The bait...and switch.

[Maverick]

Hi all! New to the forums and have a massive 3 games under my belt. So please take this idea with a grain of salt.

So I was reading through the Forums and one of the threads I read was by The Dude and was called The Bait... it is an old thread that discusses using the Gorgon archer in order to bait the enemy mage where you want them. The reason the Gorgon works as good bait is it cannot shoot it's own zone which makes it almost a no-brainer to melee. I have refined that idea a bit and expanded on it to develop the Bait and Switch.

The Premise- Have a Gorgon archer enchanted with Akiro's favor located near center. Enchant with a face down Eagles wings and enchant the zone with a face down Teleport Trap. While your Wizard is building up a Pit of monsters (I like Mana Leeches personally) in the starting corner have the Gorgon archer heckle the enemy creatures and Mage. The first creature that goes to take down the Gorgon gets teleported where you want it (Like the hopefully ready zone full of Mana Leeches) or at minimum 2 zones back the direction it came to give more turns to accrue those Weak tokens. The second time a creature (or mage) enters the Gorgons zone before the declare attack step reveal the Eagles wings to make the Gorgon an ineligible target for melee then ignore the (hopefully non-flying) creature and continue to ping other eligible targets with the Gorgon. Enjoy the tempo you receive by the opponent wasting actions on the Gorgon.

In an ideal situation this will cost the opponent at least 3 move actions and will give him many weak tokens he has to deal with. Though ranged attacks or fliers could kill the Gorgan they are not as heavy of a concern due to Regeneration and the rarity of those attacker types compared to melee combatants. This may not win a duel and will probably not work on the same opponent twice. But it will sure as heck be a distracting side strategy if it fires off. Any thoughts or corrections?

[Zuberi]

Sounds like it could be fun to play around with. That's a big part of the joy of this game; playing around with new ideas and strategies.

If your opponent is aware of the card pool they will probably guess the teleport trap. There's not many other things it could be, and most of those others are equally bad for them. Thus if you have it down they will probably push or teleport the archer out of that zone rather than going in and popping the trap.

Face down enchants on the archer would also make it less appealing as bait. I would personally assume a nullify to prevent me from moving it away from the trap and quick cast a seeking dispel before moving the archer. This could lose you both the trap and the wings.

That's assuming I decide to bother with the hassle of the heavily enchanted archer directly. I may also attempt to control the archer with sleep or a wall, since your mage is in a different zone and you've so much invested in the archer, neutralizing it could be pretty good for me.

[Maverick]

That is a lot of food for thought there. I never really considered them moving my Gorgon. Still it would not be all bad as they have to get in range to do it and that is weak tokens on the enemy mage most likely. The fact that the Eagles wings would go with the Gorgon means that safety net will still be standing. Dispelling the teleport trap is not really a  big deal and hey another action got eaten up so it was not entirely pointless.

Sleep or similar control spells looks like it would be the best option for shutting it down. I just hope the temptation to melee is stronger than the desire to waste mana on control. The fact that melee seems like such a good idea is kind of what I was banking on.

[aquestrion]

After playing this weekend I came upon this GA WITH EAGLE WINGS, playing against a FM it is super hard to deal with and even harder to kill. The first time it got me! the second time I just ignored it and went with a ranged wand thunderbolt against mage game plan. I hate GA even more when the FM just pulls it along like a puppy. And uses mind shield(first time I've ever seen it played!!!) To protect it from my knockdown/ sleep