My theory on the map and this has no backing by anyone official is that they do not want to flesh out the whole world in stone so they can expand it as needed with future kingdoms for expansions. If I had to choose between a big pretty map or an open ended number of expansions I would choose expansions in a heartbeat.

Hello Mage Warriors! Just a reminder that this Saturday the 25th is Mage Wars at the Source. We will be starting at 7pm this time as they have another event that goes until then. I will copy the other event below if anyone wants to show up earlier and participate in it.

Saturday, October 25th 11am to 7pm
At the Source Comics and Games

No Fees - No Registration
Just come to PLAY and have FUN! 
Featuring a wide variety of Mayfair and GMT games to Learn & Play
Door Prizes Drawn every 2 hours
Participation prizes for EVERYONE who plays at least one game!

If you have yet to get enough gaming in we will continue with our regularly scheduled Board Game night until MIDNIGHT.

Been following this but hesitant to post simply because of how heated it was getting. My personal philosophy is the Mana crystal is worth it primarily in a select few circumstances.

1. You are facing a mana denial strategy and you are trying to counter being mana locked.
2. You have a late game attrition strategy (ie. turtle) and feel that early game investment is worth it for a late game pay out.
3. Your mage is 1 or 2 mana shy of doing a combo you plan to consistently do every turn for many turns.

I think that outside of those select few exceptions it is better to have the mana for an early game tempo advantage and just use it to cast whatever other spells you had planned. A player who sets up infrastructure is at an inherit disadvantage against a player who rush's simply because of the action advantage the rush build has. That advantage can be overcome but should not be ignored when planning a "late bloomer" spell book.

Defensive use of Rust to get rid of Corrode?! That's... a really good idea!

Gotta agree with Boomfrog here. The Thunderrift falcons are actually more durable due to flying, faster and cheaper too. I am not saying your strategy is a bad one but I would consider banking the mana you would have used on the Lair and the Meditation amulet and just using it to summon your creatures instead. You will not have as nice of a late game but it is a rush build anyway. Played right there will be no late game and you don't need the extra action the lair provides with a Straywood Beastmaster.

Not a huge fan of swarm rush but I personally would do this.

Turn 1 (19Mana) - Red Claw Alpha Male (16) Ring of Beasts (2)
Turn 2 (10 Mana) - Bitterwood Fox (4) Bitterwood Fox (5)
Turn 3 (10 Mana) - Bitterwood Fox (4) Bitterwood Fox (5)
Turn 4 (10 Mana) - Bitterwood Fox (4) Bitterwood Fox (5)
Turn 5 (10 Mana) - Tooth and Nail (7) Face down Marked for Death (2)
Turn 6 (10 Mana) - Flip up Marked for Death (4) Acid Ball (5) Use mage to attack or Guard if able.
Turn 7 (10 Mana) - Hurl Boulder (8 ) attack with mage ect.

I think the Bitterwood Fox is better early game for a swarm strategy then the Timber Wolf. Keep them Close to Redclaw and they should last about 2 average hits each before dying. I would summon Timberwolves later in the game if you are forced into a long game and your creatures are getting killed off. Redclaw will probably die before you get a lot of use out of him but make sure you do not hold him back as some use is better then none. Only attack the mage without very good reason otherwise. Could instead use Call of the Wild twice on turn 5 if conditions are favorable.

I own two of em that I use for my games. Love them. Only issue I have is rarely the mana and the health magnet will attract together as you play. Still worlds better then the wood cubes though.

Though there are comparably priced attack spells that do better damage ie. Hurl Rock. All books do not always run them. In this book I personally only run 1 Hurl Rock. Most competitive books do however run either Rust or Acid Ball. The difference is that Acid Ball still serves a purpose against an unarmored opponent where Rust has no utility outside it's primary use other than maybe baiting a nullify. If you have no other attack spells and need a quick spell that does damage Acid Ball starts looking really appetizing. Sometimes I use them specifically to flush out a defense roll or a suspected face down block.

Against an unarmored opponent Acid Ball does not fall very far behind Hurl Rock on average damage.
Acid Ball: 1-6 damage. Average of 4
Hurl Rock: 0-10 damage. Average of 5. Chance to daze.

Unless you are running Sectarus Rune Sword (spelling?), Fellella pixie companion, the male Warlock, or some other enchantment synergy combination it is not optimal to use Rust over of Acid Ball. Acid Ball has the same game impact 66.6% of the time but is also harder to counter, and deals damage.

Sorry I was unaware that "Grand melee" was a game variant you invented. I thought you were just talking about a massive 1 vs. 30 game where the 1 person was an archmage. I logically assumed to fit 31 people on a game board you would use a whole bunch of boards pushed together. I will need to look up your rules to see what you are talking about. By your last post I now assume you mean it as a tournament format of some sort.

If you are posting a variant of rules you created it would be helpful if you noted that and posted a link to the original rules to alleviate confusion. The phrase "grand melee" to a lot of people just means "really big match".

Edit: After now reading your Grand Melee rules I have to say I still agree with Sike.