[Deckbuilding Contest] Cardhuntria's Most Stylish #1: Voting Booth

Hi everyone! The deadline for submissions to the first ever Cardhuntria's Most Stylish deckbuilding competition has passed, and I have collected all entries below. Pick your favorite and vote for it! The winners of the poll will receive prizes.

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Contestant-Specific Rules
• You can't go around tooting your own horn. Feel free to direct folks to this thread, but don't tell them to vote for you. Don't provide further explanation of your build. Basically, don't say anything that will sway voters—your entry should speak for itself. If you do this, I'll give you a warning. Multiple times, I'll disqualify you.
• You can vote. You can vote for yourselves. Whatever.

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Other Rules
• People who don't have a horse in this race should feel free to comment on the builds. Analyze their viability or coolness. Discuss the videos. Provide feedback to the builds' creators, and to other voters.
• Remember to vote for the build that you feel has the most style. This isn't about making a strong build—it's about making something cool!
• Voting closes in 7 days.

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Prize Structure Reminder

1st place: 2 epic chests
2nd place: 1 epic chest
3rd place: 2 magnificent chests

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Builds below.

 

@Vakaz - Caveman Castle

 

@Stexe - Punished By My Own Punishing

 

@Inkfingers - Geomancy Geomancy Geomancy

Geomancy! Geomancy geomancy, geomancy geomancy geomancy. Geomancy geomancy, geomancy. Geomancy; geomancy geomancy-geomancy. Geomancy geomancy... GEOMANCY!

 

@Qivril - Tricky Bricks

note - Qivril has asked to be removed from the competition.

Spoiler

Winning without bloodshed should be elegant.

Video link: http://www.4shared.com/video/u5ta-IRNba/TrickyBricks.html

 

@PDXTai - Crack Suicide Squad

Some Background

 

@tuknir - Triple Dwarf Control Priests

Objective: Cast Entangling Roots to control enemy movement, cast Mind Worm to control opponent cards.

 

@Squidy - Toy Story: To Infinity and Beyond!

 

@CT5 - 3DC (“Triple Dodge Combo”)

 

@Kalin - The Trans-Adventurers

This party fights not just monsters, but also society's expectations concerning class, race, and gender. Their quest is not for wealth or glory, but for the right to live, love, and die as they choose.

 

@Susurrus in Gloaming - Benihana

This deck is designed to chop up savory meat while it grills over hot lava.

 

Code:

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
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    / ___/  /  \  /  \     / ___/
  / /__   / /\ \/ /\ \   /__  /
/____/  /_/  \__/  \_\ /____/
1ST ANNUAL AWARDS SHOW
part 1
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(go to part 2)

R: Welcome to the first annual CMS Awards! This is Rudolpho Emulio, your host for the evening, and here with me is our celebrity judge - one of Cardhuntria's foremost felines who has earned widespread fame for sophisticated builds, neoncat!

N: Good evening, Rudolpho! It's wonderful to be here tonight. I think we should all take a moment to thank to our gracious sponsors at Blue Manchu for making these awards possible, and also Flaxative for organizing such a smashing party. And, of course, we can't forget the contestants themselves!

R: Indeed, we cannot. It's looking like a veritable zoo out there tonight - cats and dogs, skeletons and cavemen, even a cephalopod... I'm sure they've got plenty in store for us, so without further delay let the judging begin!


N: Our first contestant will be @Vakaz, sporting three human wizards in "Caveman Castle". Roll the film...

Wow, my first thought is that these cavemen certainly go in with flair. The coordinated costumes are spot-on for the theme, but there's still a touch of whimsy and caprice which is accentuated by the delightful soundtrack. These fellas mean business, but they're confident enough to have some fun along the way!

R: And even confident enough to demonstrate the build in ranked matches!

N: Caveman don't give a ****. Caveman don't care.

R: Exactly. The method of play is also rather unique, focused around denial and evasion via Wall Of Stone rather than confrontation. Although, yes, right there he does shoot off some heavy magic. He demonstrates good use of initiative, and Flank Move is especially appropriate in this context since something has gone terribly wrong if he ever ends up close to an opponent.

N: On the whole, I'm feeling quite positive about the cavemen. I do think there was a missed opportunity, thematically, in the "Dwarf Fortress" which Vakaz briefly mentions as the predecessor to this build. I'm also not quite sure where lightning bolts fit in with the prehistoric theme, but otherwise it offers a tight presentation where flavor and gameplay complement each other quite well. Bravo!


R: Continuing our exploration of ancient cultures, we now turn from Vakaz's prehistoric cavemen to @Stexe's "Punished By My Own Punishing" Maztec build. It looks like this one will probably make use of the new AotA attacks which increase damage based on the victim's hand size. Let's see how it goes...

N: Hmm... the punishers don't appear to have much visual coherence. I see a robot wizard and a couple of dwarf priests. I suppose I'll nickname them "robocop", "terminator", and "conner" so we can tell them apart as the match progresses.

R: Stexe has chosen a more serious tone with his entry, but he's going to use a non-ranked match to show off his build. Let's see if Flaxative puts up a fight.

N: Oh dear, it seems that we've got some collaboration being captured right here on camera. Flax looks to be pulling punches, and even aiding Stexe in building up hand size. That's going to detract somewhat from the final score, though it doesn't put him entirely out of the running. Can he recover?

R: Well, now he's got Flax's warrior locked down with Entangling Roots. That's a very clever touch to counter Elven Maneuvers while stuffing his hand. I imagine it would also work well with Martyr's Blessing.

N: That is a very nice touch, especially given that roots sees almost no competitive play. Oh! And there's the kicker, 22 damage in one go, with another potential 24 damage following on. Quite impressive. And I do appreciate that it aims to punish the common warrior builds.

R: It is a highly unusual build, though lacking somewhat in thematic coherence and the central combo seems fragile to pull off.

N: Yes, but when it does go off, it goes off with a spectacular bang! I'm not sure the punishers will manage to top the list, but it's a worthy entry. Well done, Stexe!


R: Next up is @Inkfingers and his team of geomancers! This looks to be a rather unique terraforming build, which astoundingly carries every type of terrain attachment in the game. Smoke, lava, acid, blessed, illusion, spikes... oh wait, no! It's missing stone. So close to a clean sweep, but a commendable assembly of spells nonetheless. Hopefully it will play out in some interesting scenarios. Roll...!

N: Oh my, thirty minutes?!? *fidget* I may need some more catnip to make it through the night...

R: Like the cavemen, Inkfingers has given us thematically-coordinated costumes thanks to the geomancers league.

N: Love it or hate it, the geomancers league was certainly a gameplay-transforming event in Cardhuntria. Hopefully we'll continue to see such innovation from the league system as it matures, but in the meantime can Inkfingers deliver a similarly transformative experience?

R: I'm going to commend Inkfingers for demonstrating such variety while adhering to the theme. He hasn't focused in on a single card or a single combo, but rather chosen a game mechanic as the core of his build. That demonstrates a different kind of vision.

N: Those are also some... unique... sound effects. Whistling, maybe even a modem (or was that some kind of dubstep/electronica mix?). And apparently geomancers go "boop-beep-bop" when turning the floor to lava.

R: Anyways, skipping through the match I see some nice tactical play. The terraforming effects certainly emphasize the importance of movement and LOS. Using Cleansing Ray for both defense and card cycling is another nice touch.

N: Ooooh! The killer combo - Volcano + Bless. Volcano is underhanded by itself, but then you follow it up with insult. This is certainly a neat build, though the MP deck-building constraints prevent it from rising to the same level as the geomancy league. A well executed build, if somewhat rambling in presentation. Good job, Inkfingers!


R: Our fourth contestant is @Qivril and his "Tricky Bricks". What have we got?

N: Oh my, Qivril just walks into the room and takes command. 3x Karen? Drop a beat without a word of explanation? Who dat? He's the coolest cat around. He knows it, we know it, and he knows that we know it.

R: Running three elf wizards is quite brazen, but we'll have to see if it pays off.

N: It already paid off. ≡(❤ ェ ❤)≡

R: Well, if he runs into firestorm, it'll be over in the first round. Fortunately, his opponent is running a normal 1/1/1. And it appears that the "tricky bricks" are in fact Wall Of Stone. A fistful of them.

N: That is an impressive quantity of Wall of Stone. I guess this is a variation on the theme we already saw in Vakaz's "Caveman Castle". He's even running Flank Move for initiative.

R: Qivril's build does seem to be more focused than Vakaz's. Looking at the decklists, Karen is packing far more walls than the cavemen. In fact, it appears that Karen isn't carrying a single damaging spell!

N: Wowowoow! That's delightfully passive-aggressive. Heh, and even the names are plays on kinds of stone - Diorite, Syenite, Picrite...

R: Well, this match seems to have been locked down a while ago, so we'll skip through the remaining 15 minutes. Visual presentation probably could have been a little tighter. Vakaz definitely came out on top with more approachable flair; Qivril's build was very focused, but it might be just a little too cool to hang out with the rest of us.

N: No! Karen is way better than stuffy old caveguys. *pouts*

R: ...

Anyways, well done Qivril! We have another top contender who might just turn out to be the darling of all you fans watching from home.


R: And now, for something completely different... here's @PDXTai and his "Crack Suicide Squad".

N: This one does look to distinguish itself from the crowd. Whereas previous entries have been fairly serious, or at least whimsical in their seriousness, PDXTai just wants to flop over and get a belly rub. *shakes head* DOGS

R: It's an effective implementation of the conceit: Flammable + Firestorm is an excellent way to deal damage, even if it is to your own characters.

N: I do appreciate the tight execution and nice visual elements. However, I might question a few aspects of the presentation. Most notably, if you're running elf wizards there's no excuse for waiting until the second turn to clean everything up. A first round KO would have really shined, but we only get to see a clean slate on the second round.

R: Hey, he did manage to draw Flammable onto every wizard, which is quite a feat. The Brain Burn is another nice touch.

N: Yes, the deck is optimized very well for the theme. Still, I can't help but feel that using elves was also a bit of a cheat - isn't it a tad more impressive to wipe out your team when you're burly dwarves?

R: Nevertheless, we have here an extraordinary deck which excels at failure and stands out from the oh-so-serious crowd. Put your paws together for PDXTai!


R: Our next contestant hails from the sunny shores of Portugal, bringing us a unique twist on dwarf control. Please welcome @tuknir and his "Triple Dwarf Control Priests", or 3DP.

N: This is an amusing take on the dwarf control first popularized by Scared Little Girl. I do believe that was the first build to achieve such widespread fame, and even naming such mainstay deck-building strategies as "trait cycling".

R: Looking at the decklist, tuknir doesn't seem to be using similar techniques for his priests. Of course, wizards are infamous for their trait-friendly equipment, so it really isn't possible to equip a priest with such laser-like focus. Let's roll the film and see how he does...

N: Even before we see the dwarves in play, my first thought is "Wow, what an accent! What panache!" Rising above a sea of bland, midwest non-accents, 3DP already has established its dominance with a completely unique vocal imprint.

R: Oh dear, we completely missed the bleeps right there. Kids at home, cover your ears...!

N: Hehehe, the dwarves don't seem to be accomplishing much, but this commentary is unrivaled. If Blue Manchu ever takes character voice-overs from the community, they had better use tuknir's audio samples!

R: The build itself has some interesting tricks. Mind Worm and Entangling Roots don't see much competitive play, but that might be for a good reason.

N: Oof, well the dwarves have been unceremoniously shown the door. "A" for effort, "A" for hilarity, but maybe a "D" for effectiveness. Still, this contest is about style rather than substance, and he's sure got flair. Now it's up to the crowd... great job, tuknir!

(go to part 2)

 

Squidy's deck is far and away the most innovative. First true combo build I've seen in the game.

 

kudos to Vakaz for having the best video and to Susurrus for having such a quality voice and actually being in character

but I cast my vote for The Trans-Adventurers by Kalin, I can just imagine the story behind a group of misfits against all odds trying to fight from their hearts and not their talent

I think I'll suggest this premise to my DnD group for our next campaign

 

Wow. The build I was going to enter didn't show up, not even close! .... curse you tube!

EDIT:
First I had problems with the account, then upload errors, then the video wouldn't show... it's a long story, but the name of my build was:
Bloody Elves!

 

What happened?

 

I really like Squidy's build. I saw him using it in a custom game and thought it was clever. Besides myself, I think he should win! =)

 

Squidy's build will rate a special award for "Caused Most Nerfed Cards" once BM sees his vid. Pretty awesome.

 

And I thought draw decks weren't a problem anymore! Wow, once you draw all your non-inspiration out of the deck.... it just keeps going and going!

Also, I was under the impression that the videos needed commentary. I guess it's not required!
Lastly, this page is SO SLOW. Did you have to embed all the videos here, not just post links?

 

I just said make a vid highlighting the build. Obviously commentary helps

You don't use flashblock???