I would firstly ask, if you actually play against necromancer with this setup or this is just theory crafting

Secondly, i must agree with other guys, that as it may seem, reality is somewhat always different. If you are not beastmaster swarming or Warlord goblin swarming, you should be pretty fine.

What give me creeps are suppresion orb and mordok obelisk

I did, last night. My big mistake was going for a wildfire imp swarm with the new warlock.

I switched when I recognised what was happening, no more imps, but by that time I had spend so much on a pentagram plus harmonise plus a couple of imps I had lost the momentum. I also made a couple of crippling mistakes, forgetting that vampirism, life drain and many of my curses had no effect on non-living creatures. I eventually got adramalech out, but it was too late, and I conceded.

I find that a big misfire early in the game leaves very little opportunity to pull back... you fight, but it's a long slow death.



Suppression orb is no problem for the imps - they teleport. The obelisk is another matter.

When a necromancer gets down these two cards, giving everything finite life, and removing one life a turn from every living creature on the board, it's pretty much game over unless they are dealt with quick... Added to the general high bang for the buck of undead/finite life creatures, it's a nasty combo, giving the necro a huge advantage for very little cost.

Short of building up a wrecking team to take down these conjurations, what's the strategy against it? It's so dispiriting to play against.

Does any other mage have anything quite as dominant, which allows it to wreak so much havoc for so little effort?

Thematically I feel it makes most sense that all non flying creatures within 2 zones get attacked. I think of it as a huge area of effect fireball, comprising 13 zones, in which any ground-based creature feels the flame.

But where does Mage Wars stand on the 'golden rule' - that if there is a potential clash between the card and the rule book, the card wins?

In general, I tend to favour the thematically compelling interpretation, rather than the rules lawyer interpretation... but I don't play in tournaments. (There aren't any where I live anyway).

Yep. They may look at it later, but for the time being it stands, and they are inclined to leave it.

Since this means the warlord builder-based conjuration playstyle is now off the table (ie the potential synergy of builder/Otto/construction yard), it frees me to focus on my warlock instead. It's something of a relief to finally rid myself of this pipedream!

if you check the General Signet, it is clear Gate to Hell only works for the mage.

Why?

I wonder if anyone has tried the old gate to hell with the Adramlech warlock?

Seems that a fire attack against every non flying enemy creature in the game, plus wildfire imps, and the new synergies from Forged in Fire could be pretty fantastic.

It's still a huge cost - 24 mana - but it seems more viable now, especially against a swarm deck. (Of course to make it really good vs the druid, adding its attack to plant conjurations would be awesome and feel entirely thematic, but perhaps make warlock too strong against the druid.)

On an aside, can a demon summoned from a Pentagram also appear at the gate to hell?

A simple 'no teleport' rule would solve a lot of these issues, I suspect.

Quote from: Mrmt on July 28, 2014, 02:51:55 AM

Quote from: Shad0w on July 27, 2014, 06:57:17 PM

Until it gets a errata or a new printing in tourneys it is play as worded

Have you ever seen it played in tourneys? To what effect?

I have not seen it but that does not mean that somebody some place has not tried. 

Indeed, no. And yet, I'm willing to bet you've seen quite a lot of other cards played... which makes me suspect that this card is pretty weak, and almost always worse than another card.

It's possible that with the new warlord deck, this creature has become more viable. A useful way to spend mana from construction yard, perhaps. But I suspect it's still weak.

The suggestion that it can't even heal a paltry 1 from a wall is the least of its problems. The greater problem is that its conjurations have no range, and that they take a full round, meaning that playing the goblin builder effectively throws away a number of actions early on, a time when the warlord is particularly vulnerable, and when it can ill afford to waste moves.

The sadness about this card is that it could be a great tool in the emerging creatures-conjurations focus of the warlord. A class defining creature, in fact. It's as though they designed it, then got scared of it, and clipped its wings too far.

I would love to see it meet its potential - because I think it could be a pivotal card.