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Mage Wars => General Discussion => Topic started by: Toxziq on May 29, 2014, 10:27:17 AM

Title: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Toxziq on May 29, 2014, 10:27:17 AM
Not 1, but 2 cards for you viewing pleasure today as Aaron introduces the Altar of Domination and it's companion... Talos!

http://www.arcanewonders.com/arcane-wonders/forged-in-fire-preview-altar-of-domination

(http://www.arcanewonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Altar-of-Domination1.png)

(http://www.arcanewonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Talos.png)
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Lord0fWinter on May 29, 2014, 10:31:14 AM
Methinks Warlord just saw a huge boost in popularity (and playability).

The Altar itself is a bit fragile so you'd have to protect it well (cause you know the enemy is coming right for it).

Surround it with walls and then unleash Talos upon the arena.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Death-from-above on May 29, 2014, 10:35:26 AM
*Drools* oh man, thats crazy. Gonna be a challenge getting him out, but I think it will be worth it. Gotta be super turtley with defending the outposts until this bad boy comes out

Edit: This sort of reminds me of the Iron Golem being a bane to the forcemaster. If the Warlord manages to get this out against the warlock, since its burnproof and most of her and her creatures attacks are fire based, she is going to be in trouble.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: echephron on May 29, 2014, 10:55:19 AM
aww, I guess I'll remove my FIF reveal of these.  I waited a couple minutes to make sure you guys had a chance to post it but oh well. Talos is that 28 mana creature i saw in the FIF unboxing. It looks like he will be good with war incantations.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Lord0fWinter on May 29, 2014, 11:00:47 AM
aww, I guess I'll remove my FIF reveal of these.  I waited a couple minutes to make sure you guys had a chance to post it but oh well. Talos is that 28 mana creature i saw in the FIF unboxing. It looks like he will be good with war incantations.

I almost did that too lol. We would have had 3 of the same posts. I figured they'd be posting this one themselves though.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Aylin on May 29, 2014, 11:07:27 AM
Edit: This sort of reminds me of the Iron Golem being a bane to the forcemaster. If the Warlord manages to get this out against the warlock, since its burnproof and most of her and her creatures attacks are fire based, she is going to be in trouble.

Most outposts have Flame +2 though, so the Warlock can fight against it before it hits the field. Forcemater vs Iron Golem...not so much.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Schwenkgott on May 29, 2014, 11:08:44 AM
Why has this guy manacosts, when he is summoned for free via the Altar?
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: echephron on May 29, 2014, 11:09:07 AM
Also, why aren't the warlord and god of war (Talos) soldiers themselves? Is it because we don't want to give them crazy bonuses, cuz i do! Maybe the god is too full of himself to take battle orders from mortals, yet command incantations work just fine, and those seem like orders to me.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Death-from-above on May 29, 2014, 11:13:09 AM
That is there solely for cards that require a creatures level or mana cost to be factored into the spell  i.e. Rouse the Beast requires mana equal to the level of the target creature to cast. (Rouse the beast was a poor example since Talos starts with an action marker ready, but you get the gist)
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Toxziq on May 29, 2014, 11:14:18 AM
aww, I guess I'll remove my FIF reveal of these.  I waited a couple minutes to make sure you guys had a chance to post it but oh well. Talos is that 28 mana creature i saw in the FIF unboxing. It looks like he will be good with war incantations.

I almost did that too lol. We would have had 3 of the same posts. I figured they'd be posting this one themselves though.

We try to post as soon as possible once the main post is up.  With Facebook, Twitter, BGG, forums, and of course, the presidential library, it's a long list of postings to make, but thank you guys for keeping us on our toes :)
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Lord0fWinter on May 29, 2014, 11:16:55 AM
Edit: This sort of reminds me of the Iron Golem being a bane to the forcemaster. If the Warlord manages to get this out against the warlock, since its burnproof and most of her and her creatures attacks are fire based, she is going to be in trouble.

Most outposts have Flame +2 though, so the Warlock can fight against it before it hits the field. Forcemater vs Iron Golem...not so much.

Right, but he's saying that IF it does get summoned, she has no good way to deal with it. Not that anybody really does. Too hard to kill, can't be contained with Tanglevines and such. Best bet is probably to Banish him, like with Sardonyx.

But then again, if he manages to come out, your opponent probably did something wrong. Or they just didn't have the cards to deal with the Warlord's outposts. And in that case, they'd probably lose anyway.

Force Hammers and Fire attack spells are going to be highly increased in the meta after this.

That is there solely for cards that require a creatures level or mana cost to be factored into the spell  i.e. Rouse the Beast requires mana equal to the level of the target creature to cast. (Rouse the beast was a poor example since Talos starts with an action marker ready, but you get the gist)

Rouse the Beast only works on living creatures so either way, bad example :P But to his point, are there any currently released cards that are affected by this?
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Death-from-above on May 29, 2014, 11:26:26 AM


That is there solely for cards that require a creatures level or mana cost to be factored into the spell  i.e. Rouse the Beast requires mana equal to the level of the target creature to cast. (Rouse the beast was a poor example since Talos starts with an action marker ready, but you get the gist)

Rouse the Beast only works on living creatures so either way, bad example :P But to his point, are there any currently released cards that are affected by this?
Yeah, I mentioned that was a poor example. Quicksand is the only one I can think of that would affect him and it would call for his creature level. Since he is Non-living and Physic Immun it pretty much negates almost all cards that require creature level to be factored in.

As far as mana cost goes, I can't think of anything out at the moment that directly relates to a creatures mana cost. Of course I am probably missing som
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: echephron on May 29, 2014, 11:35:25 AM
I think quicksand wouldnt work because unstoppable means he cant be restrained. i could be wrong.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Lord0fWinter on May 29, 2014, 11:43:05 AM
I think quicksand wouldnt work because unstoppable means he cant be restrained. i could be wrong.

I'm pretty sure he could just walk out of the zone since he can't be restrained.

The new defend incatation would as least interact with its level.

But i cant think of a current card which asks for mana costs and can target an unstoppable nonliving creature

Defend can also only target Living creatures, so that doesn't work either. It's gotta be with cards that haven't been released yet.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Wildhorn on May 29, 2014, 11:47:20 AM
This is just "in case of". Stop to extrapolate about its mana cost :P
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Wildhorn on May 29, 2014, 12:05:09 PM
Now I wonder what kind of opening would be good to get him as soon as possible.

19 mana - 4 (Garrison Post) - 7 Construction Yard = 8 mana
17 mana - 3 (Garrison Post) - 9 (Altar of Domination) = 5 mana
14 mana - 12 mana (a lvl 3 creature most likely) - 2 mana (Defend on the creature to save your ass or the GPs).

This would bring Talos on the 6th turn, but you might have hard time surviving up to that point unless you face a slow spellbook.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Sailor Vulcan on May 29, 2014, 12:32:16 PM
This looks awesome. Also 0 spellbook points creature with an altar to summon it is a clever way to avoid making a double-sided creature-conjuration thingy. I suppose the Mage Wars equivalent of "transform" effects is going to have different forms of an object on different cards? That's really awesome. Here's hoping we get some really cool shape shifting creatures (and perhaps mages too) in the future.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Death-from-above on May 29, 2014, 12:36:22 PM
Now I wonder what kind of opening would be good to get him as soon as possible.

19 mana - 4 (Garrison Post) - 7 Construction Yard = 8 mana
17 mana - 3 (Garrison Post) - 9 (Altar of Domination) = 5 mana
14 mana - 12 mana (a lvl 3 creature most likely) - 2 mana (Defend on the creature to save your ass or the GPs).

This would bring Talos on the 6th turn, but you might have hard time surviving up to that point unless you face a slow spellbook.

I like how this opening turn could go, but you are right about the slow spellbook statement. If you are facing an aggressive mage right from the start, I think by the time you had the alter out and tried to summon a creature, an outpost might go down. I think you would need to have a creature set up first for defense and slowly bring out the outposts. Talos is going to do best in the late game, just like syardonix ( I know I spelled that wrong). No matter how you look at it, its going to take 4 rounds to get all the tokens on the alter and Im fairly positive as soon as the opponent sees that come out, he will break out the big guns to bring it down. Im thinking an opening like this would be ok:

19 mana - QC 7(Construction Yard) - FC 11(Anvil Crossbowman) = 18
10 mana - QC 3(Garrison Post) - FC 4(Archers Tower) = 7
12 mana - QC 8(Alter) - FC (Nothing or attack if the opposing mage sent another creature)

At least that way you have an archer out that can potentially ward off a creature that the opponent might have opened with. This is just my opinion. A Warlord would really have some trouble against a LOF opening if his plan was to summon this. I think the first turn should at least be spent getting out an outpost or 2. By turn 2 you should be able to tell if you are going to have the time to summon a functioning alter or if the opponent wont give you enough time to set up.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Wildhorn on May 29, 2014, 01:01:42 PM
I would use maybe a Panzergard instead of a crossbowman to suck up the incoming Force Hammers/Fireballs
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: jacksmack on May 29, 2014, 01:12:18 PM
Oh man. Im starting to think the Warlord will be fixed after all.

The synergy between barracks, the warlord green warlord's abilities, construction yard and now this altar is just starting to look solid.

I believe this altar will be destroyed more often than not before it gets to summon Talos. But that doesn't worry me at all, because that just means the opponent spend a lot of resources doing so.

New best Battle Fury target in town. Great cards.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: lettucemode on May 29, 2014, 01:28:59 PM
Usually swarms sort of peter out as the game goes on, but I think this will have great use as a game-ending punch for the Warlord's swarm build.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: silverclawgrizzly on May 29, 2014, 02:50:37 PM
Oh boy this is gonna be fun. If nothing else it gives your opponent something else to have to worry about and maybe distracts them from the main goal of attacking you. Talos himself is impressive, life is a little low, but he's still an absolutel monster. I really like that he's for all intents and purposes free, doesn't cost anything to put in your book and you don't have to spend mana to get him out really. It will be very interesting to see how he effects things from now on.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: sdougla2 on May 29, 2014, 03:18:45 PM
Well, I guess I'll be including outposts in my Warlord build so I can get Talos going once FiF hits...
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Arlemus on May 29, 2014, 04:44:52 PM
I think the power of this card will come from the threat of Talos, not from actually bringing him into play.  So Talos better be threatening...and he is.

There are certain implications made by this card.  First, I think this card was made for Bloodwave, more so than the AT Warlord. It seems that Arcane Wonders is splitting the playstyles of the Warlord along 2 lines.  One is battleforge build (Anvil Throne), and the other is barracks build (Bloodwave).  This seems like a safe assumption to make because the AT warlord has way too much synergy with battleforge (focusing on himself with equips) to build any other way, while the Bloodwave benefits from having more soldiers (vet) brought about by barracks.  This isn't to say you couldn't go battleforge with Bloodwave, or barracks with Anvile Throne, it just doesn't seem as effective.

To tie in with Altar of Domination, the card(s) seem to give the Bloodwave (barracks) warlord the next step in his progression and spread of outposts.  The progression towards Altar seems simple enough, and probably what you want to be doing anyway: bring out barracks and an outpost, another outpost soon, use the new errata to guard them if need be (and I'm sure you will), then drop Altar and proceed to end game.

Now, I definitely don't think this means the AT warlord won't use outposts, I'm sure he will.  However, I don't think AT Warlord will be in as good of a position to progress into AoD as Bloodwave due to the fact that his mana will be spent more on the solo build that he obviously excels at; and I don't think he needs AoD.  It seems  Arcane Wonders supports this, considering AoD is absent from AT's card list, though, we all know how bad card lists have been in the past so maybe its just a coincidence.

Also, it might be possible to have a build that includes both barracks and battleforge.  I had considered it for a while but came to the conclusion that its simply too mana intensive, sloppy, and too un-sygergistic (?) of a start to run both.  Though, if someone could figure out how to run a build that could recover from it (maybe using meditation amulet), I could be wrong about this whole thing.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts.  I've been working at the Warlord ever since his release and I'm glad this set is giving him a bunch of new options.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: sdougla2 on May 29, 2014, 05:08:52 PM
I can see a build running both Battleforge and Barracks. You could use Barracks to get some soldiers down, then drop Altar of Carnage. If your opponent destroys your Barracks, you need somewhere else to put that mana from Altar of Carnage anyway, and I'm not particularly excited about the new familiar. You might also consider opening Battleforge in the Warlock matchup in order to have a stronger early game and avoid playing lots of outposts with Flame +2.

Now playing both in the first 2 turns sounds like a horrible idea, I agree there.

It seems like the meta will shift more towards high creature count builds with the improvements to Warlord Barracks play and Warlock Pentagram play. This will tend to make Vet tokens more relevant, making the Bloodwave Warlord better. I'm more interested in the Anvil Throne Warlord at the moment, but we'll see how things shape up.

If you can ever get Talos out, he'll be a huge threat. If your opponent focuses on preventing that, particularly if you can keep your Barracks and Armory safe, that's good news for you, as that will give you time to build a strong mid game. I'll need to play around with openings for a while to find what works, but with Armory, Altar of Carnage, and Altar of Domination (plus the buff to Garrison Post), it finally looks worthwhile to build an outpost based Warlord.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: sIKE on May 29, 2014, 08:38:46 PM
A [mwcard=FWC04]Goblin Builder[/mwcard] is very useful in combination with Construction Yard. He really shines when your mage is dealing with a few big kind of strategy or a solo wizard. Just keep your mage on one side of the board and him on the other. Double move one round, drop an Outpost the next. Archers Watchtowers and Garrison Post are good ones to carry. I dropped a Garrison Post on middle square of the opposing mages start side one game and then had my mage summon Grimson across the board as the very last action of the action phase and then had initiative the next and started him shooting right away the next round.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Kharhaz on May 29, 2014, 08:41:35 PM
It seems  Arcane Wonders supports this, considering AoD is absent from AT's card list, though, we all know how bad card lists have been in the past so maybe its just a coincidence.

I personally think that the Altar of Domination is not something I would attempt to run by a "first time player" of Mage Wars or the war school. The included spellbooks are an easy way to open the box and play with the new mages and get a general idea of how the new abilities flow with new and old cards, not have constructed tournament top tier books included in the box.

Talos only saw active play in a handful of my competitive playtesting matches. I would some 80% of those matches the Altar of Domination was under the cover of Rolling Fog during the incubation period.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Wildhorn on May 29, 2014, 09:45:17 PM
Oh yeah. Rolling Fog make a very good defense for both Altar of Domination and the outposts while it build up.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Boocheck on May 30, 2014, 02:28:06 AM
Is there any Lore about Talos? Is he something like Akiro but for dwarfs?

With all those cards, there are so many build i want to try!
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: MageHorst on May 30, 2014, 09:16:08 AM
Me too, Boocheck! How about a Warlord Week in the spellbook construction section? One spellbook per day for seven days, followed by a Warlock Week?  ;D
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Dr.Cornelius on May 31, 2014, 12:00:19 AM
Cerberus is a lost opportunity in this set.  Too bad he cannot guard non-Dark conjurations.  Might have actually seen some play...

(http://magewars.weebly.com/uploads/2/1/7/6/21761652/6674424.png)
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: krj on May 31, 2014, 10:42:23 AM
i think we might see some nice dark conjuration in this set which will be worth defending and which will means it will be worth to destroy :)
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Arlemus on June 01, 2014, 10:36:28 AM
Cerberus is a lost opportunity in this set.  Too bad he cannot guard non-Dark conjurations.  Might have actually seen some play...

(http://magewars.weebly.com/uploads/2/1/7/6/21761652/6674424.png)

If you're going to guard the Altar with a creature, you can do better with a panzerguarde anyway.  He's in school (Warlord), has intercept, and costs 6 less mana.
Title: Re: Forged in Fire Preview - Altar of Domination (and Talos)!
Post by: Shad0w on June 03, 2014, 04:30:15 PM
Why has this guy manacosts, when he is summoned for free via the Altar?

Any spell that looks at a creatures mana cost is the reason the same reason Talos has a level.