The Challenges of the Priestess

[Obsidian Soul]

My favorite mage is the Priestess because she possesses a lot of lasting power.  With the combination of her special ability that gives her one extra permanent life the first time she casts a Holy Enchantment or Incantation during a turn and her massive number of Holy Enchantments and Incantations after Siren vs Paladin, she can easily reach 50 life during a game.  The problem is that she is highly dependent on Creatures for damage and protection, so she will never win a fast game (though I tend to win most games with her despite her slow buildup).  What challenges do you face with the Priestess and what do you do to compensate for them?

[Reddicediaries]

I think the priestess is a very solid mage and one of the better late game ones.
I tend to find she can lack offensive power as many players spend 5+ turns getting nothing but clerics and angels out of the temple. Angels are good, but they only delay the inevitable.
I think priestess should go always go temple because despite the mana and action investment, it will generally take more actions from your opponent to destroy it, you should have already gotten 1-2 creatures out of it, and if need be, you can switch to hardcast.

[silverclawgrizzly]

It's good to see you back on the forums my friend!

You can win a fast game with Priestess by piling damage and hoping you can heal the fall out. However I agree she's more dependent on creatures that the Priest or Paladin.

[DaveW]

My best Priestess games have involved not casting the Temple of Asyra, but in hard casting a few creatures that synergize well with the rest of my book, the first of which usually comes out in the turn 1-3 range... just depending on the match-up.

I usually put out one or two minor temples fairly early on... fewer against war mages than most others. When I am able to do that, it sets me up to cast the Temple of Light later, if I want it to support my creature(s) and my Mage, which I use offensively as well.

I guess what I am saying is not to feel pigeon-holed into building an overly defensive book based on the Temple of Asyra, but to explore what else the Holy school allows as well.

[Rudafuda]

If you are playing in a play group that allows promos, running an Alfiya deck is always good fun.

(Alfiya does two direct damage when a creature is stunned or dazed by a light source)

Even without Alfiya in the deck, Priestess that runs Akiro's Favor and stun/daze conditions attack spells + clerics can really dish out a ton of control (in the form of crowd control/damage reduction) while not sacrificing a ton of mana on cards like sacred ground (which of course should still be run to go against swarm decks) and other PURELY defensive cards.

So prioritizing creatures that have stun (Light of Dawn, mage wand with pillar of light spellbound, Alfiya if possible, etc. just make sure it is stun/daze with light damage, a lot of good cardes in the lost grimoire vol 1 for this) you don't have to sacrifice mana/time on playing defensive and you can spend more turns being "safely aggro". And Akiro's favor will allow you to have a MUCH higher stun/daze percentage. And something I like to do, is get a royal archer, or even a generic cleric, and keep him 2 zones away from you (and hopefully away from aggression) and put a nullify, a block, or something with Aegis 1 (hidden) and then throw an enchantment transfusion on him, so if your mage or any of your big creatures are about to take big damage, before the damage and effects step you can just swap the nullify or block over to where you want it in RESPONSE to something, which is huge.

This can of course can be beaten by decks like Juktari who can make quick work of your monsters, in which case you do have to rely a little on sustain and getting good rolls on heal. But don't be afraid to run a lay heads or two in your deck to quick cast a potential full restore on your big creatures.

Cheers!

[Jbuzzsaw79]

So just vlarify, if u got some one at rang 2 with block on and enchant transfusion u can basically interrupt att after they already declared it at that point?

[Kelanen]

Yes - that is the entire point of it.

[Puddnhead]

Yes - that is the entire point of it.

I would argue that "the point" of Enchantment Transfusion was to save your enchants when your creature dies.

However, Jbuzz, the common usage of Enchantment Transfusion these days (which I would LOVE to DESTROY) is as a "counterspell" just as you have described.

[Sailor Vulcan]

If you are playing in a play group that allows promos, running an Alfiya deck is always good fun.

(Alfiya does two direct damage when a creature is stunned or dazed by a light source)

Even without Alfiya in the deck, Priestess that runs Akiro's Favor and stun/daze conditions attack spells + clerics can really dish out a ton of control (in the form of crowd control/damage reduction) while not sacrificing a ton of mana on cards like sacred ground (which of course should still be run to go against swarm decks) and other PURELY defensive cards.

So prioritizing creatures that have stun (Light of Dawn, mage wand with pillar of light spellbound, Alfiya if possible, etc. just make sure it is stun/daze with light damage, a lot of good cardes in the lost grimoire vol 1 for this) you don't have to sacrifice mana/time on playing defensive and you can spend more turns being "safely aggro". And Akiro's favor will allow you to have a MUCH higher stun/daze percentage. And something I like to do, is get a royal archer, or even a generic cleric, and keep him 2 zones away from you (and hopefully away from aggression) and put a nullify, a block, or something with Aegis 1 (hidden) and then throw an enchantment transfusion on him, so if your mage or any of your big creatures are about to take big damage, before the damage and effects step you can just swap the nullify or block over to where you want it in RESPONSE to something, which is huge.

This can of course can be beaten by decks like Juktari who can make quick work of your monsters, in which case you do have to rely a little on sustain and getting good rolls on heal. But don't be afraid to run a lay heads or two in your deck to quick cast a potential full restore on your big creatures.

Cheers!

I think you mean elemental wand not mage wand.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J327A using Tapatalk

[Jbuzzsaw79]

Yes - that is the entire point of it.

I would argue that "the point" of Enchantment Transfusion was to save your enchants when your creature dies.

However, Jbuzz, the common usage of Enchantment Transfusion these days (which I would LOVE to DESTROY) is as a "counterspell" just as you have described.

I feel that maybe that a rule chandelier or clarification might need to happen since u are spending sbp and actions to do it but seems very cheesy IMO  I guess I do understand y and how but still.

[Kelanen]

I would argue that "the point" of Enchantment Transfusion was to save your enchants when your creature dies.

However, Jbuzz, the common usage of Enchantment Transfusion these days (which I would LOVE to DESTROY) is as a "counterspell" just as you have described.

Then we disagree.  It's main use from the moment it saw print (and presumably in playtesting too) was for interrupt speed deployment of silver bullets. It was what we said when we first read the card.

[Puddnhead]

It is definitely the most powerful use of the card. I was not a playtester at the time, but the amount of extra verbiage and constrained design resulting from Enchantment Transfusion is undeniable and it is for that reason that it needs to be purged with fire.

[Kelanen]

It is definitely the most powerful use of the card. I was not a playtester at the time, but the amount of extra verbiage and constrained design resulting from Enchantment Transfusion is undeniable and it is for that reason that it needs to be purged with fire.

No we need more cards like it - more strong reveal abilities and interrupts.

[ThisIsDeutch]

To be fair, because of how basic the Holy school is in Arena, the Paladin is basically a "warrior" priestess, with strong abilities including healing, from the Holy school. I wouldn't necessarily say that there are challenges for the priestess, simply because the Paladin is just a better mage is pick from.

[wtcannonjr]

To be fair, because of how basic the Holy school is in Arena, the Paladin is basically a "warrior" priestess, with strong abilities including healing, from the Holy school. I wouldn't necessarily say that there are challenges for the priestess, simply because the Paladin is just a better mage is pick from.

It might help to expand the Holy School to include more high level (level 4+), non-creature spells that the Paladin is not trained in to further differentiate the Holy mage play styles. Perhaps a level 6 Incantation that has an effect to 'vanquish a zone of creatures' at one time. You could call it the Hand of Asyra or something. Essentially more Holy spells that feature the pacify style rather than the aggressive, vengeful style. Reducing the power of attack actions or increasing the cost of attack actions as another example. These would need to be "Holy Mage Only" and above level 3 so that Paladin would not have access.