Pentagram

[Aquila]

Pentagram says: "Each time a different enemy creature is attacked and damaged by a friendly creature, place 1 mana on pentagram.
Is my mage considered a friendly creature?? Cause if not, how do i get the damn thing running, when my mage (who by the way is the aggressiv Warlock...) could not get mana on this thing...? 1 channeling is worst of all spawnpoints in the game..!
And by the way, what's with Group Heal: "Each friendly living creature..." Can my poor Priestess not heal herself with this spell?
Pleas help me with some clarification!

[Sausageman]

Yes, your mage is considered a friendly creature.  For the record, he's also living, corporeal, and level 6, unless it states otherwise.

[Koy]

Well the good news for you, as Sausageman said, is your mage is a creature - though how "friendly" it is, is up to you of course.  The bad news, in my opinion only, is that Pentagram is very weak sauce.  I don't even consider it any more when building Warlock books.

I do sob uncontrollably every time I have to save up for Andramalech out of my own mana pool, though.

[residualshade]

Pentagram is fine. it is the warlocks poor creature selection that is the issue here.

[Aquila]

But is that so?
Are his creatures weaker than those of the other mages?
I mean except those of the Priestess, she got real nasty stuff to summon...

[residualshade]

both the warlock and the wizard have terrible creature options. i would take anything the beastmaster or priestess has in a heartbeat. the only thing warlock side i would even consider is the hellion, and on the wizard side the mana leech.

[theduke850]

I would put the Necropian Vampiress in any Warlock build, I've been known to make room for her in a Wizard build a time or two also.

but as far as Pentagram goes, I don't really use it much.

[krj]

i use Pentagram every time and it works well, and usually have greater chance to survive than Priestess temple.

[Koy]

both the warlock and the wizard have terrible creature options. i would take anything the beastmaster or priestess has in a heartbeat. the only thing warlock side i would even consider is the hellion, and on the wizard side the mana leech.

What?!  The arcane creatures are the best!  I'm not crazy about the dark creatures, other than the Lord of Fire and the rot bats, but the Arcane stable is crazy powerful.  The board control you can get with some basilisks and gorgons out is simply game winning.  And when it comes time to kill something, a square with a hydra or two... something is dead in that square.

I suppose if had to rank them, it would be:

1)  Arcane
2)  Holy
3)  Warlock (I guess?)
4)  Beastmaster (just so dull.  And weak.)

All my opinion, of course.  

As for the Pentagram, I dont want my creatures having to shotgun their targets to drum up some more spawnpoint mana.  The Temple, Gate, and Lair are all very solid.  The Battleforge is pretty neat in some decks, usually my warlock's.  The Pentagram just doesn't cut it for me.

[Sausageman]

It's interesting that we refer to them as 'their creatures', when the major plus point that Mage Wars has (or one of them) is that any mage can use any spell....

As for the power of the Pentagram being fine, compare it to the Gate to Voltari, or the Lair.  These two bad mofos are awesome by comparison...  Pentagram would have been great had they not capped the limit it could get per turn though...

[Aquila]

That's absolutely right!
A Beastmaster with some unicorns (which are "animals", and therefore can be summoned from his lair) is quite cool
And by the way, a Timberwolf is not that dull! it's not to expensive and with some cool stuff from Falella a dreadfull creature! Also the Grizzly and the Alpha!
But to stay on the topic, pentagram sucks... Sorry!

[Koz]

both the warlock and the wizard have terrible creature options. i would take anything the beastmaster or priestess has in a heartbeat. the only thing warlock side i would even consider is the hellion, and on the wizard side the mana leech.

 :ohmy:

That's...the one of the craziest opinions I've ever heard of in this game.  Lol, no offense.  The Arcane creatures are fantastic.  The Hydra, Gorgon Archer and the Stonegaze Basilisk are all AMAZING.  The Mana Leech is also pretty good and the Familiar is awesome if you can keep it alive.  I'll give you that the Blue Gremlin and the Moonglow Fairy are just ok and there are better options though.

[Koz]

As for the Pentagram, IMO, it's the worst one.  All of the other spawnpoints are better.  The fact that it's incorporeal doesn't make up for the fact that it's the worst spawnpoint in regards to efficiency.  

The Warlock creatures are fine though.  They are all pretty solid and I don't have any complaints about any of them.

Honestly, at this point I'm not really using spawnpoints.  I think they are slow and too expensive.  I think they have their place in certain builds and I'm sure cards will come out that will make them better, but they are certainly not an auto include for me at all.

[Koy]

I've tried duels with and without spawnpoints four all four mages, and I have come to find that:

1)  In a typical turtling temple build, the Temple of Asyra is very good.  That book will last so long that you will easily get your mana/actions back from it.  It is a considerable commitment though when you count up the initial mana cost, the cost of the two clerics (and their actions), and a possible Harmonize.  Hmm, maybe I dont like it as much as I thought...

2)  Likewise, for my favorite wizard book the Gate is very useful as I'm mostly teleporting around and blowing things up with various lightning effects while the gate steadily gains 3-4 mana a round if I get a Harmonize up on it, which lets me nuke while the big beasts of death get some bonus mana.  I think this is a must have for my play style.  It's really efficient too.

3)  The Lair... it's fun to use it for 2-3 creatures a round, but the swarm deck is not my favorite.  I guess it isn't the lair's fault, but ... bleh.  

4)  The Pentagram, as mentioned above, is just terrible.  I use the Battle Forge with the Warlock, but I can't imagine a time I'd ever put the Pentagram in my book.  Much like the Gate, the Forge allows my warlock to go get busy with the Lash while gearing me up for "free" in terms of my actions.

@Koz:  Thanks for the confirmation on my Arcane creature opinion.  I love them and just feel bad for the other schools when I start spamming control effects at range in every game.

[ggburat]

I'll put Pentagram on my side deck now and then put as a counter against Swarm Spawn Type Beastmaster, and i think it gives me a good chance of winning! I swarm Fire Brand Imp put a blood reaper on it and then wrest havoc against his smaller creature, my swarm and me can accumulate 2 mana per round which is like +3cha p/r which i think it pays as a compensation from my wasted round without 2 mana accumulated.

Yesterday I won against a SST Beastmaster! One of the key factor is the Pentagram Card, I won without  enchantment and only a Demonhide Armor Equipped, I almost lost that match.. was Tanglevined and has 16/20hp cause i wasted a turn without summoning my 2nd Mana Crystal and his buffed creature owning me, i only had 10ch and he got 13ch but thanks to Pentagram I able to  swarm level 1 Dark Creature and they accumulated enough mana to summon Death Pact Slayer and eventually Flaming Hellion! They own their level 1 Animal Creature and the beastmaster who's trying to kill me, also thanks to Blood Reaper that heals my HP! One of the best Comeback for me as a moment!  :silly:  

By the way.. You can't put a monster face down in your spawnpoint if the Pentagram only has 1 mana? Cause it said that you need 2 mana to summon a Dark monster..