The Ultra Pro sleeves rock.  Even makes the cards easier to get in and out of spell book slots and fit really nicely not just around the card but in the spell books.

I'm not into the color coded thing (I really like the artwork and don't want to mar or distort it in any way).  So all my cards are in clear sleeves which work awesome for me.

I am pretty careful when I play and would never have like Cheetos fingers on my cards but its still nice to know if something spills or anything happens the cards are all safe and protected.

That looks like a FUN deck! 

Oh yes I forgot about traps!  I know the the caltrops don't do much damage but saying I could actually pull off a push/pull strategy a caltrops on each side of the wall could be used over and over.

Does a teleport trap need line of sight or 'if I need it' can it teleport something on the other side of a LOS blocked wall?

I guess the other traps are good damage to mana ratio like the fire or spike one but not as much of a fan as the one time use ones, but I do run them occassionally and pushing stuff into traps, especially through a wall into a trap seems good.

OPTIONS:  WOULD YOU RATHER
OPTION A: Wizard Tower Jet Stream 4 + Huginn Force Push 6 = 10 mana per push/pull
OPTION B: 2 Thoughtspores w 2 Force Push 6x2 = 12 mana per push/pull
OPTION C: 2 Thoughtspores w 2 Jet Streams 4x2 = 8 mana per push pull
OPTION D: 1 Thoughtspore w Force Push 6 + 1 Thoughtspore w Jet Stream 4 = 10 mana per push/pull

I'm still pretty new to the game so up until now I've never really made much use of walls.  They intrigue me and I want to but hadn't really fit them in yet.  All the talk in the other threads about using Wall of Thorns and pushing mobs through it for damage though kind of has me wanting to try out that tactic.

In those posts they mention the Wizard pretty exclusively, Wizard Tower conjuration + Huginn Familiar doing the bulk of the pushing grunt work mainly with Jet Stream.

However here is my question...what about Forcemaster set up doing the pushing? 
Is the Wizard better set up to push mobs through walls or could the Forcemaster be a viable alternative option?

I haven't played EITHER deck so here are my considerations and comparisons I'm mulling over:

Spells:
* Jet Stream vs Force Push
** PUSH - Jet Stream has a 'chance' to push 4+ roll, Force Push is guaranteed
** Direction - Jet Stream has to be in an opposit direction, Force Push you can choose * this is important in a later question about set up and use
** Damage - Jet Stream does 2 additional dice of damage more than Force Push
** Mana - ?? Am I reading correctly if I'm pushing someone through a wall with passage attacks -
Jet Stream would cost 4 mana and
Force Push would cost 6? 
Since Jet Stream doesn't say it costs extra to push through a wall does that mean it is Free (or no extra) to do so?

Familiars/Conjurations:

Thoughtspore 0 armor 7 life No defense - Flying *spellbind* lvl 1-2 Attack OR Incantation spells
Huginn            0 armor 5 life inf defense 6+ - Flying no spellbind lvl 1-2 Incantation spells only
Wizard Tower 3 armor 7 life No defense - non Flying * spellbind * Attack spells only

Thoughtspore could cast Jet Stream OR Force Push (and flies - so the line of sight of the wall wouldn't be an issue it could see over the wall so Thoughtspore could push OR PULL something towards it if on other side of wall)

Huginn could cast Force push but can't cast Jet Stream (same flying benefits as noted above, except that Jet Stream can't pull anything through a wall just push it through)

Wizard Tower could cast Jet Stream but not Force Push (doesn't fly, so would have line of sight issues, can't 'pull' anything through a wall - also doesn't move, doesn't fly so kind of situational and things have to line up, where as Thoughtspore and Huginn both fly so could move around (if needed to adjust and no LOS issues).

SPELLBINDING - Thoughtspore and Wizard Tower both have Spellbinding so can keep casting the same spell over and over (thus saving having to use up a bunch of copies of the same spell)  Wizard tower can change spell, thoughtspore once bound can't switch spells.  Huginn - non spell bind so spell gets used up each cast and must be replaced.

---

So now that the considerations are in place, the tactical question of 'which is better'?

Would it be better to have 2 Thoughtspores push/pulling mobs through a wall, force push or jet streaming
OR
Would it be better to have 1 Wizard Tower Jet Streaming and Huginn Force Pushing

I am kind of liking the Thoughtspore pushing idea because 2 Thoughtspores with at least 1 having force push I think would be good because they wouldn't even need to be in or around the mob they are pushing through the wall, they could be 2 spaces away and do it and their location wouldn't matter (thus making them somewhat safer, not 100% but a bit better off)

But the Wizard Tower and Huginn are probably more difficult to kill than a thoughtspore.
Mana wise to set up is negligable 2 thoughtspores cost you 16 mana * Wizard Tower + Huginn costs you 18
mana

With 2 Force Pushes and 2 Thoughtspores you are much more likely to be able to make a wall push attack work, you lose out on 2 extra dice of damage from Jet Stream

2 Thoughtspores 'seem' like they would be more vesatile since they can move and the Wizard Tower can't, and they can fly so don't have LOS issues like Wizard tower

-- Other considerations:
If I used the wizard I would probably toss in a Whirling Spirit (or 2) which have a 50% chance to push for Free and do 4 dice.  Having 1 Whirling Spirit on each side of a Wall of Thorns seems like a possible route also and would save me some mana.  Since the push on Whirling Spirit doesn't mention extra mana to push through a wall I assume it is mana free to do so?

Poison Gas Cloud might be good with the Wizard too, a Cloud on each side of the wall to do extra damage and 'hinder' them from running 2 spaces away - out of range of my push/streams

Stonegaze Basilisk might be good with the Wizard too, ranged attacking from 2 spaces away and crippling opponents on either side of wall might come in handy since they would be restrained.

If I used the forcemaster instead I "might" toss in a Force Bash in the mix.  Would cost 11 mana so more costly but 'incapacitating' 2 creatures while pushing 1 of them through a wall seems kind of fun.  The more incapacitated stuff the better IMO, less likely to be able to fight back to mess up my pong match.

I'm a HUGE fan of Gorgon Archer + Stonegaze Basilisk combo (that has won me several games) so kind of leaning towards the wizard for that additional option

But I can see some fun options with the Forcemaster and think flying spellbind mage wands are always fun (plus you can have multiple out).  I usually use Thoughtspores to just fly around and put everything to sleep as soon as it is summoned so the opponent can't do much while I kill the mage, but having a more active roll for little spore buddies seems like a fun way to go too.

- as usual I rambled a bit here, sorry.  That is why I moved the main question to the top (it was actually 3/4 of the way down if it seems out of context it is a little). 

That is how I build too.  Put in what I want, prune at the end, if needed.  There are those few 'expensive' cards I put in like you said, especially if it works as a means to the end theme I am working on.

Not to take the discussion too off topic from the very cool Magician idea, that was part of my point about this mage.  Put in whatever you want without having to regard the cost.  Where as with any other mage you can put stuff in, like you mentioned, but I feel it constricts you a bit.

I guess basically I am saying (to varying degrees) all of the mages kind of 'lead' you towards certain cards, strats etc.  BUT that does get me thinking now of if say I really like Gorgon Archer + Basilisk combo (it has won me several games) but if I don't want to do the Wizard (who I do like but like the Priest better) I should try to add something out of the ordinary to my cool priest book and kind of mix it up.  That is the beauty of this Magician dude, it can really mix things up to unexpected combos.  *lol that was my effort to tie this all in together so as to not derail the thread, it really is Magician related still 

I like the concept.

What does this mean exactly?
Training: the Magician is trained in the first copy only of each spell in his spell book.

Does that mean 1 copy of each spell costs 1X, so if you had 2 copies of a spell the 2nd would cost 2X?

The reason I like it so much is because I'd LOVE to play a HOLY/DARK mage.  I keep wanting to do like an Angels and Demons theme deck or something like that.  Possibilities are endless with someone that only pays 1X for ANY spell in the game.  You can do a lot of serious deck building with those points.

The lack of ANY abilities even something basic seems a bit of a turn off, but not enough so I wouldn't at least try this mage out.  Seems a Magician should have something little,
"Pull a Rabbit out of the Hat" ability
Once per turn as a quick action you can summon a 0 armor 2 life rabbit token 'pest' creature.

I joke about this last ability lol    Just had to throw that in for thematic addition to a true Magician.

I think Red is disagreeing with my post about active vs passive healing.

Red correct me if I'm wrong you are in favor of active healing I'm on the passive healing side of the fence?  And I just am interested in the conversation from a learning perspective so I can understand.

Perhaps my disinterest in active healing (meaning casting a direct heal spell) has been because I have crappy rolls so I could spend that mana and get VERY little benefit from it, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.

I'm no math wizard I am sure someone has the statistics, but with an equal chance per dice of getting a 0, 1, or 2 lets average that to 1 per dice so a minor heal gets you 5 point heal and major gets 8.  Give or take, I've landed a crappy heal for 2 and good heals of 10, anyways going with 5-8 heal.

So now we've casted that heal, it lands and you think cool, I just saved my creature.  But unless it is a heavily armored creature and your opponent has nothing else around you really only bought that creature 1-2 turns.  Which can be valuable in the right situation I agree.

However lets say it is a big creature of say 15 life, you just healed 5 life.  What's to say that creature isn't just going to die?  Now you spent mana on a heal and you are still out the creature.  Maybe my main point is that summoning a creature vs healing a creature still puts more pressure on your opponent.  A wounded creature + a fresh beast seems better than a single half life creature, you will just have to heal again to keep alive.

Do you want to spend 8 mana to heal 8 points or spend 15 mana to get a new creature?  When I "think" unless I'm wrong you will have to summon that other creature anyways, so it seems more expensive but really you saved yourself the mana from the heal (that you didn't cast) so can get more creatures out faster.

That is the mana cost of it.  Spell book cost, (unless I am a preist) that heal is going to cost me 2-4 spell book points when for 3 spell book points I could add another decent creature.  I guess I'm saying push comes to shove I'd rather add another creature to my book than a heal. 

But again that might be me, and my bad rolling might be making me think a heal spell isn't as good as a new creature.  For me the new creature comes into play FULL HEALTH, a heal is only going to heal partial health maybe so I like my guarantee'd full health creature over trusting the luck of the dice.

Oh and on passive healing I do agree there are methods to get rid of them.  Fortunately those are rarely needed and only come out at the end game when most methods to remove them have been exhausted.  Like I keep a regrowth belt in the book but rarely ever put it on, but if I have its been late in the game so it does its job.  I guess against an agressive forcemaster though that certainly isn't going to save me against 10 dice of dmg per round (but I try to avoid those situations with armor and defenses so I don't get into the situation of needing direct healing). 

The only passive healing I do pull out early is Vamparism, it is just too tempting to swing at a creature or mage and heal up from swinging.  As good as a heal spell and you can use it over and over.  I'd toss an extra vamp in my deck over an extra heal any day.