Hey there! I've been using holy books recently and I hope I can say something that is useful! This book already looks pretty solid, so I may ask more about why you use certain cards. Maybe I can learn something from your experience. This book seems really late game and I think you might be able to get the job done faster.

To start off, you have no attack spells! You should put in at least 1 Acid Ball, probably 2. You only have 2 dissolves so armor builds (like the one you are using ) could be an issue. I also suggest a Force Hammer for dealing with Conjurations, and a Hurl Boulder as a finisher. Really basic attack spells that are for a specific purpose.

I noticed you have a lot of creatures that can use a defense, but only 1 Temple of the Dawnbreaker. Do you find that you need 2 every? Is the mana cost to high to afford a second TOD?

Your creatures seem a bit...Big. You can defend yourself pretty well with the guardian angels. But what are you getting out of Selesius? It seems like 2 Asyrian Defenders would be better suited. How often are you getting Valshalla out and using her abilities? Usually I find I can't really get her to "Wrath" up but the Daze/Stun is the main reason for getting her out.

I think you should run some Cheetah Speed. You can Combo with the already flying angels and get the Lion Savagery combo off each round. I think you are using Selesius to get it out, but I wonder how often you manage to pull it off (lots of mana).

Just curious on the 3 Divine Protections. Does your knights or you really need it? TOD seems like a big enough buff for the knights.

I love Crown of Protection, but how often are you using it? It's cheap and effective, but I think you might want to spend your quick actions buffing your creatures with attack enchantments. This book looks like it goes super late if you wait to cast the enchantments like Bear Strength or Lion Savagery. To go with that you have an Enchanter's Ring, so you either give them armor or an enchantment but you usually cant do both since your meditation amulet is your main action.

I think you should put in Battle Fury. It can combo with your Mage Wand, and a lot of your creatures will get 4-5 dice and an effect off with it. It is really good with Valshalla.

Just wondering why you don't use a basic Heal spell. I've been thinking the Ring of Asyra is a waste of spellbook points in this book. I think you can put in Force Pushes to get the Lion Savagry off better. Force Push can also be very versatile for a lot of other situations.

Hope this helps!

Quote from: Kazador on July 24, 2015, 10:43:33 PM

Does the effect from kinship stack? If I have 2 out, does that give me +2 melee and +2 armor?

Yes, but having multiple creatures of the same type don't stack. E.g. 3x Kinship with 1x Canine = +3 melee; 1x Kinship with 4x Canines = +1 melee.

I tried something like this before. Straywood beastmaster wants to be punching enemy along with his animals. I encountered issues regarding how much mana I was spending vs how many actions and trait bonuses I had and for how long. Frankly it was too high cost to play like that, both in actions and mana, for what you get out of it. I.e. Why use an ape plus animal kinship when you've got eagleclaw boots?

I figured out that Straywood Animal kinship strategy only works with level 1 animals via quick summoning, as a way to bank actions. Instead of taking separate quick actions for a card that gives you a trait and a lv1 animal, kinship allows you to get both for only 1 quick action. But if you're relying on mana-expensive full action creatures to give you the bonuses, you're actually spending more mana and actions than you otherwise would be.

Example
This is what you want to do:
with animal kinship out, you summon a lv1 ape, which gives you climbing. Every lv1 ape after that will also give you free climbing.

This is what you don't want to do:

With Animal kinship out, use a full action to summon a mountain gorilla. You'll have a hard time summoning another one, and you won't be able to move or punch before casting him.

I don't think Climbing is the best example.  I've never seen Gorilla + Kinship in order to get Climbing and doubt I ever will.  Kinship pushes up the cap for your +X Melee and +X Armor on top of equipment/enchantment bonuses, and if you're considering a buddy BM build, then it's not too difficult to make your buddy a pet reptile (or maybe a pet wolf) and throw down some Kinships. 

A local player runs a Kinship book.  What seems to work (sometimes) for him is getting 2+ Kinships in play along with an Emerald Tegu (or Spitting Raptor) "pet/buddy" and a Bitterwood Fox in the first few turns.  The Fox runs away - e.g. it's really just there for +X Melee; maybe it can hunt down enemy Zone Exclusive conjurations or something, but it just needs to stay alive.  Then you send in your mostly naked Beastmaster (maybe add Bear Strength + Rhino Hide + weapon of choice and whatever other tools you need as you go along) and he does most of the work while your reptile pet guards and/or attacks and/or stays alive somehow. 

Looking at your spell list, you can probably drop most of the creatures.  Keep 1 Timber Wolf, 1 cat, 1 Fox, maybe keep the Grizzly - but honestly you should go with a Timber Wolf or reptile as your initial buddy since you want those bonuses more than Tough.  Grizzly is solid but expensive and doesn't help your Kinship strategy directly (unless you really need Tough for some reason).  Not sure if I'd bother with Galador - just bring Divine Might or Mage Staff for dealing with Incorporeal (and Mage Staff is probably better than Staff of Beasts for your purposes anyway).  Add a Hand of Bim-Shallah to get another +1 attack die (or armor/healing when necessary).

This looks awesome! Let me know how often you use all 3 reassembles and the unholy resurgence. I personally  only run 1 of each and find I never cast them.

If you're ever on OCTGN, I'd love to help you test your match out.