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Strategy and Tactics / Re: On mana crystal effects and efficiency
« on: October 03, 2014, 09:35:13 AM »
I'm with Schwenkgott here.
Hypothetical arguments about players for some reason setting aside ten mana on round 1 in order to drip-feed it into their usage over the next 10 rounds feel contrived to me.
I think that in a regular game I'm likely to have very little mana in reserve by the end of round 3 - the rest will have gone into assets of some sort (creatures, conjurations, enchantments...) or attacks/incantations. Arguing about long-term disposal of starting mana may be missing the point.
What I get if I put 5 of my initial mana into a mana crystal instead of some other asset is added ongoing flexibility. The Crystal provides not so much extra mana as extra liquidity of mana. My extra channelling means that every round after casting it I get extra flexibility in my casting decisions. I doubt I'm alone in preparing a contingency Teleport, Agony or something in order to react to an enemy's moves, or keeping back mana so I can reveal a Nullify or Rhino Hide at the last minute. Keeping back a contingency mana supply for those spells is an overhead on my total mana supply, and reduces my flexibility - worse than that, not keeping back that contingency mana tells my opponent that he can cheerfully drop a lightning bolt on that creature of yours with a face-down enchantment because I can't do anything to stop him.
So, if I have a Nullify lying around, and am waiting for the opportunity to reveal a Rhino Hide or possibly cast a Teleport or Force Push, maybe 5 of my mana is being held for that over most of the turn. I could use some of that reserve during final quickcast, but I'm probably going to want it back next round. My channelling in real terms is down at 7 or 8. In these terms, getting 1 extra channelling is a much bigger deal - I may only have to save for 2 turns to bring out that Iron Golem, instead of 3. And as noted above, it's not a case of saying 'If you hadn't spent that mana on a Crystal you'd have your Golem by now' - that mana would have gone on a Hand of Bim-Shalla (or maybe I summoned a Basilisk instead of a Blue Gremlin - the point is that my initial mana gets spent on something).
Saying that casting a Mana Crystal gives you less options in your early turns is only true in as much as any 5 mana spell you cast gives you less options - whatever you cast is your option. The payoff of a Crystal is greater channelling, the payoff of a Bitterwood Fox is a fast but vulnerable creature, the payoff of Agony is that one enemy creature is made less effective. They all cost 5 mana and an action, they all give you something. The crystal is harder for the opponent to remove than the others, and its benefit is more flexible.
On reflection, another issue here is that all these calculations only look at the RoI on the Crystal, not the RoI on the other spells that might be cast. That's not an even playing field - everything you cast gives you something, or you wouldn't be casting it in the first place. Just because the RoI on channelling boosters looks like it can be easily calculated doesn't mean you can gloss over the RoI of the alternatives. The only spells you cast that provide an instant return on their investment are incantations and attacks - to compare the numbers on the Crystal with an empty assumption of an instant RoI on the alternatives isn't good practise.
Hypothetical arguments about players for some reason setting aside ten mana on round 1 in order to drip-feed it into their usage over the next 10 rounds feel contrived to me.
I think that in a regular game I'm likely to have very little mana in reserve by the end of round 3 - the rest will have gone into assets of some sort (creatures, conjurations, enchantments...) or attacks/incantations. Arguing about long-term disposal of starting mana may be missing the point.
What I get if I put 5 of my initial mana into a mana crystal instead of some other asset is added ongoing flexibility. The Crystal provides not so much extra mana as extra liquidity of mana. My extra channelling means that every round after casting it I get extra flexibility in my casting decisions. I doubt I'm alone in preparing a contingency Teleport, Agony or something in order to react to an enemy's moves, or keeping back mana so I can reveal a Nullify or Rhino Hide at the last minute. Keeping back a contingency mana supply for those spells is an overhead on my total mana supply, and reduces my flexibility - worse than that, not keeping back that contingency mana tells my opponent that he can cheerfully drop a lightning bolt on that creature of yours with a face-down enchantment because I can't do anything to stop him.
So, if I have a Nullify lying around, and am waiting for the opportunity to reveal a Rhino Hide or possibly cast a Teleport or Force Push, maybe 5 of my mana is being held for that over most of the turn. I could use some of that reserve during final quickcast, but I'm probably going to want it back next round. My channelling in real terms is down at 7 or 8. In these terms, getting 1 extra channelling is a much bigger deal - I may only have to save for 2 turns to bring out that Iron Golem, instead of 3. And as noted above, it's not a case of saying 'If you hadn't spent that mana on a Crystal you'd have your Golem by now' - that mana would have gone on a Hand of Bim-Shalla (or maybe I summoned a Basilisk instead of a Blue Gremlin - the point is that my initial mana gets spent on something).
Saying that casting a Mana Crystal gives you less options in your early turns is only true in as much as any 5 mana spell you cast gives you less options - whatever you cast is your option. The payoff of a Crystal is greater channelling, the payoff of a Bitterwood Fox is a fast but vulnerable creature, the payoff of Agony is that one enemy creature is made less effective. They all cost 5 mana and an action, they all give you something. The crystal is harder for the opponent to remove than the others, and its benefit is more flexible.
On reflection, another issue here is that all these calculations only look at the RoI on the Crystal, not the RoI on the other spells that might be cast. That's not an even playing field - everything you cast gives you something, or you wouldn't be casting it in the first place. Just because the RoI on channelling boosters looks like it can be easily calculated doesn't mean you can gloss over the RoI of the alternatives. The only spells you cast that provide an instant return on their investment are incantations and attacks - to compare the numbers on the Crystal with an empty assumption of an instant RoI on the alternatives isn't good practise.
