Phase 1 - Vote for the person who would make the best Master

[Thu]

So, you basically want to be Master of Time just to get more power? Hmm, this will lose you some votes.

And gain you some. Though, waiting with voting until I see what the others have to say.

[xdude]

So, you basically want to be Master of Time just to get more power? Hmm, this will lose you some votes.

Yes, I want to be a Master to have more influence in making a better game. Helping the community will help me to do that.
If saying that loses me votes then so be it, I would not lie and give a reason that isn't true.
A community confidence earned by deception is bound to turn into a community that has no trust.

Ahh god dammit, why do you have to be such a good talker? Before, my vote seemed clear but now... AAARGGH DAMMIT!

[Kuroaitou]

So, you basically want to be Master of Time just to get more power? Hmm, this will lose you some votes.

Yes, I want to be a Master to have more influence in making a better game. Helping the community will help me to do that.
If saying that loses me votes then so be it, I would not lie and give a reason that isn't true.
A community confidence earned by deception is bound to turn into a community that has no trust.

Kael Hate is right in this aspect. The bolded part is true - I think that none of us would lie about what we've said so far without putting our reputations and ideas on the line; being a master may not be equivalent of being a president of a country, but voters do deserve to know all the details (both good and bad attributes) about all of the candidates when they represent themselves, and thus, lying is detrimental to the people who are voting in the Phase 1 of these trials.

[Glitch]

Ahh god dammit, why do you have to be such a good talker? Before, my vote seemed clear but now... AAARGGH DAMMIT!

Well you can't vote just yet, not everyone has made their argument.  It wouldn't be fair.

[Astaroth]

Astaroth, please try to be less negative in these delicate threads.  It's unfortunately easy to insult someone.

Hopefully no one gets offended just by me saying I had never heard of them. And Kael's a tough (and smart) guy, so it hardly affects him. The only thing I fear for Kael is that if he does in fact become the master of Time, followed by becoming the Grandmaster, it might go to his head. He's got some decent ideas sometimes, but other times..... not so much.

[Xinef]

Ok, so maybe I will introduce myself now.

I am a good daemon, a samurai of God. My main hobby is world creation, and my Sensei advised me to create an avatar in this world, so that I can learn the art of creation by watching his masterpiece from the inside. So here I am, a 20 year old Polish student, who starts his great adventure of Open Source game development... and what can I say? This universe is damn hard to understand, but it's great fun

Enough about myself, if you vote for me you at least know for whom you really vote... now how does that affect Elements?

I've been playing this great game for about two months, so my experience pales in comparison with PuppyChow's or Kael Hate's, my experience with other CCGs is limited to playing some casual Magic the Gathering... but whenever I play some game seriously I spend a lot of time researching it's rules, it's history, it's community, thinking about possible improvements, what can I do to help, to make the game more fun, more balanced, more friendly to newcomers, things like that... and Elements is one of the best the best game I've seen so far due to two things
- the community, presenting a really high level in discussions, doing a lot to help the game develop, trying their best to help new players...
- the developer, Zanzarino, who seems to be more interested in making a great game, rather than making money (which is the reason why commercial games are often lower quality than noncommercial games, even if they look better and are more addictive)
So, basically... I think Elements is a game I'll spend some time playing, and helping to improve from a community member's point of view... before I make some good game myself... which might take some time I just think improving a game is great fun, and in fact I enjoy these discussions in this forum even more.

Now, the question remains, why would you vote for me? Would I make a good master of time?
I'm pretty much sure both PuppyChow and Kael Hate have much more PvP experience, I don't know about other participants... and to be honest I think PuppyChow is a great master (and the best Elements player ever!), so vote for him
To be even more honest, I wouldn't vote for Kael Hate... I mean, it's great discussing with him and he clearly does a good job helping the community... but if he became a master it would harm the discussions because some people might fear to question a masters opinion... and if he becomes a master, his opinion in many topics might be the first one, or the only one... and somehow I think it's better if some of the more controversial of his ideas are throughly discussed rather than given from a masters point of view.

And why did I choose and not any other element?... Wrong question. It's like asking what number is greater, 5, 3.14, or infinity? Time is simply the best element so there is no reason possibility to compare it with other elements...
Now more seriously, I simply like playing time so much I have most of my decks using time cards to their fullest potential, or at least using a time mark... and I always preferred scarabs over otyughs, even before I knew there was a scarab generator going to appear... and now that we already have it I simply cannot stop experimenting with different time strategies and possible uses of such versatile cards as Eternity, Pharaoh, Scarab, Anubis, Procrastination... even other elements splashing time to use sundials ... and when I try to make an FG-killer-deck somehow it ends up having half of it's cards being time... and it proves to be really good... so if at any point in the future someone designs a mono-time deck grinding FG, I wouldn't be surprised if it was me (if only some of time card ideas from this forum were implemented to make time even more versatile... you have my word that I'll do what I can to help balance, and improve new time card ideas and 'make-cookies-for-Zanz-so-he-adds-them-to-the-game')

Ok, if after reading all this you think I would be a great master of time... and that I am wrong thinking PuppyChow would be better (well, everyone (except PuppyChow) makes mistakes, so it's entirely possible I would be a better master even if I don't think so)...

then vote for me!

[PuppyChow]

Ohai topic.

Obviously I was chosen to be master of time a few months ago, but why? Why am I the best choice?

Well, first of all, and perhaps the most important reason, is simple experience. I've been playing this game since last August, and while that may not seem very long overall, it is longer than many since the game is only 11 months old anyway. I know most, if not all, synergies time has and have a good grasp of how to best use them.

Secondly, I am a good deck builder (which may go right along with experience). Not only with time, but with many other elements as well. My rainbow false god decks is one of the most popular decks used to fight them, and my unstable eagles deck has been made into a false god itself. With respect to time, I've made a few duos and trios that use it (though not all have been posted, I intend to) like my time/earth/aether rewind deck. Or my impossible bad draw mono time deck.

I can help people make better decks, and am very willing to. If someone asks me to critique their deck, I do so as soon as I can. I think this, in part, is why I am a good choice for master: my willingness to help. I try not to be overbearing when mentioning flaws in decks, and I try not to just say "this is wrong, you should replace it with this: x, x, and x." Instead, I try and explain why my changes should be made so they can decide for themselves if they want to change it. Explaining my reasoning also helps them become better deck builders; if a deck is 45 cards and I slim it down to 30 after explaining why smaller decks are better, then they just learned how to become a better deck builder. In the future, they may not need to ask for help making decks and become a great contributor to the community.

Also, I just like time and the aspects it brings to deck building. It's the only element that has cards that can accelerate drawing. This means it's the only mono with the ability to use decks larger than 30 cards with a good amount of consistency. On the other end of the spectrum, it is the only element that can simulate decks smaller than 30 cards using precognitions. This, in my opinion, makes time one of the most versatile elements.

Oh. And I forgot to mention, I'm kind of cool dude.

I don't want you to vote for me simply because I'm the best known. I want you to vote for me because you think I'm the best choice.

[killsdazombies]

PUPPY all the way!

Puppy should stay master of time (If he doesn't then he could be master of master ((look it up))) but still he's built many decks and has helped many people and his name rocks!

[baku36]

My vote is down to two so Here is my question

Situtation: A new player just came to you and ask you to help them with a deck that fits there playing style. be it mono duo or what ever

Q: How would you go about helping them out?

[Xinef]

So far I've been asked once (in PM) to help someone build a deck, but when I contacted him he answered he already found some answer somewhere else... but anyway I asked him for a duel, so that I can see his playing style, I played with an unupped PvP deck so that the fight is realistic, but not pwns him too much
I found that he was playing a death-mark rainbow, but not using too many death cards. On the other hand he was using a fallen elf very effectively in conjunction with a mind flyer if I recall correctly. So I simply advised him to take out some cards that did not work well in his strategy (antlions?), switch to time mark and use some hourglasses (he did not know much about how useful they are), add some quintessences and off we go.
I also taught him how to use a time-mark firebolter deck to grind top50 so that he could get some rares.

Now he has 2 upgraded cards and is grinding AI5, so I guess he is off to a good start. I also told him to try some FG fights in the trainer with a scaredgirl-esque rainbow so that he can learn their strategies without losing too much gold... well he is using wiki/forum while fighting them, so I guess he should be able to beat them without many upgraded cards. He seems to understand metagame quite well for a newbie, but I'm not yet sure when he should switch from AI5 to FG, so I guess it's best if he tries fighting them once in a while until he thinks he is ready...

Heh... he just contacted me while I was writing this reply ... it seems he has now 7 upgraded cards and is already winning against FG, and he plans to make a deck based on my Pharaoh Sails to Orion. Apparently, he seems to have some affinity for scarabs just as I have.

[tyranim]

i have yet to see any reason to vote for waynecore... are you not going to make a speech?

[PuppyChow]

Q: How would you go about helping them out?

Well first off, I would ask what their play style was. And if they answered something like "I like winning fast and don't really like to focus on defense," I would probably suggest a mono fire or shrieker spam deck.

Second, I would try to steer them towards the right direction with further questions, while giving them some guidelines:
-30 card decks are usually better than larger decks built on the same premise.
-Try to use as few types of pillars as possible; if you can get by with your mark and one type of pillar, do so.

That said, if they really enjoyed something like dark/death duo (which seems good in theory) that doesn't really work all that well, I would *recommend* that they try out a different type of deck in the same vein, maybe a mono fire control deck. But if they didn't want to do that, I would still try and help them make a deck using the premise they want to the best of my ability.

Here's an example script of something like I would try to do. Maybe I don't always do it as effectively as in this imaginary scenario, but you get the idea .

Warning: Long example right here...
ie.:
Newb: Can you help me out?
Me: Sure. What's your play style?
Newb: I really like time.
Me: Well what part of time do you like?
Newb: The fact that it can draw more than one time a turn.
Me: Then build a deck around that. What're you thinking of so far?
Newb: Well I thought I could use anubii, some dragons, some reverse times, and then aether pillars for the anubii. I could make it a 60 card deck with lots of hourglasses and precognitions.
Me: That's a good start, but can you think of any way to pay for the anubii's ability other than those aether pillars?
Newb: I dunno. I could use the mark. But I like getting an early jump on my time quantum.
Me: Well, the mark doesn't really help much that much with time quantum early game; it's just one extra per turn. And using aether mark would really help make your draws better.
Newb: That's true.
Me: So why do you have the reverse times? Don't they seem to not fit your theme?
Newb: I like that they can keep the opponent from drawing a card for one turn, even if they can play it right away again.
Me: But every time you draw one and use it, aren't you really just delaying BOTH of you for a turn? Instead of drawing that dragon that's coming up next, you drew that reverse time and stalled the opponent from drawing for another turn. So really, it's 1-for-1, right?
Newb: Yeah. But they can't hurt any, right?
Me: Actually, they can. The larger your deck is, the more bad draws you'll get. I would recommend taking those reverse times out since they give no net gain and make your deck larger.
Newb: Alright. Can you see any other way to improve my deck now?
Me: Well, now your deck is 45 cards. With 6 dragons, 6 hourglasses, 6 precognitions, 4 anubii, and 23 time pillars. After we removed those aether pillars and reverse times, do you really think we need all those time pillars?
Newb: No... 23 does seem an awful lot now. How many would you say?
Me: Since you're drawing so often and using a lot of time for anubis and dragons, your pillars should probably be on the high end. For other decks in the future you'll want to consider how much quanta you're using when deciding the number of pillars. Anyway, for this deck, I think that 18 is a good number. But you should test it out and tweak it to your liking.
Newb: Yeah. That makes it a nice even 40 cards. I'm feeling really good about this. Thanks!