[Entrance Post]
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Questions from General Thread:Here's a list of major mistakes I made in Phase 2 that no player with my level of experience should be making:
Spoiler for Most Noob:
g1 vs shockcannon - Preparation
Most of my Trials decks over the years have been mid-upgrades, so I'm not used to building decks with only three upgrades anymore. By the time I played this game, I had only built one deck legal for g1, because I wasn't confident running any other decks with less than 6 upgrades. That wouldn't have been an awful thing in itself, but the deck I chose was poorly built, and even if it was built better, it's reliance on permanents and susceptibility to early CC made it a bad choice to lead against a Fire player.
g3 vs shockcannon - Prediction
Given his first two choices, I should have predicted Immo in g3. I didn't put a ton of thought into what he would use - Immo crossed my mind briefly, but mostly I used the deck I wanted to without thinking about potential matchups it may face. This was just me not thinking hard enough.
g2 vs TorB - Deckbuilding
I'd consider this my worst mistake here. I used one of my signature decks in this game, one I have used many times throughout Trials at many upgrade levels, and should be able to build optimally with zero issues. However, in this game, I built the deck's quanta balance badly, skewed to have more Earth and less Water than optimal, and as such I made this matchup much harder for myself.
g3 vs TorB - Prediction
Similar to g3 vs shock, I needed to stop for a second and think more about what he might do. In this case, it should have been easier to do this, because Torb kept his element pool simple. I chose to use a generally strong deck instead of trying to predict from his limited deck options and choosing a deck based on that.
g1 vs IF - Gameplay
He showed Lightning early, so knowing his potential deck options, I should have discarded the possibility of him having BB, because doubling up on splash CC in a 30-card deck would be a deckbuilding error I should not expect a player of IF's caliber to be making. However, despite making a mental note of him playing Lightning and predicting the rest of his deck correctly, I played the entire match scared of BB anyways, no for logical reason. This directly caused my loss, because this unnecessary slow play made me slower by several turns.
g3 vs IF - Deckbuilding
I made a mostly good deck call this game - in fact, this is the one game on this list that I won - but I failed deckbuilding in two ways. I forgot three upgrades, and I didn't build the deck to counter itself, which is very important with any deck built around a potential shutdown card. If Wings gets hit by Steal - always a consideration given how strong and versatile dark domins are - I need to have a creature that can bypass Wings, and I knew Steal was a potential option here and did not edit the deck accordingly. He actually did run Steal, and I got pretty lucky to win.
g4 vs IF - Prediction
I used a stall when many of his best options based on what we'd already used were going to be stallbreak. Really basic mistake that should be easy to avoid. Again, just not really stopping to think about the situation.
g4 vs DANI - Prediction
Probably the second worst mistake on this list - I spent most of g3 thinking about the situation, and made the decision to use light stall g4, which would have been a great matchup for her deck. But for some reason, after the match, I overthought everything and second guessed myself into using a different deck. I should have gone with my first instinct.
There were plenty of smaller errors in deckbuilding and gameplay I made too, but these ones are definitely the worst - I should not have made 4 mistakes on the level of these, let alone double that amount. I was not focused during these matches and it really showed in the results.
My first choice is JCJ by a very wide margin. I never gave him the opportunity for a legitimate rematch because I stepped down when I did and didn't return, and while he is the likely STANDIN and it'll make up for that in some way, it won't quite be the same as it could have been.
Failing that, my next choice would be any of the other great Water players that have been present over the years. Of those, I would pick RavingRabbid first, as I'd like a small bit of redemption for coming short against him in my first Trials final.
Water is still my favorite element by a sizable margin. For me, it represents two things that are very important to me - my search for peace and emotional security, and my ambition to learn and improve skills far beyond what I initially envisioned I could do.
To me, a Master should first and foremost attempt to be a representative for their element. In my previous terms as Master, I always tried to push the boundaries of the element in PvP events where I could freely use it, portray the element from perspectives some people may not have attempted to in creative competitions, and help less experienced players understand technical and practical details of the element that aren't immediately apparent.
To be quite honest, my mental health is better currently than it has been at the time of many previous Trials signups. I was comfortable returning and giving the high amount of effort I expect from myself this time.
I would love to participate in both War and Brawl, and I would consider it likely, but I cannot guarantee my participation in either at this time.
War is the most outward facing function of a Master, and so PvP is extremely important, but I attempt to represent Water elsewhere as well, and greatly enjoy when other Masters do the same.
I wouldn't call it strong, but I think Flooding is better than the worst cards in the game, unlike how it's perceived. I think it's a good compliment to the stall mechanics Water already uses heavily.
Most people rate Water cards pretty fairly - the only other card I don't think gets enough love is Steam Machine.
Questions from Water Thread:Very little has changed about my feelings for Water. If anything, the long break from Trials and relearning the nuances of Water for this Trials has made me appreciate it even more. It's still a very large part of my identity here and still very important to me.
For everything else, I feel like I understand the element a little better than I used to, now that it's been successful in War under your guidance. I don't think I'm a good judge of it as an element in the context of War, as that is very easily one of my weakest areas of play, but it is clear that in the right hands it can be very capable in War.
Poll
