Necro opinion: Blur or Cloak?

[DaveW]

I wasn't sure whether to put this in the Spells or Mages section, so please feel free to move this if I chose wrongly. My question is specific to spellbook building for a Necromancer, and relates to two specific spells.

I was looking at the spell Blur, and started to wonder whether the Necro even needs the Cloak of Shadows these days. My thought was to put Blur in the Necro's book and (possibly) add the Elemental Cloak instead of his iconic Cloak. I am looking for feedback on this idea.

Blur (Mind level 1 Enchantment) Mana cost 2/0 (+1 to maintain per time being hit in combat) grants Obscured.

The Cloak of Shadows (Dark level 2 Equipment) Mana cost 6 grants Obscured and Light -2.

I am not running a Battle Forge and am looking to stay at range compared with my opponents' creatures with this book. Does the answer depend on how well I am able to stay at range (and thus not needing the armor or other traits granted by the spells)?

Does the answer depend on whether I go with skeletons or zombies primarily?

Does the answer depend on whether I use the Tome, Graveyard, or both?

Does the answer depend on what additional Light attacks are added to the game with PvS or others?

I understand that both equipment and enchantments have counters in dissolve and dispel. Does the answer depend on which Mage you are facing (Druid with cheap access to Dissolve, or Wizard with cheap access to Dispel, for example)? If so, then would having Blur in addition to the Cloak (or two Cloaks) be a good idea for versatility? (It feels like too many spellbook points may be spent on Obscured going with all of these.)

Thanks in advance for your help in analyzing this.

[Boocheck]

Well,

i was giving a same question to myself. If we ignore obvious, that one is a promo and thus not legal in tournaments and also hard to get if you are not in US, we have some aspects to judge.

When we go for manacost, Blur is a winner. You can use discounts with Enchanters ring (why a necro wear one, i dont know ). You will probably spend around 2 to 6 mana in case of ranged attacks during the game and this will depend on a game itself. Am i standing against Hurl Boulder mage or Straywood Aviary.

Spellbook cost. Both are for 2 points in case of Necro.

Type of spell - Enchantement x Equipment. - I dont met much necors using Battleforge, so i will take that both of these spells will be casted by mage itself. You spend an Quick action in both cases. Cloak takes a slot which can be used for Elemental cloak, which is only other item in a game so far we can take into this equation. Difference between enchantements and equipment lies mostly in the tools that deal with them. Will i spend Dispel on Necro. Probably yes. Will i spend Dispel while facing Necro? No, thank you. There are lot of curses he can have and which i would probably need to destory in this match.

So, my conclusion is, Blur should belong to Mind school only and if this promo will came out in a current form, Cloak is not needed.

To your qustions,

1)You will probably be able to keep some distance but at one point, you will have to face your enemy and then you will need armor. I take "Obscured" trait as a tool that gives me turn or two before i will get in range.

2) Zombies could be outsmarted (bloodthirsty) but in case of obscured, we are talking about Range attacks. Dark schoold doesnt have intercept so i think it doesnt matter what creatures Necro is using.

3) nope

4) Well, this is a theoritical field right now. If PvS will introduce some Light attacks, that will become "new acid ball" then cloak will also gain some value. Other thing is, how many non-holy mages will run light spells right now or in the future.

To close this up. Range 0-1 is not that hard to achieve in case of Necro. Druid will probably gain one more round but at the end, things get personal. Blur wins for me on all levels right now.

[Halewijn]

I agree on everything with Boocheck. The cloak is an awesome card but I also feel blur is better in every single way. I like the blur concept a lot, but maybe mind mage only or a higher (upkeep) cost wouldn't have been bad. I hope when the card comes to print they'll tweak it a bit.

The cloak is good, blur is simply better.

[DaveW]

Thanks for the quick feedback, folks. I also hope Blur comes out Mind school only. I like that the Necro (until Blur comes out) is the only Mage that can gain Obscured on a relatively permanent basis.

[Sailor Vulcan]

I think it really depends on how good light-2 becomes with PvS. I suspect that blur is slightly under costed though. It would probably have been better if it had magebind+1, and if it was a level 2 spell.

[wtcannonjr]

As more and more spells are released this type of analysis will become more critical. How do we add new spells to the card pool without replacing the value of others that do similar things? This is the reason I have opted to not use Academy cards in my Arena games.

I like the idea of Blur being a Mind mage only spell.