manage a team, and treat them like family.
• Good leadership abilities, which I defined in my Trials 12 Phase 3 answers
• A good amount of knowledge of the game and PVP events
• Motivation, determination and perseverance. I put these 3 together because I felt like they go hand in hand.

Spoiler for MyNameIsJoey:

Excluding Ginyu, who in your opinion has been the best master of gravity and why?

I'd say www3. He managed to get a good War team together, and was able to lead said team to 2nd place.

Spoiler for iancudorinmarian:

Question for everyone: Why?

Because I want a second chance to General for Gravity, and also to show that I've learned from my mistakes made in War 12.

Spoiler for Ginyu:

Do you plan to participate in War and/or Brawl if you have the time?
Do you consider being a Master to be mostly PvP-related, or should they also represent their element in competitions?

Yes for War, either as general or WM. For Brawl, seeing as it got cancelled last time for lack of interest: no.

I think it's mostly PvP-related, but if there's a choice to represent Gravity in a competition I might consider making a Gravity-themed entry.

Spoiler for dawn to dusk:

What is the sleeper card in your element

Sleeper meaning unpopular card that you think is strong

I'd have to say either Momentum or Gravity Shield, though I'm more leaning towards Momentum. Momentum is a good card to use on Otys to increase its range and is great in Rainbow related rushes such as a Grabbow and Immorush. The 1|1 increase is very lacking, though. As for Gravity Shield, it's best used to counter elements using creatures with higher HP than average (Earth and Water come to mind).

Finally, a question I'm surprised no one really thought to ask me:

When you were the general of Team Gravity in Team 12 they placed 12th and lost R4, one of the fastest times to drop out of War. What happened, and why should I vote for you?

Well, there are 4 glaring reasons as to why this happened, most of them pointing to inexperience.

• This is what I think was the biggest mistake: screwing up the bids. I didn't stop to think that I should have minimum bids for everyone that applied for War. As a result, I ended up getting DoubleCapitals for the maximum amount of points when I could have gotten him for less and probably have the biggest vault that War.
• I didn't know how to build a vault. I never considered to add fodder to the vault, and I failed to realize that just because the card limit for Chargers was 24 I didn't have to have a total of 24 Chargers in my decks.
• Often times, I failed to mindgate certain matchups and didn't pick up on some tells that would result in a certain deck being used. For example, I ended up sending a RoL Hope deck against Air. Not only did I not realize that Manuel was probably going to transmutate SoFrees after winning, I also didn't think about Thunderstorm.
  
• RNG. This could also be because I ended up building my decks in a sub-optimal way.

As for why you should vote for me? Well, I like to think that I learned from my mistakes. I'd be willing to prove this to you, as long as you vote for me.

[andretimpa]

Why you should vote for me

Answers

Spoiler for joey:

Excluding Ginyu, who in your opinion has been the best master of gravity and why?

I'd say Laxa. He was the guy I looked up to back in the day and he was a very fun presence in the community overall (also one of the funniest people in pvp chat).

He and Ginyu are pretty much the only masters I have seen that in some sense embodied gravity in a good way (maybe GG did too, but I wasn't around back then)

www may have gotten better results in war and all, but I think that's more a testament to how well gravity can do in the hands of a competent player.

Spoiler for shock:

Explain why you are more noob than your opposing trialists. If you convince me more than the others, I may give you pity vote for being so noob.

I mean, I must be the biggest noob of the 3. Why else would you have given me a pity win in phase 2? 

Spoiler for DC:

To everyone who isn't playing STANDINs, who would you have liked to trial against?

I think this question would make more sense to people playing STANDINs  . Ignoring that, finally facing Ginyu is pretty cool. I'd also have loved to see Dm back for trials.

To everyone who isn't playing in their favourite element/have ever trialed in a different element, why should I pick you over someone who loves the element more?

not my case

I meant to say to everyone who IS playing STANDINs. My brain farted, fuck it, I'll ask @everyone

well I already answered anyway

Spoiler for ian:

Question for everyone: Why?

I ask myself the same thing 

On a more serious note, I knew Scibra would bail and didn't want another STANDIN match for 

Spoiler for torb:

Here we go, all the classics:

Is the element you have trialed for your favorite?
If not, why have you chosen to trial for this particular element over your favorite?

yes, this is my favorite

What does the element you trial for represent to you?

Not being flung into space by Earth's rotation  (my answers to higu and gin here are more detailed http://elementscommunity.org/forum/trial-of-gravity/10th-trials-phase-3-community-vote-62076/ )

About the EtG element itself, gravity is about control imo

In elements history, many have coupled being a Master to being War general, but there was a time when it was considered much more than that to some people.
What does being a Master mean to you?

It means being the face of your element to the community and the opportunity to showcase the power of your element (or try to at least).

What qualities do you expect from a Master, and do you aspire to live up to?

I have seen so many different people become good masters that I think there's not a single trait that defines that. There are however the traits that define bad masters, so I'll go with not being like them as what I expect from a Master, namely don't be an a-hole and don't disappear. I think I can deliver on these two.

Spoiler for Gin:

Do you plan to participate in War and/or Brawl if you have the time?

The big problem here is the whole having time thing. I love Brawl and would be willing to give a shot at being a general, but me being able to do so would depend largely on when the events will take place.

Do you consider being a Master to be mostly PvP-related, or should they also represent their element in competitions?

Being a master you are somewhat the face of your element in the community, but I think this should be restricted to the pvp side of things. With that in mind I think it's pretty cool when masters enter pvp events where you pick elements (Budokan and three man PVP,  for example) and use their element heavily (if not primarily). This showcases the power of the element and this has in my mind a lot to do with the role of being a master. On the other hand i think getting dibs to being brawl bosses is pretty stupid.

Spoiler for dawn:

What is the sleeper card in your element

Sleeper meaning unpopular card that you think is strong

GP should be more used. It's a fairly flexible CC that can be used to both get rid of pesky opponent creatures, as well as allowing some good defensive combos (SoFo and Auburn Nymph for example). It's also fairly cheap quantawise for a card that essentially removes one creature (the price you pay is mostly in damage redirected).

Phase 1 or whatever

[Ginyu]

Do I need to post a fancy slogan to get votes? Or share some music?
No, because I got something better. I read stuff! Like, really.
Including the suggestions to link our Phase 1 Submissions here.

Want a reader? Pick me. I will also do my best to answer your questions, which includes what? Yeah, you know it.

Spoiler for MyNameIsJoey:

Excluding Ginyu, who in your opinion has been the best master of gravity and why?

I haven't been around in the early days of Elements, so I will base my answer more on objectional facts than personal opinion.
Taking the War Standings into account, Gravity placed 2nd with www3 and 4th with Laxadarap (and me). Most other results are significantly worse. Laxa was the first Master to get into a rather high position, doing so by bringing in lots of new creative decks or enhancing those from before (his death rushes as an example). I argue that his achievements made a solid impact in Gravity's good positions later, not only by his inspiring builds, but also proving that Gravity was capable of much more than most players thought at that time.

Spoiler for DoubleCapitals:

who would you have liked to trial against?

To everyone who isn't playing in their favourite element/have ever trialed in a different element, why should I pick you over someone who loves the element more?

Puh, that is a tough question. There are a lot of players I would like to battle, including all past Masters of Gravity. If I had to choose one, I would pick Laxadarap, as he was the first to show Gravity's potential in War and inspired me to some of my deck creations. Also, he seems to be a cool guy, although I didn't have much contact with him.
Damn, now I can't stop thinking how amazing a round robin with all Masters of Gravity would be.

I consider Gravity and Time to be my favourite elements. I considered switching to Time for this Trials, but the new War Rules made me too curious to how Gravity would do in this new environment. If you take it out of the game aspect's, Gravity's theme would also match my interests in Astronomy far better than any other element could.

Spoiler for TheonlyrealBeef:

Here we go, all the classics:

Is the element you have trialed for your favorite?
If not, why have you chosen to trial for this particular element over your favorite?
What does the element you trial for represent to you?

I consider Gravity and Time to be my favourite elements. Checking my interests outside of the game, particularly astronomy, Gravity has the upper hand.
In game, Gravity represents control and brute force. It has several tools to keep control of the board, having Otyugh and Gravity Pull as well as aiding Discord with Black Hole and Pulverizer with its quanta. Aside from SoFree and - to some extent - Psion, it's also the only element to not care nearly as much against opposing shields, as well as having one of the best stallbreakers in Chargertal. Finally, it's designated shard basically combines all of this in a single card, being able to soak up damage with Gravity Pull, destroy enemy permanents with ease, and draining quanta if required.
Outside the game, it is all about control and order (laws of nature) and cannot be circumvented (like shields can't do in-game). All you can do is to adjust to it, so you can use it to your advantage (showing all the synergies it has).

In elements history, many have coupled being a Master to being War general, but there was a time when it was considered much more than that to some people.
What does being a Master mean to you?
What qualities do you expect from a Master, and do you aspire to live up to?

To me, being a Master makes you a representative of your element in particular, but also the community as a whole. You should act mature, use your skills to provide help whenever necessary and be reliable. Although time changed, I still look up to a lot of Masters as people who had a major impact on the game during their active time and, in some cases, much longer than that. You don't need to invest tons of time, just be around regularly and participate in some events when you are able to. This is what I expect from Masters and also what I live up to.

Spoiler for dawn to dusk:

What is the sleeper card in your element

Sleeper meaning unpopular card that you think is strong

Gravity Pull is very strong removal with just a few creatures on your side, leaving nothing non-immaterial alive. Although it does reduce your damage, having "remove any enemy creature" can be worthwile against sturdier foes like Pharaohs, upped dragons or similar. While Lightning etc. can also be cast on the opponent directly if they lack creatures, this isn't as powerful to make a big difference most of the time (charging CC excluded, of course). There are also situations where using GP on your own creature can buy you a crucial turn, and there are some in-element combos like with SoFo.

[MyNameIsJoey]

Excluding Ginyu, who in your opinion has been the best master of gravity and why?

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

Eh, it was worth a shot.

[andretimpa]

Thanks to everyone that voted. Better luck next time Weeaboo and see you in the finals Ginyu.