Within my local gaming group, we have two undefeated Mages. I have my undefeated Warlock, and my buddy has an undefeated Paladin. The two have yet to face off, though that is the match everyone in our group is wanting to see. I agree, it would be fun to square off to once and for all declare a single undefeated mage of Central Iowa.

That said, while I have two PVS sets, I have yet to actually play as the Paladin but know he has some nasty tricks when facing demons and non-living. For those well-versed in Paladin-play, what advice can you give this somewhat nervous Warlock for when he faces his arch-rival in the Arena? 

My initial thought is to just rush with the tried and true Fire Ring/Hawkeye strategy and fireball his arse up and down the arena. Throwing out a deathlock or poisone blood if needed- maybe load up on dissolves to keep him from getting that nasty sword to hand.

I love pairing the Warlock up with twin blood demons, but with the Paladin's banner and creature library, I'm not exactly wanting to give him time to build up either.

Thoughts, ideas and suggestions welcome!

Was chatting with reddicediaries about the idea of an elemental wizard. He pointed me to some previous examples. I know this concept isn't new, but thought I would post my iteration for critique. My one concern: too much equipment?

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Elemental Wizard[/spellbookname]
[mage]A Wizard (Air) Spellbook[/mage]
[mage]built by the OCTGN SBB[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1A13]1 x Thunderbolt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A07]2 x Lightning Bolt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A03]1 x Electrify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNA01]1 x Acid Ball[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWA01]1 x Arc Lightning[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1J12]4 x Mana Crystal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J18]3 x Poison Gas Cloud[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J04]1 x Battle Forge[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFJ06]1 x Rolling Fog[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=PSC26]1 x Water Elemental[/mwcard]
[mwcard=LG01C02]1 x Fire Elemental[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWC02]1 x Earth Elemental[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1C40]1 x Whirling Spirit[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWBD1E01]1 x Astral Anchor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E16]1 x Force Hold[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E21]1 x Hawkeye[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E23]2 x Jinx[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E29]4 x Nullify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E38]1 x Teleport Trap[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE02]1 x Akiro's Favor[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWPROMO53]1 x Gloves of Skill[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q07]1 x Elemental Cloak[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q08]2 x Elemental Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q17]1 x Lightning Ring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q19]2 x Mage Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWQ10]2 x Storm Drake Hide[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q22]1 x Moonglow Amulet[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWPROMO28]1 x Staff of Storms[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q23]1 x Regrowth Belt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q01]1 x Arcane Ring[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=FWI11]2 x Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI13]2 x Seeking Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI16]1 x Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI17]1 x Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=PSI03]2 x Lesser Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I01]1 x Banish[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I28]2 x Teleport[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Druid[/spellbookname]
[mage]A Druid Spellbook[/mage]
[mage]built by the OCTGN SBB[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKA01]2 x Surging Wave[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNA01]2 x Acid Ball[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=PSJ04]1 x Elephant Grass[/mwcard]
[mwcard=PSJ08]1 x Steep Hill[/mwcard]
[mwcard=PSJ09]2 x Swamp[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J13]1 x Mana Flower[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J19]1 x Deathlock[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J22]3 x Tanglevine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1W04]2 x Wall of Thorns[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ02]1 x Corrosive Orchid[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ06]1 x Nightshade Lotus[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ10]1 x Stranglevine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ12]1 x Vine Tree[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNW01]2 x Bloodspine Wall[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ03]1 x Etherian Lifetree[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=PSC21]1 x Shoalsdeep Crocodile[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC10]2 x Raptor Vine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC20]2 x Vine Snapper[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC21]2 x Thornlasher[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC06]1 x Kralathor, The Devourer[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWBD1E01]1 x Astral Anchor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=PSE07]2 x Hydrothermal Vent[/mwcard]
[mwcard=PSE03]1 x Chant of Rage[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E01]1 x Bear Strength[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E20]1 x Harmonize[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E21]1 x Hawkeye[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E28]1 x Mongoose Agility[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E29]2 x Nullify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E32]1 x Regrowth[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E36]1 x Rhino Hide[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNE01]1 x Barkskin[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE02]1 x Akiro's Favor[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKQ06]1 x Eagleclaw Boots[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q08]1 x Elemental Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q19]1 x Mage Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ06]1 x Mohktari's Branch[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ07]1 x Veteran's Belt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=LG01Q01]1 x Chitin Armor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=LG01Q07]1 x Waterfall Cloak[/mwcard]
[mwcard=PSQ05]1 x Leviathan Scale Armor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=PSQ08]1 x Ring of the Ocean's Depths[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=FWI11]2 x Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI13]1 x Seeking Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI16]1 x Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI17]2 x Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=PSI03]2 x Lesser Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I23]2 x Rouse the Beast[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNI02]2 x Burst of Thorns[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWA01I01]1 x Crumble[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I15]1 x Knockdown[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]

Interested in trying out the druid with some of the new terrain. I don't know why, but the hill in particular really intrigues me. Akiro's Favor has become a staple in all my books. One of my favorite cards in the entire game.

R1: Vine Tree + Harmonize - move
R2: Ring of the Ocean + FD Hawkeye - move
R3: whatever makes sense depending on opposing mage's aggression.

Regardless, the idea is to have the druid safely atop the hill using the adjacent swamps and elephant grass to make it difficult for enemy creatures to get to the hill. Obviously, the Vine Tree casts vine creatures/conjurations while the druid binds surging wave and burst of thorns and focuses on enchantments.

Thoughts?

Prior to PVS, the only mage I had not played to date was the Priest. Not sure why I shied away from him- perhaps I just found the other mages more interesting. That said, I was on a mission to complete my goal of having at least one victory for every mage (excluding PVS at this point), and only the Priest remained. So, this weekend I had my first run with the Priest, and I have to say he was surprisingly fun to play. Building a book using cards from both the Academy and PVS set, it seems that the Priest is much more complete now as I had quite a few tools at my disposal.

When my buddies and I play, we don't announce which mage we are bringing to the table- we do a "mage reveal" as the game begins. I had no idea what my buddy was bringing, and he had no idea what I was bringing. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw him reveal the necro because of course, my mage would have +2 dice to several attack rolls.

The necro did a slow build up of a zombie hoard in one zone- I kept him restricted to one zone thanks to a couple Consecrated Ground spells (I think that's the name of the zone spell). As I moved in with my mage and two buffed Guardian Angels, he cast two walls to protect his zone from my mage, hoping to buy himself some time.

So, I decided to take a huge risk as I didn't want his swarm to become too powerful and difficult to manage. I teleported my mage to his zombie hoard zone- it would either pay off big time, or I would end up dead in two turns. I immediately cast the holy spell that is a zone attack with the potential to daze or stun opponents (can't recall the spell name). The spell only rolls 2 dice per creature, but I had the holy ring and hawkeye on my mage giving him +2 dice, and then another +2 dice against each undead in that one zone. Having stunned or dazed most of his creatures, I only took 7 damage that one round. During the next round, I cast that same spell again, and this time, I finished off most of his hoard, and those that did remain wound up dazed or stunned. But knowing his zombies were slow, I then followed up by using my quickcast to use minor teleport to teleport one zone away from his now stunned mage and a couple dazed and confused zombies. At this point, I had destroyed or severely wounded most of his zombie hoard, not to mention, got lucky with the effect die, stunning his mage twice, limiting his actions. All that damage to my enemy, and my mage only suffered 7 damage!

I then moved my two guardian angels who prepared to finish the job. While I didn't kill my opponent's mage outright, the two rounds proved to be too catastrophic to my opponent's strategy and he conceded.

The Priest was a lot of fun to play- my opinion of the Priest has definitely changed.

My opponent did tell me he was one turn away from having cast Astral Anchor. You snooze you lose.

The bonus was that we had time for a second game. We played his Warlord vs. my Warlock, to which I won by turn four due to some really really lucky dice rolls. 2-0 in 2.5 hours. It was a victorious day!

I'm needing some assistance. My buddy typically plays Priestess (which is getting kind of tiresome). I've defeated him with Warlock and Forcemaster, though is play is improving drastically. We've had several draws due to time running out. Against my wizard, I have one loss and one draw. I'm really struggling to take on his Priestess with wizard. His primary strategy is to hide behind Guardian Angels. Once those are out I'm usually trying to deal with those while he continues to build up his holy army. Ideas?

We have one player in our gaming group who uses the same mage over and over again. Every once in a while he will branch out with another mage, get slaughtered and then go back to his go-to mage. I on the other hand have 8 books, one for each mage type and am constantly changing which mage I play with and mixing up what strategy I use as I rotate thru the mages. I might play the same mage 2 or 3 times in a row, but then I'm changing to something new for variety, not to mention, I like keeping my opponent guessing.

Normally it wouldn't bother me that he plays with the same mage over and over again, but it's become a little stale because I basically tweak my book to counter exactly what I know he's going to throw at me. Instead of him seeing this as a disadvantage, his losses do nothing but prompt him to tweak his same book- determined to get that win. Thing is, over the last two months of playing, I am 5-1-2 (we had to call 2 games a draw from running out of time as we play to the death). The one loss I had was when I played the air-wizard for the first time and after a long day of work, I honestly played horrible and made many mistakes.

I think it would be fun to select mages at random. Nobody in our group seems to want to do this. Do any of you use random selection, or do you just go with whatever interests you?

Anybody pre-order the Royals?

So, I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this question, but want to just be sure- suppose I play a Finite Life face down on enemy mage. Enemy mage at some point casts a heal spell... can I then reveal Finite Life during the counterspell step to prevent the heal spell? Assume enemy mage would still have to pay mana cost, etc.

Know it's a rookie question so I appreciate the feedback.