The problem with minor buddies, and trouble coming up with good spellbook ideas

[Sailor Vulcan]

It seems like the academy beastmaster's only answer to stagger is to just summon more creatures, and the academy wizard has greater access to stagger than the beastmaster in order to make up for his fewer creatures. This makes me think that builds that only run one non-mage minor creature and no other creatures besides utility creatures just don't work in the core academy set, since stagger completely shuts down minor buddies.

What do you think?

To be honest I've been having a lot of trouble coming up with a fun, interesting and unique academy spellbook idea that isn't blatantly obvious to every single player after looking at the starter spellbooks once.

Sure, razortusk buddy looks like it will be good once there's a way to counter stagger in academy, but right now I don't see any.

Lightning raptor with giant sizes and panther stealths would be good too.

A build that uses 2 genies and a wizard who melees with rod of the arcanum might work.

I also thought of trying a double satyr gruff strategy that destroys any minor creatures the opponent summons while using shrink and minor essence drain on the bigger creatures.

Basically, any strategy I can think of is so blatantly obvious that everyone else probably will think of it within the first ten minutes that they look at the cards, so it will never be unique. I'm hoping that this changes as the academy card pool gets bigger.

Has anyone else had better success with this than me?

[riastradh]

Not really. I agree the limited card pool limits the variety of unique book ideas. I don't think that the next release will do much to alleviate this - those will likely also be a smaller selection of cards that are focused towards those mages, not adding a bunch of animal type creatures or arcane spells that will add variety to book building. Perhaps if afterward we see a spell book expansion...

I have not had a lot of inspiration with unique books either, but I have touched some useful combinations that might serve as a jump-off point though they have likely been discussed in other threads.
Satyr Gruff & Genie
Elusive Wytchwood Hounds, and other minor creatures as guards to draw fire. A book also stocked with Rajah's, Tarraki's, and plenty of Panther Stealth might make a good floop book.

[Sailor Vulcan]

Not really. I agree the limited card pool limits the variety of unique book ideas. I don't think that the next release will do much to alleviate this - those will likely also be a smaller selection of cards that are focused towards those mages, not adding a bunch of animal type creatures or arcane spells that will add variety to book building. Perhaps if afterward we see a spell book expansion...

I have not had a lot of inspiration with unique books either, but I have touched some useful combinations that might serve as a jump-off point though they have likely been discussed in other threads.
Satyr Gruff & Genie
Elusive Wytchwood Hounds, and other minor creatures as guards to draw fire. A book also stocked with Rajah's, Tarraki's, and plenty of Panther Stealth might make a good floop book.

Yeah, coming up with spellbook ideas for academy is disappointingly starting to feel more like a word search than anything that really involves creativity. Well, at least it has more viable options than competitive Pokemon battling, but that's not saying much.

[sIKE]

So in a single zone, kill the Mage game, with no maneuvering and a very shallow card pool for two mages, your expecting what? I see the Wizard as having a couple of base strategies and the BM having a couple of more. For an intro pack for an intro game perhaps you expectations are a bit high. Not trying to be mean about it. There are 56 unique cards (not counting Mage/Mage Stats) which leaves roughly 28 cards for each Mage. So the pool is a bit shallow....

[Erebus]

I also miss the sheer number of options I have access to in Arena. I'm not expecting as many cards as Arena, but I think after the next few expansions I'll feel more inspired while building for Academy. Crafting books is, after all, my favorite part of Mage Wars.

The bright side is that if you're waiting for more options in Academy, you can still use Academy expansions as more cards for Arena.

I'm also not disappointed in the game, since this is what I expected. Although I haven't played the game with anyone but myself, the gameplay seems fast-paced and fun. I'm worried it could feel stale after a few matches since you'll run out of options, but again this will be remedied when the card pool expands.

[Fentum]

I played a lot of Mage Wars a few years back and I have Academy coming this Chistmas. I measured a promising looking box wrapped under the tree and it is inch perfect. 

I actually quite enjoy a rather more restricted card set. Perhaps a bit more than core set Academy, but not TOO many cards. Mage Wars with all the expansions can have a little TOO much going on. Particularly so if we are trying to gain new players.

There's an on line game called Pox Nora that is very much like Mage Wars, but after twenty or so expansions, it can't get new players as it's all way too complex. The best period was after four to five expansions.

Domination, Academy, and new play MODES seem more interesting to me, rather than tonnes of new cards.

[Kelanen]

I think you are all expecting waaaay to much - you are looking for an Arena quality building experience from Academy. Horses for courses....

Domination, Academy, and new play MODES seem more interesting to me, rather than tonnes of new cards.

I'd be the opposite. I've tried the new modes of play, they delivered what I expected (worse in one case), and I have basically zero interest in them. My only interest is in new cards, and the card pool in full Arena is still painfully shallow to me... (and I have all promos bar about 3 and they are legal in my play groups) .

I love Arena, but the game needs to double the size of it's card pool to be mature. Set releases are just coming far too slow, and it's losing players.

[Gogolski]

To be honest, I don't expect all that much from academy. The main reason I'll buy it will be to use the cards in arena.

That said, as soon as it hits the shops here, I'll also buy one for the autist son of a friend. The boy dreams of being a mage and flipping through the spellbook will certainly give him the satisfaction of feeling he's a proper mage. It will also push his english language skills sseriously forward.

He's realy looking forward to it, but I don't think I will play much academy apart from games with him. When he's ready, I'll introduce him to the wonders of arena and then I'll probably play even less academy (just a game when a new mage comes out...)

[riastradh]

I think you are all expecting waaaay to much - you are looking for an Arena quality building experience from Academy. Horses for courses....

I do not think anyone is expecting this to be the scope of Arena. I simply do not think more than one viable strategy per mage is asking much.

[Laddinfance]

We tried to ensure that each mage had a couple different paths they could chose right out of the gate. As more mages are added, we'll be expanding the spell pool and I'm sure things will get more diverse. If nothing else, I feel the Priestess and Warlock will provide new methods and plans to enact.

[Fentum]

We tried to ensure that each mage had a couple different paths they could chose right out of the gate. As more mages are added, we'll be expanding the spell pool and I'm sure things will get more diverse. If nothing else, I feel the Priestess and Warlock will provide new methods and plans to enact.

This is exactly what I'm after. I really enjoy the depth of full on  Mage Wars, but none of my mates are up for the time investment. I reckon I can engage them in Academy once there are perhaps four mages and a few routes to take. Too many spells turns them off from casual play. The barrier to entry is too high.

You might say that my mates are, in fact, 'minor buddies' and I need to find or create a Mage Wars 'major buddy'!   

[Kaarin]

We tried to ensure that each mage had a couple different paths they could chose right out of the gate. As more mages are added, we'll be expanding the spell pool and I'm sure things will get more diverse. If nothing else, I feel the Priestess and Warlock will provide new methods and plans to enact.

What was the reason for splitting 4 base mages into two sets?

[Sailor Vulcan]

Okay, so I've looked over the cards and thought it through a bit more, and it looks like there are very few ways to land a stagger on more than one creature at a time, there's only one creature in the game that can land a stagger with a ranged attack (with the exception of the mages with their attack spells) and you can guard a minor buddy, or protect them from stagger attacks with things like Dodge. And staggers aren't as easy to land as they seem at first. There's no equivalent of akiro's favor in Academy, the genie only gets three wishes, the highest chance of stagger is the Lightning jolt's 5+ chance of stagger, and since it's an attack spell it gets discarded after use, the only ranged stagger attack has a 7+ chance of landing a stagger, which is 50% chance. And Akiro's game is epic and only works on the highest-costing creature on the board, and higher costing creatures tend to be higher level.

So minor buddies might be a viable option after all.

As for coming up with spellbook ideas being more like a word search than actual design, that's still kinda disappointing, but I hope that it will get better as more cards are released.

Also, for those who've played a full game of Academy (not just the demo), how does the gameplay compare with Apprentice mode?

[Erebus]

They said they split the four Mages that were base in the Arena Core to lower the entry cost for getting into the game, which makes sense. I would've preferred them as a full set, but I have heard that getting into Mage Wars has been too expensive for some people. I guess buying a huge box with all its components is a big commitment.

[Laddinfance]

We tried to ensure that each mage had a couple different paths they could chose right out of the gate. As more mages are added, we'll be expanding the spell pool and I'm sure things will get more diverse. If nothing else, I feel the Priestess and Warlock will provide new methods and plans to enact.

What was the reason for splitting 4 base mages into two sets?

We wanted a lower cost of entry into the game, and wanted to provide the best value possible.