First, I want to show you the ideal opening for winning in round 3, which assumes that this build has initiative and the opponent plays aggressively. Then, I will talk about how to alter the opening to make it more robust against defensive opponents.
I assume this Mage (M) stands in the bottom right corner and opponent (O) in top left:
O Z Z Z
Z Z Z Z
Z Z Z M
Round 1 (20 mana and initiative):
Quickcast Cheetah speed on yourself (5 mana) and reveal it. Move up and left to the center zone and cast a Wizards Tower (7 mana) at that zone (not the center zone left of you as it will not allow the combo I will show you soon). So your mage and the wiz tower stand at:
Z Z Z Z
Z Z M Z
Z Z Z Z
Round 2 (18 mana in pool, 1 mana on tower, no initiative):
For this opening I assume that the opponent activates his mage before yours. If he didn’t cast a creature in round 1 and you had the initiative at the beginning, he has to activate his mage before yours.
Depending on where the opponent moved, you have to alter the order of the quick action marker, your mages action and the wizards tower spell. For example, if the opponent didn’t move and is still standing at the starting position, move with your mage (M) one step left to the left center zone and cast a wall of thorns (5 mana) on the border right of your opponent (O). T is the Wizard's Tower, | is the wall of thorns:
O|Z Z Z
Z M T Z
Z Z Z Z
Use your quick action to push him through the wall (6 mana, 10 damage dices):
Z|O Z Z
Z M T Z
Z Z Z Z
Use your tower to cast jet stream on the opponent (3 mana from pool, 1 mana from tower). This will do 2 damage dice and will have a 9/12=75% chance to push the opponent through the wall of thorns for another 10 dices (total 22 dice):
O|Z Z Z
Z M T Z
Z Z Z Z
If your opponent moved to the zone below his starting position, you can use the same order of spells (wall of thorns, push, jet stream). The only difference is the position of your mage and the position of the wall of thorns (btw for this scenario it was important to reveal cheetah speed at the beginning, because otherwise you could not cast the full combo if the opponent moved one zone downwards):
Z M Z Z
O|Z T Z
Z Z Z Z
If your opponent moved one zone to the right, you need to alter the order of spells, because otherwise your jet stream will not push him through the wall of thorns but will push him against the wall of the arena. So move your mage one left and cast the wall of thorns at the border between the opponent mage and his starting zone, then use jet stream to push him through and use force push as a quick cast:
Z|O Z Z
Z M T Z
Z Z Z Z
If the opponent moved to a zone next the tower or is in the same zone as the tower (because he attacked your mage), this combo works as well. Only problem is, if the opponent moved to the corner on right top (Mage and Tower are still at the same position (T):
Z Z Z O
Z Z T Z
Z Z Z Z
This won’t allow you to push him through the wall of thorns with jet stream regardless of your spell order. In this case the total amount of dices will be 15 if you succeed on jet streams push (75%) and push him against the arena wall or 12 if you don’t (25%).
For now, I assume that the opponent did not move into that right top corner, since if he plays aggressively and your mage is in the center that would be a strange move. Otherwise the damage of this combo will not be enough to kill him in round 3, but enough to put him under big pressure.
Round 3 (14 mana in pool, 1 mana on tower, initiative)
In quick cast phase cast jinx on opponent (2 mana). Opponent tries to quick cast something for sure, but it’s jinxed (1 mana).
Push your opponent through the wall again (6 mana) with your full action for another 10 dices. Now, use the tower to cast jet stream again (3 mana from pool, 1 from tower) for 2 dices and 75% for another push through the wall of thorns, which nets 10 dices again. The reason for the jinx is that he cant use his quick action to teleport somewhere or to cast an equipment.
Instead of jinx, you could use your quickcast to push him through the wall. But then he can use his quick cast before you activate your wiz tower. The use of jinx allows your tower to shoot at him before he can react (and you have your full action to force push him as well before he reacts). So there is nothing he can do against those 2 pushes but pray to the goddess of little yellow dices.
Lets sum up:
The last time your opponent activates his mage, he had zero damage. Now, he received 24 dices only from your two force pushes and the jet stream base damage. If both jet streams don’t push, that’s it, but the chance for this happening is 3/12*3/12=6.25%. So you have a chance of 93,75% to push him at least once, which will net 34 dices of damage! And the chance to push him twice is 9/12*9/12=56,25%! In this case, you do 44 dices of damage and even a warlock is dead.
Let me emphasize, if your opponent is not aware of this strategy and does not move with caution, he has only a very tiny chance to survive. After the combo started, he can’t even use a quick cast in the next round, since you jinx him.
If your opponent is aware of this strategy, he might cast a divine protection (reduces the damage from wall of thorns by 50%) or Eagleclaw Boots on him, which give him the unmovable trait (you can’t push him). So the opening I posted above is quite risky, but it has the potential to win in round 3.
Since I prefer openings that are more robust against counters, I would summon Huginn in round 1. This will give an important advantage if the opponent starts casting defensive enchantments and equipment. Since Huginn is quite vulnerable, I guess bull endurance is a good choice as a quick cast.
In round 2, I would cast wizards tower and a mage wand with force push or if it’s legal in the future Mordok’s Tome (which allows preparing a third spell, but still you can cast only 2 spells per round). The reason for the wand or Mordok’s Tome is that in the following rounds I want to have Wall of Thorns + Force Push available, but still prepare another spell, which I can use if the opponent plays with so much caution that I can’t start my combo. For example, I could prepare a wand of dispel + Wall of Thorns in round 3. If the opponent plays with caution, I cast Wand of Dispel to have even more freedom of choice in the following rounds and to be able to dispel divine protection asap. As a second spell in round 3, I could use the wand to dispel something or to look at a hidden enchantment or use arcane zap. If the opponent did not play with caution, I would start the combo instead with the prepared Wall of Thorns and the Force Push from the Mage Wand. Btw I did not talk about Huginns spell, that’s up to your imagination
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I still have to do a lot of testing for this push-rush strategy, so I’m not sure how it works against different builds. But I’m sure it will force the opponent to use defensive enchantments/equipment, which are limited in most decks and which will be dispelled/dissolved quickly with the help of Huginn. I guess focusing Huginn would be a good counter, but since he has bull endurance and the opponent needs to use actions on protective stuff for himself, it’s not easy to kill Huginn. And even if Huginn dies, as long as the opponent loses his divine protection and/or Eagleclaw Boots until then, he will be very vulnerable to the Wall of Thorns + Force Push + Wizard’s Tower + Jet Stream combo.
