Card of the ( requests edition!)

[RomeoXero]

Alright guys and gals and non binaries of all sorts, it's time for another episode of Card of the indeterminate time frame!
I actually haf a player contact me and ask specifically about a couple cards for this segment, so address any hate mail yo dr mambo! Lol!

So owing to the fact that this article is for cards we don't see often or find particular uses for, i wss asked to turn the lens on 2 cards, one core, one slightly less core. Earthquake and Skeelax, Taunting imp.
... Im not gonna lie guy's, these cards are wildly underwhelming on the surface. But i figured id dive a little deeper and see what i came up with. So let's start with earth quake shall we? Wow this one was tough.
So it's lvl 2 earth, 9 mana full action, pick one or two zones (1st being in range) then any corporeal conjurations In or between those zones take a 4 die unavoidable attack. Also any corporeal, non flying, non unmovable creatures get a 5 up slam effect die roll.  The fact is that the best mage for this spell the warlord, probably doesnt want to play it because hes got stuff built in many zones. Hes also likely got a swarm of critters that he doesnt want to get slammed. He also suffers from a distinct lack of flying creatures that get around the slams.  Perhaps an iron golem wouldn't mind much but most other creatures In war and earth aren't any of those qualifiers. So im trying to figure out why one would want to spend a full round action, a full rounds channelling, and probably 4 sp on something so... underwhelming.

I did manage to come up with a couple ideas though. A druid could use an earthquake I  relative safety considering most all plants are rooted and therefore unmovable. A beastmaster or holy mage using fliers could also do a similar tactic, leaving the angels or the falcons in the air to continue the assault unslammed. A warlords zone with a formation in it or where everyone is on guard is a decent target for this spell, possibly slamming away the guards in the zone.  there's also some intresting interaction with elephant grass as EQ doesn't specify non terrain conjurations for the attack. As far as using it to destroy anything though its really only going to be good against something you've softened up already. 4 dice maxes at 8 damage and most of the conjurations you want to destroy arent going to die from one quake. Almost all spawn points won't care about it at all and since most if those are zone exclusive even a 2 zone quake will only have 2 conjurations to target (barring a wizards tower, or mohktari ot some other such non zone exclusive.) I suppose the ideal situation for an earth quake is if you're targeting a zone where there is a zone exclusive and several non exclusives in it. Perhaps a place with a mana crystal, a mohktari, a couple tanglevines, a corrosive orchid, a nightshade lotus, and maybe some vine markers in it than you might just get some decent mileage out of it! In reality though it seems to me to be a bit underpowered and over costed for what it does. So unless you're running a book full of flying, incorporeal, unmovable dudes, there's probably better ways to use those 4 sp.
I am not saying the card is without merit, as stated before it can put a hurt on zones witg lots of non ZE conjurations, and the potential to slam an entire gaggle of enemies seems like a win win. Keep in mind though that it affects all the creatures in those zones, not just enemy ones. Huugin can cast this though. And only one zone needs to be within range and LOS so if the enemy is turtling behind some walls witg his forge trying ti build up power, this is one way to get to him from outside the fortress so to speak.
Its not completely without merit, and i have covered a few unique ways to use it to some effect, but i find cards like these need to be book built around and i just dont think there's enough function here to want to try to force it. Hmm. Food for thought on this one.

Ok now Skeelax is another strange fellow. I look at him and i see his stats are kinda low all around don it made me wonder what's worth the 11 mana investment to get this little dude out? He's got 1 ar 9 li. Flame - 2, 11 mana lvl 3. A 1X 6+ defence, and a2 die attack with a5+ taunt on it. At first i thought that this was very usable, because one coukd force movement through walls or into traps, but Skeelax much like Sosruko, only affects enemies with his taunt if they are in the zone.  So the 2 dice arent really going to help. But there eas one interesting use for him i thought up. He has flame minus 2 and if hes in a zone with a burn condition in it he gains regenerate 2, even if its his own burn.  So one could potentially taunt an enemy witg skeelax and make that enemy waste an attack possibly defending against it. Then one could push the enemy through a wall of fire. Next round skeelax can walk through the wall, only take a3 die flame attack, if he gets burned he will just regenerate the damage from the attack away, possibly even losing the burn. I know its dicey to send your own guy through such a wall, but yo be honest Skeelax doesn't have that many uses. With a gator toughness he can be decently long lived but the defence is only 1X so you can't really rely I  this little guy sticking around for very long.  An Adramalech warlock stands a better chance of making use of him due to fireweaving. At 11 mana lvl 3 you could have a zombie brute, so without needing to use his defence or taunt you're not actually gaining much by having this little guy. He can come from  a pentagram so that's a plus, but without extra investment from the mage wich brings his mana total way up, he's a bit too weak to put I  the frontline and serves no purpose at all in three back line.
Sorry mambo, i tried like hell for this little dude, but short of using him in extremely rare situations, like forcing the release of a grappled creature or something, he's just not shiney in any particular way.

Any thoughts or comments or disagreements? Any ways to use these apparent clunkers that i, in my extremely limited and situational wisdom, haven't seen? Please let us know! Got any cards you want me to put under the microscope or free time an boredom? Let me know! Anyway folks thanks for reading and i hope to catch you soon on the next episode of Card of the (?)!

[farkas1]

Solid overview of these cards.  Two I never use myself because of similar reasons.   

One thing I think since academy warlord came out this may be useful with a swarm build.   I may include an earhquake in my other swarm builds too if it works.  What I have experienced in many games if my aggression of my swarm is overwhelming I see a wall come into play often getting in the way of my swarm.  So I think this could be a cool way to do some damage to a wall and have the possibility of hurting the conjuration behind it.  Obviously the swarm needs to move out the way for a turn.  Or plan on running flyers Ect. With another Mage.  I guess the value of it has to be worth it in doing the action.  I'm not saying it's cost effective or spell book point wise effective but may be very situational.  Potentially you could deal three separate 4 dice attacks to two zone exclusive conjurations and a wall between the zones.  That would start to make it more worth it.  If you can get a slam or two  off too it could wreak some havoc against creatures with Defenses.

The biggest issue is the action worth it and the other tools that have came out since that do a better job at taking down conjurations.  Ballista and the mountain ram have became the conjuration killers for their schools. 

The other interesting thing this could do is make a solo or big buddy warlord book useful having a earthquake.  It may be a better fit for them because of the need to have fewer points dedicated to creatures.  Gets rid of guards and could be effective for a rush buddy book.  It attempts to take things down fast and heck why not have a well positioned ballista in a zone not being targeted helping out take down that conjuration that may help you big time. 

Maybe down the road we will see an earth Mage or more cards for a warlord that can use this card with helps with possible earth spell discounts or earth ring increasing amount of attack die or making effect roll more powerful easier to do ect. 

[iNano78]

I've played Earthquake from Huginn back when an Earth Wizard was a thing. Don't see as much use in it for a Warlord, although it could be useful in Domination.

As for Skeelax, I haven't found a good use. Unlike Sosruko, he isn't a Pest, so he can Guard, and if you roll well, he can dodge an attack and hand out a Taunt for next time... but it's a risky gamble and probably not worth his cost. Might have been decent in Academy maybe, if he were 9 mana, but he isn't legal there.

[silverclawgrizzly]

I say DrMambo should be beaten for giving you these cards. At Mace I shall give him the sound thrashing he so richly deserves!

[Coshade]

Hey Romeo these are some cool topics.

I like your ideas for Earthquake. I think the fact that armor applies to the attack makes it really frustrating to try and destroy conjurations in general with it. The best thing I have to add is that it works really well against a lot of Asps.
You could put it on a [mwcard=FWC16]Thoughtspore[/mwcard], maybe against a Forcemaster to try and get some attack spells in as a followup, but I think [mwcard=MW1I15]Knockdown[/mwcard] is probably the better choice there.

The best use I can see for [mwcard=MWBG1C03]Skeelax, Taunting Imp[/mwcard] is against buddy builds. That or familiars so that they cannot cast spells. I like your wall of fire strategy. Otherwise I agree it's very tough to justify the sbps or mana to make this guy work

[keejchen]

Hey Romeo,

I think Earthquake is an excellent example of the foresightedness in the design. In core this card was basically useless, I recall casting it once in the early days and then shelfing it. But now, as we see more non-Zone Exclusive conjurations and walls (I'm looking at you, death zone Sirens!), and even more swarm creatures, the value begin to increase, and it will probably continue to become better. We may see Earthquake being used finally.

I also think our two taunters are a bit underrated. A lone Skeelax might be better off replaced with a zombie brute, but a Skeelax in a swarm could taunt the mage who was about to reveal a big area attack spell, or do something equally important (like running away), instead forcing a feeble melee attack (combo with Agony) that may be dodged/regenerated, and enabling the swarm to keep doing the thing it was meant to do. In this way the taunt can be viewed a 5+ stun chance potentially, which is not too shabby.

I like the write-up, you get well around the cards.

[Kelanen]

Earthquake is not a Core card btw - it came out in Forcemaster vs Warlord!

[RomeoXero]

Well thanks! Where were you 2 months ago? Lol!