Sounds like a build that is ripe for a zone attack. Gremlins are good, but they're not going to reliably survive multiple Ring of Fire/Electrify/Firestorm/Hail of Rocks/etc (in fact, they can easily die to just one), and you have to get all your Gremlins on the same target if you want the amount of dice you're talking about, so it's not terribly hard to predict.
A ring of fire is a good answer against two gremlins, but I rarely stand in the same zone with both. If I do, its because I have initiative in the next round and can move out one gremlin before he can cast ring of fire or because I can hit his mage with a 2nd burst from a buffed gremlin (who often has falcon precision, so defence, blocks etc wont work). A second hit from a buffed gremlin will put him above 20 damage. With so much damage, even if he kills both gremlins the damage from ToL + whatever my mage has in petto always was enough to finish the opponent quickly. Btw the daze from ToL works against zone attacks as well - so their efficiency decreases.
Anyway, often I alter the opening and skip the 2nd gremlin to cast HoBS+ToL in round 2. That way, the burst damage starts earlier, but its easier to avoid it with guards since I dont have a 2nd gremlin. An interesting alteration of this build is to cast Cervere, The Forest Shadow in round 1. Its the legendary panther that has fast and elusive. So its really difficult to avoid his damage. Downside: Since he costs 15 mana, its more efficient to use crowd control on him compared to the gremlins (btw if you dont have initiative in round 1 and your opponent casts the panther, you have misplanned your first round, which really hurts).
Thou only a promo, so not yet tourney legal, lion savagery is amazing with blue gremlins if you can find the dice tower promo set.
It grants +2 charge and +1 pierce. Since gremlins count as teleporting when they use fast, move they can exit and renter the same zone unhindered and always attack at 5 with 2 pierce. 7 if you give him a bear strength too.
Also, since their movements are teleports they are great for eating watchtower snipers because they can walk through walls.
There was a discussion whether or not the gremlins can be hindered if they use their inherent teleport. Unfortunately there was no official response yet. I feel like gremlins are too good if they will be fast and cant be hindered after paying 1 mana. That’s why I play it with them being hindered.
Btw I don’t think it’s a good idea to cast two enchantments on a gremlin. If they die, you loose too much action/mana. One advantage of this build is, that whatever your opponent kills, it will cost you one action and only the base mana (no mana from enchantments). Or to put it in another perspective: A gremlin with those 2 enchantments costs 17 mana. Now, its much more harmful for you, if your opponent in some way prevents the damage from the gremlin. Whereas, if instead of casting those two enchantments, you cast two HoBS, the damage will be split into your creatures and the Temple of Light. So its really difficult to avoid the damage of those HoBSs. Im not saying that I never cast an enchantment on a gremlin though .
If we play together in OCTGN, it would be very interesting to see a build that includes the ballista.
As a Wizard, Enchantment Transfusion only costs you 1 spellpoint and you can just send your enchantments down the line to the next gremlin when he dies and keep them in the game for multiple use on your other creatures. Their damage output at 7 and 2 Pierce will more than make up for the cost since with a battlefury its an instant 14 dice of damage with the enchantments safely passed on at their death. (and can still be bolstered further with hands).
Also, theres no reason they would be hindered. If you pay the mana, their movement for the rest of the activation is teleportation..
Teleport reads: "an effect that moves an object directly to another zone, bypassing walls and objects (which includes creatures)" Creatures are ignored by teleportation movements. Since the mana is paid when he is activated his round "starts" with his movement considered a teleportation effect so he ignores other creatures in the zone for the purpose of hinderance.
Its the same way with a Necropian Vampiress. If you pay the mana at activation she "begins" the phase with flying and goes unhindered even though there are creatures in the zone already.
I tried the opening with a gremlin+bear strength, falcon precision etc. It worked but I think it was not as robust as the opening with the HoBS. The problem is, its too difficult to protect the enchantments. Even with nullify+enchantment transfusion there are ways to destroy the enchantments - I have to admit its difficult though.
The major downside of the multi enchantment opening is you need so many actions to cast bear strength, lion savagery, falcon precision (often needed), nullify and enchantment transfusion. You might think of skipping nullify as the enchantment transfusion protects against purge magic in some way. But, if your opponent sees so many enchantments on a creature with only one face down enchantment, many will take that as an invitation for seeking dispel+purge magic, which will put you at a major mana and action disadvantage. Btw, to get rid of the enchantments your opponent wouldnt even need purge magic, if he had enough burst damage and you only have one creature next to the buffed gremlin. He could teleport the unbuffed gremlin or your mage (whoever is the creature next to the buffed gremlin) out of the range of enchantment transfusion and then kill the buffed gremlin. To prevent this, you need to be very careful with your positioning, which might bring up other problems.
Edit: I just realized, I was wrong about that last part. If your creature dies and your other creatures are too far away, you still can transer your enchantment to the creatures of your opponent. This might sound very strange since you give them bear streangth etc but it totally would make sense. Next round, before they can make use of the enchantments you cast another transfusion on them to move the enchantments back. Thats a really cool trick if you ask me
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You proposed to use battle fury with gremlin+bear strength+lion savagery for 14 damage dices. That doesnt work. It would be 7 dice on first attack and 5 dice on second attack because charge only works on the first melee attack in that round. So lion savagery does 2 dice per round if your gremlin moves and attacks (regardless of using battle fury). The HoBS does 2 dice each round if the gremlin attacks (no need to move) and the temple of light shoots (which is a ranged attack and often more useful than a melee attack). The HoBS also inreases the chance to daze with the ToL AND it has synergy with battle fury. In addition, you can use the HoBS to heal if you dont attack in that round (in this situation lion savagery would be useless in that round) or you can use HoBS for +1 armor, which in some rounds prevents more than 1 damage. Do you still think lion savagery is a better investment than HoBS?
You might point out that lion savagery gives +1 piercing as well and to cast it you only need 2 mana instead of 5 for HoBS - so in some rounds you might be able to cast savagery but not HoBS. That is true, but the benefits of HoBS outweigh those two aspects if you ask me.
I forgot to emphasize how useful the +1 dice per round is, which HoBS "produces" with ToL. It is much more useful than increasing the attack of a creature by +1! This is because of the way the ready marker from ToL works. You can use ToL before or after a friendly creature is/was activated. I cant stress how important this difference to the activation of normal creatures is! Lets say, my gremlin attacks a creature, which was not activated this round, and after that attack the creature only needs two more damage to be killed. Now, I can use the ToL to kill the creature and the opponent looses the creatures attack this round! I CANT STRESS ENOUGH HOW USEFULL THIS IS!!!
All conjurations, that work in this way (e.g. Wizards tower, ballista, HoBS), are very powerful, since they give you so many choices to do damage before the opponent gets the chance to react.
Let me show you one possible situation illustrating the benefit of the ready-marker mechanic of conjurations:
Assume the following: You dont have conjurations but a couple of creatures which follow the normal activation mechanic. Your opponent (a solo mage until this round) has zero damage and initiative. He passes as long as possible (since he has other plans than attacking you). You attack him with your creatures and move your mage last, since you want his mage to be activated before yours. Now, your opponent activates his mage and casts a big creature, lets say a vampiress. If your mage does not a lot of damage, you have no way to deal much damage to the vampiress in this round - so it will be difficult to kill her before she is activated next round. I guess, you wouldnt attack the vampiress at all and do whatever you planned for your mage.
Now, lets assume the same situation, but instead of many creatures you have many conjurations (e.g. only one gremlin, a ToL, 4 HoBS and a ballista with 2 load tokens). You attack the opponent with your gremlin and he activates his mage to cast the vampiress. Now, you can decide what to do: You can use your conjurations to attack the mage, which in the end will have a similar effect as in the first situation with alot of creatures on your side. BUT, you can decide to focus the vampiress instead. That will be 5 dice from the ToL and 5 from the ballista. The vampiress is half dead! Since in the next round you have initiative, thats another 5 dice from the ToL. Pair this with an attack of the gremlin with +4 melee and the vampiress is dead before she did anything! Btw, the wizards zap is also great as a quickcast paired with ToL to finish off creatures before they activate.
It might not be the best idea to attack the vampiress and do alot of damage to the mage instead. BUT, you have the choice! And in some situations that is crucial - it can be game changing!
I tell you, with this temple build it happens often that an ennemy creature dies before it attacks once or twice.
In this example, I included ballista - a promo card. There are other non-promo cards, which work in the same way, e.g. wizards tower. I dont say those cards are overpowered. But, I say the ready-marker mechanic of those conjurations is really amazing! It gives you so many choices before your opponent is allowed to react. I posted a strategy that is based on this ready-marker mechanic here:
http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=12736.0To the posters above: Thanks for bringing up the discussion about gremlins teleport. I dont mean it ironically - its an open question for which I would really appreciate an official answer.
So, did someone try out the opening or a similar one? I can tell you, I had alot of fun this week in over 20 games against nine players I didnt play against before, who tried to threaten my build
- especially in those games against someone who already posted interesting ideas in this thread.
Im online in OCTGN most of the time this weekend, so if youre up for a game, im happy to meet you there (my account name in OCTGN is charmyna as well)!