Hyper aggro is quite difficult to handle. I had a very tough game against the Double Grizzly FM build I faced in the finals. I managed to play my best MW game ever and had better luck with the dice than my opponent (he rolled on average against me and my spawnpoints while I rolled above average to destroy his threatening Deathlock), which helped a lot. Dispel wand is very important in this match-up to remove Moongose agility whenever it shows. Eagle wings, specially out of nature where you can afford 2-3 copies of the spell, on Cervere will be a huge problem, though (I've never thought of a flying panther, but now I have to try it!). But I never considered playing against a Beastmaster in that game.

I do agree that time limit is a problem for many builds. We had no time limit in our games, so our meta evolved quite differently as it would have developed in a timed environment (this build would struggle to win on time without access to spike damage and due to its slow nature). But if we want a non-league tournament scene to settle, we need to have a time limit for games or we wouldn't be able to play more than 2 rounds in one session. In fact, I want to hold a MW tournament one day, but I have a strong feeling that there would be not as many attendance as the league had (maybe 50% and our tournament would gather just 6 people) because of the length of the rounds.

We have to assume that there are two different metagames in MW: one for timed games and one for untimed games.

I considered playing Sacred ground, but that enchantment forces me to turtle even if I don't want to. If I need my knights to do some dirty work, they will lose the Aegis 1 trait. So I went with 4 divine protections (one for each knight and one for my mage), because I find them far more versatile. Just a matter of preference, I guess.

Regarding armor ward... I totally forgot about it. I keep the multi-school enchantments apart and when browsing through the in-school stuff I didn't see the card and didn't remember it existed, either. My bad.

Finally, I left out harmonize on purpose because I don't have a spare action for it in the first few turns. I am usually too busy piling up defensive stuff (Divine protection/Healing charm for knights and mage, Regrowth and so on) that I haven't missed it at all (it went out for the second ToL). I prefer the cleric opening because it gives me one more action marker (since I read what you and Charmyna said on this, I am quite aware of the strategic advantage it gives), even though the he is far more fragile than the enchantment and can be killed.

In my humble opinion, meditation amulet is quite good... in the right build. You need to play a non-melee mage which doesn't care about attacking and a creature spawnpoint to compensate for the loss of the full action in meditating. I've been using that card in almost every build since DvN was released although I initially disliked it, but then saw its potential in a book which includes a spawnpoint.

However, not every mage will benefit from the amulet to the same extent. Relying too much on it to fuel the spawnpoint will leave your mage too vulnerable to attacks, as you only get one action to protect yourself instead of the usual two. Wizards (voltaric shield) and druids (treebond) can survive long enough with just one defensive quick cast per turn, but other mages need more protection. This is where the Battle forge comes in: all the cheap equipment which increases survivability (boots, gloves, veteran's belt) combined with QC defensive enchantments (rhino hide, divine protection, regrowth) can make your mage last longer and slowly gain control of the game through the creature spawnpoint. I've learned this the hard way: I built a beastmaster lair/meditation amulet spellbook which was very amusing to play and it won my first games. But when my girlfriend teleported my almost naked mage into a Jelly pit I realised that meditation amulet was taking away from me the possibility of building a strong defence. Never underestimate how quickly damage can pile on a mage when you are not using your actions to pile some armor and healing on him

Hi guys!

As requested by Deckbuilder, here's the Priestess build I've used in my last league match-ups and with which I won the final game.

Equipment
Ring of Asyra
Enchanter's ring
Meditation amulet x2
Leather gloves
Leather boots
Dragonscale hauberk x2
Dispel wand
Mage wand x2
Veteran's belt x2
Crown of protection

Conjurations
Battle forge
Temple of Asyra
Hand of Bim-shalla x2
Temple of light x2
Temple of the dawnbreaker

Creatures
Royal archer x2
Asyrian cleric x2
Guardian angel x3
Highland unicorn
Knight of Westlock x3

Enchantments
Nullify x3
Decoy
Divine protection x4
Healing charm x4
Regrowth
Divine intervention

Incantations
Dispel x2
Seeking dispel
Purify x2
Dissolve x4
Teleport x2
Minor heal x2

My standard opening is the following:

20:         Asyrian cleric, Battle forge not in the corner (7+0)
17+1:     Meditation amulet, Temple of Asyra in the corner, Cleric and Priestess get some mana (7+0+1)
17+1+2: Leather gloves or Enchanter's ring, Guardian angel, Regrowth or Nullify, Cleric and Priestess get more mana (7 or 8+0+1)

I was expecting my final opponent to run a Watergate/Earth Wizard as he is an extremely competitive player, so I decided to go with the Priestess to out-turtle him with lots of channeling and actions. Crown of protection made the list as it is a very good card in such a long games with little interaction and I included the second copy of Temple of light (I usually run just one) because of its awesomeness against Jellies and Golems.

He was also expecting a Watergate Wizard from me and tried to take me by surprise playing a hyper-aggressive Forcemaster double grizzly build. It was a very interesting game in which I had to play very smartly (I'm pretty sure it was my best MW performance since I started playing the game) to avoid being killed by his grizzlies. After 9 rounds, when I managed to destroy a Deathlock and gathered 2 angels and 2 knights, he conceded the game because he believed that he had no chances to win the match, even though I still had to take down his grizzlies before focusing on his mage.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them.

Edit: I messed up and wrote Dispel x3, when I was actually running dispel x2 and seeking dispel x1. Updated.

Thank you guys!

Sure, Deck, I have no problem to post my Priestess deck. I'll do it this afternoon when I arrive home from work. I geared towards a double spawnpoint opening with Battle forge and Temple of Asyra, using Meditation amulet to fuel my mana supply (I really had nothing better to do with my mage most of the time).

Our average player is still learning the game, so I wouldn't call our meta 'strong competitive' yet. There are people who are very competitive like my opponent in the final game who played a double grizzly FM, Shadowblade who can be found on OCTGN, and myself (I really love the game, to such an extent that I am slowly giving up Game of Thrones where I met all these guys), but there's a lot of work to be done. I hope that in the next league we'll be ~16 players between newcomers and people who won't repeat due to being too busy. It won't be fully competitive yet, but I'm working hard in my blog and in-game to try to increase the level of our community.

In addition to this, it gives you another action marker which is always useful for strategic purposes (it can remove guards or allow your mage to play after your opponent's mage).

I guess your opponent is always your opponent and you'll not need to pay the extra mana to destroy the equipment because your Dissolve is not a spell or ability controlled by an opponent.

In a book like yours, I would definitely try to include the 4th Teleport and the 2nd Mage wand. Teleport is very needed for your slow creatures to attack. Maybe you could cut the Reverse attack for those.

I prefer using Wizard's tower as a toolbox spell, including many 1-of level 1 attack spells: Acid ball for corrode, Surging wave for daze (anti guard/defense tech), Fire blast for druid and Jet stream for push (at least). But it's just my preference. You could drop two boulders (you just need one for the tower and another one for an eventual QC) and one hail of stones for three of these spells if you are tempted to try the toolbox route.

Earthquake is a spell I haven't found that useful. But go ahead if it works for you, of course!

Finally, I would add a third Jelly instead of one Golem just to make the most out of your spawnpoint. Gorgon archer has seen better days where Non-living creatures were quite uncommon, but she's still nuts against hyper aggressive builds (Adramelech-Warlock rush). And she has a ranged attack, which is always very handy.