Sike, I like your new hat.   

My purely personal view is that spell level is almost irrelevant in these discussions. If four ballistae is your bag, you put that in the book first and build from there. Plenty left for a few basic counters, a secondary gang, etc.

Quote from: Fentum on August 22, 2013, 10:39:36 AM

I just played two matches vs Charmyna and his 'four ballistae zero creatures' start. I used a general Air Wizard Assassin / Big Two / Control book.

I got completely whipped first time.

Second time we played through using the same spellbooks. We played 'competitively' but together in terms of sharing a few ideas to counter and so on. Allowing spell reselection a couple of times as it was a learning game.

THAT game I took Charmyna's mage to 31/32 damage, but he got me the next turn.

I played against four ballistae several times before. That, plus these two sessions make me think that something is very wrong with that promo card as it stands. Sorting the free actions would eb my shout. Not the Warlord theme.

I just want to underline the importance of playing vs the same strat several times.
Its very very hard and require tons experience to react optimal to a new threat you have not experienced before. And when you said you played against it before, it still different when a new player like charm plays it because chances are he is much more skilled than the previous opponent and he is probaly using the ballistas in a different synergy you havent seen before.

Which reminds me of a horrible game yesterday where i got my own *** handed to me by a solo cheetah in your face warlord with a promo weapon my strat certainly couldnt handle.
The Next time i see this opening (battleforge turn 1 on MY side of the board :O), i will adress the issue differently now that i have spent the day thinking this particular game through .

Agreed. My previous 'multiple' ballista games had also been vs Charmyna, I just wanted to point out that i wasn't basing my thoughts off just a couple of games. The meta has changed  a bit since then, so it was good to see how it worked right now.

It was still a nightmare.

I guess that you COULD argue that in game 2 using the same spellbook, it could have gone either way. It's just that it seems like MUCH LESS FUN when the opponent is spamming identical engines of death. No hassle ref Charmyna here - we deliberately agreed to play Ballistae to try it out.

It's just that I have much more fun losing to him when he uses more interesting books....   

I just played two matches vs Charmyna and his 'four ballistae zero creatures' start. I used a general Air Wizard Assassin / Big Two / Control book.

I got completely whipped first time.

Second time we played through using the same spellbooks. We played 'competitively' but together in terms of sharing a few ideas to counter and so on. Allowing spell reselection a couple of times as it was a learning game.

THAT game I took Charmyna's mage to 31/32 damage, but he got me the next turn.

I played against four ballistae several times before. That, plus these two sessions make me think that something is very wrong with that promo card as it stands. Sorting the free actions would eb my shout. Not the Warlord theme.

What I'm reading in this thread sounds like we want to get rid of control builds because we don't like playing against them. Remember this is the first tournament won by a wizard compared to 2 by warlocks and one by turbo priestess, and warlocks have finished second in every tournament they didn't win.

Not sure where that is from but I certainly want to keep control builds (and many others) viable options. I love the variety of books that I come up against.

Hey Reddawn,

I value your posts, so I have a query on this one. In every game I have played so far, I am very happy to see my opponent start to cast heals. I feel that I am gaining tempo and advantage.  I don't recall losing a game after that point .

Can you give some more insight in the dragged out healing matches? How does that happen?

I personly like having 2-3 lines of play in most books I build

Exactly that.

Stay with it!

This post is the one and only time I haven't gotten a game on OCTGN.

It is beautiful and quite busy.

I never attack creatures unless taunted or they are guarding the Mage. I find the most profit in controlling the Mage or creatures such that I get clean attacks on the Mage.

The aim of the game is to kill the Mage, so i find that damage done to anything else is very secondary, and usually a waste of time. Other than the odd zone attack.