FIF: Sardonyx, Blight of the Living - Preview

[timer000]

I think the dragon's 5 attack dice is very weak.

Adramelech, Lord of Fire is more dangerious than him with burn...
A bear is good than the dragon,too.
And bear is much cheaper! and dont leech life..

[Wise fool]

Are play testers allowed to talk now about how Sardonyx worked out in practice during play testing?

[Laddinfance]

I know this is sort of off topic, but could you have a dark priest being trained in Holy and Dark schools?  Sort of thinking about how to have a new mage type that could be holy but still have Sardonyx in school

Almost anything is possible. I know I had some ideas for a "death priest" a while back. Maybe I'll be able to get back to them soon!

[Zuberi]

Adramelech's attacks do more damage than Sardonyx, this is true, but I wouldn't say he is more dangerous. Sardonyx is a lot harder to kill or to crowd control. Yes, Turn to Stone and Banish both work against him, but they aren't extremely common and one of them can easily be dispelled. Pretty much nothing else will stop him. This is a hard metric to guage when determining which is more "dangerous" but you can't ignore it. I'd much rather have a dragon that is continuously hitting my opponent AND preventing them from healing than having an Adramelech that is out of commission due to all the crowd control that is possible. However, I would definitely run a Drain Soul or two to help with the Life situation and a Sacrificial Altar just in case.

[Moonglow]

But Sardonyx does cost twice the spell book points as Andy does... Andy has half the HP, but has 3 armor which is worth quite a bit.  Both have a sweeping attack, Sards gets one more dice, but Andy gives out burns...

Andy's quick attack seems ... hmmm where's a statistician when you need one - Andy has 6 dice plus burns vs 5 dice + 2 piercing... against the right creatures, the piercing probably works better.

Its a challenging trade off, which perhaps means it will get more play.  Sure you could carry two Andy cards for the same SB points, but that's like 48 points to cast... So having Sards in the book is probably a bit more commitment to a certain strategy...

Although I'm thinking I haven't contrasted the - 2 life vs finite life to living creatures in zone - seems a great creature to sit on top of the enemy mage and whale on him with...

[silverclawgrizzly]

You know a lot of Warlocks go solo or with just Adramelech. It could be feasible to squeeze 8 points into a spell book and run both The Lord of Fire and the Blight of the Living together....you opponent would have no real direction to which to turn especially if you buff up Adramelech some. Then if the dragon starts getting to be a burden you sacrifice him and give Adramelech a very nasty bonus.

Expensive? Yeah. But hey stranger things have happened.

[Master Ruprecht]

But Sardonyx does cost twice the spell book points as Andy does...

...  Sure you could carry two Andy cards for the same SB points...

Andramalech costs (the Warlock) 6 to Sardonyx's cost of 8, and a Necromancer has to pay 8 for both. 

[Boocheck]

Expensive? Maybe. Worth the Fun? Definetly!

I cant wait for a Joseph Vs Dragon battle. And also, it will go well with planned award title system in my area. Dragonslayer Title will be a really hard one to get

[jacksmack]

I kinda like his attacks and i very much like his Unstoppable trait.

But 24 mana and 2 HP per round seems a bit too harsh. Once you put him down, you essentially put yourself on a timer and going offensive is a must. Doing 5 damage per round to the enemy mage and 2 damage to yourself seems like a bad tradeoff for 24 mana.

If i see my opponent play this bad boy, i will take it as the damage race has begun and simply ignore the dragon and spend my 24 mana on stuff that does more than 3 damage per round in my favour.

Im excited to see what other card gets the Unstoppable trait.

[Boocheck]

In my opinion, it will be a statue of war (or statue of war god?). Unless they were not telling the truth about the tank 

[Wildhorn]

You all seem to forget that he has an AoE Rot attack. This has several advantages. It allows Necromancer to deal an extra damage over the rot(s) damage. Which make the 2 life damage pretty much even. It prevent opponent to stack living creatures. It removes block/reverse attack.

[Sand Goblin]

Um, only 2 life loss per round?  Just make sure you give your mage a regrowth belt first.  It only costs 2 in spellbook creation.  Sorry, just underwhelmed by that.  I pride myslef on being very good at exploiting mechanics like this, suing life points as a resource.  Regrow belt is cheap and offsets this.  And, the Necromancer often has a lot more important gear.

[Master Ruprecht]

as has already been pointed out, losing life is NOT Offset by regenerating as it is not (per se) damage...
I really think about using him together with a Sunfire Amulet to take only half the disadvantage.

Anyway, whether I play him or not, I do like him!   

[Boocheck]

Sunfire amulet, Bull Endurance or Elric´s Life Ring can help a lot. Just dont stand in Sardonyx zone when casting them

[jacksmack]

Um, only 2 life loss per round?  Just make sure you give your mage a regrowth belt first.  It only costs 2 in spellbook creation.  Sorry, just underwhelmed by that.  I pride myslef on being very good at exploiting mechanics like this, suing life points as a resource.  Regrow belt is cheap and offsets this.  And, the Necromancer often has a lot more important gear.

Regrowth (belt) is very strong for the necromancer, but not for the reason you mention, rather that he is immune to poisened blood.

You got 2 life loss per round wrong. Its not damage taken, its max Life lost.


Now... neglecting a 2 life loss per round appears to me to be a big mistake.