I've got a number of new players training up and I was wondering which mage folks consider to be the hardest for new mages to learn. My picks are: Druid, Siren, and Paladin.

Obviously I encourage the four core mages as the easiest to learn.

Well recently I made a bet with a famed Druid player on these forums that I'd go up to Gen Con and beat his vegetarian tail with my Straywood. First I'd like to start by saying the sun was in my eyes the entire match, I couldn't concentrate, etc etc, BS Excuse Line #347 inserted here lol. Truth is he caught me off guard with a spell that I don't see much and he just played a better game than me. So in accordance with having lost the bet and the match(WHO USES RESSURECTION!!! YOU HEATHEN TREE HUGGING MONSTER!!!!) I've decided to try a Druid for my next big tournament: Mace. However...if my creatures die they're just going to stay dead.

Mage: Druid

Equipment:
Enchanters Ring
Vinewhip Staff
Leather Boots
Leather Chauses
Leviathan Scale Armor
Chitin Armor

Conjuration:
Bloodspine Wall X2
Tanglevine X3
Meredia's Blessing
Vine Tree
Wall of Thorns X2
Mana Flower
Corrosive Orchid X2

Creatures:
Thornlasher X2
Raptor Vine
Kralathor, The devourer
Steelclaw Grizzly
Fellela, Pixie Familiar
Cervere, The Forrest Shadow
Wychwood Ranger
Straywood Scout

Enchantments:
RustX2
Bear StrengthX2
Rhino HideX2
Nullify
Cheetah Speed
Divine Might
Barkskin
Falcon Precision
Lion Savagery
Marked For Death
Mongoose Agility
RegrowthX2
Brace YourselfX2
Hydrothermal Vent

Incantations:
DissolveX3
TeleportX2
DispelX2
Purify
Extinguish
Force PushX2
Lesser Teleport
Rouse the Beast
Minor HealX2
Burst of Thorns X6

Attack:
SwellX2
Surging Wave
Geyser
Hurl Meteorite

First I freely admit this is a book in progress and a lot of the "fun" stuff I've put in here might get broken down into more practical cards once it's closer to tournament time in November. But for now I wanna throw a meteor at people so I haven't turned it into a Mage Wand yet. Also some of the "luxuries" such as Divine Might will likely disappear as well once I just resign myself to having to deal with Incorporeal as a way of life.

All right so I've "recovered" enough from this past weekend. A day watching The Defenders on Netflix is apparently very curative for con fatigue. Here is my Bloodwave Warlord book using some of the new cards from Academy: Warlord.

Equipment: 20pts
Harshforge Plate X2
Strategist Helm
Ivarium Halberd
Champion Guantlets
Tempered Faulds
General's Signet Ring
Veteran's Belt
Mage Wand
Commanders Cape
Morningstar
Horn of Gothos

Conjurations: 14pts
Barracks
Garrison Post
Mana Flower
Steep Hill
Battle Forge
Wall of Earth
Ballista

Creatures: 23pts
Goblin Slinger X2
Izimballa, Daughter of Badgers
Dwarf Panzergarde
Wychwood Ranger
Torgo, Pit Troll
Bloodcraig Minotaur
Orc Butcher X2

Enchantments: 25pts
Promotion X2
Ballad of Courage X2
Critical Strike X2
Regrowth
Fire At Will
Press the Attack
Dig In
Rhino Hide
Brace Yourself X2
Bear Strength
Nullify

Incantations: 25pts
Minor Heal
Focused Strike X3
Dissolve X2
Teleport
Dispel
Gear Up
Cure
Overextend
Purify
Sweeping Strike
Shift Enchantment

Attacks: 13pts
Hurl Rock X2
Hurl Boulder X2
Hail of Stones
Seismic Burst
Stalagmite

So I can already address a few questions. Yes I'm going with a Barracks build solely for action economy and yes I'm going to give the Horn of Gothos a chance. The Bloodwave isn't capable of benefiting from all of his own Battle Orders as much as in order to get the benefit from Release Volley he'll have to cast an attack spell from his hand instead of from a wand. While I'm cool with that I'd rather have the freedom to move around and not be tied to one spot to also benefit my range units and make no mistake I love the idea of buffing my range units when I'm not around. Right now this book does a lot of things well and I'll eventually decide what I want to focus on it doing extremely well. This is a rough draft, haven't played it yet. Looking for general thoughts as I plan to play it this week.

With Arcane Duels fantastic spoiler videos as of late we can finally start discussing a topic I've personally been eager to get into since the development for Academy: Warlord finished up. With cards such as the new Formation spells and particularly the new equipment we've seen I fully expect to see the Warlords to become "the mages to beat" in competitive play. Lets look at what these new cards can mean for both mages shall we?

Warlords can count as soldiers and their battle orders are free actions:

Might as well kick off the big reveal. While carrying the Ivarium Halberd a Warlord benefits from his own Battle Orders and from Formation Spells. That means an Anvil Throne can become Fast, get Piercing +2 on his attack spells, or just gain an extra +1 Armor and Tough -2. Bear in mind he's already Tough -2 so that's going to stack making it very difficult to apply conditions. Is he going to get a Colossus Belt and make it nearly impossible? What about wearing Chitin Armor so you're just not going to Corrode him? Oh you got a lucky roll on the effect dice? Thankfully I have these nice new pants to make you re-roll that crap! If he's wearing the Strategist's Helm he can get that quick burst of speed from Fast WHENEVER he wants it without having to use any action economy up. Oh and so will all his creatures so Goblins can frenzy like zombies now except cheaper and without costing a full action to apply. If he's not using the Halberd he might actually get the Horn of Gothos to apply it to every friend he's got in the arena.

For the Bloodwave he's going to benefit more from the Formations as they're going to stack his already formidable fighting ability. Press the Attack means he's swinging 6 dice while he's holding that halberd AND he can re-roll it. This re-roll of course being in addition to any he gets from putting a cheap Level 1 Enchantment called Akiro's Favor in his book, and frankly you've no excuse NOT to put that in every single War book you're going to make and half the non-War ones too. He's going to get beefier and meaner in the hitting people department. He'll also benefit from getting +1 range on his rocks he's throwing and if he's on a Hill and/or Hawkeye he's pretty much going to terrify people. The ability to make everything hit harder with Charge +1 means he's going to likely favor surging in fast even more so and he'll do well with creatures like Torgo and Izimbilla backing him up. Lets not forget his creatures like Izimbilla or the ole Orc Butchers are going to be using Promotion and being that much scarier and that'll stack with Vet Tokens making them super creatures. Don't forget he's also going to be able to make his guards stronger with +1 Melee and +1 Armor whenever he feels like it so the Dwarven Panzerguarde is really going to be something you might think twice about hitting now.

I wanted to go ahead and get this topic started, there will be more reveals that'll add to some of my points but my hype trains going pretty hard right now.

Hey guys I'm noticing the Domination tournament has 1 person signed up for it.

I've talked to Tony Gullotti and with the person signed up for the Domination event. Would we prefer this be a Domination tournament or another casual play/practice session? I'd prefer to do the tournament as we bought trophies but need at least 4 people signed up.

We CAN guarantee everyone who signs up has a partner even if it's random pairings, which might be fun in of itself.

However if we'd prefer another casual/practice then that's cool too, we can use the trophies for something else down the road.

I'd like to take a moment to discuss why the Necromancer has seen such a surge in popularity as of late. With the exception of this past Origins it seems like you can't go to a competitive tournament without running into one of these guys, or more like several of them. It's like going to a comic book convention and running into Joker cosplay, you know it's going to happen.

But what is it that makes the Necromancer so appealing? Like every mage he's got his weaknesses, in his case large glaring ones but he's also got his strengths.

I'm personally of the opinion is his main strength is his Poison Immunity. That's a whole strategy right there you can just straight up ignore. But is it really that great? Standing across the arena from a Paladin does it really matter that he can't Taint me? When boulders are flying from on top a Warlords hill do I honestly find comfort in knowing "Well at least that giant chunk of rock won't Rot me?"

Yeah you the big advantage Poison Immune is strong is it totally destroys the Curse game for many of the strongest curses. But again it doesn't help against Mage Bane or Chains of Agony.

In terms of creatures I'll say this: Yes zombies are awesome. But rely on them too much and some hard hitting Holy mage, and all three of them can go melee easy, is gonna hand your butt to you fast. Skeles give you more options and some healing on them which can increase their longevity.

I'm curious to other people's constructive thoughts on why many arenas are going goth as of late.

10 mages entered our competition after some family obligations cost us a few. I didn't judge this event so I can only tell you mages, players, and a report of my matches.

Silverclawgrizzly: Straywood Beast Master.
Devilsvendetta: Priest.
Littlenog: Priest.
DrMambo23: Necromancer.
Jimillia: Necromancer.
Drew: Straywood Beast Master.
James: Siren.
Sarah: Force Master.
Logan: Johktari Beast Master.
Adam: Adramelech Warlock.

Hello Mage Warriors, convention season is upon us so I thought I'd do a quick post to help you prepare for the various battles you may find yourself in.

1. Read the rule books. Simple sounding but you don't want to lose an important match over something stupud like not knowing how walls work or something. Yeah there's judged to help clarify but the better understanding you have the better. Don't want to pull out two cards thinking you understand how a situation works only to find out you wasted your planning phase right?

2. Practice your mage. Odds are you've chosen which mage you're going to use ahead of time. Read that mages stay card and strategies concerning them. There likely isn't a mage in existence that doesn't have a post or 10 about how to play them. Decide on what you want your book to be able to do, then go practice doing that. Always be ready to adjust as needed.

3. Read up on and practice against as much variety as you can. For example, Mind's Eye is making Force Masters scarier, it behooves you to fight one before a big event. Same with new mages like the Siren and Paladin. This will help you adapt on the fly against new opponents.

4. Practice grinding matches. I'm not gonna lie after 4 or 5 rounds of matches you're going to be mentally exhausted. Well guess what? Those last couple of rounds are what decide if you advance to the next tier or not! It ain't the time to run out of gas so practice fighting several matches back to back. Build endurance and mental stamina so hopefully you can outlast the scrub across the arena from you.

5. Keep up to date with what's new and what's coming out. Make sure you know whats legal for your event and prepare accordingly. Lost Grimoire changed the land scape for a lot of books, make sure you're familiar with it and can use it to your advantage. Academy Force Master releases soon as well so pay attention to spoilers. Don't get caught off guard by some card you've never seen "What do you mean Beast Masters can shoot lasers from their eyes now!?!?"