THE Book.

[SirJasonCrage]

Big Edit: If you're making one of these, just add a mage and a mage stats card. If you save the book with an empty "mage" slot, it's gonna move the pot down, which causes all sorts of trouble.

Hi guys.

I just made a book and saved it. It's the book I'm gonna load from now on, to make new Mages. It has everything a mage might want and maybe some stuff that some won't want. Still gonna be less of a hassle to remove some of that stuff, instead of adding all of it.

Neat little number: If I use it as it is, so far, with a Forcemaster as an example mage, I'm at 85 SBP. A Warlord would be at a whopping 100.



Mage

Attack
2x Acid Ball

Conjuration
2x Mana Flower
1x Pillar of Righteous Flame
2x Tanglevine

Creature

Enchantment
1x Galvanize
1x Ballad of Courage
1x Chant of Rage
1x Bear Strength
1x Hawkeye
1x Nullify
1x Jinx
2x Poisoned Blood
1x Magebane
2x Regrowth
2x Brace Yourself
1x Rhino Hide

Equipment
1x Leather Chausses
1x Leather Boots
1x Leather Gloves
1x Mage Wand
1x Mage Staff

Incantation
3x Dissolve
2x Teleport
1x Purify
1x Force Push
3x Seeking Dispel
1x Remove Curse
3x Dispel



So I ain't really sure if there's a lot to discuss here, but if something strikes you as odd or something's in there that you'd do vastly different, hit me with it

[Reddicediaries]

Honestly I make every mage the way I see that mage should be built. Obviously I have cards I almost always include in x quantity but I prefer building without set staples so that I better suit that mages style.

[bigfatchef]

Usefull list. I would add a hurl boulder as finisher and against conjurations (fm uses uses in forcehammer instead).
I personally would not see jynx here and less regrowth, no mana flower, no ballad of courage. Hawkeye is only for rangers. I miss a lesser teleport and would maybe reduce a standart teleport. Also I miss crumble for one dissolve.

Well you already said it's easier to remove Things from the list so I see only few things I use most of the times.

[DaveW]

You might want to put together a kind of standard swap list by mage... maybe a quicksand instead of a tanglevine for the warlord, lash of hellfire instead of magestaff for warlock, etc.

[SirJasonCrage]

Yo Dave,

a standard swap list would defeat the purpose of lessening my workload. I know I'm not gonna use three teleports and three dispels+seekings in a warlord, same as I know I'll be using quicks instead of tangles with him. Your thought is correct, there will be swaps whenever I actually build a book with this, but I don't think that kinda swaplist's gonna be useful.


Yo Bigfat,

I see you understand the purpose of this thread I actually debated using boulder and/or hammer, but I mostly don't use finisher spells (might be a mistake, but that's my style).
With Hawkeye and Bear strenght, honestly, you're always gonna find a use. I don't always like crumble, because as a solo mage player, I usually don't want to waste a full action when it could also be a strong attack.
As for the amounts of some spells, I just chose to go with this for now. I might change it around if I find it's too oppressive for the rest of bookbuilding.


Yo there, Red.

So you're saying it would be smart to use something similar for you, just with less/other cards? That's smart of you.

[bigfatchef]

The thing with crumble is that it doesn't trigger nullify as it targets equipment.

[Borg]

This OP is a perfect illustration of one of my main criticisms of MW currently.
Every book just looks the same.
There is not enough variety in spellbookbuilding and every expansion just added more staples and makes books more similar.

Solution : reduce the number of starting SBP's to 100. ( or less ) to make those out-of-training staple spells too costly to maintain and thus force Mages to look for alternatives in-school.

[Beldin]

I do not see this as a bad thing. Every book boils down to a toolbox of winning. The main goal is to win or you might as well play something else. So this boils down into offensive, defensive, and solutions to specific problems. The problem with a lack of variety is because the entire 6 years of card development fits inside a single block of mtg. So either we have constant releases and get lots of variety or we have slow burn development and everything feels the same at a basic level.

[SirJasonCrage]

Funny enough, Borg just expressed one of the reasons I made this book and the Post.

I basically have 35 sbp for "individual" Deckbuilding, if I use this staple.

Beldin makes a fair counterpoint though, there's always bound to be staples in games. Some things just work out better than others and some specific counters cannot be overlooked.

[Reddicediaries]

I think you can allocate so many points because you don't run many creatures in most of your books correct?

[Beldin]

Who are you talking to red?

[Reddicediaries]

Who are you talking to red?

Sir Jason.

[Beldin]

ah yes sorry. My phone, for some reason, had not shown me all posts so it was ambiguous at the time. Hence the post.

[Beldin]

Incantation
3x Dissolve
2x Teleport
1x Purify
1x Force Push
3x Seeking Dispel
1x Remove Curse
3x Dispel

This is missing Heal. I tend to put atleast a single heal in all my books. Even at triple points cost. A heal at the right moment can turn the tide of a battle; coupled with Regeneration, and clever positional tactics you can tread water long enough to stabilise and then go onto win.

[Borg]

there's always bound to be staples in games.

Yes, but do you find it a good thing that EVERY book can afford ALL the staples ?
I don't.

I have no problem with expecting a Pillar of Righteous Flame in EVERY Holy mage's spellbook but when it starts showing up in just every book, no matter what school, tbere is a problem imo.

The reason for this overpresentation of staples is : too many sbp's to build a book.

Think of it, the game is (theoretically) trying to restrict your spellbookbuilding options by charging double sbp's for out-of-school spells and even triple cost in some instances.

Do you honestly have the impression that these extra costs are effectively preve ting you from building your book optimally ? I don't.
120 sbp's is far too much. It takes the effectiveness out of the double/triple cost.

Lower the starting sbp's and force each mage to find in-school answers to situations and you'll get far more diverse books.

Every book boils down to a toolbox of winning. The main goal is to win or you might as well play something else. So this boils down into offensive, defensive, and solutions to specific problems.

I agree, but does every toolbox have to be nearly identical to your opponent's ?
You might as well play chess then.