Domination Spellbooks (Straywood Beastmaster)

[Biblofilter]

So I just played my first Domination Battlegrounds  game yesterday 

We played on "No Man´s Land"

Had to put a spellbook together, and I heard that creatures and creature actions was very important so I tried one of my old favorite mages - Straywood Beastmaster.

My Basic plan was to move 1 & cast a Feral Bobcat Pet, then next round move in hit a Slaack with my Beastmaster (4dice) then kill it with the Bobcat (6 dice).

Cast Galaxxus and hopefully outrace my opponent.

Use Wall of Thorns with Jet Stream, Force Push and 12 level one animals.

Some of the new hot Domination stuff and a lot more Dispells than I normally pack.

4 Tanglevine to get rid of big guards.

I can´t use the spellbook builder to post the book (cause I can´t tell it I got Domination/Arena) but I think I learnt something.

1) Don´t build something that would be good long game - because this will be over quick
2) Build a more versatile spellbook - consider even cards way out of school.

Spells used:
Round 1.
1. Ring of Beast
2. Bobcat (Pet)
Round 2.
3 Thunderrift Falcon
Round 3.
4. Galaxxus
Round 4.
5. Bridge Troll
6  Thunderrift Falcon
Round 5.
7. Wall of Thorns
8   Force Push
Round 6.
9. Windstorm
10. Teleport
Round 7
11. Wall of Thorns
12. Force Push

Notes:
I used the Wall of Thorns/Force Pushes to get his mage away from the action, nearly killing him was just an added bonus/treat.
He played an early Thornlasher which fell into a spiked pit and took 6 damage, which allowed me to kill it the same round.
Windstorm was used to kill Felella, which already had taken 2 damage.
Teleport was used to remove an enchanted Vine snapper from the active Orb Zone.
My Bridge Troll didn't do much, because he used V´Tar Force Sentry effectively against it.


I think you should play even faster, trying to get an Orb activated at turn 2

something like:
(19)  move 1 - Hurl Boulder -8- at Sslak
         Bobcat Pet -7-

(13) melee with Bobcat
       turn on Orb with BM
       Galaxxus -8-

Tips and tricks appreciated!
Biblo

[iNano78]

Super late bump, but I was looking for Beastmaster Domination strategy and came across this.  I'm curious if this was 1-on-1 or multiplayer free-for-all.  Given that you mention "an early Thornlasher which fell into a spiked pit and took 6 damage" and you never cast such a trap, it implies this was multiplayer, but you also mention your strategy was to "outrace my opponent" which sounds like 1-on-1 (although could apply to multiplayer by making it plural). 

I also have to wonder how exactly a rooted plant falls into a pit (Teleport, I assume).

[Biblofilter]

It was a 1 on 1 vs Druid and she summoned a Thornlasher in a Spiked Pit Trap zone. We ruled that it should roll for "falling" into the trap (wrongly?)

We don´t really play domination, which i think i because so few of our players own domination.

The point remains : in 1 on 1 domination with Galaxus i think Beastmaster is "overpowered"

I´ve played this book 5 times now and the only loss was a 3 way BM triple mirror free for all.

I know that 5 games isn't anything but taking a orb turn 2 and casting Galaxus - i just don´t see anyone catch up.

[iNano78]

We don't play 1-on-1 Domination as much, but I suspect you might be right about Beastmaster being particularly strong, especially with Galaxxus. 

Since locally banning Galaxxus, matches are a lot more even.  That is, it's possible to catch up to a V'tar leader without necessarily killing him, as getting an early 2 "orb" lead isn't as common and orbs are generally easier to steal (or at least turn off) than destroying/conquering Galaxxus.  Interestingly, in our multiplayer matches, a Beastmaster often gets out to a lead but then gets teamed up on, resulting in somebody else winning (like a Necro or Warlord or Druid), so the Beastmaster actually has one of the worse records despite being perceived as very strong (mainly due to his awesome selection of cheap Fast/Elusive/Flying creatures). 

In your 1-on-1 matches, has anybody tried to kill the Beastmaster rather than competing for V'tar (which might include trying to deny orb control but spending more effort on damage than actually controlling them; maybe throw in a V'tar Suppression to delay the V'tar win in a late round)?  Or did they generally try to compete for V'tar?  Or did the Beastmaster go for the kill occasionally as well?

[Biblofilter]

Well yes in the game i lost i got killed by an absurdly buffed Cervere and some help from the third BM as well, just before i would get the needed V´tar points to win  So looked a lot like some of your games - getting an early lead might not be best in a 3 player game.

We have been talking of banning Galaxxus as well, but i have been against it:

It ensures really short games.

Besides id like to play some more just before we ban an official card.

At the moments we only use Domination for 3 player games but i hope well get back to it. Well probably ban most domination cards , cause most of our guys dont have Domination.