I have tried a similar strategy as a Warlord, walling off half the board to give me time to build up my base. It didn't work (Somehow, I still won, but not because of the wall). The problem is that the with amount of mana and time spent on the wall, your opponent can summon an enormous creature that tears down the wall and then massacres everything. Walling off the middle might work, but not as an opening strategy. Walls across 3 different zones are just impossible to maintain effectively, and will most likely leave you behind in resources.
Of course, this is just my experience as Warlord, and I was using more expensive (though also tougher) walls, so your experience may be different.
I hear you, and this is a concern. However, I'm hoping that by using Bone wall (and adding armor to it after the fact) I can mitigate this. Reassemble is the most efficient heal in the game iirc, and While I'll certainly be giving them an early creature lead, I do intend to be giving them other things to worry about before long, but I haven't had a chance to playtest it yet, so It could belly-flop, but I'm gonna try going all in on the wall once.
I just noticed the incantations section of your spellbook. Looks a little light. I get that you intend to block LOS, but no plan survives contact with the enemy. I heavily recommend the following:
Dispel (2-3)
Teleport (1-3)
Dissolve and/or Disarm and/or Explode (2-3)
The last will be especially important against Harshforge-clad warlords.
Just for clarity, you can't equip both Mage Wands of Reassemble simultaneously.
I assume the second is intended as a backup for when the first is dissolved, since (unless I misremember the rules on Spellbind) you can use the bound spell multiple times per round anyway.
Looking through the rest of your spellbook, it looks like you intend to win through overwhelming direct damage. Therefore, I would drop the Rust and Marked for Death to save space. Given the number of curses you are slinging, you should invest in [mwcard=MW1Q21]Moloch's Torment[/mwcard] or [mwcard=MWSTX2FFQ01]Adramelech's Torment[/mwcard]. By the way, are you running an Arraxian Crown warlock or an Adramelech Warlock? I would strongly suggest Adramelech Warlock for this build, since your mage does not intend to be attacking.
I totally get that not including the dispels and teleports is a risk, but until I run into trouble playtesting, I'm going to at least try going all-in on the you-never-have-line-of-sight strategy.
As for the wands, ringkichard was right, I had forgotten the "can't have two of the same equipment" rule. I might swap out the other mage wand for an elemental wand with jet stream, just in case they have an air-heavy deck that exhausts my maim wings supply. There's not much point in a backup, because if it gets dissolved, they're coming through my wall anyways, and the whole point of the wand is Reassemble. I might grab a nullify, though, just in case they drop a wall section and quick cast through the hole before I put up a replacement. As for the equipment removal, I didn't have time to look at the FAQ, but the text of Harshforge Plate says enchantments and incantations targeting the mage cost two extra to
cast. I plan to get around it by transfusing curses off of my creatures (I think of cursed-up bats flying over the wall as curse-bombs, hence the name of the deck). I'd be more annoyed with a suppression cloak (see below), but I can't figure a way to deal with it unless the wall comes down, so I'd just have to stick to curses and fireballing with sersiryx, along with paying the additional cost (if I can afford it) to hit with blood demons, which have enough damage potential to make it worthwhile.
Regarding the strategy, you're right, direct damage is a big deal, but even with magebane, ghoul rot and a few rot conditions, they're only taking 6 damage a round, which means it takes about 6 rounds to kill them with direct damage alone, plus the time it took me to build everything up (probably about another 5-6), even if they have finite life. From a meta-game perspective, I don't want my games to last 4+ hours, so I want to do some decent attack damage as well, and certain mages tend to have very high armor, and rust is the only way I can deal with it without LOS. I think you may be right about Marked for Death, though, I'll bet I could find something better to do with those deckpoints.
As for the amulets and which warlock I intend to be, as I say, I was in a hurry building and posting this, so I din't have time to check the FAQ for what abilites work and don't work without LOS. If the adramelech warlock can fireweave a burn condition from something she can see (my cursed bat) to something she can't (enemy mage) then I'll absolutely use her and Adramelech's Torment (and probably switch out MFD for Adramelech's touch). If that doesn't work, but for some reason moloch's torment doesn't need LOS, I'll use that for sure. My guess, though, is that none of them work, and so I'm going arraxian crown for curseweaving and to buff a blood demon (hopefully the healing me part of blood reaper won't come into play).
Thanks for your analysis, I think you probably had a lot of good points here. I get the idea of having flexibility if my plan fails, and I did include rhino hide, vampirism, and sectarus for this purpose, because I think if they get through, I'm switching to straight damage-race mode. for the time being, though, other than probably removing the MFD's and checking on amulet usability, I'll probably stick to the balls-to-the-wall (get it?) approach, at least for the first game or two. I definitely intend to make adjustments if it fails, though. In any case, thanks again for your input.
