My thought on Seedling Pods

[Wise fool]

Howdy!  I'm new to the game and new to the boards, but I'm definitely hooked on MW!  Even though I've played a total of 3 games, I thought I'd take the opportunity to shoot my big mouth off.  Seriously though, I love the amount of discussion this game generates. 

The contrarian in me wants to find uses for cards that are maligned, and I had a thought about seedling pod.  The knock against them is they don't generally live long enough to earn back the mana you burned in creating them.  To which I say... so what?  You'd burn 2+2 mana on a block to stave off an attack on your mage, but you won't spend a measly two mana (2 with a leaf ring) on a spell that may save you some mana in the long run and in exchange you might get to summon a creature on a later turn (a full action) for what cost you a quick action?  If my opponent is wasting time stepping on seedling pods that's time they're not stepping on my mage.  Sure, there's the psychological pain of losing the mana that stacks on them if it doesn't make it to round 3, but isn't that really just bait?  And if they're not squashed, you've traded a quick action for a full round action if you do manage to summon something.  This is just an idle theory for now (one which I plan to test next chance I get).

Just wanted to say, I think this is a really great forum.  I've never seen the game of Go compared to another board game before, nor have I seen such in an in depth comparison involving the Art of War with another board game.  I hope Mage Wars continues to prosper in the future.

[Aylin]

A Seedling Pod doesn't take attacks from Fireball, Hurl Boulder, Adramelech's primary attack, etc. They take attacks from Sweeping or from your opponent moving creatures into position (and using the quick action to hurt your mana supply).

That's a huge difference.

[gw]

I understand Seedling Pod as a mana generator, which beats other passive mana generators in its cost.

Spawnpoints/Familiars cost around  10+
[mwcard=MW1Q22]Moonglow Amulet [/mwcard]costs 6
[mwcard=MW1J13]Mana Flower [/mwcard] and [mwcard=MW1J12]Mana Crystal [/mwcard]cost 5
[mwcard=MW1E20]Harmonize [/mwcard]costs 4
[mwcard=DNJ08]Seedling Pod [/mwcard]costs 3

Seedling Pod might be an intersting early throw-down if your Druid opening strategy for the first turns has 3 spare mana - maybe 4 but not 5.
Other than being a possible filler in an already tight opening, I also don't see a use for them.

[ACG]

Here's my take on seedling pods: They are an excellent way to avoid wasting actions.

As a druid, I find that I sometimes have more actions than I know what to do with. On any other mage, you might deal with this by banking an enchantment for later; seedling pod is an alternative way to ensure that extra actions are not wasted.

The other advantage of the seedling pod is that they allow you to delay making a decision. If you aren't sure what to cast, just cast a seedling pod and you can decide later after you have seen what your opponent does. In the early game especially, it can be difficult to know what to go for. By planting seedling pods, you can delay choosing a strategy until you know what you are up against, and at that point you will be able to use the actions that you banked earlier.

Essentially, seedling pods are a way to bank actions for future use.

[Aylin]

Here's my take on seedling pods: They are an excellent way to avoid wasting actions.

As a druid, I find that I sometimes have more actions than I know what to do with. On any other mage, you might deal with this by banking an enchantment for later; seedling pod is an alternative way to ensure that extra actions are not wasted.

The other advantage of the seedling pod is that they allow you to delay making a decision. If you aren't sure what to cast, just cast a seedling pod and you can decide later after you have seen what your opponent does. In the early game especially, it can be difficult to know what to go for. By planting seedling pods, you can delay choosing a strategy until you know what you are up against, and at that point you will be able to use the actions that you banked earlier.

Essentially, seedling pods are a way to bank actions for future use.

I'm not sure they're better than Enchantments in this regard, simply because you can reveal an enchantment as soon as the situation changes but must wait three turns with a Pod.

[Zuberi]

He didn't state they were better, he stated they performed a similar function. It does allow you to bank actions and can actually make those actions more efficient, but you do have to wait on the payoff. In a game this fast paced, that wait is usually not ideal for your main strategy. Thus, they are generally best suited for when you have nothing better to do, like ACG said.

[dark_dar]

I haven't created my Druid book yet, but I think that Seedling Pots can be great for building "a great forest of death", which I plan to do.
I don't really care if opponent attacks them - as people mentioned above, he's giving me more time to react and to do other things. I don't know how will it all work, though, as my favorite game style is rush-and-kill and I really afraid that Druid will be too easy to kill before her garden comes to life.

[Archwizard07]

I've played a couple of games now as the druid and unless I am missing something terribly (which is likely) I find the seedling pods to be a great addition to an already versatile mage.

Using Tatatree speeds up the process of getting 3 mana on them and typically I am doing so much more to get the opponent's attention that they ignore the pods until they are popping with death!!

I've also used them to great effect as bait....either my opponent has to come within range to attack them, placing themselves in an ideal zone for me to bring the pain or let them just build and build!!

[MrSaucy]

I've played a couple of games now as the druid and unless I am missing something terribly (which is likely) I find the seedling pods to be a great addition to an already versatile mage.

Using Tatatree speeds up the process of getting 3 mana on them and typically I am doing so much more to get the opponent's attention that they ignore the pods until they are popping with death!!

I've also used them to great effect as bait....either my opponent has to come within range to attack them, placing themselves in an ideal zone for me to bring the pain or let them just build and build!!

This guy gets it. Seedling Pods can quickly overwhelm an opponent who doesn't try to stop them, and I think they really make the most out of the Thornlashers and mesh well with the Druid's themes.

[silverclawgrizzly]

I've played a couple of games now as the druid and unless I am missing something terribly (which is likely) I find the seedling pods to be a great addition to an already versatile mage.

Using Tatatree speeds up the process of getting 3 mana on them and typically I am doing so much more to get the opponent's attention that they ignore the pods until they are popping with death!!

I've also used them to great effect as bait....either my opponent has to come within range to attack them, placing themselves in an ideal zone for me to bring the pain or let them just build and build!!

Interesting ideas. I haven't played a Druid much yet but I'll have to keep this in mind.

This guy gets it. Seedling Pods can quickly overwhelm an opponent who doesn't try to stop them, and I think they really make the most out of the Thornlashers and mesh well with the Druid's themes.

[joechip90]

I must admit that I'd sort of dismissed the seedling pods out of hand on my first reading.  My previous druid builds have always used the vine tree instead.  This conversation has prompted me to try a new samara tree/seed pod spam strategy and see how it fares.

I guess the first hurdle is ensuring that the samara tree/druid has enough vine markers to spread the seed pods around.  I guess packing a vinewhip staff and/or a vine tree too would be pretty important in such a build.

[Schwenkgott]

I consider Druid with Seeling Pods as weak.
1) I can easily avoid the zones with seedling pods, if i want to.
2) It takes too long to spawn something with the pods. (Seeding the pod in first round, three more rounds for mana) ... and then the Seeling Pod is in a zone, where a spawned plant is maybe useless.


I cannot think of one of my builds, that could lose to a Seedling Pod Druid

[MrSaucy]

I guess the first hurdle is ensuring that the samara tree/druid has enough vine markers to spread the seed pods around.  I guess packing a vinewhip staff and/or a vine tree too would be pretty important in such a build.

I prefer Samara Tree in the center. Yes, your tree is the open. But you save the vine markers for summoning things other than seedling pods. Your tree can deploy pods to 5 potential zones without using vine markers at all. I have tried Samara Tree in the corner but I never had as many vine markers as I needed. If you are going for Samara Tree in a corner then you might need a Vine Tree or Vinewhip Staff to get more vine markers going.

[MrSaucy]

I consider Druid with Seeling Pods as weak.
1) I can easily avoid the zones with seedling pods, if i want to.
2) It takes too long to spawn something with the pods. (Seeding the pod in first round, three more rounds for mana) ... and then the Seeling Pod is in a zone, where a spawned plant is maybe useless.


I cannot think of one of my builds, that could lose to a Seedling Pod Druid

I strongly disagree.

1) Druid has some of the best zone control in the game so she is excellent at forcing her opponent to go where she wants. Try avoiding zones with Seedling Pods when a druid has them spreading all over the arena.
2) It doesn't take long at all for the pods to get going. With tataree pumping up the pods they reach 3 mana in no time. (If tataree didn't exist then I would agree and say the pods are too slow.)


I don't like this mindset that Vine Tree > Samara Tree. Both trees are equally viable. They just require different play styles and spellbook designs to be effective. If you want to be super aggressive and focus on creatures then I would say choose Vine Tree. If you want to play a more positional, methodical game that utilizes a lot of conjurations then I would say choose Samara Tree. Vine Tree is unsurprisingly the more popular option because it is easy to overlook the benefits of Samara Tree. Seedling Pods save actions, which can be just as valuable as mana.

[silverclawgrizzly]

Huh both the Druids I play against are Vine Tree builds. I'm sorta tempted to try a Seedling Pod build now. Tataree now that I actually look at the card seems very useful over all.