I haven't played Domination (or with any of the new cards) yet, but I can't help trying to analyze the new format and predicting strategic trends. Let me know what you think.

Here is my thinking so far:

In Domination, cards that specifically address mana economy will not be as strong. Games won't be able to go as long, so the long term mana advantage will be less significant. Plus setting yourself up to secure orbs will accomplish much the same thing while also directly contributing to a point victory and strengthening your defensive position with a stronger board position and the option for healing if you need it. I can see a spawnpoint + Meditation Amulet strategy working, but I have trouble justifying using Mana Crystals in Domination.

It's harder to predict the effect on the viability of action economy cards like Battle Forge, Fellella, and Lair than Mana Crystal. I expect creature spawnpoints to be relatively strong. Playing one will slow down securing your first orb by about a turn, but you should be able to make up for that with a stronger position later, particularly if you can secure multiple orbs and use them to generate the mana you need to keep a steady stream of creatures coming.

Whether aggression or control will be favored will depend largely on how easy it is to get at the other mage and how easy it is to get enough points to win through orbs. In general, having neutral creatures out, gumming up the board and hindering movement will tend to slow down aggression, and focus creature rushes on flying and elusive threats. Having other obstacles start out on the board will tend to hurt aggression further. In addition, a system that encourages early creatures for economic plays puts control in a stronger position to resist a creature rush. The ability of the orbs to grant healing means that it will be harder for an aggressive player to secure a kill against an opponent that controls multiple orbs, and the control player in this circumstance doesn't need to fully stabilize to win, they just need to hold onto those orbs and delay long enough.

That said, I expect most games of Domination to start with both players trying to secure an orb advantage. I anticipate that most games will end with one player conceding the point race and going for the enemy mage when it becomes clear that they will lose the points race.

Domination will encourage builds with multiple creatures in order to remove orb guardians and secure orbs. I expect this to strengthen ranged creatures and bows, since they can weaken orb guardians (whether the original neutral ones, or the ones your opponent uses to secure their orbs) without suffering from the counter attack, and the action will tend to be more spread out. Things certainly could spread out in a standard Arena match, but there are more incentives to spread out in Domination.

Position control will have additional uses, but it's hard to tell how much more important it will be. Regardless, mobility will be more important, and slow creatures like Darkfenne Hydra, Iron Golem, and Devouring Jelly will be weaker.

In terms of specific mages, I expect the Johktari Beastmaster and Bloodwave Warlords will be significantly stronger in Domination because they will always be able to take advantage of their Wounded Prey and Veteran abilities respectively, whereas in a standard Arena match, there were matchups where those abilities were marginal or even completely useless. In particular, I want to try a Bridge Troll opening with the Bloodwave Warlord. Veteran Bridge Trolls sound amazing.

I expect the Forcemaster to struggle a bit due to the lack of a strong creature base, though I'll have to try playing a few creatures with her and see how well she can secure orbs. Force Pull should be extremely helpful in Domination, but the high cost of solid creatures could easily prove crippling.

I expect Warlocks to play more creatures than in standard Arena. Pentagram should be getting a significant boost in Domination due to the earlier combat with neutral monsters and the addition of Sslak to the creature base. One of the reasons I haven't been enamored of Pentagram builds is the lack of a solid level 2 creature with strong defensive stats for it's cost. I haven't been impressed with Infernian Scourger in that role, but I can see Sslak being a reasonable choice, particularly with how well they work as orb guardians. Costing 2 less mana for the same stats minus counterstrike and and flame -2 leaves you in a better position to do something with your mage while pumping creatures out of the Pentagram. I don't expect to see Usslak coming out of the Pentagram because Dark Pact Slayer is much more spellbook efficient, and for only 2 more mana offers better synergy for either Warlock.

Too...Many...Exclamation...Points...

Sardonyx only gives finite life to creatures, not conjurations.

As a Necromancer, you have to pay to reanimate your eternal servant when it gets destroyed. You can't wait.

You have to pay the cost for Rise Again when the creature gets destroyed. You can't wait.

The wording on eternal servant is less clear than the wording on Rise Again, but the timing on the payment works the same way assuming that Rise Again is face up.

1) Play armor. Playing a chest piece will really help. If you aren't sure what your opponent is doing you can usually afford to play a Brace Yourself without disrupting your opening too much. Your opponent will almost certainly try to remove your armor, and it's important to keep reapplying your armor if they do. If you can maintain your armor against your opponent, Veteran's Belt makes that armor even more effective.

2) Play a defense. Block, Reverse Attack, Cobra Reflexes, Reflex Boots, and Force Orb are all helpful against this style of play, and make big attack spells much less efficient. Block and Reverse Attack are more stopgap measures than the others, but can still do wonders to make a hyper aggressive mage run out of steam.

3) Block line of sight with walls or otherwise prevent your opponent from targeting you with those attack spells. Cloak of Shadows and Fog Bank are also options as long as you can limit your opponent's mobility.

4) Play a creature with Intercept. A Guardian Angel, Dwarven Panzergarde, or Gargoyle Sentry can do a lot to take pressure off your mage from attack spell spam.

5) Heal. This is less important than making sure your opponent can't do massive burst damage to you, but if you have 4 armor and a defense, healing is much more efficient than attacks against you. Just make sure you don't run a Heal into a Poisoned Blood, since that sets you back pretty far. You can use direct healing spells, though I mostly do that with the Priestess. Other options include Vampirism and Regrowth Belt.

Daze/Stun chances are helpful, though not as strong against attack spells as against mages reliant on non-spell attacks.

If you want to rush, I would focus more on using Wizard's Tower to strip armor with Acid Ball if your opponent plays at all defensively, though you'll still have trouble against walls and Cloak of Shadows.

I don't see the need for Elemental Wand at all. Playing one slows you down both because of the action and the mana cost. If you want to play an attack spell that you don't run a lot of copies of, use Wizard's Tower if possible to preserve the spell. Otherwise just run 6 Hurl Rock and 4 Hurl Boulder and you'll have plenty of attack spells for damage, the trick is making that damage count. Use Rust + Acid Ball spam + Devouring Jelly to deal with armor stacking as much as possible, and use Poisoned Blood and/or Deathlock to prevent healing.

I think you will be in a better position overall if you slow down a little bit and play just one or two big threats first, since that will give you the repeatable damage that you need if your opponent plays defensively. Steelclaw Grizzly, Necropian Vampiress, and Brogan Bloodstone are all solid choices for that role. Arcane doesn't really have any strong mobile threats, so you should consider out of school options. Devouring Jelly is a good immobile threat, but you'll probably have to invest a reasonable amount in position control to keep it relevant.

Banana stickers got handed out mostly by Shad0w for doing a good job of answering rules questions. Shad0w hasn't been on the forums in a few months though, so I haven't seen a lot of banana stickers getting handed out lately.

Crown of Protection is good on many angels and Bridge Trolls. If you're using it on Knight of Westlock or Brogan Bloodstone, it's probably not worth it.