I'm not gonna lie to you guys, but some of the ideas i see coming out here are gobsmacking! Im not judging, everyone likes something different, but a vast majority of these changes would likely ruin the game that i love. I see that many folks dislike the dice, but i see random probability as a good thing not a chore. It makes the game more cerebral. If there were no blanks on the dice (or even fewer blanks to a certain extent) the game becomes a slug fest out of the gate. Why bother trying to out think your opponent, or weave an ellaborate plot to completely disable them then crush them? Every book would have 2 Hawkeye 2 akitos favor and 4 hurl boulders 4 fireballs 4 lighting bolts 6 acid balls, hurl Rick's, and flame blasts. I like that there are very few "100 percent effective with a certain number" ( a la MtG where lightning bolt always does 3 damage) spells. This way one cannot count on his meteorite dealing 10 damage every time. Why not just play 1 of those and 3 boulders? Game over in 3 rounds then shuffle up and deal again?
I throughly enjoy the act of playing this game, win or lose i learn another tactic or another mistake to not make again. I just don't want to build hyper focused "60 card decks" that only do one thing over and over. The beauty of a mage wars spell book is that it needs to be flexible enough to handle anything but focused enough to kill the enemy. Theres never enough points for everything (unless your a wizard maybe) so the challenge is in minimizing weaknesses instead of being able to eradicate them.
Theres no hard answer to anything in mage wars,but there are many many soft ones. Its a cerebral game and i like it that way. Again not judging, just thought id say something about how cool i think this game is. Lol!
^^ AGREED!!
I've posted a bunch of times in this thread, but only to answer questions and such. I haven't answered the question because frankly a lot of peoples' suggestions would ruin the game.
The dice are fine. In fact, I think they're great because the expectation value IS the number of dice (e.g. average roll on X dice is X, where X/2 is critical and X/2 is normal damage) which is very convenient. The distribution narrows with the more dice you roll (which is why Academy is a little more swingy than Arena regarding dice).
I could get behind a rule change where conjurations with attacks get an action marker, as per the OP. You could still quickcast a Conjuration (like Wizard's Tower or Corrosive Orchid or Nightshade Lotus) and use it immediately, but you couldn't quickcast an attack spell AND flip your mage's action to cast an attack spell AND have your Wizard's Tower cast an attack spell ... all without allowing your opponent to react (besides reveal enchantments)... which we all know is a *very powerful* play. That wouldn't even require "Mage Wars 2.0" - it could be done as errata to the rule book and a handful of cards.
All equipment being Epic would be terrible for a lot of mages. Want to beat a Priest? [mwcard=MW1I07]Dissolve[/mwcard] his ONLY [mwcard=MW1Q29]Staff of Asyra[/mwcard]. How about a Johktari Beastmaster? Crumble her ONLY Kajarah or [mwcard=MWSTX1CKQ02]Hunting Bow[/mwcard]. Sure, it can be annoying to be a Warlock and come up against somebody running 3x [mwcard=MW1Q06]Dragonscale Hauberk[/mwcard] out-of-school... but then you just [mwcard=MW1I11]Explode[/mwcard] them and move on. I could see a compromise, that maybe all chest armours should have been level 2... in which case a Beastmaster or Druid is paying 6 sbp for Dragonscale and most other mages are paying 4 (but Beastmasters/Druids will get cheap access to Chitin Armor if/when it ever comes out in a set, so it will balance out). Unfortunately that means the Wizard gets a little better, but that's hard to avoid when manipulating spell point costs.
As I suggested, Gate to Hell is still terrible (albeit slightly less terrible) even after the errata; it could stand to cost 4 less up front and 2 or 3 less later, or be a quick spell, or let you open it before or after a creature action rather than as your Mage's full action (argh!!), or some combination of these. But whatever. One thematic card that doesn't see play isn't as big a deal as some of the other quibbles I have with the game. It would be like #15 on my priority list. It just seems fairly easy to fix compared to other issues.
"Novice" fills the need for a "neutral" spell school, but somehow I don't love how it works. A very large fraction of War School spells are Novice, which means the Warlords lose out on what might otherwise be an advantage for them. If everybody else paid the standard double for cards like Leather equipment, Brace Yourself and Defend, and if Veteran's Belt were "War Mage only", then the Warlord would be improved by comparison. I think this (e.g. other mages having relatively cheap access to War spells) is one of the reasons that the Warlord feels a little underwhelming, even though it has 2 full schools of training and some interesting mage abilities and powerful (albeit highly conditional) mage-type-only spells. Well, that and paying triple for Arcane, which is like tying one hand behind his back. I often wonder if the game would actually be better if no spells were "Novice."
I agree that the total number of conditions and key words could be brought down. Bleed/Burn/Rot are very similar; Daze/Stun/Slam/Sleep and Incapacitated in general are all flavours of the same thing, and I have to look them up EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. because somehow I can't keep them straight (and I'm a frequent Forcemaster player, so you'd think I'd remember them all by now). Teleport and Push could have been the same thing (e.g. get rid of Teleport the card, but add a more powerful Push ("Shove"?) that can double-push something 2 zones, and make it that Teleport Trap does a "shove") and it wouldn't change much - except make it that cards like Astral Anchor wouldn't have been necessary, and Tanglevine and Force Hold would be a lot more powerful because you couldn't just Teleport out of a vine or drag a Force Hold with you (e.g. you'd have to kill the vine or Dispel the Force Hold, as per what seems like the intent of the cards). But what we have works, and it's a little late to change it now (and I don't see how you could at this point).
I must be missing something because I don't find Mage Bane or Ghoul Rot (or Plagued) to be too strong. They're good, and they solve the problem of dealing with heavily armored opponents (which solves the armor-swap issue, by the way) but it only takes a Dispel or Disperse to get rid of them. Oh, except against the Necromancer, since he's immune to them... so you have to deal with the armor on a Necromancer since you can't just Ghoul Rot him.
I agree - and am somewhat shocked by - the number of grammar errors on cards. Why, are there, so many, unnecessary, and, incorrect, placements of, commas, ?, Didn't a native English speaker* proofread the (English) cards?
*William Shatner doesn't count.If you're still worried about game length, try Domination. It will speed up your games.
(Unless the problem is "analysis paralysis" in which case try a different opponent - or play faster)
(I'm guilty of this myself on "crucial turns" but our 1-on-1 matches are still ~ 75 minutes with rare exceptions so not ridiculously long)
Unless you want a 20 minute game. Then play Academy or any of the many MANY many 20-30 minute LCG/CCG type games out there. It's OK to admit that Mage Wars Arena/Domination just isn't your thing if you aren't into 1-2 hour matches with a really epic feel that involve some commitment to spell book building and the time it takes to play them out. But I wouldn't be happy either if 1-on-1 matches were taking 3+ hours, so... try Domination.
Note: 2-on-2 team Domination might take 3 hours; and 3-way matches might take 90-120 minutes. But I'm OK with that. It just might not be for everybody.
