November 22, 2024, 12:34:18 PM

Author Topic: More newbie help  (Read 5237 times)

paulgrogan

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More newbie help
« on: April 01, 2013, 01:58:40 AM »
First of all, I'm loving the game still.  Played about 8 games now, still just in apprentice mode as I'm still teaching new players.  But it's all still good.


Some early comments if people can help me out.

Playing against the wizard.  First turn, he summons a wand and puts a lightning bolt in it.  Then proceeds to keep blasting me every turn, often stunning me, meaning I can only cast quick spells.  I was playing warlock and he stayed at range 2 so I couldn't do explode or drain life.

Any tips?


Secondly, as the priest, cards were played that made the zone super safe, so the priest never left that zone and would not leave.  The other player would have been severely disadvantaged by moving in there, so the game ended up in a bit of a stalemate.

Thanks all

sdougla2

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2013, 03:11:14 AM »
Warlock vs blasting Wizard: summon at least one creature before he starts stunning you, but preferably 2. Necropian Vampiress is a good choice. She has a bit of armor, and with vampiric she'll be hard to kill. At that point your opponent can stun you every turn and still get ripped apart by your creatures. If you expect to get hit with a Lightning Bolt every turn, prepare quick spells. Build up 3-4 armor. Toss a Ghoul Rot and/or Magebane on him so that he's taking damage as he attacks you. If he's spending all of his actions on attack spells, you should be able to deal with him with a few creatures, some armor, and a few curses. You'll damage him faster than he'll damage you, even with Voltaric Shield. Then there's the option of just Dissolving the Wand, but make sure that you don't lose your Dissolve to a Nullify.

Forted up Priestess: hit her before she gets forted up, destroy the cards that give her an advantage in that area, play more threats, buff your threats so that their attacks are powerful enough to get damage through anyway, use direct damage, and/or use position control to force her out of that zone.
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DarthDadaD20

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2013, 03:11:36 AM »
Welcome to the forums paulgrogan!

Playing against the wizard, I would us dissolve on the wand, if it is presenting a problem for you.
Conditions such as cripple, daze, or stun are very effective, and if you only have a few creatures or just the mage out, it is far more effective.

For you second example.
Try push, or teleport.

Im not sure if you are just looking for solutions using the apprentice mode books are not.
Where does my greatest enemy lie?
It has been around since the dawn of time,
it follows your loved ones as well as mine,
takes the form of a mountain as well as a flower,
it cannot be outrun by the greatest of power.
Where does my greatest enemy lie?
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paulgrogan

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2013, 03:41:38 AM »
Just the apprentice decks at the moment, so sorry, I have no idea what a Necropian Vampiress is :)

In our last game, he got initiative.  Quick casted a wand, and then on his turn, hit me with it - I was stunned, no chance of summoning a creature!  Two turns later, I still hadnt summoned anything, but had lots of mana.

Then I managed to summon something finally, when his bolt didnt stun me, but he put that to sleep right away.  Since the only way to wake up the sleeping creature would be to deal it damage, I couldnt do this without summoning another creature (which I tried, but was stunned again), or hitting it myself (which I couldnt do as I was stunned).

Yes, I could have just started quick casting spells, I did actually put Mage Bane and Ghoul Rot on, but I died having only done about 8 damage to him.

DarthDadaD20

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2013, 04:53:31 AM »
You could use Blocks on your mage for the wand to buy you time... And sleep is target Non-mage creature.
Where does my greatest enemy lie?
It has been around since the dawn of time,
it follows your loved ones as well as mine,
takes the form of a mountain as well as a flower,
it cannot be outrun by the greatest of power.
Where does my greatest enemy lie?
Within Shad0w.

sdougla2

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2013, 05:09:40 AM »
Huh, I didn't realize that apprentice mode only used half of a board. That makes Lightning Bolt a much stronger opening. And you have no Walls of Fire to block LoS. That's kind of a problem. If you had Elemental Cloak you could just play that, at which point the probability of getting stunned goes down significantly. Huh, I can come up with all kinds of solutions in the full game, but that looks like a big problem in apprentice mode. The real issue is that the decreased starting range combined with the lower starting life totals make blasting much more viable. You start in range, whereas in the full game you'd need to use Teleport to be able to get in range on the first turn.

The Beastmaster would be fine due to Quick Summoning, but the Warlock has very few options here. You have a bit of defensive equipment, and that can help mitigate the damage to some extent. If you can get a creature out, that will help things. Wow, you don't even have any Nullifies to protect them from Sleep. Uh... Explode the Wand as soon as possible? Force Push into Explode would work even if you were stunned at range 2, but that's assuming your opponent doesn't have a Nullify down. If they do, cast Enfeeble or something on them before Explode to test for Nullify.
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paulgrogan

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2013, 05:25:33 AM »
Quote from: "DarthDadaD20" post=10187
You could use Blocks on your mage for the wand to buy you time... And sleep is target Non-mage creature.


Yep - it was my creature he used sleep on.

paulgrogan

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2013, 05:26:47 AM »
Quote from: "sdougla2" post=10189
Huh, I didn't realize that apprentice mode only used half of a board. That makes Lightning Bolt a much stronger opening.


Thanks for the extended reply.  I do plan on getting out of apprentice mode as soon as possible.  Good to know that this tactic isnt broken for the main game :)

DarthDadaD20

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #8 on: April 01, 2013, 09:27:17 AM »
Sorry, I misread your last post about the sleep! :pinch:
I didnt even think about the board!!! I didnt play apprentice mode, yeah...Lightning bolt is a bit op for half of a board.
Where does my greatest enemy lie?
It has been around since the dawn of time,
it follows your loved ones as well as mine,
takes the form of a mountain as well as a flower,
it cannot be outrun by the greatest of power.
Where does my greatest enemy lie?
Within Shad0w.

dexmark

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2013, 11:24:50 PM »
Wall is your friend :)

That will buy you enough time to get close to dissolve it but you may do this 2 things in order:

Put decoy on your enemy mage - this should trigger any Nullify (If there is any face down card on your enemy mage) and then cast either steal item or dissolve.

sdougla2

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Re: More newbie help
« Reply #10 on: April 02, 2013, 12:48:11 AM »
I don't think that the Warlock apprentice build includes walls.
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