Everybody hates on the priest. Why!?

[Gogolski]

I quiet like the priest. I've had varying success** with a priest valshalla book.

Lots of clerics to get +2mana on the temple of asyria and to guard to keep your oponent from hitting your temple/priest.
Get out a HA-asyrian defender.
Walls to keep ranged attacks hitting your temple.
Maim wings to make these pesky bats or falcons attack your guarding clerics.
When the temple heaps a bit of mana, get out valshalla. (With the clerics dieing easily, she can get a few wrath tokens before being taken down...)

The priest will certainly take some hits early game, but can heal himself when he's starting to feel dizzy... Later in the game, priest armors up and starts hitting with the asyrian staff and strengthy gauntlets...

**varying success = some successes, some defeats but always a huge amount of fun!

[gw]

Well, answering the competetive aspect of the op.

For a a competetive player imho in the end the question is :
"Is there a better mage?" "Yes." = End of discussion.

There are better mages and possible books than the priest so it makes no sense to play him.

[...]
So why is he so detested by the competitive community? He has ready access to repeatable daze and stun, equally easy access to burn tokens almost every turn, in school access to the 2ndbest offence creatures (knights) and by far the best defensive creature (Guardian Angel), and heals just as well as a priestess. Yeah 9 channeling sucks but the warlocks make it work! So does the druid. Hell the beastmaster (straywood) is a 9 channel mage and he's pretty awesome.
[..]

[Gogolski]

For a a competetive player imho in the end the question is :
"Is there a better mage?" "Yes." = End of discussion.

To me, part of the Mage Wars fun is trying to come up with a spellbook that works. The priest offers a bigger challenge and might be considered more fun...
:-)

[Halewijn]

Well, answering the competetive aspect of the op.

For a a competetive player imho in the end the question is :
"Is there a better mage?" "Yes." = End of discussion.

There are better mages and possible books than the priest so it makes no sense to play him.

I rather enjoy winning with an underdog. Much more satisfaction in killing an opponent.

And apart from better/worse, there is also a fun factor in a mage. The priest is a lot of fun! 

[gw]

Yea, definitely not disagreeing with that.
Building books is fun, playing is fun, winning is fun....one just has to find the balance which suits him most.
Was just describing an extremely competitive approach to it. In early MTG times there was a pro who answered the question which deck he likes to play with "The best.".
Guess that sums it up quite nicely if you come from that perspective or are that type of player.

[RomeoXero]

But the best can be boring! Lol, and since strategy and piloting, and luck are all factors in mage wars, I'd rather beat the best with something else. That's why I don't play wizards anymore. Effective, predictable, boring, over used, over powered

[Wildhorn]

I agree that 10 channel would be better. I don't know what mage wouldn't like 10 though. Lol. I wonder why they made him a 9 channelled, I know there's only 3 alt mages right now but it was a bit of a deviation from the norm. Granted two of them came out in the same expansion. Maybe the joktari BM should have had 10, at least it woulda been the same switch.

 But still, I think Coshade proved that getting hit isn't the end of the world, I know that sounds kind of counter intuitive ( he's kind a counter intuitive mage) but I think there's really something to the play style in Divine Life. Take your hits, hit back more, and harder, set him on fire, add the potential to make the other guy miss with his next attack, when you take damage heal it because you can afford it, then do it all again. Keep dispels for poisoned blood, destroy death lock Asap! Boulders or maybe even a meteorite for those, depending on how froggy you wanna get. It's a tough tempo juggle, but I like the challenge and I've had good success with it. Anyway, sorry, more rambles. Thanks for responding! You guys rock!

Coshade would have been wreaked if LordOfWinter would have landed a Poison Blood earlier or just cast its third wolf instead to go in with his mage.