4th Trials - Phase 3 - Community Vote

[majofa]

This effect is a Triggered Active Ability, so it can be Lobotomized. It has the passive skill: airborne. The stat gain is after the target and effect (Lobotomize would remove the skill and there would be no stat gain). Remember that a creature hitting a shield, isn't being targeted, otherwise Phase Dragons wouldn't be blocked.
If this card was introduced into the game: What impact would it have? How would you utilize it? What decks would you build? How would it change ? (You don't have to answer each question individually)

[willng3]

Hmm.  Targeting unupped Seiryuu with Adrenaline would make it a very, very nice attacker since I'm assuming that by doing so it receives the +2|+2 bonus in addition to gaining Adrenaline.  And since 8 attack is a sweet spot for Adrenaline, I could see so many uses from this card it isn't even funny.  Even so much as replacing Cockatrice for Seiryuu and rebalancing the quanta in standard Adrenaline rushes would work wonders.  I also like the fact that this gives Life a proper midrange attacker which would also reduce its "frailty" against decks using CC at the same time.

[the dictator]

What is your favourite deck, and why?

[willng3]

Hmm...hard question to answer if only because there are so very many different choices for me to choose from.
However, my favorite deck archetype is and more than likely always will be Speedbows.  They're just so diverse and can be readjusted to meet the play style of any player.  I think that for my favorite Speedbow I would have to choose the one that hrmmm and I managed to put together and finalize for Team during War #2 -

Code: [Select]

4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 590 590 590 590 590 5c2 5c2 5c5 5c5 5c7 5c7 5c7 5c7 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5f6 5f6 5og 61qWhat I enjoy about this deck is mainly the story that lies behind the deck itself.  There was a belief among most War players (some of which existed on Team Life at that time) who did not believe it was wise or to a certain degree even possible for us to take such a deck into the War.  We did not take Graboids at all in the initial vault, but we used the cards we gained from the Propaganda bonus and took a gamble on this deck, not sure of how it would affect our winnings from that point forward.  While it was not our most successful deck, I do believe it was unexpected and overall essential to us reaching the third rank at the end of the War.
To this day if I ever feel like taking a break from grinding and want to have some fun with unupped decks, then this deck is usually high on my list to use, granted with a few modifications from time to time.  The cards themselves are also fun to use; I'm particularly partial to Adrenaline in many decks I build.

[ak65ala]

My task:Create an original life(50%) stall.

Edit:I think upped is easier to make,but i like unupped too.

My experimental Life/Death Stall in which I am working on perfecting.  If I can get it up to my standards, willng3 will see a version of this during the finals. 

by ak65ala

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52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52i 52i 52i 52i 52i 52q 52s 52s 52s 52s 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c4 5c4 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5de 5de 5de 5de 8pk

by ak65ala

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710 710 710 710 712 712 712 712 712 71a 71c 71c 71c 71c 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7aj 7aj 7ak 7am 7am 7am 7am 7am 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 8pk

If you are able to use only a few upgraded cards, add in the spine carapace.  More upgrades allows more and more speed, CC and breathing room, depending where you feel lacking. 
The magic happens between the interaction between Spine Carapace, Aflatoxin and Feral Bond.  You can aflatoxin your own creatures to generate bond power and your opponent's creatures for slot control.  Heals keep you alive till the flood is ready and shards of divinity increase the breathing room of your max HP, allowing larger hits to be less painful.  Creatures will eventually fall to poison damage, both from your viruses and your thorns.  Within a few turns, your opponent will be unable to play any creatures.  You can then change to your jade shield for bolt immunity, or use it initially if they keep PCing your other shields.  The addition of 1 Arsenic allows the stall to kill, which I feel is important in a few match-ups, but your main objective is to lock the field and heal through anything else. 

This deck's main weakness is bad draws (since it is heavily combo reliant). PC wounds it, but is not a full deal-breaker; losing your bonds destroys your sustainability, but if you can fill up their field fast enough, that will not matter too much.  The deck is also on the slower side, with various pieces needed to culminate, aflatoxin taking 5 turns or so in itself, plus you are using a form of CC that takes time (but is always deadly).  If you can survive the initial assault and you are not countered directly, the lock this deck produces is quite beautiful.

Life is known for having a lack of PC to compensate for it's rush abilities (e.g. Frogs), as well as a lack of CC. Do you feel Life's strengths compensate for it's weaknesses in the Elements Metagame?

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: Within PvP, life is one of the only elements that runs a solid mono deck.  T50 used to be filled with life rushes.  If life had PC or hard, fast CC, why use any other elements?  Life has two types of heals: direct and HoT (heal over time) and with the addition for the SoG (Shard of Gratitude) leaning towards life, that solidifies life's position as a heal element (if it was not already one).  Why is SoG banned everywhere? It is too powerful.  That power is coming directly to life.  Life has healing and direction, it does not 'need' PC or CC (though I would never complain if we received it!).

Lets compare life to darkness, estranged cousins.  Both run solid monos.  Both have healing, but darkness has PC, CC, soft protection and quanta denial.  What does Life have to compare with all of that raw power? Low quanta costs (5 or less, 4 or less upped; excluding our dragon, shields), powerful creatures, massing capabilities and one of the best buffs in the game. 

What did you say? Life is predictable?  That is its main weakness?  That is where life shines the brightest! However to counter such thought, we are able to become the primary or secondary component of almost any type of duo deck.  That is where life finds its suprize.  Many other elements are limited to a few strong setups in which rule over that entire element (see the dicussions for fire, entropy in phase 2).  Life can morph into almost any deck you want with a little spice. 

In conclusion, what life does not have in flexibility in-element makes up for in its flexibility with other elements.  It also has a stong mono, though predictable, is deadly if not countered quickly.

This effect is a Triggered Active Ability, so it can be Lobotomized. It has the passive skill: airborne. The stat gain is after the target and effect (Lobotomize would remove the skill and there would be no stat gain). Remember that a creature hitting a shield, isn't being targeted, otherwise Phase Dragons wouldn't be blocked.
If this card was introduced into the game: What impact would it have? How would you utilize it? What decks would you build? How would it change ? (You don't have to answer each question individually)

I will not comment upon the balance of the proposed card, I will presume it is within the game, this instant.

Impact + How it changes life: It gives life a medium/beefy attacker, that flies and is 'immune' to damage CC. (Fills life's weaknesses + keeps life’s theme of creatures) Mono life will now be split between the fast decks (frogs, chickens), adrenaline decks (frogs, Seiryuus), and beefy decks (dragons, Seiryuus).  Adrenaline will have an easy 8 attacker which makes one of adrenaline's weaknesses vanishes (only used on small critters). Wings loses favor as a counter to life.  I would most likely never touch my Emerald dragon again.  Bringing damage-CC against life becomes potently 'worthless', totally covering one of life's main weaknesses, causing to life becoming a top played element.  Reverse time is favored more towards life (grrrr.....).

Utilization + Deckbuilding:  (disclaimer: I might miss something from these lists)
First thing that comes to mind is beneficial or neutral constant single target effects: *Guardian Angel*. 
Single target buff cards: holy light, blessing, momentum, quintessence, chaos power, *adrenaline*,  *Rage Potion*, *Nightmare*.
Single target de-buff abilities that 'could' work: *snipe*, freeze, infect, basilisk blood

Deck using angels + Seiryuu (amazing!). Seiryuu + buff card of choice (very solid), Anytime I expect damage-CC

Highlights:
Seiryuu + Rage potion = 7life, 3 fire -> 13/3 attacker.  Ouch!
Seiryuu + Guardian Angel (upped) = 7 life for 7/7, 7 light for 7/7, both flying.  1 light for +2/+2.  Healing support is out of control.
Seiryuu + Nightmare: Usage for this awesome card + fill enemy hand with expensive creature + lose a draw + drain their life + buff your guy.
Seiryuu + Snipe: Kill creatures or use a 2 air cost single time momentum with your bow.  Sky Blitz for victory.

[DrunkDestroyer]

My experimental Life/Death Stall in which I am working on perfecting.  If I can get it up to my standards, willng3 will see a version of this during the finals. 

by DrunkDestroyer

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52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52i 52i 52i 52i 52i 52q 52s 52s 52s 52s 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c4 5c4 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5de 5de 5de 5de 8pk

by DrunkDestroyer

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710 710 710 710 712 712 712 712 712 71a 71c 71c 71c 71c 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7aj 7aj 7ak 7am 7am 7am 7am 7am 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 8pk

If you are able to use only a few upgraded cards, add in the spine carapace.  More upgrades allows more and more speed, CC and breathing room, depending where you feel lacking. 
The magic happens between the interaction between Spine Carapace, Aflatoxin and Feral Bond.  You can aflatoxin your own creatures to generate bond power and your opponent's creatures for slot control.  Heals keep you alive till the flood is ready and shards of divinity increase the breathing room of your max HP, allowing larger hits to be less painful.  Creatures will eventually fall to poison damage, both from your viruses and your thorns.  Within a few turns, your opponent will be unable to play any creatures.  You can then change to your jade shield for bolt immunity, or use it initially if they keep PCing your other shields.  The addition of 1 Arsenic allows the stall to kill, which I feel is important in a few match-ups, but your main objective is to lock the field and heal through anything else. 

This deck's main weakness is bad draws (since it is heavily combo reliant). PC wounds it, but is not a full deal-breaker; losing your bonds destroys your sustainability, but if you can fill up their field fast enough, that will not matter too much.  The deck is also on the slower side, with various pieces needed to culminate, aflatoxin taking 5 turns or so in itself, plus you are using a form of CC that takes time (but is always deadly).  If you can survive the initial assault and you are not countered directly, the lock this deck produces is quite beautiful.

I don't know whether this will discourage or encourage you, but I tried a few times to build a deck like that one - never quite getting it perfect. Lots of similar elements (pun), but I never even thought to add SoDs, which clearly really help.
The only other major difference is aflatoxin targets (and card counts) - which left mine less vunerable to control, sometimes slower, and obviously lacking in the CC.

Anyway, good luck with the deck, glad to see someone else is trying it (and being more successful).

I would ask a question here but I already know who I'm voting for. Good luck (to both of you)

[ak65ala]

What is your favourite deck, and why?

Might possibly surprise people with this answer:

by ak65ala

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52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52o 52p 52p 52p 52q 52r 52r 52r 5i5 5i5 5i5 5i5 5i5 5i5 5ia 5ia 8pp

I always loved playing PvP1 (my old stomping grounds) with this deck.  It runs off of so little quanta (just death 2 pillars and you are in business), solid damage curve, dash of CC and protection and ... purify! It also does not depend on any sort of combo; any card you draw is useful (creature-less decks kill your CC, but poison does well against those deck types).   I always loved the poison mechanic and this is still one of the best ways.  Pull this out in a duel and people are so confused "It's not a immo rush? It's not a rainbow? Are you crazy?"

My experimental Life/Death Stall in which I am working on perfecting.  If I can get it up to my standards, willng3 will see a version of this during the finals. 

by ak65ala

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52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52i 52i 52i 52i 52i 52q 52s 52s 52s 52s 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c4 5c4 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5c6 5de 5de 5de 5de 8pk

by ak65ala

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Deck import code : [Select]

710 710 710 710 712 712 712 712 712 71a 71c 71c 71c 71c 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7ac 7aj 7aj 7ak 7am 7am 7am 7am 7am 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 7bu 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 6rm 8pk

If you are able to use only a few upgraded cards, add in the spine carapace.  More upgrades allows more and more speed, CC and breathing room, depending where you feel lacking. 
The magic happens between the interaction between Spine Carapace, Aflatoxin and Feral Bond.  You can aflatoxin your own creatures to generate bond power and your opponent's creatures for slot control.  Heals keep you alive till the flood is ready and shards of divinity increase the breathing room of your max HP, allowing larger hits to be less painful.  Creatures will eventually fall to poison damage, both from your viruses and your thorns.  Within a few turns, your opponent will be unable to play any creatures.  You can then change to your jade shield for bolt immunity, or use it initially if they keep PCing your other shields.  The addition of 1 Arsenic allows the stall to kill, which I feel is important in a few match-ups, but your main objective is to lock the field and heal through anything else. 

This deck's main weakness is bad draws (since it is heavily combo reliant). PC wounds it, but is not a full deal-breaker; losing your bonds destroys your sustainability, but if you can fill up their field fast enough, that will not matter too much.  The deck is also on the slower side, with various pieces needed to culminate, aflatoxin taking 5 turns or so in itself, plus you are using a form of CC that takes time (but is always deadly).  If you can survive the initial assault and you are not countered directly, the lock this deck produces is quite beautiful.

I don't know whether this will discourage or encourage you, but I tried a few times to build a deck like that one - never quite getting it perfect. Lots of similar elements (pun), but I never even thought to add SoDs, which clearly really help.
The only other major difference is aflatoxin targets (and card counts) - which left mine less vunerable to control, sometimes slower, and obviously lacking in the CC.

Anyway, good luck with the deck, glad to see someone else is trying it (and being more successful).

I would ask a question here but I already know who I'm voting for. Good luck (to both of you)

Thanks DD.  I find designing challenging decks like this one very entertaining (decks focusing on 'underpowered' cards).  Most of them end up in a ball of flames, but sometimes there are jewels.

Here is another one of my attempts, it is a bit more spastic but has done alright when I pulled it out in a few tournaments (The opposites tourney, quite a while back).  The combo is on the sidelines here; it focuses on using the aflatoxin for offense and not to fill their slots. 

by ak65ala

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52g 52g 52g 52g 52g 52i 52i 52i 52i 52k 52k 52n 52n 52n 52p 52p 52s 52s 5bs 5bs 5bs 5bs 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c5 5c6 5c6 5c6 5de 5de 5de 5de 8pk

[Bootsza]

How important is community (both keeping existing players and attracting new ones) to you?  How much influence do you think Masters have in effecting community and how do you think you could contribute if you were to be Master?

[willng3]

The community is extremely important.  Without the community zanz could never hope to receive the proper feedback about Elements the Game that he truly needs.  I also like to think that our existence helps him to perform certain tasks (creating new FGs being one such example).  Realistically speaking, if we want Elements to continue to be the fantastic game that it is, it is critical that community involvement is consistent and that it continues to grow with time.
I think that Masters have a tremendous amount of influence over the community in general.  Newer players just visiting the forums might not be interested in a position such as Deck Helper because that doesn't really mean much to them.  However, to see the title of Master of Life would be different because they know that Life is an element in Elements the Game and therefore I would presume that they would believe Master of Life to be the best Life player there is.  Now if that Master is rude, unhelpful, unintelligent or is just never involved in anything then that might affect how that newbie views the game itself and as a consequence might lead to them leaving the game itself sooner than we would want.
My contributions as a Master wouldn't be that much different from my contributions now.  I generally try to respond to any questions regarding the game that I am able to answer in the best way possible while making sure not to come across as critical or rude in the process.  I admittedly have not taken part in as many discussions about Life and its cards as I should have, but this is only because I have a belief that doing so would take away from the current residing Master's responsibilities (even though he's nowhere to be found...) and I certainly don't want to overstep my boundaries even if it is over something as simple as this.  Now if I were to become Master of Life then this would all change and I would be able to take part in these discussions as I feel free, especially given that even despite my various responsibilities, I seem to always have copious amounts of time to spare.  I have acted as a role model on the forums over the past few months which I believe has the potential to cause people to desire to be as helpful as I aspire to be.  As a Master this influence would increase which I would assume would cause community involvement to increase as well.

Awesome question, btw.

[RavingRabbid]

Life has no PC, and a little CC in Thorn Carapace.

Without giving more CC or PC to life, choose 2 cards from you would buff, and explain how would you buff them (even indirectly).

[willng3]

Firstly I would reduce the cost of Mitosis by 1 for both the upped and unupped versions.  I personally had absolutely no problems with the card when it was first released and was absolutely outraged when it was nerfed by both disallowing it to function with Animated Weapons and increasing its casting cost.  I can understand the weapons flaw to an extent, but there was honestly no reason why the cost needed to be raised by 1 in the first place.  It also bothers me that this card is constantly referred to as a "slower Fractal" or a "reusable Parallel Universe".  This card should deserve a class all to its own instead of receiving this kind of treatment, and the fact that it is receiving it indicates to me that the card is not unique enough to people for it to deserve a class of its own.  In that light I have to support the idea of going back to targeting weapons with Mitosis being possible, but only if the issues involving games where 4 turn wins against FGs is rectified.  I looked back over the Mitosis card thread just now and couldn't help but feel disappointed by some of the reactions I saw on that thread.  Countless times people made comments about the card being OP with x weapon and yet they either 1)  had no proof to support such a claim other than theoretical situations which had not been tested or 2)  did test the deck and found themselves to be wrong about their former beliefs.  I won't deny the fact that certain combos such as Long Sword + Mitosis are in fact too powerful, but those circumstances are few; this card needed fixing after its first release and how it was addressed was not the best way to handle the problem.  As it stands I won't bother opening a buff topic for Mitosis concerning Animated Weapons because I fear that the same wildfire effect that started previously when people began with their cries about the combination being OP would start again with little problem.

A second card I would like to see buffed would be Empathic/Feral Bond.  What's interesting however is that I believe the card in itself is perfectly balanced and no amount of changes made to the card itself would make that perfection better.  However I would instead like to see the cards that make Empathic Bond receive any use receive a tweak instead.  Feral Bond IMO seems out of place as a Life card.  Yes it's very useful in certain decks such as FFQ or Fractal Frogs, but if you'll notice, most of those combinations focus on their creature spam effects stemming from another element that isn't .  So to a certain extent, it doesn't seem to receive much use in a Life based deck.  The one card that Life does possess which makes a Feral Bond mono deck possible is Mitosis, but the huge problem here is that Mitosis and Feral Bond suffer from the weakness that the combination is highly prone to CC.  With the current creatures that Life has at its disposal, there really doesn't seem to be an efficient way to strengthen Feral Bond in 's favor.  The only possible way to change that would be to tweak certain creatures to increase their synergy with Feral Bond/Mitosis by reducing their vulnerability to the said combo's biggest weakness:  Creature Control.  For instance, if Elite Cockatrice were modified to have the same cost, 4 attack, and 6-7HP, then that would already increase the aforementioned combo's strength by a fair amount.  I would also like to see a weaker creature introduced to Life which either is incredibly difficult to kill (not necessarily meaning high amounts of HP) or that can introduce a spawn effect very very quickly after being played.
So...to reiterate my point:
1)  Feral Bond seems out of place within Life when the element itself cannot make good use of its effect alone and without a great amount of assistance from other elements.  The only card that can potentially change this flaw is Mitosis.
2)  Mitosis seems out of place within Life when the effect can only take place when the "mother" creature can survive to use its effect.  However a common trait among Life creatures (with the exception of its Dragon) is that they are very prone to creature control.  So if there is a low chance of almost any of Life's creatures being able to use this card effectively, why does it exist within Life at all?
3)  To reduce the creature fragility issue, either certain creatures would need to be tweaked/buffed or new creatures would need to be introduced unless Mitosis itself was completely reworked.

[ak65ala]

Artificially keeping my post count down, mass responding, multiple posts at a time!

How important is community (both keeping existing players and attracting new ones) to you?  How much influence do you think Masters have in effecting community and how do you think you could contribute if you were to be Master?

The one reason I have played this free flash game and have not put it down like so many other free flash games: community.  The game might be the body, but our community is this game’s soul. 

I think an open door policy is best when it comes to communities like this one.  We should not focus on bringing people in or retaining our numbers just for that sake.  We need to focus upon making this a fun and enjoyable place to spend ones free time (and work time, sometimes!).  Each person has their own definition of fun, from PvP events to competitions to creating art to working on expanding the game and the abilities of this community.  If we focus on making this a place we enjoy, keeping the old and retaining the new will come naturally.

As a master, you have as large of a part in shaping this community as anyone else.  You are just expected to be biased.  I for one will make sure to post every day concerning my element and strive to uphold what I feel is a masters duty when I hold the title.  I will also strive upon making team life within war #4 the envy of the event.  Green with envy.

Life has no PC, and a little CC in Thorn Carapace.

Without giving more CC or PC to life, choose 2 cards from you would buff, and explain how would you buff them (even indirectly).

I feel Forrest Scorpion was introduced into the arsenal of life to add a creature that could contend with shields.  On paper, he is able to continue to do damage even after the shield is put up.  My main problem is even if you spam them as quickly as possible; even the smallest shield stops him cold.  He is not useful to add buffs towards due to his effect being the weakest of the three scorpions and he has the same vulnerability to most CC as most other life creatures.  The forest scorpion becomes a dead card after turn 3.

Change his cost to 5 life.  Change his ability to Seeping Venom: “Add 1 poison damage to each attack.  Cause poisoning if ingested” All this does is make it if he tries to attack, he adds the poison.  Think like a mono Chrysaora, without the need to use the ability.  He becomes one of life’s answers to shields while still retaining life’s frailty. 

Thorn shield is not used often, both due to its high cost and its unreliability.  Life is not about chance, so this does not fit into its theme.  The high cost is warranted.  Change its cost to 8.  Change it to “Attacking creatures are infected”.  Now it is a fire shield look-alike in which wins in speed against a creature larger than 3, but slower against smaller creatures.  The upped version still retains its damage reduction of 1, keeping with the odd balance it has not killing tiny creatures.
To counter-balance the above answers, I feel first off that Forest Scorpion is perfectly balanced as is.  He is mono and needs no combo to funciton (next to the other scorpions), but pays for that freedom with a higher cost and a weaker ability.  I think to truly have this card shine, he needs a buddy, like Ghost of the Past and Nightmare.  Perhaps an evasion card stating “creatures with less than 3 attack bypass shields” or “Your creature's attacks blocked by a shield heal you” and forest scorpion would give you purify stacks (wouldn’t that be hilarious!)… Now I have to go and make these cards!

Thorn shield is balanced due to its inevitable death to all who come at it.  You just need to build knowing you must stay alive long enough for it to work its magic.  Rush decks bypass its usefulness (they kill before the creatures die) leading to the card not fitting into the meta.  I am still  pondering this card, and working with him to find him a sweet spot within my finals decks… we’ll see what becomes of my hard work.