Fire Wizard Build

[Tacullu64]

It seems like we hardly ever see people posting spellbooks so in the hopes of encouraging others I figured I would post one. I have been working on a fire wizard book and it doesn't look like I'm going to get to play it for a couple of weeks now so I thought I would post it instead. The elemental school is fire.

Attacks - 12
2 x Fireball
4x Flameblast
2 x Ring of Fire

Conjurations - 13
1 x Battleforge
1 x Mana Crystal
1 x Mana Siphon
1 x Suppression Orb
1 x Wall of Fire

Creatures - 14
1 x Darkfenne Hydra
1 x Gorgon Archer
1 x Huginn, Raven Familiar
1 x Stonegaze Basilisk

Enchantments - 34
1 x Agony
1 x Bear Strength
2 x Block
1 x Circle of Fire
2 x Decoy
2 x Essence Drain
1 x Force Hold
1 x Harmonize
1 x Hawkeye
1 x Jinx
4 x Nullify
1 x Reverse Magic
2 x Teleport Trap

Equipment - 18
1 x Arcane Ring
1 x Deflection Bracers
1 x Dragonscale Hauberk
2 x Elemental Cloak
1 x Elemental Wand
1 x Fireshaper Ring
2 x Mage Wand
1 x Moonglow Amulet
1 x Storm Drake Hide
1 x Suppression Cloak

Incantations - 29
2 x Dispel
1 x Dissolve
1 x Explode
1 x Force Push
1 x Knockdown
1 x Minor Heal
1 x Purify
1 x Purge Magic
1 x Seeking Dispel
1 x Sleep
1 x Steal Enchantment
2 x Teleport

The goal is to win through attrition by being more efficient with my mana and actions while limiting the opponents choices and choking his mana supply. The attack spells and creatures are there to help control the board. It is obviously a very reactive book so a large toolbox of utility spells is also included.

Turn 1
Probably move left 1 space then cast Battleforge. Play a Harmonize on the Battleforge and reveal it.

Turn 2
Battleforge casts Arcane Ring on the Wizard. Wizard uses Arcane Ring to cast Mana Crystal. The other spell to be determined by opponents actions on the first turn.

Since this is a reactive build play it as the flow of the game dictates, suit up the wizard as much as possible while responding to opponent's threats.

After softening up the opposing mage move in for the kill with the hydra, the wizard, or both.

I welcome any critiques or suggestions for shaving off the last 6 spell points.

Edit: Cut 6 spell points to bring the build total to 120. Removed 1 mana leach, 1 decoy, 1 reverse attack, and 1 reverse magic. Added a block and a nullify.

2nd edit: swapped out 1 dissolve for 1 explode.

[radioboyeric]

First off, thanks for posting your deck! I hope more people start posting their decks and or themes.

I run a similar (mana kill) but different (air wizard). I actually won my first match last night against a priestess/attrition deck. The mana kill approach really worked well because it gave me a lot of time to build my wizards equipment and conjugations for mana strangulation. The only thing I noticed after looking at your deck was was something I've done before, but have modified since, was the amount of creatures you had. Remember mordocks obelisk really kills your mana if you have several of them out. I only have the Raven, Whirling Spirit, and Gorgon, and rarely do I have them out all together. It's one thing if it is late game and you have tons of mana to burn, but most of the time I would venture that this wouldn't happen very often.

I lost versus a Beastmaster swarm playing this deck. The deck was overwhelmed and never had enough time to setup. A lot of it was my poor decisions to modify my strategy on demand, but fun none the less.

Cheers and thanks!

[Tacullu64]

First off, thanks for posting your deck! I hope more people start posting their decks and or themes.

I run a similar (mana kill) but different (air wizard). I actually won my first match last night against a priestess/attrition deck. The mana kill approach really worked well because it gave me a lot of time to build my wizards equipment and conjugations for mana strangulation. The only thing I noticed after looking at your deck was was something I've done before, but have modified since, was the amount of creatures you had. Remember mordocks obelisk really kills your mana if you have several of them out. I only have the Raven, Whirling Spirit, and Gorgon, and rarely do I have them out all together. It's one thing if it is late game and you have tons of mana to burn, but most of the time I would venture that this wouldn't happen very often.

I lost versus a Beastmaster swarm playing this deck. The deck was overwhelmed and never had enough time to setup. A lot of it was my poor decisions to modify my strategy on demand, but fun none the less.

Cheers and thanks!

Thanks for the reply. In regards to your comment on creatures, I totally agree. My plan is not to have multiple creatures out but to have a toolbox of creatures for different purposes. The question then becomes, can I shave points by dropping creatures? That is probably what will happen, but until I play the book I'm hesitant to drop creatures.

I will probably try to gets some plays in at 126 points ( with my opponents permission of course) and then drop the things I don't find myself reaching for. I'm sure at least one creature will go.

[Shad0w]

Tweak it and get it ready for summer cons

[Koz]

It seems like we hardly ever see people posting spellbooks so in the hopes of encouraging others I figured I would post one. I have been working on a fire wizard book and it doesn't look like I'm going to get to play it for a couple of weeks now so I thought I would post it instead. The elemental school is fire.

Attacks - 8
1 x Fireball
2 x Flameblast
1 x Geyser
1 x Ring of Fire

Conjurations - 18
1 x Battleforge
2 x Mana Crystal
1 x Mana Siphon
1 x Mordok's Obelisk
1 x Suppression Orb
2 x Wall of Fire

Creatures - 18
1 x Darkfenne Hydra
1 x Gorgon Archer
1 x Huginn, Raven Familiar
2 x Mana Leach
1 x Stonegaze Basilisk

Enchantments - 26
2 x Block
2 x Decoy
2 x Essence Drain
1 x Force Hold
2 x Harmonize
1 x Hawkeye
1 x Hellfire Trap
1 x Jinx
5 x Nullify

Equipment - 21
1 x Arcane Ring
1 x Deflection Bracers
1 x Dragonscale Hauberk
1 x Elemental Cloak
2 x Elemental Wand
1 x Fireshaper Ring
2 x Mage Wand
1 x Moonglow Amulet
1 x Regrowth Belt
1 x Staff of the Arcanum
1 x Suppression Cloak

Incantations - 29
1 x Dispel
2 x Dissolve
1 x Drain Power
1 x Force Push
1 x Minor Heal
1 x Purify
1 x Purge Magic
1 x Seeking Dispel
1 x Sleep
1 x Steal Enchantment
2 x Teleport

The goal is to win through attrition by being more efficient with my mana and actions while limiting the opponents choices and choking his mana supply. The attack spells and creatures are there to help control the board. It is obviously a very reactive book so a large toolbox of utility spells is also included.

Turn 1
Probably move left 1 space then cast Battleforge. Play a Harmonize on the Battleforge and reveal it.

Turn 2
Battleforge casts Arcane Ring on the Wizard. Wizard uses Arcane Ring to cast Mana Crystal. The other spell to be determined by opponents actions on the first turn.

Since this is a reactive build play it as the flow of the game dictates, suit up the wizard as much as possible while responding to opponent's threats.

After softening up the opposing mage move in for the kill with the hydra, the wizard, or both.

I welcome any critiques or suggestions for shaving off the last 6 spell points.

Edit: Cut 6 spell points to bring the build total to 120. Removed 1 mana leach, 1 decoy, 1 reverse attack, and 1 reverse magic. Added a block and a nullify.

Since you're a Fire Mage you should take out at least one Dissolve (possibly both) for Explodes.  They are a bit more expensive to cast which is why you may want to go with one of each but they cost the same for your spell book.  Explodes are good though because doing damage at the same time as removing equipment is more action efficient than just removing the equipment by itself is.

[piousflea]

If I was to build an attacking Wizard, I would include more copies of the attack spells and not rely so much on Wands. Bringing out a Wand adds 5 mana and 1 quick action to the cost of your attack. I would much prefer my attack to happen with no warning, and leave me with another action to do something else that round. (such as a second attack)

Definitely include some Explodes in your deck. Explode literally burns through Block and Reverse Attack, which is nice - although you have to be careful casting it against face-down enchants since getting Nullified or Reversed really hurts.

5 Nullifies is excessive. I rarely get the chance to play more than 3 in a single game.

Having both Suppression Orb and Mordok's Obelisk is (IMO) overkill.

If I was going to play a nuking Wizard post-expansion, I would get rid of all the creatures except Huginn and a single Hydra (he is a good defense vs creature swarms) and grab 2-3 Charms instead. Charm is simply amazing against any mid to large creature, and the main disadvantage of charm is that the other guy can still Guard against you - except you are all ranged attacks so you don't care about Guard.

[Koz]

If I was to build an attacking Wizard, I would include more copies of the attack spells and not rely so much on Wands. Bringing out a Wand adds 5 mana and 1 quick action to the cost of your attack. I would much prefer my attack to happen with no warning, and leave me with another action to do something else that round. (such as a second attack)

Definitely include some Explodes in your deck. Explode literally burns through Block and Reverse Attack, which is nice - although you have to be careful casting it against face-down enchants since getting Nullified or Reversed really hurts.

5 Nullifies is excessive. I rarely get the chance to play more than 3 in a single game.

Having both Suppression Orb and Mordok's Obelisk is (IMO) overkill.

If I was going to play a nuking Wizard post-expansion, I would get rid of all the creatures except Huginn and a single Hydra (he is a good defense vs creature swarms) and grab 2-3 Charms instead. Charm is simply amazing against any mid to large creature, and the main disadvantage of charm is that the other guy can still Guard against you - except you are all ranged attacks so you don't care about Guard.

I agree that the 5 Nufflifies seems excessive, but I think his logic is that he is trying to protect the Wands.  I put together a "Wand build" on paper that had a lot of Nullifies too for just that purpose.  I never actually built or played that deck so I don't know how viable it actually is, but I think that's what his thought process is.  I've thought that the "Wand build" might actually be best out of a Nature Mage due to the Familiar who can keep casting the Nullifies/Reverse Magics on you instead of you wasting your actions to do it, but I'm waiting for the Druid before I build this because I'm 99% sure  the Druid will be Nature/Air and that's a better fit for a "Wand build".

As far as Charm goes, the preview that I saw of this card says "Mind Mage Only", did that change in the final release (it seems some cards did from the preview versions)?

[piousflea]

I put together a "Wand build" on paper

Having played a bunch of attack-centric Wizard builds, I have not had any luck with Elemental Wands. Using a wand (as opposed to casting from your spellbook) simply adds an extra mana and action cost that you really can't afford, all for a theoretical benefit of allowing you to carry less copies of each spell in your spellbook. Problem is, the wand itself costs 2 spellpoints (the same as a Fireball) and when you throw in extra Nullifies to protect it, it's just not efficient.

Mage Wands are better because they give you the freedom to re-use a spell that you only have one copy of (say, Teleport). With elemental wands, it is much easier just to carry 4 Fireballs in your deck.

As far as Charm goes, the preview that I saw of this card says "Mind Mage Only"

Oops, you're right. Guess the wizard won't be doing a lot of Charming. That does make me wonder if he should use Banish as a way to keep big creatures off him.

[Koz]

I put together a "Wand build" on paper

Having played a bunch of attack-centric Wizard builds, I have not had any luck with Elemental Wands. Using a wand (as opposed to casting from your spellbook) simply adds an extra mana and action cost that you really can't afford, all for a theoretical benefit of allowing you to carry less copies of each spell in your spellbook. Problem is, the wand itself costs 2 spellpoints (the same as a Fireball) and when you throw in extra Nullifies to protect it, it's just not efficient.

Mage Wands are better because they give you the freedom to re-use a spell that you only have one copy of (say, Teleport). With elemental wands, it is much easier just to carry 4 Fireballs in your deck.

As far as Charm goes, the preview that I saw of this card says "Mind Mage Only"

Oops, you're right. Guess the wizard won't be doing a lot of Charming. That does make me wonder if he should use Banish as a way to keep big creatures off him.

I agree on the limitations on the Wand build, which is why I haven't built it.  However, using the Pixie Familiar with a Battleforge removes the action limitations and is at least worth trying in a Druid build once they become available.  

Also, my thoughts on the Wand build was that I would dual wield an Elemental Wand and a Mage Wand so you are protecting both.  

The build may or may not be viable but I'll give it a run to see once the next expansion is out.

[Tacullu64]

@koz & piousflea. I gave a lot of consideration to explode vs dissolve before I chose to exclude explode. Before I tell you why I dropped it let me say that you convinced me to at least give it a try. I am going to use one of each. I dropped it because of cost and perceived meta. I didn't want to pay the extra 6 mana period. To use it on a card like Sectarus (which I consider a must destroy) would cost 16 mana and it is a rare occurrence that I would want to spend that much mana for anything. As for the perceived meta, I think elemental cloak is pretty good so I assume everybody likes it and packs one. What I think makes it good is its versatility and effectiveness against popular damage types. Another thing that makes it good is that it's the type of equment I wouldn't want to take the effort to destroy. I don't want to spend the mana, use the action, or my valuable destruction spell. I would rather find a way to play around it. If the mage is wearing an elemental cloak, casting an explode on Sectarus would cost 16 mana to be rid of the sword and do 2 flame damage. This does not seem efficient to me. I could be wrong about the cloak so I will give explode a try as the meta is in its infancy and hasn't really been established yet.

5 nullifys. Koz you must be reading my mind because you are 100% correct. Lets be clear about one thing though, if someone wants to destroy a piece of equipment bad enough you can't stop them. So my goal is to make it enough of a burden that they question the worth if doing it. I have found that clever play by my opponents and certain builds can burn through nullifys quicker than others. An example would be nullifying a warlocks magebane, I'm certainly glad that the magebane didn't stick but now I've got to cast another nullify to protect my equipment. I have 5 because I would rather have one and not need it than need one and not have it.

@piousflea. I think of this fire wizard as a mage capable of attacking not an attacking mage. A subtle difference to be sure but a difference none the less. I plan on him being a secondary attacker supporting a creature as the primary attacker.

You are right the orb and obelisk are overkill. I was trying to build some redundancy into the book in case one got destroyed. I have often pulled the orb out because it cost 4 spell points only to put it back in due to concern of the obelisk getting destroyed. I have a tendency to think of the orb as a silver bullet for swarm builds and the obelisk as being generally more useful. Whether that is true or a misconception on my part I can't say.

[MrSaucy]

For a fire wizard, this is what I would do. This is a rough sketch because I don't have all the cards with me to calculate the total points.

Attack spells: get EVERY fire spell and run AS MANY as you can of each. that way, you can delay bringing out a wand.

Conjuration spells: 4 mana crystals, Wizard Spawnpoint, Fire walls.

Creatures: only creatures that do fire damage. could be stupid or brilliant, but sounds fun to me.

Enchantments: the necessities (Block, Nullify, Reverse Attack, Reverse Magic, Cobra Defenses), the new damage barrier that does fire damage, and cards like Bear Strength to pump up your fire creatures.

Equipment: both types of wands, anything else you feel like you need for protection.

Incantations: the usual (seeking dispel, dispel, explode) plus some offensive ones like Battle Fury, Piercing Strike, and Perfect Strike for your fire creatures.

[Tacullu64]

I still haven't played this fire wizard yet. When the expansion came out I got forcemaster fever. I think I am still 2 weeks away from testing him because the expansion also brought us Sectarus and now I've built my first warlock and I think I'm going to have to try him first. I haven't totally neglected the fire wizard though, I did update him based on what we got in the expansion and advice from this thread. I copied him from my original post for ease of reading.

Attacks - 12
2 x Fireball
4x Flameblast
2 x Ring of Fire

Conjurations - 13
1 x Battleforge
1 x Mana Crystal
1 x Mana Siphon
1 x Suppression Orb
1 x Wall of Fire

Creatures - 14
1 x Darkfenne Hydra
1 x Gorgon Archer
1 x Huginn, Raven Familiar
1 x Stonegaze Basilisk

Enchantments - 34
1 x Agony
1 x Bear Strength
2 x Block
1 x Circle of Fire
2 x Decoy
2 x Essence Drain
1 x Force Hold
1 x Harmonize
1 x Hawkeye
1 x Jinx
4 x Nullify
1 x Reverse Magic
2 x Teleport Trap

Equipment - 18
1 x Arcane Ring
1 x Deflection Bracers
1 x Dragonscale Hauberk
2 x Elemental Cloak
1 x Elemental Wand
1 x Fireshaper Ring
2 x Mage Wand
1 x Moonglow Amulet
1 x Storm Drake Hide
1 x Suppression Cloak

Incantations - 29
2 x Dispel
1 x Dissolve
1 x Explode
1 x Force Push
1 x Knockdown
1 x Minor Heal
1 x Purify
1 x Purge Magic
1 x Seeking Dispel
1 x Sleep
1 x Steal Enchantment
2 x Teleport

I still have the same plan to win through attrition.

[Sausageman]

Nice to see a few books with 4 or so copies of spells in em - I was beginning to think I was a bit odd making spell books like that (although I do still consider that I'm 'learning').

As for general comments, I'm never sure about having multiple cloaks or armour in a book - often feel like they're automatically made redundant.  But that's a personal preference and I see why you have them (so you can adjust strategy on the fly).

All in all, it looks pretty solid I reckon.  Nice to see some non Air Wizard books coming out too, that seemed to be the standard for a long time...

[Tacullu64]

Nice to see a few books with 4 or so copies of spells in em - I was beginning to think I was a bit odd making spell books like that (although I do still consider that I'm 'learning').

As for general comments, I'm never sure about having multiple cloaks or armour in a book - often feel like they're automatically made redundant.  But that's a personal preference and I see why you have them (so you can adjust strategy on the fly).

All in all, it looks pretty solid I reckon.  Nice to see some non Air Wizard books coming out too, that seemed to be the standard for a long time...

Coming up with the points for the extra Elemental Cloak and second armor was painful to say the least.  The armor is like you say, for defensive flexibility. The cloak is there more for the redundancy of the -2 lightening trait. With the low creature count every action is important and I want to lose as few as possible to condition effects. The fact that is an arcane spell and only one point helps too. I wouldn't double up the cloak for the forcemaster and she needs her actions as much if not more than the fire wizard. If I change the book the spare cloak will be the first to go.

[Sausageman]

But you have a Suppression Cloak in there too. This is duplicating a slot too. For the flexibility again?