The Forest Shadow

[Borg]

I started a thread about Cervere in Strategy and Tactics http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=15460.0

I'll just copy & paste my opening post from that thread over here :

"My latest book is a Straywood Beastmaster built around Cervere, The Forest Shadow

So far, I'm surprised at how effective this base set critter has become with the help of some expansion cards.

He has also become a phenomenal threat to staple conjurations like Battle Forge or Wizard's Tower which he can just 1-shot with the help of just one 2-mana spell.

My "goldfish" opening vs a mage staying in his corner goes like this :

R1-19 : Cervere + Enchanter's Ring
R2-11 : FD Bear Strength + Pet Thunderift Falcon + move Cervere to NC and guard
R3-11 : FD Lion Savagery + Force Push Cervere to FC + attack opposing mage with 8 dice + Pierce+1
             His Fast and Elusive traits allow him to repeat this 8 dice + Pierce+1 attack every round.
R4-10 : ...

Things also become interesting when an opponent makes a very common early move like dropping a Battle Forge :

R1-19 : Cervere + Enchanter's Ring
R2-11 : FD Bear Strength + Pet Thunderift Falcon + move Cervere to NC and guard
R3-11 : FD Lion Savagery + Piercing Strike + attack BF with 8 dice + Pierce+4
            That's a destroyed BF even with a relatively poor roll ( like 6 dam out of 8 dice )
R4-11 : ...

Overall the book intends to attack with Cervere, a Pet Falcon backed up by a pet Dire Wolf or pet Timber Wolf, and the Beastmaster himself and 1 or more other small creatures depending on how many creatures the opponent Summons. I'd like to have 1 more action than my opponent. It's not a swarm build, though it has the capacity to swarm ( to a certain extent )

Stopping Cervere is not simple since he has a built-in ability to ignore Guards so opponents have to take other measures to stop him or slow him down like walls or Tanglevine which leads me in turn to pre-emptively put a FD Eagle Wings on him if I suspect something like that coming and as such not only prevent Cervere from being tied down but also wasting the opponent's Tanglevine spell in the process.

In short, I like Cervere more the more I play him ... "

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]The Forest Shadow[/spellbookname]
[mage]Beastmaster[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=FWA04]1 x  Hurl Boulder[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1a08]1 x  Geyser[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKJ01]1 x  Enchanter's Wardstone[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j03]1 x  Tooth & Nail[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J01]1 x  Rajan's Fury[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j02]1 x  Animal Kinship[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ02]1 x  Corrosive Orchid[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j22]2 x  Tanglevine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1w04]2 x  Wall of Thorns[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ03]1 x  Etherian Lifetree[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWJ08]1 x  Renewing Spring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWJ05]1 x  Mana Prism[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1c07]1 x  Cervere, The Forest Shadow[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c37]2 x  Thunderift Falcon[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c04]2 x  Bitterwood Fox[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c14]1 x  Feral Bobcat[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c38]1 x  Timber Wolf[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC16]1 x  Spitting Raptor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKC02]1 x  Dire Wolf[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c36]1 x  Tarok, the Skyhunter[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKE04]2 x  Enchantment Transfusion[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e01]3 x  Bear Strength[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE06]3 x  Lion Savagery[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e13]1 x  Eagle Wings[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE02]1 x  Akiro's Favor[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWE03]2 x  Falcon Precision[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e40]1 x  Vampirism[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e05]1 x  Cheetah Speed[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE04]2 x  Brace Yourself[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e36]1 x  Rhino Hide[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e32]1 x  Regrowth[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE07]1 x  Rust[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e09]1 x  Agony[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e31]1 x  Poisoned Blood[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKE02]1 x  Divine Might[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1q09]1 x  Enchanter's Ring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q02]1 x  Bearskin[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFQ06]1 x  Morning Star[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKQ06]1 x  Eagleclaw Boots[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1i25]1 x  Shift Enchantment[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i12]2 x  Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i06]3 x  Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i24]2 x  Seeking Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i21]1 x  Purge Magic[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i07]1 x  Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFI03]1 x  Disarm[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i23]2 x  Rouse the Beast[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i19]1 x  Piercing Strike[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i28]1 x  Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i20]1 x  Purify[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]

Cervere needs only Bear Strength and Lion Savagery to have 8 dice + Pierce+1 every turn.

Other enchantments intended to help him out :
Vampirism can heal 4 damage on average
Eagle Wings lets him clear obstacles and avoids Tanglevines
Akiro's favor to maximize damage and deal with Daze effects
Falcon Precision to work around Defenses
Divine Might to deal with Ethereal
Enchantment Transfusion to transfer his enchantments to another creature should he go down

Thunderift Falcon pet should get a Lion Savagery so it could hit for 6/7 dice + Pierce+1

Tooth and Nail adds another Pierce +1 for every animal and Rajan's Fury adds Charge +1
Add Rust as well and we can confidently attack 5 Armor
Also add Corrosive Orchid and Spitting Raptor and we shouldn't have too much trouble dealing with opposing armor.
Note that the Raptor can melee for 4 dice + Pierce+1 himself

The Cheetah Speed is intended for our Beastmaster.
With Animal Kinship out he gets Elusive from Cervere ( or the Feral bobcat ), Melee+1 from a Fox and armor +1 from the Raptor, effectively turning him into a second Cervere ( Fast and Elusive )

There are 30 spells in there which cost only 1 SBP, leaving a whopping 90 spellpoints to flesh out the book.
As a result, there's room for a lot of "counters" like :
Morning Star to deal with Defenses and Forcemaster
Enchanter's Wardstone to discourage opponents from dispelling and create a mana advantage should they continue to dispel anyway ( Enchanter's Ring + Wardstone )
Renewing Spring to heal and shed Conditions
Etherian Lifetree vs non living but also gives our Corrosive Orchid, Tanglevines and Wall of Thorns +2 life
Mana Prism to counter Suppression Cloak and other upkeep costs ( thanks ACG for the tip )
Tarok vs Flyers
Purge Magic vs curse warlocks and multienchantment carrying creatures
Purify vs poison conditions
Geyser vs burn counters
and last but not least : Piercing strike vs Battle Forge, Wizard's Tower, Harshforge monolith etc

There are still a lot more tricks in the book but I think you all know those as well like Rust/shift enchantment and such.

My impression is that this is not only a competitive book but also a very FUN  book to play.

Thanks for reading

[iNano78]

Thoughts:

If you're putting so much emphasis (read actions/mana) on Cervere, I don't see much benefit in Animal Kinship.  You're probably only getting Elusiveness out of it for most of the match - in which case, why not just include Mongoose Agility (and drop most of the filler animals)?

Also, why stop at just 1x Rajan's Fury (or Tooth & Nail or Animal Kinship, if you think you really will make time to play a canine and a reptile to get their bonuses)?  I played against a 4x Animal Kinship Beastmaster the other day (with Staff of the Arcanum + Bear Strength and a fox, reptile and bear in play), and that was scary!  Cervere + Lion Savagery (+ Eagle Wings?) supported by 4x Rajan's Fury's would be devastating!  And it would make those Foxes and Bobcat (and your pet Falcon) a lot scarier if they join in the frenzy later.

While I can see that Morning Star works nicely against Defenses (except for the Forcemaster's Forcefield), I can't help but wonder why not include a Staff of Beasts so you can really go all-in on Cervere's attacks with an extra melee +2?  And then there's Marked for Death and Call of the Wild for a couple more dice - maybe they aren't worth it if you're only going to have your Beastmaster + Cervere in play, but if you do cast a reptile + fox (for Kinship) + pet falcon, then M4D and CotW start to look like they should be there somewhere.

[ringkichard]

I like the restraint this book shows in its core, and I think I'll steal some of its tricks for my Shadow build.

Any thoughts on how you might port this over to a Joctari book? She loves a cheep core so she can afford extra attack spells, but I'm not sure her followup is as strong and might want a 2nd big hitter to act as a replacement.

[silverclawgrizzly]

I've said it before: For my money there's no better Legendary creature in Mage Wars. Just a solid, solid creature who's mage makes amazing with so little effort.

[Borg]

Thanks iNano78 for sharing your thoughts

Also, why stop at just 1x Rajan's Fury (or Tooth & Nail or Animal Kinship, if you think you really will make time to play a canine and a reptile to get their bonuses)? ...  Cervere + Lion Savagery (+ Eagle Wings?) supported by 4x Rajan's Fury's would be devastating!  And it would make those Foxes and Bobcat (and your pet Falcon) a lot scarier if they join in the frenzy later.

I have only 1 Tooth and Nail, 1 Rajan's Fury and 1 Animal Kinship because those cards play an entirely different role in this book than in books that contain 4 copies of them.

Let me explain :

A book with 4 Rajan's Fury has to be built around it. It means lots of small animals coming into play at a steady pace. No enchantments on them and very likely using a Lair to keep the steady stream coming.
Some math : if we play something like 8 animals, that gives us ( potentially ) 32 extra dice for 28 mana, that's a great deal.

This book however just plans to attack with Cervere, the Pet and the Beastmaster himself, with any additional creatures coming out very dependent on what the opponent plays. In this case we would generate only 8 extra dice for 28 mana, a terrible deal, right ?

A book built around 4 Animal Kinship would again be an entirely different build imo as this build puts the Beastmaster himself square in the middle of battle ( at least if he wants to put that melee+4, armor+4 and Elusive to good use ) Since the Mage will be in battle in this build this clearly should be a Lair build, how else is he going to have time to play a Dispel, Dissolve, Force Push, Tanglevine or what have ye.

So why then does this book run 1 Tooth and Nail, 1 Rajan's Fury and 1 Animal Kinship ?

This book has no Spawnpoint and no Familiar, thus all the spellcasting falls entirely on the Beastmaster's shoulders. Therefore his actions are PREMIUM. I want every action he takes to have a LASTING effect and preferably catch "all-in-one", that's why there are so many catch-all cards in there like Purge magic, Geyser, Purify, it lets you get multiple things done with just 1 action. The cost is of lesser importance. I'm willing to pay a little more mana if the effect is worth it.

So, originally the book had 2 Acid Ball. It's a cheap, effective spell. But not effective enough for this book.
( "only" two copies because I figured I didn't want to play this spell more than twice anyway )

Acid Ball allows you to reduce the armor of 1 object but that still leaves every other opposing object intact armorwise, so you will still run into trouble when trying to take out other armored objects.

I figured Acid Ball didn't have the LASTING effect I was looking for, it wasn't worth one of the Beastmaster's PREMIUM actions.
Tooth and Nail however, even though it costs two mana more - but mana should not be a show stopper remember, solves this problem.
It has the LASTING effect I'm looking for : it gives ALL my Animals Pierce+1 at ALL times against ALL targets.
Now that's the kind of spell worth casting.

So, in essence, my two Tooth and Nails spells were replacements for Acid Ball and I didn't plan to cast more than two of them either because :
Cervere and Pet already get Pierce +1 from Lion Savagery
1 Tooth and Nail addition gives them Pierce +2
And Rust essentially makes this Pierce +4

That's when I started thinking about the second copy of Tooth and Nail.
I figured that this second copy could potentially be a waste of SBP's if I didn't need more than Pierce +4. ( on the enemy mage of course )

How could I get the same lasting Pierce +1 effect but from another card ?
Enter Rajan's Fury.
Adding a die to your roll has very much the same effect as reducing an opponent's armor by 1 and this card will certainly not be a waste in my spellbook either as it is still functional even if my opponent has no armor left.

So, Tooth and Nail guarantees you the Pierce +1, while Rajan's Fury does not - your extra die may come up a blank, but then RF also has the potential to roll two damage instead of the "average 1".

In the end, the two copies of Acid Ball ended up being replaced by 1 Tooth and Nail and 1 Rajan's Fury.
That's the reasoning behind them.

Animal Kinship is another story.
I wanted to have a solid backup for Cervere, to continue this Fast and Elusive strategy, should he go down.
The obvious choice would be my Beastmaster of course and Animal Kinship is the card that can help him do that.
It's another card with a lasting effect and a catch "all in one".

The key Elusive trait is much more difficult to remove than a Mongoose Agility and I can get Elusive, Armor +1 and Melee +1 all in 1 action for just 8 mana.

So, I'm not running 4 of these because my Mage is not supposed to be my nr 1 attacker and I don't have a Lair to pump out creatures. AK is only supposed to come out should Cervere go down.

While I can see that Morning Star works nicely against Defenses (except for the Forcemaster's Forcefield), I can't help but wonder why not include a Staff of Beasts so you can really go all-in on Cervere's attacks with an extra melee +2?  And then there's Marked for Death and Call of the Wild for a couple more dice - maybe they aren't worth it if you're only going to have your Beastmaster + Cervere in play, but if you do cast a reptile + fox (for Kinship) + pet falcon, then M4D and CotW start to look like they should be there somewhere.

I did not include Staff of Beasts because as a melee upgrade he's not very good imo.
Just 1 extra die for 7 mana is not thrilling.

Instead of the healing effect I would rather play the Vampirism or Regrowth.

As I mentioned above, the Beastmaster's actions are PREMIUM and I just can't waste them on minor actions like healing for two dice.
The same reasoning applies to the melee+2 boost actually. It's too minor of an effect to waste an action on it while there are usually more pressing needs to take care of.

I chose the Morning Star because it's cheap and helps solve a potential problem ( defenses )

Marked for Death and Call of the Wild were originally in the book but were cut in the end.
I usually don't have enough creatures out to use them effectively and they ended up not being played at all.
The book uses Hurl boulder as a more effective finisher.

In conclusion : I definitely think that Rajan's Fury and Animal Kinship are excellent cards but if you use 4 of them you're really building a different spellbook with a very different strategy.

Any thoughts on how you might port this over to a Joctari book? She loves a cheep core so she can afford extra attack spells, but I'm not sure her followup is as strong and might want a 2nd big hitter to act as a replacement.

I considered both mages for this book as well but ultimately chose in favour of the Straywood for two reasons :
- his ability to get creatures out with his QC, without having to interrupt any combat
- him being the better melee fighter of the two and thus being the better back-up for Cervere.

Johktari has Fast trait, so only needs Elusive ( from Animal Kinship or Mongoose Agility ) to play Cervere strategy.
Problem however is getting her support out and the absence of a pet is also a big minus imo.
An 8 life, 1 armor pet Falcon who can roll up to 7 dice + Pierce +1 and who can be QC for only 12 mana is a great deal.

Not sure how to make up for all that with the Johktari.

[iNano78]

Please excuse me for "snipping" the quotes, but there was a lot of text (and I agree with almost all of it).

...

This book however just plans to attack with Cervere, the Pet and the Beastmaster himself, with any additional creatures coming out very dependent on what the opponent plays. In this case we would generate only 8 extra dice for 28 mana, a terrible deal, right ?

A book built around 4 Animal Kinship would again be an entirely different build imo as this build puts the Beastmaster himself square in the middle of battle ( at least if he wants to put that melee+4, armor+4 and Elusive to good use ) Since the Mage will be in battle in this build this clearly should be a Lair build, how else is he going to have time to play a Dispel, Dissolve, Force Push, Tanglevine or what have ye.

So why then does this book run 1 Tooth and Nail, 1 Rajan's Fury and 1 Animal Kinship ?

This book has no Spawnpoint and no Familiar, thus all the spellcasting falls entirely on the Beastmaster's shoulders. Therefore his actions are PREMIUM. I want every action he takes to have a LASTING effect and preferably catch "all-in-one", that's why there are so many catch-all cards in there like Purge magic, Geyser, Purify, it lets you get multiple things done with just 1 action. The cost is of lesser importance. I'm willing to pay a little more mana if the effect is worth it.

...

Tooth and Nail however, even though it costs two mana more - but mana should not be a show stopper remember, solves this problem.
It has the LASTING effect I'm looking for : it gives ALL my Animals Pierce+1 at ALL times against ALL targets.
Now that's the kind of spell worth casting.

...

How could I get the same lasting Pierce +1 effect but from another card ?
Enter Rajan's Fury.
Adding a die to your roll has very much the same effect as reducing an opponent's armor by 1 and this card will certainly not be a waste in my spellbook either as it is still functional even if my opponent has no armor left.

There seem to be some contradictions here, especially regarding what builds might require a Lair.  If you only plan to cast 1-2 creatures (Cervere and a level-1 pet), you don't need a Lair (or Animal Kinship) because you won't be using many actions on summoning creatures anyway.  If the primary goal is to beef up Cervere and plan to have him "move away + move back + attack" each round to make maximum use of his Charging + Fast + Elusive (and possibly do the same with your pet), then you'll get a lot more than 8 extra dice for that extra mana spent on Rajan's Fury.  (Also, you don't necessarily need 4x Rajan's Fury; could just be 2 or something.  My question was "why stop at 1?" which includes the case "why include exactly 1 and not 0?").  Since you can't stack multiple Lion Savagery's but can stack multiple Rajan's Fury's, it's seems like a good idea to either focus on it (e.g. abuse it as much as possible) or drop it entirely.  Seems like an ongoing effect that makes good use of your quick-cast to me.

Animal Kinship is another story.
I wanted to have a solid backup for Cervere, to continue this Fast and Elusive strategy, should he go down.
The obvious choice would be my Beastmaster of course and Animal Kinship is the card that can help him do that.
It's another card with a lasting effect and a catch "all in one".

The key Elusive trait is much more difficult to remove than a Mongoose Agility and I can get Elusive, Armor +1 and Melee +1 all in 1 action for just 8 mana.

So, I'm not running 4 of these because my Mage is not supposed to be my nr 1 attacker and I don't have a Lair to pump out creatures. AK is only supposed to come out should Cervere go down.

You don't need a lot of creatures or a Lair to get good value out of more than one Animal Kinship.  In fact, the multiple Kinship strategies tend to have few creatures (because you generally can't afford lots of both). If you don't plan on using it but just want it as a back-up plan, that's fine. If you find you use it more times than not, and start to find it's necessary to get the spell book to work, then again, "why stop at 1?" as the abilities stack - aside from Elusiveness, which seemed like the main reason for it, which is why I wondered if Mongoose Agility was a better choicel; Oh, and if somebody wastes a Dispel on your Mongoose Agility, you're probably in good shape (although I guess a Dispel Wand would take care of it for minimal cost).

I did not include Staff of Beasts because as a melee upgrade he's not very good imo.
Just 1 extra die for 7 mana is not thrilling.

...

The same reasoning applies to the melee+2 boost actually. It's too minor of an effect to waste an action on it while there are usually more pressing needs to take care of.

I chose the Morning Star because it's cheap and helps solve a potential problem ( defenses )

Marked for Death and Call of the Wild were originally in the book but were cut in the end.
I usually don't have enough creatures out to use them effectively and they ended up not being played at all.
The book uses Hurl boulder as a more effective finisher.

If it's just Cervere + Pet + Beastmaster, then I agree about M4D and CotW...  But in that case, Staff of Beasts looks pretty good (e.g. 4-dice weapon + built-in reusable Power Strike quick-spell to give "+2 melee for Cervere that stacks on top of Charging bonuses and Bear Strength and combos with Vampirism as your preferred method of healing for Cervere, and still works on your pet if you lose Cervere).  If you're going to have more animals out, then Staff of Beasts looks worse, but M4D and CofW look better.  I was having trouble seeing which way your spell book was trying to go.

If your mage is your primary back-up plan for if you lose Cervere, then I'm not sure what the other animals are doing there.  I guess they're for fueling your back-up Animal Kinship, but that seems like a lot of spell book points (and mana and actions) for a mid-game back-up plan (?).  But I guess they could also be back-up pets for if/when you lose your Falcon - although in that case, why not just include another Falcon?

[Sailor Vulcan]

The animal kinship totem gives action advantage not mana advantage. But in order for the buffs to be useful the animal kinship user has to be fighting alongside their animals, which means they should be using their full action to attack, not for summoning. The way it works is that with animal kinship in play you can for instance get a fox AND a melee+1 bonus for the price of just the fox, or a cat creature AND elusive for the price of just the cat. So why not summon gorillas instead of putting on eagleclaw boots? Because mountain gorillas cost too much and can't be quick-summoned, that's why.

[ringkichard]

If I were looking to add a melee boosting conjuration, or a +melee effect, I'd look at Hand of Bim-Shalla before Staff of Beasts or a 2nd nature totem. Not convinced this book wants that, (might want another enchantment transfusion instead,) but that's probably where I'd start.