 | WAR - RULES
War is a massive forum PvP event. Players are divided into 12 teams, led by a General. Teams will fight each other until there is only one team left.
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1. BUILDING AN ARMYThis first phase consists of Generals building their armies using player auction.
1.1. GENERALSWar will have 12 Generals, one for each element. Masters are the Generals of their element by default. If a Master is unable to join War, he or she will appoint a replacement General (Sr. Member or above). If one or more elements don't have a Master, a General will be picked by the Council.
Generals are given
333 blank cards. These cards will be used as currency when recruiting players during the next phase. Later they will be used to build the starting Vault for the team.
1.2. PLAYER AUCTIONPlayers who want to join War will each start their own War application topic where they include important information about themselves like their score and the number of rare cards they have.
Players pick up to 10 elements they refuse to work with (feel free to choose 0-9). Generals from these elements cannot make bids on the player, other elements can. Bids for players start at
1 card plus two cards for the first ban, and one card for each additional ban (i.e. no bans = 1 card, 1 ban = 3 cards, 2 bans = 4 cards... 10 bans = 12 cards).
Players also select their 3 favorite elements. The Generals of these elements receive small advantages when bidding on that player in the auction.
Both banned and favorite elements cannot change once bidding starts.
Note: Player auction is a big part of War event, so unfortunately there are no guarantees that you will get to join the team you want. Players who later refuse to fight for the element that bought them, or who become inactive and fight with zero motivation, will be removed from the event and banned from the next War. Only way to get to join a specific team is to convince the General of that element to bid high on you. Bidding lasts 5 days and consists of a 2-day blind auction and a 3-day open auction (plus overtime). Each General recruits 5 players from the auction.
Blind AuctionThe blind auction will last 48 hours. During this time generals may resend their bids at any time. Only the last PM received from each General will be considered.
All generals are to send a list of bids
to all three of the Warmasters. Generals may blind bid on up to 8 players, as long as they are not on the player's ban list.
Maximum blind bid is 13 cards. If there is a tie, the general higher on the player's favorite elements list will be considered to have the higher bid. If none of the tied generals are on the player's favorite elements list, these generals have a minimum raise of 2 on that player in the open auction.
Open AuctionThe open auction lasts for 3 days. At the beginning of the open auction the Warmasters will reveal the leading bids from the blind auction and the general who placed them. Generals will bid using the following template:
[color=yellow][size=72pt]6 cards[/size][/color]Once a bid has been posted, it is final. Editing or removing a bid is strictly prohibited and will lead to a penalty.
Minimum raise is 2 cards, or 3 cards if the previous bid was from the blind auction. Generals on a player's favorite elements list have a minimum raise of 1 less than other generals. If the previous bid is 4 cards from the open auction, you have to bid 6 cards to win, or 5 cards for favorite elements. If the previous bid is 4 cards from the blind auciton, you have to bid 7 cards to win, or 6 for favorite elements. Generals can only bid on a maximum of 15 different players in the open auction, plus any player they had already bid on in the blind auction. Generals can bid on these (up to 23) players as many times as they like. This limit is irrespective of whether you are winning or losing (or have lost) the auction.
Maximum bid is 14 cards. If a player gets bid on 14 cards, he or she has two options:
1. Instantly join the team that made the 14 card bid.
2. Wait for someone else to make the same 14 card bid (14 cards is maximum so you don't need to bid any higher), and join that team instead. You can wait as long as you want (waiting other 14 card bids), even make the decision after the auction has closed.
Spoiler for example:
General of
really wants Bill on his team so he bids 14 cards. Bill now has the option to instantly join team
, or to wait for some other team to bid the same 14 cards. Bill is hoping some other team might do the maximum bid as well, so he decides to wait.
Next day General of
bids 14 cards. Bill likes
so he decides to join team
. Bill is added to team
roster and General pays 14 cards. Bill's application topic is locked.
There is one universal auction clock during the open auction. When the clock is running, Generals can bid on anyone. When the clock stops and there were no new bids made during the last 24 hours, the auction is over. If there
were new bids made during the last 24 hours, we go to overtime, the clock gets reset back to 24 hours, and the minimum raise increases by one card. When minimum raise increases, starting bid also increases. This means that during the the 1st overtime, starting bids are 1 higher (0 bans = 2 cards, 1 ban = 4 cards… 10 bans = 13 cards).
Generals win 5 players for whom they bid the most AND they were the highest bidder. If there is a tie for highest bidder leftover from the blind auction, the general higher on that player's favorite elements list wins the player. If neither general is on that player's favorite elements list, the player decides which team to join.
Bidding is basically a choice between buying expensive veteran players and starting with a card disadvantage, buying cheap newbies but having a card advantage, or anything in between.
If a General fails to win the required 5 players, he/she is forced to buy one or more remaining players with a price of 14 cards each. It is very important to bid on multiple different people to ensure that you will be the highest bidder in at least 5 occasions.
2. GETTING READY FOR WARNext, teams get ready for War by coming up with a strategy, delegating tasks, and building their starting Vault.
2.1. SECRET FORUM SECTIONEach team has their secret forum section only visible to team members, Warmasters and the forum Administrators which aren't participating in war. All discussions held in this secret section are to be kept a secret. A player who gets caught telling team secrets to anyone outside his or her own team will be permanently banned from all Elements community PvP Events. Just to be safe, don't publicly talk about
anything that goes on in that section.
There are specific topics that all teams are required to start. On top of that, any team member can start any topic when needed, but needless spam should be avoided.
2.2. MEMBER ROLESEach team has a total of 6 members (1+5) which have specific roles assigned by the General.
1. GeneralGeneral is the leader of the team who makes sure that other team members are doing their jobs and fighting their battles. Generals should be aware of team absences, and if a team member is unable to fight a duel the General should coordinate a replacement. General also communicates with Warmasters.
2. LieutenantLieutenant is second in command. Lieutenants should be the first to fill in for the General if they are unable to complete their duties.
3. StrategistStrategists may remove up to six cards from their deck before each duel. Each duel must have a legal deck, and their full deck must also be legal. Vault penalties are not incurred for mid-battle deck errors, provided the full deck is legal and the match finished.
Spoiler for example:
Jack, Aether's Strategist, has been assigned the following deck for his battle:
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vd 4vd 4ve 4ve 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vm 4vm 4vn 4vn 4vn 4vo 4vo 5f1 5f1 5lc 5lc 61q 61q 61s 61s 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80b 80b 81q 8pjHe uses the following legal decks for his duels:
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vd 4vd 4ve 4ve 4vh 4vm 4vm 4vn 4vn 4vn 4vo 4vo 61q 61q 61s 61s 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80b 80b 81q 8pjHover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vd 4vd 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vm 4vm 4vn 4vn 4vn 4vo 4vo 5f1 5f1 5lc 5lc 61q 61q 61s 61s 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 81q 8pjHe also uses the following illegal deck (not enough Aether cards), forfeiting the duel he used it.
Hover over cards for details, click for permalink
4vd 4vd 4ve 4ve 4vh 4vj 4vj 4vm 4vm 4vn 4vn 4vn 4vo 4vo 5lc 5lc 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 80b 80b 81q 8pjDiscard 1, 2 or 3 cards from the Vault during deckbuilding. The Berserker may use 1, 3 or 4 extra upgrades respectively.
5. QuartermasterIf the Quartermaster plays in a battle, each winner from their team may claim 1 card from their element by relinquishing 3 of their salvage, or 2 salvage if the Quartermaster wins. Limit of two cards per person. Teams may not claim cards they already have at least 6 copies of.
6. Standard BearerThe Standard Bearer salvages N more cards and discards N fewer cards, where N is the number of wins their team has had that round.
7. SupportSupport members take place in support battles. These have their own deckbuilding rules (see below) and are separate from the team's Vault. If a team cannot field 6 decks from their vault, one or more extra non-general members may have their role changed to support and will take part in support battles.
2.3. THE VAULTEach General must also appoint (from the 6 players) a Vault Manager. The Vault Manager makes sure that the team Vault is up-to-date at all times by building the initial vault, noting which decks the team uses each round, and listing cards salvaged and discarded,
all at the team’s direction. Because decks used, salvaged cards, and discards are all submitted using Google Docs, a War-experienced Vault Manager proficient in Google Docs may be valuable to a team’s success.
The Vault is very important because cards in the Vault are not only used to build decks, but they also act as "hit points" for the whole team. If a Vault is less than 30 cards at the start of a round, that team gets eliminated from the event. The Vault is built by the whole team, led by the General.
Cards that were not used during the player auction will form the team starting Vault. Up to this point, cards have just been a number, now it is time to fill the Vault with specific cards.
Vault building rules:- at least 50% of cards have to be from your element
- maximum of 18 per card from your element (restriction doesn't apply to Pillars or Pendulums)
- maximum of 9 per card from other elements (restriction doesn't apply to Pillars or Pendulums)
- no Shards
Cards in the Vault are always unupgraded. During deckbuilding, unupgraded cards may be taken from the Vault and transformed into upgraded cards for that deck, up to the limits mentioned below. If you move an upgraded card back to the Vault, it becomes unupgraded.
Notes:- Marks: For the War event, "Mark of ..." cards are considered in the element of the element they feature. This is different to how they appear in the normal game as they are an ‘other’ card there. They are not considered equivalent to a Pillar or Pendulum.
Important! Vault doesn't really exist. Players are not given cards they take from the Vault, nor are any cards removed from their account if they lose. Players must own the cards on their Elements game account in order to use them. If a player doesn't have a specific card in his/her account, he/she cannot use it even if that card is listed in the Vault. So try to pick cards that your team members actually have or can buy if needed.
3. STARTING A ROUNDWar consists of multiple
rounds. Each round consists of three phases:
- Determining Opponents
- Deckbuilding
- Duels
| Deckbuilding | Duels | | TOTAL |
4 days | 3 days | | 7 days |
3.1. DETERMINING OPPONENTSAmount of cards in the Vault determine how many non-support players from each team participates on a round:
| 0-29 cards | = | team is eliminated |
| 30-65 cards | = | 1 player fights |
| 66-98 cards | = | 2 players fight |
| 99-131 cards | = | 3 players fight |
| 132-164 cards | = | 4 players fight |
| 165-197 cards | = | 5 players fight |
| 198+ cards | = | 6 players fight |
All teams must maintain a Team Rosters and Member Roles sticky topic in their secret forum section. This list says two things: 1) which players will join a round if the team has less than 198 cards, 2) the member role of each player. Teams are allowed to change the non-support roles at any time until the end of deckbuilding each round. Member order and which players are support must be completed before the deckbuilding phase.
Opponents will be determined randomly by Warmasters using an online randomizer, with the constraint that no team will play another team more than once within a given round if possible, not including support matches. If there are an uneven number of players fighting during a round, the team which has to field the highest number of players will have a bye, meaning one player in that team will skip the round. If there is more than one team which must field that number of players, then the bye will go to the team which has had the fewest byes so far out of those teams. If there is a tie for the team which has had the fewest number of byes, it will go to the team with the most cards out of those teams.
Duel pairings will be made public by the Warmasters. The same topic will also have one or more Event Cards. Event Cards have a positive or negative global effect that will affect all the players during that round. Event Cards are designed by the Warmasters.
3.2. DECKBUILDINGTeams will build one deck for each player who is fighting during the round.
Deckbuilding rules:- Any mark
- At least 50% of your cards have to be from your element
- Generals can use up to 9 upgraded cards.
- Lieutenants can use up to 6 upgraded cards.
- Other players can use up to 3 upgraded cards.
- Berserkers may use extra upgraded cards based on the number of cards discarded (specifically for this purpose) during the deckbuilding phase, maximum of 3 discarded cards. 1 discarded card = 1 extra upgrade, 2 discarded cards = 3 extra upgrades, 3 discarded cards = 4 extra upgrades.
- Teams may spend a relic to upgrade one extra card for one player in that round. There is no limit to how many relics may be spent in a round, or which players the upgrades go to.
- You cannot change your deck until the round is over.
Conversion Rule Teams have the option to
convert some of their cards. This means that they can replace any card in their Vault with a Pillar or a Pendulum of their element. Converting helps teams to avoid a situation where they would be otherwise forced to build "suicide" decks. Converting will be done by the Vault Manager using the Google doc. Teams can convert a maximum of 24 cards per round, including before round 1.
Illegal Deck RuleIf teams write "Y" in the “Planned Suicide” row for their illegal deck they will automatically forfeit the match, BUT don't take an additional penalty for building an illegal deck. By adding "illegal", teams show that they
knowingly built an illegal deck, and can prevent a situation where they would be forced to take a double penalty (both discarding because of a loss and a card penalty) for not being able to build enough legal decks.
3.3. DUELSPlayers will contact their opponent and try to find a time that suits both. If the fight does not happen both players lose by default unless one player is clearly more active in trying to find a suitable time. Warmasters will determine who the most active player is and their word is final.
We are using a "best-of-five" method, which means that each battle consists of up to 5 matches with the winner being the first player to get 3 wins. Remember, you have to play all duels with the same deck and the same mark.
3.4. INACTIVE PLAYERSIf it looks like a team member won't be able to fight during a round, the team has various options:
1. Temporarily replace a team member with any other team member. Temporary replacements use the same exact deck, number of upgrades, and mark as recorded for that player. The first substitution each round is free. After that the opposing team chooses how much salvage you win (between 0 and 6, excluding the Standard Bearer bonus), or you do not win a relic in the case of a Support battle.
2. Permanently replace a team member with a player who submitted an application but didn't end up on a team (6 cards).
3. To permanently replace a General, every other team member must agree that the General needs replacing and a consensus must be reached on who the new General will be. Warmasters will remove the General from the team at no cost. If a new player needs to be added, see above.
4. AFTER A BATTLEWinners
salvage cards, losers
discard them.
4.1. WINNING A BATTLEThe
Winner of the duel starts a new topic in the "Battle Results" section, indicating the teams, the member roles, and the score. Member roles are abbreviated (Gen, Lt, St, Be, Qm, or SB). For example if "KingKiller" from
fights "LordOwner" from
and wins 3-1, he will start a topic that could be title in one of the following ways:
(Air Gen) KingKiller 3 - (Water Lt) LordOwner 1(Air SB) KingKiller 3 - (Water St) LordOwner 1(Air Be) KingKiller 3 - (Water Qm) (Sub) LordOwner 1 (use SUB to indicate that someone else played instead of LordOwner) In that topic KingKiller will post his deck, and give a short explanation on how the battle went. LordOwner will then reply to that
same topic posting his deck. He can also talk about the battle if he so chooses but that's optional. Everyone can join the discussion in any of these results topics.
After each win, the team
salvages cards from the opponent. The winning team MUST pick
6 cards from the deck posted by the losing player, which will be added to their Vault (the Standard Bearer salvages an additional N cards, where N is the number of wins their team has had that round). These cards become part of the Vault and can be later used by anyone on that team. Salvaged cards are always unupped even if the original card is upped. Maximum card amount per team doesn't apply to salvaged cards.
Teams who send their Quartermaster in to battle may claim in-element cards instead of some salvage in any given win, at a cost of 1 in-element card per 3 salvage (or cost of 2 salvage if the Quartermaster wins). Teams may not claim cards they already have at least 6 copies of. This takes place during the following deckbuilding phase, and thus cannot be used to immediately change the number of duels you have.
When you salvage cards, you are not really taking cards from the opponent, you are merely taking a
copy of that card and putting it into your Vault. In Elements terms, you are using Parallel Universe on those cards.
4.2. LOSING A BATTLEWhen a team loses a battle they have to
discard cards from the deck used. Cards that are left in the deck after discarding are returned back to Vault.
| Loss in | Discard |
| Round #1 | 9 cards |
| Round #2 | 15 cards |
| Round #3 | 21 cards |
| Round #4+ | 27 cards |
The Standard Bearer discards N fewer cards, where N is the number of wins their team has had that round.
5. ENDING A ROUNDAfter all the battles have been fought, the round ends and a new one begins. War continues until there is only one team left.
6. WINNING THE WARThe winning team of War gets:
- Cool forum award icons
- The forum "Reigned by" image will be changed to show which element won.
- If the winning team General is also a Master of that element, he or she will be crowned a
Grand Master.
7. SUPPORT STAFFWar is not only about crushing one's enemy on the field of battle, it's a complex logistical event that requires resources to be successful. In this War supply lines are under constant surveillance for two reasons: they support your team by providing an invaluable resource, and they are frequently under attack by opponents who seek to gain an edge.
Support staff fight for relics which are spent to use extra upgrades in battles. Teams begin War with no relics.
7.1. SUPPORT MEMBERSIf a team is unable to field six decks, one or more players have their role changed to Support. There is a maximum of 3 support staff per team at any point in time.
7.2. SUPPORT DECKBUILDING- Support decks
may use cards that are in the vault, not in the vault, or any combination.
- At least 50% in-element cards.
- No upgrades.
- No rares.
- Support decks may not contain off-element cards used by any player of the team during the previous round (excluding pendulums and pillars). For round 1, Support players may not use any off-element card used by the rest of their team during
that round (excluding Pendulums/Pillars).
- Support decks are to be submitted alongside all other decks in the Vault by the end of the deckbuilding phase.
7.3. SUPPORT BATTLES- Support matches are determined randomly by the Warmasters using an online randomizer, with the constraint that no team will play another team more than once within a given round if possible, not including non-support matches. If there are an uneven number of Support players fighting during a round, the team with the most cards gets the bye, meaning that one Support player in that team will skip the round. If that team already had a bye during a previous round, the team with the next most cards gets a bye instead. No team may have a 2nd support bye unless all other active teams have had at least 1 support bye.
- Support matches take place during the battle phase.
- A player may not change decks or marks between battles.
- Battles are "best-of-five" which means that each battle consists of up to 5 matches with the winner being the first player to get 3 wins.
- The battle winner (followed by loser) posts his deck and a short match description in the Battle Results forum. Example title:
Support - (Air) KingKiller 3 - (Water) LordOwner 1- The winning team gains 1 relic. There is no penalty for losing.
7.4. ELIMINATIONWhen a Team is eliminated they are scheduled for no more support matches, however any scheduled support match must be completed. Failure to do so may result in a final placement penalty or complete disqualification. Support matches do not need to be completed if both teams have already been eliminated from War.
8. OTHER RULES
8.1. PENALTIESPenalties are issued when a team somehow breaks the rules or disrupts the event, either knowingly or by mistake. When a team gets a penalty they have to, at the end of the round, remove a number of cards from their Vault. They can remove any cards they have in the Vault at that time, including the ones they salvaged during that round.
| Minor penalty | 3 cards | Small and harmless things like posting an illegal deck by mistake. |
| Medium penalty | 6 cards | For bigger infractions like not doing what they are supposed to do because of inactivity. |
| Major penalty | 12 cards | For major infractions like seriously disrupting the whole event. |
Penalties are easy to avoid by paying attention to details and double-checking everything before posting. Hopefully there won't be any need to issue penalties.
8.2. BACKROOM DEALS AND SHARING OF INFORMATIONConspiring with another team in any way is forbidden (unless it’s explicitly stated on an Event Card). Even discussing information that is already public ruins the spirit of the event and makes everything less fun for everybody.
To see how War happens in reality, please visit
the War Archive forum section. Some things were done differently during previous Wars but the basic principle is the same.
