Arcane Wonders Forum

Mage Wars => Spellbook Design and Construction => Topic started by: The Dude on May 12, 2013, 10:29:24 PM

Title: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: The Dude on May 12, 2013, 10:29:24 PM
Super sick plays this has not. This, to me, is a solid big creature build that really comes together in the mid game. Iron Golem and Archer is your ideal big plays. Here, let me post the list before I go into an real strategy of the deck:

4 Hurl Boulder
2 Hail of Stones

2 Battle Fury
2 Sleep
3 Charge
1 Purge Magic
2 Seeking Dispel
2 Dissolve
2 Sniper Shot
2 Teleport
1 Steal Enchantment

1 Darkfenne Hydra
2 Iron Golem
1 Gorgon Archer

1 Deflection Bracers
1 Elemental Cloak
1 Moonglow Amulet
1 Dragonscale Hauberk
2 Elemental Wand
1 Regrowth Belt
1 Mage Wand
1 Enchanter's Ring
1 Arcane Ring
1 Battle Forge

3 Dispel
2 Wall of Stone
2 Mana Crystal
1 Quicksand

2 Decoy
1 Reverse Magic
2 Turn to Stone
2 teleport Trap
1 Bear Strength
2 Nullify
1 Block
1 Circle of Lightning
1 Hawkeye
1 Reverse Attack




So, the basics of this deck is to start by mana crys/battle forge, and then next turn amulet/mana crys. With that, you can start by pumping out golem and golem. Then your archer. Mage Wand with Charge is almost a must, and does so much for you here. As soon as you take half damage, regrowth belt. You need to protect your forge, but it's not so important that you need to take your eyes off the prize, which the enemy mage. As soon as they take half damage, you want to battle forge out an Elemental Wand with a Boulder attached. And then you want to smash as much face as possible. You want to start holding battle fury in hand. This is a purely damage book under the guise of big creatures. They will deal you damage, sure! but they will also be the decoys, the damage takers you need so that you can smash boulders on their face as much and as fast as possible. I hope you all enjoy, and I would love to hear your thoughts!
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: sdougla2 on May 12, 2013, 10:38:55 PM
My Earth Wizard is all about building up 2-3 Iron Golems and/or Earth Elementals, trapping my opponent in a zone with them and a Poison Gas Cloud using Teleport spam (possibly from Huginn), Force Hold, and Walls of Stone, and then tearing them into little pieces with my creatures while I drop rocks on their head. Your build looks pretty different.

Could you organize your list by card type? I'm having a hard time figuring your list out from looking at it.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: The Dude on May 12, 2013, 11:30:55 PM
Cleaned up for you!
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: sdougla2 on May 12, 2013, 11:48:28 PM
Thank you. That's much easier to read.

That seems like a pretty decent control build, but it doesn't have the best options for being all about damage output. Gorgon Archer is an awesome control creature, but she's terrible at dealing damage for her cost. Also, have you considered running an Eagle Wings for her? If you want to be all about damage, you really don't need so many control cards like Gorgon Archer, Sleep, and Turn to Stone.

Why do you run Bear Strength? You can't cast it on Iron Golems, and Darkfenne Hydra only gets the boost to a single attack in the triplestrike. You don't have a strong melee option for your mage, so it seems a little out of place. I suppose you can make attacks for 5 dice with your mage, but you'll probably have better things to do.

You should probably run 4 Teleports. They're cheap to include, and they're really good for position control support for Iron Golems and Darkfenne Hydra. It's also helpful in keeping things away from your Gorgon Archer. It's much more flexible than Charge.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: The Dude on May 13, 2013, 12:00:29 AM
Bear Strength is actually in there as a bluff in the end game, so that my wizard can get in there. It's not used every game, but when I need that damage, it does seem to do a lot.

Archer, for me, isn't about the damage output. She's what puts the mage in position TO start striking them down with golems. Often players think getting in the same zone saves them, but in actuality she acts as fantastic bait for my golems. Eagle wings seems good, and I will have to try it, but again, for me she is more about being bait than anything, and she does a fantastic job at it.

I am considering removing one turn to stone and a sleep, but these cards are so good at stopping Lord of Fire that they are kind of necessary. It also stops Vampiress which can be a problem for this build.

Four of teleports is a sweet option and I will be testing that ASAP.

And as a side note, Hydra has been the least effective creature for me at this point, and I would like to try something different. Maybe even an 8 point grizzly wouldn't be too terrible.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: sdougla2 on May 13, 2013, 12:42:44 AM
I may try using a Gorgon Archer as bait. That's an interesting idea, and it would give me a bit more diversity in my threats. I can't wait until Hurl Rock is released. It's so much more efficient than Hurl Boulder that it will be much easier to support.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: The Dude on May 13, 2013, 12:47:57 AM
it actually works really well, especially against that pesky Warlock, who is so afraid of Weak. And dude, Hurl Rock is going to kick ass. I'm just going to be saddened by the influx of Earth Wizards that will saturate the meta as soon as it's released. I still love hurl boulder, it's the most efficient Level 2 Attack spell, and it just does so much work against those *Ahem* good *cough* big flyers.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: The Dude on May 13, 2013, 12:48:42 AM
And as far as baiting goes, I'm actually writing an article about that I will post soon, I hope it gives you a little more insight!
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: sdougla2 on May 13, 2013, 12:49:38 AM
I look forward to reading it.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: paradox22 on May 13, 2013, 05:41:25 AM
Very good build/write up...  Very similar to my earth wizard build.  Thumbs up. :)
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: Shad0w on May 13, 2013, 06:19:13 AM
I will but this into my test rotation and see how it works out.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: DevilDave on June 10, 2013, 06:59:29 AM
I just put this build into SB calculator and found it 123 points.
Attacks: 12
Creatures: 14
Equipments: 16
Incantations: 41
Conjurations: 12
Enchantments: 28

Just for info.

Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: MrSaucy on June 10, 2013, 07:22:43 PM
I'm just going to be saddened by the influx of Earth Wizards that will saturate the meta as soon as it's released.

I just hope Water Wizard is a viable option. I would love to try that out. I don't know if it just in these forums, but people seem to love the Earth Wizard. I feel like the Wizard makes better use of the Earth spells than the Warlord does, which is kinda unfortunate.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: The Dude on June 10, 2013, 07:57:08 PM
Ehh, I felt like it was kind of expected, only because there were so many people itching to try something besides Air and Fire Wizard. I do think we will see more Water Wizard once it's released for the same reason. And yeah, besides having a better base channeling, the Wizard has more support for a spell type strategy. What's interesting is what they will put out for the Warlord (besides Akirps Battle Fury), that will change exactly how he plays, because as it stands, he has the creatures, but not the support.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: nitrodavid on June 10, 2013, 08:17:32 PM
the war lord is  in need of a command familiar. for theme it would have to be ether
- general can cast any command (non bound, like a non flying raven)
- communication officer can cast a (re)bound non epic command spell (like wand).
- propaganda outpost (conjuration) like communication officer just a conjuration of course. like all outposts it has the non adjacent condition

like in real war you can cripple an army by killing the person giving the orders

note I will copy paste this in "spells I'll like to see" topic
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: Klaxas on June 14, 2013, 07:29:28 PM
this is similar to my earth wizard build when we were playtesting it.  although I used lots of large creatures.  I more or less would throw out a gate to voltari and mana crystals every turn.  I would summon hydras and other large arcane creatures with the gate while I ramped up my mana, at channeling 15 or so you cast an earth elemental every other turn or an iron golem every turn.  once you have the army up and running support it with teleports (preferably teleporting your target to your group of stompies) and attack with hurl boulder combined with sniper shot to handle any defenses you think are a problem
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: Wiz-Pig on June 15, 2013, 03:10:52 PM
@Klaxas: That sounds sick! How effective were you at getting up to that level of channelling without being beat down by more agressive opponents?
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: nitrodavid on June 16, 2013, 05:15:47 AM
i dont know if it just my meta but i played my first 2 games of mage wars (where i wasn't teaching the game). and both times i found i had a creature or a Force Master in my face by turn 3. may i ask what is your opening strategy.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: The Dude on June 17, 2013, 12:55:30 AM
Well, if I see that I do have an aggressive build, it is often better for me to take the initiative by attacking first, and attacking hard. I will usually run to the near center, and cast battle forge. The next round, I will full round a gorgon, and then face down a zone trap enchant in that zone. And then you use position control and large boulders to strategically cut the aggressive mages life total down by large chunks at a time, while making them incredibly weak. Iron golem if you really need, and you have the two rounds for the mage dropping back to heal up. and then it's just beat down to the win.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: nitrodavid on June 17, 2013, 01:53:59 AM
I like that idea, what would you recommend if it is a mage and a large creature. I would be able to tpt the first one out. I have a grasp what to do with single mage and swarms now I need to learn for mage+ 1-2 creature.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: The Dude on June 17, 2013, 02:01:48 AM
Your best bet is to ignore the large creature for as long as possible, while providing a large enough threat that the opposing mage will constantly have to position himself better. Again, when dealing with a large creature, there is generally a weakness inherent on that creature. Exploiting that weakness while still attacking will put you in the best position to win, not necessarily killing the threat, as that is what they want you to do. Generally being as aggressive as possible while prepping meta cards according to opposing mage's actions will null te big creature threat the opposing mage has. As well as ignoring and exploiting the big creature, countering with another ig creature that is hard to deal with will often allow the opponent to make the wrong play if your threat is long enough.

The trick is figuring out when the big creature is a threat, and when it's not, and then dealing accordingly.
Title: Re: This is the Earth Wizard 2.0
Post by: MuRRe on November 26, 2013, 04:39:27 PM
I also get it to 123 points  :(.
What should be cut?