Spells:6x Jinx: This card is absolutely absurd. While it doesn't seem like much at first, considering they get their mana back, the main use of this spell is to gain tempo. Tempo is sometimes defined as the means by which a player gains additional options or
decreases the options possessed by the opponent by means not directly pertaining to respective numbers of playable cards. Jinx is pretty much the linchpin of this entire book and has a dual purpose. When James and I's metagame was evolving we had what we called Attack Wizard which was very similar to Tim's book(My finals opponent). The idea was to go as hard as you could from turn two so that despite what your opponent did, you converted so much mana to damage through the form of Hurl Rock, Hurl Boulder, and Fireball that after killing one main investment, such as battle forge, they died before anything they did became relevant. We bashed everything against this book and they just kept getting wiped out, then Jinx reared its head. Jinx has shifted our play more than any other card in the game, we play six in every book and don't believe a deck without six can beat a deck that has six consistently. We put together Weighted Training Clothes with six Jinx and just used them to keep me off him until Gate to Voltari came online and I lost the late game. The first purpose was to delay the aggressive opponent until your investments paid off. Subsequently, funny enough, this made Attack Wizard better by giving your opponent one action while you got two attack spells on them through your mage and Wizard's Tower.
1x Gate to Voltari: Gate is hands down the best creature spawn point in the game, it's the second most survivable and generates the most mana. In our metagame we ran into quite a paradox against a Wizard with Gate to Voltari. The paradox was that if you don't answer gate, you lose. This is because with such great mana generation that your opponent will eventually become so overwhelmed by creatures that they can't come back into the game. We also found out however if you focus Gate, barring god rolls, you also lose. The reason is that while you spend on average two to three turns pounding on it we have generated six-nine mana, gotten one-two creatures, and our Wizard has been able to run around doing whatever he pleases. This left the only answer to Gate to Voltari being kill the Wizard before it comes online, and you can look one card up for the solution to that problem.
2x Wizard's Tower: The third pillar of the deck, Wizard's Tower. It generates you mana, is quite survivable for seven mana, and gives you an action to dump attack spells into them. This was used as the integral part of Attack opening as well as being used in Gate opening to finish off opponents. Wizard's Tower is also a main reason why Jinx is so insane in this book. I only have to spend 3 mana on Jinx which then allows me to use Wizard's Tower to Acid Ball their armor off or Hurl Boulder followed by Hurl Rock from the Wizard. It is also THE answer to creature aggro strategies because you can double Hurl Rock every turn against creatures such as birds. I put a second copy in the book if it was destroyed during Attack opening, since in Gate opening it was likely creatures could do most of the work.
4x Mana Crystal: The main reason for four was in order to have great mana flow when using Attack opening, it allowed me to get in their face on turn three with more mana than I generally needed. I, along with most people, always call these investments because they take an initial hit to your mana pool in order to eventually pay themselves off and give you an overall net mana gain five turns after they have been put in play. The big misconception that I notice people having though is that they don't think of it as mana flow, this actually takes precedence to the investment portion of their use. Obviously it's great that they give you a net mana gain over time but playing +channeling items is more about that mana flow that you get every turn. It's also a large part of the reason James and I feel that nine channeling mages aren't tournament viable right now. Having this additional mana every turn will allow you to erk out the playing of one more spell or a one tier higher spell(Hurl Rock to Hurl Boulder) than you would have been able to play without them. We tend to notice the breakpoint takes place at 13 channeling where anything after that is awesome of course, giving you far more flexibility and usually always feeling like you have spare mana, but not necessary.
1x Harmonize, 1x Moonglow Amulet: In a perfect world you will get 16 channeling with Gate to Voltari, Wizard's Tower, and Huginn out. If the opponent ever lets you get to this point, you can pretty much assume you've won. Unfortunately this doesn't happen often, usually Harmonize and Moonglow are played when you think that the control of your starting zone is going to be threatened or even during mid game when a few crystals have fallen but you have enough breathing room to put them on. During the latter, you do this when you probably wouldn't be successful in the late game without the mana flow.
1x Huginn, Raven Familiar: James and I randomly decided to revisit Huginn in Attack Wizard after we ruled him unplayable and were pleasantly surprised with what we found out. He is mostly used in conjunction with opening A because being able to use extra actions to get rid of all their relevant defenses, meanwhile you are pounding them with attack spells off your Wizard's Tower and with the Wizard. We also used him a lot to clear Jinx. During Gate opening he tends to come out after a Gargoyle Sentry and Blue Gremlin to start dismantling your opponent. The bird was an all-star pretty much all weekend and I could tell the metagame wasn't prepared for him. He sat in play for a long time every game that I cast him with the only answer being force pushes and sleep.
2x Gargoyle Sentry: Such an amazing guard, he is used mostly during Gate opening and is generally the first creature cast. Gate, Crystal, Crystal, Crystal, Gargoyle, Wizard's Tower, Jinx leaves you with zero mana on turn three. With a guard token coming up on turn four it makes it VERY hard for your opponent to focus down your investments, and when combined with jinx and voltaric shield they also have problems dealing with the Wizard. During Attack opening I would also hard cast him when I felt my opponent starting to come back in on me in the mid game and I wanted to make sure the victory was sealed.
4x Blue Gremlin: The man, the myth, the legend. Blue Gremlin. Blue Gremlin does so much work in every match it's amazing. Along with Zombie Brute, Gargoyle Sentry, and Guardian Angel we consider him an S-tier creature. Those creatures are leaps and bounds above every other creature in the game. His defense is amazing, he even has armor if he fails, good attack dice, pierce, doesn't care about restrained, and can get fast. His primary use is to destroy their investments and then their mage. No one breaks a mana crystal faster than a Blue Gremlin. Barring investment destruction he pops guards like a champ, destroys mid-game creatures, breaks Voltaric Shield, and doesn't care about them having an armor or two.
1x Devouring Jelly: This was included mostly for mid-game creature strategies and he is the best zombie killer in the game. We found the best way to deal with mid-range creatures was just to kill them outright over the course of one turn and maybe another action and quick action. Jelly helps me do this by breaking their armor and having a big attack. He is also a pain to kill. Unfortunately every match I played he wasn't very relevant and I never cast him, in theory he's great but he might get benched for something else in the future.
1x Mana Prism: We put this in to blow out a game against a mana control Mage, which I never ran into. We wanted it particularly against Mordok's Obelisk, Cloak of Suppression, and Enchanter's Wardstone. I feel like if they don't answer it that you swing the game amazingly in your favor in those match-ups, but it almost might get cut for something more versatile.
2x Dragonscale Hauberk/1x Leather Boot/1x Leather Gloves/1x Elemental Cloak/1x Rhino Hide: Obviously you need some armor, these are in my opinion the best choices. Due to, outside of Earth, there really aren't any relevant attack spells aside from Fire. Air has some cool effect die rolls, unfortunately it's just so mana inefficient that I don't see a reason to play it. Double Hauberk was to make corrode tokens fall off by replacing my armor or in case my first one got dissolved against a fire mage.
1x Regrowth Belt: There are a few cards in the game that if played at the right point, you have to answer or you are going to lose to them. Regrowth Belt is one of those, along with Regrowth and Sunfire Amulet. We put this in for that reason, it's generally played in the mid game when you hit 15ish damage and their mage either has to stop whatever they were doing and work on getting 0-1 square to dissolve your belt or let you heal so much that it's almost impossible to recover. This on top of armor and Voltaric Shield can be the most obnoxious thing in the world when trying to finish an opponent.
1x Hawkeye: Extra dice on attack spells and arcane zap, always awesome! The main problem was finding the action where I really wanted to cast the card. I feel it's biggest strength are games in which will go for a long time and you fear you may run out of attack spells as well as against decks playing mid-game creatures. The latter due to the goal of killing the creature outright in one turn and not having to use another attack spell on them that you normally wouldn't have.
1x Brace Yourself: Due to Acid Ball's corrodes being so efficient, it's almost inevitable that you're going to be looking at a turn with no armor and a gigantic amount of dice coming at you. Brace Yourself in addition to Voltaric Shield and suddenly that turn of death becomes a turn of your opponent doing nothing. Such tempo, much wow. I also use Brace Yourself to bait opponents into thinking it may be a Nullify, making them change their play.
1x Essence Drain: Essence drain in the few games I did play it never disappointed. I always use it on an offensive small creature that is mana efficient, such a Blue Gremlin or Falcon with pet marker. Against those creatures it's pretty much a six mana kill spell if your opponent is smart. Against someone that lets it sit it tends to be a six mana game winner, even better! It's other main use is against mid-range creatures that I just don't feel like dealing with because it takes forever, Guardian Angel or Iron Golem being prime examples.
3x Nullify: To be honest, I don't cast nullify often. My Wizard doesn't have that many things that it needs to protect and in this book it's almost better to use offensively to stop a heal from getting through when a Jinx is on them. If I do use it defensively, it's generally against wall-push combo or to protect regrowth belt.
1x Reverse Magic: You never cast Nullify, what the heck is Reverse Magic doing in here then? Honestly, this was my tech against James if I played him, and on the rare chance someone else figured out how crazy Jinx is. We were playing card for card the same book in the tournament but after round two he needed to drop out of the tournament because he wasn't feeling well instead of play four more hours of games, filthy casual. Pretty much the only purpose of this card was to put it on myself turn two or three and win the Jinx battle. Being that I was the only one abusing how good Jinx is, this card rotted in my book every match unfortunately.
1x Teleport: Everyone seems to think this card is crazy, honestly, I think it's pretty average. From my experience, as long as I have control of the game I don't see a reason to teleport. I didn't even have it in my book until I had a few extra points and decided, what the heck it's two points, I have Huginn, it gets things out of Tanglevines, and there might be that one rare match where I actually want to teleport. Funny enough I actually used it in my final match and it saved me from eating two hurl boulders.
1x Defend: This was another case of having some extra points, Huginn in the book, and looking for janky cards that people don't play but might be useful. I honestly never touched the card before Gencon, but it turned out to be a true hero. The idea behind it was that having a guard token on Gargoyle Sentry with his action up could effectively give me three guards in one turn with only one creature or allow me to double move my Gargoyle Sentry and guard with him.
4x Dissolve/5x Acid Ball/4x Dispel/3x Seeking Dispel: Water Wizard having access to these spells at cost is awesome and combined with Gate to Voltari is really what lets you go into a late game without having to worry. It's pretty much the only reason to pick Water over Earth. Because Wizard gets them at cost you really never have to worry about running out of what we call meta spells. Dissolve generally only hits the must answer pieces of armor, such as Regrowth Belt, with Acid Ball doing the rest of the work. 0-2 range spells pretty much always get strapped to Huginn and Wizard's Tower, with Seeking Dispel focusing on getting off Jinx and Nullify while dispel hits big cards like Forcefield and Regrowth.
2x Heal/1x Minor Heal: Spending ten points on heals is really rough, but thankfully with everything else being so cheap it's not a huge issue. When you combine heals with armor and Voltaric Shield you have in my opinion the most game changing and most efficient use of dice in the game. Having heals with Gate to Voltari in play serves two purposes, if they decide to focus your Wizard you use heals to stabilize if Gargoyle Sentry and Jinx weren't enough. This lets your gate come fully online so you can make the transition into late game, which you will most likely always win. The second use is that if they do decide to focus your creatures, particularly Gargoyle Sentry, you can pop it back up to full and they have to go though 4 armor guards all over again.
6x Hurl Rock: Even more so than creatures, these are the primary damage dealers of the book. They defend against small swarm creatures better than almost anything, if a melee mage walks into your double Hurl Rock they are bound to eat a ton of damage on top of an average chance to daze, and they can kill mid-range creatures for almost as much mana as it cost to put them out to begin with. Combining these with Jinx and 13-14 channeling leaves you with super mana efficient damage that your opponent has an issue answering when you focus their mage.
1x Hurl Boulder/1x Fireball: These almost always get put on Wizard's Tower so that you can keep them in your book. I refer to them as get-there spells, these are the big suckers you pop out when you need to finish your opponent off nearing the end of the game. They also get used in conjunction with attack opening so that you can take advantage of the mana efficiency of Jinx/Hurl Rock/Acid Ball, using those with your mage, and then smacking them with the big spell with the extra mana. We included one of each because Fireball is much better when an opponent has 1 or two armor because the average damage per burn is amazing, while Hurl Boulder is better against people with no armor or someone attacking with their mage due to the slam chance.
2x Surging Wave: Battle Forge. Must. Die. This card is actually pretty useful aside from killing the forge in order to get off guards or a potential 6 dice attack if they are near the arena wall, but the sole purpose is to get their forge out of play as quickly as possible. Everything else is just a secondary benefit. I strapped this to Wizard's Tower in attack opening so that even if two die rolls crapped out on me, I would still have another wave for the forge but it was never really necessary. If only everything was average damage instead of dice rolls!
2x Flameblast: Weird spell to include. I agree. We actually put this in as an answer to familiars. As our meta evolved our games got to a point where if someone had Huginn or Fellella in play they just ran away with the game. Because I was the only weirdo playing familiars I actually used to only for getting past random defenses, but that's okay!
1x Invisible Fist: Mana Siphon. Must. Die. I saw a few Mana Siphons last year, myself included, so this was included pretty much just for how effective Mana Siphon is. We figured it's a 1 turn faster kill of it on average since you need two zaps and an Invisible Fist instead of three zaps. A side use is to deal with annoying stuff like Invisible Stalker.
