Forcemaster Builds

[Shad0w]

Dear Mr. Shad0w,

Will you be posting your build and match results any time soon? I'm really curious to see what has changed from your build that was previously posted. I would also be very curious to know which wins and losses were against which mage/strategy and to understand against what kind of things you had problems with.

I've looked over your original deck list many times and in reading your succeeding comments I know about a few cards that you mentioned you usually run with such as Falcon Precision, Mongoose Agility and Teleport but my question is how do you deal with flyers? It seems the obvious answer is that you don't and instead just focus all on the enemy mage. If things get a little out of hand you have various equipments and enchantments to help you such as various armors/cloaks, forcefield, vampirisim and many other things. The problem I see is when faced against not just any flyers but the ones such as Valshalla or Samandriel. The kind that do pretty decent damage but more importantly have a fairly good chance to Daze or Stun you. It would seem Daze and Stun is just as devastating to the Forcemaster as the Weak tokens from the Gorgon Archer are. (Of course you can attack the Archer but based on your decklist you can't really do anything against those daze/stun flyers. Missing or not being able to attack a turn with the Forcemaster seems pretty huge. Not only that but if this happens it gives the opposing mage more time to 'do stuff' which is exactly what we don't want which is why we rush over there to end the game as fast as possible in the first place.

Now if some kind of flyer handling is needed then what do you think would be the best course of action? One route could be the charm, sleep or mind control route, the other could be running maim wings or eagle wings but all of these options take up quite a bit of spellbook points... Of course as you pointed out for your decklist there are only 'some' core spells and the rest are meta but when I built my own version 'based' on your deck I have a hard time deciding what could possibly be worth removing to add in these flyer handling cards.

I would really like to understand what you think about this. Thanks a bunch for your time!

Alpha

I have been on call since the show and will not be done July 1st. If I have a slow weekend I will be able to get this posted but I can make no promises. I would like to give you a better answer but I just can not. Sorry for the delay.

As far as fliers go use Gravikor, and Hand of Peace if it is a non tourney game. If it is a tourney style game you can only buy time with Suppression Orb and Mordok's Obolisk they will not win you the game. The biggest trick to a solo style build like this is your kill speed. YOU CAN NOT LET THE OTHER MAGE TURTLE. You should be threatening the kill from turn 4 on. If the other player sets a card it a zone 90% of the time it is a tele trap and you should play accordingly.

[DevilDave]

I just tested this deck against Earth Wizard - and lost cause of weaks from Gorgon Archers.
Everything seems ok until i got 2 and then other 2 weaks (10+ from gorgon archers) and was unable to do anything about it and -4 dice is pretty bad for solo aggro mage.

Also i tried to beat him little bit with Invisible Stalker - but after he attacked, wizard casted Sleep on him and that's it. Since he is invisible u cannot attack him to wake him up and u cannot make him visible since he cannot attack cause of sleep .

Any ideas what to do against gorgon archers?
Also i was playing without teleports but have to include some into to be able to catch wizard using teleports .

[sIKE]

IS can not be put to sleep, he is non-living. Get the FM in the zone with the archers ASAP and kill kill kill.....not that hard if need Battle Fury them. Plus Forcefield should cancel the initial attacks from GA....

Once FM is in the zone with GA he is no longer in Range. If need Force Pull them into the same zone....

[Shad0w]

I just tested this deck against Earth Wizard - and lost cause of weaks from Gorgon Archers.
Everything seems ok until i got 2 and then other 2 weaks (10+ from gorgon archers) and was unable to do anything about it and -4 dice is pretty bad for solo aggro mage.

Also i tried to beat him little bit with Invisible Stalker - but after he attacked, wizard casted Sleep on him and that's it. Since he is invisible u cannot attack him to wake him up and u cannot make him visible since he cannot attack cause of sleep .

Any ideas what to do against gorgon archers?
Also i was playing without teleports but have to include some into to be able to catch wizard using teleports .

2 Wand of healing in the non tourney build.

[Shad0w]

IS can not be put to sleep, he is non-living. Get the FM in the zone with the archers ASAP and kill kill kill.....not that hard if need Battle Fury them. Plus Forcefield should cancel the initial attacks from GA....

Once FM is in the zone with GA he is no longer in Range. If need Force Pull them into the same zone....

Also correct and good advice but remember that each turn you commit to kill GA is 1 more turn the other player has to setup.


Living and Nonliving
All creatures and conjurations are either Living or Nonliving. These are “catch-all” traits that describe certain characteristics of an object. Unless the spell card specifies otherwise, all creatures have the Living trait, and all conjurations have the Nonliving trait.

• Living:
These creatures and conjurations are living things, such as plants or animals. All of the rules apply to Living objects normally. For instance, Living creatures can be healed or put to sleep.

• Nonliving:
These creatures and conjurations are not alive. They may be a machine or some kind of magical construct, or the re-animated skeleton of a dead creature. All Nonliving objects have the following traits: Poison Immunity and Finite Life, in addition to any traits listed on the card.

[DevilDave]

Blah pretty bad mistake with IS, cause in that case i could escape and killing him just using IS since he didn't have anything with Ethereal attack.

About GA: I was thinking if i shouldn't try to kill them, but with Regeneration 2 and Armor 1 Live 13 - not easy think. But probably best solution.

Shad0w: What do u sugest about this, since u are not playing wands in tourney build.

[Shad0w]

Blah pretty bad mistake with IS, cause in that case i could escape and killing him just using IS since he didn't have anything with Ethereal attack.

About GA: I was thinking if i shouldn't try to kill them, but with Regeneration 2 and Armor 1 Live 13 - not easy think. But probably best solution.

Shad0w: What do u suggest about this, since u are not playing wands in tourney build.

The main issue is that board position plays a heavy roll in the correct line of play. If I can get the GA into my zone or I can get into its zone without over extending I am inclined to do so. At range 0 the GA can't make the ranged attack it should take 1-2 attack chains to kill each GA so you are losing 4-8 turns over the course of a match if you hunt down the GAs. You could try to sleep a GA and see if the other player move in to melee it. If they do use sleep DO NOT pull them, follow into the zone. On the next planing get a Tele and a BF if they run tele them back if they stay use BF and go for the kill shot.

[ringkichard]

What I'm hearing is that Forcemaster gets much better when it's playing outside of a tournament. Wand of Healing, Gravikor, and Hand of Peace all help her out a lot.

[Shad0w]

What I'm hearing is that Forcemaster gets much better when it's playing outside of a tournament. Wand of Healing, Gravikor, and Hand of Peace all help her out a lot.

Any build is better when you get to play more powerful meta cards. Just to let you know a solo style FM build almost got 1st at origins. Going into the last round if it won it had first

[MrSaucy]

What I'm hearing is that Forcemaster gets much better when it's playing outside of a tournament. Wand of Healing, Gravikor, and Hand of Peace all help her out a lot.

Any build is better when you get to play more powerful meta cards. Just to let you know a solo style FM build almost got 1st at origins. Going into the last round if it won it had first

Not surprised 

[Alpha]

I have a solid routine now. Wake up, drive to work, get a coffee followed by checking the mage wars forums SPECIFICALLY to see if Mr. Shad0w posted his build and strategy in this post. My excitement goes something like this.

Step 1. Pretty excited although super tired as I sip my coffee and enter www.magewars.com into my browser.

Step 2. I click that Forum button as my excited-ness sky rockets followed by the following.
  a) I see that the 'Spellbook Design and Construction' red ready marker is not flipped to active and I instantly jump to Step 6. (Read the rest of the post first.. don't jump to Step 6 quite yet)
  b) I see that the 'Spellbook Design and Construction' red ready marker IS flipped to active and my heart rate goes to a solid 200. (Note that I'm sitting down...). Lets move to Step 3.

Step 3. THE READY MARKER IS READY. Hit F5 just to make sure I'm not still dreaming. Okay.. still active... lets take a peek at the Last post on the right followed by the following.
  a) Mr. Shad0w was not the last person to reply to a thread... Okay okay my heart rate is down 20 points. My excited-ness is a little down. (I'm crying inside). Maybe there were sooo many posters and Mr. Shad0ws just wasn't the last one. Lets move to Step 4.
  b) Mr. Shad0w IS the last person to reply. ARE YOU SERIOUS. I do a triple front and back flip at the same time so fast that I don't even move in my chair. (Yeah, crazy I know). My heart rate is up another 20. (Is that healthy?). I then notice that last thread he posted in is not Re: Forcemaster Builds.. I feel a sharp pain in the left side of my body. My cheek feels a bit tingly.. but I have to know.. Proceed 5 spaces to Step 4.
  c) Not only is Mr. Shad0w the last person to reply... but the post is Re: Forcemaster Builds. I sprint to my cabinet that is half a meter away from me. I unlock the lock like I'm a thief from ancient days where picklocking was super cool. I grab my mage wars dice (5 of em) and my heart rate goes up by what I rolled times 2 plus 10. (Crits count double). My nose is starting to bleed at this point but who cares! CONTINUE TO STEP 5. I'M ALL IN.

Step 4. I jam my finger down onto that left mouse button clicking the glorious 'Spellbook Design and Construction' button and my hand cramps up followed by the following.
  a) The holy grail that is 'Forcemaster Builds' is missing the red 'new' square. What? no.. really? Awww man... Continue to Step 6.. DAMNIT.
  b) THERE IS A RED NEW SQUARE NEXT TO 'FORCEMASTER BUILDS'.. Yeah... totally knew today was going to be the day where Mr. Shad0w posts his build.. Why did I even doubt him... he totally told us he was going to post the build. I feel bad.. I can't believe I was a non believer. I then realize my heart rate is still maxed out, my nose is bleeding and I can't feel half my body I HAVE to finish this. Proceed with cheetah speed TO STEP 5!

Step 5. I click 'Forcemaster Builds' swiftly click page 11 and with my Stepmania trained fingers click that Page Down key like it's the hardest song I've ever clicked in my life followed... by???!!!!!!! ... There's no build. I twist my ankle and start feeling stomach pains... Step 6 is all that's left for me.. Please proceed .

Step 6. My dreams are shattered. My heart rate stops... what in all the world am I going to do now... WAIT, WHAT IF HE WAS JUST POSTING AS I WAS CHECKING??!! OOHHHH YEEEAAAHHH,,, PROCEED TO STEP 1 BABY!

[Shad0w]

Dude I wish I had time BuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuTTTTTTTTTTTTTT


I am 3 people short at work and we did over 200 extra calls. I am working a HUGE strategy and tactics write up. Then We playtesters now have 2 weeks to get the DvN ready for print + planning Gencon. I will most likely be area manager and TO again. So it has been on the back burner. I have not even had time to play MW for fun since the show.


Keep this up and I may have to cast my 20 mana Forget spell.
 

[Paleblue]

Just a quick tip, I always put wings on my GA when playing against the FM. Nothing beats when they bum's rush it and it takes off and shoots weakness into their face.

Make sure to prepare for this!

[jacksmack]

IS can not be put to sleep, he is non-living. Get the FM in the zone with the archers ASAP and kill kill kill.....not that hard if need Battle Fury them. Plus Forcefield should cancel the initial attacks from GA....

Once FM is in the zone with GA he is no longer in Range. If need Force Pull them into the same zone....

What about ranged flyers. can ranged flyers do a ranged attack attack vs a non-flyer in the same zone even though this is below its minimum range?

Ranged Attack
This attack can be used on targets within its minimum
and maximum range, and within Line of Sight. A
ranged attack can always be made against a Flying
creature in the same zone, even below its minimum
range. Ranged attacks do not trigger damage barriers
or counterstrikes. Ranged attacks ignore guards, and
do not remove guard markers from guarding creatures

Im of course talking about Eagle Wings on Gorgon Archer

What is the latest you can reveal Eagle wings during the attack step in order to avoid the damage?

[ringkichard]

Yes, ranged flyers can attack ground creatures they share a zone with, ignoring minimum range.

A creature cannot gain flying during an attack. You can reveal Eagle Wings at the end of any attack step, but it will not help you.