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 .

@Charmyna
I have played 2 Ballista against your build several times BN(before the nerf). Really didn't do much. I do think that it is powerful, but as I have argued, I don't think too powerful. I think you fireballed one plus a BG took it out after it fired one time. You then did the same the next round on the other one, so for 16 mana I only got two shots off total(one shot each). Now if I were to play two more, that is the spell book max. If an opponent let that happen then that would be a mistake on their part. I don't think that it should be War only, however I think it should be a bit less powerful for a non-war Mage. I think we talked about a creature for the Warlord that would add load tokens (like the Clerics for the Priestess) to speed firing up. Maybe a reduction in dice or piercing maybe in order, but then they are not scary at all, as I think that the idea of them being out in multiples should be the point (board control) and force the other mage to counter.

A guy spend 8 mana on Ballista and shoots it once vs the enemey. Opponent spends 8 mana on fireball and presumably atleast 1 more action on finishing off the ballista.
Who gained momentum here?

This right here is one of the key aspects of how you win games in MW. Present enough threats to your opponent he is forced to spend actions and mana on. More actions and/or mana than you spend on putting the threat into play that is.
And dont forget... ballista still did 5 dice of damage with pierce +3 - whereas the opponent did 0 damage.

Q1. I am assuming a Damage Shield would still do damage even if defender got pushed?  So the DS still does damage but the counterstrike wouldn't work? 

I guess I am still hung up on the working about the defender can choose to counter attack at time they are being attacked.  But I do understand the push and non viable target post push.  So not revisiting, just now clarifying the damage shield thing.

Main reason is I use the Whirling Spirits a lot with my Air Wizard deck.

Bonus question:
If a card doesn't say you have to pay extra to push things through walls (like pay 3 more etc) does that mean you can push through walls with passage attacks for free to get the wall damage.  So the Whirling Spirit can push someone through a wall, get the passage attacks and not pay any extra mana correct?

The damage barrier still goes off on the defending target even though whirling spirit succeeds push roll.
It obviously makes sense that the attack from WS goes through the damage barrier BEFORE it pushes the target.
However in order to keep things clean and because they dont feel that the attacker potentially could die or get stunned etc before landing the attack they made it so the damage barrier damage is applied AFTER. (remember that stun or daze from a damage barrier is NOT removed at the end of the current action phase of the attacking creature... it lasts 1 more round so it actually has an effect. - otherwise it would stay on the attacker for 5 seconds.)

The damager barrier do not work like the counter strike.  No checking for range etc - just roll dice.

The counter strike starts a new attack order starting with declare attack except that counterstrike (step 7) is not possible here. So you cannot counter strike a counter strike.

bonus question:
yes free push through attack traits if no cost is listed. This includes stuff like jetstream and whirling spirit amongst others.

Even as a kid I never cared for battle royals in wrestling. To me the game is a duel between two mages. I am really not interested in more than 2 as it already takes a long time to play.

I completely agree with this. I still cant seem to get below 1.5 hour.

Chain Lightning is a Ranged Attack....

cool story bro... care to elaborate?

Chain lightning vs Intervene:

Wizard casts chainlightning one zone away and wants to hit 2 targets in the zone.

The Dwarfen panzterbro on guard (he can intervene).
Bridge troll.

Scenario 1:
Wizard targets Bridge troll with first chain hit. Panzterbro Redirects the ranged attack to himself (intervene when guarding).

A)
Wizard can target bridge troll again on the second hit of Chain lightning because first hit never actually ended up targetting / hitting troll.

B)
Wizard can target Pantzerbro on second hit because he havent TARGETTED him before - the guy just intervened taking the bullet. ending up hitting panzterbro twice

C)
The Wizard cannot target either because he targetted the troll already on first hit, and he damaged the panzterbro on first hit so both are now illegal targets for a second hit


Scenario 2:
The wizard Targets Panzterbro who is on guard with first hit (we assume he does NOT get stunned).
Second hit goes to troll and Panzterbro wishes to Intervene

A)
Panzterbro cannot intervene because chainlightning can only hit / target each target once.

B)
Panzterbro CAN intervene but he will not take damage from the second hit of chainlightning because he took damage from the first hit and chain can only damage each target once.

C)
Panzterbro intervenes and takes damage from both first and second hit of chain lightning.



Whirling spirit attacks a guard and succeds the push roll. Will the guard get the counter strike or not?


And yes... im building an Air Wizard

Edit:
I guess that the whirling spirit is close to the same as lightning attack melee'ers (angel). If they land a daze / stun when attacking will the counter striking creature be affected so it either has to roll a daze check or get stunned and cannot counterstrike.

And i can add steal enchantment to this.

The situation where you want to steal a negative enchantment on your mage or creature and move it to an enemy mage or creature that has a facedown nullify.