36 replies to this topic

[DarkBlaze557]

First of all, a quick note: The dates for the Deck of the Month have changed! In order to make sure that the Deck of the Month is announced at the beginning of every month, we have moved nominations back a week. That means that nominations end a week early in order to get the voting started faster. Any decks that are posted during the voting period are eligible for the following month's nominations. Any questions? Too bad.




Thanks to you guys, the winner of the January Deck of the Month is also the first since its resurrection to win it back-to-back two months in a row! Juli-Mizrahi's "Neko mimi mode!!" deck brings back one of my old favorite cards and makes it a bit "too good." By Juli's words, it's "over powerful."

Juli is also the first to win the prize of 75 XCBux since its been introduced. All future Deck of the Month challenges will award the winner with 75 XCBux in their pockets, so be sure to post your best work!

February's Deck of the Month is open for nominations. Be sure to nominate your favorite decks from February in this thread:
http://xerocreative....th-nominations/

Feel free to visit Juli's topic in the Depot to comment on her deck. You can find that topic here:
http://xerocreative....neko-mimi-mode/

Below is also her decklist and explanations. Congratulations Juli!


This is a deck centered around 2 very funny monsters... at least I think they are. They are Cat's Ear Tribe and Blackwing Jin the Rain Shadow. They are both very good at killing things much stronger than they are.

Monsters -- 21
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3x Cat's Ear Tribe
3x Blackwing - Jin the Rain Shadow
3x Mystic Piper
3x Kinka-Byo
3x Effect Veiler
3x Cyber Valley
2x Chaos Sorcerer
1x Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

All lv.1's except the chaos triad listed at the end of it. I wasn't happy about adding them, but the deck needed the kick, and I just don't think The Calculator would be able to pull that off....

Spells -- 14
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3x United We Stand
3x Mage Power
1x Burial from the Different Dimension
1x One for One
2x Lightning Vortex
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Dark Hole
1x Monster Reborn
1x Scapegoat

One for One will obviously bring out almost any monster in the deck at a moments notice, UWS and Mage Power for supersizing Jin and Tribe, Scapegoat because who doesn't love a wall of fluffy cuteness?

Traps -- 7
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2x Wolf in Sheep's Cloting
2x Starlight Road
2x Malevolent Catastrophe
1x Waboku

A couple interesting ones here. Wolf in Sheep's Clothing is an easy field booster when you need it most, Malevolent Catastrophe is Heavy Storm as a trap, Waboku will let cats ear kill literally anything.

Extra - 15
-----------------------------------------------
1x Formula Synchron
1x Armory Arm
1x T.G. Hyper Librarian
1x Ally of Justice Catastor
1x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
2x Stardust Dragon
1x Shooting Star Dragon
1x Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
3x Baby Tiragon
3x Number 83: Galaxy Queen

Mostly assembled for convenience than actual use, the penultiate accomplishment here would be summoning Shooting Star Dragon. Queen protects my monsters from effects and battle respectively,Baby Tiragon lets that UWS/Mage boosted whatever attack directly for serious hurt on the opponent.

[Exarion]

Congrats Juli!


>.>
<.<

Yes, my nomination won! x)

[MyBlackwingPlaylist]

^I nominated her the first time though! (Actually, I think I nominated her once before that....?)

Congrats anyhow.

Also, now I have to post a deck every month. I want those XCBux :F

[Dragonheart91]

This is just sad. A weak and pitiful deck that doesn't even attempt to be good won... It's one thing to not bother to be competitive, it's a whole other thing to not even make your own deck the best it can be within it's own theme.

I am disappointed by the deck of the month competitions. They are popularity contests that don't seem to care about deck content. All of the other decks listed were better than this one both by being much more powerful, and by being built around their theme better.

Edited by Dragonheart91, 01 February 2012 - 10:19 PM.

[redeyeszack84]

Dude... harsh.  I mean, really kinda... uncalled for.  If you had issues, you could of taken it up privately with Kakashi instead of like publicly making an unwarranted attack on a member (technically several members in one blow).

[MyBlackwingPlaylist]

I'll agree that Sho's deck was the best (and DB's a close second), but I don't think you're going about this the right way Dragon. But, maybe you are right about the winning decks being chosen on popularity; Perhaps we should have some form of an entry test before allowing a deck to be nominated?

[Dragonheart91]

I attack no members. I think the deck is not very good and the voting is based more on popularity than deck concent. I think gimicks are overvalued and actually playability of the deck is disregarded. These factors lead me to be highly disappointed in this as a competition. It's not the first time I've seen this effect, but I keep thinking it will improve. I should probably just stay away from the deck of the months.

There are few enough participants and nominations right now that there is little need for more barries to entry. The only solution I can think of would be adjustment to the structure of the competition in some way to promote people voting differently.

Edited by Dragonheart91, 01 February 2012 - 11:03 PM.

[DarkBlaze557]

DragonHeart, though I understand your sentiments, you misunderstand the community.

Xerocreative has always been a community that rewards creativity over competitiveness in its deck building areas. That's just how our users are.

If this were all about how strong a deck is, I'd win every time.

[Dragonheart91]

Which is why I voted for you*... Creativity is important, but not at the cost of an effective deck. I don't rank a deck on it's ability to compete in the meta. I rank it how well it is optomized to do what it wants to do. A deck should always be the most powerful it can be in a vacuum while still maintaining it's theme. The deck up there doesn't even run Heavy Storm and has no reason not to. It was even mentioned that it should, but promptly ignored. It focuses on equip spells and stall cards which will cause it to be blown out every time by any deck built well. It could use much more powerful cards instead, but simply doesn't care.

Focusing on those two monsters and that style of play is fully viable and quite cool. Doing it badly and ignoring helpful advice completely eliminates the deck from any competition environment.


As a side note, I'm not a fan of rule #9 of nominations. The point of this compeition (as I understand it) is to generate interest and attention for some of the cool decks on XeroCreative. Most people want to talk about their own decks. Rule #9 specifically disallows campaining for your own deck to get noticed. In what way does it bias the voting process to allow someone to say "Hey, look at the cool deck I posted [url]here[url]!"? Why would it be wrong to allow someone to post a status update like "Wow, my deck got nominated for deck of the month! I use this cool strategy, check out my deck and vote if you think it's as cool as I do!" This kind of self-campainging gathers attention, puts the natural human resource at our disposal to work, increases interest in the competition, and makes sure that everyone is an active participant in the contest instead of just spending 30 seconds nominating a deck and another 15 seconds voting later in the month.

Most democratic processes allow campainging for a good reason. It increases voter turn-out and improves how well the voters are informed. I would completely understand disallowing smear campaigns and/or other reasonable restrictions, but I think it's lame that I'm not allowed to talk about my own deck and tell everyone to go check it out for deck of the month.

*I initially planned to vote for Sho, but he lost my vote when he took out Tyrant Neptune and changed his deck into a much more generic build of Fortune Heroes. (Which is not all that unusual of an archetype.) I then voted for the person I nominated with their Relinquished deck, but although it was kind of cool I felt like too few of it's aspects were truly new and most of it was simply an update of an old build -albiet well done-. I finally voted for DB because his deck has unique aspects that set it apart from the rest of the meta, but it's so incredibly well polished that it could probably do very well in almost any competitive environment and I could see very few if any ways to improve the deck. Polish + Presentation + Power + a dash of originaly > Powerful & Polished but less originall > Crap + two cups of originality.

Edited by Dragonheart91, 01 February 2012 - 11:45 PM.

[kakashipwnzor]

Because you should earn the win, not beg and plead for it.

It's that simple.

You don't like how I run things? Don't participate. Last time I checked, I'm not forcing every active member to vote/nominate, I'm just doing what I believe to be a great idea. You think differently, and I'm fine with that.

I'm not however going to take your whining and complaining about how it's "unfair".

You can blame the community if anyone for making the contest "unfair" because it's nothing but them giving their own opinions.

If you'd like to give me suggestions on how to adjust the competition, I'm all ears.

Until then though, you might want to lay off bashing something I've worked hard on the past months. I'm not in the best of moods after reading that.

[Dragonheart91]

I don't recall saying it was unfair anywhere. I think the way it currently operates is a bit of a popularity contest and that it's not competitive. It's a cool thing to try, but the involvement from the community is fairly limited and the most silly decks win regardless of being well-built.

I actually did just give you some suggestions on how to adjust the competition, but you shot them down. (E.G. Adjust the rules to allow self-promotion, add some voting criteria, and promote a more competitive spirit.)

Edited by Dragonheart91, 02 February 2012 - 11:56 AM.

[Sho Shinjo]

Eh, IDK if I'm allowed to step in, but I'd like to make a comment.

Dragonheart, you know I get what you mean, and you also know I agree with you in some things (like making a Deck able to sustain itself over making it pretty-looking), but I agree with kakashi on the self-promotion thing. I've been nominated a pair of times for this contest, and I even won once, but not even once I asked for anyone to vote for me. I truly think that if your build is truly deserving of stuff like this, it will get noticed without you having to tell people.

I'm not humble in the very least IMO, and I enjoy winning these things as much as anyone does. I like to brag about things as much as anyone does, and I love talking and ranting about my own stuff a bit too much. I'd love to talk with everyone about my deck, but trying to earn votes that way, I don't think so. I don't want to convince anyone to think in any way.

While I do congratulate Juli for her win, I honestly don't like her deck xD I also admit that I'd have liked to win the contest, but hey, no hard feelings or anything. I'll just try to come up with something cool next time and hope it gets elected.

Just my 2 cents.

[Stomach The MachoPony]

While i agree Competitiveness>Creativity every time i also Say that in this kind of competition a deck COULD win because of its effectiveness OR Win due to it being creative and still working well (somewhat) case in point Juli's Crazy deck which i tested and it actually works quite well maybe not Top tier level but it still works well at what its supposed to do

WHICH i might add Dragon YOU said you rated decks by

Dragonheart91, on 01 February 2012 - 11:41 PM, said:

I don't rank a deck on it's ability to compete in the meta. I rank it how well it is optomized to do what it wants to do.

so Basically you just Contradicted yourself saying *the deck suck and shouldnt have won* when in  reality it did what you said better than the others.

[Gedatz]

I love how people in this thread are poorly paraphrasing Dragonheart under some sort of negative tone though from what I've read he hasn't once attacked a person just frowned upon a concept. People are walking dangerously close against that line of forum rule #3 lol; however, thats off topic so lets move to being ontopic!

Being creative is obviously what the creator of this finds to be more important, and heck, creativity is always a good thing. It offers for more exploration, utilizing of new cards with older cards, and finding a way to combine the two into neat moves! But obviously there is a call for other decks doing the same thing with more consistancy and power or they wouldn't have been noted.  So heres the question: Does your deck choice really maximize the use of your deck? By no means is this attacking the deck above, but I will be using it as an example only because its prevalent to this thread(personally I dig the combo of waboku and smacking down with level 1's lol).

As was noted before, there is no heavy storm in this deck, but two slower trap versions of it in malevolent catastrophe. Scapegoat is around and no mirror force or torrential, etc. Its missing some staples but it still operates pretty well. The problem is, it doesn't operate at its best and that is what I believe Dragon was getting at. The deck is niche, fun to play(after seeing it I built it myself and played against my friend's watt deck and kicked her butt lol), but it definetely has some lackluster elements and could be improved upon(just a couple were noted above that most basically built decks have).

To summarize, the deck is cool but not really refined, that doesn't mean it shouldn't win(it already did, and its neat!) but the question really comes down to should it have been allowed to enter without a refining process. Perhaps a quick critique from some people to make the cool deck be a powerfully running as well as niche deck that actually had some proven changes to make it better from said critiques because obviously there are still some glaring holes in this deck.

Edited by Gedatz, 02 February 2012 - 02:27 PM.

[redeyeszack84]

Well, lets just take it basic as is.  You bash someones deck, you bash them.  Simple as that, but I'm not going to stir that pot anymore, its already over filling, since either way, if this really WAS just an issue with the nature of the contest, it should of been a private matter between Dragon and Kakashi.

As for "needing" staples, as far as creative deck building goes, thats just a crutch.  Plus, she already runs about 7-9 commonly used cards as it is.  There's a reason you rarely see a meta deck nominated for this contest.  If we wanted to see a deck filled with the same old stuff, we wouldnt bother with a contest, we'd just go play ranked on DN.

Yes, its a competition, but its all just for the fun of it.  Win or lose, nothing really changes (aside from having more imaginary money lol).

[Jesse]

Let's not talk about the deck here any longer. There's a reason there's a link to it: we can comment there.

I personally don't know who Juli is. I've seen her post, but I've never spoken to her or really acknowledged her. What I do know is that she's a member here, and every member is valued here. Of course, including Dragonheart, and I'm not saying he's not.

But honestly, Dragon, you were too aggressive. Even if you had no intentions of insulting or affecting anyone here, you did. Calling someone's deck "weak and pitiful" is hardly constructive criticism. Actually, it's not, in any way. Neither is saying that you're disappointed with DotM competitions as a whole.

Just making one thing clear. I'm not saying what you said was wrong, but it was just too aggressive. Your point was valid though. I suggest that when giving a point (even if it's a positive one), give evidence or say something for improvement.

That's all, sorry if I sounded harsh.

Edited by Jesse, 02 February 2012 - 03:13 PM.

[Dragonheart91]

I offered suggestions for improvement to the contest. Juli proved she wasn't interested in making her deck better, so I didn't waste my time posting in her thread. (It's a cool idea that I can get behind, but it's not polished and she doesn't want to make it polished.)

This discussion needs to be a community discussion and NOT a private discussion between Kakashi and myself. This is a community run competition, and if you all disagree with me, that's ultimately more important. It's inherently important that I state opinions like these in as public of a place as possible so that others can respond with their opinions.

As for me being abbrasive for "aggressive" as Jesse put it, I don't mean any offense. I like to see people do their best and act intelligently. It annoys me when they don't. I tell them what I think flat-out and almost always include ways for them to improve what I view as stupid or illogical behavior. I'm sorry if I upset anyone, as that is not my intention. However, I am not attacking people personally so much as I am attacking habits and behaviors. If you wish to continue to disagree with me without showing reasons for acting as you do, I will disassociation myself from you to avoid further confrontation. (As you may notice I've done to numerous people who post in the deck depot and then refuse perfectly reasonable help after asking for said help.) If you are willing to take note of your mistakes and improve upon them, you will find that I rapidly switch from abbrasive and attacking to supportive and helpful.


Now back on topic: What does everyone else think of these competitions? Are you happy with the current way they function? Do you you agree/disagree with my opinion that lots of good decks go unnoticed in these? Can you think of any way to improve what we are doing here?

P.S. I want to respond to Sho

Sho Shinjo, on 02 February 2012 - 12:09 PM, said:

I truly think that if your build is truly deserving of stuff like this, it will get noticed without you having to tell people.

I can think of 2-3 examples last month where this is not true and I'm sure I can find many more if I look around. People don't automatically notice things, they have to be told. If someone puts a title on their deck that doesn't catch anyone's eye, it might never get noticed and they aren't allowed to tell people about it. Some of the more active members like you and me may notice all of the cool decks that others miss, but we can still only nominate one each. I had multiple decks I wanted to nominate last month and I was only able to nominate 1. The others completely missed their chance to compete even though they were just as cool as anything that did make it into the competition. Maybe if they were allowed to talk about their decks they wouldn't get overlooked.

Edited by Dragonheart91, 02 February 2012 - 03:55 PM.

[kakashipwnzor]

Dragonheart91, on 02 February 2012 - 11:53 AM, said:

I don't recall saying it was unfair anywhere. I think the way it currently operates is a bit of a popularity contest and that it's not competitive. It's a cool thing to try, but the involvement from the community is fairly limited and the most silly decks win regardless of being well-built.

I actually did just give you some suggestions on how to adjust the competition, but you shot them down. (E.G. Adjust the rules to allow self-promotion, add some voting criteria, and promote a more competitive spirit.)

1. No. Listen, I'm fine with it being a competition. It's GOOD that it's a competition. But it's not a political campaign where every other status update/post/signature is "OMG VOTE FOR ME LOL". It's a friendly competition between deck builders. That's all it is. If people don't think a deck is good, they won't vote it. Sure, it might get nominated, and usually there's at least 1 vote per deck per competition, but all in all, the community gets the final say in which deck is interesting/awesome.

2. Again, no. Why should I limit how people vote by saying "Vote for the one you feel is most competitive" or "Vote for the one you feel is most fun."? It's their choice, they should be able to vote however they want.

3. Considering it's meant to be a friendly competition, and the fact that I've gotten prizes added makes competition a bit more stiff.

As for "You can only nominate 1 deck" in your post to Sho, if you'd recall, in the rules, I stated you had 3 votes for nominations until February's DOTM. Why? Because everyone was only nominating one deck per month. You had plenty of opportunity every month until this one to nominate 3 "cool and interesting" decks. You didn't.

And as for you asking the questions about the DOTM, I'm pretty sure I would be the one asking that, but eh. Go for it. I'd also love to hear the opinions on it.

[Sho Shinjo]

@ Dragon: That's also why is a competition. I mean, if you make a Deck and put something different on it but nobody notices, then it might not be that different/creative/original as you thought. And that's the point: it's not about what we think about our decks, but what people think about them. That's why I'm not up for self-promotion.

Back when I was a mod, and I'm sure it's still stated in one of the Deck Depot pins, I said that not only making a cool deck was a good idea to get more views, but making a good topic is needed as well. Interesting names, cool post structure, awesome explanations, even the way you're regarded by the community as an user counts for people to get to view your topics, and all that is involved on the DotM competition.

While I agree with your point that people needs to actually see the deck for it to get nominated, I also think that you can do several things to spice up your posts so people check them. I check your posts because I already know you and I'm sure I'll find something interesting, but other people don't, and you already know yourself that you can have a sharp tongue xD Those who know you (as myself) know you mean no harm, but a newer user (or someone who just doesn't want to deal with anything) might just shrug it off and leave, not taking a look at your deck. It's not easy having to think a name and a witty comment(s) for each and every deck xD But I'm pretty sure that it at least makes someone somewhere chuckle a bit and say "okay, let's check this out, if anything to see what's up with it".

That's why I meant with what I said. I'm not speaking only of the actual deck, but everything that surrounds it, including yourself. That's why I think that, for these kind of events, only things that should be nominated are actually nominated. If you have to ask people to nominate you or to look at your stuff, that's not a good start: it means the only votes you might get are the ones you ask for, and that's not the point.

[Exarion]

Well, I also barely knew Juli, just nominated her deck because I love level 1 builds and hers was a little different.
I guess I escaped Dragon's rage. >.>

Also Dragon, you said my Ultimate Insect deck (from deck challenge) wouldn't win anything, but I played that same deck against my cousin using Gishki (up to DT13) and won. He's a little newbie, but still. x)



Now a little more seriously, Kakashi, would only the link of your deck in the sig break the rules? >.>
And I thought it was 1 nominated deck per month too (but just confirmed the "3" on the January topic)... <.<