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Author Topic: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)  (Read 25700 times)

Diji

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #15 on: August 02, 2013, 11:39:32 PM »
Thx for the feedback guys!

@Arlemus - You make a good point about opposing creatures. Quick example, I played against a Beastmaster which used a similar big creature strategy using multiple Steelclaw. We both were doing the same thing. However, as the rounds progressed and I had more mana to maneuver with I was able to heal and deal damage simultaneously with Drain Soul. This put me in a very advantageous situation life-wise when factoring in the Sunfire. Also, guard is extremely effective with the NV - by putting the NV's on guard they effectively weaken each Steelclaw while remaining at near full life and protecting your Warlock. Overall though, I agree that the climb is much more difficult when dealing with other large creatures in multiples.

@Ahlano - Glad you like the spellbook, let me know how it works out for you and if there are some additions or subtractions that would make it even better. To answer your question, I'm going to level with you - Forcemaster is no joke! Her defenses make her a serious problem. My strategy against the Forcemaster is to cast the curses on her quickly (Agony, Marked For Death, Magebane, throw a Ghoul Rot in), forcing her to dispel rather than buff herself. Then move to Tanglevine to swing the defensive roll success average further away from her and let loose with the attack spells. Flameblast is unavoidable, burns are a bonus - she also cannot roll a defense (or use her Forcefield) to protect her from Drain Soul. Between two Drain Soul and two Flameblast you will average 20 damage, 12 of which cannot be healed and the Warlock will also gain 12 life (plus the possible burns). Not bad! In following turns if you are concerned about the defenses play the Knockdown spell into Hurl Boulder. Playing this way you rarely will end your turn in the same zone as the Forcemaster - and if you do, consider that you begin with a 6 life advantage and one of the primary functions of this deck is to compound more and more life on top of that. Even with a Sunfire of her own she will still trail you by a significant margin and that will be the edge you need to inch out the victory.


Thanks again for reading and commenting guys, it means a lot.  ;D
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piousflea

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #16 on: August 08, 2013, 09:03:25 AM »
Twilight Struggle is already a board game!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12333/twilight-struggle

I like Vampiresses and I have both played, and played against buffed-vampiress Warlock strategies. The main problem (which you already stated in the OP) is any sort of creature-control heavy deck. Each round that your Vamp spends Charmed or Force Held or Banished is a round where your opponent can swing a helluva lot more damage dice than you can. By spending all your mana summoning and supporting Vamps, you will have less of an equipment-enchantment stack on yourself, compared to most other Warlock builds.

Forcemasters can be a problem for any Warlock build. In the early game you don't float enough mana to toss multiple Drain Souls. I would strongly consider including an Enfeeble to lock down the FM while you and your Vamp walk around killing her battleforge, hand of bimshalla, and any other conjurations she has in play. Actually, Enfeeble is such a mana-efficient counter to any melee-heavy build in the game, that I try to run at least 2 of them in every Warlock deck that I play. (and if the other guy uses all of his dispels on enfeeble, now my ghoul rots and agonies are sticking)
« Last Edit: August 08, 2013, 09:06:13 AM by piousflea »

reddawn

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #17 on: August 11, 2013, 06:56:54 PM »
Forcemasters can be a problem for any Warlock build. In the early game you don't float enough mana to toss multiple Drain Souls. I would strongly consider including an Enfeeble to lock down the FM while you and your Vamp walk around killing her battleforge, hand of bimshalla, and any other conjurations she has in play. Actually, Enfeeble is such a mana-efficient counter to any melee-heavy build in the game, that I try to run at least 2 of them in every Warlock deck that I play. (and if the other guy uses all of his dispels on enfeeble, now my ghoul rots and agonies are sticking)

Idk, I probably would just recommend not playing a Vamp against the FM.  Her control enchants are very efficient against large creatures in particular, and sure you could try and stop those, but eventually, you will want to do something other than worry about Nullifying or Dispelling control enchantments.  This is especially true if you're playing a mage who does not naturally channel for as much as the FM does and cannot afford to break even over and over on mana.

A combination of Bats, Imps and Skeletal Sentries works great against the FM, though small creatures in general are really good vs FM, since few of her spells are efficient vs them (particularly small fliers).  Rots and Burns care not for defenses, and the little attacks either get through unchallenged, or let your bigger Mage or skeleton swings or attack spells get through. 

Agree, Enfeeble is hands-down the best curse on a FM, especially once her Cheetah Speed is gone.  Agony works great too, since it reduces dice on both strikes of Galvitar.  Outside of Galvitar, the FM has a tough time dealing efficient damage, so if you can Slow and put 2 zones of distance between you and her, she's really hurting.
« Last Edit: August 11, 2013, 06:59:52 PM by reddawn »
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Moonglow

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #18 on: August 11, 2013, 07:58:31 PM »
Rots and Burns care not for defenses, and the little attacks either get through unchallenged, or let your bigger Mage or skeleton swings or attack spells get through. 

This statement confused me, I understood defence, but not armour, can avoid conditions (Such as rot and burn).  Or did you just mean defences more generally?


aquestrion

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #19 on: August 11, 2013, 08:06:03 PM »
Rot and burn bypass armor and cannot be advoided

reddawn

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #20 on: August 11, 2013, 08:30:12 PM »
Yeah, Rots/Bleeds/Burns are direct damage (direct damage = critical and unavoidable), so a Defense or armor won't stop them.
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Moonglow

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #21 on: August 11, 2013, 08:33:54 PM »
God dammit!! I love this game, but do despair a little about ever knowing all the rules and exceptions :/

Then again I've only played 5 games, three taught by someone who I don't think was too pedantic about the rules and 2 where I taught them, clearly with a limited knowledge of them all!

Hmmm guess that means defences don't work against Brogan's attack either then - I don't think it came up, as my opponent was all high armour low defence, but I remember thinking at the time I better look up what the implications were.

Thanks.

Rot and burn bypass armor and cannot be advoided

Moonglow

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #22 on: August 11, 2013, 08:45:25 PM »
Nope I'm confused again sorry :/

Direct damage I understood was when the effect does its damage in the upkeep phase.  So I get that armour and defence doesn't work here.  Under direct damage the Codex actually says that they aren't considered an attack, so in that sense I'm not sure its correct to say that they're unavoidable, but the effect is the same.

However, I'm not so clear whether the rot/burn/bleed condition avoids defence - perhaps this is a bit semantic, but am I correct saying that the condition roll is not made and the condition cannot be applied (no token placed) if the attack is avoided with defence? 

Additionally, if the defence fails, and the armour prevents any damage, an effect roll is still made and a condition token can be placed.

Sorry for belabouring the point :/
 



Yeah, Rots/Bleeds/Burns are direct damage (direct damage = critical and unavoidable), so a Defense or armor won't stop them.

haslo

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #23 on: August 12, 2013, 03:01:07 AM »
Direct damage I understood was when the effect does its damage in the upkeep phase.
Not necessarily. Direct Damage is whenever the card tells you that it does Direct Damage - Drain Life for example does Direct Damage as part of a normal Incantation resolution. Many sources of Direct Damage deal it in the Upkeep phase, but it's not true that all damage dealt in the Upkeep phase is necessarily Direct Damage, nor that all Direct Damage must be dealt in the Upkeep phase.

However, I'm not so clear whether the rot/burn/bleed condition avoids defence - perhaps this is a bit semantic, but am I correct saying that the condition roll is not made and the condition cannot be applied (no token placed) if the attack is avoided with defence? 

Additionally, if the defence fails, and the armour prevents any damage, an effect roll is still made and a condition token can be placed.
Yeah, if the attack that could maybe apply rot or burn or somesuch is successfully avoided with a Defense roll, no condition roll is made (steps 3 and 4 are skipped). There's no Direct Damage involved here.

The codex has this to say about Direct Damage:
Quote
Damage that is put directly on a creature. The damage is critical (bypasses armor). It is not considered an attack, and the creature cannot use a Defense to avoid the damage.
So once Rot triggers in an Upkeep phase and deals Direct Damage, no Defense (or Armor, or Aegis) will be able to avoid or reduce its direct damage.

Laddinfance

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #24 on: September 24, 2013, 05:33:23 PM »
Got to play against this book over the weekend. Unfortunately, i didn't really get to see what it did as I came at it with an unorthodox strategy. Though it did seem to have a lot of tools. I just caught him off guard. I'm sure he'll put more of a hurt on me in the future.

zot

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #25 on: September 25, 2013, 06:53:35 AM »
     I can attest to how much life this book can generate. I had the honor of facing Dijirati where he played this book. So much life...
I think pushing 70. It was really impressive.

    Fortunately for me, I was playing a book that was one of his bad matchups.  An air wizard. My GA started piling up weaks on the all of the NVs. And the spell that really saved me was the awesome meta of renewing spring. This spell is so strong, yet very underrated, so undervalued by folks and so few use it. I was able to both heal and ditch the taints slowly. Note, I specifically added RS because of taint. Because taints stack, one could find themselves severly weakened on max life that they can get killed so much easier. And RS allows you to attain multiple heals potentially taking the place of several minor heals in your book, with the benefit of removing ANY one condition. It is not a spell once in play, so using it cannot be nullified. MMM, life giving water. In fact I credit RS specifically with saving me on multiple occasions allowing me to get past a fury of pain in order to bounce back. For instance against a burn heavy warlock. Able to heal up some, and ditch burns. Note that also saves spell book points, AND actions to do both at the same time and not have to cast a geyser/minor heal to do that. One of my favorite spells. Awesome.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2013, 07:06:13 AM by zot »

Diji

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #26 on: September 25, 2013, 10:36:32 PM »
Yea, that was an intense bout! Shame it went to time, I know we both wanted to play it out.

I have to admit you played that Wizard very well and I did not see the renewing spring coming. Great card! Im 0-1, but I look forward to the rematch. Hope your well Tim.
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zot

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #27 on: September 29, 2013, 01:17:35 PM »
thanks man! appreciate it. took another week to finally come out of it completely. i look forward to a rematch too. i am here in indy, maybe we can schedule that rematch sometime. i too wish we could have played it out.

zot

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #28 on: October 16, 2013, 11:02:09 AM »
   Hey Dijirati,

Matt is running a tourney here in Indy on 10.26 at Saltire. There is a thread in the events link off the main forum page. Maybe you can make it up and we can try to rematch?

Diji

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Re: Tome Constitution 1: Twilight Struggle (Warlock)
« Reply #29 on: October 16, 2013, 12:50:54 PM »
Hey Tim,

I'd LOVE to come but I'm unfortunately out of town that weekend. Matt text me about the event some time ago and I tried to see if he could push it back a week or two so Druid/Necro could get some face time but it wasn't going to work out for the shop. He said he would do another real soon, and I'll make the next one for sure.

Honestly, with the number of people in our combined areas we could get a league going that met something like one weekend a month. I'd make the drive for that. Kick that around at the shop next week and maybe see how many ppl you can get on board. Good luck next weekend brother, and I'll probably make the casual trip up to Indi just to get a few pickup games in. I'll let you know ahead of time to see if your free.
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