Arcane Wonders Forum
Mage Wars => Strategy and Tactics => Topic started by: reddawn on June 12, 2013, 05:28:51 AM
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8/22/2014 Update: I have returned to playing MW regularly after a break, and a lot has changed since the writing of this article. Most of it is different and now includes some insight on how the MW environment has changed, so please take another read. Thanks!
Arena Axioms is a series with the goal to give players, especially new ones, advice that they can use in the arena to improve their play and thus get a bit more enjoyment out of the game.
In this segment, I will be covering opening plays, how to approach different basic strategies, and some of the core concerns behind those approaches. The main are numbered as follows:
1. Conjure at least 2-3 Mana conjurations and/or Rings to help you stay on equal mana footing with the opposing mage.
Arcane Wonders recognizes the importance of early increases in channeling, as is apparent in their updated starting spellbooks. All of the mages have at least 2 Mana Crystals/Flowers in addition to their "X-class only" mana-reduction rings and spawnpoints, and indeed in my experience, playing 2 channeling-increasing mana cards on the first turn of the game is optimal. Virtually all matches last for at least 5 turns, usually many more, so they are guaranteed to provide an increase in mana regardless of what other more specific cards you'll need.
2. Spend your starting mana and choose your play style
Casting creatures is the main way early on to spend your extra starting mana. The need for more actions isn't implicit in the rules, but having a solid amount of actions ensures that you're going to have things to do and more options throughout the game other than having to rely solely on your mage's actions.
Your approach towards summoning creatures will generally depend on whether or not you're going to be using your class spawnpoint or using a Battleforge:
A. If you are using your class spawnpoint (Pentagram, Gate to Voltari, Lair, Libro Mortuous/Graveyard, etc), you should have a good mana "curve" of creatures. That is, you want your creatures cost to match what you need throughout the game. This means having some level 1 and 2 creatures for the early game, some level 3 or 4 creatures for the mid-game, and possibly a level 5 or higher creature for the late game.
Additionally, Meditation Amulet is particularly good when using a class spawnpoint. As you spend most of your mana on creatures, you'll find yourself running out of very mana quickly; MA gives your Mage the ability to help fuel your army of creatures when he or she would otherwise be out of mana. You can also prepare another card to Quick Cast after you restore some mana Meditating; it's a neat way to make sure your mage always has something to do.
Some Spawnpoints can only cast creatures with a certain amount of mana already on them (Temple of Asyra, Pentagram, etc); when playing mages with those spawnpoints, it's often a good idea to include a Harmonize to enchant them. This allows you to more consistently rely on your spawnpoint rather than risking not being able to cast a creature on a turn you really need to.
The goal when casting creatures with a spawnpoint is to summon what you need; if your opponent doesn't have much armor (or any) or bigger armored creatures, you don't need large creatures with special abilities; lots of little creatures actually give you more dice than one or two big ones, and are usually not very profitable for your opponent to kill or control outside of zone-targetting cards, or cards that affect the entire arena. To make cards like zone-attacks less attractive for your opponent, avoid clumping most of your creatures into a single zone; stagger them in different zones instead, if possible. Doing this also ensures that if an opponent attempts to block their movement with a Wall, only a couple of your creatures will lose actions getting around it, not your entire army.
On the other hand, if you see lots of armor and/or big creatures on the other side of the arena, you need to match them with strong, higher-level creatures of your own and/or armor, a defense, or other protection cards like Divine Protection, control cards like Agony to punish high dice or special attacks, and Regrowth on your mage to survive through multiple fights.
Knowing when to transition from smaller creatures to bigger creatures is very important to your success when using a class spawnpoint play style. Seeing an enemy mage with lots of enchantments and armor or large enemy creatures is a good indication that you need to summon larger, more powerful creatures with special abilities. Including spells like Acid Ball, Rust, Call of the Wild, Marked for Death, Armory, and Tooth and Nail are also very good ways to support the smaller creatures you have already summoned, since these cards and others like them also help your larger creatures.
Players should note that if you are spending most of your mana on creatures (which is going to be the case if you're using a class spawnpoint), your mage is going to be more vulnerable. The other part of performing well when using a class spawnpoint is really knowing when to involve your mage in the fighting, and to heavily support your creatures over the course of the game with cards that increase their value in some way and cover their respective weaknesses (as previously mentioned). Anticipate damage and control cards that your opponent will use to maim and punish your creatures, and if one of your bigger creatures is wounded, it's a safe bet to prepare a healing spell to make sure it survives. Unless you're in a position to gain a big advantage over your opponent, losing a larger creature can easily mean losing the game.
Ultimately, your creatures are the heavy-lifters here, so your mage needs to as far away from the action as possible while still being able to support her creatures. Walls that block LoS/movement and powerful equipment like Cloak of Shadows can allow your mage some leniency in her mobility, instead of being confined to a corner of the arena and/or missing summoning opportunities because you're afraid she'll be focused.
B. If instead you're using a Battleforge (Fellella functions similarly for Nature mages), your needs and focus change somewhat. Your general strategy isn't to support lots of creatures and gain tons of actions, it is to increase the quality of your fewer actions and reduce the quality of your opponent's actions, usually by playing buffing cards on your mage and higher level friendly creatures while playing control cards on the opposing mage and his or her creatures.
The Battleforge/mage-buffing play style is arguably simpler than the spawnpoint style, since there are less actions and thus less individual decisions you have to worry about. Your main concern is to make sure that you're not overwhelmed by mages who use a lot of creatures while removing all of your buffing progress. If your opponent is successful, all that really matters at that point is how many dice each player is rolling, and you're not going to win that fight having fewer creatures.
In particular, you need to plan for cards like Harshforge Monolith, Purge/Destroy Magic, and Arcane Corruption, all of which are very powerful at punishing heavy investment in enchantments. On other side of the same coin, you also need to include cards that punish a player using lots of creatures, so you don't get easily overwhelmed. Mordok's Obelisk, Suppression Orb, Idol of Pestilence, creatures with zone affects like Malacoda or sweeping like Dwarf Kriegsbiel, and various zone attacks can help you fight back against waves of creatures. Be sure to support these cards with buffs of their their own; you aren't going to have many opportunities to summon creatures, so you need to make sure the few ones you do summon aren't destroyed.
Probably the most straightforward of protecting your enchantments other than just having multiple copies is Enchanter's Wardstone. It's pretty much specifically designed to help players who buff their mage with more than one or two enchantments, and punishes enchantment-destroying cards. Armor Ward is the same kind of idea, just for equipment; however, there is not as of yet any card released that destroys multiple equipment, so Armor Ward is arguably less relevant in the current card pool/environment.
c. Three cards you'll really want to consider regardless of play style are Wand of Healing, Mana Prism, and if you're playing a War mage, Conquer
Both styles often include various ways of inflicting conditions that are detrimental to the other, like Sleep, Corrode, Cripple, and more; you'll want to make sure you're prepared if one of those happens. The small heal is also a great way to spend a little extra mana you might be floating. Just be aware that the range on the Wand is pretty short, so it won't save you or one of your creatures if you make a big enough mistake.
There are plenty of cards that force players to pay mana, especially if they're focused on a particular strategy, and that's where Mana Prism comes in. Like the Wand, it won't stop everything your opponent is doing to ruin your plans, but it will soften the late-game blow from lots of different control cards. This is especially true given the recent release of the Anvil Throne Warlord, his mana-taxing abilities, and the powerful Harshforge Plate.
On the note of War mages, Conquer is a very strong card that can take the place of Mana Prism (Arcane cards cost triple spellbook points for the Warlord, so this is preferable), as many of the most disruptive mana-taxing cards are corporeal conjurations. Conquer is conditional, but the condition is not hard to fulfill and no other card currently can outright destroy a corporeal conjuration with no dice rolled.
Thanks for reading! I know it is a lot to mull over, but the advice should help all levels of players. The game has changed significantly since the early sets and very much for the better. I welcome any constructive feedback, critical or complementary, and edit-in any information I missed that another player picks up on.
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Unless you're playing Forcemaster.
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Unless you're playing Forcemaster.
Invisible Stalker and Thoughtspores are pretty important to FM play. Even the Forcemaster relies on creatures, albeit somewhat less. You just can't stack enough defenses to reliably stop everything, and while Forcefield is a pretty darn good card, it's very expensive and eventually stops working well.
Edit: I will say however that I've been overall more than a little disappointed in Psyloks. You can drag them around to make their attack less situational, but even then 2 dice, critical damage or not, is just not good enough when the daze chance is very lackluster. Iron Golems are also immune to their attack, as if it wasn't bad enough...
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Unless you're playing Forcemaster.
Invisible Stalker and Thoughtspores are pretty important to FM play. Even the Forcemaster relies on creatures, albeit somewhat less. You just can't stack enough defenses to reliably stop everything, and while Forcefield is a pretty darn good card, it's very expensive and eventually stops working well.
Edit: I will say however that I've been overall more than a little disappointed in Psyloks. You can drag them around to make their attack less situational, but even then 2 dice, critical damage or not, is just not good enough when the daze chance is very lackluster. Iron Golems are also immune to their attack, as if it wasn't bad enough...
Invisible Stalker can be good, but if you are playing against a swarm build he won't be very effective. At that point you might be better off laying down Suppression Orb and going solo. Thoughtspores are nice. I basically think of them as "flying mage wands." Technically, they are "flying elemental wands" as well, but I think the cheaper incantations (like force push and knockdown) work better on them than the cheaper attack spells (like invisible fist). Psyloks are utterly useless.
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Unless you're playing Forcemaster.
I still like to play a Thoughtspore most of the time, but I agree, she doesn't need creature support the way that the other mages do. Using Galvitar to kill a Steelclaw after it got off only a single attack was fun. As was doing 21 damage to a Wizard on turn 3... Galvitar hits hard.
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Unless you're playing Forcemaster.
Invisible Stalker and Thoughtspores are pretty important to FM play. Even the Forcemaster relies on creatures, albeit somewhat less. You just can't stack enough defenses to reliably stop everything, and while Forcefield is a pretty darn good card, it's very expensive and eventually stops working well.
Edit: I will say however that I've been overall more than a little disappointed in Psyloks. You can drag them around to make their attack less situational, but even then 2 dice, critical damage or not, is just not good enough when the daze chance is very lackluster. Iron Golems are also immune to their attack, as if it wasn't bad enough...
Invisible Stalker can be good, but if you are playing against a swarm build he won't be very effective. At that point you might be better off laying down Suppression Orb and going solo. Thoughtspores are nice. I basically think of them as "flying mage wands." Technically, they are "flying elemental wands" as well, but I think the cheaper incantations (like force push and knockdown) work better on them than the cheaper attack spells (like invisible fist). Psyloks are utterly useless.
Swarming the opponent takes too long to really be effective. Small creatures, while mana efficient, are extremely action inefficient, especially as full actions. You could argue that the BM can do it with his level ones, given his ability, but after trying swarm more than a few times, there's just better support in the overall cardpool for bigger creatures.
As with other posters, I do agree that in general, the Forcemaster is not as creature-heavy. We could argue about the varying degrees she needs/doesn't need creatures, but this is with the knowledge that she is the exception, not the rule, and not too much of an exception at that.
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There is plenty of support for BM swarms, and BM swarm plays can be extremely powerful. It's just important to have a more resilient threat so that losing your swarm doesn't set you back to square one. The first few swarm plays I saw turned out very badly, so I initially assumed that swarms just weren't good. That's not true. They're fantastic, but you can't afford to overcommit to them if your opponent has strong counters.
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There is plenty of support for BM swarms, and BM swarm plays can be extremely powerful. It's just important to have a more resilient threat so that losing your swarm doesn't set you back to square one. The first few swarm plays I saw turned out very badly, so I initially assumed that swarms just weren't good. That's not true. They're fantastic, but you can't afford to overcommit to them if your opponent has strong counters.
I was going to post about my reservations with this statement...but I think it would be more constructive to ask how you go about doing your swarms. Honestly, I have not had success with them, even with help from the two totems, call of the wild, etc. The main one have practiced is dog swarm with Redclaw, since it seemed the most straightforward and intuitive, but I haven't found Bitterwood Foxes to be of much use. Foxes seem to be much better as occasional ways to remove guards than pile on damage. Wolves are a very different story, they're awesome, but I'm not sure Redclaw and a small squad of wolves counts as a swarm really...
So basically, maybe you can give us some advice on how to do it, and I can incorporate that into the Axiom, giving credit of course.
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Foxes and bobcats die too easy so I had a problem with them in the beginning. Now I see them as attack spells xD (they cost 4-5 mana with ring, with totems out they can hit for 4-5 dice like an attack spell) If I am lucky they survive more than 1 round. If I have a bigger creature out usually I can move away next round and charge again after that. This way I have more success with them, if they die after 1 attack, I didnt waste an attack spell.
I think a new totem would be quite useful with +1 armor in the whole arena. It should be pricey so it only worth to summon it for swarms. For big creatures there are cheaper options to get armor.
I also think the great tree was designed to help swarms but I can't ever find a good time to use it, usually I need mana for something else.
Finally I have to admit that I agree that pure swarm tactic can not win for now, you will need 1-2 big creature sooner or later to finish the game.
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I tend to play Redclaw or Steelclaw on turn 2, and then play some combination of Foxes, Falcons, and totems, depending on what's going on. I've had times when I managed to get a Bitterwood Fox to attack for 6 or 7 dice (Redclaw, Rajan's Fury, and Marked for Death are amazing here), at which point it's efficient even if it immediately dies, especially since my opponent will most likely have to devote an attack to killing it.
The thing to remember is that a Bitterwood Fox with a Ring of Beasts costs as much as a Block without a discount ring, but it can attack until killed, and it may take multiple attacks to destroy. As long as you can avoid eating efficient zone attacks or Chain Lightnings, and avoid running them into powerful guards, they tend to build up if your opponent doesn't keep on top of things, at which point your damage output should be much higher than theirs is. Bitterwood Fox is far more damage efficient than Timber Wolf, but it's much more fragile (Timber Wolf costs twice as much with Ring of Beasts, has an attack 33% stronger, but is about 3 times as tough).
If your opponent devotes everything to killing off your swarm, you still have a big creature tearing big chunks off of them, and your level 1 creatures are effectively acting as Blocks.
It's also worth noting that summoning 2 Fast creatures 2 zones away from someone (who hopefully can't get farther away due to a board edge and can't close effectively due to hindering) allows you to pressure them hard, since it's difficult for them to get away or prevent your creatures from getting attacks in. With Rajan's Fury, you can be attacking for quite a bit with those Foxes.
Thunderdrift Falcons benefit the most from Rajan's Fury (Flying works as pseudo Elusive).
Tanglevine and Wall of Thorns are also great for these types of builds.
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Great write-up sdougla2.
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Ok, I will try your suggestions and see how it works out. As a point of connection, though, we can pretty much all agree that regardless of your build order, big creatures are needed to start? They seem like the anchor a every good start needs, which has been my experience as well as others.
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The Forcemaster doesn't need big creatures. I've attacked for 21 damage on turn 3 with her with only a Thoughtspore down for creatures. Others can get by with mid sized creatures, but everyone else at least needs a mid sized creature.
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this whole thread is advice for new learners. I would not put the force master 10 dice x2 (BF) build as one to recommend to beginners. that fm build is very vulnerable to shut down if a beginner users it.
yes I understand that your X mage build doesn't use big creatures and you have won a lot with it, but you guys are not beginner players.
the advice this thread gives is valid for beginners (usually people who haven't made a spell book from scratch) and what I will tell all the people I demo from now on
PS. I would also put swarm in a non beginner category because it to can be easily shut down if you are new to the game.
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this whole thread is advice for new learners. I would not put the force master 10 dice x2 (BF) build as one to recommend to beginners. that fm build is very vulnerable to shut down if a beginner users it.
yes I understand that your X mage build doesn't use big creatures and you have won a lot with it, but you guys are not beginner players.
the advice this thread gives is valid for beginners (usually people who haven't made a spell book from scratch) and what I will tell all the people I demo from now on
PS. I would also put swarm in a non beginner category because it to can be easily shut down if you are new to the game.
Wizard is probably best for beginners I'd say.
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a wizard creature build can be easy, I would not recommend a mana suppression deck to beginners. also note most of wizards creatures are slow so they require teleport combos to work. not the best start for beginners.
i found warlock and beast master (non swarm) were the easiest decks for new players to use all there combos work out simply
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this whole thread is advice for new learners. I would not put the force master 10 dice x2 (BF) build as one to recommend to beginners. that fm build is very vulnerable to shut down if a beginner users it.
yes I understand that your X mage build doesn't use big creatures and you have won a lot with it, but you guys are not beginner players.
the advice this thread gives is valid for beginners (usually people who haven't made a spell book from scratch) and what I will tell all the people I demo from now on
PS. I would also put swarm in a non beginner category because it to can be easily shut down if you are new to the game.
Fair enough. Both swarm and solo play are vulnerable to counters, and you need to be aware of those counters so as to minimize them and avoid overcommitting.
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a wizard creature build can be easy, I would not recommend a mana suppression deck to beginners. also note most of wizards creatures are slow so they require teleport combos to work. not the best start for beginners.
i found warlock and beast master (non swarm) were the easiest decks for new players to use all there combos work out simply
I wouldn't say they need teleporting to "work" but you're correct that they do need some kind of mobility support (Cheetah Speed is fine too) if you want to use them offensively, rather than to protect conjurations or your mage. Quick action attacks don't mean much if you're too slow for it to matter, after all.
And thanks overall. This thread is meant for beginners mainly, yes, but really anyone who needs some help knowing how to set up quick and easy can take something away from what I wrote. I do realize the Forcemaster plays differently (she's my second-most played mage, after all), but think even her baseline gameplay does involve leaning on a couple creatures.
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I think for a new player Warlock or Priestess would be good because it involves a lot of the mechanics... you get a solid mix of cards. A strong creature play option (knights/demons), attack spells (fire/light), a good mix of equipments (lash, demonhide armor, staff of asyra, etc), and incantions (heals, dissolves, etc etc), with a couple conjurations (temples, altars, etc) and you get mage abilities that demonstrate right off the bat the relationship of health loss vs damage (blood reaper and holy life gain.)
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Thanks for doing these, reddawn. My buddy who I mainly play MW with has been playing Magic for 15 years and eats up all the game theory articles on this site. I've read and enjoy them, but have trouble translating them into practical action on the game board. I appreciate the straight up strategy advice. Keep it up!
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So is the general feeling that it is better to get a big creature out early RATHER than a spawnpoint? Spawnpoints usually cost as much as a big creature (14-15 or so), so they would hinder your ability to bring out a fattie.
How do people feel about spawnpoints?
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So is the general feeling that it is better to get a big creature out early RATHER than a spawnpoint? Spawnpoints usually cost as much as a big creature (14-15 or so), so they would hinder your ability to bring out a fattie.
How do people feel about spawnpoints?
Spawnpoints are a cool concept, but I'm not sure where they fit in strategy-wise. I know that in the games that I have played one, spending so much mana on a spawnpoint often leaves me unable to either properly defend myself or mount an effective attack.
Battleforge is fine, though. But it's also, not coincidentally, the least expensive option.
As it stands, there are lot less expensive ways to give yourself an action or mana advantage. Depending on the mage matchup, you might want a Mana Crystal, or an extra creature, etc, and that's fine because the investment isn't that large and it won't slow you down much. Spawnpoints, however, require enormous amounts of mana and often actions to really get working, and by that time you're probably in real trouble.
Basically, they seem to be in the game more for flavor than competitive consideration, and from what I've read from playtester posts, they appear to agree.
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I don't really use spawnpoints aside from Battleforge, but I have a few ideas that I'd like to test involving them, so I haven't completely given up on them yet.
I can see Temple of Asyra working alright if you use your mage's activation to beat face with Staff of Asyra, but the other creature spawnpoints are pretty expensive. Also, don't try to improve the channeling on Temple of Asyra with Clerics of Asyra. They're too vulnerable, and it makes your opening much, much too slow.
You need to do something to slow down your opponent if you want to take advantage of creature spawnpoints, or they'll just kill you before you get much advantage out of the spawnpoint. I suspect that the new 11-12 mana Intercept creatures will improve spawnpoints a bit by giving you a cheap enough defensive option that you can play a spawnpoint and buy some time while the mana/action advantage offered by the spawnpoint has a chance to kick in.
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Yup, I had the same ideas about the new super-defensive creatures. They might be just what spawnpoint openings need to survive long enough to take advantage of the extra mana and actions.
@Jomurph: No problem. Game theory is interesting, but it tends to really only make practical sense to those players that have a lot of in-game experience...and even then, there's a lot that could go wrong in terms of how someone interprets terms like "tempo" or "aggro," because those terms tend to mean very different things depending on the game you are playing.
Aggro, in a Magic: The Gathering context for example, translates almost exclusively into playing a ton of small creatures very early on. In Mage Wars, however, it means something very different; you often play both offensively and defensively at various points in the game, or even in the same round. Thus, that's why I really emphasize learning the basics of the game and playing with an open mind because you could get confused or confuse one of your friends if they don't share the "theoretical" idea of what aggro is or isn't.
It sounds confusing just writing about it, actually.
Long story short, generic gaming terms like "aggro" or "control" aren't as exclusive or strict when it comes to MW, so I usually tend to avoid them.
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Added a quick note on Mana conjurations/rings. While I think it is possible to win without increasing your channeling at the start of the game with a couple of the mages, some of the new cards, like those creatures with Intercept, make fully aggro builds more challenging to play.
For this reason, and with more experience under my belt, I now observe and contend that most builds need some way of competing in mana to remain effective over the course of a game. The basic concept of getting larger creature out in the first few turns remains the same, but just be sure to increase you channeling on the first turn of the game.
Personally, I've found 2x Mana Crystal/Mana Flower on Turn 1 to be a good standard start, with a class-respective Mana ring (Ring of Beasts, Ring of Curses, Ring of Command, etc) and a powerful creature on Turn 2 a good follow up.
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I think, playing a big creature in the beginning is not the best option! You force your Opponent to react on that, and he will! If he's not careless he will try to kill the crit as soon as possible, leaving you with a mana deficit and your best creature gone! Sleep it (bad chances to wake it up without a second crit or loosing an attackspell)! Banish it, Tanglewine it, Pit it, Forcehold it, Teleport it, there are to many ways to deal with a single bady!! Bether is to come up with one or even bether with two mid creatures to get him busy and in this time to arm for the final blow with your Killer! Far more unexpected and less likely to be killed by now!
I've seen it as BM! Two Trolls in the beginning are Horror, they were nearly unstopable and drew the complete atention on them! Finally a Grizzly and the lightning deer left him no chance!! I was at 40 health with this new awesome ring and a regen belt! Awesome! ;D
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If you read the bolded points, I don't say to cast just one large creatures; I say to cast a large creature followed by 1-2 smaller, medium sized ones. I suppose I should clarify that by medium size I mean around 12-13 mana, which seems to be the point at which creatures start rolling higher than 4 attack dice.
So, if you wanted a good Warlock opening, you could do something like Turn 1 = QC Mana Crystal, move, Mana Crystal, Turn 2 = Ring of Curses, move, Turn 3 = Adramelech, Turn 4 = Bloodreaper Slayer, Turn 5 = Slayer, or maybe a Hellion.
You could opt for a faster start with Turn 1 = Mana Crystal, move, move, Turn 2 = Adramelech, Turn 3 = Bloodreaper Slayer, but the first opening is more forgiving if you aren't used to playing extremely aggressively (which is harder now with the new Intercept creatures).
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I would tend to agree that a good opening for beginners is a high level creature followed by a few mid level creatures. For a Warlord this tends to mean either Grimson or Thorg as an opening, followed by 2 dwarf panzergardes for me. They may not have a huge attack but are great at protecting my mage and grimson.
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I've revised the entire article to reflect the current state of Mage Wars. Please read and feel free to agree, disagree, cajole, compliment, etc anything I wrote. Also, I probably missed something somewhere, so if anything comes to mind, mention it and I'll include it.
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@reddawn
wb!
I think a big shift has been with the addition of Acid Ball, Rust, and to a less extent Corrosive Orchid . I played a game the other day where my opponent would spend on an Acid Ball or Rust and I would have to counter it by casting a replacement piece of armor that cost more than the Corrode spell in the first place. Previously that would be a Dissolve and you could only carry so many of those and had to make sure you saved one or two for a Wand or Lash. These guys don't strip you of armor they just neuter it. Timed with initiative many times you will find yourself with no armor and then a big hit is headed your way.
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Agreed. Before NvD, armor was pretty game-warping, and other than creatures with piercing and direct damage, there wasn't much of a viable way of stopping it. Truth be told, that is almost entirely the reason I stopped playing for a while; armor was just too oppressive and made the game feel too samey with Battleforge being an auto-include/play.
The other reason was that class spawnpoints weren't viable in an environment where armor ruled; the actions they produced dropped off too quickly. Considering that I like playing with lots of creatures, that took some serious fun and opportunity out of the game...
But that's all changed and I'm glad for it. Sure, you can still remove Corrodes with Healing Wand/new armor but the point is that there is counter-play now, which is essential and healthy to any competitive game.
The other big thing for me is the recent release of the Adramelech Warlock and finally, a level 2 demon in Infernian Scourger. I wasn't sure what to think when I first tried them, but they're pretty much exactly what I wanted; a super-aggressive demon with decent stats. Pentagram is finally useful too, though I'm pretty sure it's better for the A. Warlock than the A.C. Warlock.
I still have no idea how to use Cerberus or Sardonyx yet (maybe Cerberus for Necro's Altar of Skulls and Sardonyx as really late-game dude for 38 hp Warlock?), but that's not a big deal.
The game feels like it's in a pretty balanced state currently and I hope it stays that way. Let's me focus on fun stuff instead of dealing with a warped meta.
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Pretty much agree here there is a lot more balance than there was. Even Gencon shows that.
I still have no idea how to use Cerberus or Sardonyx yet (maybe Cerberus for Necro's Altar of Skulls and Sardonyx as really late-game dude for 38 hp Warlock?), but that's not a big deal.
I think of those two as adding flavor and fun.
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Good convo guys. Very informative! :-)
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@Reddawn:
The goal when casting creatures with a spawnpoint is to summon what you need; if your opponent doesn't have much armor (or any) or bigger armored creatures, you don't need large creatures with special abilities; lots of little creatures actually give you more dice than one or two big ones, and are usually not very profitable for your opponent to kill or control outside of zone-targetting cards, or cards that affect the entire arena. To make cards like zone-attacks less attractive for your opponent, avoid clumping most of your creatures into a single zone; stagger them in different zones instead, if possible. Doing this also ensures that if an opponent attempts to block their movement with a Wall, only a couple of your creatures will lose actions getting around it, not your entire army.
On the other hand, if you see lots of armor and/or big creatures on the other side of the arena, you need to match them with strong, higher-level creatures of your own and/or armor, a defense, or other protection cards like Divine Protection, control cards like Agony to punish high dice or special attacks, and Regrowth on your mage to survive through multiple fights.
In general I agree that smaller creatures have better return on mana in terms of damage per turn (DPT). However, there are a few creatures that also have excellent returns in conditional circumstances:
Whirling Spirit - 4 + 50% push = +1.5 near a wall
Goran, Werewolf Pet - 5 + 3 vs. non-moving, injured target when Warlock present
Grizzly Bear - 7 + 1 piercing vs. non-moving
Darkfenne Hydra - 3 + 3 + 3 vs. non-moving
Corrosive Ooze - 5 damage + 1 corrode vs. non-moving
Iron Golem - 6 damage vs. non-moving
Sir Corazin - 4 + 4 vs. non-moving
So, it might be more accurate to say that large creatures are better when you can control your opponent's position? (At least until they make a large creature with a 1:2 damage to cost ratio that is not limited in this way.)
When it comes to small creatures I think the best two are:
Thunderift Falcon - 3 dice + flying, fast
Blue Gremlin - 3 dice + 1 piercing, defense of 8+, 1 armor, ability to gain fast & teleport
In part they are summonable with a spawnpoint that is not conditional, so you can spam at least one a turn. Additionally they are very hard to kill for their cost, which lets them fight much bigger creatures without dying quickly. The other big advantage is their mobility: with fast and either teleport or flying they can get around the board and apply damage where it is needed. Walls aren't effective either, which is a big plus.
I think when an opponent armors up to protect themselves from a swarm of smaller creatures it is reasonable to Dissolve or Acid Ball the armor to keep them exposed to the creatures. When they summon a big creature, it is also possible to swarm the thing to death with small creatures.