I've done mockups of the German cards.

Perhaps somebody can do the same for the english cards?

I don't own them, otherwise I could do it for them as well.

I've noticed some people just like to use dice... 

And would you attack walls only once?

Or twice for every zone it is attached to?

And when would they be attacked? Only if they have not been attacked by Tsunami already?

And although you'd want a more realistic Tsunami, Tsunamis would not be weakened by a Wall of Steel? 

I think there are 2 possibilities:

a) We use the existing rules and make Tsunami work like those
b) We want Tsunami to do what you would expect from a real Tsunami

In Mage Wars, b) is equally important to a) I would say.

As Zuberi summarized you can already use a).

As Kelanen summarized, you could make b) work as well. It only needs 1 additional sentence on the card:

"After its initial zone attack, Tsunami becomes the source of subsequent zone attacks."

Note that this will mean, that any wall Tsunami will cross will stop it from moving further, because there would be no LoS from Tsunamis current zone to its next zone.

Although I was heavily in favor of making Tsunami work more real, I'm now more and more for variant a).

Because:

- It uses existing rules.
- You can easily almost make it work like a real Tsunami would, by cleverly casting and pushing.
- It gives you more strategic possibilities to use the spell, like making sure it does not stop at a wall that blocks LoS.
- It doesn't create other problems with spells that address the "caster of the spell".

Having a Tsunami travel one direction, but resolve pushes perpendicular to it (or even reversed from it in the first zone) is weird and non-intuitive. It's well-supported in rules, but I think this card should be ruled differently.

It is only weird if you consider the Tsunami to be the source of subsequent zone attacks.

It would not be weird if you would describe the card:

"When Tsunami is cast, the mage chooses a direction. After Tsunami is done attacking the zone it was cast to, the mage may cast Tsunami again to the next zone at no additional mana cost, following the chosen direction while ignoring the spell distance. Tsunami stops repeating when it reaches an Arena wall. When a situation arises that would not allow the mage to re-cast Tsunami - for example when he has no longer LoS to the zone where the next attack would need to take place - the Tsunami attack stops repeating as well."

I realized that restriction during upkeep only a few days ago when reading the post on Enchantment Transfusion.

I apologize if I gave any offense. I completely understand how people may not have realized that they are synonyms, and my intention was simply to stress that such is what they are. Activation doesn't mean anything new and doesn't work any differently than what we are already used to. It's just a term we're not used to seeing.

Regarding the roles of people on the forums, you can see their position listed under their name (possibly under a self description). Only people with the position of Administrator are likely to be Arcane Wonders employees, and I'm not certain if all of them are. Playtesters and Ambassadors are not employees, but do tend to work closely with them. Even if an AW representative doesn't respond to a thread though, they are closely monitored and I'm sure your request has already been heard. The best channel to make such requests though is in the Player Feedback and Suggestions section of the forums.

No offense taken Zuberi. I was just worried that the need for clarification in the codex was explained off the table. I think sometimes it is harder for an expert to realize that something would be a great addition to the Codex. Whereas when you completely misunderstood a concept based on your understanding of languistics, you find it hard to understand why somebody would not be eager to add it. =;-)

I agree with Tyrann that MW is an awesome game. A strive for perfection should not be perceived as criticism though. I think it is not a bad attitude when one strives to update cards, rules, codex and supplements in such a way that you can play the game without having questions. Answering a question is important, but avoiding the question should be as important in my view.

Hope you see my remarks in that light as well.

I can only imagine that the thoughts were like: Well the first time the spell is cast it should be just like a normal attack spell with push. The water builds up in the zone so the 1st push should be like for any attack spell with a push.

But if we do that would it make sense to make the spell effect the source of the next push? There is nothing in the game that does that. So let's see this as the Mage repeatedly casting the spell in the direction of the wave. And so the push is always away from the Mage.

Same for the walls: Zone attacks do not attack walls, so that was clear as well.

The problem is the nice graphic on the card. We all see a Mage conjuring (but it is not a conjuration) a wall of water, which then moves through the arena pushing everything forward until it stops at the other end of the arena.

Although I understand that the decision was taken to re-use existing concepts of pushes, attack spells and zone attacks, I also think there are so many crazy rules in Mage Wars, it would have been cool to add 1 sentence to this Card: "Pushes caused by Tsunami follow the direction in which Tsunami is travelling and its Zone Attacks also attack objects on the zone borders it has crossed."

Not quite. It should be a chance to Quickcast followed by Begin Activation/Action Phase. And it should end as End Activation/Action Phase followed by another chance to Quickcast. Quickcast happens before/after the Action Phase, not during.

OK, all clear. Here is for the archives:

Begin Action Stage
   First Quickcast Phase (1st mage with initiative / 2nd other mage)

   Opportunity for Quickcast Action (mage who is taking his turn for an activation)

   Begin Creature Action Phase

      Begin Activation
         Activating (uninterruptible)
            Choose creature
            Flip Action Marker
            Remove Guard token (if any)
         Action(s)
      End Activation

   End Creature Action Phase

   Opportunity for Quickcast Action (mage who took his turn for an activation)

   Opportunity for Quickcast Action (mage who is taking his turn for an activation)
   Next Creature Action Phase
   Opportunity for Quickcast Action (mage who took his turn for an activation)

   Opportunity for Quickcast Action (mage who is taking his turn for an activation)
   Next Creature Action Phase
   Opportunity for Quickcast Action (mage who took his turn for an activation)

   ...

   Opportunity for Quickcast Action (mage who is taking his turn for an activation)
   Last Creature Action Phase
   Opportunity for Quickcast Action (mage who took his turn for an activation)

   Final Quickcast Phase (1st mage with initiative / 2nd other mage)

End Action Stage
Hence Activation and Creature Action Phase are synonyms.

I really really think people are over thinking this and complicating matters much more than they need be. A creature's Activation is just synonymous with their Action Phase. Everybody seemed to understand how Action Phases worked before this thread, and they have not changed. This is just another word to reference them, which was only used due to the differences between Academy and Arena. Nothing has actually changed.

To be frank, I don't think that is entirely fair to the OP and others in this thread and other threads who did not intuitively interpret Activation and Activating the way it is supposed to be. I have not studied English, but I believe it cannot be considered a mistake when somebody expects an Activation to be the thing that happens while Activating (like a flight is what happens while flying or a creation is what happens while creating). However, this misunderstanding based on ones intuition leads to a totally different effect of the Packleader's Cowl.

Hence my request to add Activation as a synonym for Creature Action Phase to the Codex alongside with Activate, which is already there - describing the kickoff process of an Activation. This should avoid discussions like we had in this thread.

I'm not too familiar with all the roles of people in this forum and who is who. Is there an official way to request such an addition to the Codex? Or will it be picked up automatically from this thread?