Its added and then transferred. It never gets healed.

Healing would remove the rage. That's one reason I want to try Wolverines in a holy mage: Martyr's restoration would keep it alive without taking the rage off.

So I thought I might do another one of these.


Yesterday, I played my Johktari against Bolverk's Paladin. My book tries to get superior econ with Lair, Shard, harmonize flower and Enchanter's Ring and then attempts to counter whatever the opponent has been doing. It has two Wolverines, two Direwolves, four rats, two Thunderift Falcons and one Owl.

My opening is rather simple: Corner Lair (C4) with shard, then Harmonize Lair and a flower. T3 has 7 mana on lair, 10 mana on mage. In this match, I got a Wolverine out of the Lair and used Enchanter's ring and Hawkeye onto myself.

Bolverk started with forge(B1), Hand of Bim Shallah(A1), Malakai's Basilica(A2) and a Ballista(B3) in range to attack the lair. His forge started with Champion's Gloves into the Light +1 ring. He quickly advanced into Ballista zone and guarded there in T3. I myself went to A4 so that I could threaten Ballista or Malakai's if I used bow, while maybe diverting attention from the lair without leaving it unprotected.

T4 he made a mistake, as he admitted after the game. He summoned Ehren, forgetting that this would void his guard. He also used HoB to place armor onto his mage and not to begin healing Ehren. I had prepared Joined Strength and reclamation. His Ballista dealt 5 damage to lair. I then enchanted the Wolverine and sprinted into the ballista zone to attack Ehren with a wounded prey marker, bringing him to 9 damage. Wolverine also doublemoved into the zone. Bolverk dropped his second action, which I guess was supposed to be some healing for the doomed Ehren.

Turn 4 he placed the challenge marker onto my wolverine, as well as the Malakai's Basilica marker. I summoned a Direwolf from the lair, he equipped himself with the lightsaber. My Mage killed Ehren with a spray of barbs and then guarded for the Wolverine. The Pally used a dazzle to deal 1 damage to the wolverine which I transferred with joined strength but still gave him a rage marker. The wolverine now attacked with 3 dice and inflicted a bleed. The Pally then dropped pillar and rolled 4 normal and 4 crit damage, dealing 5 do the wolverine.

Upkeep Pillar dealt one more damage to the wolverine. I summoned another Direwolf, he got breastplate out. A Luminous blast brought the wolverine to 10 dmg and a second rage marker. The Ballista brought my Lair to 10 damage. A Corrosive orchid robbed the Paladin of his gloves, the sword crumbled away. He moved out of the zone to kill the lair with a fire attackspell, my wolverine moved towards his temples. The Pally was now no longer in range of his forge.

The game, at this point, had beed decided. His last ballista shot went into the Wolverine, bringing it to 12 dmg. I kept disarming him and threw him to my wolves. A Luminous blast hit me for 10 damage and he brought me to 22 damage in total. In the last turn, I prepared a heal for 9 mana and a sprayed barbs to see what he would do with his QC. He used a teleport to get out of a stranglevine and out of reach away from two Direwolves, then I killed him with the barbs.

It had been a good match.


My take on the match:

It's a fairly basic strategy to generate better economy and then defend against any threat your opponent tries to inflict upon you, while generating more and more threat from said econ. The match simply came down to how Bolverk would deal with it. His book being new, he tried to combine some buildup with the temples, some action generation through forge and some threat with the ballista. The mistake with Ehren cost him dearly, and he just didn't find a way to recover.


Things of note:

Spray of barbs is dumb. Nature never had an attackspell and I'm not yet convinced that this needed to change. Such a good attack.
Ballista sucks. Yeah ok, not really. Ballista doesn't really threaten me though, if it has to kill the lair on its own. That's four turns where I basically don't need to fear it or handle it in any way, because a 5 dmg or a 11 dmg lair still do their job just as well as a full hp one.
Removal can be a dick. Using Champion's gauntlets just to protect that sword kinda tells me you don't have too many of those. Meanwhile I'm bringing four dissolves, two crumbles and three corrosive orchids.

He was somewhat unlucky with attacks onto the wolverine, but even if it had died to that last attack, the only damage it dealt afterwards was to kill the basilica and then position itself threateningly. Every action used onto it was a small victory for me. I actually think he had a real chance to win, even after Ehrens death, if he attacked my mage with melee and then used two pillar attacks onto me instead of the big badger.

Then again, hindsight ist 20/20 and the whole game would have had different priorities from then on.

GG
WP (except for the Ehren turn )

Johktari can walk into swamp and still act.

She also has synergies with crocs and falcons, who don't care about swamp.

Not getting Pulled is also a nice thing if you have a bow equipped and want to stay away. If you place two swamps in the center zones you can walk from one to the other and basically make melees worthless.

So, that battle you heard about, the one that took place yesterday... Yes. That was me and LuckiestLuke, taking the arena by storm.

The book I chose was a Malakai Priest whose primary idea is to summon a Bridge Troll and use the Crown of Protection to turn that Bridge troll into a WAR TROLL.
As side-options he packs a whole bunch of Attackspells, a forge and some equip, as well as four temples (HoB, Malakai's, Meravan's and a Lasertower). His creatures are Samandriel, Metatron, Troll, Ehren, two Redhelms and three Initiates of the Dawnbreaker, just because I love those little guys. No Cassiel.

So Luke opened with a Flower and Mhegedden, into another Flower and Gerard Madranger.
I opened with Ehren and a Forge, into Troll, Crown and a stack of armor on the troll.

At that point, both of us got terrified of the other's lategame. I imagined him swimming in gold and mana by the time my army got anywhere near ready to deploy and from what I've gathered, he thought that by the time his buildup reached its break-even-point, my troll would reach the break?-never!-point.

Both of us quickly moved into our respective center tile, at which point he had added a Panzerguard to his Army and placed a forge, while I'd equipped a healing ring and a regrowth belt to myself, as well as a Life Link to Ehren (which synergizes nicely with the healing ring.)

He boldly placed a ballista, moving the Panzerguard in there to panzerguard it, thus forcing me to either endure his range attacks or move into the tile with him.
I chose the latter option, even though he outnumbered me 4 to 3, at that point. I somewhat regretted the decision after he revealed a banner of command on the damnable dwarf.

Alas, most of the match played in that zone. We were in range of both Forges, with his ballista unable to shoot anything but my forge. Participants in the battle at this time were Orc, Gerard, Panzerguard and Mhegedden on one side, against a 3-armor-Troll and a Lifelinked Ehren.

My first focus was to kill Gerard. I achieved that by having someone attack the Panzerguard to get rid of the guarding, then blasting the pirate luminously for 7 dice and a burn. Luke equipped a healing wand and tried to keep him alive, while also trying to kill one of my creatures. The troll was the first to get 5 damage due to some guarding, so he focused that one.
We agreed after the game that his focus on the troll with "free" regen, instead of Ehren, whose damage at least would get transferred to the mage, was one of the deciding factors of this match.

To make this long story a wee bit shorter:
I killed Gerard. Just before he died, Luke used his gold to get a Knight of Westlock out, much to my annoyance. I managed to get three burns onto Mhegedden, all of which stayed until his fiery demise. Mhegedden drew at least one heal action from the healing wand, as well as two lesser heals. All hail Malakai.
Luke equipped an elemental wand with a surging wave, because that's actually a very smart thing to do and he's a smart guy. He never did roll a push though, so that's kinda bad luck for him. He almost got the troll, because I felt save and didn't heal it or put a restore on. A swift Dazzle for a stagger and a horrible roll on his part with a thrown rock for 4 blanks saved the troll and sealed the deal.

His Mhegedden had burned, my troll had been healed to full. My Ehren was at 0 damage, his Panzerguard and the KoW about to die. At this point, he switched over to focusing my 14-ish damage mage who only had one armor (and aegis), while I still hadn't bothered attacking his mage.
Attacking mages isn't my style. I'm a conqueror, not an assassin. I also like control more than chance.

His efforts were commendable, but they just ran onto a wall of healing, undoing every bit of progress he made. That pretty much sums up the match and my book. With the troll on 3 reg and Ehren on up to 4 heal per turn, I undo my enemy's progress.

Having spent his attack spells and being informed that my heal spells were still in good supply, Luke surrendered the match. I was at 17 dmg and him at single-digit, but the game was clearly in my favor, seeing as both my creatures had endured through that whole match, while he stood alone, his army vanquished by the justice of Malakai's light.


Noteworthy:

That was my first match with this book. At multiple points during the game, I'd wanted to summon a Redhelm Avenger, but never quite got around to do it. It's an 11 mana investment costing me a full action (and probably my QC too, with those mana costs)

The match, for me, was basic as hell. I didn't do much more than spam attack spells, attacks/guards and heal a lot. Both books were, of course, geared around battle, so neither of us tried to evade it. I could have chosen to draw him out, spread his forces while I destroy his forge and flowers. His ballista, after all, wouldn't prove much of an annoyance against the massive sustain I had in my squad. We both somehow silently agreed to a brawl though.
I am somewhat surprised to see that I came out on top. He outnumbered me through most of the battle. As for the guarding-game, he had an interceptor as well as an elusive hard-hitting demon monster. All I had was two tanky bois and a mage that served as artillery-support.

Healing ring and life link is fun and with Ehren you never feel like you "waste" the healing spell on someone who never had much damage.

Burns can actually kill. Mhegedden took at least 12 damage from burns alone, forcing his mage to spend more and more actions/mana on healing.

This is where the matchup was glaringly in his favor. He had forge, two flowers, discount cape and a forge, while I had nothing but my forge (which, in turn, eats even more mana). One of the reasons why I'm willing to go for this build and also a main reason why it worked in this match is Dazzle. That little wonder of a spell. I got four of them in my book and I think I spent them all.

I actually never use Blind on time. I'm always like "well, I'll kill the creature anyway..."
I'll have to say though, it's a whole mixed bag that spell. You don't get to use it for the next attack of the creature, since it only activates after successfully dealt damage. Most of the time I'd preferred to try for a Stagger or a daze for immediate protection instead of using blind for a lasting impact.
The other issue is who to use it on. The panzerguard was sure to get its attacks out because I had to get around the guard and wasn't willing to use attackspells to do that. Mhegedden dealt the most damage but I was hellbent on killing him anyway. The mage also serves as a nice target, but he's worse than creatures because he can just go like "lol, ok, I use other spells then. You do you, buddy."
In the end, I only threatened to use it after I'd killed all his creatures, to deny him the mage kill. I actually just healed instead, because I wanted to use the healing ring more.
I really want to use that card, but I never quite think the situation warrants it...

Anywhoo.
GG. WP.
Enjoyable match, and bloody till the last minute.

Can you quote me the passage that prevents me from Bloodreaping a zombie demon?

Oh lordy, I think we could make a whole thread about the sense or nonsense of Mhegedden.

I like him because his low cost allows me to go for a more expensive creature on the very next turn, like Goran, my Drokarr or the lava golem in a nice countermatchup. He's also ridiculously strong, if we're honest. Those hp + armor values with an elusive 5 dice attack are a dream. Him and Goran, for example, is a force to be feared.

Hes teaching me the hard way that I'm a cripple for my first three turns though, as we especially saw in this match. If I'm going to change my opening though, I'm still keeping him and maybe switching out a mana flower.

As for the Bloodreaper: Yeah, it gets me down to 29 health with an afflicted, 28 even if it's my Drokarr. I'm still rather confident I can pull it off, with afflicted and Grey Wraith spreading weaks to complement my Agonies and Debilitate, while Bloodreaper, Regrowth, Death Link, Theft of life and Vampirism keep me in a sweet spot. I do get rather susceptible to a double-boulder snipe though, correct on that front.
Gets rather funny when my Bloodreaper dies and I reanimate it with another Bloodreaper marker though

Funny enough, I think that using heal spells on Ehren is never worth it and I'm arguing the same way that saving mana and summoning a KoW instead is always better. Looks like I'm biased towards Mhegedden.

So we played Johktari against Adramelech. I was like "so how fast of a rush are you going to pull on me?" and then just walked straight into him with a double flower opening. Not one of my smartest notions. My Johktari tries to go forge instead of Lair, saving mana for her strong creatures: Two direwolves, a Wolverine, Kralathor, Izimbila. The forge holds two bows, two spears, a wand of each kind and lots of cheap leather armor.

Anywhoo, this is how it went:

I opened with doublemove doubleflower, into forge direwolf T2. That leaves me at 0 mana, almost as if I'd calculated it all out :O
Aridigas opened with a doublemove and forge, then a flower and an enchant, as well as fire ring out of the forge.

For the next turn, I had gloves of precision on forge, which would leave me with 9 mana for either a force hammer onto mage or a Pillar of whythefuckdidtheyreleasethis.
His forge opened with a Lash and I immediately knew that Pillar would win me the game. I did not QC and as my first action my mage walked into his zone and slapped him for 3 dice, forcing him to stay in the zone to attack me or leave it to attack the wolf. He stayed and whipped me, then used another enchant for me. My wolf moved in and bloodthirstily took a bite out of him.
Then I deployed pillar. I feelt so cheap.

The rest of the match is rather easy to tell, we tried to armor up, counter each other's armor and beat each other down. In the end, we were both almost dead when I had Ini and just barely hit that force hammer for 2 normal, 4 crit and a slam. He was at 29 dmg before that. The slam would not have saved me, because he had prepared an Explode. Clever guy.


Noteworthy about this match:
Nothing much.
Pillar OP. That's basically it.
If he leaves my zone I equip a bow and spam attackspells while he has a useless Whip and gets chased by a Direwolf. He also risks getting pushed back all the time.
If he stays in the zone, he can hope to kill me faster, but takes damage from Pillar every turn. If he goes for the dark cloak, he can't get armor.

I did not enjoy that victory.