Priestess and Necromancer enemies that work well together

[barriecritzer]

I played in a team game yesterday and discovered that a necromancer and a priestess working together actually works fairly well. While the angels were keeping the enemy mages distracted my skeleton swarm was able to do some damage.

[silverclawgrizzly]

That's an interesting combo. I'd wondered if they'd gel. Congrats.

[barriecritzer]

I might also have to do with the fact that we were playing against a forcemaster and a priest and forcemasters do not work the best in multiplayer games

[sIKE]

I might also have to do with the fact that we were playing against a forcemaster and a priest and forcemasters do not work the best in multiplayer games

This strikes me ass odd. I would think an FM complemented by a mage that is creature heavy would make a terrific combo. You team has bunches of creatures and the FM Pulls them into the Zone of Death. I think I would call the Force Master General ZOD as a result.....

[Schwenkgott]

Every combination of mages can play like you tell us here. But sadly, the necromancer cannot use one of his main abilities effectivly (pestilence, altar of skulls, poisonimmunity) and the priestress cannot buff or heal the necromancers undead army.
This combination might have worked against the priest and the forcemaster, but normally, this combination is lacking synergy.

btw. the Forcemaster is a real badass in team games. use some thoughtspores (push, sleep, teleport etc.) and you should control the battlefield better than every other mage.

[silverclawgrizzly]

I will say I've only been to one team event and I ended up fighting against a Force Master/Priestess combo. My partner and I ran 2 Necromancers and after a hard fought battle we barely got the win. The Force Master from my view point was a massive threat with an actual full mage backing her up. We killed the FM in the end but it was by no means an easy match and was very touch and go there for a bit.

[barriecritzer]

yes but against a necromancer half of the forcemaster's spells are useless against undead creatures because psychic immunity

[ACG]

I don't know about half...the only spells that are unusable are (mass) sleep, mind control, charm, and pacify. Sleep and pacify are pretty useful, but charm can be worked around (by defending or going for another target), and mind control is too expensive (for me, anyway). In comparison, there are 21 force spells that the forcemaster can still make use of. Psychic spells are a relatively small part of the forcemaster's arsenal.

In the forcemaster's favor is the fact that it is rather difficult to give the undead unavoidable attacks, so defenses, block, and reverse attack are very effective.

[sIKE]

I don't know about half...the only spells that are unusable are (mass) sleep, mind control, charm, and pacify. Sleep and pacify are pretty useful, but charm can be worked around (by defending or going for another target), and mind control is too expensive (for me, anyway). In comparison, there are 21 force spells that the forcemaster can still make use of. Psychic spells are a relatively small part of the forcemaster's arsenal.

In the forcemaster's favor is the fact that it is rather difficult to give the undead unavoidable attacks, so defenses, block, and reverse attack are very effective.

The FM should be loaded with Melee + buffs for more dice, along with Retaliates and Battle Furies etc. Use his Force Pull to slice and dice the zombies to pieces.....

[Schwenkgott]

Use his Force Pull to slice and dice the zombies to pieces.....

Its a forcemaster, not Chuck Norris

[silverclawgrizzly]

The way we got around the Force Masters defenses was Incapacitating her through various means. If you can just keep the Force Field off a Force Master then she becomes a fairly straight forward target of course. Also between two Necromancers it doesn't take long until you have such a massive army that they have better things to worry about than the Idol of Pestilence/Deathlock combo you put up in the back corner.

[MrSaucy]

I have observed Forcemasters moved away from psychic spells in favor of putting in more force spells and spells to boost melee and offense, so Necromancer may not have such a huge advantage over Forcemaster after all. Forcemaster can easily take advantage of the Necro's zombies being slow with her force spells or the Necro's skeletons being very fragile. And if a Necromancer build is built around using the enemy's creatures against them the Necro will be at a disadvantage since Forcemasters don't run a lot of creatures.

[MrSaucy]

Also between two Necromancers it doesn't take long until you have such a massive army that they have better things to worry about than the Idol of Pestilence/Deathlock combo you put up in the back corner.

You could accomplish the same effect with Altar of Skulls but I'm guessing AoS doesn't see a lot of play, even in team games. I hope I am wrong about this because the card is really cool and it would be a shame if nobody used it.