My first game, 4p, and what I learned.

[Mestrahd]

This is copied from my thread on BGG, so apologies if you see it twice.

So I got one of my core sets and Spell Tomes yesterday and built the 4 suggested decks from the rulebook. I was only short 4 cards with that supply so I subbed in other spells. We played 2v2, Wizard/Priestess (me) vs Beastmaster/Warlock. While we did not determine a winner, we still had great fun learning the game. Here are some things we learned.

1 - While there are cards that provide armor tokens (Crown of Protection) there ARE no armor tokens in the box.

2 - Flying is very powerful. The beastmaster was only able to field 3 creatures that could fight flying and one of them had Eagles Wings. The Warlock equipped himself with Lash of Hellfire but that was first on my list to Dissolve.

3 - I must have explained Mana Flower/Crystal poorly because the opposing team thought the Channeling +1 was a recurring bonus during the Ready Stage. The Beastmaster was up to channeling 16 mana per turn before I caught it.

4 - I think everyone besides me was deeply confused over what Incantations were. I tried to explain they were spells that affected the opponent without damaging them but I don't think that worked.

[Alex319]

For Flying - don't forget that you can Guard, and when the enemy creature attacks, you will still get the counterstrike.

[Mestrahd]

Thanks for the reminder on Guard. My opponent was just never in a position to use it against my flyers.

Also, I learned that 4 player games are LONG. Of course it was a learning game but we played 4 hours and only had 20 points of damage on only one mage at the time we called it.

[Klaxas]

the book mentions tokens as not provided in the game, use anything you would like to represent tokens.  also applies to rage.  i would like to see official tokens made to represent things.  that would be sweet, or something third party.

[Qixter]

I'm also looking for smallish wall like items to represent walls. I think just raised thin dividers word suffice, just something besides the card which takes up space. Love the game, but I'm ready to replace the cards in the arena with miniatures at times. Although in keeping track of things in some ways the cards are better but aesthetically mini figs would be cool.

So far really enjoying my canine (howl at the moon deck) with the beast lord and the Wizard whirling poison deck.

[tidus99]

Hi Mestrahd,

Once you are more familiar with the game how much time do you reckon you will shave off of a 4 player game?

4 players will be my target audience for this game and we have all played MTG for years so this should help a little I hope.  

Have you considered lowering the health of each Mage slightly so that 4 player games can conclude quicker?

[Mestrahd]

There was quite a bit of analysis paralysis, so if I were to play with the same people I'd say probably an hour per person still. But at least it may finish. I like your suggestion on lowering the health values. Maybe by 10 each? Only 2 of our mages even took damage and one healed it all back.