My Priestess build (lacking a better title)

[tarkin84]

Hi guys!

As requested by Deckbuilder, here's the Priestess build I've used in my last league match-ups and with which I won the final game.

Equipment
Ring of Asyra
Enchanter's ring
Meditation amulet x2
Leather gloves
Leather boots
Dragonscale hauberk x2
Dispel wand
Mage wand x2
Veteran's belt x2
Crown of protection

Conjurations
Battle forge
Temple of Asyra
Hand of Bim-shalla x2
Temple of light x2
Temple of the dawnbreaker

Creatures
Royal archer x2
Asyrian cleric x2
Guardian angel x3
Highland unicorn
Knight of Westlock x3

Enchantments
Nullify x3
Decoy
Divine protection x4
Healing charm x4
Regrowth
Divine intervention

Incantations
Dispel x2
Seeking dispel
Purify x2
Dissolve x4
Teleport x2
Minor heal x2

My standard opening is the following:

20:         Asyrian cleric, Battle forge not in the corner (7+0)
17+1:     Meditation amulet, Temple of Asyra in the corner, Cleric and Priestess get some mana (7+0+1)
17+1+2: Leather gloves or Enchanter's ring, Guardian angel, Regrowth or Nullify, Cleric and Priestess get more mana (7 or 8+0+1)

I was expecting my final opponent to run a Watergate/Earth Wizard as he is an extremely competitive player, so I decided to go with the Priestess to out-turtle him with lots of channeling and actions. Crown of protection made the list as it is a very good card in such a long games with little interaction and I included the second copy of Temple of light (I usually run just one) because of its awesomeness against Jellies and Golems.

He was also expecting a Watergate Wizard from me and tried to take me by surprise playing a hyper-aggressive Forcemaster double grizzly build. It was a very interesting game in which I had to play very smartly (I'm pretty sure it was my best MW performance since I started playing the game) to avoid being killed by his grizzlies. After 9 rounds, when I managed to destroy a Deathlock and gathered 2 angels and 2 knights, he conceded the game because he believed that he had no chances to win the match, even though I still had to take down his grizzlies before focusing on his mage.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them.

Edit: I messed up and wrote Dispel x3, when I was actually running dispel x2 and seeking dispel x1. Updated.

[DeckBuilder]

Great build and write up, Tarkin. I loved the meta mind games in choosing your mages in the final!

Dammit, I'm gonna have to eat humble pie over Procrastination Meditation Amulet...

That's it, no more playtest games, I have to reconnect with the meta as this book blew many of my preconceptions away.

Thanks again for posting!

[tarkin84]

In my humble opinion, meditation amulet is quite good... in the right build. You need to play a non-melee mage which doesn't care about attacking and a creature spawnpoint to compensate for the loss of the full action in meditating. I've been using that card in almost every build since DvN was released although I initially disliked it, but then saw its potential in a book which includes a spawnpoint.

However, not every mage will benefit from the amulet to the same extent. Relying too much on it to fuel the spawnpoint will leave your mage too vulnerable to attacks, as you only get one action to protect yourself instead of the usual two. Wizards (voltaric shield) and druids (treebond) can survive long enough with just one defensive quick cast per turn, but other mages need more protection. This is where the Battle forge comes in: all the cheap equipment which increases survivability (boots, gloves, veteran's belt) combined with QC defensive enchantments (rhino hide, divine protection, regrowth) can make your mage last longer and slowly gain control of the game through the creature spawnpoint. I've learned this the hard way: I built a beastmaster lair/meditation amulet spellbook which was very amusing to play and it won my first games. But when my girlfriend teleported my almost naked mage into a Jelly pit I realised that meditation amulet was taking away from me the possibility of building a strong defence. Never underestimate how quickly damage can pile on a mage when you are not using your actions to pile some armor and healing on him

[IndyPendant]

I too hated the Meditation when it was first spoiled for DvN.  If anything, I was *more* vocal about its 'obvious suckage' at the time.  I was also eventually converted; as tarkin says, it's useful in certain situations.

What turned me around on the Meditation Amulet was a Temple/Forge build that has evolved to be very similar to tarkin's as well.  I've included mine in its current state below, just for comparison.  After looking at his, I think I might make some adjustments to mine now; replacing the Staff for a second Amulet for example, and dropping the Block since half my creatures have Defenses and Guard all the time.

I am curious about a couple things though: do you really find so many Dispels (+ Wand) and Dissolves that useful?  And why two Purifies, is that just to counter the local meta of expecting the Weak-spamming Wizard?

---  Conjuration  ---
1 Hand of Bim-Shalla
1 Temple of the Dawnbreaker
1 Temple of Asyra
1 Battle Forge
1 Altar of the Iron Guard

---  Creature  ---
1 Brogan Bloodstone
2 Gray Angel
2 Guardian Angel
3 Knight of Westlock
2 Royal Archer
2 Asyran Cleric
1 Highland Unicorn

---  Enchantment  ---
3 Divine Protection
4 Healing Charm
1 Harmonize
1 Sacred Ground
1 Regrowth
2 Nullify
1 Block
1 Armor Ward

---  Equipment  ---
1 Dragonscale Hauberk
1 Elemental Cloak
2 Mage Wand
1 Staff of Asyra
1 Leather Gloves
1 Meditation Amulet
1 Leather Boots
1 Veterans Belt
1 Crown of Protection
1 Enchanter's Ring
1 Ring of Asyra

---  Incantation  ---
2 Dispel
2 Dissolve
2 Force Push
1 Group Heal
1 Heal
2 Minor Heal
2 Teleport

[tarkin84]

Nowadays, I tend to include almost always 3-4 dissolve in my books. There are many awesome equipment that I would not want my opponent to have: regrowth and veteran's belt (incredible card by the way), wands... Having spare dissolves in my book lets me use them without relying on a wand of my own.

Regarding dispel, in fact I ran only two of them (I've just corrected the list). The dispel wand lets me get rid of low level annoying enchantments such as rhino hide, regrowth or magebane without using my one of my two copies of the normal dispel. Purify is the Priestess poor-man's dispel against curses, though it can save you one action if destroying poisoned blood and ghoul rot at once.

Hope that helps!

Altar of the iron guard will be a great addition once it's available!

[DeckBuilder]

Altar of the iron guard will be a great addition once it's available!

Yes, Altar will be perfect for this build. I very much hope it won't be Legendary though! Initiative coin flip...

I totally agree about Veteran's Belt. It was a game changer and it's even better with Wizard & his Shield.
4 armour + Veteran's Belt and you can laugh at Thorns. Generally a Forge Wizard has 7 armour anyway.

My Wizard uses Healing Wand as the second Wand (+ Teleoort Wand usuallY) to remove Corrode.
I never thought of Priestess ability which frees hand to use Dispel Wand! Just blew me away, Tarkin.

I'm going to have to test Meditation Amulet with Voltari + Forge build in Water or Fire to see if it works.

This build has made me very happy that the meta is actually far more vibrant than I had previously thought.
I suspected something was up when I read the match-ups and results - hence daring to ask for your book.

One question: I noticed Indy has Sacred Ground which seems a natural choice in a turtle build but not you?
Was this what you took out for the 2nd Temple of Light? Also no Harmonize or Armour Ward like Indy has?

I liked Indy's Enchantment choice more (not Block) but I far preferred your Incantations choice.

I think the answer may be in Indy's question: his meta doesn't play Dispel/Dissolve as much as the Madrid meta.

It actually does not leverage rubbish Light at all against Nonliving, just outproduce with Knights and Guardians.
So it's not one-dimensional: I'm just shocked you survived 2 Grizzly FM assault - you must've played out of your (Bear) skin!

This build is a meta evolution milestone build: I suggest you edit it and name it something snappy...

[tarkin84]

I considered playing Sacred ground, but that enchantment forces me to turtle even if I don't want to. If I need my knights to do some dirty work, they will lose the Aegis 1 trait. So I went with 4 divine protections (one for each knight and one for my mage), because I find them far more versatile. Just a matter of preference, I guess.

Regarding armor ward... I totally forgot about it. I keep the multi-school enchantments apart and when browsing through the in-school stuff I didn't see the card and didn't remember it existed, either. My bad.

Finally, I left out harmonize on purpose because I don't have a spare action for it in the first few turns. I am usually too busy piling up defensive stuff (Divine protection/Healing charm for knights and mage, Regrowth and so on) that I haven't missed it at all (it went out for the second ToL). I prefer the cleric opening because it gives me one more action marker (since I read what you and Charmyna said on this, I am quite aware of the strategic advantage it gives), even though the he is far more fragile than the enchantment and can be killed.

[DeckBuilder]

I prefer the cleric opening because it gives me one more action marker

Yes, when I read your opening, I immediately appreciated this. It's really good, Tarkin, a pitch perfect opening.

I understand the logic behind your choices. Sacred Ground does force a turtle but also protects key conjurations.

Do you place the Divine Protection on the Knights? I thought they were for the Angels!
Especially since I assume one will be guarding Temple of Asrya from being destroyed by Force Hammers etc?
I have always found that the Knight's Armour and Defence means I work around them.
They are not "Too Big To Kill" but they are not worth the effort (I play a lot of positional control when aggro).
Only time I attack Knights is with Surging Wave to remove their guard, wall bash and/or wolf pack it if down.

I love how Corrode has made Priestess the best armoured mage now!
That epiphany and Meditation Amulet in an armoured build has been a revelation to me.

I will never again dismiss a card and never play it.
Now where's that Gate to Hell coaster...?

[Wildhorn]

Aegis doesnt stack... Divine protection is useless on angels.

And Sacred Ground doesnt protect conjurations...

[DeckBuilder]

Aegis doesnt stack... Divine protection is useless on angels.

And Sacred Ground doesnt protect conjurations...

DOH! Still at work (which blocks the card sites like gameknight but not this forum, my sanity saviour)
I forgot Guardian Angels have it already (but not Gray Angels if I recall correctly?)

Sacred Ground only Aegis on creatures? Never realised. Only played it once I think...
I wonder if it's the same with Fortified Ground...

Yeah, it all makes sense now why the Divine Protection is on Knights.
It would be pretty daunting to Surging Wave "man down" wolf pack them with it on.

I think I'm now going to wait until I get home instead of quickly posting and making such a faux pas.
I think I'm just excited because it's been the most interesting build posted in a long while.
Eye-opening.

Rumours of the Meta's demise to Nonliving have been greatly exaggerated...

[baronzaltor]

DOH! Still at work (which blocks the card sites like gameknight but not this forum, my sanity saviour)
I forgot Guardian Angels have it already (but not Gray Angels if I recall correctly?)

Sacred Ground only Aegis on creatures? Never realised. Only played it once I think...
I wonder if it's the same with Fortified Ground…

Sacred Ground only applies to Living Creatures.
Fortified Position is Corporeal Creatures

[silverclawgrizzly]

Sacred Ground can be cool for creating a good pull back position or archer camp. Divine Protection all the way though.

[IndyPendant]

Yeah, I have both mostly for that reason: if the game is heading towards an Archers-with-Guards bunker, I'll play the Sacred Ground.  If it's looking more mobile, I'll play the Divine Protections on the Knights (and/or possibly Brogan).  I only have two creatures starting with Aegis in my build, so I've found Sacred Ground to be useful at times.  I usually don't bother Protecting the Priestess; with 4-5 armour and a Veteran's Belt, I don't think I've ever had to worry about the damage she was taking unless my creatures were dead first.  Which usually means the Priestess will be as well, soon enough. ; )

I included the Altar because it's one of the Promos I managed to snag in real life (all my books on OCTGN are the same as the ones I use in meatspace), and it was perfect for this book.  My meta has nothing against Promos, for the most part--particularly with AW's stated intent that they'll all eventually be released unaltered.

Group Heal has saved my bacon at least twice so far; with liberal use of Guard tokens, damage tends to be spread around more than in other games.  One time I healed 18 damage with the spell, spread over four creatures--that was actually rolling lower than average as well, I could have healed more if I had rolled better.  I'll probably drop the Heal as well though; I may try a Dispel Wand, although I think it's overpriced for what you get.

[baronzaltor]

Shift Enchantment can be used to make a "mobile" Sacred Ground.

[DeckBuilder]

[Having made an embarrassing mistake, I might as well continue with some openly-voiced musings...]


Ok, I'm not trying to break this build, just trying to understand its parameters by matching it against other top tier builds.


GOLEM PIT

I can see it is a very strong choice against Wizard Slow creatures, especially Jelly/Golem with Temple of Light. Golem Pit accepted Priestess was its weakness (hence mixed in Living) as she out-turtles, has Light attacks (here Temple) and Divine Intervention so she's was an excellent choice anticipating Earth Wizard.


WATERGATE

This is slightly harder I expect but Meditating even denies Gate to Voltari mana! Problem is books will focus on Jelly probably. I assume Archers come out here? Another long game but nobody turtles better than Priestess. Again a good choice as she's incredibly resilient.


BRUTE SQUAD

Against Zombie Brute Squad (14 Channel and 4 Brutes emerging from FC by turn 5), Temple of Light causes problems (Wall of Bones blocks) but so does Deathlock (Angels) & Pestilence once Priestess is wounded beyond Minor Heal range. Then again she has Divine Intervention to escape a Wall of Bones cornering to regroup and destroy Deathlock/Pestilence in my corner, abandons Temple of Asrya to the Zombies but just hard summons, her creature base is bigger (4 Brutes, 1 Shaggoth, 1 Plague) so I can see with good play, she will win a war of attrition. But it's touch and go as Brute Squad brutally punishes mistakes and usually only fears Jelly/Golems/Whirling Spirit (and well played Skeletons). But this build has a good game against Brute Squad as corner-to-corner Divine Intervention is too much tempo loss and it will attrition it once Deathlock is destroyed. Advantage Priestess.


MANA DENIAL + CURSES

What about Curses? Against Enchantment Transfusion of a stack of negative enchants like Force Crush etc, I assume this build goes aggressive to disrupt the build up. She has Purify for action-saving multi-removal too. Plus Divine Intervention foils anything - does that mean the Transfusing Enchantments are all lost? Hmmm, I feel Wizard Mana Denial with Curses like Dude's "Highly Calibrated Wizard" or Shadow's Earth Wizard (with DvN cards) may still be a problem. Charmyna has been alluding to his "Blasting Banker" which seems a hybrid of Curses and Distance Nuking with Mana Denial, upgrade on Warlock because of Wizard's Tower. Lack of 1 Purge Magic which most Wizards have against this (and Beastmaster/Forcemaster) may be an issue here...


DRUID

Don't know much about her so I really can't comment.
ACG plays Defensive Samara Treee Meditation Amulet + Flowers.
Aylin plays Aggressive Vine Tree which is where my preference is.
But the level 3 creature quality that Holy has may be too much.
Especially if you give her time to Armour Up with her Crown etc.


HYPER-AGGRO

Maybe Living Hyper-Aggro is its weakness? Surely this Priestess build invests too heavily in infrastructure at the start to cope with it?

An old-fashion aggro Fire Warlock like a Bashcon Beatdown variant (updated 1 year) may be a problem. But Guardian Angel wasn't around back then.

How does it cope against the simple Beastmaster Forge + Beast Ring + Enchanter's Ring "Aggro Tempo"? It has access to usually 2 Mongoose Agility (timed revealed), Eaglewings on Cervere etc? Maybe even toolbox Falcon Precision This old chestnut may actually be her hardest match because it attacks Priestess' corner in round 2 with 4 dice and then doesn't stop, ending up with a Voltron equipped Beastmaster. These Mid range Spawnpoint builds were meat and drink to that build so I reckon Beastmaster will win. It's only Wizards' slow game that has made Mid Range Spawnpoint viable again. I don't fancy the Priestess' chances. Still, she will armour up pretty fast...

Also Tarkin managed to beat a 2 Grizzlies Forcemaster build and you can't get more Hyper Aggro than that!
I suspect that was his play skill as you don't get to be European Champion at AGOT unless you're top notch.
Though it's a Final so doubt his opponent was a slouch - Madrid's AGOT Meta also have a World champion.

Whatever, this build shows it's really good that Holy is there to make sure Nonliving is not too dominant.

Rejoice, the meta is alive, there's a paper-scissors-stone-lizard-spock of builds to out-predict your opponents.

(A shame that tournament game lengths may destroy the viability of some counter-strategies.)