Arcane Duels Episode 6 Druid Vs Priest: Guest Starring Ray!

[Coshade]

Hey Guys!

We had a match over the weekend with our local Ambassador Ray. It's our 6th episode of Arcane Duels. Ray is using a vine heavy Druid book and I decided to make a Priest. It was one of our longer matches so enjoy!

As always let me know what you guys think I am always looking for ways to improve the videos and my game play.

Here is a link to the episode
Part 1------>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVINUq_uEbM
Part 2------>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjkV1G_buTE

Here is the Priest spell book I used

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Warrior of the Light[/spellbookname]
[mage]Priest[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNA01]2 x  Acid Ball[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1a11]6 x  Pillar of Light[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWA02]1 x  Force Hammer[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWA04]1 x  Hurl Boulder[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1a01]2 x  Blinding Flash[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1j12]1 x  Mana Crystal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j24]1 x  Temple of Light[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j04]1 x  Battle Forge[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j08]1 x  Hand of Bim-Shalla[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1c20]1 x  Highland Unicorn[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c02]4 x  Asyran Cleric[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFC01]2 x  Asyran Defender[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c06]1 x  Brogan Bloodstone[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c22]1 x  Knight of Westlock[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKC06]1 x  Guardian Angel[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1e12]2 x  Divine Protection[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e37]1 x  Sacred Ground[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e20]1 x  Harmonize[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE02]2 x  Akiro's Favor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWE03]1 x  Falcon Precision[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e05]1 x  Cheetah Speed[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKE01]1 x  Armor Ward[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e01]1 x  Bear Strength[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e21]1 x  Hawkeye[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1q07]1 x  Elemental Cloak[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q15]1 x  Leather Boots[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q16]1 x  Leather Gloves[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q27]1 x  Dawnbreaker Ring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q23]1 x  Regrowth Belt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q08]1 x  Elemental Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q29]2 x  Staff of Asyra[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ09]1 x  Wand of Healing[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q06]1 x  Dragonscale Hauberk[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKQ06]1 x  Eagleclaw Boots[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFI06]2 x  Defend[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i06]2 x  Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i24]1 x  Seeking Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i28]2 x  Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i12]1 x  Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i14]1 x  Heal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i20]1 x  Purify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i07]3 x  Dissolve[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]


And here is the Druid book Ray used. Ray sent me the book so I'm not sure why there are 121 points.

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Ray's Druid of Might[/spellbookname]
[mage]Druid[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNA01]3 x  Acid Ball[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWA02]1 x  Force Hammer[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1a09]3 x  Jet Stream[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKA01]3 x  Surging Wave[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1a08]2 x  Geyser[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNJ02]2 x  Corrosive Orchid[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ12]1 x  Vine Tree[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j13]2 x  Mana Flower[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ10]1 x  Stranglevine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j22]2 x  Tanglevine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNW01]3 x  Bloodspine Wall[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1w04]2 x  Wall of Thorns[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ03]1 x  Etherian Lifetree[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKC09]1 x  Giant Wolf Spider[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC06]1 x  Kralathor, The Devourer[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC10]3 x  Raptor Vine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC16]2 x  Spitting Raptor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC17]1 x  Tataree[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC21]2 x  Thornlasher[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKC03]1 x  Galador, Protector of Straywood[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE02]1 x  Akiro's Favor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e03]1 x  Bull Endurance[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e05]1 x  Cheetah Speed[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e20]2 x  Harmonize[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE06]1 x  Lion Savagery[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e32]2 x  Regrowth[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e36]1 x  Rhino Hide[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1q02]1 x  Bearskin[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKQ06]1 x  Eagleclaw Boots[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q07]1 x  Elemental Cloak[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q16]1 x  Leather Gloves[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q18]1 x  Mage Staff[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q23]1 x  Regrowth Belt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q06]1 x  Dragonscale Hauberk[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1i28]1 x  Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i06]2 x  Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i07]3 x  Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i12]3 x  Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI04]1 x  Force Wave[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i23]2 x  Rouse the Beast[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i01]1 x  Banish[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 121 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]

Hope you guys enjoy it!

[sdougla2]

Thank you for posting this video. I disagreed with Ray about what went wrong for him, but I agreed with Coshade that the Priest needed more creature support earlier.

Ray didn't lose because he failed to kill the Battle Forge early, he lost because he repeatedly made poor investments and inefficient use of his resources. Sending an expensive creature to fight the enemy mage alone and unsupported is not a good idea, particularly for creatures like Kralathor that combines low armor and built in Regenerate. Kralathor in particular is not a huge threat right out of the gate. Once Kralathor has eaten a few creatures it starts to get scary, but it's starting stats are not good enough to go toe to toe with an armored mage.

Repeatedly throwing individual threats against the enemy mage in isolation and without support is a sure way to throw away resources. The risk of the creature getting focused down before accomplishing anything is too high.

Playing Corrosive Orchids and not using them was wasteful. Even if you're not going to use them to destroy equipment, trying to land a Corrode couldn't have hurt. The Thornlasher/Bloodspine Wall combo was inefficient due to Eagleclaw Boots. Destroying the Battle Forge after the Priest was pretty much fully equipped didn't make a lot of sense. If you could have done it with attacks from creatures that would have otherwise wasted actions, it might have made sense, but spending 9 mana on a Force Hammer at that late stage was unwarranted. You don't need to kill the Battle Forge at all, but if you're going to spend significant resources killing it, do so early.

I think the Priest could have done better with more creature support earlier. I would try summoning a big creature turn 2 or 3 to ratchet up the pressure. I've actually been theorizing that the Priest should use the Temple of Asyra instead of the Battle Forge because of the high priority he places on attacking with his mage, but a Battle Forge rush should be pretty good.

Turn 1 (19): Sprint to NC -> Battle Forge (11)
Turn 2 (20): Deploy Leather Gloves -> Knight of Westlock Holy Avenger -> FD Enchantment (0)

Would be a reasonable start if you prefer the Battle Forge rush option.

I've noticed that games with Druids tend to take many players longer than matchups with other mages due to a combination of her sustainability due to Treebond and the difficulty opponents face in trying to chase her due to Vine markers. If you split your focus at all, it exacerbates the problem due to pretty much all of the plants having Regenerate. I haven't noticed it being a problem in my games, and I think you can play with and against the Druid without the game stalling out for long periods, but it's something to keep in mind. What is your feeling on this?

[Coshade]

You make some really good points Sdougla2. It is really contradictory that I say I need more creature support yet I also want to prioritize melee attacks. While I don't like the Temple of Asyra (I find it a weak spawn point) in the book it makes a lot of sense to use it purely because of the extra action. Do you think I have more survivability with the Temple or with the Battle Forge? I also thought about putting in more Asyran Defenders since you could cast one a turn with the temple and still burn with melee.

If you don't use the Temple I agree with the Knight of Westlock as the Holy Avenger. I liked the Cleric as a HA since he can be super cost effective, but the lack of actions (melee attacks) with the BF opening is hard to juggle.

I've been wondering if druids are supposed to be good mid game mages. With a Treebound tree Rhino Hide, Barkskin and a basic chest plate you can have really high armor by round 2 and just go in to the fray really quickly. The creatures and conjurations seem to be the most cost effective creatures in the game.

Thanks for the comment. You always make me think new ways of playing.

[sshroom]

Thanks for posting guys. Very entertaining! Coshade is racking up the victories!

Rays book is loaded with water attack spells. Why not use those against the hydro +3 battle forge instead of the expensive force hammer?

I think there was a turn in the early game when Coshade rolled 8 dice instead of 7 for a hurl boulder (before he had cast hawkeye).

The Priest is a boss! And Akiro's Favor is quite amazing for just about any book.

[Biblofilter]

Thanks again for posting the videos and posting here after. I really appreciate it! 

Maybe you should try a surviver theme?, so that the winning mage countinues until he/she is defeated?

It would be interesting to see what kind of mages/spellbooks your opponents would build to counter your Priest.

And to see what changes you would make to the spellbook, your strategy and follow the developing meta.

Theoretically it should be impossible to keep winning, if your opponents know all your tricks in advance, and you don´t know much about him/her.

[Coshade]

Thanks for posting guys. Very entertaining! Coshade is racking up the victories!

Rays book is loaded with water attack spells. Why not use those against the hydro +3 battle forge instead of the expensive force hammer?

I think there was a turn in the early game when Coshade rolled 8 dice instead of 7 for a hurl boulder (before he had cast hawkeye).

The Priest is a boss! And Akiro's Favor is quite amazing for just about any book.

Thanks for the compliment I hope I'm getting better and helping make other people better too. I know ray didn't realize the battle forge had the hydro exploit. He told me he would have totally used water spells to destroy it.

I totally messed up with the early hurl boulder. Now every time I cast that spell I'll think of your comment

The priest is a badass! He is actually rivaling as my favorite mage lately.

[Coshade]

Thanks again for posting the videos and posting here after. I really appreciate it! 

Maybe you should try a surviver theme?, so that the winning mage countinues until he/she is defeated?

It would be interesting to see what kind of mages/spellbooks your opponents would build to counter your Priest.

And to see what changes you would make to the spellbook, your strategy and follow the developing meta.

Theoretically it should be impossible to keep winning, if your opponents know all your tricks in advance, and you don´t know much about him/her.

I like the idea a lot! We don't have a lot of players in our local group at the moment or I would totally be up for it.  If we had enough players I want to do a bunch of stuff. I actually really want to host and cast a local Chicago tournament and release a recording on the forums here.

[V10lentray]

I think that if these guys hadn't found me I probably would have given up on mage wars. I probably demoed the game to about 25 different people and none of them has bought the game or showed much interest in playing more than once more. I ran 9 separate demos at International tabletop day alone. We have such a huge magic following in Chicago, getting people to get into anything else the actually involves taking the time to invest in building and creating decks is almost futile.

My biggest drawback is I spent so much time trying to develop a playgroup, I never have taken the time to actually play with real books and cards outside the apprentice version. If you include the 4 matches at the GenCon tournament i have only played around 10 games of magewars with actual books that we not the pre- constructed books. And I only get to play with anyone on Tuesday nights (usually the same 2 guys Nate and Justin) if we all make it out to the bar, and that's usually only one game. As well as only playing the druid once before with a completely different plan, only creating a new druid book for the show.

Yeah I had a bunch of play mistakes, which I noticed as I  was making them, god if you only saw and heard the comments that were not recorded abut me sawing, i should have done, this or I  forgot to do that. Which is why i can't even watch the video, I  get so mad at myself seeing all the play mistakes. I only got through about half the first video.

For the first 3 turns I forgot about the life bond transfer thing, which is one of her best traits.

Why Didn't I  use the corrosive orchid to attack? Because I  thought the attack caused the ready marker to triger, and I  never had the mana to do so because of the Armor ward. I didn't realize I could attack and keep the mist token.

The blood spine wall thornlasher would have worked had the effect die worked. i teleported him to the orchid, broke the boots, then tried to thornlasher him through a wall to the other Orchid to break his dragonscale hauberk.

And I  absolutely did not realize the battleforge had a +3 hydro otherwise I  would have moved up one space turn 2, and hit it with 2 water spells, and not allowed the game to have gotten out of hand. 

And I  only had 2 dissolves in my book, not 3 as he listed.

[Maverick]

I do a podcast myself so I understand how frustrating criticism can be. Don't let it get to you. Things are harder when you know they are going to be viewed by others. Anyone can find things to criticize about anything. At the end of the day all that matters is the question "did you have fun?". If you can answer yes to that the opinions of the rest of the world is irrelevant.

[Intangible0]

I do a podcast myself so I understand how frustrating criticism can be. Don't let it get to you. Things are harder when you know they are going to be viewed by others. Anyone can find things to criticize about anything. At the end of the day all that matters is the question "did you have fun?". If you can answer yes to that the opinions of the rest of the world is irrelevant.

Well put Maverick. Sometimes it's embarrassing putting the video out when you know you made a bad mistake but it's good to remember that you are the ones going out of your way to show everyone else the match. It's hard to perform at 100% while under that kind of pressure. 

[sIKE]

I have to say I watched most of the game, and really did like the presentation and editing a lot. I'm glad that I didn't have to sit and watch Upkeep and Planning. I also liked how the cards played were shown and the end of round summary was a nice touch. Having watched many games on OCTGN I the temptation is there to pick a part a players strategy and technique. As a result, I have learned that it is best for me to only help out with rules questions unless otherwise asked.

[DaveW]

Thanks for posting the video... I enjoy watching and learning about Mages that I'm not familiar with, and these two certainly fit that bill.

I am trying to figure out how the first vine came into play so far from the Druid. The rules talk about placing vine markers in the Druid's zone, or in a zone in or adjacent to another vine marker. The first vine marker came out two zones away from the Druid. I also don't see anything on the Vine Tree spell that modifies the placement of vine markers. Any comments there would be very helpful.

Thanks!

[V10lentray]

The first deploy we missed on camera and was also misplaced. the first mine was placed in the space directly above the druid. (this was incorrect)

Any vine markers placed in turn 3 and after were placed correctly. You can place a vine adjacent to another vine marker, instead of placing it in the druids zone. With the vine tree you can place a second marker, so you could place 2 vines completely across the arena from the druid.

if the first raptor vine was popped on turn 2 that would have been incorrect as I could not have a vine that far on turn 2. But I could have on turn 3. I don't think that error made that much of an impact considering the number of other mis-plays I had.

[wtcannonjr]

Ray,

I wonder if using Seedling Pods would have helped this match. Have you had any luck playing with them?

[Coshade]

Hey thanks everyone for the responses!

Ray I hope you don't beat yourself up too much over any errors you made. I think every game I've posted I've had rule errors. We're all friends here looking for fun in mage wars. No one is here to beat people up over little things. Also I hope you feel like next time you play, you feel more confident in your abilities and choices based on what you learn. I'm glad to have met you and that we have a sweet Tuesday mage wars meet up