Does Wizard work without mana drain effects?

[darkdaysdawn]

Does anyone think the Wizard works without the use of mana drain effects; Drain Power and enchantments that give Upkeep, for example?

Before I bought the Warlord/Forcemaster expansion, my first custom book idea was to make an Air Wizard that doesn't use mana drain.  Instead, I wanted to make it more "attack and evade" and also make big slow creatures *fast* or *teleport* unexpectedly.  So far, it's not working terribly well. 

I'm thinking of modifying it further to be mostly large flying or incorporeal creatures, Wizard Tower with 4 or 5 mana attack spell, teleport for escaping, and maybe a couple walls that don't block LoS (Pikes maybe?).

OR....now that I have all the expansions, should I just switch to Warlord and focus on the aggro?  Or, maybe Forcemaster and focus on evasion.  I'm thinking Wizard just isn't as versatile as I thought it was and needs mana drain to win.

Input, suggestions, ideas -- all welcome.

Thanks.

[Koz]

Wizard actually works BETTER without the mana drain effects.  Mana Drain can work, but it's slow.  A Wizard focusing on strong creatures and other spells is the way to go.  Solid cards depending on your chosen elemental school are: Gorgon Archer, Iron Golem, Hurl Boulder, Wizard Tower, the various Lighting spells and all of the Arcane goodness that they have easy access to (Teleport, Dispel, Nullify, etc).

Remember to make good use of your Voltaric Shield as well.

[Tacullu64]

Short answer, no.

The Wizzly Grizard book finished top 4 at Gencon without mana drain. Here is the link. http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=12936.0

[Stormmaster]

Wizard absolutely works without mana drain effects.  Sometimes it can slow the Wizzy down.
 
I love mana denial strategies, I just decided to play a Wizard this weekend and put ZERO mana drain, mana denial etc effects.  One of my 1st games ever that I was (for part of the time) channeling LESS mana than my opponent and I usually try to out channel.  If anything I found the mana drain stuff slowed me down.  It was a much more fast paced/tempo game and I won without without any mana drain and still channeling less.

Although the flip side is equally valid win condition too.  Heavy mana drain is a viable strat.  I had a game where my opponent was regenning 6 net mana a turn and I was regenning 14 mana a turn.  So you can just out power out cast them at that point, 6 mana a round doesn't let them put up much of a fight.

[Locusshifter]

I don't think I would play without the mana drain.

It not only gives you acceleration, slow or not, but certainly affects your opponent resolve.

[darkdaysdawn]

Played two games last night.  We alternated using the Wizzly Grizzard.  It won both times.  No mana drain -- totally a "Hulk smash!" strategy.  But still enough other tricks in the book to deal with pretty much anything the enemy does. 

Really fun build to play, and very effective -- within only a few rounds, your Stealclaw Grizzly is whacking the opposing mage for 9 dice every turn.

My faith in the Wizard is restored.  Might try a few Wizzly Grizzard variations staring alternate "big baddies".

[Shad0w]

Check out the Dudes Earth Wiz build from the news letter.