Steelclaw Grizzly counters for an Apprentice Priestess

[Fentum]

Played my first two non-solo games and they were a BLAST. Both were Priestess (me) vs Beastmaster in Apprentice mode. One win each.

My mate used a buffed Steelclaw Grizzly to great effect in game two. Along with a few other critters. What might be a few good ways to counter this beast in Apprentice Priestess mode? It's appearance in turn one put me on the psychological back foot.

Used sleep, dispels on enchantments on it, knight, grey angel, but the bugger just wouldn't go down. Oh - we DID forget a counterstrike from a guarding knight once, which MAY have had a significant effect (it would likely have killed the falcon that next round attacked and awakened the sleeping Steelclaw). But still the Steelclaw was a beast.

Any thoughts?

The other interesting point was that my mate picked up how to play the game in a snap. He isn't a big gamer, though I have convinced him to give a few a go. The game is so intuitive, he was soon pulling effective combo's and targetting the right cards on my side. He runs a bookmaker (betting shop) so he really enjoys working out odds, figuring combo's etc. A perfect opponent!

[Snotwalker]

My advice?...  Drop the apprentice spell books and immediately move on to the Recommended Starting Spell Books.

The apprentice lists were really in place to help people learn the game without feeling overwhelmed.... but now that you have a couple games under your belts, move on the full game.

THEN, when you've gotten some more experience, have a blast creating your own customized spell books!

The smaller apprentice books just won't give you many in-game options, such as how to deal with a ticked-off Grizzly.     But typically, the best ways to deal with a grizzly are:

• Stay out of its way.  Don't become too distracted by the big beastie.  If you spend too much time trying to kill it, your opponent will happily enjoy the extra time to keep trying to kill you.
• Use guards.  As you already mentioned, having a Knight guarding you is a fantastic choice.  They have a built in defense, and can cause some real damage themselves.  This leaves your mage free to continue punishing the opposing mage.
• Daze, Stun, Sleep.  The Temple of Light is your friend.  Use it!     Try to put the Grizzly out of commission (at least for awhile) to buy some time.  Just don't spend too much energy on this tactic.  The same is true of all of your light spells.  Great offense and defense built into the same attack spell.
• Divine Intervention / Banish.  More expensive options, to be sure, but both will remove the Grizzly from your zones with great effect.  I don't like to use Teleport for this, because it doesn't move the bear far enough away, and there are better uses for Teleport anyway.
• Armor, Armor, Armor.  Granted, the Grizzly has Piercing +1, but if you have 3 or 4 armor on your mage, you'll still be potentially blocking up to 3 more damage every attack.  I've seen a number of games where my opponent chose to skip equipping armor, to their everlasting regret.   
• Reverse Attack.  This is a FANTASTIC option against the Grizzly.  Particularly if he's doing his full action attack of 7 dice.  Nothing is more disheartening to an opposing mage than to see his own Grizzly committing suicide.   

Once you start building or tweaking your own customized spell books, just be sure to have several good options to deal with either one or two Big Beasties (ie: Grizzly, Lord of Fire) or with swarms of smaller creatures.  A solid spell book is equipped to remain flexible in the midst of an uncertain battle.

[piousflea]

It definitely sounds like you are ready for the non-apprentice mode of the game.

Grizzlies have tremendous amount of health, armor and damage, but it is a single big creature. Control spells such as Force Hold and Turn to Stone can totally neutralize it. So can stuns and dazes.

Like any nonflying "big", a flyer-heavy deck can simply ignore the Grizz and swarm overhead.

Compared to other "bigs" the Grizzly is relatively vulnerable to swarms, as it doesn't have Sweeping or Counterstrike or Vampiric. While 3 Armor will soak a lot of damage, it can at most kill one weak creature per round, and if it rolls badly and fails to kill one its round is essentially wasted.

Also like all "bigs" the Grizzly doesn't actually hit that hard compared to an equivalent-cost swarm.  The Grizz costs as much as 4 goblin grunts, or 4 ring of beasts bitterwood foxes, but either of the 4-creature swarms can roll 12 dice (3x4). Depending on your tactical situation you may be better off ignoring the Grizzly and going straight for the Mage. (the same cannot be said for swarms, swarms do too much damage to ignore)

[Fentum]

Thank you for all the ideas. All good routes to tackle the beastie with a full book. I was just wondering how to take it out with the apprentice version. 'With difficulty' I guess!