baronzaltor - I love your idea of fortified position on a zone with lots of rooted plants. My only complaint is that it costs 6 spellpoints. That being said, it would be worth it saving multiple actions + mana from buffing each individually. Shift enchantment is a fantastic idea to go along with this as you had said. Great thoughts friend, I can see this as being very viable. I had taken some glances at the Sunfire Amulet and definitely consider using it in her book. I agree that having her shoulder more damage from the Tree is a great way to get around healing conjurations.
Deckbuilder - Thank you for your insightful post. I have actually implemented a lot of what you suggested (mage wand for teleports, elemental wand for boulder + force hammer). I have found more use for the Etherian Lifetree and actually consider it more useful now after careful examination. The only time I wouldn't play it is against a swarmer. Earlier that day I actually read that no multiple of same conjuration in one zone so I forgot. I'm not the biggest fan of this rule, although admittedly it doesn't occur too often. I absolutely LOVE the idea of a Suppresion orb. I find that my goal is to move her plants as little as possible due to the mana costs so this is the ultimate synergistic card to punish the other mage while rarely affecting you. Perfect!
Aylinisawesome / the dude - I'm not the biggest fan of the meditation amulet as I feel losing actions is really huge in this game. That being said, I feel like the Druid is one of the only mages that can actually make the amulet viable. This is because her vine tree can essentially cast for her and not worry about range due to vines. I still think it's situational but I definitely can see running it if you plan to have her plants run the whole show and have her pump mana into them. I personally prefer to have her use her actions to support the machines in other ways (enchantments, incantations etc) but to each their own. Galador certainly fills the etheral gap and I appreciate that observation. However, being 5 spell points is a bit much. I also feel like hes kind of expensive for his cost. Plus you have to full cast him through your mage which breaks her synergy a bit. He is certainly an option since he does cost face value on his nature portion. I prefer running a elemental wand with force hammer but its nice to have a creature option if you expect some mean incorporeal creatures!
I found our during my last game that Corrosive Orchids attack is unavoidable. It dawned on me that it can make an attack on a mage through block, defense and nullify. Essentially, if it wants to spit some acid on that mage he's going to get it! As I mentioned in my post, deplying this when you have initation is strong since they only have a quick cast to react to it.
My last game was played against a necromancer. He started bringing out a the death ring, libro and graveyard (lots of high investments, I know). He started pushing shaggoth-zora and zombie crawlers to munch on. I was forced to come in heavy and sieged his graveyard with vine tree casted vine snappers and used corrosive orchid to dissolve that pesky death ring. I find that the druid is extremly good for a tactical use. Unfortunately, by the time I got through his graveyard he had vastly out-creatured me. However, my conjurations were safe in the back. We didn't play too much longer after that due to his aggravation. However, I feel like he could have brought that army down and really had his way with me. If I'm in a similar situation I wonder if it's good strategy to siege and remove his options rather than deal with the threat of the army. Any thoughts? I feel like this would apply to any creature-heavy enemy.
Loving this discussion guys, keep it up!