What is your favorite mage and why?

[SirJasonCrage]

I still remember, as if it was yesterday, how I went down into that burning hole of rot and decay to ask Marhask'Gnor for a favor.
Play with demons and the demons will play with you, they say...
I asked him to make people roll shit against me. The glowing eyes glimmered in the dark as the old creature grinned his toothy, smelly grin and worked his magic.
Now, whenever I play Warlock, everyone rolls shit, me included.

So be it. I buckled up, added tankiness and curses for days. With horns on my helmet and a sword permanently whispering sinister cruelties into my soul, I face whoever thinks he can beat my dark favor.

I fucking love being a dark hardass with counters to almost anything in his school. Make them slow, make them weak, take their life, curse their wounds... And then just watch them rot away, even thoigh you could strike them down any time you want.

[Arkdeniz]

He is - technically. But I (and most I discuss it with) count him as a 10 Channelling mage because he always gets a +1 channelling (in addition to the benefits of the tree) on turn 1. He feels and behaves as a 10 Channeller, and rather than having the 1 action, 6 mana disadvantage of other 9 channellers, he just has a 1 mana disadvantage - that's close enough.

I haven't really looked too closely (he says!), but I am pretty sure it is a female figure under that little viney costume. 

Favourite mage for me is still the AC Warlock. It is not my strongest suit (that would be necro or wizard) but I do like what he does, and I always feel happy losing with him so long as I get at least one 9 dice melee attack in.

[Obsidian Soul]

The Wychwood Druid is definitely female (one of the six female mages in Arena).  The other female Mages in Arena are the Shoalsdeep Siren, the Westlock Priestess, the Johkari Beastmaster, the Adramelech Warlock, and the Pellian Forcemaster.  We still need a female Wizard, a female Warlord, a female Necromancer, and a female Paladin.  Of the six female mages in Arena, I would rank the Pellian Forcemaster and the Westlock Priestess as Tier 1, the Adramelech Warlock and the Wychwood Druid as Tier 2, and the Johkari Beastmaster and the Shoalsdeep Siren as Tier 3, but that is only my opinion.

[DaveW]

I was just wondering what mage was the favorite each person and why they are are their favorite.  I will start off with my selection, the Priestess.  I think that she is the best mage because of her capabilities to remove condition and because of her life gaining ability.  With her mastery of Holy, she also possesses a number of healing and defensive spells, as well as a wide variety of useful creatures.  While she does not have any particularly good attack spells, she makes up for it by being able to remain in play until she gets the job done, even if she has to suffer over 100 points of damage in a game to do it.

Mine has become the Priestess. I agree with the majority of what is said above. Removing conditions is tempered with the cost of the full action when pulling off more than one, which you might want to use in another way, however. Ten channeling also is great.

Contrary to what the OP here states, I feel that there are plenty of great attack spells in the Holy school. I tend to put on the +1 ring, add Hawkeye, and usually bring out the Light +1 temple, and do eight dice with a five mana cost Luminous Blast. Adding three dice to the Pillar of Light and even Dazzle make them good attack spells also... range 2 and unavoidable are taken care of this way... all for one spellbook point each. You don't have to worry about Incorporeal creatures either....

[Kelanen]

I haven't really looked too closely (he says!), but I am pretty sure it is a female figure under that little viney costume. 

Pretty sure they are a non-cis conforming treehugger, and how dare you try and enforce your outdated stereotypes on he/she/it!

Okay, yeah, it's a her. Assuming you use the standard art card at least - it's legal to use others, only the stat card is prescribed, and they have no gender. But yeah, I'm a male player, and I tend to refer to all my mages in the masculine. I'm not remotely into theme, and honestly don't give it much thought. Gender = Druid.

Certainly Necromancer and Priestess are two of the strongest mages! Good choices...

Does that matter? I feel confident with my paladin against any "tier" 1 mage and have won many games against various skilled opponents with all sorts of mages.

Well, it matters that a stronger mage has more chance than a weaker mage. A stronger player with a weak mage will usually beat a weaker player with a stronger mage, but that doesn't mean that their win percentage doesn't get higher with a stronger mage. There is also something to be said for playing a mage who's playstyle suits your natural inclinations however, and an aggro player may be better playing the best aggro book, than a better control they don't play well for example. The corollary is that it's also easy to use that excuse to convince yourself to play what you want to play, rather than what's best to play  in a given environment - I'm as guilty of this as anyone (eg: in MtG I was wrong to not play Ravager Affinity in the 04 season, despite how much I convinced myself I was playing Johnny metagame books...)

As you know from our PM discussions I put Paladin at mid Tier 2, whilst you have it at the bottom of Tier 1, and for our respective metagames we're almost certainly both right. There's not nearly enough players or datapoints to empirically arrive at a defensible 'right' answer. That said, I've no doubt that we can both beat many players/books with it and lose to others. I'm also sure you are much better with Paladin than I am - you have a lot more games with him under your belt.

That said it's interesting that you have a lot more faith in Paladin than I do, and I have a lot more in Forcemaster than you do... I suspect it's playstyle more than metagame, but probably some of each.

[Reddicediaries]

I haven't really looked too closely (he says!), but I am pretty sure it is a female figure under that little viney costume. 

Pretty sure they are a non-cis conforming treehugger, and how dare you try and enforce your outdated stereotypes on he/she/it!

Okay, yeah, it's a her. Assuming you use the standard art card at least - it's legal to use others, only the stat card is prescribed, and they have no gender. But yeah, I'm a male player, and I tend to refer to all my mages in the masculine. I'm not remotely into theme, and honestly don't give it much thought. Gender = Druid.

Certainly Necromancer and Priestess are two of the strongest mages! Good choices...

Does that matter? I feel confident with my paladin against any "tier" 1 mage and have won many games against various skilled opponents with all sorts of mages.

Well, it matters that a stronger mage has more chance than a weaker mage. A stronger player with a weak mage will usually beat a weaker player with a stronger mage, but that doesn't mean that their win percentage doesn't get higher with a stronger mage. There is also something to be said for playing a mage who's playstyle suits your natural inclinations however, and an aggro player may be better playing the best aggro book, than a better control they don't play well for example. The corollary is that it's also easy to use that excuse to convince yourself to play what you want to play, rather than what's best to play  in a given environment - I'm as guilty of this as anyone (eg: in MtG I was wrong to not play Ravager Affinity in the 04 season, despite how much I convinced myself I was playing Johnny metagame books...)

As you know from our PM discussions I put Paladin at mid Tier 2, whilst you have it at the bottom of Tier 1, and for our respective metagames we're almost certainly both right. There's not nearly enough players or datapoints to empirically arrive at a defensible 'right' answer. That said, I've no doubt that we can both beat many players/books with it and lose to others. I'm also sure you are much better with Paladin than I am - you have a lot more games with him under your belt.

That said it's interesting that you have a lot more faith in Paladin than I do, and I have a lot more in Forcemaster than you do... I suspect it's playstyle more than metagame, but probably some of each.

I was putting mages in tier lists to better get across my point. Yes maybe the wizard is better than the warlord, but the difference is so small that is doesn't do that much to impact it.
If I rate mages in tier lists, it's to give a better picture of my thoughts.
A mage in "tier" 3 can beat a mage in "tier" 1 consistantly, I've seen it happen. Every mage can beat any other mage, it all comes down to the player, book, and dice.

[Kelanen]

A mage in "tier" 3 can beat a mage in "tier" 1 consistantly, I've seen it happen. Every mage can beat any other mage, it all comes down to the player, book, and dice.

Agreed, I've never said otherwise, and I don't think I've heard anyone else say it either.

Bloodwave, Jokhtari and Priest are still the pits. A good player should still easily beat an average one with them though, but that's not the point (at least for me). A better mage will do better, and whether it's 5% or 50% doesn't matter (again, at least to me).

I do very occasionally play those books, just to keep my 'playing muscles' trim as to what those books can do, and not. Honestly, it's a chore though. I have a Priest build that's pretty good as far as Priest goes, I've never found Bloodwave and Jokhtari books that I couldn't improve by tuning into Anvil Throne and Straywood, so they tend not to stay permanently. They are Tier 3 (at least by my metric) and I see no real reason to play those books. I do however regularly play and enjoy the Tier 2 books,but I recognise that Tier 1 books do better - I'd never take them to even a local tournament, or even to face a new opponent where I wanted 'bragging rights' as it were.

[Obsidian Soul]

I have won tournaments with the Priest.  He is inferior to the Priestess, but I would place him at tier 2 rather than tier 3. 

[silverclawgrizzly]

The priest is very much NOT inferior to the Priestess my friend. Be careful as you're in Charlotte for the weekend and Littlenog may hear you

[Reddicediaries]

The priest is very much NOT inferior to the Priestess my friend. Be careful as you're in Charlotte for the weekend and Littlenog may hear you

+1

[Jeffman]

My favourate mage is the straywood beastmaster from the beginning. The adremolech warlock I also like really much even thouch I almost always lose with her, they are always really great games to play, because of her mechanics. The (zombie) necro is (by far) my strongest book.

I don't really aggree on the tiers though. By fact that most people seem to dissagree on who should be what tier shows its flavour and playstyle.

To add, I had a Johkarti build once, that I stole from an arcane duels video, that was extremely difficult to play against (basicly allot of attack spells and starting to hurl boulder in round 2 and finishing it in round 5). But i stopled playing her because I dislike the playstyle myself.

I recently build a bloodwave using new academy cards and it was the first time I have beaten a wizard build from a friend and a forcemaster book that proved really difficult with my other books.

I do have to note, my list of opponent players is very, very limited.

"Yaay my first forum post"

[Obsidian Soul]

I have never lost to the Priest, but I have won a tournament with the Priest, so I rank him tier 2 because he is an adequate conveyor of healing spells and holy creatures.  In my experience, the tier 1 are the male Beastmaster, Forcemaster, Necromancer, and Priestess and the tier 3 are the female Beastmaster, Paladin, Siren, and the male Warlock.  Can a tier 3 beat a tier 1?  Yes, it just takes a little good luck on the part of the tier 3 player and a little bad luck on the part of the tier 1 player, and the tier 3 will beat the tier 1 if they are the same level of player (the more skilled player will usually win with a tested spellbook regardless of the tier unless the die gods decide to have fun with him).

[RomeoXero]

I can't belive this rediculous tiering issue is back. Its that time of year already?

[silverclawgrizzly]

I can't belive this rediculous tiering issue is back. Its that time of year already?

Actually right on schedule after the "The game is ending thread" dies down. 

[Sailor Vulcan]

I can't belive this rediculous tiering issue is back. Its that time of year already?

It's ALWAYS that time of year lol. Personally I don't think the ridiculousness comes from claiming that mage wars has tiers. The ridiculousness is claiming to know precisely what goes in which tier with too little tournament data to support that claim, and also presuming that the tiers are for entire mage classes rather than deck archetypes.

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