Friday TrentMagus and I played two games of Domination. Here are my thoughts:
1. First we didn't make Domination specific books. The only cards we even used from the Domination box were the orb guardians. I feel certain if we'd taken 10-15 minutes to gear our books towards it then it'd have been a totally different thing. I played a Johktari Beast Master(and yes I used some cards from Academy) and he used a Bloodwave Warlord.
2. I'll say we both liked it a lot right away. The maps a little bigger than a standard Mage Wars map and that changes basically everything. We used the Ancient Wards map and without going into too much detail: yeah walls matter A LOT more now. Being able to defend a zone is all important because while it's not that hard to take an orb it's also not that hard to lose it if you aint careful. It's also really simple to let the other guy do the heavy lifting of killing the guardian before you sneak in there and take it. Tee Hee Tee Hee.....
3. Both matches, and we split then evenly on wins, were determined by V'Tari points. This makes the game go a lot faster. You need 14 points to win and it's not exactly hard to take control of an orb. We found the orb guardians to be perfectly balanced between "tough enough to require some actual attention" and "not that hard to kill when you actually get to it." So basically those little buggers are speed bumps with some kick and not much more which is what they should be in my view.
4. High range attacks can make and break you. Grimson Deadeye is amazing in Domination. You can easily put him into a position where he can just head shot guardians and enemy creatures all day every day. Poor Fellela....you truly are the reason Sniper Shot was created. TrentMagus didn't cast one but an Akiro's Hammer would have wrecked house too. Even my Spitting Raptor was doing good work weakening guardians so my close in creatures could claim the orbs easy.
5. Mobility is also of increased importance. Fast is even more useful, Cervere was my MVP both games easily. Elusive is cool too of course but it's very simple to put Cervere in a position where he can strike several key zones all at once, and there's so much more variety in the "I should go smack that" category for the big cat to choose from. Bear Strength and Lion Savagery are nothing new to Cervere obviously, so in Domination he's threatening orb guardians, enemy positions, and mages themselves CONSTANTLY.
So we only played Nature and War in Domination and while I suspected War would rock(and it does) I was pleased with how well Nature did. I suspect Dark and Holy will also do very well. Arcane funnily enough might lack cause of their slow creatures. Obviously Blue Gremlins will be useful but as good as they are(and I think they're great) they can't really carry the load on their own. Don't play a Force Master unless you REALLY know what you're doing and built for Domination is the consensus we had.
I give Domination an A+ on the first couple of plays. I suspect I'll find it to be the coolest thing since the core set in the long run.
