Mage Selection

[Ravepig]

We have one player in our gaming group who uses the same mage over and over again. Every once in a while he will branch out with another mage, get slaughtered and then go back to his go-to mage. I on the other hand have 8 books, one for each mage type and am constantly changing which mage I play with and mixing up what strategy I use as I rotate thru the mages. I might play the same mage 2 or 3 times in a row, but then I'm changing to something new for variety, not to mention, I like keeping my opponent guessing.

Normally it wouldn't bother me that he plays with the same mage over and over again, but it's become a little stale because I basically tweak my book to counter exactly what I know he's going to throw at me. Instead of him seeing this as a disadvantage, his losses do nothing but prompt him to tweak his same book- determined to get that win. Thing is, over the last two months of playing, I am 5-1-2 (we had to call 2 games a draw from running out of time as we play to the death). The one loss I had was when I played the air-wizard for the first time and after a long day of work, I honestly played horrible and made many mistakes.

I think it would be fun to select mages at random. Nobody in our group seems to want to do this. Do any of you use random selection, or do you just go with whatever interests you?

[Gogolski]

Most people I know like to cycle through mages. Mostly because everybody likes making a book and then tweeking it somewhat to try to make it better.

I've been thinking about giving a spellbook assignment. Everybody has to make a book according to some rules and everbody then plays his book (or books?) against every other player.

A spellbook assignment could be:
Construct a book with at least two goblin builders, no warlord or forcemaster. (That's 8 spellbook points for every mage, and every player gets to give some love to this non-channeling familiar and DO something with it)

It's just an idea...

[Halewijn]

I also cycle through the mages although some more than others. (Priestess the least)

My girlfriend mostly plays priestess, beasmaster or druid because she likes the art and themes the most.

With my brother I often draw 2 mages. He chooses one and I pick the other one.

[Coshade]

I usually ask my opponent if they would prefer a mage to vs against in particular. Sometimes I just lay out books and ask which one they would like me to play based on the cover (mwahaha).

[farkas1]

When I first started I would have a couple of books available to play and my buddy usually has a couple as well and we ask each other which would we like to play against.  As I am now more experienced and usually have more books willing to try out I now usually have 5-6 spell books to choose from.  I have my favorite nature mages I prefer but willing to try out others.  Variety in this game is its strong suit and it keeps getting better each and every expansion!

[bigfatchef]

Most of the times I have 5-7 books ready to play and choose as feel in that moment. Sometimes I want to try something new, sometimes I like to go agro fire rush and sometimes i feel like building a whole city with soldiers and buildings.

Most of the times we don't tell each other who we are until we start playing so it is a surprise and you can't prepare yourself. Only the newer players generally start with an easy-to-guess mage, but you never know...

[V10lentray]

I usually ask my opponent if they would prefer a mage to vs against in particular. Sometimes I just lay out books and ask which one they would like me to play based on the cover (mwahaha).

I've done that. and they don't know what him them when you whip a beastmaster out of the necromancers book.

[Ravepig]

I usually ask my opponent if they would prefer a mage to vs against in particular. Sometimes I just lay out books and ask which one they would like me to play based on the cover (mwahaha).

I've done that. and they don't know what him them when you whip a beastmaster out of the necromancers book.

Ha ha ha- that's hilarious! I needs to try that!

[jhaelen]

Well, playing the same Mage all the time will make you predictable to a certain degree. It allows your opponents to tailor their spellbooks to have answers to your most likely threats. So, unless you create spellbooks that are very unusual for the type of Mage you're playing, you're basically playing with a handicap.

That alone would be sufficient reason for me to regularly switch to a different Mage. (In the past, the Wizard was a possible exception due to its flexibility, but now that they're only trained in the Air Elemental school, they've become just as predictable as the other mages.)

[Donovan]

Well, playing the same Mage all the time will make you predictable to a certain degree. It allows your opponents to tailor their spellbooks to have answers to your most likely threats. So, unless you create spellbooks that are very unusual for the type of Mage you're playing, you're basically playing with a handicap.

That alone would be sufficient reason for me to regularly switch to a different Mage. (In the past, the Wizard was a possible exception due to its flexibility, but now that they're only trained in the Air Elemental school, they've become just as predictable as the other mages.)

Totally agree with that. While learning the game, we used to play the same mage over and over again, while changing cards. In the first game I was blown to pieces by the other mage. In the second game we had the same cards, but I changed my game play and it became a longer game - but I still lost. So in the 3rd and 4th game I changed some cards I felt I needed. I won both of these more and more convincing.

Then my partner changed his mage and I lost again with that winning deck.

So what you need to do when building a deck is make a decision:

a) Do I go full risk and go for a play style that is very powerful, but if the wrong mage is on the other end, I might lose?
b) Do I imagine all kinds of mages and come up with an allround mage that is able to counter an aggressive opening, a creature spammer, a hex spammer, etc.

I haven't figured out the right strategy yet. Following a) can lead to spectacular wins, but also spectacular losses. Following b) leads to longer games, but not always a win.

I guess the trick is to find something effective in b) (a base set of cards) to allow you to survive any mage for the first rounds and then try to still implement something like a).

Deck building is an exciting part of the game I think.

[Squirrelmaster]

Most of the time me and my mate (unfortunately it is just the two of us) just use random books, unless we have specifically made a book that we want to use. This makes the games interesting as there is always new match ups and this keeps the game fresh and interesting. Doing it this way also means we can't build a book that just targets one specific mage.

[krj]

i have only one buddy against i'm playing but he is competitive we change our mages , prepare them in secret so no one knows which mage will have opponent. He has his favourite Priestess, but not playing it all the time. he also don't have DvN expansion unfortunately.

[wtcannonjr]

We use a separate deck of mage cards to randomize which mage to play. If we don't have a prepared spellbook for that mage, then we draw again. We also randomize the domination scenario by rolling a die so that mage selection doesn't influence the choice of arenas.

[Ravepig]

Well, playing the same Mage all the time will make you predictable to a certain degree. It allows your opponents to tailor their spellbooks to have answers to your most likely threats. So, unless you create spellbooks that are very unusual for the type of Mage you're playing, you're basically playing with a handicap.

That alone would be sufficient reason for me to regularly switch to a different Mage. (In the past, the Wizard was a possible exception due to its flexibility, but now that they're only trained in the Air Elemental school, they've become just as predictable as the other mages.)

Totally agree with that. While learning the game, we used to play the same mage over and over again, while changing cards. In the first game I was blown to pieces by the other mage. In the second game we had the same cards, but I changed my game play and it became a longer game - but I still lost. So in the 3rd and 4th game I changed some cards I felt I needed. I won both of these more and more convincing.

Then my partner changed his mage and I lost again with that winning deck.

So what you need to do when building a deck is make a decision:

a) Do I go full risk and go for a play style that is very powerful, but if the wrong mage is on the other end, I might lose?
b) Do I imagine all kinds of mages and come up with an allround mage that is able to counter an aggressive opening, a creature spammer, a hex spammer, etc.

I haven't figured out the right strategy yet. Following a) can lead to spectacular wins, but also spectacular losses. Following b) leads to longer games, but not always a win.

I guess the trick is to find something effective in b) (a base set of cards) to allow you to survive any mage for the first rounds and then try to still implement something like a).

Deck building is an exciting part of the game I think.

Building spellbooks is half of what makes Mage Wars so great in my opinion. And I agree- you've pointed out the two questions I ask myself as well when building spellbooks. I haven't necessarily found the answer either. I do win more often than not in my gaming group, but that's not a fair assessment of my skill by any means. I attribute it to mostly the fact that I kind of know what to expect from my opponents.

I've gone big and won big- and I've gone big and lost big as you say. I've been working hard at trying to find that perfect all-around spellbook and it's so difficult. Difficult game to master for sure, but worth every minute.

[EricTheGreat12]

I think it would be fun to select mages at random. Nobody in our group seems to want to do this. Do any of you use random selection, or do you just go with whatever interests you?

Unfortunately, I have learned in the past that a Force Master vs Druid game can be very bizzare