Arcane Duels Episode 12 - Priestess vs the Johktari Beastmaster

[Intangible0]

Coshade and Harry Poppins go head to head as spells and creatures go flying through the arena! This is one result you can expect from a rush deck against a mid-creature build.

I'll get Poppins and Coshade to get they're deck builds up here soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C8jYZPhkRA&feature=youtu.be

[Biblofilter]

@Poppins/Priestress:
Last time my advice was to roll better, and you certainly did that 

Brogan Bloodstone was just awesome against everything Coshade had - as he nullified their high armor.

I think you made a few minor mistakes, in timing. You missed an Archer attack, stuff like that. Had to keep track of a fast and elusive beastmaster anyway!

Also i think you fogot to turn your quickcast in ound 11, and enden up using 2 quickcast action (facedown bear strenght on Knight of Westlock+ Sacred Ground and used your action to go in and meelee (you missed).
Seemed like it did´nt change anything as Coshade already was in a hopeless situation at that time.

@Coshade/Johktai Beastmaster

Im a big fan of early push walls strategies. Its a lot better if you don´t have initiative on round 2. If you can pull it of and the end of round 2, you can push him again with your quickcast first thing in round 3. Normally only Works if your opponent has´nt got a Battle Forge.

If you start this i think you have to stay and try to finish him before he overwhelms you, and not run away. If you can pull the 20 dice of early you´r really close to success.

Im not sure about the early Mage Wand? Seems it just gets dissolved. And you could use the 5 (4) Mana.

I hope you have a couple of Bloodspine Walls in their as well? (btw i think you forgot your Wounded Prey ability) If they put on armor early thats a solution combined with Jet Streams (only 75% push chance but cheaper and 2 extra dice damage)

With any bleed depending strategy you´ll need Deathlock or a couple of Poison Bloods. I think i would use Fellela at turn 1 if i lost initiative. And try to pull of a Poison Blood, Nullify, Jinx, Rust on the enemy mage via Enchantment Transfusion and then pull him through a wall.

Another option is to go for the Battle Forge and then protect it. Togorath would be nice, but his expensive. You could go with Sosruko (always fun) or use Feral Bobcat as a guard.

With Wall of Thorns level 1 creatures are really good as they can run throgh it without taking damage and without spending a full action, so i think that a better plan if you want to pushém early.

As always i enjoyed watching your video and talking about it! The quality is really good now and i like how you show close up of the different spells.

[MageHorst]

Did someone Dispel the video? 

[kailas]

Cant see it on the mobile, could you work something out? Thank you in advance.

[Wise fool]

I think the spectacular healing roll really killed the Johktari's momentum.  Coshade didn't seem to focus on the enemy mage after that point.  I think a better backup strategy (take my opinion for whatever it's worth, I've played a total of 7 games so far) rather than trying to summon bigs on the run which got focused down by the Priestess' creature advantage at that point, would be to take advantage of the Johktari's +1 ranged and go for damage spells at that point.  You already had Elusive down and you could pretty much outmaneuver Brogan and the knight of Westlock with Fast.  I put Hawkeye and a lot of attack spells in my Johktari deck for that reason.  It's unfortunate that the Johktari's abilities don't always synergize well, but you used fast and elusive to really good advantage early on and througout the game.

If you can't tell, Johktari is one of my top 3 favortie mages!  I'm not quite sure how to make her work optimally in practice, but I have a lot of theories. 

And congrats to Pilgrim to not panicking when you were down to half your life points.  I like to see mid to late game strategies pay off over early aggression as I like games where both sides summon a lot of creatures and set them loose on each other.  I'm not sure any mage other than the Priestess or Priest could pull this off, because cheap to include heal spell were key in this game.

[Biblofilter]

I think the spectacular healing roll really killed the Johktari's momentum.  Coshade didn't seem to focus on the enemy mage after that point.  I think a better backup strategy (take my opinion for whatever it's worth, I've played a total of 7 games so far) rather than trying to summon bigs on the run which got focused down by the Priestess' creature advantage at that point, would be to take advantage of the Johktari's +1 ranged and go for damage spells at that point.  You already had Elusive down and you could pretty much outmaneuver Brogan and the knight of Westlock with Fast.  I put Hawkeye and a lot of attack spells in my Johktari deck for that reason.  It's unfortunate that the Johktari's abilities don't always synergize well, but you used fast and elusive to really good advantage early on and througout the game.

If you can't tell, Johktari is one of my top 3 favortie mages!  I'm not quite sure how to make her work optimally in practice, but I have a lot of theories. 

And congrats to Pilgrim to not panicking when you were down to half your life points.  I like to see mid to late game strategies pay off over early aggression as I like games where both sides summon a lot of creatures and set them loose on each other.  I'm not sure any mage other than the Priestess or Priest could pull this off, because cheap to include heal spell were key in this game.

Unfortunately she does´nt get the +1 range bonus for casting spell. Still good, nothing wrong with your points and ideas even without the +1.

[wtcannonjr]

The two early Force Pushes through the Wall of Thorns don't appear correct according to Codex definition of Push.

Given the diagonal source of the push spell it appears you could only push the Priestess into the arena wall since either adjacent zone is CLOSER to the source of the push.

How are others interpreting the requirement to push the target farther from the source?

[Borg]

The two early Force Pushes through the Wall of Thorns don't appear correct according to Codex definition of Push.

Given the diagonal source of the push spell it appears you could only push the Priestess into the arena wall since either adjacent zone is CLOSER to the source of the push.

How are others interpreting the requirement to push the target farther from the source?

You may Force Push a creature in ANY direction, not just away from the source of the FP.
[mwcard=MW1I12]Force Push[/mwcard]

[Wise fool]

I think the spectacular healing roll really killed the Johktari's momentum.  Coshade didn't seem to focus on the enemy mage after that point.  I think a better backup strategy (take my opinion for whatever it's worth, I've played a total of 7 games so far) rather than trying to summon bigs on the run which got focused down by the Priestess' creature advantage at that point, would be to take advantage of the Johktari's +1 ranged and go for damage spells at that point.  You already had Elusive down and you could pretty much outmaneuver Brogan and the knight of Westlock with Fast.  I put Hawkeye and a lot of attack spells in my Johktari deck for that reason.  It's unfortunate that the Johktari's abilities don't always synergize well, but you used fast and elusive to really good advantage early on and througout the game.

If you can't tell, Johktari is one of my top 3 favortie mages!  I'm not quite sure how to make her work optimally in practice, but I have a lot of theories. 

And congrats to Pilgrim to not panicking when you were down to half your life points.  I like to see mid to late game strategies pay off over early aggression as I like games where both sides summon a lot of creatures and set them loose on each other.  I'm not sure any mage other than the Priestess or Priest could pull this off, because cheap to include heal spell were key in this game.

Unfortunately she does´nt get the +1 range bonus for casting spell. Still good, nothing wrong with your points and ideas even without the +1.

Ah, thanks for that.  So many little details in this game!

[V10lentray]

Cant see it on the mobile, could you work something out? Thank you in advance.

I watch them on my phone all the time while at work. I have an android.

[Coshade]

Hey guys!

So this was my first attempt at an aggressive deck. I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to execute it but I had about 20 minutes to build it. I decided to go for a more gimmick play of WOT and Force Push. I was nervous if my opponent ever casted armor. The second phase was to go for a big creature crush to finish it. I had no idea how it would work out and I hope you liked it! I have the build on Intangible0's desktop so I'll find it and post it up here sometime. I think it need some obvious fixing.

@Biblofilter - I like your idea of ending round two and gaining initiative round 3. I was thinking I wanted to get them ASAP, so they couldn't cast armor. But the fact that a quickcast phase exists will defeat that thinking. I'm still unsure about WOT turn 2. It seems risky. I suppose Mage Wand with Force Push round 1 (or from BF), then T2 Acid Ball and WOT in your hand.
I agree with needing to finish them off early. My original idea of getting strong creatures just broke the rhythym of the game too much for my liking.
The dissolve could mess this up quite a bit. Luckily for the Johktari should could be at the other end of the arena and still pull this off (T1 just move 1 space toward the far center, T2 double move and do anything you need). The risk of getting dissolved is if they move at all T1. I'm still unsure about a Mage Wand.
I did put in Jet Streams and forgot about using them the whole game :*( with the Bloodspine Walls they would have been perfect. I don't think I put any of those in there though.

I agree with the Poison Bloods and bleeding. I need to experiment with that a lot more.

I'm not sure if I want to use Togorath again. Has anyone ever made good use out of him? He seems perfect to defend things, I just can't justify the cost spellbook wise and mana.

I never thought of level 1 creatures not taking damage. I really want to use this with a Straywood now. Thanks for the insight.

I'm glad you enjoy the videos! They are a blast to make! Wait till you see the next rush book. It's really intense and personally I think it's a meta changer.

@Wise Fool
I've been struggling with aggro builds and heals. Poisoned blood seems like a good response but the use of the action is problematic. I need to figure out when the best time to pull out poisoned blood vs when to retreat and regroup for a longer game. I think if I just added some hurl boulders or lightning bolts I could have had the game in the bag before the momentum completely changed.

Joktari can't use the +1 for spells but it can be used for the [mwcard=MW1Q31]Staff of the Arcanum[/mwcard] which is more afforadble then the bow and has a decent melee attack for when you are forced to engage. It's also a good answer to etheral stuff.

Personally I like that when late game strategies beat aggro builds. The choices are much more complex the longer the game goes. Most of the mages have some form of healing. I actually like vampirism more then the heal spell personally.

[Borg]

I actually like vampirism more then the heal spell personally.

Except Vampirism doesn't always work as planned - ex. non-living, low life on target, blocked attack etc

[kailas]

I use android also, it works now!

My question (round 5) why didn't u skip your qc phase, u could have attacked with brogan and wait to see what priestess would do, when jet stream force push again through wall. The only way priestess would have dodged this move by going up.

[Coshade]

I actually like vampirism more then the heal spell personally.

Except Vampirism doesn't always work as planned - ex. non-living, low life on target, blocked attack etc

Very true! A reverse attack to make you melee yourself while you vampirism is a gross image.

[Intangible0]

My question (round 5) why didn't u skip your qc phase, u could have attacked with brogan and wait to see what priestess would do, when jet stream force push again through wall. The only way priestess would have dodged this move by going up.

I think this goes to show that it was worth doing an entire mage wars mondays episode on just the quick cast marker.