The Frugal Mage Warrior: Core setx1 Only Sortilege Fire Wizard (4th edition)

[Sailor Vulcan]

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]the Frugal Fire Wizard[/spellbookname]
[mage]A Wizard (Fire) Spellbook[/mage]
[mage]built by the OCTGN SBB[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1A04]3 x Fireball[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A12]1 x Ring of Fire[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A06]2 x Flameblast[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A05]1 x Firestorm[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A08]1 x Geyser[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1J16]1 x Mordok's Obelisk[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J21]1 x Suppression Orb[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J12]1 x Mana Crystal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J04]1 x Battle Forge[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J19]1 x Deathlock[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1C18]1 x Gorgon Archer[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1E29]2 x Nullify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E23]2 x Jinx[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E15]2 x Essence Drain[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E35]1 x Reverse Magic[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E21]2 x Hawkeye[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E36]2 x Rhino Hide[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E03]1 x Bull Endurance[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E12]2 x Divine Protection[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E13]1 x Eagle Wings[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E24]1 x Magebane[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E31]1 x Poisoned Blood[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E16]1 x Force Hold[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1Q07]1 x Elemental Cloak[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q08]2 x Elemental Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q06]2 x Dragonscale Hauberk[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q09]1 x Enchanter's Ring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q01]1 x Arcane Ring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q23]1 x Regrowth Belt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q32]1 x Suppression Cloak[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q22]1 x Moonglow Amulet[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q19]1 x Mage Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q16]1 x Leather Gloves[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q15]1 x Leather Boots[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1I28]2 x Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I07]4 x Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I24]3 x Seeking Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I06]4 x Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I21]1 x Purge Magic[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I09]1 x Drain Power[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I12]2 x Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I14]1 x Heal[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]

Opening against rushes:

R1: Mana Crystal in adjacent zone and Battle Forge in starting corner.
R2: Deploy enchanter's ring, summon gorgon archer, cast rhino hide on the gorgon.

Opening against turtles:

R1: Mana crystal in starting corner, move down and battle forge in the zone you're standing in.
R2: deploy moonglow amulet, and what you do next depends on the matchup.
R3: Deploy enchant'ers ring, summon gorgon archer, cast rhino hide on the gorgon.

Don't mistake this build for Blasting Banker. While it is a fire wizard that tanks, there are major differences. The Frugal Fire Wizard doesn't want to focus on stripping everything away in the early game and finishing with a blast. Instead he plays a more controlling game including weak tokens and some mana denial, and attacks throughout the game.

Against swarms, it has suppresion orb, suppression cloak and mordok's obelisk. For few big and buddy builds, it's got essence drains, and the weak tokens from the gorgon archer. It also has a lot of protective stuff: a lot of armor, divine protection, regrowth belt, heal and voltaric shield. The main sources of damage is ranged attacks from the gorgon archer and the wizard's attack spells. Also has some decent damage over time effects.

What do you think?

This spellbook, like all budget spellbooks probably do, requires a bit more skill to play successfully. Every step in your fiery dance must be accurate and precise. Even one slight misstep can cost you the game. There's not much room for mistakes here. But if you play it right, it can be quite powerful. Just make sure to wait until you've won before telling your opponent that the spellbook you played used only cards from a single copy of the core set! (this is both for bragging purposes, and because this spellbook is likely a little stronger when people don't know that you're playing it.)

Anyone is welcome to netdeck this, and customize it however you like to adapt to your local meta.
Enjoy!

[Laddinfance]

I love Eagle's Wings with Gorgon Archer. Snakes on a plane is super fun, and great for this spellbook. I want to say you need another creature, but sadly I can't really think of which one I would recommend out of the core set.

[Halewijn]

I really enjoy reading your frugal decks.

@Laddinfance: maybe put these as the recommendation books. They are much better then the crappy ones that are in there. A few weeks ago a friend of mine used the recommended necro and he didn't have anything else but creatures.

[Sailor Vulcan]

I really enjoy reading your frugal decks.

@Laddinfance: maybe put these as the recommendation books. They are much better then the crappy ones that are in there. A few weeks ago a friend of mine used the recommended necro and he didn't have anything else but creatures.

The frugal decks I've made so far are designed to play in a full competitive metagame, and they are not designed to let you  make more than one at a time using the same core set. If you want decks for a core setx1 only meta, rather than core set x1 only decks for the full meta, I would have to play a core setx1 only block format more. Furthermore, I'm not sure how cards would be assigned per mage with only 1 core set. People would be fighting over cards. Might be better to do a 1 core set meta where each player or team has access to 1 core set each, rather than sharing with opponents.

The preconstructed books that they currently have are not designed to be balanced, but rather to give a feel for how each Mage plays. I wish that there was a balanced preconstructed format besides apprentice mode. The problem is that you want to be able to build multiple spell books at once with the same collection, so that casual players can easily build those books, while at the same time being able to play them against opponents that aren't sharing your collection, without putting certain players at a disadvantage because of insufficient copies of certain cards. And once a preconstructed book is made, it would still need to be updated to adapt to new mages. But they're not customizable, and as more mages are released, preconstructed might become harder to balance due to the lack of customization.

This means it would be better to use block formats for preconstructed Mages. But even then if you want to be able to play any preconstructed Mage against any other preconstructed Mage, you would have to have more than one version of the same mage's spellbook to choose from in each block, depending on what mages your opponents would be choosing. It would be a mess.

No customization means you can't adapt to changes in the meta. That means you need to have a fixed card pool. That means you can't keep introducing new mages to preconstructed and have it stay balanced. That means you can't play any particular preconstructed Mage against any other preconstructed Mage.

So an example of how this could work would be like if you're playing the forcemaster, your opponent has to pick the warlord and can't choose any other preconstructed Mage.

This might still be acceptable for a preconstructed format. It might feel rather limited at first, until you remember that most tabletop games that aren't customizable don't have that many factions to choose from. This might even work as a balanced official limited format, where players get to try out a new set before they decide to buy it. And it would be a lot more balanced than a drafting format would be in Mage Wars.

[Laddinfance]

I'm happy to link the frugal spellbooks, but as Vulcan noted these are not made to allow the other books to be made from the same set. But if you're just building one, I'm sure these will be more focused than the "recommended" ones.

[Sailor Vulcan]

I'm happy to link the frugal spellbooks, but as Vulcan noted these are not made to allow the other books to be made from the same set. But if you're just building one, I'm sure these will be more focused than the "recommended" ones.

There's no need to link to them directly. I already linked to them in another thread, the Frugal Mage Warrior's Library, which is an index of everything that a person needs to play Mage Wars Arena on a budget.

http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=16066

It would be better to link that thread than this one. I really think it would be a good idea to do that, since it's the kind of thing that's only useful if its gotten a sticky or is otherwise linked somewhere where new players will see it.

[Sailor Vulcan]

EDIT: removed both walls of fire and put in force hold. Is useful for either holding enemy mage in place, or to keep the Spiked Anchor Forcemaster from pulling me into her trap in the early game before I have enough armor.

[Knabbmaster]

Only two copies of dissolve makes it awkward against people with a lot of protective equipment since it will be really hard to kill them with attackspells and the gorgon is your only creature which is slow and only deals four dice. I imagine that this book will be annoying to play against but not really that dangerous in anyway.

[Sailor Vulcan]

Only two copies of dissolve makes it awkward against people with a lot of protective equipment since it will be really hard to kill them with attackspells and the gorgon is your only creature which is slow and only deals four dice. I imagine that this book will be annoying to play against but not really that dangerous in anyway.

On the contrary, the majority of competitive Spellbooks in the global metagame only run 1-2 dissolves. While indeed most of them run acid ball and rust as well, core setx1 only has ways to compensate for that, including piercing and damage over time.

[Knabbmaster]

The reasons people would choose only to run 1-2 dissolves in their spellbooks are that they either have other answers to high armor (like acid ball or rust) or they don't really need an awnser.

In this case however your probably going to deal most of your damage with attackspells which means you have a limited amount of damage and therefore really high armor could be a big problem. Since this is limited to core set rust and acid ball are no longer options and that is why I think altleast 4xdipel and 4xdissolve are must haves.

[Sailor Vulcan]

The reasons people would choose only to run 1-2 dissolves in their spellbooks are that they either have other answers to high armor (like acid ball or rust) or they don't really need an awnser.

In this case however your probably going to deal most of your damage with attackspells which means you have a limited amount of damage and therefore really high armor could be a big problem. Since this is limited to core set rust and acid ball are no longer options and that is why I think altleast 4xdipel and 4xdissolve are must haves.

Yeah I see your point and you're right. So far I don't think this spellbook has had many match ups with people using a lot of armor and equipment. If people run two dragonscale hauberks and one elemental cloak and another must dissolve equipment then having more dissolves will definitely help, especially since I took out the walls of fire so it wouldn't have enough damage over time to work against a highly armored opponent, and even if I'd kept the walls the pushes are way too useful here for positioning.

I'll take out the second eagle wings then.