Let me paint a picture for you:

Imagine a coil of snakes, not vicious as in normal life, but sickly, gray, and dying. Instead of snapping out in angst of being attached to such a hideous creature, they can barely open their jaws enough to let their decaying teeth show. Venom from the snakes’ fangs is dripping down to the base of this tangle of creatures, which only gets more disgusting as the viewer looks further down the disgraced Gorgon body.

This is the view I want to give my opponent as they take down this menace. wait, did I read that right? You sure did. I want my opponent to destroy this archer, because it is, indeed, bait.

WHAT?

At sixteen cost, this monster with regenerate two, an attack that devastates the opposing mage, why would I want you to kill it? The answer is simple. It gets you on my side of the board, it sets me up to destroy you. You can move in to kill the Archer, fine. But you will die in the process.

But why the archer? Why not choose something cheaper? Doesn’t efficiency and tempo play any sort of role when you play? Well, the answer is not so simple. I want the Archer for a few reasons. The first is that it is an instant threat that opponent must deal with, or they will lose the game. The second is that while they waste time getting to the creature itself, the archer can hit them with those weak conditions, which can completely deter an aggressive mage into attacking me, or at least hold them off while they purify. The third, and not so obvious reason, is that the best way to stop the Archer from attacking is to be in the same zone as her You’ll notice that the range on the Gorgon’s stone arrow attack is 1-2. Hence, if the mage is in the same zone, the creature loses much of it’s power. The fourth reason is that it is hard to kill. With 16 life and regen 2, it is going to take a least two rounds with some powerful attacks for the mage to kill the archer. These four reasons alone are reason enough to spend sixteen mana. You are playing a sente threat that they HAVE to respond to, and they have to use up a lot of action, card, and mana resources in order to deal with her. All the while, you can be doing any number of things, like attacking the mage with ranged spells, setting your creatures up to do major damage, throwing walls to stop the mage from getting away.

The Bait is a powerful tool the control player can use to defeat the aggressive player, and I think that the archer is the best option, as it’s inherent weakness is actually is most amazing strength. Sure, you can use other creatures to bait the opponent, but a lot of the other creatures out there are either not enough of a sente threat by themselves, or they can be easily dealt with by other means. For the Warlord, using the sniper is a good tactic, and obviously Lord of Fire is bait on a stick for the Warlock, but I don’t think the Priestess and the Beastmaster have as many baiting options, other than using the Archer herself.

This Bait tool can also be used to different effect as well. You can use the bait to get swarms in position to AoE them to death. This will take patience, and persistence to play correctly, but I believe it can be done.

When is the best time to bait out the opponent? Well, for my Earth Wizard build, I usually want to have my two iron golems out before I cast the Archer. This allows me to set the Golems up in position to smash the opposing mage. This is around round 6-7, so this is incredibly early for the control player to begin taking control, but I feel that any later, and the bait loses some of it’s attention getting. You also want to be mindful of where your threats are in relation to the bait. You want to have your threats far enough away that they won’t be considered threatening to the opponent, but close enough for you to use your tricks in order to get your threats to where they need to be in order to strike when they take that bait.

So, how can a swarm player use bait to his advantage? Well, another tactic to employ is to use your mage as bait. You want to have a mage with a higher life total to really use this tool without putting yourself in to much danger, but against a big creature/solo build, you can oft use yourself to bait the opposition into going into just the right zone for your swarm to attack. This is much harder than it sounds, and it is suggested that you start by using bait in a non swarm setting, but if set up correctly, it can be used to great effect.

What about the Priestess? She has a terrible starting life total, and not many holy creatures are threats enough to be sente. So what can you do? Well, there is the amazing Divine intervention/Vampiress opening, but that has been discussed, and there are many counter attacks that are usually planned out in more experienced players builds. So, if you don’t want to use 12 spell points for that dark creature, why not try baiting yourself, and when shit hits the fan, intervening yourself out of the situation at hand? This is probably the most difficult of all the ways to utilize the bait tool, but I think it can be devastating if used in the right book.

So, that’s the bait method. I think it is an incredibly powerful method the mage can use in the arena, and I hope you folks are able to use this in your games, to winning effect! As always, questions, criticisms, comments, and ways to expand upon this idea are welcome!

Hello friends!

It's been a while since I have posted on here as I have super busy with Android: Netrunner Regionals. My work payed off with a top 8 and overall fifth out of 25, but as my experience grows, so does my insight into just how long the road before me and A:NR guruism awaits. In the meantime, Mage Wars!

I'm pleased to announce that my FLGS in louisville has received it's OP kit that I begged and pleaded (and killed) for. Just kidding about the begged part. The new cards look terrific, but we have a small problem... only two participants! So, if you live around the Louisville/Southern Indiana Area and can make it out to Something 2 do, in east end Louisville, drop me a line, and I would love to get this ball rolling! Mage Wars needs to amass a following that can at least hold a candle to another LCG! I mean, after all, what's a BGG ranking without it's followers?

Today, I finally sat down and created a Forcemaster and Beastmaster build, as I was feeling master-y today. I'm really excited to sit down and test them, and for all you people who think creatures just cost too much to put into your Forcemaster deck, I say Nay! Costing triple just means it will have to have triple the benefit... or at least it's what I'm hoping. I'm trying out a new tactic with the Beastmaster, in that I'm trying a tempo control build, going aggressive early, setting up for the fatties around round 6, and finishing with a final aggressive push. We will see how this plays out, but my fingers are crossed!

In a final note to wrap up this pseudo not-quite newletter post, I want to talk about a well underrated card: Falcon Precision. I've been having a few issues with fighting the Forcemaster, and finally today, I sat down, looked through all my cards, and giggled when I saw this card. All melee attacks gain the unavoidable trait? Iron golem, you just got even better. Now, on top of the forcemaster having to deal witha  boulder hurling wizard, she's going to have to deal with a Golem that is so big he can't be moved, so dumb he can't even sleep, and now, so powerful he can't be stopped. I'm excited for what this game has in store for years to come. Just please please please don't try and compete with MTG. Two different games with two completely different feels. WoTC will win. It's fans are crazier. I know, I was one of them. Until next time folks!

I'm not too bad at the game of Mage Wars. This is not a brag, but rather a subjective fact. After playing a friend on the forums a few times, I have come to really realize this potential. But I wanted to know why I was good. I was applying my theories of mobility, strength, and tempo, but I felt that there was something a little more that I was doing... and I figured out. Such an inherent factor should be so obvious, and yet, it's not. The fact was I was rolling more dice than him. He was indeed a player of great caliber, but I was rolling an average of 4 dice to his one. This, I feel, won me the three games I played. Yes, before you naysayers shout "Nay!", Think about it. Why is solo Warlock so good? Because his damage threshold is incredible. Why is Dog Rush so good? Damage Threshold. Rolling 5 dice on average does more damage than rolling three dice.

I mean, look at the law of averages. If you do something enough times, every outcome will come up. In order to mitigate rolling blanks, we need to only do one thing (and it doesn't include dice cleansing or dice cups). Roll more dice. You can make riskier plays in high roll stunning with the d12, but in the end, what wins you the game is damage. Use your tempo advantage to roll more dice. It's why my belief that the Earth Wizard is just better than Air/fire Wizard. Sure, they all have their merits, but in the end, Hurl boulder and Iron Golem deal an incredible amount of damage for the small cost of 5 spell points. Granted, Golem is slow and nonliving, but with a battle forge and two mage wands (once one gets dissolved), giving him charge at the right time is incredible.

So, getting to my main point, more players need to incorporate a Damage threshold to win games. What is damage threshold? It is the the average amount of damage you want to be doing each round to the mage when you gain tempo. For my earth wizard, it's at least thirteen dice of damage a turn. This keeps the opponent on their toes, and you dealing damage. Is that all you need to do? No, of course not, but you need to use your tactical cards to put you in a place for you to deal the most damage in the least amount of time. Attack spells are important to every mage (even the Priestess), as are melee attacks, and in order to utilize them most effectively, I have found that pushing that last fifteen damage is made a lot easier with attack spells. Spending the points is well worth doing the damage, especially if it's not expected. Oh, and one more thing, Battle Fury. A well timed battle fury will just end the game. I was playing priestess with the vampiress opening, and because I was able to battle fury at the right time, I didn't need to worry about my priestess dying, although she only had about 6 life left with 3 creatures left to attack her, because I had a well timed, surprise battle fury, that, coupled with 4 hands of bim shalla, did 18 dice of damage when I needed it most.

This is a thought that I would like to expound on, but as I have only been thinking about it for a few days, I would really love some feedback and constructive thoughts on this theory. I do believe this to be accurate, because every game I have won was because I was rolling more dice than opponent in order to deal more average damage, thus allowing me to nail my opponent before he did the same to me. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, and I hope you enjoyed!

We have spoken on both Mobility and Tempo, which are  important when you consider the final part of this tactical puzzle, which is Strength. Why is strength important, and what exactly is strength, as well as how we can use tempo and Mobility to create a greater Strength than just from cards alone. These questions are going to be the focal points of this penultimate article in this series on the importance of Tempo. So, without further ado, let us begin.

What is Strength?

Strength, in the most fundamental sense of the word as it relates to Mage Wars, is the average amount of damage a creature can do a turn. How can we figure out what the average amount of damage a creature can do per round of attacking? Well, Let us add up all the sides of the dice, ignoring critical damage: 0+0+1+1+2+2=6. Let's divide that by the number of faces on the die: 6/6= 1. So, on average, you will deal 1 damage per die. Remember, this is the average. The boon and bane of dice is that ofttimes you will either go under or over the average, but if we can judge them specifically on statistics alone, we can start to give a numeric value in regards to the strength of the card. Now, let's factor in armor. A creature with a single armor has the ability to block one die of damage. So, whereas a creature that does 2 die of damage will do on average 2 damage, it will only do one damage to a creature with 1 armor. Now, this really does change things in the grand scheme of things. You end up paying a lot more to deal damage. So, armor ALSO plays a huge factor in the strength of a creature, because it makes opponents pay more in mana and actions in order to deal with a creature that should be a lot easier to get rid of.

So, again, I will ask the question, why is strength important? Why not just jam all the creatures that deal the most damage and call it a day? As we all know, this game is not that simple. This will seem like a strange concept to some, but the fact of the matter is that there are better creatures than others. You, as the player, need to evaluate creatures based on four criteria:

1. Mana cost

This is where Tempo comes into play. Paying 15 mana for a creature that has 1 armor , 13 life, and 5 damage average is worse than a creature that costs 16 mana, has 2 armor, 15 life, and has vampirism. Figuring out what is better is an intuitive and studious task that can only be honed through trial and error. You need to play the most efficient damage creators with the least amount of mana possible. This will allow you to save mana to buff and support those creatures to keep them in play.

2. Damage average

A vanilla creature that does 2 average damage is strictly worse than a vanilla creature that does 3 average damage. This basis is incredibly important to figuring out what creatures should be played over others. We also need to realize that a creature that does 2 average damage and has a 25 percent chance to rot is better than a creature that does 2 average damage with a 50 percent chance to burn. Why is that? Because rot does not go away. It is a static effect that deals one damage at the beginning of each upkeep. So, a creature that deals two rot effects to the enemy mage will kill him in 16-20 rounds on it's own. This is completely different than a creature that can deal burns, because burns have a random chance of damage, therefore it does have a 33 percent chance to deal 2 damage. It also has a 33 percent chance to deal 1 damage. It also has a 33 percent chance to deal zero damage and be removed. 66 percent is not as good as a hundred percent, 3 grade maths will tell you.

3. Armor

 This is important when thinking about what creatures you should and shouldn't pump armor into. Having those creatures that deal a large percentage of your damage should have more armor than those creatures you use to help mobilize and increase your tempo while decreasing your opponents. Having your opponent sink spell after spell into your heavily armored creatures is what you WANT them to do. It denies them mana and actions, while netting you the same. Think about it. If you both had a static ten channelling, and you had a LoF out to his timber wolf, you have each paid 24 and 9 mana, respectively. Now, He casts a Thunderbolt on your LoF. He has now paid 19 mana and 2 actions to your 24 and one action. You ignore the timber wolf and attack the mage. He casts a second thunderbolt on your LoF, spending a total of 29 mana and 3 actions to your 24 and 1. You have gained a tempo advantage of 5 mana by offsetting your supply at first to threaten your opponent and frighten him into dealing with that huge threat.

4. What effects it can do

Finally, examining what effects a creature has is our final criteria for determining if a creature is playable in our deck or not. I have come up with kind of a quick list to the kinds of effects you want your creatures to have:

Flying, Channeling (free actions), Rot, Stun, Daze, Defense, Direct Damage, Incorporeal, Push, Ranged Attack, Weak, Taunt, Sweeping, Vampiric, Piercing, Unavoidable, Fast.

All of these effects will help you to gain tempo and hurt the opponent's tactics and strategy while setting you up to win.

Now, How can we use Tempo and mobility to help make our creatures stronger than just printed stats? Well, we can use cards like Force Push on creatures with slow to help get them into position to make their incredibly strong attack. Or we can use charge, or call of the wild even. I recently used two Rajan's Fury to turn two bitterwood foxes into attacking machines, forcing my opponent to lose tempo by dealing with these creatures and allowing me to take advantage of board position to send out two bobcats to really give him a hard time. You want to use the THREAT of dealing a lot a damage to help hinder your opponent into making subpar moves. Push your opponent into corners by using your strong creatures to force your opponent away from you and into retreat. You do not want to rely on a big creature to win the game on it's own. For the most part, I only win games when I use those big fatties to push my board position from almost winning to winning, and not as a means to an end. This is why understanding Tempo and Mobility is so vital to winning the game. Because the only way to win the game is through damage, and the only way to do that is through strength. Understanding when and how to use strength to your advantage is probably the largest learning curve in the game, and therefore it is one of the most important.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! If you have any comments or feedback, feel free to tell me. As I am newer to the article writing scene, I am but gaining experience on how to write and think critically as it applies to game theory. Again, thank you and I hope you enjoy!

The Backstory


I have always had a weakness for Magic the gathering. It was the first "real" game I was introduced to, and it continues to be of love and fascination with me even to this day. But, I have left the life of a casual but can't afford to be serious MTG player for the cheaper (and more fun, but in a different way) life of a board gamer. Now, that five hundred dollars for a standard deck can be spent on something like Eclipse w/ expansion along with agricola, seasons, Rftg plus expansions, and Mage Knight board game w/ expansion. All of that hours of gaming for the price of a single deck of Magic cards.

But how did go from CCG addict to board game addict? Well, Brian Kibler, of MTG fame, had championed his Ascension game all over MTG websites. All of his deck sleeves were Ascension. We happened to be picking up a set of dual lands from our FLGS one day when we came across this game, and on whim we bought it. Me and friend then spent all night playing this game, and we played it wrong for about two hours of it. We just could not get enough of this game. So, we played it. And we played it. And we played it. And we played it. And we played it some more. And eventually, we had figured out the game pretty well. We had figured out the best strategy to winning the game (getting to 7 battle and beating the Avatar down, in order to pick up every Mechana construction on the board). But, this was game that was all contained in one box and had everything you needed to play for months. For less than ten percent of a standard MTG deck. I was hooked. I went out, like most other board gamers when they first discover this world, and bought every single game I could find that was of any interest to me. Any game. I went from a collection of a game to about 10 in the span of a month. Yeah, I was a full on addict. Until I saw a video of a demo one day in the summer of 2012...

Mage Wars! This game was awesome! It seemed to have both the depth of MTG with the compactness of Ascension. I just HAD to have this game, there was no way around it. And then I found out it hadn't even been published yet. I searched everywhere, read everything I could about this game, and soon I came across an announcement stating that Mage Wars would be released at Gen Con 2012. And the next thing I knew, I went about 200 dollars into debt in order to go to Gen Con specifically with the intention to get this game and this game alone. I was going to do anything. I remember I even signed up for the demo just so that I could play this game, if by small chance I couldn't get it.

We get to gen con, and the first day, it is completely and totally sold out. What a bummer. I mean really. 200 miles, 300 hundred dollars in debt, for it be sold out! There was hope, however, in another batch being sold on saturday. This was to be my last chance to buy the game before having to wait a whole month to purchase a copy. And what do you know? It's sold out. So, I held out. Eventually, I was able to purchase the game, after waiting 6 months for it's release, and I haven't bought another game since. I now have 6 spellbooks, 4 sets of action markers, an Organized Play kit, Core spell tome 1 and 2, and the expansion, and I am hoping to buy two more cores. 1 for more cards, and one to sleeve up and cube draft with. That's just how much I love this game. I have never demoed a game before either, but I plan on demoing this game at every store in louisville, even if it's just to share this game with a few more folks. But why do I love it so much? Well, if you don't know anything about this game, here's an

Overview

So, the basis of Mage Wars is to kill the opposing Mage through the intelligent and tactical use of spells, creatures, enchantments, and equipment. This usually takes about an hour for experienced players, but for newer players it may take anywhere from 75 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the speed of play and prior knowledge of spellbooks and cards. But what are spellbooks?

Well, the first innovation that Mage Wars offers is the scraping of the old "shuffling" that so many TCGs and CCGs have offered in the past. That's right! There is no "Well, you just top decked the right cards, and I just got mana screwed." With Mage Wars, players construct spellbooks of different creatures, attacks, incantations, enchantments, equipment, and conjurations to form a book of cards that players will flip through and select out of each round of play. There is no hand of cards and a deck to draw from, just you and a spellbook.

The second real innovation that Mage Wars has to offer is the way you select your spells. While in M:TG you can play as many spells as you can pay for and have in your hand, in MW you are only allowed to cast two cards a turn. you pick these two cards at the beginning of the round, set your spellbook aside, and then use your Mage's two action markers to cast these spells.

But, what are actions? Well, played have a set of actions markers that are colored in one color (blue/red) and have one side showing a white starburst, and the other side being blank. Players will place one of these markers on their mage at the beginning of the game, as well a black "quickcast" marker that only the mage can have. The normal colored action marker will go on every creature that is cast throughout the game, but the black "quickcast" marker will only be on the mage itself. With these two actions, the mage can do a multitude of things, such as moving a zone on the board (there are twelve, set in a 4x3 shape, with each mage set in a an opposing corner), they can cast a quick spell, or cast a full action spell, usually being a creature, or a huge thunderbolt, or a hail of stones. The list goes on..

Now that I have given a brief overview of what actions are, I can explain the third and final true innovation to Mage Wars, which is it's action allowance system. You only have as many actions as you have creatures. This completely gets rid of the broken combos of M:TG. You have to fight to win in this game, and you have to fight hard.

This game just seems too good to be true, but are there any downfalls?

Downfalls

This game does have a pretty steep learning curve. Yes, it is easy to grasp the basics of this game, but you will be referring to the rulebook many times before you fully grasp all the mechanics this game has to offer, in addition to a lot of key words. In all honesty, though, I did not find this game any harder to teach and to play then many other games. In fact, I found this game easier to teach than a lot of the other games I own.

This game is also a time investment. If you really want to get the full enjoyment out of the game, you are going to have to build your own spellbooks, think about your own strategies, and invest thought into winning. It is still an incredibly fun game with the preconstructed spellbooks, but in order to really feel the depth of what your mage can do, I would advise that after learning this game thoroughly, to create your own spellbooks.

Did I skip the strengths? I don't think I di- damn it.


Strengths

There are so many, I'm not sure where to begin... This game is great as a beginning game for card players, or as a veteran gamer. It has both the depth and fun that both parties need and strive for to play this game.

The fact that you roll dice to attack ( I didn't tell you before because I didn't want to make it seem to good to be true, but now that you are here...) makes this game all the more fun. The game comes with 9 red d6s and 1 yellow normal d12. The d6s are specially designed to contain 2 blank sides, one normal 1, one critical 1, one normal 2, and one critical 2. You roll these dice and add them together to attack. Rolling one dice or two dice is fun once or twice, but I can say that rolling 10 dice just to damage one creature is incredible feeling many times over. The number of dice does mitigate the luck, as well. I can guarantee that you will roll damage, because there are just enough dice to roll to not be lucky, but not too many dice that it just becomes tedious.

Designing your own spellbook is a game itself in that finding the best cards, balancing reactive cards with active cards, and fitting that all into one constraining mold is not only a challenge, but it is entertaining. You may think that constraint is a bad thing, but without rules, a rebel cannot create. With the core set alone, you have 322 spells to choose and create from, and with the two tomes, you now have 542 cards to play with. If you decide on the expansion, you now have 758 cards to form spellbooks with, and two more mages. If that isn't enough replayability, then maybe gaming just isn't your thing... only kidding!

The fact that this is a tactical card game only makes it all the better. Between the bluffing mechanics and the movement mechanics, you will burning your brain every single round for the best possible move of your creatures. There is nothing but interaction between players, but it isn't a "take that" sort of interaction, it's more of a "okay, I'm going to kill you now." sort of interaction. Mage Wars is designed to give the player who can better handle that interaction the win. This is why the learning curve is so steep, but also why it's so fun. You are constantly learning new information, figuring out opponent strategy, stopping movement, making your opponent retreat, and sending creatures off to battle. It's when to do all of these things that make this game so incredible.

So, I guess it's kind of obvious what I think about this game, right?

A Not-So-Subtle Opinion

I do think this game is for a lot of people. Between it's cheap to purchase, lots to play packaging, and it's depth of play, I think that this game is well worth the time it takes to learn how to play, and how to play well. It also has incredible component quality, and if anything is wrong with the components, Arcane Wonders staff is right there to help you in any way, which is another reason to fall in love with this game. Every question I've had has received prompt, courteous, and caring reply, and I cannot give any more of a glowing recommendation for all they do. I had an order from Arcane Wonders that not everything had arrived, and within a business day I had a representative with an order out for me. When I had problems with my mage books bubbling up, they instantly sent me new ones. They are a great company with so much to offer, with the added benefit of having an incredible product in Mage Wars. My only hope is that this review will encourage new and old players alike to at least try this game out. If you, don't be afraid to message me with your thoughts on it, if you want to purchase it. I love to talk anything and everything about this game. Although it is still a baby as far as gaming goes, I am a life longer to Mage Wars for its indepth and thoughtful gameplay, replayability, deck design, customer service team that is off the charts, it's innovative mechanics, and finally, because hell, we all like to roll a lot of dice. c:

Alright, so with the advent of the Warlord's massively awesome earth spells and creatures, I birthed an idea.... Iron golem and hurl boulder are incredible. No you can't lightning ring or flame ring to get the +1, but when facing a warlock, flame is terrible, and everyone seems to love elemental cloak these days. Earth gets past this. So, here is what I have come up with so far....

Attacks:

2x Hail of Stones (4)
3x Hurl Boulder (6)

= 10

Conjurations:

1x Battle Forge (4)
2x Mana crystal (2)
2x Wall of Stone (4)
1x Quicksand (2)

= 12

Creatures:

1x Darkfenne Hydra (4)
1x Earth Elemental (5)
2x Gorgon Archer (
1x Iron Golem (3)


= 20

Enchantments:

1x Block (2)
1x Circle of Lightning (4)
2x Decoy (2)
1x Hawkeye (2)
4x Nullify (4)
2x Teleport Trap (2)
1x Reverse Attack (4)
2x Turn to Stone (6)
1x Reverse Magic (2)

= 28


Incantations:

3x Dispel (3)
2x Dissolve (4)
2x Charge (4)
2x Teleport (4)
2x Sleep (
2x Seeking Dispel (2)
1x Purge Magic (3)
2x Sniper Shot (4)
1x Steal Enchantment (3)

= 35

Equipment:

1x Elemental Wand (2)
1x Mage Wand (2)
1x Dragonscale Hauberk (2)
1x Deflection Bracers (2)
1x Moonglow Amulet (1)
1x Leather Boots (1)
1x Elemental Cloak (1)
1x Enchanter's Ring (1)
1x Regrowth Belt (2)
1x Arcane Ring (1)
= 12


For the not so obvious selections, I have deathlock because regen is a problem in my small meta, two wands for dissolve, they do get dissolve happy. I am testing out susurko... Any thoughts, suggestions? It's 2-0 right now, but we will see as time goes on..

Hello!

I am fairly new to this game and I have a very specific question: Can you cast teleport on yourself? If not, is there a reason?


My second question is, if you quickcast an enchantment, do you always have to pay the facedown and face up cost, even if you are playing the enchantment face up?


Thank you!