Ideas against Warlock Finite Life and Idol of Pestilence

[Ranger988]

I like to play the Beastmaster. Although the Wizard's mana draining abilities are really annoying, I find the Warlock to be the worst opponent because the Finite Life and Idol of Pestilence are super destructive. Has anybody developed a strategy to take away the Finite Life or Idol of Pestilence?

[Kharhaz]

I like to play the Beastmaster. Although the Wizard's mana draining abilities are really annoying, I find the Warlock to be the worst opponent because the Finite Life and Idol of Pestilence are super destructive. Has anybody developed a strategy to take away the Finite Life or Idol of Pestilence?

Nothing much you can do except switch gears and go heavy aggressive and burn them down. We tried a Forest shadow teleport so he was attacking the idol on turn two and its not really an answer to the problem.

Nothing can be done about walled off conjurations without sacrificing your ability to build towards a sucessful creature deck. My advice is to just run a one or two creature beastmaster beatdown just like any other warlock or force master.

[sdougla2]

Don't start serious swarming until you're within a few zones of your opponent so that you can get at and destroy any anti-swarm conjurations like Idol of Pestilence that they play. Deathlock isn't really a problem so long as you don't overcommit to healing. If your opponent drops a turn 1 Idol of Pestilence, either go with a Steelclaw Pet or a Steelcalw and a Timber Wolf Pet, and don't swarm. They're resilient enough that Idol of Pestilence won't kill them quickly, and they can do a lot of damage quickly, particularly supported with Bear Strength and Battle Fury. As long as you don't overcommit to a swarm, you should be fine. It may end up being advisable to destroy the Idol of Pestilence when you get the chance, but often it ends up being better to just focus down the Warlock. Remember that he's hurting himself too, and he devoted mana to it, which means that if you haven't invested in any level 1 creatures yet, you can easily come out ahead. Idol of Pestilence is approximately a full round of channeling for a Warlock.

[Kharhaz]

Pestilence idol prevents sleep from being a long term solution to your critters and is doing damage to your opponent. I have decided to just roll with it rather than devote mana and time to destroying it.

either way it is really disheartening that it only takes 1 card (that costs 9 mana, and any mage can put into his/her spell book) and your opponent has put up a first round stop to a deck theme. No other mage can be as easily hindered as the beastmaster.

Don't get me wrong a level 1 pet will have 7+ health, and that is 6 rounds of it doing something. It would be like if there was a conjuration that gave all equipment cards +1 upkeep. You could work around it, but it is detrimental to a lots of builds.

P.S. The highland unicorn (which can be your pet) gives everything around it Regenerate 1 so that can be helpful in fighting off the idol

[sIKE]

either way it is really disheartening that it only takes 1 card (that costs 9 mana, and any mage can put into his/her spell book) and your opponent has put up a first round stop to a deck theme. No other mage can be as easily hindered as the beastmaster.

Deathlock totally shuts down the Priestess side of things also, and yes it is disheartening. If Akiro's hammer went so susceptible to fire, it could be used to destroy them.

I have tried several different tactics to crack this nut. The best I have done is to buff up a Knight and teleport him to the zone. The next game the Warlock dropped a couple of traps there and took out my Knight. I then went with a Royal Archer, then next game a Wall. After 3 or 4 cycles I just game up trying to take them up and went with a mid-level swarm, out came IOP and Morduk's. So now I just go one or two big and Equip up. The Priestess is not quite the power house that the Warlock is, but can get pretty close with the right combo of equipment.

[Kharhaz]

either way it is really disheartening that it only takes 1 card (that costs 9 mana, and any mage can put into his/her spell book) and your opponent has put up a first round stop to a deck theme. No other mage can be as easily hindered as the beastmaster.

Deathlock totally shuts down the Priestess side of things also, and yes it is disheartening. If Akiro's hammer went so susceptible to fire, it could be used to destroy them.

I have tried several different tactics to crack this nut. The best I have done is to buff up a Knight and teleport him to the zone. The next game the Warlock dropped a couple of traps there and took out my Knight. I then went with a Royal Archer, then next game a Wall. After 3 or 4 cycles I just game up trying to take them up and went with a mid-level swarm, out came IOP and Morduk's. So now I just go one or two big and Equip up. The Priestess is not quite the power house that the Warlock is, but can get pretty close with the right combo of equipment.

deathlock does shutdown the priestess' ability to improve her own life, but she can also divine intervention something with the intention of breaking that..... say earth elemental for giggles.

However your spellbook is probably not dependent on you gaining life, its just extra gravy for playing that archetype. The idol thing attacks the core of the swarm spellbook (to which there is no counter) with every little creature that spawns getting a very short life timer that not only disrupts the BM gravy (hehe), but also makes controlling the swarm that much easier with zone attacks, sweeps, etc.

It may not seem like much but the idol is a lot damage and control wrapped up in a rather cheap nicely defended package.

[sIKE]

Her core strategy is to cast Light Spells to gain life. Deathlock stops that cold. She can tank up and hit almost as hard as the Warlock but still starts 6 Life down. Without the Deathlock out, she is almost impossible to defeat after round 10 or so. Once its out she really has to shuck and jive just to survive.

For the BM you switch to a Big 1 / 2 buff them up and kick arse, which is what basically I have to do with the Priestess.

[baronzaltor]

I wouldn't say gaining life is her core strategy, it's just a byproduct.  Id say her core strategy is to support a battlefield.  Condition removal, Temples for ranged support, defensive rerolls and buffs, handing out armor from her crown, giving Aegis to zones and using daze/stun attacks while angles, knights and archers carry the assault.  I've never prioritized Priestess life gain personally. 

[nitrodavid]

I would suggest the highland unicorn or tree of life if he only summons idol but not death lock.

if he summons both conjurations I don't know what best to do with current cards (perhaps emerald tegu). but if you get the new expansion bring some creatures with bleed effects. bleed will hurt him so much if he has finite life. also watch out if the death lock gets to low HP he might kill it himself so he can cast a quick life drain

[baronzaltor]

Highland Unicorns are still great creatures...even if Deathlock is out.    As your Pet and with a Bear Strength that pony will Charge for 8 melee dice  with 12 health and 3 armor.   Cast Charge on him, then he gains another +1 and Fast.. so he can rush the zone with said Deathlock and drop 9 dice of damage on it from 2 zones away.  (and/or use piercing strike to give him +3 Pierce to make sure he gets past its armor.)

[nitrodavid]

you could Also run an earthquake if they wall it off (4 spell cost isn't so bad), you can target 2 zoned but only have to have Los of one. 4 direct damage dice is a good way to start taking down any corporeal conjuration. also take down the wall that benefits you the most.

[baronzaltor]

Earthquake is good, its a full round action...but so are most zone wide attacks.  It can also slam zones of creatures at a time which is pretty awesome.

[nitrodavid]

it is very very situational, but when the cost vs reward is height enough you should have one or 2. I always include an earthquake when a have a book that I know can be really hampered by a corporeal conjuration. usually vs warlock and priestess (temple of light garhhhhhh).

[sIKE]

I wouldn't say gaining life is her core strategy, it's just a byproduct.

Interesting, as the main reason Deathlock comes out with the Warlock is that I designed a book to use mainly Holy Incantations and Enchantments, after a half dozen rounds my Life was up in the Mid-Forty's. I just kept at it from there he would hit for 4-6 damage but I would go up one or two life and then cast a Heal(which...brought my Life up) and erase a couple of rounds of damage.

That was the last game that I enjoyed that advantage, it of course was game no. 3 that I(we) had played. I guess that is why a Temple build has really never worked for me....the Daze/Stun lock I hear about seems to me to be mythical like Medusa.

[Klaxas]

I don't know about stun lock, but my priestess build runs mostly around 4 hand of bim shallas out (6 in the book so I can recast them) plus temple of light, and my priestess having bear strength plus staff.

that's 4 dice (staff) plus 4 dice (hand) plus 2 dice (bear strength)

that's 10 dice without a battle fury.  plus you can always use the healing if necessary, along with a few tricks to help with positioning, force push, teleport, etc.