Is there any love for warlord?

[reddawn]

I've been wondering if Sir Corazin would work well with armor tokens from the Crown of Protection in a Priest/Priestess build. Once he's up to 3 armor, he would be quite resilient. For the Warlord I'm thinking Rhino Hide and Vampirism would be fantastic support for him.

Yeah, I'm actually kinda surprised Corazin isn't part Holy school, since there were a good bit of other holy-school cards included in the expansion.  I guess he's more of a knight-for-hire.

Still, I think he could work his way into a very aggressive Priestess build.  He's really not too bad at guarding either, if you need to fall back on that.  Access to Aegis and lots of healing spells would also be an even better way of protecting him.

[Qube]

Yeah, vampirism on Corazin is a no-brainer.

I'm trying to love the warlord, but that triple cost for arcane spells is so debilitating when you are trying to put together a viable deck.  Also, he is a beefy +1 melee mage, but both his special abilities only support a creature based strategy.  I don't mind his battle orders, but the veterans thing was overkill.  The barracks is one of the worst spawn points, and it can't even summon to the garrison post.  The whole outpost adjacency thing just makes me scratch my head and wonder if it will all makes sense someday (when they release the real outposts).

Yeah, wasn't intending to rant there, it just got away from me.

[Shad0w]

We have plans for the warlord.

MUhahahahhahahahahaha 

[HomelessJoe]

Awesome, good to hear. Such a rare thing when the development crew actually listens to the concerns of their fan base.

[Qube]

We have plans for the warlord.

MUhahahahhahahahahaha 

Nice!  He really could use some help.  Not that he's hopeless, just really sub-par.

[CharlieFox]

I'm 11-1 with my current version of Warlord against good players. But ya, everyone else I know thought that Warlord is either an outpost or a creature fest. Wrong.

I don't like giving up my tricks, but since there is so much hatred for the guy I'll make an exception. There may be other ways to play him, but this is how it works for me.

Sniper, round 1, in the corner. That is the base of the deck and it works. Some of the problems you will encounter:

1) A Turtle
A: Get extra mana of your own

2) Creature Fest
A: Sniper is out round 1. Him and Warlord can hit with up to 16 dice each round

3) Flying creatures
A: Shoot them down and heal if needed

4) Arcane spells are so expensive
A: 2 or 3 dispels is all you need

[sIKE]

I'm 11-1 with my current version of Warlord against good players. But ya, everyone else I know thought that Warlord is either an outpost or a creature fest. Wrong.

I don't like giving up my tricks, but since there is so much hatred for the guy I'll make an exception. There may be other ways to play him, but this is how it works for me.

Sniper, round 1, in the corner. That is the base of the deck and it works. Some of the problems you will encounter:

1) A Turtle
A: Get extra mana of your own

2) Creature Fest
A: Sniper is out round 1. Him and Warlord can hit with up to 16 dice each round

3) Flying creatures
A: Shoot them down and heal if needed

4) Arcane spells are so expensive
A: 2 or 3 dispels is all you need

Quick and Easy Counter for Sniper Corner
My Start corner, move one cast something (armor most likely), next round summon Steelclaw buff with Bear Strength. Next round move Mage to NC zone, cast BF on Steelclaw then QC teleport to zone next to Sniper, bear moves into Snipers zone and minces him up. Typically this is done on the opponents initiative. Most of the time the sniper doesn't even get a shot off of if he does it is a small 3 range that is just a scratch. Now wall him in and give him a Archers Watchtower and he is wicked good. Most opponents will not let you do that after the first go around.

[CharlieFox]

Simply tanglevine right after teleport and shoot him for 8 dice. Bear surely will break free by end of turn.

Next turn bring another tanglevine and a teleport trap.

Next turn bring a spiked pit and Eagle Wings.

By this point bear will have been shot 4 times with 7 or 8 dice and he is only a threat if he is being healed.

[Shad0w]

Charlie the thing is the sniper earth build is just so much better as a wizard. Yes it can work with  the warlord it is not even close to optimal.

[sIKE]

Simply tanglevine right after teleport and shoot him for 8 dice. Bear surely will break free by end of turn.

Next turn bring another tanglevine and a teleport trap.

Next turn bring a spiked pit and Eagle Wings.

By this point bear will have been shot 4 times with 7 or 8 dice and he is only a threat if he is being healed.

Note the initiative and who goes last...hint nor your sniper and you would have had to save your QC action to tanglevine him. Rarely have I seen that, and if he does I just use my next QC to tele the bear to the same zone before I activate him as my first creature during the action phase. Ginsu! Though I do loose the BF...

[Zuberi]

Yeah, vampirism on Corazin is a no-brainer.

Actually, I've found Vampirism to be less than thrilling on Corazin. Remember, you only get the healing from Vampirism on the first attack. You don't get it on the second attack when you do a double strike or sweeping, so nearly half of Sir Corazin's damage doesn't count towards it.

Even if you put Bear Strength on him, against an opponent with a couple of points of armor you're only doing ~4 damage on your first attack, and thus only healing a couple points of damage. Regrowth accomplishes the same healing for less mana and usually takes up fewer Spell Points.

[Qube]

Remember, you only get the healing from Vampirism on the first attack. You don't get it on the second attack when you do a double strike or sweeping, so nearly half of Sir Corazin's damage doesn't count towards it.

Oh... if that's the case, then we've been getting that rule wrong.  We were giving both attacks the vampiric effect.  It did seem rather powerful.

[CharlieFox]

Charlie the thing is the sniper earth build is just so much better as a wizard. Yes it can work with  the warlord it is not even close to optimal.

That I can't argue with because I never really tried it with Wizard. Sounds logical though.

[Shad0w]

Charlie the thing is the sniper earth build is just so much better as a wizard. Yes it can work with  the warlord it is not even close to optimal.

That I can't argue with because I never really tried it with Wizard. Sounds logical though.

Look at these EW builds The Highly Calibrated Wizard and Earth Wizard - Control

[IndyPendant]

Well, the DvN expansion looks to be hella fun, now that nearly all the cards have been spoiled.  However, I was holding out hope that there would be something for the Warlord in it.  My best guess now is that we'll have to wait for the next expansion in 4 - 6 months, which will be something along the lines of CoK, to introduce an alternate Warlord and cards that are actually useful to play.  Even if that happens though, it seems the current Warlord is destined to be permanently retired.

--Or is he?  I actually thought of a use for him recently!

I've decided to create a 'training' spellbook.  It's a book filled with the useless and/or overcosted Warlord-themed cards (Barracks, Garrison Post, Standard Bearer, the Goblins), along with a few reasonably good cards that would be too expensive to include in most non-war-trained books (Fortified Position, Grimson, Corazin, Thorg, the Dwarves).  Toss in a few themes that are war school and don't work very well together (Deflection Bracers, Reflex Boots, Defense Ring).  Remove cards that are generally useful so they can be placed in books that are actually good (Tanglevine, Teleport, Force Push, Battle Fury), and save the good earth cards for the wizard to poach (Hurl Boulder, Iron Golem).  Then I will use this book when I know I'm up against a new player that is interested in the game, has created his first book or two, but is still new enough to get trounced by any of my regular books.

tl/dr: Use the pathetic Warlord against total newbies, to play with a deliberate handicap.  Finally, a use for him! ; )