2) Mind's Eye.  This spell is a trap.  Attacking it is the worst thing you can do (imo).  The best way to beat Mind's Eye is to close.  Run up to the Forcemaster so that the action was wasted.  Make the Eye a trap for her. If you turtle against Mind's Eye you lose.  Granted, it's dangerous to run up to a Forcemaster, but you have to be within range to affect her and her stuff or you just lose to Mind's Eye.

hmmm and you're favorite mage is forcemaster you say? This smells like a trap. Tired of everyone beating down your mind's eye puddin? I'm on to you

I had some pretty good work with Sir Corazin back in the day. Two whirling swords of death to go with the FM's own, and a useful defense.

Always one of my all time favorite buddy combos!!!!

Am i the only one concerned that a couple of these cards are way more powerful in arena than the counterparts that already exist here? I mean I'm not crying out anything but this cam at least pull the conversation back into focus.
I know that they are designed for both games but some of these effects are freaking ridiculous when you scale them up. Gear up is insanely powerful and does something that currently no other cards do, and does it on demand.  The options are nearly endless as well. The halberd wouldn't worry me quite so much but it's costed for academy. It's crazy cheap for what it does. There's no doubt that a new play style is emerging for the warlords wth a very warlord feel. But damn, its got me a bit concerned at what I'm gonna see come outa this set for arena specifically.

This was a very real concern during the entire development life of Gear Up, which was a very long time. Gear Up first hit playtesting before the Battle Fury / Shalla / Temple errata years ago.

So I cannot express enough about the degree, care, and level of testing that this card has undergone and the various iterations that came and went to get exactly what was desired from a card of this power. It's a very good card! A book defining card that can even turn the tide of a game. One thing this card shows is that there are not many cards that have that kind of potential.

There are only a few cards in Mage Wars that I personally hold to the "top tier" of power cards, Mordok's Obelisk being my personal choice as "most powerful card in Mage Wars"; gear up is a close second. I remember playing my newly built Crown Warlock book vs Zot's Disciple of Radiance book at last years GenCon. I let him build up to some 7 or 8 creatures and dropped a Orb that would let me win the game.

This set has that kind of potential but its not as obvious and wont necessarily win games the same way as the orb. Most importantly in my eyes is the ability for the warlord to truly swarm with mid cost creatures as early as turn one; extremely fun way to play and Academy Warlord, so far, is the most important Academy expansion to come out.

Like all good new cards, this set forces a change in current books and book building strategy; which is overall a very healthy thing for the game.

Long Story longer, Your concerns have been voiced long before you knew that you had them and great care has been taken to insure that Mage Wars remains a fun game to play without adding silly "Timmy" cards unnecessarily.

Personally this should not be able to be effected by Counterstrikes and the like due to timing.

This attack only occurs upon a card leaving a zone and once it has made the attack it is no longer in the zone there it made the attack. Therefore any damage causing elements that generate from opposing effects cannot target this card as it is no longer at the range of 0-0 that these effects happen under, hence it cannot be effected by a counterstrike, etc. However it should be treated as an attack in that zone when interfacing with other rules elements, such as guards.

On the note of flying trample then it should lose the flying trait to make a trample attack against creatures that do not have the flying trait. This then covers the thematic of a swooping attack. Against flying creatures it does not lose the flying trait as the same combat happens the 3D aerial dynamic battlefield (think dogfights of WW2).

Leaving the zone is step 3 and actually moving the card into the new zone is not until step 5 so the trample is still made while the creature is in the zone.

Even stranger example is that a wall could prevent the creature from moving into the new zone after the trample attack is made since the order is:

step 3 trample effect ->
step 4 wall attack (theoretically producing a stun or some other effect that prevents movement) ->

and then the move ends with the trample creature never actually leaving the zone.

Agony works with Trample attack? And week?

No to agony.

As per the trample trait description, "It is neither a ranged or melee attack and is not effected by things that which effect melee or ranged attacks"

Weak is interesting since the condition doesn't specifically say melee or ranged reduction like agony. However, I would lean on the side of "cannot be effected" overrides in this case, but I have been wrong once, maybe twice, before..

not true of course, but very funny. 

curiously, what is your opinion of the strategy? i am not sure it is worth it unless maybe the game goes long.

I like the Remove curse strategy with Cassiel since it gives you more flexibility with actions.

(19) Turn 1:  Cassiel (9) - Banner (7)
(11 - Pala / Cass - 1 / Banner 2) Turn 2: Cassiel -> Remove Curse(+2) /  Pal -> MedAm (4) & Mediate (+3)

so turn 3 you are looking at:
Pala - 21 mana
Cass - 2 mana
Banner - 4 mana

Gives you a lot of options as far as mana accumulation. Cass can keep casting RC for net 2 and or throwing out some decent support.

Banner is set up very nicely now to throw out some major support, etc.

Quote from: Kharhaz on July 08, 2017, 03:11:19 PM

Its the exact same thing as mind controlling a BM pet, it still gets melee ++ for attacking in the same zone as the BM, not melee ++ for being in the FM zone, regardless of who controls the creature.

Perfect example! The creature keeps its "abilities". So it doesn't matter that the pet marker is from the BM, it still works the way it did before.

But with the equipment you want to change the common sense rule. Suddenly the equipment does not work like before, because the rune (comparable with the pet-token) apparently "does not switch over".

But why does the pet retain its abilities and the equipment does not?

Its not a common sense rule, just a normal "how the game works rule" and they both technically retain their abilities.

Rune of piercing is the exact same situation. The equipment retains the pierce +1 because the rune grants the ability that effect, regardless who controls the rune.

The rune of power ability says, "Once per round, you may pay 1 less mana when casting a spell bound to this equipment or using a spell action provided by this equipment."

In MW "you", is the mage in control of the rune. The control of the rune never changes. Just like if I mind control a creature with a deathlink attached, I would not gain the life from the link since I do not control that enchantment, just the creature it attaches to.  Another example is taking control of a creature with a standard bearer. The standard still gives the warlords creatures melee and armor ++ since the control of that spell never changes, it's still the warlord.

I should start playing motivational fight songs during tournaments to psyche competitors up. I'm thinking the Mortal Kombat theme song too.

MegaDriver does a really good version of that song