Force of the Forest (Spellbooks for Emblems format)

[Sailor Vulcan]

Link to thread about Alternate variant: Emblems!
http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=13141.0


Druid

Conjurations
1 Vine Tree
6 Bloodspine Wall
4 Corrosive Orchid
6 Tanglevine
4 Stranglevine
6 Seedling Pod
6 Wall of Thorns
1 Samara Tree

Creatures
4 Thornlasher
1 Togorah, Forest Sentinel
1 Kralathor the Devourer
2 Fellella, Pixie Familiar

Enchantments
1 Barkskin
2 Nullify
3 Regrowth
3 Bear Strength
3 Rhino Hide
3 Mongoose Agility
3 Cheetah Speed
2 Falcon Precision
1 Armor Ward
1 Spiked Pit

Equipment
1 Vinewhip Staff
1 Druid's Leafring

Incantations

2 Seeking Dispel
2 Dispel
2 Renewing Rain



Forcemasters
(Spellbook x2)

Conjurations
1 Battle Forge
1 Temple of the Dawnbreaker
1 Hand of Bim-Shalla

Creatures
2 Thoughtspore

Enchantments
2 Force Hold
2 Force Field
2 Mind Control
3 Block
2 Nullify
2 Teleport Trap
2 Mongoose Agility
2 Cheetah Speed

Equipment
1 Dancing Scimitar
1 Galvitar, Force Blade
3 Dragonscale Hauberk
1 Force Ring
1 Psi-Orb
2 Elemental Cloak
1 Mage Wand
1 Meditation Amulet
1 Mohktari's Branch

Incantations
3 Force Push
2 Force Bash
2 Force Wave
1 Knockdown
1 Mass Sleep
2 Sleep
2 Teleport
2 Dispel
2 Seeking Dispel
2 Dissolve


The Druid is the Emblem Holder, and the Forcemasters are the Bluffems, although since there's two of the same it's easy to figure out early in the game. Because of this, the Forcemasters need to go on the aggressive as soon as possible. They both need to quickcast a cheetah speed on themselves first thing. Then one of them casts thoughtspore with teleport, while the other casts a BattleForge near the Druid. The Druid needs to cast Fellella, then in the next round Treebond with Vine Tree. After that, their are two different ways to win.

1. Thornlasher/Spiked-Pit and Togorah Kill Zone
Pretty self explanatory. The Druid sets up her kill zone and then one or both of the Forcemasters maneuver the enemy Emblem holder into the zone. The Forcemasters and some of the Druid's plants then need to hold off the enemy Bluffem holders and the creatures they control.

2. Thornlasher Position-Control
The Druid uses her vine markers to hinder enemies and cast Thornlashers in key zones with Bloodspine Walls next to them. Teleport-Thoughtspore allows the Forcemasters to get over the Walls safely. The Forcemasters are best when they're standing in the same zone as a Thornlasher. Thornlasher attacks and snatches an enemy through the Bloodspine Wall, then a Forcemaster in that zone attacks (hopefully with Galvitar and Scimitar.


I haven't had the chance to playtest the Emblems format yet, but I'm fairly sure it needs to have unified deck construction rules, since otherwise an all wizard team might be able to spam their 18 dispels throughout the game without using any Mage Wands. So I kept that in mind when constructing these spellbooks.

You might also notice that this lineup includes two copies of the same Forcemaster spellbook. The two Forcemasters serve two roles in the team strategy: Aggression and Position Control. When one Forcemaster is attacking, the other can be supporting them with an enchantment and/or warding off threats with their position control tactics. I made them the same so that they can fluidly exchange these roles depending on the situation and their board position. and also because having two forcemasters means the team can have even greater position control then they would have with a Forcemaster and some mage.


What do you think?

[Aylin]

Drop Samara Tree and the Seedling Pods. They're utterly useless. (Worse than Vine Tree, and if you try to cast both you'll have mana problems).

[Sailor Vulcan]

I suppose  you're right about them causing mana problems, so I will have to drop them. However, I wouldn't say they're useless. There are plant cards that are not vines, such as Wall of Thorns. I suppose I should probably drop those too, since they block LoS, and therefore prevent Thornlasher's attack. Perhaps I should find a way to include wall of pikes in one or both of the Forcemaster Builds.

[Aylin]

I suppose  you're right about them causing mana problems, so I will have to drop them. However, I wouldn't say they're useless. There are plant cards that are not vines, such as Wall of Thorns. I suppose I should probably drop those too, since they block LoS, and therefore prevent Thornlasher's attack. Perhaps I should find a way to include wall of pikes in one or both of the Forcemaster Builds.

There are some plant spells that are not vines, true, but gaining the ability to cast them via seed pods just isn't worth it:
You spend more spellpoints with Samara than Vine (since you need Seedling Pods)
Your opponent always knows which zones you can deploy something into, and can react accordingly (as opposed to vine tree which allows you to deploy any vine into a zone at most 2 zones away from one of your vine markers)
It is turn 5 before you can deploy something of substance (unless you use Tataree) assuming your opponent doesn't break the pod first
You are limited to only deploying one vine marker per turn unless you use Vinewhip Staff and use an action for it

Those detriments aren't worth being able to deploy Mana Flowers (not useful coming out on turn 4/5), another Tree (quick-casting one from your mage is easy enough), Togorah (a more-expensive Earth Elemental imho), or Wall of Thorns (the biggest loss, though Bloodspine Walls work better against anything with armour).