Adramelech Face Melter

[Mortuss]

Few questions,
1) what do you do when during 2nd round opponent isn't in range for your curse? Do you move twice and cast a curse, or would you put some more ench on yourself?
2) How important are Adramelechs Touch, Akiros Favor and Marked for Death? I was going to suggest something different then MFD, you only expect to be blasting 3 turns max so it adds just 3 dice of dmg, but there isn't really a good alternative is there. Maybe mage bane? Ghoul rot would also work if you skipped some other thing like the Touch or Favor. And hey, it may sell you "I'm just a curse lock" a bit more
3) is the main reason for battle forge deploying the fireshaper ring, so you can surprise with the ring and 2 balls on the same turn?

[Schwenkgott]

Good questions! I'll try to answer them.

1) If there is the possibility, that the enemy is out of range (in his starting corner), i would cast 2 enchantments on myself and delay the cursing to round 3.

2) All of them are very important and work very well in this combination.
You need 1 curse on the enemy to get +1 flame to all your fire attacks. If that curse is Marked for death, you get another attack dice for your first attack.
Marked for Death is important, because you want to roll a lot of dice. Why? If the enemy has 2 armor, 2 normal damage will be absorbed, meaning all of the next dice you roll will go through the armor and damage the enemy. This is why one big attack is usually better than 2 small attacks, when attacking armor.
Akiros Favor is important too, because you always want to do at least average damage. If you attack with a 10 dice Fireball and you only roll 5 damage, that's not very good, because you spend 8 mana. In this case you want to reroll. On the other side, if you get enough damage, you want to make sure that the enemy is burning, you can reroll the effect dice (2 burn on Fireball with the flame +1 bonus is 25%).
And of course, when you go for burns, you need Adramelechs Touch. You want to keep all the burns on the enemy, because that's a constant damage source, that will help you kill him or work against his regeneration/healing.
The problem with Magebane and Ghoul Rot is the mana cost efficiency. You are not able to increase the damage of these two curses. Mage Bane can be evaded, f.e. with the Meditation Amulet. The FaceMelter aims for a fast victory. Ghoul Rot or Magebane would not pay off i think.

3) The Enemy could deploy a wall between him and you. Your Battleforge helps deploying the Eagleclaw Boots. You could be facing Adramelech. Your Battleforge could help deploying a Hauberk. You could be facing some archers, your forge will help you deploy a Cloak of Shadows ect.
It's your choice to open up with the forge. You can also play without the forge and the crystal and go for the nessessary stuff from round 1. Both works. The Battle Forge is some kind of assurance.

[Borg]

Marked for Death is important, because you want to roll a lot of dice. Why? If the enemy has 2 armor, 2 normal damage will be absorbed, meaning all of the next dice you roll will go through the armor and damage the enemy.

That's why Rust is probably a better Curse on a Creature with 2+Armor.
MfD will give you an average 1 extra damage while Rust will give you an average +2 extra damage.

[Schwenkgott]

Both of them should be on the enemy mage. The difference is, you will always benefit from Marked for Death, but if there is no 2+ armor, Rust is not effective.

[Borg]

The basic strategy of this deck is to get in your enemies face asap and melt it with hellfire!

First turn 19 Mana: Move 1, cast Hawkeye (hidden, 2) and Ring of Curses (2)

Second turn 24 Mana: Move 1, cast Fireshaper Ring (3) and Adramelechs Touch on enemy mage (revealed, 4)
(If the enemy plays defensive and stays in his corner, you can do something else here in preparation phase)

Third turn 26 Mana: Move 1, cast Marked for Death (revealed, 5) and Fireball (8 )
You can cast a 10 dice fireball here. If the enemy deployed Armor, you can think about using Acid Ball or Dissolve next turn.

I got intrigued by this build and wondered how it would work out against an agressive Forcemaster so I put them on the table.
It came as no surprise that the game was over by T5

Forcemaster won initiative and

T1
QC Cheetah Speed
move to NC
cast face down Bear Strength

Warlock moved 1 zone along the wall
cast Fireshaper Ring
QC face down Hawkeye

T2
Warlock
QC Marked for Death
Move to NC
reveal Hawkeye
Flameblast 8 dice for 10 damage
( not taking any risks with Fireball due to the Forcemaster's Defense of course )

Forcemaster
QC Galvitar
reveal Bear Strength
Thrust 6 dice for 7 damage

(both attacks yielding better than average damage)

T3
Forcemaster
During first Quickcast : Forcefield

This stopped the Warlock cold in her tracks for round three as she had no Dispel ready, I also don't think she should have one in anticipation as there's no guarantee the Forcemaster will play a Forcefield and ultimately she wants to throw as much damage on the enemy Mage asap. I had given her two Flameblasts as those seemed to be the most logical choice to me at that point in the damage race.

Forcemaster Thrusts 6 dice for 9 damage

Warlock moves to FC and puts on a guard marker - nothing else to do

T4

Warlock dispels the Forcefield and Flameblasts 8 dice for another 9 damage ( 17 damage total on the FM )

Forcemaster brings out Dancing Scimitar and Thrusts 6 dice for 4 damage + Scimitar for 5! damage ( 25 damage total on the Warlock.

T5

Forcemaster has initiative and has 15 dice total ready to throw at the Warlock.
During first QC the Force Hammer already does enough damage to finish the game ( 10 damage )

Aside from all dice rolls except one being great I think the one thing that stood out was the Forcefield stalling the Warlock for an entire turn and then forcing another action to dispel it.

Forcemaster was able to generate 36 attack dice within 5 rounds.
So that should be the average kill round against an undefended Warlock.

Warlock has armor but Galvitar has Piercing +2 so that's useless.

I think Warlock would get great use out of [mwcard=MWSTX1CKQ04]Reflex Boots[/mwcard] or [mwcard=MW1Q04]Deflection Bracers[/mwcard] and let the Battle Forge put it on.
It will slow her down but will most likely be worth it.

[Schwenkgott]

I cannot follow you. How do you get these damage values?

[Borg]

I cannot follow you. How do you get these damage values?

By rolling dice.

[gerni]

A nice build for a solo mage you got there, really sounds like fun.

From a comprehensive/competitive point of view I think there are multiple ways to counter such plays (ofc in theory, since I did not face the exact book you presented). Just to name a few

• Since you are solo (and therefore have only 2 actions + 1 deployment from forge), you are naturally behind in actions. Nullify, Jinx or Reverse Attack may further stretch out the game in favour of your enemy since he can build up defenses/further action advantage.
• What are you doing versus defense? Cobra Reflexes/Reflex Boots make your fireballs a coinflip. Fireblast hits, but you have to stay in range 1.
• The Druid may suffer versus flame attacks in general, but with the option to hinder and Tanglevine your mage to force actions/attacks, I actually think she would be pretty strong versus your warlock.
• In your opening, you simply dont take into account that the enemy mage could just stand in his starting corner, therefore you can't apply curses in "time" (curse on turn 2, EDIT: you answered already).  Also, you said that there is no reason for the enemy to adapt to fire damage so soon. I mean... you play Adramalech Warlock...
• There are further disadvantages, namely status effects. What do you do versus daze (typically every book has at least one geyser)? What do you do versus incapacitation? (Surging Wave, Hurl Bolder)

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to talk your book down (How could I? I didn't even play against it). For me personally it feels very "allin-ish" since you have one option. I said that in a different thread, books of this kind are very strong in terms of a clean gameplan and "simple" desicionmaking (again, not in a negative way - thats a strength of the book).

Regards, gerni.

[Wildhorn]

I am with gerni here.

A simple Wall of thorn + push and you are in trouble. An intercept guard would also screw you.