How are you guys / girls building your decks?

[Clobber in time]

With Academy out, as well as Siren vs. Paladin - there are a lot of cards not included in the online tools or the app provided by Arcande Wonders. Since I do not have the masterbrain of a memorizing expert, I have a really hard time constructing my decks with having all cards in mind I COULD use.

Are there any alternatives out there? How do you approach the situation?

Greetz
Clobber

[silverclawgrizzly]

How do I build my books? Poorly! Nyuk nyuk.

Seriously though I think there's an updated spell book builder on OCTGN.

[zot]

i suggest a large table area, and pull out all cards from the schools your mage uses and read through them. while you are doing that, set some aside that interest you. then you can narrow that initial stack down and add in other out of school cads that may go with your strategy, or cards you feel should go in usually to all of your books. it is this area where everyone has different opinions of what those cards should be and how many.

[Coshade]

Personally I prefer OCTGN to build them. All the currently released sets are there and you can save the files on your computer and tweak them however you want digitally.

As a side bonus if you do not own all the sets you can see what cards are in them and possibly want to own them after making a sweet book.

[farkas1]

For me I have 4 card boxes for all the cards that are not currently in books.  They are  divided by school, and card type arranged alphabetically.  I have a multi school section for all those cards.  And I have some sections divided conjurations creatures  and enchantments in one section with he others in another section of the box.  It works really well and after organizing them alphabetically by school and card type u will eventually learn about every card.  I also have sections for mages, Mage ability cards, and promos in a separate section. 

OCTGN is really good and it does have every card to date on file,  and it is really easy to use.  However I enjoy the physical cards because I have the ability to organize them how by my own preferences.  I also feel after countless times looking for a card it does start to build a data base in your mind by physically having the cards tho.

[Brian VanAlstyne]

Since OCTGN was brought up here and we're talking about building decks and all the new releases, especially Grimoire, that made a lot of promos no longer a promo, is there a list of actual promos out there?

[farkas1]

Yea there is a few that are not out yet.  Lost grimore only made a few promos legal.  I know there is a bunch a couple that comes to mind are blur, stench of death, and screaming zombie.  They definitely have enough cards to release a second lost grimore set maybe even a third. 

[Coshade]

Since OCTGN was brought up here and we're talking about building decks and all the new releases, especially Grimoire, that made a lot of promos no longer a promo, is there a list of actual promos out there?

This is a great comment! Since LG made a lot of promos official, instead of removing them immediately from the SBB, we decided to keep it in temporarily so all the books a player has that have those promos do not become invalid. If you have a book saved that uses promos that are officially released, change them now! Otherwise you may lose the entire save file.

[Super Sorcerer]

ב"ה
I don't use OCTGN, but generally I build books by first taking the auto include essentials -  a teleport, a few dispels and item destruction spells (dissolve/crumble/explode/corrosive orchid), with some mage specific essentials (like cantrips). Then I add the spells that I am going to use if everything goes by the plan (if my plan include using a teleport, then it is in addition to the essential teleport). then, I start to think what is my book weak against, and take some counters for that. Eventually, if I had too few spellbook points then I add some more fun in-school things, and if I had too much spellbook points then I drop some spells that I am not likely to use.

[Beldin]

I am very methodical in my book building. It normally starts with a single idea or concept. From that I use octgn to flesh that out. I open my planning spreadsheet which is automated to workout if my plan works and if I can afford it, turn by turn.

Recently I then look at the 5 basic books:

1. Equipment Rush
2. Ad Warlock Rushball
3. BM Avairy
4. ALoF Buddy
5. Turtle mage

I look at problems that might be faced against these common archetypes.

Then I add the toolbox of removal, movement modifiers, healing, armor etc, depends on the mage. Lastly I look at which mage gives me the best spell points for what I have chosen. then see If I would be better off playing another mage of the same school. Warlock vs Necromancer, for example.

[grga.curkovic]

I just posted an update of my spellbook builder that includes PvS and LG, read more at http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=17116.30

Cheers

[reddawn]

I would suggest building balanced books and I would avoid thinking of Mage Wars in terms of TCG terms, like aggro/control/rush/etc.  It's better to go into the game with a mind that is clear of the baggage of other games.

Basically, as long as you are generating lots of actions and lots of dice, you're doing well.  Regardless of which mage you're playing, creatures are very important for that reason; they guard things, attack things, and aren't very easy to solve (except with other creatures).  I always put a moderate to large number of creatures in my books and never regret doing so.  Think of a pyramid when it comes to including creatures too; several level 1 and 2 creatures, a few level 3 and 4 creatures, and one or two level 5 and higher creatures.   

Figuring out card amounts is not something you can determine through thinking/theorycraft; you have to just play and see what you need.  If you really can't decide at all when building a deck, just put in 1 copy of whatever you're agonizing about; you can always add more later.

[Sailor Vulcan]

I would suggest building balanced books and I would avoid thinking of Mage Wars in terms of TCG terms, like aggro/control/rush/etc.  It's better to go into the game with a mind that is clear of the baggage of other games.

Basically, as long as you are generating lots of actions and lots of dice, you're doing well.  Regardless of which mage you're playing, creatures are very important for that reason; they guard things, attack things, and aren't very easy to solve (except with other creatures).  I always put a moderate to large number of creatures in my books and never regret doing so.  Think of a pyramid when it comes to including creatures too; several level 1 and 2 creatures, a few level 3 and 4 creatures, and one or two level 5 and higher creatures.   

Figuring out card amounts is not something you can determine through thinking/theorycraft; you have to just play and see what you need.  If you really can't decide at all when building a deck, just put in 1 copy of whatever you're agonizing about; you can always add more later.

What's important isn't how many actions and dice you're generating in total. It's how much *more* actions and dice you're generating than your opponent. Instead of summoning a ton of smaller creatures you could also try summoning one or two bigger creatures and destroy any creatures your opponent tries to threaten you with. Or you could just kill the enemy Mage as fast as possible before they have the time to build up too many creature actions.

[reddawn]

I would suggest building balanced books and I would avoid thinking of Mage Wars in terms of TCG terms, like aggro/control/rush/etc.  It's better to go into the game with a mind that is clear of the baggage of other games.

Basically, as long as you are generating lots of actions and lots of dice, you're doing well.  Regardless of which mage you're playing, creatures are very important for that reason; they guard things, attack things, and aren't very easy to solve (except with other creatures).  I always put a moderate to large number of creatures in my books and never regret doing so.  Think of a pyramid when it comes to including creatures too; several level 1 and 2 creatures, a few level 3 and 4 creatures, and one or two level 5 and higher creatures.   

Figuring out card amounts is not something you can determine through thinking/theorycraft; you have to just play and see what you need.  If you really can't decide at all when building a deck, just put in 1 copy of whatever you're agonizing about; you can always add more later.

What's important isn't how many actions and dice you're generating in total. It's how much *more* actions and dice you're generating than your opponent. Instead of summoning a ton of smaller creatures you could also try summoning one or two bigger creatures and destroy any creatures your opponent tries to threaten you with. Or you could just kill the enemy Mage as fast as possible before they have the time to build up too many creature actions.

Having a spread of creatures keeps your options flexible, that was the point I was making, not the particular strategy involved.  I wouldn't advise the solo approach, though, if that's what you mean by "kill as fast as possible."  It's not hard to deal with a solo build once you learn to prepare armor on your mage, and you can do that while summoning creatures (that can guard), which are easily the most efficient cardtype in the game, in my experience. 

[wtcannonjr]

I created a master book in a 3-ring binder that has one of each spell. I organize them by spell type. As a simple benchmark I use 20 spell points for each of the spell types to understand where I emphasizing a specific spellbook. I.e. if I have 30 spell points worth of creatures, then I know I need to pay for that by cutting back in another spell type. This helps me fine tune a book after I loaded it with my wish list of spells.