Thanks for the clarification.

I suggest this finds its place into the Codex 3.1, because I think to some players the word Activation could intuitively mean "the act of making your creature active" - or flipping its action marker.

The Codex describes the verb Activate. This has been clearly described as the act of choosing a creature, flipping its action marker and removing the guard token. This is in line with what you said above. It does not include the actual action, but describes the beginning of a Creature Action Phase.

But according to the ruling above, the noun Activation is not the thing that happens while Activating. Instead, the Activation is synonymous with the complete Creature Action Phase. The noun is not in the codex, although I think it plays at least the same important role as the verb Activate - if not more important.

Because I think in terms of semantics this might be counter-intuitive to some players, my suggestion is to include the noun Activation in the Codex as well, describing it as a synonym for the entire Creature Action Phase and indicating the Activation is started by Activating your creature.

Activation
During the Action Phase, players take turns acting
with their creatures. When you choose a creature
to act with, you activate it. When a creature takes
its turn to act, it is called an activation.

I find that is a rather fuzzy definition it could still mean that an action is preceded by an activation instead of an activation containing the action.

Why not just say that a Creature Action Phase and Activation are the same thing?

Or even better: why not avoid using a fuzzy definition of Activation (how long does that last?) and just use Creature Action Phase instead?

So what is the solution? Jinx, Block, Reverse Magic, Walls, do the same thing?

Well, Reveal Magic is only 1 sbp ( novice )

You're right of course. Missed that novice trait.

I think Puddnhead put it right:

I think both spells have their place and will actually come down to spellbook costs and playstyle.

I play against my son who is 10 years old. He did manage to build a valid book with 120 points containing 40 points worth of Earth Elementals!

The thing was: I was so surprised! I was getting ready for a 2 hour game, slowly building up my new Warlord (first time I played him) and then that happened! We kind of have a rule that we do not aggressively charge towards each other in the first rounds. We saw that once on OCTGN with a Forcemaster build. We were in awe, but decided that is not the kind of game we are after. Also: I don't want to lose my young sparring partner! =;-)

It took me some time to figure out that you cannot fight those EE. They are like 140 damage points. And it will likely cost you more mana and more rounds than he used to cast them.

But I also figured out: While 1 EE may be ignored, 2, 3 or even 4 cannot be ignored. They close in on you. Hinder you. Crush your conjurations with 1 or 2 blows of 7 dice each. The Goblin Soldiers are not the strongest in terms of life and armor.

So it took me some time to to figure out that what he was really doing was investing huge amounts of mana in long term damage. If I can spend the same amount of mana in short term damage, I can counter.

So this required me changing to a strategy I was actually always trying to avoid: Full blown mage to mage combat, spending all mana on attack spells (hurl boulder/rock).

Still I'm sure that you can surprise many players who are new to the game with such a build - even if 4 Earth Elementals take 40 of your spell points! It might be an interesting build for a Warlord against an inexperienced other mage as well. For a Warlord this is "only" 20 points. But he must cast a Mana Flower first, other wise he cannot cast one every 2 turns.

If you are new to the game: Try it out I would say. Both of you will learn.

Yeah Reveal Magic will have its place I'm sure. Downside is it costs 2 spell points and does only prevent the nullify 1 round.

So you'd need 2 actions to cast Reveal Magic followed by a Dissolve for example. Same things does Crumble. for less points.

Or you cast Reveal Magic and then your enchantment for no extra mana, but spending an extra action. With ignite, you have a versatile card, that you can also use in other circumstances, spend only little mana to do either a burn or get completely rid of nullify.

I think there will be cases for both.

Here is another try for the Warlord spellbook.

Idea is to have the Minotaurs raging around with charge +4 (8 dice each) jumping away and back to enemies without being hindered, while the goblins spam corrodes, burns and rot and the Warlord is fortifying their positions. Hopefully the other mage gets through his dispels so that Force Crush can be used to finish him.

I know it now contains more of the standard cards one should always carry, but to be honest, I'm a bit sad this build is not more Warlord like, with Outposts, Altars, Talos, Spiked Pits, Pike Walls, Akiro's Warhammer and more soldiers...

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Anvil Army[/spellbookname]
[mage]A Anvil Throne Warlord Spellbook[/mage]
[mage]built by the OCTGN SBB[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNA01]1 x Acid Ball[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWA04]1 x Hurl Boulder[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFA02]1 x Hurl Rock[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1E02]2 x Block[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E29]2 x Nullify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKE01]2 x Armor Ward[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWE04]1 x Force Crush[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWE06]4 x Fortified Position[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWE09]1 x Standard Bearer[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE06]3 x Lion Savagery[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E28]3 x Mongoose Agility[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=DNQ09]2 x Wand of Healing[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q08]1 x Elemental Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWQ05]2 x Helm of Command[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWQ06]1 x Horn of Gothos[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFQ03]1 x Eisenach's Forge Hammer[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFQ05]1 x Harshforge Plate[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J13]1 x Mana Flower[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFI05]2 x Ignite[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I06]3 x Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I20]2 x Purify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I07]1 x Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWA01I01]1 x Crumble[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI12]2 x Minor Heal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I12]1 x Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFI06]1 x Defend[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFI04]1 x Flank Attack[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI06]1 x Power Strike[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1J13]1 x Mana Flower[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFJ04]1 x Armory[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFC03]3 x Bloodcrag Minotaur[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFC06]3 x Goblin Alchemist[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]

Ah see what you mean. When you said "you can roll 0 damage" I thought you meant 0 damage on the burn.

Misunderstanding.

Also, I thought you said "sloppy wording", because the card texts of Akiro's Favor and Adramelech's Touch were sloppy.

Misunderstanding.

My point was, you can't reveal AT to correct a 0 on burn, because the card text says "rolls" not "has rolled". "Rolls" indicates a future roll. Although I think "the next time this creature rolls" would have been clearer.

But if you use that argument, AF should not say "makes a Melee or Ranged attack", because "makes" would indicate a future attack. Better would be "has just rolled damage for a Melee or Ranged attack".

Sometimes I think the wording could be changed a little to make the rules clear in the text.

On the other hand we just witnessed how difficult it is to write a text so there is just 1 interpretation.