Domination Games and Strategies

[Phoenix]

I just finished two games of Mage Wars Arena Domination with my son.  We played the Court of The Antarians scenario.  The first game was his Johkari Beastmaster vs my Druid.  The second was the remarkable game.  My son played an AC Warlock, one of my older Arena books. Vs my AT Warlord.  His opening was an enchanter's ward and Sectarus, mine was Construction Yard with a Barracks. 
     I initially like the board configuration allowing me to stagger the outposts nicely.  The second turn he quick cast Demon hide armor, moved into a zone with a Sslak and an orb and attacked.  Sectarus cast a face down curse. The Sslak performed his counter attack, doing minor damage.  My son flipped the face down enchantment rise again and the Sslak died to the damage shield.  He then curse weaved the spell back to his book.  This was great, the battle was difficult for me but eventually beat down his warlock. Zombie Sslaks are not easy to kill.

[Intangible0]

Zombie Sslaks are not easy to kill.

Oh that's genius, they don't suffer from the usual problems of being a zombie since they never have to move. This might become a valid play in arena's. My hat's off to your son. Good game!

[vlad3theimpaler]

I just finished two games of Mage Wars Arena Domination with my son.  We played the Court of The Antarians scenario.  The first game was his Johkari Beastmaster vs my Druid.  The second was the remarkable game.  My son played an AC Warlock, one of my older Arena books. Vs my AT Warlord.  His opening was an enchanter's ward and Sectarus, mine was Construction Yard with a Barracks. 
     I initially like the board configuration allowing me to stagger the outposts nicely.  The second turn he quick cast Demon hide armor, moved into a zone with a Sslak and an orb and attacked.  Sectarus cast a face down curse. The Sslak performed his counter attack, doing minor damage.  My son flipped the face down enchantment rise again and the Sslak died to the damage shield.  He then curse weaved the spell back to his book.  This was great, the battle was difficult for me but eventually beat down his warlock. Zombie Sslaks are not easy to kill.

I'm not sure that actually works.  Reanimation pulls creatures out of the dsicard pile, but when the orb guardians are destroyed, they're removed from the game.  I was thinking about the same thing for a necromancer list, but my reading is that the guardians cannot be reanimated.

[vlad3theimpaler]

Reanimate (Effect)
This creature reanimates upon death. If this creature is destroyed, it is moved from the discard pile to the zone it was just destroyed in, and placed face down in that zone, with a face-down action marker on it. This creature is considered temporarily out of play. At the end of the round, the creature card is flipped face up and is Summoned into play. Reanimate does not occur if the creature is removed from the game when it is destroyed. See “Obliterate.” Note that, unless it says otherwise, the Mage who controls the effect which grants Reanimation is the object summoning the creature into play.
(comprehensive codex)

If the guardian is destroyed, it is removed from the game. It does not go to any player’s discard pile.
(domination rulebook)



The idea is good, but the wording prevents it from actually working.

[Phoenix]

     Not Reanimation, Rise again.  Rise again is a curse that when a creature dies, the warlock, or dark mage pays half the mana and at the beginning of the next turn it comes back as a zombie with damage equal to its level.  It does work, and works well.  Combining it with the AC warlocks ability to curse weave is very strong.
     What he also exploited was my inability to remove face down enchantments. I did not have any seeking dispels in my book. So just by casting rise again on a Sslak or Usslak, I had to consider the ramifications of killing it, giving him another creature.  This definitely slowed my progress with the V'tar.
     In short he used the Sslak's abilities to his own advantage. The damage shield on the demon hide armor hastened the Sslak's demise and after it died he had a very effective guard in the zone.

[vlad3theimpaler]

     Not Reanimation, Rise again.  Rise again is a curse that when a creature dies, the warlock, or dark mage pays half the mana and at the beginning of the next turn it comes back as a zombie with damage equal to its level.  It does work, and works well.  Combining it with the AC warlocks ability to curse weave is very strong.
     What he also exploited was my inability to remove face down enchantments. I did not have any seeking dispels in my book. So just by casting rise again on a Sslak or Usslak, I had to consider the ramifications of killing it, giving him another creature.  This definitely slowed my progress with the V'tar.
     In short he used the Sslak's abilities to his own advantage. The damage shield on the demon hide armor hastened the Sslak's demise and after it died he had a very effective guard in the zone.

I know you're talking about Rise Again.  Rise Again tells you to reanimate the creature.

[Phoenix]

Now I understand your point.  I will have to look into it a bit more.  Thank you for the heads up. It feels right, but you may be correct.

[Phoenix]

      Even though it feels right thematically, I do believe you're correct.  Since Reanimate requires it to come from the graveyard to the zone, and the Sslak is removed from the game when it dies, The rise again spell will not work on Sslaks.
     It was still a great play by my son.  This demonstrates the versatility and how new tactics can be explored by mages that have been around from the inception of Mage Wars. 
     Thank you for the heads up.

[ACG]

Not sure if this thread is intended for general discussion of strategies or just the specific ones already mentioned, but if it is the former:

One thing I have noticed about Domination is that short-term defensive spells become much more powerful, since the game is on a time limit. In particular, If you have a V'tar advantage and prevent your opponent from upsetting it before the end of the game, you can almost guarantee a victory several rounds in advance (which is kind of an obvious statement, but it still bears saying). The thing about short term defensive spells (Block, cheap walls, Brace Yourself, Banish, etc) is that they tend to be very good in the short term; better than spells designed to last longer.

One of my favorite decks was a "deterministic" Johktari. The strategy used her speed to gain an early V'tar advantage, and then use a spellbook loaded with short-term defensive spells to prevent her opponent from ever changing the balance of V'tar. She didn't even need many orbs; it was possible to calculate how long until I won, and determine the exact number of orbs I needed to keep away from my opponent to do so.

[Boocheck]

Did anyone tried inoculate guardians with Ichterlids?

Did anyone tried to cast Bear Strength on Guardians which are dwelling in enemy territory thus making it much more harder to get rid off?

[Phoenix]

I too have noticed a definitive pace to the game, inevitably one player gets a V'tar advantage.  At this point the opponent must decide wether to increase the pace and restore or remove the V'tar advantage or just kill the other mage.  It is a change of rate problem, there has been in each game I have played a tipping point where either I had the advantage and could predict a win in X turns, or I was behind and would lose in X turns.
My game with Laddinfance there was a point where he had 7 of the 11 V'tar needed to win, and without some change in course would have one in two turns. This decision point has been in every game I have played so far, about 20. The games are faster paced and though a control build is still viable, turtling will lose. I have been adjusting my spell books to a more mid-range value, trying to balance controlling the game while I am ahead in V'tar yet still having the aggressive posture to kill the enemy mage if needed.