I seem to be awful. A little help here? :)

[jomurph86]

I'm at about 30 games played and won 7 so far. All with priestess, all with Hands and ToL. But I CAN'T win with any other mage or any other strategy. This is hands down my favorite game, but it kinda sucks that I'm only successful with one strategy.

I think I'm too reactionary, which doesn't matter so much when you're turtleing, but awful when you're trying to be aggressive. I need help, and I'm reaching you to you, the MW community to give me some pointers.

I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on all aspects of the game, but in these areas in particular:

Strong opening turns.
Dealing with enemies that heavily rely on teleport (generally to plant me on a big baddy)
Gaining tempo advantage.
Disrupting enemy strategy.
How to most effectively capitalize on initiative.

(I've been using Forcemaster most recently, but thoughts on ANY mage would be nice)

[sIKE]

Go grab Shadows FM spellbook make no mods and play it. I learned a lot when I did...

[cbalian]

I'm a pretty new Mage myself (only played 7 games) but I've won every game I've played so far and there are a couple of definite "themes" I've noticed with all of them that changed things regardless of which mage I used.

1)  Mana advantage is key...it doesn't seem like much at the beginning but over time it cumulatively adds up.  For example the Wizard has so much mana suppression abilities when I play with him if I'm regenning 14 mana a turn and they are regenning 8 mana a turn and have to pay mana to do anything you easily out power (out tempo) them because you can summon/cast more faster than them.  For any of the other mages even a 2-4 mana per turn gap is nice and every few turns lets you cast one more thing than your opponent which can be needed at the right time.

2)  Balance of defense/armor...based on my questions to the rest of the folks here (who have been very helpful thank you) I've sort of found a "sweet spot" at least for me to be 3 armor and 3 defenses.  Again that is what works for me, it varies of course depending on if playing against a swarm deck etc.

3)  Plan for the "end game"...what I mean is I ALWAYS hold something back in reserve (usually not something they expect).  So I don't pull out the "big guns" or the power plays early I go control early, wear them down, THEN if they are being aggressive or in my face pull out something big and go at them.  But I almost don't even need to even resort to that, but it's nice to have a safety net.  I keep a heal or mage wand in back pocket but I've only once ever cast any type of heal spell so pretty much dropped them out of my books.  The last few games I played I never even took 1 point of damage, so heals were a waste of spell points.

3B)  Related to end game and healing topic I always put a Regrowth Belt + Regrowth Enchantment in EVERY deck no matter what mage I play.  And I absolutely save those until the end game after they've used up their dissolves dispells on other things they thought were more critical.  Plus you don't need a regrowth until you've taken 10ish points of damage (unless you are playing against a Forcemaster or major aggro that is putting out some major dice EACH turn).

4)  Aggressive vs protective - this is where I struggle the most, but overall you can't lose your mage, so give them some adequate defenses early on.  When deciding to be aggressive pick your targets.  For example if you think something is a big nasty (like a Iron Golem or something) those are just so hard to kill I don't even bother killing them because the resources you spend taking that thing down you could almost have the enemy mage dead...so pick your battles. 

Same goes for conjurations...I "usually" ignore them UNLESS it is a temple of light.  I've played against temple builds a few times and never lost to them (temple of light even with multiple hands of bim shalla isn't that hard to beat)...I just kill temple then go at the enemy mage.

5) Mage selection - this is definitely personal preference on your play style. 

Wizard:  The EASIEST wins I've had were with the Wizard, he regens so much mana and the enemy regens so little mana it was almost too easy.  So easy in fact I don't generally play him because I like more of a challenge.  Yes winning is cool but not if it isn't fun.  I'd rather lose and have fun than have an easy win.

Preist: Last forever so you can outlast your opponent.  Slow but works.

Forcemaster:  She is a BEAST, putting out 10+ dice of damage per turn to the enemy mage is a death sentance for them PLUS she has so much defense/shields etc she can't be hit.  Just put everything to sleep when it is summoned and whack away with your sword.  They can't do too much to you.

[reddawn]

I'm at about 30 games played and won 7 so far. All with priestess, all with Hands and ToL. But I CAN'T win with any other mage or any other strategy. This is hands down my favorite game, but it kinda sucks that I'm only successful with one strategy.

I think I'm too reactionary, which doesn't matter so much when you're turtleing, but awful when you're trying to be aggressive. I need help, and I'm reaching you to you, the MW community to give me some pointers.

I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on all aspects of the game, but in these areas in particular:

1. Strong opening turns.
2. Dealing with enemies that heavily rely on teleport (generally to plant me on a big baddy)
3. Gaining tempo advantage.
4. Disrupting enemy strategy.
5. How to most effectively capitalize on initiative.

(I've been using Forcemaster most recently, but thoughts on ANY mage would be nice)

1. I have found that spending as much mana as you possibly can on creatures in your opening turns is the easiest way to ensure you can either defend yourself or mount a powerful offense.  What this looks like with the various mage depends on which mage you are playing and what kind of book you are running.  Regardless, try to "zero out" (find a sequence of turns in which you hit or nearly hit zero mana by turn 3-4, with a focus on large creatures).

For example, I play the Warlock and Beastmaster a lot, so I will often try to "zero out" into something like this:

Warlock: Turn 1--move, move/Turn 2--Adramelech/Turn 3 Dark Pact Slayer (usually Bloodreaper)

Beastmaster: Turn 1--move, move, quick-cast Ring of Beasts/Turn 2--Redclaw, quick-cast Pet Fox/Turn 3 Timber Wolf, Fox

Depending on what your opponent does or which mage you're up against, this might change a bit, but the idea is the same.

2. Theres a few things you can do.  Break line of sight with walls so they can't target you in the first place (also works well against attack spells).  Plant a Nullify or Block on your mage, so that Teleport either will be countered or the attack will be canceled (the Block option doesn't work as well against creatures with multiple strike attacks, however). 

3.  I wouldn't worry about what this means.  I personally don't care much for vague terms like these, especially in MW wherein they could mean so many different, perhaps contradictory things.

4.  Same as 3.  It really depends on the matchup, and can really only be learned after experience.

5.  Depends on the matchup really.  You would have to give me an example.

[The Dude]

The keep to initiative is thinking ahead. Knowing what you can most effectively do BEFORE the opponent has a chance to respond is incredibly important. Often, this does take turns of planning, but, as a general rule: Gaining the initiative does not signify that you can attack, however, it does signify that you can gain the edge through surprise.

[reddawn]

Throwing an attack spell is, however, a good idea when you have initiative IF you're confident that you can win that kind of exchange based on the matchup.

For example, most Priestess builds probably don't want to be slugging it out at range with a Warlock or Warlord.