Dominate the Old Arena

[Mystery]

Prep a Wall of Thorns and a Force Push, out of face real quick. if you can do it move so you can get LoS to the other side of the WoT and prep another Force Push during the 1st QC and do it again. It be a long time before you have a round 2 FM in your face again.

Now, imagine that you were preparing to play a Domination game. So you put down a spawnpoint + a mana generating thing, so no mana left after 1st turn. So you start your 2nd turn with 10 mana. No WoT combo for 2nd turn. And if he see you have 11 mana on 3rd turn, he will case an armor on himself.

i feel spawnpoint and mana generating thing is most of the time the wrong thing to go. domination games believe it or not are often quite fast, people rush as they expect you to run few defenses, or rush the orb to get it faster than you. and that one-two vtar ahead is often quite strong. And at least always keep eagleclawboots and a thorn push to punish unprotected mages and or safe yourselfs, have some walls have teleports, vines, push the fm off ini and tanglevine/stranglevine him, qc astral anchor, then cast nullify and let your spawnpoint if you play it channel you something, do it in the right terrain etc....

[Puddnhead]

1) When you get V'tar each turn you can use it to gain mana OR to heal damage.  Remember to heal damage if you need to.
2) If your game is focused on gaining orbs try adding the spells that benefit from controlling orbs as you will get more bang for your mana than someone who is not "playing the game".
3) A large creature to get orbs for you can double as a useful guard.
4) Positional spells are very important don't leave home without them.
5) Having an alternate opening that's a little more defensive while not cramping your orb speed too much might be useful.

6) if your opponent is a straywood beastmaster forget your orb game and go and kill them as quickly as you can.   

You don't understand. The FM is in my face on turn 2. I control no orb yet. From there gaining control of an orb is out of question. I am playing to not die.

Use the spawnpoint to put out a creature and cast Defend.  If you have any remaining mana, put on some armor (Brace Yourself is excellent for this) or force push the FM.

If you can save enough mana to wall her into a corner you will completely waste at least one of her turns.

Cast astral anchor in your zone and then teleport away.  Reveal astral anchor when she tries to follow you.

If she teleported in on turn 1 then she has a maximum of 1 other spell on her.  Destroy it...or cast a block.

If she teleports in on turn two you should know what her other two spells are, bearstrength or galvitar.  If galvitar and you only have 10 mana use Disarm and then Crumble it next turn.

Don't leave home without at least some defensive stuff.  Even a Cobra Reflexes is something.  Two Brace Yourself is two spellbook points.

If you're facing a Forcemaster then forgoe the spawnpoint and just hardcast a heavy hitter.  If she doesn't rush, use the creature to take an orb.


Get creative and never give up trying.

[Wildhorn]

1) When you get V'tar each turn you can use it to gain mana OR to heal damage.  Remember to heal damage if you need to.
2) If your game is focused on gaining orbs try adding the spells that benefit from controlling orbs as you will get more bang for your mana than someone who is not "playing the game".
3) A large creature to get orbs for you can double as a useful guard.
4) Positional spells are very important don't leave home without them.
5) Having an alternate opening that's a little more defensive while not cramping your orb speed too much might be useful.

6) if your opponent is a straywood beastmaster forget your orb game and go and kill them as quickly as you can.   

You don't understand. The FM is in my face on turn 2. I control no orb yet. From there gaining control of an orb is out of question. I am playing to not die.

Use the spawnpoint to put out a creature and cast Defend.  If you have any remaining mana, put on some armor (Brace Yourself is excellent for this) or force push the FM.

If you can save enough mana to wall her into a corner you will completely waste at least one of her turns.

Cast astral anchor in your zone and then teleport away.  Reveal astral anchor when she tries to follow you.

If she teleported in on turn 1 then she has a maximum of 1 other spell on her.  Destroy it...or cast a block.

If she teleports in on turn two you should know what her other two spells are, bearstrength or galvitar.  If galvitar and you only have 10 mana use Disarm and then Crumble it next turn.

Don't leave home without at least some defensive stuff.  Even a Cobra Reflexes is something.  Two Brace Yourself is two spellbook points.

If you're facing a Forcemaster then forgoe the spawnpoint and just hardcast a heavy hitter.  If she doesn't rush, use the creature to take an orb.


Get creative and never give up trying.

I know how to deal with a FM. This is not the problem. The problem is that at this point, we are no more playing a Domination game, but a normal Arena game. So why bother in first place to play Domination if it end up like this?

[Mystery]

cause domination includes both options killing and v'tar win, you can use the undying mages variant if you want to exclude the killing winning condition done.

I have played probably 15domination game since its done, two games ended by mage death, both were with forcemaster one time i played second time the other played it, both times the forcemaster lost.

[wtcannonjr]

 

I know how to deal with a FM. This is not the problem. The problem is that at this point, we are no more playing a Domination game, but a normal Arena game. So why bother in first place to play Domination if it end up like this?

This isn't the ending it sounds like the opening.

[iNano78]

Part of the fun of Domination is the threat/risk that your opponent(s) might suddenly turn on you and kill your Mage. If it were strictly "capture the orbs while being friendly with each other" it wouldn't be nearly as fun. Nobody in our group has won by killing the other mage(s) - yet - but there have been some very close calls and definitely times where the lead has changed because a Mage had to armour up and heal, lost most/all of their creatures, and lost their orbs.

Again, we mostly play 3 or 4 player Domination. I think that's where Domination really shines. Arena is great for 2 (or mini-tournaments of head-to-head Arena matches).

[Wildhorn]

Part of the fun of Domination is the threat/risk that your opponent(s) might suddenly turn on you and kill your Mage. If it were strictly "capture the orbs while being friendly with each other" it wouldn't be nearly as fun. Nobody in our group has won by killing the other mage(s) - yet - but there have been some very close calls and definitely times where the lead has changed because a Mage had to armour up and heal, lost most/all of their creatures, and lost their orbs.

Again, we mostly play 3 or 4 player Domination. I think that's where Domination really shines. Arena is great for 2 (or mini-tournaments of head-to-head Arena matches).

Of course, it should not be friendly and all. But if one doesn't bother with orbs at all and the other can't even start to get orbs because of the other mage bashing his face, there is no more domination in domination.

[Mystery]

Part of the fun of Domination is the threat/risk that your opponent(s) might suddenly turn on you and kill your Mage. If it were strictly "capture the orbs while being friendly with each other" it wouldn't be nearly as fun. Nobody in our group has won by killing the other mage(s) - yet - but there have been some very close calls and definitely times where the lead has changed because a Mage had to armour up and heal, lost most/all of their creatures, and lost their orbs.

Again, we mostly play 3 or 4 player Domination. I think that's where Domination really shines. Arena is great for 2 (or mini-tournaments of head-to-head Arena matches).

Of course, it should not be friendly and all. But if one doesn't bother with orbs at all and the other can't even start to get orbs because of the other mage bashing his face, there is no more domination in domination.

it depends in multiplayer you simple have no time, even if you play domination in two players and you are not rushed if you start with spawnpoint and defend or what you just said, there is a high probablity that the other mage already has 1 vtar in round 3 and galaxus out and probably will have 3v'tar beginning of round 4 vs your one. You need to adjust a bit to the map, when its a 9 v'tar winning map, probably your spawnpoint wont win you the game if you dont directly fast deny the oponent v'tar. If its 12+ you can probably gain much more orbs later to overcome the early lacking behind.

[Wildhorn]

So we tested it today. My friend was using a rushing strategy which ended up being the same as before. A total domination, without using the orbs.

So for our 2nd game we tried something. We used the Academy 2 rounds of no-aggression, no-movement. Basically, all creatures, inclusing our mages, were Rooted for the first 2 rounds.

This really changed the thing. I badly played (been so long since we played Mage Wars Arena, we were rusty) and still lost, but if I had used the proper strategy, it would have been a very different game. Having 2 rounds to be able to summon some creatures to defend yourself before the enemy mage get in your way really helps.

So next time, we gonna build spellbooks based on the fact that we have 2 rounds to prepare and see how it goes.