Hungry, hungry, Kralathore.

[Maverick]

I have been toying with the concept of a Druid or Straywood Beastmaster running 5 mana Skeletal Minions and/or 4 mana Zombie Crawlers for feeding them to Kralathore every turn to give him growth tokens. Once he is large enough (3 tokens or so) send him out to feed on the enemies minions. This would be a swarm deck concept most likely using small creatures summoned by the beastmaster's quick action or the druids seedling pods to stall the enemy mage until Kralathore is ready. He could also feed on your own wounded minions if needed for more growth tokens. He does not appear to have an upward limit on growth tokens which paired with his regeneration would make him scary to deal with to mages that like to wall up or against enemy swarm decks. I feel the concept is vulnerable to control and action as well as mana inefficient but I think it would be fun to try out. Any thoughts?

[Schwenkgott]

You have to stand still for summoning these weak undead. Your worm has to stay with you to eat them (6 HP undead with 6 dice). That gives the opponent enough time to place all the conjurations and summon all the creatures he needs to beat you.
Even if you feed you worm with weak creatures like bobcat (4 HP with 4 dice), you would still invest a lot of mana for only on creature.
Your worm might be strong, but he can be controlled with tanglevine, force hold, force crush, enfeeble, teleport, force push, etc.
I would not rely on only one creature.

[GeorgeFalcon]

You have to stand still for summoning these weak undead. Your worm has to stay with you to eat them (6 HP undead with 6 dice). That gives the opponent enough time to place all the conjurations and summon all the creatures he needs to beat you.
Even if you feed you worm with weak creatures like bobcat (4 HP with 4 dice), you would still invest a lot of mana for only on creature.
Your worm might be strong, but he can be controlled with tanglevine, force hold, force crush, enfeeble, teleport, force push, etc.
I would not rely on only one creature.

 also if your going to sacrifice your own creatures use like Schwenkgot said Bobcats and or goblins.

[Maverick]

I think bobcats would be a poor choice due to the defense roll they have. Actually perhaps not as I think the defense is optional. Goblins are a better choice hands down. Like I said the concept is so inefficient that it would be almost exclusively for fun. Probably would only be effective against someone new to the game or if there are some really lucky dice rolls for you in that game.

[BoomFrog]

Defense is optional and Beastmaster can quickcast bobcats, so they would be best, but I think your concept would be more realistic as a necro graveyard->sacrificial alter->ravenous ghoul deck, but still silly.

[Maverick]

If only Kralathore was not nature mage exclusive. Still I will throw this deck together just because. My Meta is mostly new players so I think it would have a descent chance despite the horrible mechanical concept. I am tired of steamrolling newbs. I build bad spellbooks intentionally at this point just to keep the game somewhat interesting for me.

[reddawn]

Well, maybe if you taught them better ways to play, they wouldn't stay noobs.

[Schwenkgott]

I think bobcats would be a poor choice due to the defense roll they have.

I am tired of steamrolling newbs. I build bad spellbooks intentionally at this point just to keep the game somewhat interesting for me.

And you do not know that the owner of the defending creature can choose not to use his defense?
That's why i like Mage Wars. You never stop discovering new things.

Like Reddawn said: You should not call people "newbs" just because they yet haven't discovered as many secrets as you ... but help them to be worthy opponents.

[Maverick]

I think bobcats would be a poor choice due to the defense roll they have.

I am tired of steamrolling newbs. I build bad spellbooks intentionally at this point just to keep the game somewhat interesting for me.

And you do not know that the owner of the defending creature can choose not to use his defense?
That's why i like Mage Wars. You never stop discovering new things.

Like Reddawn said: You should not call people "newbs" just because they yet haven't discovered as many secrets as you ... but help them to be worthy opponents.

I used the spelling "Newb" intentionally. I believe a "Noob" is someone who is incapable of learning but a "Newb" is someone who has yet to have the opportunity to learn. As for not knowing if a defense is optional or not I followed the statement up with "Actually perhaps not as I think the defense is optional" in the very next sentence of the post you quoted. Though I will by no means claim to be a rules expert I would say I am seasoned enough to not be considered a "newb" any longer. The debate for if I am a "noob" or not is another matter entirely.

I have taught the game to over half a dozen people now and the prospect of throwing matches so they have fun vs. steamrolling them so I do is losing it's luster for me. To compensate I build intentionally flawed decks with interesting concepts. If it makes me sound arrogant by announcing that I am sorry it was not my intent.

[Schwenkgott]

I did the same in my Neighborhood, but their don't play very often. Join us on Octgn, if you're looking for experienced players from all over the world.

[Maverick]

I did the same in my Neighborhood, but their don't play very often. Join us on Octgn, if you're looking for experienced players from all over the world.

I almost tried OCTGN. I have it downloaded with all the image packs before Forged in Fire came out. I even joined the OCTGN Mage Wars Facebook group and have watched many episodes on twitch. I find the interface to be intimidating though as I am not very computer savvy. I wish there was an official version for IOS or Android with a dumbed down interface.

[sIKE]

Regardless of Application official or OCTGN you will still need to learn how to roll the dice in a given system (F1 btw) some things are obvious others are not. There is a set of how-to documents provided with the install along with a key-map file that you can print out a hard copy of and keep it on hand while you learn. The game is still the game and there are people online that are always willing to play teaching games we even support both the native Apprentice mode from Arcane Wonders as well as a bit more complex OCTGN Apprentice mode.

I too had to be taught how to use the OCTGN interface when I first started playing so please don't let that be a barrier, we all have to learn at some point. After 3 or 4 games you will be much more focused on Mage Wars than the OCTGN aspect and be playing this most awesome of games against players from around to world. Remember it is just a bunch of friendly games who want nothing more to duel your Mage in the Arena. There can only be one!