First I want to state that I don’t want to offend anyone and I am not in a position to state that I know everything and it is the truth and only way I think the game is or should be. And it’s a game.

I wanted to do a Magecast with Sharkbait for his channel, but sadly we found no time before I went on my way to the glacier research station I be working the next month. So I will write a bit now here about the tournament. It will also discuss some experiences from the ones before with Thunderdome and Thunderdome G. It also contains some guidelines and tricks.

There had been the Arcane Duels Mage Wars tournament. I just had finished the Thunderdome G tournament and so had rather competitive Decks, but in the end of the tournament I hadn’t played much and my skill decreased slowly. I was also theory crafting a lot, which is also a result of the playtesting. It is also hard to keep track of all the decks and which is which iteration and so on.

One first observation of the tournament that I had was that hardly any real academy stuff and strategies and potential combinations did hit the table. Even though many of us long for the new expansions all that old stuff is not yet explored.

The first thing on !!all!! decks was to include a minimum of 2 arcane wards/decoys to use in this tournament. The reason was that academy cards where allowed and protection crucial enchantments with arcane ward, does really hurt and one has to take care of that by having your own to trigger those off and not losing a dispel (this is one spellpoint minimum that you save). But I never had to use it for this purpose never ever, I myself could pull out this protection twice if I remember correctly. In particular I think GW could have won the tight game with it, if used correctly.

Second thing with academy was that the tiny pests with a defense (jade gremlin, dark fenne asp,..) are extremely valuable to knock of guards. I myself wasn’t aware really of that cause the pest trait is different in Academy where exactly this is not possible. This is mixed with the fact that I don’t and even if it was the only loss (vs biblofilter in a tight match where I played total crap) a valid competitive strategy.

Focusing on that particular game(biblo-mystery): I had the answers but simply forgot, with morning star I could have just killed the asps and that would even result in the fact that the Degu could then have guarded against the Thunderrift falcons. To give a short description of that game: I was playing a Fellela Beastmaster with a Pet-Degu which is all based against direct damage, against Biblos Beastmaster which was based on a Lair and all tiny level one creatures you can get. Fellela died rather fast due to missing her defense all three times. But the assault of creatures took long against the Beastmaster with Vet Belt and the BM together with the Degu took out some creatures, but then only asps/bobcats and falcons remained after some time. Then I realized that I have no anti-flyer. On the transition of arena only to academy I changed my Jokthari curse deck to the male BM. I removed the  Hunting Bow as I also did pre Academy but by having the urge to include an arcane ward, I took the hunting knife instead of the Mage Staff and so there was no anti-flying. So it comes down to don’t copy a deck from one mage to the alternate one and still go over all potential weaknesses. Secondly even without the staff I could have killed the defense creatures with the Morningstar and then the Tegu can guard against the flyers. This is mainly now on the spellbook, it was also that you should stay true to your strategy, instead of killing those small creatures and badger frenzy attack with the Tegu (and its akiros favor) against the Beastmaster would have been better. I should have stayed with dealing direct damage trough Rot. But I was and that may sound strange when you lose, he has more ways to deal with enchantments and my DOT, as I feel this is necessary in competitive books, thinking that I have to protect my enchantments first. But in the end it mainly came down to totally crappy play and missing crucial things in a spellbook.

To the other games: I opened with my Jokthari Poison of the Jungle (fellela DOT build) against Devilsvendetta. The game ended rather fast and even though Priestess has probably best changes against those builds (after necro). I think he was just overwhelmed and surprised by the strategy. The same was probably true for some other games with DOT. Which brings me to the point that I have the feeling that neither of us players (no offense) has sufficient games to really state changes on errata suggestions like the short Mage Wand. We all (including me for example, if you look about that tiny defense pest experience mentioned above) need much more mileage and more games. Mage Wars offers so many if not almost infinite combinations and also on a competitive level there are more games than we think. And we should sometimes wait a bit to get those games done and also see more and maybe it can be better solved with new cards instead of Errata some old ones. I still agree now that the Wizard might be the best Mage, but it is not unbeatable if played right. I haven’t lost against a Wizard since ages. (even with other mages and also against in my opinion rather skilled players, it is also the surprise part and the knowledge that helps). In that sense extending it back to the last Thunderdome: Charmynas Wizard was almost perfect, that Spellbook when I watched his games before game me much to think about. How to beat it (with a new one to be built as it was a best of three final, and with my, to be honest, totally crappy wizard book). That was my first Tournament ever and to be honest I just had built the book in 10minutes, as my goal was to show the Playtesters and arcane wonders that Ballista shouldn’t be printed like the Promo was. And this was clear after the tourney even without my wizard. But anyhow my book was far weaker than Charmynas, but the Bonus was that I almost knew his book, from the previous games. I built it and I think was only guessing a few cards wrong and expecting one more mage wand. In the end by knowing his book I knew that it is worthless to dissolve the Chitin armor as he has minimum 4, that the creature selection is perfect, but that he only has 1 Ballista and maybe 2 towers and 2 elemental wands. So he lacks the killing power if I manage to kill the two earth creatures and dissolve the wands. Anyhow so the Problem are not the Wands really. You should have sufficient spells to take care of them (either 3 dissolves and also a wand or more dissolves(crumble)). But it’s the wrong decisions or even a wrong guess that you take as a Player. Hanma had enough dissolves and power in his Deck (and more mage wands), but he went for the chitin and that cost him the game vs Charmyna. And Charmyna dissolved the crucial pieces(single/few copies) with the gloves of skill, got also rid of hawkeye, which are so many missing dice and damage in the end. So don’t just dissolve or dispel something now, cause it is a threat now, but will it really be a threat on the long term? And so on. And learn to think about protection, we all probe for nullify when we dissolve or almost always do, cause we are aware, but how many are really aware of enchantment transfusion for protection an enchantment or even arcane ward. And I mean being aware and not just knowing that it exists. Another example of the Charmyna game, I think it was the last regrowth I dispelled it, but he had the transfusion, but couldn’t use it cause I positioned myself two zones away and was blured and the guardian angel had already one attached.

The point I want to show is that I didn’t have more than one Wand (magewand) in that book, it was rather weak built (sounds strange but that’s it, faced also no other wizard and it had been a small tournament). But Charmyna didn’t know that I am weak on defense and didn’t focus on me so it ended with a draw. By having a single Stranglevine in the I Probably could have ended it with all those weaks.

All those states that this is not overpowered and then this is usually just normal meta development. Not that I was here from the beginning: But it was kind of with deviations: Thornpush which resulted in quite some Armor then it was said Hanmas book is OP with Jinx and this was a book that can deal well with armor to a certain extent. Charmyna beat it with a perfect Armor tank, which is really strong. Then it was Enchantment Transfusion is OP which is used on heavy DOT to beat heavy Tanks, and many Mage wands and many dispels can beat those and so on.

So if I take that knowledge now to the Tournament I have to talk about the game against GW. He played the Forcemaster with Grizzly and Jelly which Pulls and teleport traps into a spiked pit. I haven’t tried or played against that deck at all, but I was aware that it exists (not all details but that teleport trap part). That knowledge in the end won me the game (and his error) even though I made some bad decisions, as I never had played my deck in that set-up before. I only had it with some new war cards from PvS. So I forgot that certain pieces from that set don’t exist yet and so on. But a big mistake was to play the Panzerguard instead of the Golem. Know your deck The Golem would have been the perfect answer, unmovable and psychic immune versus the Forcemaster, but I was rather under pressure and that is what you need to use when playing Aggro, force errors. Anyhow by knowing the Idea I casted rune shielded deflection braces so the first attack of the grizzly didn’t work. But that was all I had known and then it was a long battle that I still would have lost if GW had played right.

Next point: If you have to decide on two spells for in case he does this or he does this, if it is really important prepare both. If this is the crucial spell you need to get rid of, or creature you need to kill, do it. get rid of crucial crippling spells Example of that game: I had a poison blood on me, and was down to very few life. I was considering that he arcane wards the Poison blood so I can’t dispel it, or nullify me as I was Warlord and he was expecting that I don’t have many arcane spells and maybe more purifies. So I just prepared both to be prepared for either one. In worst case you lose an action, but if that means your regenerate works or doesn’t it might be worth it. Of course this is easier if you are forcemaster, wizard, (sirene), warlord, which have spells on their card or you have equipped wands or a Helm of command for example, as you still have another spell that could work. But before I want to continue on Wands I take GWs decision error. He had just dissolve my chest piece and I only had like 2 or so remaining, and it was his initiative. I could deploy from my Battleforge, he was expecting another chest piece so with vet belt, surging wave would be risky, but maybe I also bring out an defense (he thought that this is less likely) and in case of a defense forcehammer is risky. So he went for the Hammer and a teleport (to teleport grizzly in for an attack). But why if you prepare just both attack spells you have extremely high chances. I did deploy reflex boots and the Hammer was blocked and then I healed and I came out victorious.