Getting Altar of Skulls Going?

[Agraxe]

I recently won a game using Altar of Skulls (wanted to see if I could get it going). My opening was:

1 (20): Acolyte of the Bog Queen (15), Death Ring (10)
2 (20): Altar of Skulls (11), Libro Mortuos (2)

From there, I put up walls to form a "corridor of bones" on my side, put down an idol of pestilence and started spawning skeletal minions and skeletal sentries to defend myself, and a deathfang (eternal servant) to harass my opponent (a water wizard). I used a meditation amulet to build up a surplus of mana, since I didn't need to move. I accelerated the altar's charging by killing two enemy creatures. Once the altar was up and running, I was doing 3 poison damage to everything each upkeep phase, which is awesome.

So my experience is, if you devote your resources to protecting the altar (including walls), it isn't too difficult to get it up and running. The Libro Mortuos' ability  to spawn cheap defenders is very helpful in this.

I don't think the altar needs to be changed.

is easy when u fight a water wizard... but now everyone use that force hammer.... so the altar of skull and the walls are over....

[blackirishguilt]

is easy when u fight a water wizard... but now everyone use that force hammer.... so the altar of skull and the walls are over....

A Mage Wand bound with Reassemble goes a long way towards keeping your walls up which buys your Altar time.  I faced down multiple Force Hammers, Akiro's Hammers and Hurl Boulders the other day and only lost 1 wall section and took a little damage on the Altar but nothing major.  Acolyte also reconstructs before she is poisoned to death and Mort can be nice as a combination defender + healer for the Altar. 

[reddawn]

You also have to remember that in a game where you aren't getting extra skull tokens, you pretty much have to spend 14 mana to do practically nothing for 8 rounds, and that's just not acceptable.  Given that it is completely useless most of the time, I don't think it warrants book space except maybe as a meta choice or for multiplayer (as RK said).