Preferably a level 2 cat, too, since there aren't any.  I'm actually compiling some new card ideas soon and one of them was a level 2 lioness that has synergy with Makunda, and will be posting lots of ideas soon.

Enchanter's Ring seems good here.

I think you should take advantage of your turn 3 more by summoning another creature, otherwise you're missing out on the advantage of an early full action.  This would also help solve the potential efficient dice shortage you're going to have if your opponent does kill your creatures, which I see being a significant problem here.  At least in my experience playing the dwarf warlord, I found that I could make my mage very difficult to damage, but eventually you can be overwhelmed if you don't keep your action count up via creatures, so I quickly put in many more creatures, like Trolls and Orcs.  Kriegsbiels are also excellent and particularly good Rouse the Beast targets, with a mere 3 mana easily netting you  8 dice.  I think 2 Kriegsbiels is the perfect number.

Also, I never pass up Iron Golem when playing Warlord.  There's a lot of creatures that thrive against living creatures out there, and golems are a great SBP efficient way to blank that advantage and build your board. 

I can also see defenses and guards being a problem, given that your attacks will mainly be a few big-ish hits each turn, more or less.  Tanglevines could be the utility you need to make sure your attacks go where you want them, and they nerf defenses.

Finally, I feel like cards that control creatures are going to be backbreaking against your deck.  Agony, Aegis X, Tangleroot, Shallow Sea...your dice count isn't particularly high already, and pushing it even lower will really hinder your ability to efficiently deal damage.  Ballista does help, but your low creature count means it's vulnerable.

What's the purpose of the walls?  It's not a big SBP sink, but I'm just curious why you'd need them.  I'm also not sure if you have enough equipment.


TL:DR - I think your deck would benefit from a higher creature count and ways to deal with defenses and guards.  A zone attack could be useful as well.

I'm currently testing out a more or less ranged-focused Wizard deck that uses Steep Hill, since it naturally works well with him and some of his creatures.  Might be worth building around, not sure yet.   

I don't think terrain is overpowered, and I like that it rewards decisive decision-making.  Obviously, there should and I assume there will, be terrain of many different school types, but simply increasing your board position is a good way to force your opponent out of an entrenched position.  If they spend mana on a terrain that does not adequately benefit them and you spend mana on increasing your channeling or dice count, you're going to have the advantage.

I don't actually see why a Dark mage would be afraid of terrain...with easy access to Idol of Pestilence, Plauged, Malacoda, Altar of Skulls, etc, you aren't hurting for zone/arena-wide damage. And, with Bloodreaper and Zombie strategies, you should be considering ways to deal some initial damage anyway if you can't just do it through attacking. 

The Wizard, even though he's only Air school now, can still use Poison Gas Cloud or Mordok's Obelisk. 

Mohktari (in general) and Temple of Meraveran (for holy swarm builds) is a solid way to fight on enemy turf.

Elephant Grass can certainly be an issue with how powerful it is, but you can also destroy it, unlike most terrain.   

Chitin Armor, Vorpal Blade, and Altar of Infernia are my nominations.  CA is easily the go-to armor, now, since it resists Acid Ball; Vorpal Blade gives us our first cheap, efficient weapon meant purely for damage; and AoI can shut-down an entire deck style, though it needs defending, preferably with Intercept and guards.

I would suggest building balanced books and I would avoid thinking of Mage Wars in terms of TCG terms, like aggro/control/rush/etc.  It's better to go into the game with a mind that is clear of the baggage of other games.

Basically, as long as you are generating lots of actions and lots of dice, you're doing well.  Regardless of which mage you're playing, creatures are very important for that reason; they guard things, attack things, and aren't very easy to solve (except with other creatures).  I always put a moderate to large number of creatures in my books and never regret doing so.  Think of a pyramid when it comes to including creatures too; several level 1 and 2 creatures, a few level 3 and 4 creatures, and one or two level 5 and higher creatures.   

Figuring out card amounts is not something you can determine through thinking/theorycraft; you have to just play and see what you need.  If you really can't decide at all when building a deck, just put in 1 copy of whatever you're agonizing about; you can always add more later.

My opponent has initiative and controls a Pillar of Righteous Flame.  I control a Healing Madrigal affecting all creatures in the same zone as the Pillar.  Basically, because the creature he wants to target has no damage on it, he wants to make the healing happen first, then the Pillar's attack, and I obviously want the opposite order of events.  Would my opponent get to choose the order, or would I? 

Quote from: reddawn on December 26, 2016, 03:41:53 PM

Money is not a moot argument.  While Mage Wars is a great game and the products are more than fairly priced, you nevertheless cannot be fully competitive in Mage Wars if you do not have access to certain cards, and certain amounts of those cards.   

1. I disagree as that was not what I was calling moot. I was saying in response to your statement that Warlord has a weakness by requiring multiple expansions. Yes I went on to further say, as a side note that I built a BM with 2 sets. However I also stated that you could build Warlord with 3 sets.

Quote from: reddawn on December 26, 2016, 03:41:53 PM

My point is that the Warlord in particular needs pretty much every set except Academy to really succeed.  BM is not a good comparison, because the BM was fleshed out over less expansions.

2. Again a side point to further the point you do not require all sets. Also the Warlord was fleshed over 2 sets with core cards as well. Basically the same as the Beastmaster.

Quote from: reddawn on December 26, 2016, 03:41:53 PM

I also strongly disagree that Rust can replace Acid Ball; Acid Ball is not replaceable and if anything,

3. This game is about adapting and overcoming. The not having the acid ball in your book is no different from being in the late game where a creative opponent has removed the corrode counters and is on the same amount of armour. The rust is actually more reliable in the late game, it removes a set amount of armour which increases the result of any damage and is part of the plan B/late game out strategy.

Quote from: reddawn on December 26, 2016, 03:41:53 PM

1. Acid Ball can target conjurations, which is a big deal.

4. Thats nice, so does Conquer.

Quote from: reddawn on December 26, 2016, 03:41:53 PM

2. The Warlord can, for efficient spellbook points, reliably "force through" an Acid Ball with Sniper Shot if he suspects a Block.  Yes, you can also force a Rust if you suspect a Nullify with a novice card like Disarm for the same number of points, but you will likely lose an action if your opponent actually played a Block instead.

5. SBP do not matter. If they buy you the best tools available to you then I am happy to pay 12 SBP a time and have three, if they win me the game consistently.

Quote from: reddawn on December 26, 2016, 03:41:53 PM

3. You can bind Sniper Shot to your Helm and Acid Ball to an Elemental Wand if you suspect your opponent is going to be playing armor cards for a while, and you can cast both off of a Battleforge.  On the other hand, you will eventually run out of Rusts, and Mage Wand and typical enchantment removal is very expensive in terms of spellbook points.  You can also protect your investments with Champion's Gauntlets and Harshforge Plate if you need to.   

6. This is yet another example of the cancerous attitude that "as long as I throw enough mana and actions at it, no matter how inefficient then its a win" that is rife in these forums. The game is about killing the opponent before he kills you, by focusing actions and mana inefficiently you are less likely to do this. Mana + Actions >>>> SBP!!!!!

Quote from: reddawn on December 26, 2016, 03:41:53 PM

4. The Wizard can trade Dispel for a Warlord's Rust all day at a spellbook points and mana advantage.  He can prevent the Acid Ball damage with Voltaric Shield, but he can't prevent the effects, which is what you really want.

7. A wizard can decrease his armour with the use of different chest pieces and assorted gloves and boots. This causes the removal of corrode counters. Yes he can prevent the effects, you are wrong.

Quote from: reddawn on December 26, 2016, 03:41:53 PM

you should be playing Akiro's Favor anyway, and that practically ensures you'll get two corrodes and perhaps save you from a catastrophically bad roll on a Hurl Rock/Boulder later on.

8. This is a win more card, not a win card. Also this card does not control the dice only changes their probability of rolling more favourable results. I would add more dice before having a reroll.

Quote from: reddawn on December 26, 2016, 03:41:53 PM

Maybe I feel that DvN is so important because I've been around the game since the release of Core and experienced the excessive armor-stacking problem and weakness of small creatures first hand, but that doesn't change the fact that I would still seriously question the viability of swarms without access to Acid Ball and Meditation Amulet.

9. That's your view, I do not share it.  I also will point out that the GenCon Aviary book does not use Meditation Amulet and won the tournament. I would say that proves your argument here to be incorrect.

1. I can't tell if we are disagreeing or agreeing.  I'm going to assume we're agreeing, for the sake of brevity, because this is going to be a long post.

2. No, the Warlord was not fleshed out over the same amount of sets as the BM, and I explained exactly why he wasn't.  You need Core, FvW, Trolls from Kumanjaro (Panzergardes are also great), DvN for at least Acid Ball, and FiF for obvious reasons.  I'm not yet sure how necessary PvS is, still getting my games in, and you don't need Academy sure, but that's still 5 expansions, which is a significant investment.

3. Ideally, you should be using some combination of Acid Ball and Rust to attack armor from multiple axes of interaction, but if I'm playing Warlord, I will lean more on Acid Balls for the 4 reasons I stated. 

You don't provide an explanation as to why Rust is superior in the late game, but I can see how that is at least sometimes true, given that in the late game, mages will likely be sufficiently buffed and Dispels might be used up.  I would say that it really depends on the matchup, because while mages like the Priestess and Dwarf Warlord can innately deal with Corrode easier, that's not the case with other mages.  Other mages have less efficient ways of dealing with Corrodes that involve armor changing and using Healing Wand that are more vulnerable to disruption.

That also doesn't change the fact that Acid Ball is still superior for the other 2/3s of the game.  But again, I fully acknowledge that they are really meant to be used together, because that is when they are most effective.

4. Acid Ball is much, much better than Conquer.  Conquer is big SBP investment and requires further support beyond just paying mana and one action to actually pull off.  I've removed Conquer from almost every Orc Warlord Book I've played because it's too expensive, too unreliable, and too narrow. 

5. I'm surprised to hear someone say that SBP don't matter...in a game in which an entire mage character (Wizard) was nerfed almost precisely because SBP matter (also nerfed, I imagine, because he was hogging future design space).  Probably the biggest criticism for the Warlord is his 3x penalty for Arcane, and it is a valid criticism because Arcane really is an excellent school that provides fundamental cards that you must use in some quantity to succeed.  The need for Arcane has measurably decreased, particularly for the War mages, with the release of cards like Harshforge Plate/Monolith, Steadfast Boots, etc, but the need is still there.

Having less cards in your SBP than your opponent is fundamentally a big deal, as it is with any miniatures games that rely on an army point system.  In general, a smaller army is worse than a larger army; in general, more cards is better than less cards. 

But if you're convinced SBP points don't matter, try this; next time you play an opponent with roughly the same skill level as yourself, ask if you can use 150 SBP while they use only 100.  I doubt they'd consent to that.

6. Firstly, I don't appreciate you calling my "attitude," "cancerous."  I did not insult anyone; I just laid out my case for which I provided reasons and evidence.  Let's keep things civil.

Secondly, I gave a specific context for the play I recommended; that is, if you think armor stacking is so central to your opponent's strategy that having a potential mana and action inefficiency justifies increasing your SBP efficiency via spellbind cards.  Furthermore, it's not like playing an Elemental Wand with Acid Ball attached is somehow a garbage play...for a small mana cost and probably not even a mage action, you can throw Acid Balls at anything for the rest of game if you feel you need to.  I am in no way recommending someone make the play I said, unless that situation arises.  I am merely saying that the Warlord is well-prepared to fight that kind of contest and win, if he has to.

7. Did you read what I wrote?  I was referencing Voltaric Shield's interaction with Acid Ball.  Additionally, switching up your armor pieces in response to someone corroding your armor is not "preventing" corrode.  Prevention is by definition not allowing something to happen in the first place; it is not spending mana and actions to change something that has already taken place. 

8. I don't understand how you logically separate "controlling dice" from "changing their probability of rolling more favorable results" in a game that is all about rolling dice.  All Akiro's Favor does is control dice, because it allows you greater control over their outcome.  Increasing your dice count is often the better initial line of play, I agree, but Akiro's Favor is not win-more at all, unless you're seriously arguing that you are going to roll statistically expected damage the entire game, which is frankly not realistic.    The opportunity cost of playing Akiro's Favor at the beginning of the game for a small amount of mana and a quick action is very low compared to the probable payoff you're going to get.  This is even truer for mages who have effect die rolls on key equipment or attacks which have a less than 50% chance of occurring, or preserving the action of a buffed creature.

For any mage who has less numerous but higher quality actions, a solid two copies of Akiro's Favor is absolutely necessary (except the Paladin perhaps, who has a built-in psuedo-Akiro's Favor).  I would argue that Akiro's Favor is a bit less necessary for mages who have more actions but of a lower quality, but it is still strong enough that I always keep at least one copy as a low-cost option.

9. The BM has less of a need for Meditation Amulet, because of his innately more efficient attack action and higher life.  The Warlord is equivalent in that respect too, but I meant that Meditation Amulet, in general, helps swarms, not just the Warlord's swarms.  Not all Mages have the same needs even with a similar playstyle.

And if we're going to discuss the Straywood Aviary tournament result, you should note that 3 Acid Balls were included in the deck AND the champ concurs with my sentiment that DvN is critical to swarms.  For example:

(http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=14540.0)

(Silverclaw asking Alexander West)

SCG: "Given that swarms, especially the Beast Master, have been given such a bad light do you see your victory changing perceptions?"

AW: "It's too early to know for sure, but I think the answer is yes.  Public opinion is a powerful force, and it's been against swarms for some time.  However, the tools have been there for swarms to work for a while (since DvN in my opinion), and it's pretty hard to ignore a swarm winning the biggest annual Mage Wars tournament."


So, it doesn't matter if you think Meditation Amulet is unnecessary for swarms or that one was not included in the tournament-winning book, because the best player at the time (for what it's worth) still fully acknowledged that DvN, and thus Acid Ball in particular (as his book proves) is necessary for the swarm playstyle.  That is the crux of my argument, and if you're going to use Alexander West as the authority on the topic, he thinks the same.