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.

[PlayerOa]

I'm not going to write a huge segment about why I should be Master of Time. kaempfer has more than proven he's a great master, and quite frankly, he's probably more suitable than me to lead Team Time the upcoming War. I still think I've got something to my name, though - ending 2nd and 1st respectively in the last two PvP events proves I have at least some PvP capability, and the two times I've been General for Team Time we've ended respectively 4th and 3rd. For those who don't know, I was Master of Time back in 2013, succeeding 10 men.

Feel free to ask me questions! I'll greatly appreciate every single vote I might gather.


In element-questions:

Spoiler for MyNameIsJoey:

Time has performed well in war many times. Why has it never won?

Spoiler for Short answer:

RNGRNGRNG

Spoiler for Long answer:

Interesting question! Let's start from the beginning like a true Master of Time would. Let's face it - before Ghost of the Past was introduced, Time was a pretty lackluster element. There was no way Time would win a War at that time, barring a huge stroke of luck. The three consecutive 6th places in War #1 to War #3 seem pretty fair. Let's jump to 2011.

Enter Ghost of the Past, and enter 10 men.

In War #4, we witnessed one of the in my opinion most impressive war showings. 10 men bought only cheap newcomers - turned out to be gold, managing to get steals like dragonsdemesne and inthisroom for the mere cost of 1 card. They wrecked it at the early stage of War, and could very well have won it, if it wasn't for one thing. Round 10, the last round of War #4, while being the by far most epic round of War to ever happen, shuffled things a lot. Time were matched up against Light in the semi finals of a single elimination tourney, and they had no answer to their RoL Hope. Sayonara.

Fast forward to War #5, 10 men gathered a new group of cheapies (this time including myself), and we were pretty damn close to winning the whole thing. I was 2-0 up against deuce22 in a match which would have sealed us the title if won. RNG happened, and I got reverse swept. Still feels like a dagger to my heart.

In War #6 and #7, the General torch was passed to me. And I'll be honest, we did a fairly nice job. We ended 4th in War #6 and 3rd in War #7. Time had finally become a force to reckon with in War, but there was one slight problem...

That problem was known as . A powerhouse element with an even more powerhouse General - deuce22 - made War into their immortal playing ground. We simply didn't manage to deal with them. At the time, there were neither Shards in War nor market prices. They swept the floor with the other 11 elements.

After War #7, I kinda phased out of this community. The results of Time in War have declined as well until the last War - I won't make an analysis of that time period, as I wasn't much around. The 2nd place this year, however, was really impressive. kaempfer13 brought some new and interesting decks to the scene - and of course - the mastermind strategy which led to a vault bigger than yo mama bigger than never seen before. Team Darkness, however, with a fantastic team and SoV Dials to back them, made it so Time just didn't make the cut.

Time Trials have always been one of the most competitive ones. I remember the first time doing Time Trials, I was facing the likes of SpikeSpiegel, 10 men, Kuroaitou and SnoWeb. Time passed, and I got some intense duels with Cheesy111 for the right of playing the final battle for the mastership. My point? We learnt a lot. With such a competitive scene, we gathered a lot of experiences we could bring to the War scene. As of such, Time has always had generals with huge knowledge of the element.

End note: Let's be honest. Time isn't really an S tier element like , and . Yet, Time has again and again fought in the Wars and come pretty damn close to winning it. I can't really expect Time to win a War - the element is too incomplete to become an odds-favorite. However, through the years we enthusiasts have shown that it's definitely possible.

Out of element-questions:

Spoiler for noobcannon:

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 don't think that's necessary. You've already answered that question for me a couple of dozen times.
If even your own arguments aren't convincing enough... Check mate!

Spoiler for DoubleCapitals:

To everyone who isn't playing STANDINs, 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?

It should come to no surprise that I'd do anything for a rematch with 10 men.

Part two is sadly not applicable to me. However, if I were to trial for the element I feel most comfortable in at the moment, I'd choose Air, which has grown a lot on me after War and Infinity War. I'm still going for Time, though, as it would feel weird to trial for another element.

Spoiler for TheonlyrealBeef:

Is the element you have trialed for your favorite?

Yep! And it's quite frankly been for quite some now.

What does the element you trial for represent to you?

Out of the game? Time as a concept has always fascinated me. What is time? Time is something unique.

Moreover, the ability to warp to the future and to the past would be my #1 sought after superpower.

What does being a Master mean to you?

Back in 2011, being a master was - like you said - a pretty big deal. The masters were the faces of their respective elements - and masterships were a thing before War was even thought about. Today, I still linger to some of these thoughts, but not in the same way I did then. Nowadays it's become more of a War Gen competition. Roughly, my desire of becoming a Master of Time is roughly 1/3 nostalgia, 1/3 war related and 1/3 a wish to become the face of my beloved Element. While I'd love to general Time one more , it's not my only motivation for trialing, and it has never been.

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

Activity, PvP capability and being a good role model.

Spoiler for iancudorinmarian:

Question for everyone: Why?

Good times are ahead.

Spoiler for Ginyu:

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

Yes, I'm going to participate in War. Nope, I'm not going to participate in Brawl if it ever takes place again. Got burnt out the last time I did.

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

My stance on this has changed proportionally with how the game and the community has evolved. Earlier, being a Master was something I considered much more than earning the rights to lead the element in the upcoming War. Most of all, it was all about being the face of the Element, with all the responsibilities that led to.

Nowadays, the community is so small that it's (unfortunately) most about PvP. That's the cold truth, and we have to make the best out of it. They should try to represent their element within reasonable boundaries. I would never expect a Master to lead a Brawl team although he despises the event - and I wouldn't have thrown Infinity War by making a 12 card bid to secure the rights of playing with Time over Air.

Spoiler for dawn to dusk:

What is the sleeper card in your element

Sleeper meaning unpopular card that you think is strong

That would have to be Turtle Shield. It's in my opinion a pretty strong card that has a lot of potential. From the way I see it, though, there are two main reasons to why Turtle Shield doesn't get played so much:

 > Unlike Dusk, it doesn't block weapons
 > Antisynergy with RT and Eternity

Still, Turtle Shield is a good addition to a lot of decks, especially stalls - but it can also give just what's needed in a rush vs rush matchup - if you can manage to fit it in.

[kaempfer13]

In-element:

Spoiler for MyNameIsJoey:

One of the problems of time is that it has to outsource most of its tech. PC, healing, nonstandard dmg (heck, dmg in general, when a 7 9|4 is the rushiest card you have (you cant even play that turn 1) you just cant win the dmg race through rushing) are all not naturally available to us. While the focus on card draw makes it easy for  to just splash what it needs, later on you'll probably encounter an element that your vault has lost its tools to deal with and there is no way you can recoup them through transmuting.
Perhaps it is for this reason that  has a tradition of being cheapskates in auction in order to get a huge starting vault. This too contributes to the phenomenom. A bigger starting vault means later elimination, but in order to make it to the finish line you have to beat everyone else.
Finally, name a  deck that doesnt use 1 or more of the following cards (or wouldnt be better with it): Reverse time, eternity, sundial, hourglas, golden nymph and Shard of readiness. All of these cards have decently obvious counters, so if your opponent happens to bring the right ones you just lose most of the time (fortunately they dont all have the same weakness at least).

Rest:

Spoiler for Hidden:

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.

NA

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?
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?

1. Yes, although there is a larger set of elements that come close enough ( especially), to the point that feeling the obligation to stick to the element that i'm defending may have been the deciding factor in sticking here. It is my starter though and i do like playing with card advantage, which time simply does more naturally than any other element (arguably and  do it more efficiently, but their powers are borrowed).
2. NA
3. Time is the thing that I always want more of.
4. I do primarly see myself as general with additional bling, but  my readiness to butt into discussion is increased when my element is mentioned (be it deck ideas, discussing balance of cards etc.).
As a general you have to take care of several things. Gather a team that can work together and preferably covers all weaknesses and act as central piece of communication for it. Inform yourself early what decks are troublesome for your element and build counters that neatly fit into a generally flexible vault (or make sure your counterdecks are so good you dont mind not being able to use the the cards for a different purpose). the rough outline for that should be ready before auction (importance of vault is probably the most understated thing in war), but keep yourself flexible enough so you can work in ideas from the team when vaultbuilding officially starts. other than that, do what every good teammember should, discuss things with the rest of the team, try mindgating your opponents and work on a counter with limited options when you inevitably encounter a deck that is much more trouble for your current vault than you expected it to be at the start of war.

Spoiler for ian:

Question for everyone: Why?

Because.

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?

War for sure, I dont really enjoy brawl much (and the tasks i do well are deckbuilding and card making, which lean on my pvpknowledge).
What nonpvp-competitions? Other than war/brawl and pvpstuff there is just creativity competitions, where additional constraints (like sticking to an element when there is no good reason according to the general rules) are kind of selfsabotaging. When it works as well as the alternative I'll incorporate so me being master serves as tiebreaker when im undecided there  (happens quite often in pvp-related stuff actually). But when I enter competitions I'll try to just do the best I can.

Spoiler for D2D:

What is the sleeper card in your element

Sleeper meaning unpopular card that you think is strong

The least respected time card with potential is probably among (sor, hourglass; many already acknowledge these 2 actually though, so i will ignore them), pharaoh, deja vu and scarab. pharaoh unfortunately is fairly unflexible and time doesnt really need stallbreaking power much, so the least appreciated  card with serious potential is probably deja vu. Upgraded unbuffed its actually on par with gotp in terms of rushing power (which isnt really that impressive when you look at other elements tbh) and it scales really well with buffs ( very few of which are actually viable, but cp and adrenaline are worth it for instance). Speaking of buffs there is also scarab, it can really get out of control once it gets going, but unfortunately eternity/rt mostly does largely the same job much more reliably.
So the answer is dejavu!

[MyNameIsJoey]

Time has performed well in war many times. Why has it never won?

[kaempfer13]

Ok, decided to answer questions to all elements now.

[shockcannon]

lol

[kaempfer13]

heh, oa almost almost broke even in ups. Yh,I totally meant for that to happen. Wouldnt be much of a fight otherwise

Also, vote ended 2 days earlier than I thought, so i guess oa really is more worthy