November 22, 2024, 08:09:03 AM

Author Topic: Telepit Earth Wizard  (Read 7732 times)

reyda

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Telepit Earth Wizard
« on: April 05, 2016, 03:50:34 PM »
Here's the Earth Wizard I played against mastermystery in the ADMW Tournament today. The book is somewhat gimmicky, and better play from my opponent gave him the victory, but I feel it has some potential... or not? I don't know. It felt right, but there is certainly room for a lot of improvement in there.

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Telepit Earth Wizard[/spellbookname]
[mage]A Wizard (Earth) Spellbook[/mage]
[mage]built by yours truly[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack (8)[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFA02]2 x Hurl Rock[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWA04]2 x Hurl Boulder[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNA01]1 x Acid Ball[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A09]1 x Jet Stream[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKA01]1 x Surging Wave[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A06]1 x Flameblast[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration (12)[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1W02]2 x Wall of Stone[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFW01]2 x Wall of Earth[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ10]1 x Stranglevine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J22]1 x Tanglevine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWJ07]1 x Quicksand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKJ02]1 x Wizard's Tower[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNJ02]1 x Corrosive Orchid[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J12]2 x Mana Crystal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J14]1 x Mana Syphon[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature (4)[/spellclass]
[mwcard=FWC09]2 x Iron Golem[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWC02]1 x Earth Elemental[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNC03]1 x Devouring Jelly[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment (22)[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1E09]1 x Agony[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E31]1 x Poisoned Blood[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E24]1 x Magebane[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E15]1 x Essence Drain[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWPROMO19]1 x Summoning Circle[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKE05]1 x Spiked Pit[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E38]3 x Teleport Trap[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWPROMO13]1 x Mana Vampirism[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E21]1 x Hawkeye[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWA01E09]1 x Hoodwink[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E29]3 x Nullify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E23]2 x Jinx[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E10]2 x Decoy[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWA01E02]1 x Arcane Ward[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E36]1 x Rhino Hide[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE04]1 x Brace Yourself[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment (9)[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1Q01]1 x Arcane Ring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWA01Q09]1 x Sistarran Robes[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWA01Q04]1 x Leather Chausses[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWA01Q10]1 x Wychwood Ironvine[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q31]1 x Staff of the Arcanum[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ09]1 x Wand of Healing[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q08]1 x Elemental Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q19]2 x Mage Wand[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation (13)[/spellclass]
[mwcard=FWI13]1 x Seeking Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I06]4 x Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I21]1 x Purge Magic[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I25]1 x Shift Enchantment[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I07]2 x Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I28]3 x Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I12]1 x Force Push[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]

Solid, non-living creatures, and some possibilities to create a nice death-zone, featuring a corrosive orchid to take care of some armor and possible Eagleclaw Boots. Economy is decent, with two crystals and the Siphon (although I'm really incertain about this one, the upfront cost is huge and I can't seem to defend it properly).

Opening should look like this :
T1 (20)      QC Arcane Ring (-2) FC Crystal (-4)
T2 (25)      QC Crystal (-4) FC Golem (-13)
T3 (20)      QC Mana Vampirism (-2) FC Siphon (-11)
T4 (19)      QC Spiked Pit (-2) FC Summoning Circle (-2)

There's plenty of mana to go around in the initial turns, so reacting to the opponent is not too much of a problem. The inclusion of the Sistarran Robes, Essence Drain, Mana Vampirism and Staff of the Arcanum are really questionable in my opinion; although they seem to combo pretty well, the action investment doesn't seem so sound, as the opponent has time to grow defenses or creatures and these cards take a couple of turns to pay themselves off, turns that could be better employed at negating the enemy's defenses through dispel/dissolve. More walls, more creatures and more attack spells would probably be better in this spellbook. I debated a lot over including Astral Anchor or not, and the jury is still out on this one. Any thoughts will be highly appreciated!

Mystery

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2016, 04:05:27 PM »
2dissolve is not very much

take 1-2 disperse instead of dispel
personally i also would take a jet stream, hurl rock does often enough dmg vs flyers and also arcane zap with hawkeye, saves one point
you are bit short of actions, maybe hugin or battleforge that can equip a mage wand to be more flexible
2nd acid ball?
not sure about two walls of stone
the summoning circle i wouldnt include at all
and for my feeling you have too few armor i count max 5 but everything one copy (and one brace yourself). What do you do against 10dice fireball throwing adramalech warlocks, which usually takes less set up then the earth creatures. just walls?
not sure about the agony if you have strong creatures
orchid is nice but 4 points hm



and of course as long as wizard tower isnt change (which it might be) take a second one.

Beldin

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2016, 02:57:06 PM »
Summoning circle imo is just another 2 zone teleport spell, cast just before the creature to get it closer to the action. It is the same mana and range. It could help get slow creatures where you want them to be but tbh I am not sure it i the way to go.

Personally I have toyed with a watergate jelly pit and even though it is an elegant design, rips armour off while inflicting damage; the main problem with it is if an opponent sees a zone specific book, they will do their best to avoid that. Then unless you can outwit them you will have sunk a lot of spb/mana/actions into a play that sits there while the opponent evolves their book mostly unhindered.

Sailor Vulcan

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Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2016, 07:37:43 PM »
Summoning circle imo is just another 2 zone teleport spell, cast just before the creature to get it closer to the action. It is the same mana and range. It could help get slow creatures where you want them to be but tbh I am not sure it i the way to go.

Personally I have toyed with a watergate jelly pit and even though it is an elegant design, rips armour off while inflicting damage; the main problem with it is if an opponent sees a zone specific book, they will do their best to avoid that. Then unless you can outwit them you will have sunk a lot of spb/mana/actions into a play that sits there while the opponent evolves their book mostly unhindered.

Doesn't summoning circle also require the mage's action? So a spawnpoint couldn't use it.

Maybe have a Druid with Fellela use summoning circle, since she often likes to stay away from the action. Teleport requires the caster to be 0-2 zones away from the target creature, after all.

Although this would not be helpful to a vine tree user.
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Kelanen

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2016, 06:43:42 AM »
Doesn't summoning circle also require the mage's action? So a spawnpoint couldn't use it.

Correct. I use Summoning Circle in my Earth Wizard book, but I wouldn't consider it until you have 2-3 Teleports and a Mage Wand.

Mostly, it is just a Teleport. Sometimes you get to use it 2-3 times, or pull something off, like summon into a walled off corner, but 80-90% it's just a Teleport a round earlier than you ideally want it...

Sailor Vulcan

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2016, 09:26:47 AM »
Doesn't summoning circle also require the mage's action? So a spawnpoint couldn't use it.

Correct. I use Summoning Circle in my Earth Wizard book, but I wouldn't consider it until you have 2-3 Teleports and a Mage Wand.

Mostly, it is just a Teleport. Sometimes you get to use it 2-3 times, or pull something off, like summon into a walled off corner, but 80-90% it's just a Teleport a round earlier than you ideally want it...

Of course it also avoids the effects of traps and caltrops.
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Kelanen

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2016, 11:23:45 AM »
Of course it also avoids the effects of traps and caltrops.

Correct, although:

  • I very rarely see traps, they are too weak aside from a few specific uses

    My creatures are Iron Golems, Magma Golem, Gorgon Archer and Guardian Angel - none are bothered by traps or Caltrops in truth.

reyda

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2016, 02:37:44 PM »
I agree with everything's that's been said about the Summoning Circle. It is pretty much a Teleport, with the added bonuses that you don't need to account for LoS (or range, for that matter), and is possibly multiple uses. As a 'spawnpoint' of sorts, it also bypasses Zone Exclusive limitations, which could allow you to cast creatures directly in an opponent's spawnpoint zone (or other troublesome conjuration). I also like the fact that as long as it isn't revealed, the opponent has to figure if it is a trap, decoy, sacred ground, fortified position, arcane ward, etc. (?) I love enchantment mindgames.

As a 'main' strategy, I cannot say I've found it very useful so far. Having Fellella cast it could be useful, but as was said, Druid has a better way to cast creatures from a distance, and the Beastmasters have a very powerful spawnpoint already. I'd love to make the card work, but I'm really not sure how.

I thought long and hard about including Hugginn in this book. I love the little birdie, but it is hard to protect him. It often requires at least two enchantments, which increase his cost a lot. I personnally love pushing crows into arena walls, it's dirt cheap and efficient. And leaving him in the center zones generally allows the enemy to Flameblast / Arc Lightning him. I may give him a try though, with a Blur on he becomes harder to deal with.

Regarding the Corrosive Orchid, I just can't help myself, I include it in so many books just because the ability to dodge a Nullify to get rid of an annoying equipment is so good. Also, Unavoidable ranged attack with a chance of corrode is pretty cool. And stacking actions, of course. Fits in with the Wizard's Tower, the same way Ballista + Tower Wizards are pretty disgusting.

Biblofilter

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2016, 09:27:27 PM »
I'm wondering a few things:

1.The whole mana drain thing seems to have nothing to do with your Telepit strategy.

   You are using 7 spellbook points here. Id rather have another Wand over the Staff, even if Etheral could be very nice, especially I the ADMW tourney (zap not ethereal)

2. 3 Teleport Traps - hard to put to good use. I do feel you should have the same number of Spiked Pits so you could "trap" someone and keep em in the zone you want. Maybe another Force Push and Huginn will help.

3. Summoning Circle - im not sold on that.

4. Corrosive Orchids are really really nice - but id rather have another Devouring Jelly :) in a Wizard book anyway. Crumble might help bypass nullify.

5. Everyone seems to play earth wizard (Hurl Rock?) but the other elements are also really good I think.
It seems to me that you want to do something your opponent isn't prepared to handle. Maybe Gremlin swarm :)

6. Gravikor - well as Earth Wizard its only 2 spellbookpoints :)


« Last Edit: April 09, 2016, 01:02:01 AM by Biblofilter »
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Kelanen

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2016, 07:18:17 AM »
5. Everyone seems to play earth wizard (Hurl Rock?) but the other elements are also really good I think.
It seems to me that you want to do something your opponent isn't prepared to handle. Maybe Gremlin swarm :)

Not around here. I'd say it's something like:

60% Water
25% Fire
10% Earth
5%   Air

Currently I have 6 Wizards built  2 Water, 2 Fire, 1 Earth and 1 Air.

Sailor Vulcan

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Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2016, 03:30:09 PM »
5. Everyone seems to play earth wizard (Hurl Rock?) but the other elements are also really good I think.

It might help to have a better understanding of your local meta. What sets do you and your playgroup have?
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Biblofilter

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #11 on: April 12, 2016, 10:24:23 AM »
We hardly see any Wizards in the cold and windy Viking country of mine :)

I did play mostly Wizard a year ago but after that nobody plays Wizard regularly.

As for sets I think I have 6 core sets and ~3 of every expansion. Some of our new mages has 3 players sharing a core set and 1 of every expansion. The fantastic prize support from Arcane Wonders for Viking Con still goes a long way at supplying everyone for basic spells at our regular monthly game day!

I took a quick look at the Wizard builds posted in the 24 pages in this forum. So I'm sure I miscounted some.

#Wizards Build:
Earth  18
Air      14
Fire      6
Water   2

I guess I'm mistaken in that Hurl Rock is the big reason for the Earth Wizards. Creatures are probably a bigger reason. Both Earth and Air seemed to be the most elemental focused books, with Water books being on the very low side here.
Then again the fabled Watergate Wizard isn't in here and that also have a very low use of elemental spells. (6 Dissolves a Surging Wave and a Geyser)

Still quite a different impression than the one Kelanen reports:
"Not around here. I'd say it's something like:

60% Water
25% Fire
10% Earth
5%   Air

Currently I have 6 Wizards built  2 Water, 2 Fire, 1 Earth and 1 Air."
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Kelanen

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #12 on: April 12, 2016, 12:18:24 PM »
Almost every book I build (not just Wizard, I have ~20 built at any one time) has 1-2 Acid Balls, 1-2 Surging Wave, 2-3 Dissolve, 2 Crumble (and 1-2 Disarm), 1-2 Rust for maybe 9 Water. Most will also have 1-2x Ignite, 1x Battle Forge, 1x Jetstream for much lower counts in those elements. Hurl Boulder is common, but I'd take an in school Fireball or Force Hammer over it.

Everything carries a lot of water here. So many standard spells are Water, that it's often the default school for a Wizard, even you intend using another element for your kill.

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #13 on: April 12, 2016, 12:41:24 PM »
Almost every book I build (not just Wizard, I have ~20 built at any one time) has 1-2 Acid Balls, 1-2 Surging Wave, 2-3 Dissolve, 2 Crumble (and 1-2 Disarm), 1-2 Rust for maybe 9 Water. Most will also have 1-2x Ignite, 1x Battle Forge, 1x Jetstream for much lower counts in those elements. Hurl Boulder is common, but I'd take an in school Fireball or Force Hammer over it.

Everything carries a lot of water here. So many standard spells are Water, that it's often the default school for a Wizard, even you intend using another element for your kill.

A quick estimate puts those spells at 23-34 points.  And that doesn't include other "staples" such as Dispel, Seeking Dispel, Force Push, Teleport, 2x Chest Armour (usually including at least 1x Dragonscale Hauberk), Tanglevine, other equipment for your Forge to cast (lets say a weapon, a Leather item, a Belt, a discount Ring, perhaps a Wand?).  After building your toolbox, it doesn't leave a lot of room for your Mage's strategy.  Unless you're a Wizard of course.
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Kelanen

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Re: Telepit Earth Wizard
« Reply #14 on: April 14, 2016, 02:24:27 AM »
The staples are all better than expanding any specific strategy, so yes, they are in pretty much every book.

But yes, a third of my books are Wizards, and I only ever play Wizard at a tournament. Pretty much whatever you want to do Wizard does best, even when it feels like it shouldn't be a Wizard book (as I'll show at Expo).

Wizard is broken, and no amount of expanding cardpool is ever going to fix it.