Mage's Wand

[Korvanus]

I really like the spellbind mechanic that has been designed for this game, but we ran into several scenarios that have made us want to ban the Mage's Wand. Dissolve, Dispel, Sleep, are a few of the cards that break the game once they are in the mage wand. The fact that you can change the bound spell as a quick action for 3 mana and return the previous spell to your hand makes it even worse. Has anyone else run into this issue? Is there a way to deal with the mage wand without it coming down to the player with the last dissolve in their deck holds all the cards?

I should note that we have no issues with the elemental wand as it only applies to attack spells, allowing a nuking mage to be possible.  

Thanks,
Korvanus

[Gewar]

Two factors to consider:
- If a mage casts Dissolve, Dispel, Sleep etc. over and over again, he/she is not casting anything that brings him/her closer to kill an enemy -> noone is really closer to win after such kind of spell. I do not say those are useless spells, but: even if it is annoying and cripple your tactic towards killing your oponent, at least he/she is not killing you right now.
- Whenever a mage is switching bound spell, he/she is not doing something else.

So - if your opponent has Mage's Wand with annoying spell, you should focus on killing him/her - ether you will deal him/her some nice damage, or he/she will not use Wand :]

[Koz]

I haven't seen this issue yet.  Wand's tend to just be Dissolve bait so they don't tend to stick around long (even with Nullifies and Reverse Magics protecting them).  If you are running out of Dissolves and/or Explodes then you are probably destroying too much equipment.  Those kinds of cards should be reserved for equipment that is a direct hinderance to your strategy or is really, really good (Wands, Suppression Cloak, etc).  Don't just toss out the Dissolves as soon as your opponent plays some equipment, wait for the big stuff and you should be fine.

[Koz]

As a follow up question, how many Wands are you and your opponents playing in a deck?

[Rumsey]

Run lots of Nullify cards and your own Dissolve or Explode spells.  Sleep doesn't affect a Mage, and the Nullify takes care of the Wand casting Dissolve or Explode.  They expend a useless action and you get close enough to destroy the Wand.  Wands are really good,  but put Thunderbolt in a Wand and you'll out-distance your opponent with range 3.  Wand decks aren't very good against swarm decks.  Too much to have to try to handle and probably won't be using the wand as there are more important actions to take.

Hope you keep playing the game.  It gets better the more you play.  You'll start to lose the need to play it like a CCG.  Just look at it as a miniature game with flat peep's.

[Shad0w]

I haven't seen this issue yet.  Wand's tend to just be Dissolve bait so they don't tend to stick around long (even with Nullifies and Reverse Magics protecting them).  If you are running out of Dissolves and/or Explodes then you are probably destroying too much equipment.  Those kinds of cards should be reserved for equipment that is a direct hinderance to your strategy or is really, really good (Wands, Suppression Cloak, etc).  Don't just toss out the Dissolves as soon as your opponent plays some equipment, wait for the big stuff and you should be fine.

I agree with Koz on this. Spells like Dissolve and Explode should only be used on threat cards or strong protective cards. Unless you are playing against a equip heavy build you should not be running out.

Run lots of Nullify cards and your own Dissolve or Explode spells.  Sleep doesn't affect a Mage, and the Nullify takes care of the Wand casting Dissolve or Explode.  They expend a useless action and you get close enough to destroy the Wand.  Wands are really good,  but put Thunderbolt in a Wand and you'll out-distance your opponent with range 3.  Wand decks aren't very good against swarm decks.  Too much to have to try to handle and probably won't be using the wand as there are more important actions to take.

Hope you keep playing the game.  It gets better the more you play.  You'll start to lose the need to play it like a CCG.  Just look at it as a miniature game with flat peep's.

As Rumsy said they have a tendency to needlessly waste action when using this play-style. Also remember when Swapping out spells you return the original spell to your book not your hand.

[Nihilistiskism]

It's also worth mentioning that net gain is at a detriment with the wand:

5 mana to equip it: Spellbind is free

Casting the spell costs X.

Switching the spell costs 3, and a quick action.

As has been previously stated, equipping the wand is a quick action. That's one less quick action you have to worry about. Switching a spell is a quick action. One less quick action you have to worry about. The # of actions you have each turn is as much a resource as your mana. I'm all for letting my opponent waste a quick action on a wand that will later be destroyed than using that quick action to teleport something, or attack me.

-nihil

[photogasm]

Two factors to consider:
- If a mage casts Dissolve, Dispel, Sleep etc. over and over again, he/she is not casting anything that brings him/her closer to kill an enemy -> noone is really closer to win after such kind of spell. I do not say those are useless spells, but: even if it is annoying and cripple your tactic towards killing your oponent, at least he/she is not killing you right now.
- Whenever a mage is switching bound spell, he/she is not doing something else.

So - if your opponent has Mage's Wand with annoying spell, you should focus on killing him/her - ether you will deal him/her some nice damage, or he/she will not use Wand :]

Exactly this.  I had the dreaded sleep wand going last night.  Wasn't nearly as effective as I thought it'd be.  I found myself unable to do enough damage along with the sleep and my opponent just kept waking her sleeping archers with clerics and aegis and taking barely any damage in the process.

[Klaxas]

i love wands but i do not think they are overpowered.  just a thought, i had an equip build wizard with 4 of each wand in my book, and 2 battle forges.  if i wanted to change the spell in one of my wands, i just used the battleforge.  for example.

i want to switch my sleep wand to a dispell wand.
1) i use the battleforge to equip a new mage wand.
2) the old mage wand and bound spell go back to my book because i can only have 1 mage wand in play
3) the new mage wand need a bound spell so i bind dispel to it.

it does cost 2 extra mana to do this way but you are saving the action.  and after most other equipment is out, the battleforge only needs to swap out my wands now and then.

[coyotemoon722]

Four of each seems like extreme overkill.  Three seems nice, and I think two is a sweet spot for me.  I do however like the thought of Battleforging them.  And I didn't know they go back to your book if you equipped another, I just thought it was an illegal action.

[Scarob]

the combo that ive found with wands that works for me is mage wand with bound force push, and elemental wand with jet stream (7 mana to do potentially up to 10 attack dice combo, and dazing the target - all with range 0-2, and two pushes) ^^.......even better if you have Hawkeye ^^

however the worst comes to the worst it costs 7 mana to deal 2 attack dice damage and a single push Oo but then why would you spend soo much mana on not doing much?? unless you really had to

[Klaxas]

not sure where your 10 dice damage comes from?  the jet stream can do 4 dice vs a flying creature, but force push can do 0,2,3,4,5,6,8 or 10 dice damage based on who your target is and if you are pushing them into a wall and what kind of wall it is.  (thorn wall does a single 2 die attack per level of the creature -1, mages being level 6 creature take 5-2 die attacks)

[Hedge]

not sure where your 10 dice damage comes from?  the jet stream can do 4 dice vs a flying creature, but force push can do 0,2,3,4,5,6,8 or 10 dice damage based on who your target is and if you are pushing them into a wall and what kind of wall it is.  (thorn wall does a single 2 die attack per level of the creature -1, mages being level 6 creature take 5-2 die attacks)

If you bash them into a wall twice that would be Two 3d6.


Hedge

[wash17]

Has anyone ever tried putting a resurrection spell into a wand? I'm messing around with some build ideas, and wanted to know if anyone had tried this and found success/failure.

[Talamare]

Has anyone ever tried putting a resurrection spell into a wand? I'm messing around with some build ideas, and wanted to know if anyone had tried this and found success/failure.

I built my wizard deck like this once, but didnt have the courage to actually use the combo because I already win too often among my circle

but basically my only monsters were gorgon, basilisk, and 2 holy archers