Deadly Hydro Mage Offensive - Water Wizard

[Beldin]

This is the book that I played at the second London Tournament at Darksphere, where I came in 2nd place.

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Deadly Hydro Mage Offensive[/spellbookname]
[mage]A Wizard (Water) Spellbook[/mage]
[mage]built by the OCTGN SBB[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKA01]2 x Surging Wave[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNA01]4 x Acid Ball[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A06]2 x Flameblast[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFA02]6 x Hurl Rock[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWA04]1 x Hurl Boulder[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1A04]1 x Fireball[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWA05]1 x Invisible Fist[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1J07]1 x Gate to Voltari[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1J12]3 x Mana Crystal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKJ02]2 x Wizard's Tower[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKC08]2 x Gargoyle Sentry[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1C05]4 x Blue Gremlin[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1C18]1 x Gorgon Archer[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1C21]1 x Huginn, Raven Familiar[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1E20]1 x Harmonize[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E15]2 x Essence Drain[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E29]2 x Nullify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFE04]2 x Brace Yourself[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E36]1 x Rhino Hide[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E32]1 x Regrowth[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1E21]1 x Hawkeye[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1Q15]1 x Leather Boots[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q07]1 x Elemental Cloak[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q06]2 x Dragonscale Hauberk[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWA01Q09]1 x Wispwillow Amulet[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1Q16]1 x Leather Gloves[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ07]1 x Veteran's Belt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWA01Q04]1 x Leather Chausses[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MW1I28]2 x Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I07]4 x Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I06]4 x Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFI03]2 x Disarm[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX2FFI05]2 x Ignite[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWI14]2 x Heal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I17]1 x Minor Heal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MW1I20]1 x Purify[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]

Cards sitting at the 120-130 point range:

Eagle Wings (for the Gorgon), Purify, Hurl Boulder, Hurl Meteorite, Mage Wand, Hand of Bim-Shalla, Hawkeye

Opening:

Turn 1
QC: Gate (B1)
Move: None
FC: Mana Crystal (A2)

Turn 2
QC: Mana Crystal (A1) 
Move: A1 > B1
FC: Mana Crystal (C1)/Harmonise for Gate

From here the idea is get out all 4 Gremlins and then switch into hurl rock mode, optimised with Hawkeye. The rest of the book is a toolbox of spells to answer specific problems.

Now for an in-depth look behind a lot of the spells in the book.

Attacks

I have built a toolbox of spells to sit on my wizard's tower. I also hard cast these spells through hawkeye.

Surging Wave - I use this mainly for equipment rush decks, and warlords, that rely Battle Forge. Battle forge has Hydro +3 so I use this against my opponent and hit his forge with 12 dice in a single turn. I also use this as a slam generation part of my wizard tower toolbox to deal with guards.

Flameblast - Defenses are a problem for this deck as it effectively switches off the "hit it with a rock, if it doesn't work; use a bigger rock" mentality of this book. Remove the guarding creature with a defence with these if I can

Hurl Rock/Fireball/Hurl Boulder - Main Offensive spells.

Invisible Fist - Etheral spike Damage for when arcane zap on its own isn't enough.

Creatures

Gargoyle Sentry - Anti nuke books, also to guard the gate if I feel I can turtle due to the opponent coming to me more than me having to go to him. Intercept is golden.

Blue Gremlin - The Gremlins work in tandem with hurl rocks to be the main damage grind in this book. I also love to guard with these to play mind games with opponents who are not paying attention.

Gorgon Archer - Anti swarm device. This creature can drop a Falcon/Activation. Also can be used as a swarm distraction device, as while the opponent goes for the Gorgon I can ignore his swarm.

Hugin - I have thought about dropping his guy. He can be useful, but I am now leaning towards a mage wand or two, after realising the late game potential for a mage wand, especially if the match goes to time.

Other spells/tricks

Ignite and dispel/dissolve - Ignite is one of my favourite cards and of all of the nullify hunting cards out there, I feel it is the best one. Decoy is a great card, do not get me wrong, but what happens when its resolved? I get two mana back, yay? Zero Cost Purify? Meh. Id rather use it as a purge magic (see its section). Whereas with ignite if the spell completes I get a burn token on the opposing mage. If not then I pop a nullify and still get to remove the offending card I need gone.

Purify - This is another of those really interesting cards that I love. It removes a stack of rot tokens. One of the hardest to remove condition markers in the game, outside priest. Also I love to use this as a mini purge magic to remove a DOT clock with a single activation. Magebane, ghoul rot, plagued, etc are all poison so all can be targetted.

Wispwillow Amulet - For later game to counter the removal of a mana crystal.

[Drefan]

A very nice book.

I've to ask, did you feel that you were at a disadvantage for not running a more equipment-heavy Mage with a battle forge build? I'm thinking Wizzard vs Wizzard matchups mainly.

[Beldin]

I actually did not see another wizard at the event. However to answer the question. Let me answer it in two halves. Equipment then Wizard.

I did not feel disadvantaged as I can do +3 armour easily. This spikes to 7 with brace, add vet belt and voltaric shield and this will weather damage spikes really well. I take the first 3 points of crit on the sheild. The next 2 is converted to normal damage and I still have 5 normal damage I can soak. Unless the opposing mage is really lucky and hits all crit then I am good. These sorts of times are also why this book has a lot of points into holy.  That is without doing a chest piece or the cloak!

I do love me a forge, but its spell points. I do not feel the book needs it really as it slows down what can be a very damaging offensive. I can hit double hurl rock in a turn, triple with tower. Acid ball to corrode off the armour. The armour I have is also cheap and can be hard cast without any real problems.

In a wizard match it is a little harder because it then becomes a game of working out the goal of the opponent. I have enough to avoid a pit deck. Purify/dispel deals with a blasting banker. Buddy I have enough acid balls to rip off armour and then enough rocks to kill it. My gremlins rip mana crystals apart nicely and I have enough to deal with a turtling bubble mage. Mana denial is a pain and its part of the reason I have the ethereal spike damage to rip down a mana syphon. 

[Biblofilter]

Hi!

Looks like a really nice book!

Not that big Water focus - 10 water points and 8 earth/fire if I count right. So you could switch to earth/fire if you add more earth/fire spells.

The Essence drain seems like something you could cut. Most creatures you would just Acid Ball/Hurl Rock on and kill em real fast. To get value out of essence drain you have to let the creatures live for at least 3 rounds - Earth Elementals/Zombie Brutes maybe?. But its 4 spellpoint and seems very situational.

6 Hurl Rocks seems a lot - mostly I don´t like the range 1.
Seems like your opponent would do well to run out of Wizard Tower range to heal and try to deal with your creatures if you chase him to his corner. Then come back in for another round of Rocks when he's fully healed.

Id rather have Arcane Ring than lets say the Wispwood Amulet or even the regular Moonglow Amulet.

And I'm missing a Mage Wand (or 2), Force Push, Seeking Dispel(s), Rust and Elemental Wand.
You might even have a third Wizard Tower but that might just be me being to cautious.

[DaveW]

I think I'm going along with Biblofilter... I think you have a few too many copies of attack spells (so you can use an Arcane Zap for cheaper and zero spellbook points if you want a second attack), though I like the diversity in the attack spells. I also had to wonder why you would have the Amulet and not one of the other things that he mentioned.

I would try to find a way to put a second Veteran's Belt in the book as the first will almost certainly be dissolved once you get that 2nd or 3rd point of armor.

I like a swap of some of the redundant attack spells for an Elemental Wand. That also might be dissolved, but there are only so many things that they are going to be able to dissolve.

I think two Towers are enough, since by the time you need to put up a third, the game should nearly be over. I do think that Rust is a near mandatory add for a Water Wizard, though.

One Essence Drain is good enough probably also... you would put it on a big Pet, Holy Avenger, or Blood Reaper, for example. I only wonder whether a second one is needed since a first one is pretty certainly going to be dispelled.

[Kelanen]

I actually did not see another wizard at the event.

That's so not true Matt! You beat my Wizard... which was galling since it was a an anti-Wizard Wizard, but the dice did hate me!

This book is solid. Much as I prefer more card efficiency (wands and Arcane Zap) and a more traditional Forge build, there is an absolute brute force efficiency of just being able to throw lots of rocks to the head. It's almost certainly the book that causes most problems for me of all that I have faced.

[iNano78]

Forgive me for a slightly off topic post, but when I read through your spell book, I grimaced.  It's a really good book.  And it reminded me of the exact problem with the Wizard's design, from a board game design perspective. 

If I'm not mistaken, the design intent was for the Wizard to be a flexible mage that could specialize in one particular minor (elemental) school.  But because the Wizard doesn't pay triple for anything (and perhaps in combination with Arcane Zap, Voltaric Shield, Wizard's Tower, and cheap access to all the "must have" Arcane utility spells), the Wizard really has no drawback and can virtually ignore training, as you have done.  As Biblofilter pointed out, you have 10 points worth of Water and 8 of each of Fire and Earth.  If you either drop 2 points of Water (e.g. an Acid Ball and a Dissolve?) or find a way to squeeze in 2 more points of Fire (Fireball? Explode?) and Earth (e.g. Hurl Boulder? Earthquake?) or a combination of those (e.g. drop an Acid Ball and perhaps a Dispel to add 1 point of each Fire and Earth), then you could call this spell book a "Not-Air" Wizard, as otherwise the minor school choice is completely arbitrary.  This demonstrates that the Wizard has unprecedented toolbox access.  In comparison, the Warlock or Warlord could set up a similar toolbox of attack and other elemental school spells (e.g. paying single for one of those elements and double for the others, just as a Wizard does), but since they'd pay double or even triple (for Arcane in the Warlord's case, and Holy in the Warlock's case) for other utility spells, it isn't possible to build a book that's nearly this flexible - not to mention having no mage abilities that are close to as strong or as flexible as Arcane Zap and Voltaric Shield (e.g. both Warlocks have an ability that requires at least 1 Demon and another that requires at least 1 curse in play, and the Warlords each have Battle Orders and another ability that cares about either creature or equipment spells in play - e.g. their abilities don't do anything if you don't have certain types of spell in play, while the Wizard's ability work even if he is naked and alone).

From a design/balance perspective, it's really a shame there isn't a drawback for the Wizard - like paying triple for elemental school spells from your "unchosen" options.  Or even paying triple for an "opposing" major school like War and/or Nature.  Without a drawback, Wizards will continue to be perceived as "the best mage in a vacuum."

As for your book - it looks really good and I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said up-thread.

[Beldin]

I actually did not see another wizard at the event.

That's so not true Matt! You beat my Wizard... which was galling since it was a an anti-Wizard Wizard, but the dice did hate me!

So I did. The problem is Jon that you are my main opponent. I am sorry, but it blurred into the numerous games we have played against each other, including the one on the train upto the tournament. #Magesonatrain

[DaveW]

Forgive me for a slightly off topic post, but when I read through your spell book, I grimaced.  It's a really good book.  And it reminded me of the exact problem with the Wizard's design, from a board game design perspective. 

If I'm not mistaken, the design intent was for the Wizard to be a flexible mage that could specialize in one particular minor (elemental) school.  But because the Wizard doesn't pay triple for anything (and perhaps in combination with Arcane Zap, Voltaric Shield, Wizard's Tower, and cheap access to all the "must have" Arcane utility spells), the Wizard really has no drawback and can virtually ignore training, as you have done.  As Biblofilter pointed out, you have 10 points worth of Water and 8 of each of Fire and Earth.  If you either drop 2 points of Water (e.g. an Acid Ball and a Dissolve?) or find a way to squeeze in 2 more points of Fire (Fireball? Explode?) and Earth (e.g. Hurl Boulder? Earthquake?) or a combination of those (e.g. drop an Acid Ball and perhaps a Dispel to add 1 point of each Fire and Earth), then you could call this spell book a "Not-Air" Wizard, as otherwise the minor school choice is completely arbitrary.  This demonstrates that the Wizard has unprecedented toolbox access.  In comparison, the Warlock or Warlord could set up a similar toolbox of attack and other elemental school spells (e.g. paying single for one of those elements and double for the others, just as a Wizard does), but since they'd pay double or even triple (for Arcane in the Warlord's case, and Holy in the Warlock's case) for other utility spells, it isn't possible to build a book that's nearly this flexible - not to mention having no mage abilities that are close to as strong or as flexible as Arcane Zap and Voltaric Shield (e.g. both Warlocks have an ability that requires at least 1 Demon and another that requires at least 1 curse in play, and the Warlords each have Battle Orders and another ability that cares about either creature or equipment spells in play - e.g. their abilities don't do anything if you don't have certain types of spell in play, while the Wizard's ability work even if he is naked and alone).

From a design/balance perspective, it's really a shame there isn't a drawback for the Wizard - like paying triple for elemental school spells from your "unchosen" options.  Or even paying triple for an "opposing" major school like War and/or Nature.  Without a drawback, Wizards will continue to be perceived as "the best mage in a vacuum."

Sorry if you weren't one of the many who pointed this all out in one of the other threads over the past year or two... but I'm getting tired of hearing about the Wizard as having an advantage and needing to be fixed. Yes, I agree with you that the Tower is great, the Wizard's special abilities are great, etc., but deal with it. It is what it is right now.

[jhaelen]

.. but I'm getting tired of hearing about the Wizard as having an advantage and needing to be fixed.

Yup, and I'm tired of nothing being done to fix the Wizard.

[Beldin]

.. but I'm getting tired of hearing about the Wizard as having an advantage and needing to be fixed.

Yup, and I'm tired of nothing being done to fix the Wizard.

I personally do not appreciate having my thread hijacked in this way.