Is the incorrect text on the Frost tokens one of those? I got two of each set at GenCon. I noticed the error on the Frost tokens as I’ve played a few times since then. If so I’ll be happy that it’ll be corrected in the regular release.

I second this. I agree that Academy in itself isn’t a negative to me because I do use Academy cards in Arena. But an Arena Mage packaged in with a few Arena focused things would make sense and wouldn’t be difficult at all I’d think.

Quote from: Arkdeniz on October 18, 2018, 03:46:52 PM

Quote from: TucsonDoug on October 18, 2018, 02:50:42 PM

Monk and Necromancer for Academy? What about Arena?

AW clearly consider Academy is the way of the future - being simpler and quicker in concept and play. Given that Academy cards can all be used in Arena, then the view seems to be that both games are being serviced.

Of course, if they thought the academy releases also serviced Arena, it would have been nice if the Academy Elementalist also came packaged with an Arena Elementalist ability card, so we could use the Elementalist in the arena as well. Just one extra card and we all would have been very happy...

This would be the better approach if the plan behind the scenes is to wind down Arena support in favor of Academy. Expand on the Academy sets to include an Arena-based ability card for the mage in question, and at least a few proper Arena-focused cards in the set as well to go along. Adding maybe 20 cards or so to the current normal size for an Academy pack. I'd even be willing to pay a little more for that add on within each Academy expansion. Like $5 more easy.

I recently played a game of Mage Wars with freeze conditions. It was a really fun game and I was really able to stack the damage because I was casting Beam and Cone of Frost with both my Siren and Naya.

I was not quite sure when they got removed though. Here’s what the Elementalist rulebook said for Freeze:

A creature with Freeze conditions rolls 1 less die on non-spell attacks. At the end of a creature’s activation, remove 1 Freeze condition from them, if possible. Each Freeze condition on a living creature is also considered 2 damage that cannot be healed. If there are ever Freeze conditions on an object with Burn conditions, remove 1 of each. Repeat this process until there are only Freeze or Burn markers remaining. This is a frost condition and has a removal cost of 2. In Arena, Freeze also grants the Lumbering trait to the affected creature.

So from this I know a Freeze condition is removed after a creature’s activation, assuming they don’t have a Deep Freeze on them. However I also noticed that on the Freeze tokens themselves it says:

Freeze: Remove 1 each reset phase (with a 2 in parentheses). So does that mean that in addition to the Freeze that is removed after a creature’s activation is over, there is an additional Freeze that can be removed by the person that controls the creature by paying 2 mana in the reset phase? Please let me know if I understand that correctly or not, thanks.

I didn’t go to GenCon, but a friend of mine did and he picked up 2 copies of each of the new Academy decks for me. I don’t play Academy often but I’ve got to say I’m really excited to use a lot of these cards in my Arena books. The Elementalist deck in particular is fun because I see many different cards that I am looking forward to using in Arena books. Also I am really interested in using the Frost spells as well as a few of the Druid’s cards in my Siren book.

Tony,

I’m really glad to hear about the upcoming releases! Also will be excited to see the previews. I think those have been very well done in the past.

One of these days I need to try online Mage Wars. I’ve really enjoyed watching the tournament matches. I do have a friend that I play Mage Wars with pretty regularly now and I usually don’t do online board games but the Octgn community for this game looks like something I’ve really been missing out on!

I hope Mage Wars keeps being supported. I prefer Arena but like the Academy sets as well. From what I’ve heard quite a bit has been designed that is being playtested that has not been released yet. I remember listening to Colby Dauch speaking at a convention about Summoner Wars when it first came out and there were maybe 6 Summoners. He talked about how he had designed 16 different factions and there would eventually be second Summoners. It took time but eventually Summoner Wars released 16 different factions with reinforcements and second Summoners for each. I don’t think Summoner Wars has a huge community, even though it’s a popular game. At the time I heard Colby talk about that I wondered if his game was going to get to release all that content. My hope is that Mage Wars eventually releases everything that’s in the pipeline now and more. Here’s hoping the game continues to grow and expand.

I really enjoyed the previews, and am really looking forward to the Academy Warlord. The Warlord is my favorite Mage, and this set looks like it will give him a bunch of new competitive options.