I'm going to tell you all something that may get me in trouble with the FBI. What you are about to hear is completely true. None of the events you are about to witness have been altered in any way, shape, or form.
Are you ready?
The World is a Vampire.
Oh, and Druid versus Necro is the most powerful set Arcane Wonders has released yet.
Which would you like to hear more about? I'm guessing the latter. In which case, ther are few things this article will strive to discuss today. The first is why this set in particular is so powerful, and what can be done to stop it. The second is more of a speculation into the deeper meta that will occur about 2-3 weeks after DvN is released. Let's get started.
So, what makes this set so good? Well, there are a few things, and most of them are on the Necrotic side of things, with a few head nods to the Druid. Let's look first at the Necromancer, and let's see just how strong he really is. The first thing we have to realize, before looking at any abilities, is that he channels 10. Historically, mages that channel 10 from the start tend to do better in games. This is not true all the time, of course, but we can't ignore this major advantage. As well, he is a creature oriented mage, so him channeling 10 means he is going to be casting creatures, and quick. The next ability we have to look at, and really the absolute strongest ability on the card, is the Plaguemaster Trait. And even then, there's really only two words we need to look at out of that entire paragraph that really matter to us: Poison Immunity. This means so many things. But most of all, this means direct damage that isn't fire is going to be impossible to stick on this mage. So things like Ghoul Rot are just not going to really be a threat anymore. As well, Plague master also states that you can pay a mana to do a damage if they have a poison condition. You know what that means? With Idol of Pestilence, which Necro is of course, immune to, a ghoul rot, and a tainted/rot/cripple condition, the Necromancer is now doing 4 damage a round to you. That will kill you quick. couple that with things like Force crush and Poison Gas Cloud, and you will see your life total disappear faster than Macaulay Culkin's career after he hit puberty. And I'm not even sure if that's an exaggeration. Seriously, what happened to Macaulay Culkin? Excuse me while I google him.
Strange, I could only find pictures of Michael Jackson when he was a chil- ohh. Let's just continue. And then there's Eternal Servant, which again, is a strong ability. The ability to give Piercing +1 at will FOR FREE is something you just can't ignore. And again, paying Half mana for a creature just adds to the Necro's already incredible ability to summon swarms and swarms of zombies. But, beyond the abilities of the Necromancer, what else makes him so strong?
Look up the codex definition for "Resilient". I'll wait. It's a seriously strong ability, isn't it? I mean, that makes every die roll a 66 percent chance to miss. Of course, these odds increase chance to hit the more dice you roll, but the singular percentage remains the same. And it is incredibly unforgiving. Granted, Bloodthirsty is double-edged sword, but it's really a difficult thing to take advantage of the opponent's bloodthristy. There has to be something more one can do to combat these zombies...
Not only that, we now have the only ability in the game that can cast from anywhere in the arena!!! Spreading vines really is as good as you think it is, it gives you the ability to have a lot of options from far away, giving way to a much more efficient turtling strategy than what was previously seen. It makes up for the terrible starting stats she has. You might even look at going ranged with her *wink*, due to her incredible ability to hinder EVERYTHING yo. Err thing.
As well, she has the incredible ability to heal, and heal a lot every single turn. Up to four, in fact. Five with Hand of Bim Shalla. But who's counting? I am, obviously, that question was rhetorical. So, her starting life total of ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE really isn't that bad with all this healing. She's also got Acid Ball to really start to mess with opponents, including the Wizard, as corrode is the first real card that can really hurt the Wizard's main strength, which is Armor plus Shield. This is on top of most of her creatures being able to regen, and regen hard. Where the Neccowafermancer has Resilient, the Druid has Regen. There seems to be a pattern here...
So, what is the best strategy to defeat these mages? Well, the plants have an inherent weakness that IS RIGHT ON THE CARD ITSELF. Flame +2 is a lot of free dice if you are the warlock, bringing your max from 9 to 11. Or 10 to 12 if you are playing Hand of Bim or Marked for Death. I digress. As well, this adds +2 to burn rolls, making your attacks basically able to make the opponent burn in a flashy ball of death. Like when a redneck throws a WD40 can in his burning trash pit. Short, fiery, with a "Did you see that un bubba?" at the end. The Necro and his bag of nastiness is a little harder to kill, as resilient really is that difficult. There are two solutions that come to mind. The first is just rolling as many dice as humanly possible. This can have effective results. This can also blind the opponent, so please don't just throw the dice. The second solution is a little more logical, theoretical. It is to use critical, unavoidable damage to defect these bastard zombies. This is further proven by looking at the rather low life total of the Zombies. Using cards like Demonhide Armor will do the job, as well as giving you a really badass look (Now you just need a Sons of Anarchy patch for the back!). We can also, like with the Druid, stack burns to kill these cats. In this case, I like AoEs a little more, as there will be a lot more of them, as well, you have a better chance to damage/burn at least 1-2 of them, as they are slow/lumbering, and will tend to group together in packs. Believe me man, I've studied the Zombie Apocalypse at least once, and I can tell you that they love to run in packs, as they are more effective in this way. As it applies to Mage Wars, it is no different. So, burn em man. Burn em all.
So, what will the meta be like once the set is released, based on this knowledge? Well, you will have two main builds about a week after the set comes out. The first will be a Necro Swarm build, as zombies are just too synergistic to say no to. The Druid will rock a more controlling build, relying on few bigs to get the job done, as well as massive life gain and small disruption. The natural deterrents you will see rise? the first, and arguable the most obvious, is a Priest/Priestess build, as they both get +2 to dark/Undead in almost every attack they perform. Making Blinding Flash a ton more playable. Either are playable, it just depends on if you care about the auto burn more, or the condition removal. The choice is yours. Seriously. The second build I think we will see rise to defeat the massive onslaught of Necro and Druid books is a fire heavy Warlock build. A curse build won't work as well, obviously, because of the Necro's tendency to ALWAYS BE IMMUNE TO POISON, so I think a Lord of Fire/Lash of Hellfire Build, or something with a few demons will rise up to conquer, as it does well against both the new mages. The third style of book we will see rise is the Mana Wizard with a Fire Kicker. Creatures are on the rise (literally)(pun kind of intended), and mana denial will be at the top of the list for anyone who wants to play the Wizard Competitively. You will see splashes of Incorporeal Creatures, as the Necro and Druid both have a bit of a weakness to them with a lack of Ethereal Attacks. You will also see things like multiple pieces of armor in all books, as the most popular method for ridding corrode markers will be to just replace the piece of armor entirely. This will be especially important for the Wizard, which is why you might begin to see Battle Forges popping back up again on the Wizard's side of things.
In any case, I hope this short sort of "strategy guide" Helps at least a few of you folks out there. Prepare for an onslaught, because that's exactly what this set is bringing. But don't worry, this isn't the end, it's only the beginning.
Now, get off the toilet and start playing!
Dude.
