mana flower/crystal worth it?

[drmambo23]

I have two spell books at the moment. A beast master that focuses on level 1 creatures to push 2 per turn to build a rush then enchant them. My wizard focuses on enchantments and attacks with few creatures.
My questions is are mana crystals and flowers worth the mana cost to only channel one mana per turn? It takes 5 turns for flower to pay off its cost.  Am I better off not running it and using that mana for spells? Same as crystal.

Thanks for the input

[ACG]

I almost never cast crystals/flowers. It doesn't break even in cost until the 5th turn after casting it, and then you are still down an action; if you value quick actions at 2 mana, you don't really break even until the 7th round. And early game quickcasts are arguably even more valuable, since they set up your economy. It depends on your build, of course, but generally that early-game mana would be better spent on spawnpoints or creatures that give you more actions, or discount rings.

[sdougla2]

It depends a lot on your strategy. If you want to play 2 level 1 creatures every round, it's probably not worth the time to cast a Mana Crystal/Flower. I would probably go with something like this:

Turn 1 (19): Ring of Beasts -> Redclaw (2)
Turn 2 (11): Pet Bitterwood Fox -> Bitterwood Fox (0)

or

Turn 1 (19): Ring of Beasts -> Lair (2)

if I wanted to play 2 level 1 creatures every round. There are a few issues with this type of strategy, and until Academy comes out I don't think enchanting level 1 creatures is a viable strategy, but either of these will probably work out better for you than spending time on Mana Flowers in this type of strategy.

If you wanted to play level 3-4 creatures regularly, then Mana Crystals are much more valuable. There are other economy options that are competing with them though, and you need to think about how the different cards you're using will fit together into a coherent strategy. How do you plan to win? When do you plan to win? How do you plan to spend your actions? How will you manage your mana economy? Many Wizard builds benefit from using Mana Crystals, but it depends on how aggressive they plan to be and their overall strategy.

Can Mana Crystals be worth playing? Absolutely. Are they great in every strategy? No.

[DaveW]

I completely agree with the previous post.

If you are a Beastmaster and plan to play 13+ mana cost creatures, you probably will be happier if you play a Mana Flower or two at the start of the game. If you are going for level ones or twos in general, you can get away without having them out.

Regardless of the Creature support you are considering, note that you can put one or two in your book for very few spellbook points. You do not have to play them in every game or against every opponent / Mage, but sometimes you may find yourself wanting to be able to play one or two.

One other consideration relates to how many Zone Exclusive enchantments you will want to have on the board at any one time. A temple-building Priestess/Priest or some Warlord builds, for example, have many others that they will want to bring out in the limited number of zones where you will want to cast them.

Also I don't see a lot of players go out of their way to kill off Flowers and Crystals... not unless they just happen to be in the neighborhood with no other reasonable action available to them... so I look at them as "safe plays" when I want to see what my opponent is doing on an early turn before committing to a specific strategy.