12th Trials - Phase 3: Community Vote

[worldwideweb3]

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.

[MyNameIsJoey]

Same hard and blunt question I asked in air and life. This question is adressed to ARTHANASIOS.

You have lost your match against a STANDIN. Why whould I think you have what it takes to be master of light if you can't even beat someone who didn't sign up for it?

[ARTHANASIOS]

Spoiler for answers:

You have lost your match against a STANDIN. Why whould I think you have what it takes to be master of light if you can't even beat someone who didn't sign up for it?

Yes, I've lost against 3 very well though decks with decks I've speedbuilt but that's not an excuse. I have lost against STANDIN. However...

* I have beaten dawn to dusk 3-0 and by beating the one who has beaten STANDIN is like beating STANDIN.
* I have already participated 2 times in team and because of this I have started to have an affinity to the element.
* I like to be master of light.
* I like beer.

That's all...

What is your definition of Leadership

My definition of leadership is this:

L means Leading from the front.
E means Earning what you've got.
A means Avenging your fallen comrades.
D means Defending what is right.
E means Escaping from your dark past.
R means Righteous woar!
S means Standing till the end.
H means Highlighting the good things.
I means Improvise all the way.
P means Protecting the weak.

For everyone that Trials for their favourite element:

• If you end up not becoming a Master for your favourite element, will you consider an approach from WMs to General your second-fave/third-fave/what-have-you element? (Quite unlikely, but hey )
  For the sake of argument, assume that you are not a WM yourself, just in case you're thinking 'I'm a WM, there's no way the WMs will approach me to Gen'.

For everyone that Trials not for their favourite element:

• If you end up not becoming a Master for the element you're Trialling in, will you consider an approach from WMs to General your favourite element? (Quite unlikely, but hey )
  For the sake of argument, assume that you are not a WM yourself, just in case you're thinking 'I'm a WM, there's no way the WMs will approach me to Gen'.

inb4 self-plagiarism accusations
(You will want to indicate somewhere whether you're Trialling for your favourite element.)

I am trialing for my second favorite element () and yes, I would approach the WMs to fight for my favorite element () as a General if that is ever possible. However...

* This demands that I will fail to become Master of Light and the Life element lacks any new Master. Right now, both Mr.Muffin and mathman are excellent to represent Life and I do not plan to lose to dawn to dusk, no matter how much I like this guy.
* I may not have enough free time to participate at War as a General (but I will consider joining as a simple Soldier, even if my free time is short).

Will you participate in the next Brawl under the flag of your trialing element?

No, because I am BRAWLMASTER! Hey, I can answer my own questions too, people!

1. Which element do you consider the anti-you?  Which ones rubs you the wrong way or resonates least with you personally?  Please help us understand why this is the case.

2.  Name two previous/current masters (you can include yourself if you wish) who you respect and have been excellent trialists, generals, and representatives of their element.  What traits do these two individuals share?  How are they different?

3.  This question is for anyone that has been a Master before.  Which is more psychologically challenging: winning the first Mastership or defending the Mastership?

1. The anti-me are, in no particular order, and . Sure, has the same zodiac sign with me (Scorpio) and has one of my favorite colors (black) but our similarities end here. While it is thematically correct, I don't like how Death deals with creatures being killed and profits from it and I don't like how Darkness steals staff from you (health, permanents, quanta). Moreover, I dislike how these elements are considered some of the top choices (especially Darkness) for PvP or grinding. That said, I like playing with all elements and that includes and but rarely in a mono; I especially like , , and duos.

2. Willng3 and Mr. Muffin. They both served greatly but their similarities end here I think. Willng3 really liked Life and tried hard to place it high on War, though he had a little weakness imho; he didn't believe in the potential Life had as an element. He always viewed it as the most weak element and that was wrong imho. On the other hand, Mr. Muffin has indeed showed the great potential that 'the element that is not an element' has and won the war under Life's banner!

3. I have not been master before.

It seems clear that both competitors in this element prefer to .  It also seems clear both competitors have chosen the Trials because they view it as important to the community that has a master.  For this, I am grateful and commend you both.

I hope others respect that you have both forsaken your banner to carry the banner of a fallen comrade, and that the community gives their votes to the competitors in this Trials (and not voting "none-worthy"). 

That said, we still all must chose between you, and to assist in making that decision I ask:
When things seem terrible all around, and despair begins to set in, what inside you begins as a photon of hope, glowing with holy light, that small shard of divinity that empowers a miracle, that in the darkest hour you can become the guardian angel of the sanctuary, a crusader raising his solar shield and morning star and mounting his pegasus to lead the golden dragons into battle? 

Feel free to answer in text, song, or interpretive dance.

I think the song Crusader from Saxon is the best answer here.

Everybody (should) know each Element has its own trait, its strenght and weakness. Being a Master means to know them perfectly.

Said that, explain what's the strenght and weakness of your Element, and, if you had the chance to add just one card (creature, spell, PC, CC, etc...) to your Element, what would it be and why?

Thanks.

Strength of :
1) Quanta & hand protection (Sanctuary).
2) Quanta generation (Ray of Light, Luciferin, Light Nymph, Solar Shield).
3) Permanent protection a.k.a. immaterial (Hope, Mirror Shield, Morning Glory).
4) Tough high hitters (Archangel, Golder Dragon, Light Nymph, Blessed Pegasus).
5) Healing, but this one is pretty obvious (Shard of Divinity, Miracle, Sanctuary, Luciferin, Light Nymph, Holy Light).
6) Weapon Manipulation (Crusader).
7) Death & Darkness CC (Holy Light).

Weakness of :
1) Sanctuary & Solar Shield can't work together.
2) Lack of any CC other than Holy Light, which is extremely situational.
3) Expensive cards for what they do (Miracle, Hope, Pegasus, Crusader, Light Nymph, Golden Dragon, even Sanctuary!).
4) Lack of any PC.
5) Lack of CC protection other than high creature health.
6) Weapon Manipulation has always to be off-element, because Crusaders can't endow Morning Stars.
7) Lack of mid hitters, especially in unupped meta.


If I would add one new card to Light's arsenal, that would be a PC for sure. Light needs to open way through various shields in order to create a successful rush...

Pose any trialist a targeted question (ie. specific to them). You may link it if you have already done so.

I have asked everyone about brawl, I don't know if that counts.

Forwarded from Zyar over on Discord:

"What are you plans if you become master?"

My plans are simple but straightforward; I will support in the forums as much as I can, be it forum games, brawl, future trials or war (by brawl, I do NOT mean I will vote every Light-related submission but I would love to join brawl in a Light-related team).

Question for both:

Regardless of the current trials, do you still have the element the closest to you and will it remain that way during and after War?

Ahh, old sweet Life. I love , I will always do. It is the weakest element that it is not an element that I will always love and support and feel proud staring at the "reigned by life" banner. However, war is war and is and is , so when Life faces Light in a woar match I will support Light. But yes, Life will always be my favorite...

[dawn to dusk]

Spoiler for General Questions:

Spoiler for Ji:

What is your definition of Leadership

I define leadership as not only the ability to lead and take action when nobody else does, but also to be able to be flexible in how one leads. For one to be too set in stone will lead their army to failure. But to be flexible, not only by adapting to new situations, but also to take advice from those around you to heart and use it to better yourself and your army, is vital to leadership.

Spoiler for Bas:

If you end up not becoming a Master for the element you're Trialling in, will you consider an approach from WMs to General your favourite element?

I'll be honest and say that I believe other people would do better as a Life general than me, and I don't trust myself to do well after the dominating performance they had last War. But if no other person would want to do it, then I would.

Spoiler for ARTHAN:

Will you participate in the next Brawl under the flag of your trialing element?

Trick question Brawl isn't element determined. (But yes I would)

Spoiler for Kalinuial:

1. Which element do you consider the anti-you?  Which ones rubs you the wrong way or resonates least with you personally?  Please help us understand why this is the case.

2.  Name two previous/current masters (you can include yourself if you wish) who you respect and have been excellent trialists, generals, and representatives of their element.  What traits do these two individuals share?  How are they different?

3.  This question is for anyone that has been a Master before.  Which is more psychologically challenging: winning the first Mastership or defending the Mastership?

1. Time. RT is my most hated card, and it has been for such a long time. In all of my Trials Finals matches, I have fullbanned it because I hate playing against it so much. Sundial is pretty bad too.

2. Deuce and Muffin. Deuce because he's been such a dominating presence in Aether's history, and Muffin because he lead life to victory, which is something I have incredible respect for. Muffin is somewhat newer than Deuce, but I would certainly like to see how Muffin holds himself in the following wars, especially if he becomes general. I can't say too much else because I haven't spoken to Deuce all that much, but I respect them both greatly

3. Psychologically? Defending. Entering Trials for the first time, you get the excuse of losing because you're inexperienced. And you can do better next time. But defending is much more draining, because you've already built up that you're one of the best in the element, and feel like you have something to prove. Whether you should feel this or not. I do still recommend it though, it's a great feeling winning Trials, as either a challenger or a defender.

Spoiler for SpikeSpiegel:

Explain what's the strenght and weakness of your Element, and, if you had the chance to add just one card (creature, spell, PC, CC, etc...) to your Element, what would it be and why?

Light is a defining stall element. almost all stalls appreciate Light's help, due to their great healing utility gained. Light can increase max health, and has Miracle, a full heal. As well as the utility gained (albeit small in comparison), from Sanctuary. It also has rather nice scaling, mainly due to Hope and Stalls. Stalls have great scaling in general, since once it fully sets up, it's almost impossible to beat. Similarly with Hope, once a good Hope is set up, specific cards would need to be used to break through it.

On the rush side of things, Pegasus is a nice card, but beyond that, it severely lacks in the unupped department. Blessing is a strange card because of how little in-element synergy it has. And Upgraded is overshadowed by more direct cards like Archangel. Morning Star is also a strange fit for Light for similar reasons. It provides pure damage to an element that doesn't appreciate it, and also has negative synergy with Crusader.

So onto cards that it could use. Direct CC would be broken in Light, since Mono-Light stalls would be oppressive. And nerfing it to the point of unplayability to balance stalls would mean there's no reason to have included it in the first place. I remember discussion on Lobotomiser being a Light card (amongst other things like switching the elements of Fractal and Mitosis), which is an interesting idea, and would certainly help with some of the things that light has. Giving Light a cheap hitter (more flexible than Pegasus) would probably leave Pegasus to be too redundant. But Light Air duos are generally outshadowed by Mono-Air, especially with SoFree. Sure there's Firefly, but that's a completely different card.

But what about PC? When playing Stall, permanents are often less of a threat than creatures, and in rushes, cards like Dim Shield can wall you right? Now sure, PC in a stall is less obnoxious than CC, and a PC card only for stall would be a fine idea. But Light already has great Stall capabilities. Adding a card to help further isn't great to strengthen already strong decks like Firestall and Immortal. So what about a rush-capable PC? Again, it sounds like a good idea. But bringing Dim Shields when you know the opponent is using light is already pretty risky, since it's a dead card vs stall. And Wings is even worse because of Light's Airborne creatures. Weapons and other shields (namely Fog) are pretty valid concerns, but when used in conjunction with other elements, such things become rather negligible. PC is a valid consideration though for sure.
Given this, I see 3 possibilities that I don't mind.

1. Rush based PC, nothing too problematic. It doesn't break the element, but is a nice QoL thing to have. Elements duoing with Light get much better, and it makes Light a great consideration when looking for what do Duo with. It has nice aggressive tools already in Morning Star and Blessing for unupped, and Archangel and Morning Glory for upped (as well as Nymphs if you want to include them). Something like "Target permanent takes no action for 2 turns, becomes Immaterial, and cannot be replaced" would be interesting to look at. Grants unavoidable damage vs Dim Shields, making Light Life a good aggressive Duo.

2. Something akin to "All healing becomes damage this turn." A CC card that is bad in Stall, and gives utility to Guardian Angel's ability. Although it might make stallbreaking too easy, since you can play 6 of these and suddenly the Stall user can't play any more. The argument against this is that when you compare it to Silence, Silence can lock a person from playing anything for potentially 6 turns, but it seldom sees usage. However this card would be more applicable than Silence, because of it's extra utility, and that it is unavoidable. But would you really want to always use 6 of these? Outside of the stall matchup, how much does it do? Sure it helps Archangels, but that could be achieved by only using 3 of them. And 3 vs Stall is somewhat less oppressive. Similarly, its synergy with Holy Light might be too strong too. But that means you're devoting a lot of your deck on just CC/Combo material. Sure, it could be balanced by only applying on your turn, but I feel like that's removing a lot of potential.

3. Another aggressive card with Air synergy. A card that makes using Pegasus a viable choice, as well as solidifying usage of Morning Star. Such a card could make a deck be built more towards a beaker than a rush, to keep Air Rush from being strictly overshadowed by Light/Air. I'm not sure what such a card would look like, but something to push the "pretty good" decks like Pegasus and FW Morning Star to being great decks, much like Mono-Air.

Spoiler for Zya:

What are you plans if you become master?

General of War, leader in Brawl, defend. I'll defend until I lose. During this time I'll tinker with the element, see if I can find some other interesting combos to toy with, maybe explore a bit into Stall as a whole (something I've been interested in for a while), but this is stuff I can do outside of being a master.

Spoiler for Element Specific:

Spoiler for CCC:

When things seem terrible all around, and despair begins to set in, what inside you begins as a photon of hope, glowing with holy light, that small shard of divinity that empowers a miracle, that in the darkest hour you can become the incarnation of a pillar of light, guardian angel of the sanctuary by the blessing of the light nymph, a crusader raising his solar shield and morning star and mounting his pegasus to lead the golden dragons into battle? 

Feel free to answer in text, song, or interpretive dance.

This question is flawed. One can never be in despair with the warmth of the around them~

Spoiler for Submachine:

Regardless of the current trials, do you still have the element the closest to you and will it remain that way during and after War?

Life is something I'll always hold dear. That won't change. It was the first Element I really liked, and that followed through for so many years afterwards. Despite trialling for Light, I doubt it could ever be as memorable to me as Life has been. That said, I like Light, and after using it a bit I see some potential that it has. I'd definitely say it's a top 3 element for sure (I'm also rather fond of Water).

[CCCombobreaker]

It seems clear that both competitors in this element prefer to .  It also seems clear both competitors have chosen the Trials because they view it as important to the community that has a master.  For this, I am grateful and commend you both.

I hope others respect that you have both forsaken your banner to carry the banner of a fallen comrade, and that the community gives their votes to the competitors in this Trials (and not voting "none-worthy"). 

That said, we still all must chose between you, and to assist in making that decision I ask:
When things seem terrible all around, and despair begins to set in, what inside you begins as a photon of hope, glowing with holy light, that small shard of divinity that empowers a miracle, that in the darkest hour you can become the incarnation of a pillar of light, guardian angel of the sanctuary by the blessing of the light nymph, a crusader raising his solar shield and morning star and mounting his pegasus to lead the golden dragons into battle? 

Feel free to answer in text, song, or interpretive dance.

[InsignificantWeeaboo]

I think the song Crusader from Saxon is the best answer here.

DEUS VULT

[Basman-1453]

Spoiler for answers:

-snip-

Will you participate in the next Brawl under the flag of your trialing element?

No, because I am BRAWLMASTER! Hey, I can answer my own questions too, people!

-snip-

This kind of scenario is exactly the reason for my disclaimer on my all-element question, ARTHA :P
For the sake of argument, assume that you are not a BM yourself, just in case you're thinking 'I'm a BM, there's no way I'll be Brawling/the BMs will approach me to Captain'.

[Submachine]

Question for both:

Regardless of the current trials, do you still have the element the closest to you and will it remain that way during and after War?

[ARTHANASIOS]

Spoiler for answers:

-snip-

Will you participate in the next Brawl under the flag of your trialing element?

No, because I am BRAWLMASTER! Hey, I can answer my own questions too, people!

-snip-

This kind of scenario is exactly the reason for my disclaimer on my all-element question, ARTHA :P
For the sake of argument, assume that you are not a BM yourself, just in case you're thinking 'I'm a BM, there's no way I'll be Brawling/the BMs will approach me to Captain'.

In that case, yes. It will be a honor to lead a related Brawl team to victory as their Boss!

[dawn to dusk]

Thanks for the votes of confidence guys, I'll try not to lose too bad~

[Jen-i]

Best of luck to you both!

[ARTHANASIOS]

Thanks for the votes of confidence guys, I'll try not to lose too bad~

To be fair, I was lucky for beating you in Phase 2. Please, d2d, do not let that 3-0 loss to haunt you. You can beat me with ease if you do your best. Also, I hope RNG will be more objective in Phase 4.

Best of luck to you both!

Thanks!