Very interesting so far!
Quick question. Why'd LoW choose Druid for his build? He could use basically the same strategy but better with straywood beast master, using only one wolf (and petting it too) along with fellela and transfusing enchantments to the Mage rather than another wolf when the wolf dies. He'd get a lot more dice in that way, and his opening wouldn't be so slow. He doesn't need the tree on because the beastmaster has regrowth belt, and he can deal with deathlock and poisoned blood easily enough with force hammers or purify, not to mention the battering ram promo. And the extra life from the tree bond isn't necessary because the straywood beastmaster already starts with 36 life.
As for your priest build coshade, do you have reinforce in it? Holy Avenger only works as a deterrent to melee attacks against your temple, not ranged. Additionally the Malakai priest wants to be melee attacking the enemy. If the enemy rushes him he wants to stay back, but if the enemy turtles he wants to rush. The priest's abilities and training mean he is meant to recklessly start attacking the enemy Mage with light attacks, landing dazes to make it harder to hit him back, and burns to do a little extra damage. The holy avenger is meant to either deter enemies from attacking the priest and his stuff, or to punish them severely if they try.
After watching this. I realize that people underestimate how efficient healing spells are. Regrowth and regrowth belt each cost one quick action and each heals 2 a round. A regular heal spell costs 9 and heals anywhere between 0 and 16 one time.
They might spend 5 rounds to get you to almost dead, and one heal can potentially cut all that damage in half, whereas a regrowth belt won't do that.
Minor heal costs 5 mana and does 5 dice of healing. Compare that to a flame blast, which costs the same amount but deals 4 dice of damage plus the effect die. Seems like it's just as efficient right? No quite! Aside from the burn conditions, flameblast can't ignore armor. On the other hand, healing is always entirely direct. It ignores armor. Furthermore each heal only costs one quick action. Generally speaking it usually takes at least 2 quickspells to do 8 dice of damage (or one full spell). With that in mind, one quick action and 9 mana for 8 dice of healing using the regular heal spell is amazingly efficient.
With this temple build, you spend a quick action on a mana crystal that you wouldn't need with the priestess, and the only advantage that the priest's abilities have over the priestess here is that if they try to melee attack your temple you can punish them for it. But they're more likely to use attack spells instead anyway so that's kind of moot.
Great match so far! I can't wait to see more!
Hey Sailor! Thanks for response. I hope I can answer my thought process (although it may not be the perfect way). I don't have reinforce in it. Although that I would definitely consider it! I do have 2 guardian angels and a defend so I could swap one of those guys out for reinforce and some other fun.
I absolutely agree the Priest is really good with attacking people. Currently I think the staff is really too expensive so I rely on [mwcard=MW1Q27]Dawnbreaker Ring[/mwcard] and [mwcard=MW1E01]Bear Strength[/mwcard] if I see the opportunity. I mostly use the Priest to attack when it's an early game rush. That is actually ultimately why I think the Priest is better vs rushes over the Priestess. I think ultimately buddy builds just don't work for the Priest and if you don't use the temple you are going to have hard a time matching blow for blow in a turn 4-6 engagement. I've been looking at the Holy Avenger as just another way to buff my low level creatures (as opposed to just putting a [mwcard=MW1E01]Bear Strength[/mwcard] on them.
I absolutely think people don't consider healing unless they have tons of armor already. While armor and healing is efficient, it's also a lot of SP points and actions that could be used for creatures or buffing creatures to win the game. Healing and the holy creatures really have a unique flair.
I think you outlined the best part of healing, that you can usually heal more damage with one action then they can dish out. It allows your mage to use other actions toward killing the mage (or dismantling his plans).
I agree with you on the Priestess being better in the long game. The Mana crystal would rock with the Priestess. Additionally I think the Pirestess is just better for the long game because even though you still run out of mana, you can still equip a mage wand with purify for free and give yourself free health every round with your off action. That ultimately makes your mage much more durable for when your opponent wants to engage.
Hope you enjoyed the match!