The temple is far from useless in a metagame where Non-living creatures are so heavily represented. It is no longer an autoplay card, as there'll be many games in which you won't need to cast it. But against a Golem/Jelly Wizard build or a Necro build is very good. I still include it in every holy spellbook I build; the difference is I usually just run one copy of it and it won't be casted in every game.

Yes.

Thank you for your report!

Done!

I'm very happy to read all these replies and all your insight. Thank you, guys!

So it's time to share my latests experiences.

I have played some games with my aggressive Druid against the Watergate Wizard lately, some solo (yeah, I do play solo MW games although I rarely make it to the end because of table complexity and stop playing when one mage seems to be the winner) and some against real opponents. So far I've got 2 wins and 3 losses.

The Druid starts by running to the Wizard's corner while summoning Raptor vines and Vine snappers and rousing them to take the spawnpoint while the Wizard tries to protect it and make the most of it until it is eventually destroyed. Depending on the rolls this will happen sooner or later and there'll be less or more Jellies for the Druid to worry, respectively. Jellies and Hydra are tough opponents for the plants because of their Resilient-Reconstruct-Corrode/Triplestrike vs No armor; one of these monsters won't bother the Druid as it can be taken down, but 2-3 will kill all the rooted plants quickly. Wizard's tower enters the game at some point, throwing lethal Fireballs against the plants. Another tough card. If the spawnpoint is destroyed quickly the Druid will be able to handle the situation and maybe take the game if played properly (once I was outplayed by my girlfriend and lost even though she only used the spawnpoint twice for two Jellies). If not, the no-armor plants will eventually be all destroyed and the mage will follow.

The last modifications I made to the spellbook (one being a Force hammer to cut the number of rounds needed to destroy Gate by one) have improved the attack plan so I need more testing to see if I can also improve the record. I'll share my results with you.

By the way, Deck, I'll definitely try the Necro build you suggested with Altar and cleric. Sounds fun!

@Brazil:

Running just one copy of those key incantations (Teleport, Dispel, Dissolve mainly) is not a good idea, IMO. Sure, once you bind it to the wand you can spam the spell until the wand gets dissolved. And it will get dissolved if your opponent wants to, leaving you with no extra copies of those incantations. So once you've lost your Dissolve wand you will not be able to deal with any piece of equipment (same for Teleport and Dispel).

In my defensive builds I usually play 2 wands (to replace the first one once it's gone), but I also run 2-3 Teleports, 3-4 Dispel and 3-4 Dissolve. Not only I will have access to more copies of the bound spell when my opponent destroys my wand, but I have not always a free action to cast the wand and then QC the bound spell, especially against an aggressive opponent.

Wands are very important when both players aim for the long-term game. But that will not always happen and, even in that scenario, winning the wand war is far from winning the match. Who cares about wands when I telekill your mage into a Golem pit?

Just finished watching your last stream.

Again, thank you for taking the time to record your games and making them open to the public. I really enjoy watching your streams: I have a great time while viewing (can't play as often as I'd like), I learn some things from a great player like you and I get some ideas for my own spellbooks. So, please, continue with that work, you have a Spanish fan

As far as the videos are concerned:

-I've been toying around with jellies by myself and found how awesome they are. I started by playing two of them in my Gate to Voltari Wizard (I've been a fan of this card since I started playing the game and it even gives its name to my blog) just to test them and a couple of days ago I finally went up to four. They are plainly awesome, but you have to keep a Teleport wand always at hand, something you would be willing to do anyways. And Meditation amulet is great in these spawnpoint-based spellbooks. Actually, your build seems very similar to mine, and that made me very proud

-I'm intrigued with your druid. I'm trying to make her work as I like her mechanics but I'm finding trouble to make a competitive build out of her despite trying different approaches (Samara, Vine tree, Vine tree + Forge). I've seen your opening is Vine tree and Taratee, which I guess is to fulfill the have-more-action-markers-than-opponent thing, but is less mana efficient than Harmonize, for example. Is it really worth the extra two mana? What are your thoughts on her from a competitive point of view? Without having played the actual game, I guess any Wizard running jellies would give her trouble because of Corrode and Tower + Fire spell. Adramelech is also a pain because of his flying. I'd really like to hear your opinion on this issue.

Merry Christmas!

Nice to see you again posting on the forums! And thank you for all these Christmas presents in the form of streamlined games, now I've got lots of work to do (watch).