Arcane Wonders Forum
Mage Wars => Spellbook Design and Construction => Topic started by: Aarrow on March 26, 2013, 12:21:02 PM
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Beastmistress is my favorite deck!, but I'm torn between various opening strategies. All have been successful for me, but I think it has more to do with knowing my opponent's strategy than being able to handle surprises.
My most aggressive is:
Turn 1-
Move Twice (1,1) and plant a Lair (1,0).
Turn 2-
Deploy a Wolf (Pet), Move Twice (2,0), and summon a Falcon.
Each successive turn I Deploy a Falcon, Attack, Summon a Fox, and hold an extra card (Dissolve, Dispell, etc) to play when needed instead of the Fox.
When I reach 4+ creatures in their zone, I'll start to Jinx right before their action phase to stop the zone attacks.
-This strategy is best used against a defensive Mage. Every critter can attack from their summoned zone. I only get 11 mana for summoning every turn (Falcon & Fox), or I use Fox's Mana to rip away defenses with Dispel. Due to the lack of enchantments, they can kill my Pet easier, but I just create another Falcon Pet and concentrate on the offensive.
2nd Strategy-
Turn 1-
Move (1,0) and equip Ring of Beasts, and plant a Lair (1,0).
Turn 2-
Deploy a Wolf (Pet), Move Twice (2,0), and summon a Fox (or my only Bobcat depending on where the opposing mage is).
The following turns are the same as the 1st opening (Falcon, Attack, Fox)
-Since the Lair is one zone further from their corner, this works well against midspeed Mages who don't camp. It's essentially the same strategy and speed, but it gives me 1 extra mana a turn to help deal with surprises.
3rd Strategy (Slowest)-
Turn 1-
Move (1,0), plant a Lair (1,0), and Harmonize it.
Turn 2-
Deploy a Wolf (Pet), Move Once (1,0), equip Enchanter's Ring, and enchant my Pet.
Turn 3-
From here I summon one Wolf/Falcon per turn, and hold two cards- one enchantment, one defensive.
-This slower strategy gives my spellbook the most versatility. This works best against aggressive mages, and gives me 12 mana a turn to deploy and play a card, and keep attacking like the others. This way I can speed it up with Rouse the Beast, or buff my mage with equips, or plant curses on my opponent.
Please tell me any weaknesses of my openings and/or things to consider.
I'd rather be prepared to face magestyles, rather than rely on playstyles of my opponents.
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Something you should consider is that you can't deploy your pet. You need to summon the creature you are going to make your pet (it's the same with the Bloodreaper).
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Something you should consider is that you can't deploy your pet. You need to summon the creature you are going to make your pet (it's the same with the Bloodreaper).
I think you are wrong. The wording is "when s friendly non-Legendary animal creature comes into play, you may make it your Pet" - there is no requariment of Mage summoning it. It only has to be friendly (so even if your Ally summons an animal, you may make it your Pet).
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When a friendly non-Legendary animal creature
comes into play, you may make it your Pet. Pay
mana equal to the creature’s Level +1, then
place the Pet marker on it. Pet gains Melee +1,
Armor +1, and Life +3. Whenever Pet is in the same
zone as his Beastmaster, it gains an additional Melee
+1. If Pet is destroyed, you may assign the marker again
in the same manner when a new animal is summoned.
Edit: Gewar, I missed your post.....So, here is the card text everyone....you are welcome... :whistle:
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When a friendly non-Legendary animal creature
comes into play, you may make it your Pet. Pay
mana equal to the creature’s Level +1, then
place the Pet marker on it. Pet gains Melee +1,
Armor +1, and Life +3. Whenever Pet is in the same
zone as his Beastmaster, it gains an additional Melee
+1. If Pet is destroyed, you may assign the marker again
in the same manner when a new animal is summoned.
Edit: Gewar, I missed your post.....So, here is the card text everyone....you are welcome... :whistle:
I'll let you have my quantum banana sticer, kind sir.
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I seem to remember there being a topic about this way back when but maybe I am misremembering. I stand corrected.
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When a friendly non-Legendary animal creature
comes into play, you may make it your Pet. Pay
mana equal to the creature’s Level +1, then
place the Pet marker on it. Pet gains Melee +1,
Armor +1, and Life +3. Whenever Pet is in the same
zone as his Beastmaster, it gains an additional Melee
+1. If Pet is destroyed, you may assign the marker again
in the same manner when a new animal is summoned.
Edit: Gewar, I missed your post.....So, here is the card text everyone....you are welcome... :whistle:
I'll let you have my quantum banana sticer, kind sir.
Well its kind of strange. I did not see your post at all. After I had submitted mine, I saw yours. Now, I thought, "That dirty Gewar!!!! He somehow managed to submit faster then me!" So I went back to type a nasty edit talking about your deceit, deception, and defamation, of yours truly. And then I saw that your post was twenty minutes before mine. Now I have to assume that your trickery knows no bounds. :lol:
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When a friendly non-Legendary animal creature
comes into play, you may make it your Pet. Pay
mana equal to the creature’s Level +1, then
place the Pet marker on it. Pet gains Melee +1,
Armor +1, and Life +3. Whenever Pet is in the same
zone as his Beastmaster, it gains an additional Melee
+1. If Pet is destroyed, you may assign the marker again
in the same manner when a new animal is summoned.
Edit: Gewar, I missed your post.....So, here is the card text everyone....you are welcome... :whistle:
I'll let you have my quantum banana sticer, kind sir.
Well its kind of strange. I did not see your post at all. After I had submitted mine, I saw yours. Now, I thought, "That dirty Gewar!!!! He somehow managed to submit faster then me!" So I went back to type a nasty edit talking about your deceit, deception, and defamation, of yours truly. And then I saw that your post was twenty minutes before mine. Now I have to assume that your trickery knows no bounds. :lol:
You know - I know people, who know people... and I can do stuff :P
On Topic - I really like those strategies and they are surelly will inspireing for me. But I've got sympathy for Fellella and will try to include her :P
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Well, one thing I wanted to point out in your strategy is that you mention putting Jinx on your opponent to stop the zone attack spells, but this doesn't work. Jinx only cancels "Quick spells" while zone attack spells are Full Action spells.
As a matter of fact, there is no counter for a zone attack spell (unless you count Forcefield). They cannot be Jinxed and they ignore Defenses, Blocks and Reverse Attacks. It's one of the reasons why I consider swarm builds to be among the weakest, because there is nothing you can do about zone attacks and they shred swarms.
Hopefully they come up with a true counter to zone attacks at some point. That would give swarms a boost.
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@Aarrow.
Did you try the opening with summoning your familiar (enchanter) while casting a face down cheetah speed on you while you are moving? 2nd turn may try to buff yourself and add a mana crystal while you are moving in as being aggressive. Each turn the familiar also cast a face down enchantment on you + you are are casting face down enchantment. At the third turn just reveal what buff you need to pound on the poor mage. Each turn you reveal new buff as needed. Must bring Nullify on you.
I remember that strategy really well. Death of an opposing Agressive Mage in 4 or 5 turns with my familiar doing the killing blow.
Buff/cards that will help you is Elusiveness + cheetah speed + Bear Strength + Battle Fury + Dissolve + Force Push + Teleport Trap (just in case you are facing a mage that keeps on running with Teleport spell) + Mage Wand with Teleport.+ Nullify
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Well, one thing I wanted to point out in your strategy is that you mention putting Jinx on your opponent to stop the zone attack spells, but this doesn't work. Jinx only cancels "Quick spells" while zone attack spells are Full Action spells.
As a matter of fact, there is no counter for a zone attack spell (unless you count Forcefield). They cannot be Jinxed and they ignore Defenses, Blocks and Reverse Attacks. It's one of the reasons why I consider swarm builds to be among the weakest, because there is nothing you can do about zone attacks and they shred swarms.
Hopefully they come up with a true counter to zone attacks at some point. That would give swarms a boost.
Who invited Captain Buzzkill!? Lol! ....Seriously, thanks for pointing that out. I can't believe I missed that!
My solution:
I will replace my Jinxes with Force Push (brings them up to 6). I may keep one in for the game winning round to seal a Pet attack.
Since I already run the Thorn/Push combo (soo effective!), I'll just split up my hoard to no more than 2-3 per zone. I'll keep my mage attack, but move out to shove the opposing mage back and forth each round after I've got a swarm built. (I only lose additional foxes this way).
It works like this:
Two adjacent zones (one with mage/Pet/maybe flier, and the other with 2-3 critters). The opposing mage is in one of them.
After the attacks in the opposing mage's zone, I move out sideways from the adjacent zones and cast Wall of Thorns between the adjacent zones, and quickcast Force Push the opposing mage through the Wall into the rest of my pack.
I can do this all in one action for 11 mana without any opponent responses (except enchant reveals).
Obviously this is most effective against solo or low creature builds. (but if they have many creatures, I'm not too worried about zone attacks anyway!)
Like?
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@Aarrow.
Did you try the opening with summoning your familiar (enchanter) while casting a face down cheetah speed on you while you are moving? 2nd turn may try to buff yourself and add a mana crystal while you are moving in as being aggressive. Each turn the familiar also cast a face down enchantment on you + you are are casting face down enchantment. At the third turn just reveal what buff you need to pound on the poor mage. Each turn you reveal new buff as needed. Must bring Nullify on you.
I remember that strategy really well. Death of an opposing Agressive Mage in 4 or 5 turns with my familiar doing the killing blow.
Buff/cards that will help you is Elusiveness + cheetah speed + Bear Strength + Battle Fury + Dissolve + Force Push + Teleport Trap (just in case you are facing a mage that keeps on running with Teleport spell) + Mage Wand with Teleport.+ Nullify
I haven't done much with the familiar yet. I zoned in on Lair, but this sounds interesting and I'll definitely give it a try!
As for the buff cards-
x1 Mongoose- Not vital, but definitely helps with guards and teleporting mages leaving their "buddy" behind.
x2 Falcon Precision- Vital when facing Forcemaster or other defenses.
x2 Bear Strength- Great for the wolf Pet or Mage
x2 Battle Fury- Early game I'd rather be summoning and attacking, but late game it's amazing!
x2 Rouse the Beast- Same as above
x2 Call of the Wild- I really only use one for the kill shot if the math works out. (basically summon the swarm first, then Battle Fury if wolf Pet is alive, otherwise Rouse beast, then Call)
x1 Cheetah Speed- Only late game for the wolf Pet, since everyone else has fast. (if they're on the run, I usually have a swarm and just slowly move my mage toward them casting two buffs instead)
x2 Teleport- I've only used this once after I set the wall combo and the opposing mage teleported out, just to bring him back in.... even then I could've just abandoned the wall and chased him down. (love the Thunderift Falcons!... soo borken!)
x2 Decoy- Simply to gain mana in games I cast the Enchanter's Ring
x3 Rhino Hide- I'll be going up to four or more now that I know Jinx doesn't stop zone attacks. They are the best Bird enchantment, as cheap as block, and lets me absorb 2, maybe 3 attacks instead of one!
x1 Marked for Death- Only if I've got the mana for it (Call is 2 mana cheaper and isn't stopped by Nullify)
x2 Block- Great on everyone, especially against higher creature builds
x1 Divine Protection- I'm torn between this and Rhino Hide... how does the math work out?
x2 Agony- The best curse in the game!
x2 Nullify- Amazing card, but loses it's value in swarm builds (it's just there for the Pet until (if) they change the control rule, and my mage)
x1 Mind Control- same as above
x1 Poisoned Blood- I want to go up to 2 now that I know you can "counter" heal spells!
x1 Jinx- as stated above
x2 Retaliate- 2 mana cheaper (with ring) than Battle Fury, but more vulnerable and situational
x1 Maim Wings- Love this card! I've had games where the opposing mage summons a huge/annoying flier against my birds... no more! lol... saves them for a turn or two and lets my puppy chew on them.
x1 Magebane- Meh... I'm not sure on the ruling here... If spawnpoints/battle forge/familiars don't count as casting spells, then I'll probably take it out. (I'll get more mileage from Marked for Death)
x1 Regrowth- Never used it yet. It's there for my mage
x1 Bull Endurance- cuz I had room?
x2 Force Hammer- obelisk... Obelisk!... OBELISK!!!
x2 Dispel- Staple
x3 Dissolve- Dancing Scimitar, Armor, and Armor
x2 Shift Enchantment- If I have initiative and know someones gonna die, or switch a block over to save a badly damaged critter for cheap.
x1 Dragonscale Hauberk
x1 Elemental Cloak
x1 Regrowth Belt
x1 Leather Boots
x2 Wall of Thorns
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Well, one thing I wanted to point out in your strategy is that you mention putting Jinx on your opponent to stop the zone attack spells, but this doesn't work. Jinx only cancels "Quick spells" while zone attack spells are Full Action spells.
As a matter of fact, there is no counter for a zone attack spell (unless you count Forcefield). They cannot be Jinxed and they ignore Defenses, Blocks and Reverse Attacks. It's one of the reasons why I consider swarm builds to be among the weakest, because there is nothing you can do about zone attacks and they shred swarms.
Hopefully they come up with a true counter to zone attacks at some point. That would give swarms a boost.
Who invited Captain Buzzkill!? Lol! ....Seriously, thanks for pointing that out. I can't believe I missed that!
My solution:
I will replace my Jinxes with Force Push (brings them up to 6). I may keep one in for the game winning round to seal a Pet attack.
Since I already run the Thorn/Push combo (soo effective!), I'll just split up my hoard to no more than 2-3 per zone. I'll keep my mage attack, but move out to shove the opposing mage back and forth each round after I've got a swarm built. (I only lose additional foxes this way).
It works like this:
Two adjacent zones (one with mage/Pet/maybe flier, and the other with 2-3 critters). The opposing mage is in one of them.
After the attacks in the opposing mage's zone, I move out sideways from the adjacent zones and cast Wall of Thorns between the adjacent zones, and quickcast Force Push the opposing mage through the Wall into the rest of my pack.
I can do this all in one action for 11 mana without any opponent responses (except enchant reveals).
Obviously this is most effective against solo or low creature builds. (but if they have many creatures, I'm not too worried about zone attacks anyway!)
Like?
I am currently using Force Push (or Jet Stream) + Wall of Thorns combo as support for my swarm build. I am using lots of lvl 1 creatures (Foxes, Bobcats, Falcons and Bats) with little support of bigger ones (Wolves, Panther). I am using 2 Rajan's Furies and move a lot - pushes are very helpful to make additional charges.
I am keeping cratures spread to avoid zone attacks - one thing that hurts a lot is Chain Lightning.
I am also using Deathlock (+ Poison Blood as backup), as my creatures are often killed with one attack.
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I'm not a fan of the Lair because it is fairly inflexible, quite expensive, and a BM can swarm effectively without it due to Quick Summoning. Fast swarms are vulnerable to various things, including zone attacks, Chain Lightning, and mana denial. It's good to have a big threat to supplement your swarm, since that way a single answer won't completely alleviate the pressure on your opponent.
I like Force Push with Wall of Thorns, and that works well with Bitterwood Foxes and Thunderdrift Falcons, since your creatures can chase down the enemy mage through the wall. Keeping your creatures in 2 zones helps a bit with zone attacks, but swarms are vulnerable to other things as well.
I like to open with a pair of Mana Flowers on the first turn, and then follow that up with a Ring of Beasts and an animal. Which animal I choose depends on my opponent. If I'm worried about Mordok's Obelisk, Suppression Orb, and Suppression Cloak, I go with Steelclaw Grizzly. If I want to play a mid range strategy, I go with a Timber Wolf.
Pet is more efficient on cheaper creatures. I use it on Bitterwood Fox or Thunderdrift Falcon. This makes it cheaper, and allows me to play a creature almost as tough as a Timber Wolf as a quick action.
If you can keep her alive, Fellella is amazing. She's much more flexible than the Lair.
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Liar is the hardest thing to kill though. Its worth the mana alone if your opponent spends the time and actions trying to get rid of it. Never mind the fact that you can get out three foxes on turn two with a lair. If you go the Grizzly buff route, then it might not be your best option, but other than that, Lair and Fellella with the Beastmasters ability make him......well.......a Beast.
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Liar is the hardest thing to kill though. Its worth the mana alone if your opponent spends the time and actions trying to get rid of it. Never mind the fact that you can get out three foxes on turn two with a lair. If you go the Grizzly buff route, then it might not be your best option, but other than that, Lair and Fellella with the Beastmasters ability make him......well.......a Beast.
Party on Darth!... um.. I mean... well said!
@Sdougla2
When I started running beastmaster, I ran the flowers and they worked great! But it gave my opponent a lot of time to develop his strategy which lead to a game of "who could get the strongest or build up the most". IMO, the Beastmistress shines when in her quick adaptation and versatility. This allows me to blitz fast and put the pressure on early, which limits my opponents options quickly (or at least reveals his strategy). In many games, I'll abandon my end of turn fox to change it up and foil my opponents agenda with other cards.
You're the the third person in this thread to mention Fallela. I need to try that Pixie out!
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Liar is the hardest thing to kill though. Its worth the mana alone if your opponent spends the time and actions trying to get rid of it. Never mind the fact that you can get out three foxes on turn two with a lair. If you go the Grizzly buff route, then it might not be your best option, but other than that, Lair and Fellella with the Beastmasters ability make him......well.......a Beast.
Party on Darth!... um.. I mean... well said!
@Sdougla2
When I started running beastmaster, I ran the flowers and they worked great! But it gave my opponent a lot of time to develop his strategy which lead to a game of "who could get the strongest or build up the most". IMO, the Beastmistress shines when in her quick adaptation and versatility. This allows me to blitz fast and put the pressure on early, which limits my opponents options quickly (or at least reveals his strategy). In many games, I'll abandon my end of turn fox to change it up and foil my opponents agenda with other cards.
You're the the third person in this thread to mention Fallela. I need to try that Pixie out!
LOL :P I laughed harder than I should have! Yeah, Fallela is great. If the BM is using swarms, he can enchant the team twice as fast with fallela. And as a plus, if the opponent is not prepared for her defense, she can be a huge pain to get rid of. And since all enchantments cost 2 to play....she can enchant something every turn without it being a drain on your mana, making her very tempo based (With actions). You could even spend the entire game summoning creatures while Fallela sits there and enchants you and the creatures. With flying, defense, and the ability to enchant herself with; rinohide and other buffs, she can become a big problem all by herself. Put her in a zone with armor +2 enchantment,(The name eludes me at the moment Contested ground maybe?) and rinohide she is a pain. Not to mention if you have curses like magebane or chains of agony...shes good.
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The enchantments-stacking build is very good but with the expansion their are a few cards that can make a huge difference against this build: specially the 2 cards that destroys all enchantment in the zone and the card that destroys all enchantments on a target.
Okay, you can counter 1 with a nullify/reverse magic but it won't be enough. If I saw that your abusing enchantment I would make sure that my spell hits it target so that all your enchantments are gone. I would prepare a decoy and one of the above spells. Before I move I would use my quickcast en then as a full action I play the spell.
The above spells cost a lot of mana but its worth it.
If your opponent isn't prepared for this strategy then its a very good build/strategy.
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The enchantments-stacking build is very good but with the expansion their are a few cards that can make a huge difference against this build: specially the 2 cards that destroys all enchantment in the zone and the card that destroys all enchantments on a target.
Okay, you can counter 1 with a nullify/reverse magic but it won't be enough. If I saw that your abusing enchantment I would make sure that my spell hits it target so that all your enchantments are gone. I would prepare a decoy and one of the above spells. Before I move I would use my quickcast en then as a full action I play the spell.
The above spells cost a lot of mana but its worth it.
If your opponent isn't prepared for this strategy then its a very good build/strategy.
With an enchantment based deck and your comments above, all your doing is removing enchantmens while the BM is pounding on you. Remember the Faella is constantly putting enchantments and as a quick spell the BM is also putting enchantment so in his turn he is really putting up the pain.
I tried this opening as I mentioned above, death of a mage in only a few turns. I stopped doing this strategy because it makes the game too quick. I like long strategic battles where me an my opponent have like less than 10 cards left in our spellbook because all our creatures are dead (we used up all our incantation, attack spells, equipment) and we have like 5 life each.
The weakness of this strategy is if your opponent knows how powerful this is they would kill Faella first with a one hit kill (Thunderbolt) + Unavoidable (incantation).
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I was curious about how your aggressive opening would work out in practice, so I tried a variation on your aggressive opening, although I ended up focusing on beatdown with my mage while my Lair summoned creatures. I didn't realize how much better the Lair is when it constrains movement so well. The big advantage it offers is the ability to play fast creatures to the far center every turn, which prevents a single zone attack from wiping out all of your little creatures (assuming you aren't fighting in the zone with the Lair), and makes it much harder to run away. It's not as flexible as my normal BM play, but I enjoyed that strategy much more than the slower Lair plays I've seen before. I'm not sure how well it will handle mana denial strategies, but I was pleasantly surprised by it's effectiveness.
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The enchantments-stacking build is very good but with the expansion their are a few cards that can make a huge difference against this build: specially the 2 cards that destroys all enchantment in the zone and the card that destroys all enchantments on a target.
Okay, you can counter 1 with a nullify/reverse magic but it won't be enough. If I saw that your abusing enchantment I would make sure that my spell hits it target so that all your enchantments are gone. I would prepare a decoy and one of the above spells. Before I move I would use my quickcast en then as a full action I play the spell.
The above spells cost a lot of mana but its worth it.
If your opponent isn't prepared for this strategy then its a very good build/strategy.
With an enchantment based deck and your comments above, all your doing is removing enchantmens while the BM is pounding on you. Remember the Faella is constantly putting enchantments and as a quick spell the BM is also putting enchantment so in his turn he is really putting up the pain.
I tried this opening as I mentioned above, death of a mage in only a few turns. I stopped doing this strategy because it makes the game too quick. I like long strategic battles where me an my opponent have like less than 10 cards left in our spellbook because all our creatures are dead (we used up all our incantation, attack spells, equipment) and we have like 5 life each.
The weakness of this strategy is if your opponent knows how powerful this is they would kill Faella first with a one hit kill (Thunderbolt) + Unavoidable (incantation).
If I see that the opponent beastmaster summons Fellella it becomes my number 1 priority to kill it. It would take me 1 attack to kill it (falcon precision, or attack spell, ...) so okay, that's 1 action your BM isn't getting, but your 12-mana creature is no more . One more thing, you need to be in range for your enchantments to put them on your mage for the build to work, but this also means that it is in enemy-range. 1 attack with falcon precision ruins your play. Attacking with Fellella isn't a great option either, because its very easily killed unless you pimp her with enchantments but that means that your BM have less. ;)
Don't get me wrong I love the concept and the idea really, but I think its to dependent on Fellella . I agree that Fellella just need to stay a live for a few rounds and its okay (because its pricy). Another advantage is that not a lot of spellbooks play destroy enchantments (all-in-one). I also agree that if your opponent isn't prepared for this situation you will take the advantage. :lol:
I shall try it and I will see how it went.
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Official statement from DarthDadaD20:
I will no longer be using the term- Buff
From now on, I will be using the following- Pimp
That is all.
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I've tried first turn Fellella plays, but I haven't explored that option as thoroughly as I'd like.
What I've mostly used Fellella for is followup on a Mana Flower -> animal play. If my opponent is occupied with my animals, and my mage is a few zones away from the action, Fellella lets me gear up rapidly, pressure my opponent with curses, and protect my creatures. They may focus on killing Fellella, but I can typically get several actions out of her first in this situation, since my opponent's creatures are a few zones away with my creatures hindering them.
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I also haven't tried a fellella opening but I've stopped running her because people know how powerful unchecked enchanting is, so they are prepared for it. You will win a few games with this strategy but people typically learn after one game and make it a priority to kill her. I always run a knockdown specifically for familiar killing (incapacitated removes flying and defenses). For me personally I think its too much risk for that big of an investment, but then again I'm a very cautious player in every game except first person shooters and paintball. That being said from what I've read here the fellella opening seems to have allot of potential and ill have to try it.
In other news, jet stream + wall of thorns in a swarm deck is AMAZING! I think it's one of the strongest parts of a beastmasters spell book. The damage it causes, the bad positioning it can put opposing mages in, the charges with lvl 1's it sets up. I just love it. IMO one of the closest things to a mtg style combo there is in mw.
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I've played with or against Felella a few times and my impression is that she is too expensive for what she does.
An aggressive build can easily spare the quick actions for around 3 enchantments in the early game just with the Mage. Having Felella around can increase this to 5-6 enchantments. Problem is, if your spending mana on a big creature, and your spending mana on summoning Felella, you simply don't have the mana to reveal those enchantments! Worse yet, you could spend mana on Felella and be left enchanting Wolves instead of Grizzlies.
The main problem with her is that she is an Enchantment familiar. Efficient use of enchantments requires that you already have big creatures out; as opposed to a Huginn which can work quite well with a small creature or no creature at all. This intensifies the mana crunch that a Familiar already places you in.
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I agree that you can't really afford Fellella and a big creature early, and trying with an aggressive build is going to lead to disappointment. Enchantment buffs are much more efficient on big creatures, but it doesn't necessarily follow that Fellella is poor for aggressive builds. You can buff your mage and curse your opponent with Fellella while using your quick actions to play Bitterwood Foxes, Thunderdrift Falcons, and equipment. Marked for Death in particular works well with many small creatures. Still, it's probably easier to use Fellella in a midrange build.
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I also agree. Fellella is to expensive. I rather summon a bear next turn then summon fellella. Fellella is easily killed with 1 action if your opponent is prepared for it. With a big creature (bear) they have much more problems and it stays alive much longer (mana efficient).
I also agree with Piousflea that you can easily buff your mage with quickcast.
However yesterday i played a few games against the forcemaster. We all know that the forcemaster has problems with flying creatures. You also know that if the opponent plays a FM he is probably being aggressive. Summoning a fellela first turn really is annoying for the FM. While the FM is getting in position for attacking, fellella has enchanted a few enchantments including a fast on self. When you see the FM closing in run 2 zones and quickcast enchantments on mage or curse the FM (a agony is great). If you suspect a move on Fellella, quickcast shift enchantment to mage.
However if you want to save fellela you have to invest in her, and all the mana you invest in her, you are not investing it on your mage/big creatures.
So not really a big fan of Fellella.
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Maybe it's a function of my opponents failing to efficiently attack Fellella (and I agree, there are efficient ways to do it), but I've been impressed with her.