Steal Enchanment

[tubex]

Hi there!

I'm building an air wizard at the moment and got my eyes on Steal enchantment. It looks like fun to play but is it any good?

For 3 spell points i get: A dispel+random enchantment that i steal from the target. How does this compare to having all the enchantments in my own book for "off school" spell points such as Bear strength, mongoose agility and such. Given ofc that the opponent plays a card i want, otherwise it looks like a kind of expensive dispel.

It looks like the card could be a nice "swiss army" knife in a wizard book however I've never seen it played.

Thoughts on the card?

[Biblofilter]

I find it kinda of hard to include it in my spellbooks - even Wizard.
But id like more copies.

The best thing with Steal Enchantment is it saves you an action.

Move a curse like Poisoned Blood, Ghoul Rot or Enfeeble or move a benefit like Akiro´s Favor, Bear Strenght, Cheetah Speed or Mongoose Agility.

Always seems useful.

[ringkichard]

The problem with Steal Enchantment and other 2 for 1 effects is that you have to pay the double mana cost upfront. This usually means you have to skip a play the prior turn. So unless you have a very relevant low cost action, you're not gaining any tempo benefit. You'd usually be better off Dispelling at the first opportunity and then casting your own enchantment later.

The other problem is that they're usually very fair cards. Paying 2x an enchantment's cost to steal it is exactly the cost of dispelling it then casting it yourself. You don't want to use fair cards when there are unfair cards available like Nullify.

[ACG]

The problem with Steal Enchantment and other 2 for 1 effects is that you have to pay the double mana cost upfront. This usually means you have to skip a play the prior turn. So unless you have a very relevant low cost action, you're not gaining any tempo benefit. You'd usually be better off Dispelling at the first opportunity and then casting your own enchantment later.

The other problem is that they're usually very fair cards. Paying 2x an enchantment's cost to steal it is exactly the cost of dispelling it then casting it yourself. You don't want to use fair cards when there are unfair cards available like Nullify.

The bigger problem that I have with them is that they are Full actions (Steal Enchantment/Equipment). I almost always have a more important use for my full action. There are many circumstances in which 1 full action is more valuable than 2 quickcast actions. If these spells were quick actions, I would include them in my spellbooks.

[sdougla2]

One additional weakness that others haven't mentioned is Enchantment Transfusion. Enchantment Transfusion can counter Steal Enchantment, and Steal Enchantment is expensive enough in actions, mana, and spellbook points that having it countered really hurts.

Overall, if Steal Enchantment were a quick action I would probably include it in some aggressive spellbooks that tend to be action starved because saving that action would be really nice, and I could save up mana for it by hitting things rather than casting. Unfortunately, with it being a full action I just can't justify including it in the spellbooks that would benefit most from the action efficiency.

Wizard can run it, but I haven't seen it used much due to the high cost. Plus most Wizards don't tend to be action starved in my experience, so getting the action discount is of relatively little value.

[DaveW]

I don't use it all that much, though I have a couple different Wizard books. When I did have it in a book, I used it to great effect. I remember one time being able to stop several of a Beastmaster's flying creatures from getting to my Wizard. One was a Grizzly with Eagle Wings and Cheetah Speed, and another couple were Falcons. These all were two zones away from my Wizard. I stole the Eagle Wings from the Grizzly and put it on a large creature of my own which was directly between the Falcons and my Mage. That one creature stopped the Falcons, and two of my other non-flying creatures were in the way of the Grizzly. It was sweet.

The only other enchantment that I've seen stolen was a Fortified Position in the zone where my Mage was pinned down. It was horrible going from having armor for all of my creatures, to my opponent having it when taking my counterstrikes and attacks.

I think that it is appropriately mana costed, but you do have to have a tendency to save some over time to keep this sort of opportunity open. Then again, so does a dark mage who wants to cast Drain Life / Soul, etc.