Hello mage warriors! I have returned from Gencon steeped in our gaming culture and bright with new ideas. And since its been so damn long since I've done one of these I'm going to take a few minutes today to talk about an OLD spell, core set even, that you probably don't see very often anymore if at all. But today I'm going to discuss Resurrection!
"Whoa!" You say. "Romeo pump the breaks! That spell is 4 sp! Nobody plays that but the occasional priestess!"
And that's what I'm here to talk about. I think re examination on this card is warranted. Yes it's 4 sp and as a result its usually a whopping 8 sp for the untrained mage! 12 for opposed schools but let's face it, they have better ways to do a similar mechanic cheaper, so let's forget about warlocks and necros for the moment. They will persevere I'm sure.
Let's look at the very basics of the game we all know and love. When building an arena book you can have 6 max lvl 1 copies of a spell, and 4 lvl 2 or higher. That's it! When they are dead they are gone man! Sometimes its not a huge deal, you can just cast a different creature for a replacement. But what if your strategy hinges on specific creatures? Ive got a druid that needs those 4 thornlashers to behave all game long! Losing 2 lashers is a huge problem there! I can't have any more than 4 and different snatchers are too expensive and not reliable enough to be used an alternative. Enter Resurrection. I had a match at gen con (non tourney) where my aggressor saw what i was doing and properly countered my strategy by acing down my lashers one by one. He took a great deal of damage in the process but he was perfectly set up to destroy my remaining squishy druid with her last remaining troop, with almost no trouble at all. Not that the mechanics are integral to the tale, but when played properly resurrection can put you right back in the game. Off init i waited till the end of thhe round and cast a mage wand with resurrection and immediately ressed a thornlasher, then knowing i was about to lose the wand cuz we were in one zone of one another, i first qc on initiative pushed him away and ressed another thornlasher. Minor creatures, lvl 2s specifically really shine with this spell, because they tend to have low casting costs. I'm talking 7 to 8 mana. Then you can pretty much guarantee you'll have that mana from base channelling. Rez is the lvl plus the casting cost. 9 in total to bring back that dead thornlasher, noble vanguard, kelsar ranger, vine snapper, or 10 for other such dudes, asyran defender (i think) nakara vampiress, temple sharpshooter, etc.
Now it's obviously not an early game spell, its always better to cast another copy of the creature over rezing one cuz its cheaper, but if you've got none left and you just gotta have that thing back on the board, you won't care that it was 4 or 8 spell points, you're just gonna bring back your threat and gain tempo. Need to heal? Need a flyer, rez the dead broken wing angel or messenger of bim shalla and do both! You can also get great millage out of minor creatures this way, staying back and ressurecting your falcons every time they die off will get really annoying really fast! With a wand and lvl 1 creatures it can be used every turn with rouse the beast. Falcon for 7 rouse for 1. Fast back into the fight.
Some of these new war creatures coming out might be worth it too.
The spell gets way to costly when you get to the higher creature levels, nobody's resurrecting Alfiya for 30 mana, but even a lvl 3 might be worth it.
Now im not saying that everyone needs to run resurrection, (i mean come on, its not glancing blow! ) but it IS one of those spells that gets you what you need when you need it, kings of like a wand. Only this one is always a surprise, brings back something they thought they were done with, and when played cleverly can really shift the battle back to where you need it.
Hopefully i can get another one of these out soon, but until then feel free to criticise or comment as you choose. May you all roll well!
