Beastmaster vs Turn 2 Adramelech in Core

[Teron]

I read somewhere that summoning Adramelech on turn 2 is a viable early rush Warlock strategy so I tested it with my friend who played as Beastmaster. After a few turns he gave up. It seems Beastmaster is completely helpless against it.

He has (as presented by example spellbooks in instruction):
a) no debuffs
b) no powerful attack spells
c) no ranged attacking creatures
d) no ranged attacking equipment

Knockback + Tanglevine is useless because Adramalech gets free in one attack.
Powerful creature + Eagle wings gets shot down by Dispell.
Tarok, the skyhunter can get Maim Wing'd or cursed in other ways.
Guarding seems not effective also since Adramelech can attack two creatures in one action.
Perhaps guarding with Emerald Tegus with hopes of stacking Rot on him might work.

What Beastmaster can do against that? Keep in mind I only have the core box.

[Sailor Vulcan]

You do have access to debuffs. You just have to go out if school for them. Agony and Enfeeble are good choices. Use group heal and sacred ground to keep your swarm alive from zone attacks and Adramelech's sweeping attack.

Another thing you could do is cast sleep and a force orb/force sword on him. Chances are it will be a while before your opponent summons another creature and if Adramelech is asleep your opponent will have to attack him to wake him up. If your opponent uses an unavoidable attack on him you're a bit out of luck. But if you include multiple sleeps he'll probably run out of unavoidable non flame attacks (since Adramelech has flame immunity.)

 Also, it's highly unlikely that your opponent will include more than 3 dispels. Try finding ways to get him to use it up, then cast turn to stone and maybe a tanglevine on him. When he destroys the tanglevine reveal turn to stone. There are probably other ways I'm missing, but I haven't finished my core set beastmaster yet...

[ringkichard]

Turn 2 Adramelech in Core is pretty good, yep. The default spellbook won't be able to stop it. With just core, Beastmaster has a weakness to flyers and has poor Attack spell options. When I played a Beastmaster before Conquest of Kumanjaro came out, I paid the double spellbook cost to include a Gorgon Archer for this reason.

Assuming the Beastmaster stays in his starting zone, the Warlock will have a hard time attacking on turn 3. Piousflea's Bashcon Beatdown build cast Lord of Fire on turn 2 in the Warlock's near-center zone, and then used Cheetah Speed and Shift Enchantment to hit on turn 3, but doing that requires the opponent to leave the starting zone. So stay put.

This means the Warlock will be hitting on turn 4. Since you want to force the Warlock to spend an initiative turn moving in for the attack, the Beastmaster wants to start the game with initiative so that the Warlock gets initiative on even numbered turns. This prevents the Warlock from attacking first on turn 5, and gives the Beastmaster the first Quickcast. The rule is now that the player that wins the roll chooses who starts with initiative, so chose accordingly.

A Beastmaster might play an opening like this:

1. (19 mana) Gorgon Archer. (3)
2. (12) Face Down Block or Nullify on Archer. (10)
3. (19) Steelclaw Grizzly. (2)
4. (11) Dragonscale Hauberk (5) Face down Agony on LoF (3) Reveal Nullify (1)

Your Griz will not be able to guard in time to prevent the first attacker, but may stop the second if it's not disrupted. Your goal is to fill that Lord of Fire with as many arrows as possible. Archer will stop agro cold if it's not killed, and it's hard to kill. Remember that Archer can shoot the flying Lord of Fire even if they share a zone. Once LoF is dead, you can enchant Archer with Eagle Wings, which will help keep it safe from the Bloodreaper Dark Pact Slayer that's going to be summoned next. And now that Archer is flying, it can shoot at anything it likes even if they share a zone.   

Other useful spells are Force Push and Teleport for controlling the positioning of your Archer without having to waste her activation moving her slow snakelike form. Elemental Cloak is very good at reducing damage from Warlock, too, so should be cast when there's an opportunity.

[jacksmack]

Force orb/sword gives the creature a defense.
Its the owner of the creature who decides if he will use a possible defense or not.

[Sailor Vulcan]

Force orb/sword gives the creature a defense.
Its the owner of the creature who decides if he will use a possible defense or not.

Oops, my bad. In that case you'll want some blocks, not force orb/sword

[sdougla2]

Well, let me look up the starting spellbook for the Beastmaster, having never played with it. While I don't like the distribution of cards, and it doesn't feel like it has enough of a coherent plan, you still have a decent number of tools in that build. You may still be able to hold off a Lord of Fire rush using a combination of Elemental Cloak, Lair spamming Timber Wolves (and possibly Emerald Tegu), stacking armor, Cobra Reflexes, and Block, but it's going to be somewhat precarious.

Guards can actually help a lot, although that works better in combination with Agony so that the Sweeping attack is much less attractive. The best guard options are Feral Bobcat, Timber Wolf, and Emerald Tegu.

Remember that you can put out Burns with Geyser if you get a bunch stacked on your mage.

In addition, due to the rules for multiple attacks and Flying, the Lord of Fire cannot use his Sweeping attack on a combination of Flying and non-Flying creatures (see the rules supplement). As such, you should probably play one Thunderdrift Falcon at a time. If your opponent kills it, replace it. You can put Pet on Thunderdrift Falcon, Timber Wolf, or Emerald Tegu. You can use the Falcon to hinder the Lord of Fire, which can allow you to run away from it even if it has Cheetah Speed. Just make sure to prevent it from having both Cheetah Speed and Mongoose Agility at the same time. Your opponent can cast Maim Wings on the Thunderdrift Falcon, but that's not very efficient, and you can play another one.

Mage Staff, Dragonscale Hauberk, and Agony will help.

Other options include Maim Wings, Force Hold, Enfeeble, and Turn to Stone. I don't think they're the best way to deal with a Lord of Fire for a Beastmaster, but there are quite a few control cards that will force your opponent to respond.

Tanglevine, as you noted, is a horrible solution to Adramelech. Use that on the Warlock (or a Dark Pact Slayer Blood Reaper if he plays one), not the Lord of Fire.

You can opt for the Gorgon Archer solution proposed by Ring, but I don't feel that it's necessary.

You should be playing either a Battle Forge or the Lair in order to get an action advantage.

There are plenty of additional options in the expansions that can be helpful, but there are quite a few tools available to a Beastmaster against an early Adramalech rush in the core set as well.

[barriecritzer]

You can also use teleport to buy yourself another round to build up with.