Remember, you only get the healing from Vampirism on the first attack. You don't get it on the second attack when you do a double strike or sweeping, so nearly half of Sir Corazin's damage doesn't count towards it.

Oh... if that's the case, then we've been getting that rule wrong.  We were giving both attacks the vampiric effect.  It did seem rather powerful.

The wizard's tower is good... but is basically a battleforge for attack spells.  I actually think the battleforge is slightly better (churning out equipment can be huge).

I agree that familiars seem a bit overcosted though.  Hugging and Fellella are just one bad roll away from death, and the unavoidable attacks just keep multiplying.   That said, it is pretty hard to make direct comparisons between a creature and a conjuration.  Creatures can be buffed and protected with spells, they can move, they have attacks... they are just much more flexible.

Sectarus is really good.  You get a weapon and a familiar rolled into one.  But, it is a such different beast than the tower... why even bother to compare it.  It moves with your wizard!  It is not immobile in game terms.

Good point,  it could still work if you infect a larger creature though... or if you put the icthelid in your straywood beastmaster's book and run a lifetree.

We have plans for the warlord.

MUhahahahhahahahahaha 

Nice!  He really could use some help.  Not that he's hopeless, just really sub-par.

Yeah, vampirism on Corazin is a no-brainer.

I'm trying to love the warlord, but that triple cost for arcane spells is so debilitating when you are trying to put together a viable deck.  Also, he is a beefy +1 melee mage, but both his special abilities only support a creature based strategy.  I don't mind his battle orders, but the veterans thing was overkill.  The barracks is one of the worst spawn points, and it can't even summon to the garrison post.  The whole outpost adjacency thing just makes me scratch my head and wonder if it will all makes sense someday (when they release the real outposts).

Yeah, wasn't intending to rant there, it just got away from me.

When the shaggoth eats a zombie, does it count as a kill, and give the graveyard mana?  Or does obliterate cancel that out?  If it does, then the ghoul certainly has more synergy with the graveyard... a creature dies, the graveyard get mana.. the ghoul gets a nice meal.. everyone is happy.

What about sacrificial altar, graveyard, ghoul.  Kill a creature with the altar, give another creature a bonus, ghoul eats the corpse, graveyard gets mana... necromancer cackles with evil glee.

And what about goblin bomber and ghoul?  Bomber attacks, explodes, and the ghoul slurps up the mess.

The tower is clearly a strong card.  It's a fusion of an elemental wand and the ToL, so it seems like those are the easiest cards to compare it to.

The strengths of the tower are well furrowed ground at this point.  So, I'll focus on the advantages of the ToL and wand over the the WT.

The ToL has a chance of stunning or dazing a unit at range 2 for cost of 1 mana.  You pay for this with its initial cost of 9, but the temple will likely fire every turn it can without much drain the controlling mage's mana suppy.  Sure, the chances to stun aren't high, but you can just keep trying every turn.  Compared to the ToL, the tower is a mana hog.  The temple is a hair more durable to boot.

The Wand is cheaper, and is a bit more flexible with the spells it can be bound with.  I have been on the receiving end of a thunderbolt wand, and it hurt.. a lot.  The WT is a conjuration, and the wand is a piece of equipment, so their relative vulnerabilities are hard to gauge (it really depends on your opponent).

The only thing that bothers me about the WT is the free switch of the bound spell.  That just seems a bit too easy (with the wand needing both an action and mana switch spells).

If the WT was warlord only, I doubt anyone's feathers would be particularly ruffled.  But, the wizard has everything going for him, and this tower is just another great gadget to add to his already incredibly versatile toolbox.