Hello everyone, I have some questions. English isn't my birth language so the rules aren't really clear for me. So firstly, I don't understand what they mean by " friendly creature" in the card "renewing fountain", do they mean all my creature except my mage? And if that is the case, for the "Eatherian Tree" does it affect all the creature in the arena (enemy and ally)?

"Friendly creature" means any creature controlled by you or another player on your team. Your mage counts as a friendly creature.

Yes, [mwcard=DNJ03]Etherian Lifetree[/mwcard] applies to all (living) creatures (and conjurations) in the arena, itself excluded.

Secondly, can I push the creature on the border of the arena? Or does it count as a lethal barrier?

The arena is surrounded by impassable walls. If you push a creature into one of these walls, it suffers an unavoidable attack of 3 dice. Not necessarily "lethal", but still damaging.

Finally, for the "Gate to hell" do I have to be on the zone to open it? And if yes, does it attack me too? And can my creature summoned by the Pentacle appear at the gate?

You do not have to be in the zone to open it.

It will attack you if you are within range.

Creatures summoned by the [mwcard=MW1J17]Pentagram[/mwcard] may NOT appear at the gate; only creatures that your mage personally summons may appear there. (confirmation requested)


Edit: The issue about pentagram creatures appearing in the gate's zone is, oddly enough, not in the rules supplement, though I could have sworn there was a clarification there. Am I just mis-remembering this? If somebody could confirm this, that would be great.

In terms of a name, how about "Mage Wars: Annihilation"?

I was thinking though, if a mage has 'died' and then carries on playing, I would assume that the 'dead' mages living opponents would not waste their resources attacking that mage and concentrate on the remaining 'living' mages.  However, the 'dead' mage would be a complete hindrance to the 'living' mages.  I think that you could consider some kind of restriction on the 'dead' mage such as a limit to quick action, non-attack spells, half mana channelling (rounded up or down) or something like that.  I think that there must be some kind of penalty for dying, otherwise the death of a mage doesn't have a great enough impact on a team.

Since the objective is to kill all enemy mages, you don't need a penalty for dying (being one death closer to losing is the penalty). In fact, if the dead mage becomes stronger in some respects, that will keep things interesting for the losing team.

Quote from: leonej on April 30, 2015, 12:46:40 PM

I have considered Tataree, but have never actually used it to support the plants. It is interesting that it is the only quickcast creature in the game, other than of the BM's ability with level 1.

I haven't used her, either.  I figure she's equivalent to putting Harmonize on your Vine or Samara Tree, but more versatile and (potentially) more difficult to deal with (e.g. she can't just be Dispelled; doesn't get destroyed when the tree falls; pretty much takes an unavoidable ranged attack to take her out).  Kind of cool, but risky if you want to use Idol of Pestilence (especially if your opponent then drops [mwcard=MW1J19]Deathlock[/mwcard] - yikes!).

The primary value of Tataree is in making Seedling Pods bloom faster. If you want mana, a Mana Flower or Harmonize is much more efficient, since Tataree doesn't pay back its cost until the 7th turn after casting at the earliest. The thing that Tataree can do that no other mana booster can do is to put additional mana on the pods.

So the interactions format is

[Card name or codex term]: [Entry]

That is fine; what about the codex entries?

Basically, I want to give each bullet point a short and descriptive label to be used as a button, so that players don't have to read through all the text when looking for clarifications. I think Q&A format would work the best, but anything that lets you shorten things to a sentence would work.

For example, with Blue Gremlin you could simplify his codex entries by moving some of them to interactions:

Unmovable/Restrained:Blue Gremlin can Teleport even if Unmovable or Restrained.

Hindering:

And then labeling the codex entries:

Description of ability: When this creature is activated, you may pay 1 mana. If you do, Gremlin gains the Fast trait until end of round, and until end of round he can’t take normal move actions but can Teleport to an adjacent zone instead of a move action.

LOS requirements: He does not need to have LoS to the zones he Teleports to.

Interaction with mandatory action effects:If a mandatory action effect would force Blue Gremlin to move, and this move could only be performed by using the Teleport ability, Blue Gremlin would not be forced to use that ability. (This is because the mandatory action effect only applies at the moment Blue Gremlin would be choosing an action, which is after the time that the Blue Gremlin’s ability is used. If Blue Gremlin did choose to use the Teleport ability, it would then be bound

Meaning of "Move Actions": Teleporting to a zone counts the same as a move action for the purpose of the number of actions you can perform in a round, but are not “move actions” for any other purpose. Thus, by paying the 1 mana, Blue Gremlin could teleport twice, and then take a quick action. He can do this even if hindered (hindering has no effect on Teleporting).

Maybe not the best headings, but the important thing is to break up clarifications into little parts when possible and label each part clearly.

-  I don't know what meta you're playing with, but do you need Mana Prism? That's 4 spell points.

Personally, I always include mana Prism in any swarm book. It really helps against Suppression Orb/Mordok's Obelisk, which can otherwise be (more) devastating.

Is there a time where I want both Libro Mortuos and Graveyard?

You could keep Libro as a contingency plan in case Graveyard is destroyed.

Otherwise, you usually won't have enough mana to profitably use both. If you want a large swarm fast, it is generally better to just use Libro and your full action to summon them. By this method, it is possible to have 8 [mwcard=DNC24]Zombie Minion[/mwcard]s/[mwcard=DNC19]Venomous Zombie[/mwcard]s by turn 5:

Turn 1 (20): [mwcard=DNQ02]Death Ring[/mwcard] (5) + Libro Mortuos (9) = 6
Turn 2 (16+1): Zombie (6) + Zombie (6) = 5
Turn 3 (15+1): Zombie (6) + Zombie (6) = 4
Turn 4 (14+1): Zombie (6) + Zombie (6) = 3
Turn 5 (13+1): Zombie (6) + Zombie (6) = 2

You can use the extra 2 mana for a [mwcard=MWSTX2FFE04]Brace Yourself[/mwcard] if your opponent rushes. By comparison, you cannot get a similar swarm as fast using Libro+Graveyard(+Meditation amulet, generally) because you just don't have the mana.

If you want to use both, it will take you longer to set things up so that you can actually use them. One possible strategy that could work is:

Turn 1 (20): [mwcard=DNQ02]Death Ring[/mwcard] (5) + Libro Mortuos (9) = 6
Turn 2 (16+1):[mwcard=DNJ04]Graveyard[/mwcard] (14) + [mwcard=DNC23]Zombie Crawler[/mwcard] (3) = 0
Turn 3 (10+2): [mwcard=DNQ10]Meditation Amulet[/mwcard] (4) + [mwcard=DNC15]Skeletal Minion[/mwcard] (4) + [mwcard=DNC15]Skeletal Minion[/mwcard] (4) + Meditate(+3) = 3
Turn 4 (13+2): [mwcard=MW1C32]Skeletal Sentry[/mwcard](7) + [mwcard=DNC08]Unstable Zombie[/mwcard] (8 ) + Meditate (+3) = 3

After turn 4, you will have 15 mana to spend per turn and 2 discounts, which is a respectable amount. You can summon smaller skeletons to protect you when under threat, and larger zombies when reasonably safe. Your quickcast can be used to cast [mwcard=MWSTX2FFE04]Brace Yourself[/mwcard] repeatedly on yourself for protection.

Now that I think about it, the latter strategy isn't so bad after all; you just need to mix skeletons (defensive) and zombies (offensive) to protect yourself while you build up.

Makes me want to build a new necro spellbook.

I think we need an official ruling on this.