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Author Topic: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)  (Read 22874 times)

piousflea

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Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« on: February 17, 2013, 10:30:00 AM »
I played a Beatdown build that went 4-0 @ Bashcon. It does exceptionally well against creature swarm decks. The idea of the build is that you prevent people from ever achieving their planned build (whether it is a swarm or a massively buffed Mage or mana denial) by being extremely aggressive.

CONCEPT: Get large creatures in your opponent's face early. Deny and adapt to their strategy.

=====
The opener:
(10) Round 1 (+9):
(19) Quickcast Enchanters Ring (-2)
(17) Move 1 then quick spell:
(17) Cheetah Speed facedown on self (-1)

(16) Round 2 (+9):
DECIDE WHAT TO DO!
There are three branching variations of this build:
Lord of Fire only
Vampiress + Dark Pact
Vampiress + Equipment

At this point you need to decide: does The Lord of Fire come out to play?
=====

During (Preparation phase of Round 2) you will make a snap judgement about your opponents likely strategy.

If he is going for anything heavy on Creatures or Conjurations, go Lord of Fire.

If he is going for mana denial, or equipment beatdown, go Vampiress.

Your second card should be another facedown enchantment. In general, if you don't think your opponent has enough control to deal with the Vamp/Lord, put bear strength on the Vampiress/Lord. (Or Vampiric on Lord) If your opponent looks controlly, put bear strength or vampiric on yourself.

==========
Lord of Fire path:
(16) Round 2: (+9)
(25) Full spell Lord of Fire (-24)
(1) Quickcast facedown Bear Strength or Vampiric, either on yourself or on Lord.(-1)

(0) Round 3: (+9)
(9) Reveal Cheetah Speed on Self (-3)
(6) Move twice then cast Magebane on opponents Mage (-5)
(1) Quickcast Shift Enchantment to put Cheetah Speed on Lord of Fire (-1)
(0) Have Lord of Fire move twice (attack if possible) (0)

Alternatively, cast a facedown Ghoul Rot (-2) on opponents Mage, then wait until next round. In between Channeling and Upkeep you can reveal the enchantment (-6), leaving you with only 6 mana for the next round. (You should be meleeing at that point)
-----

At the start of Round 3 both your Mage and Lord of Fire are within melee range of your opponent. You are extremely mana starved, with either 6 or 9 mana in the bank and a facedown enchantment on either Lord of Fire or yourself.

However, your opponent is now in a severe action-shortage bind. He has three pressing issues on his mind: The Lord of Fire, your warlock's fists, and the DoT (Magebane or ghoul rot). As long as you can limit his action-efficiency he CANNOT deal with all three.

Therefore, your #1 priority is to eliminate anything that gives your opponent extra actions or takes away your actions:

=====
#1 Enemy: HUGINN
Huginn is the one card that can ruin your whole build. He is simply too action efficient against a single-big-creature build. In fact, I almost always go Vampiress+Darkpact or Vamp+Bats against Wizard. But if for some reason you have Lord of Fire out vs wizard, prepare a Perfect Strike or Knockdown every round and use it as soon as Huginn is in range.

#1.5) FELELLA
Same as Huginn but at least she can't teleport and dispel you. Kill with extreme prejudice. Note that perfect strike (Falcon Precision in next xpack) is superior to knockdown because she can put Block on herself.

#2 Enemy: Ferret
Same thing, perfect strike him to death. You do NOT want your warlock to waste actions swinging at the ferret while taunted.

#3 Enemy: Other Dodgy Foes
Dodge + Guard ruins Lord of Fire's day. I've seen him waste 4 consecutive swings on a guarding 4-mana Bobcat (5 -1 for ring of beasts), for an overall cost of 1 mana per dodged attack. Problem is that perfect strikes almost cost more mana than the stupid kitties. If possible, attack non-dodgy foes or use sweeping strike so that even if the first hit is dodged, you sweep onto the Mage. Post expack, Falcon Precision will render the kitty strategy obsolete.
-----

Okay, so Lord of Fire is out and there are no highly dodgy familiars or guards. At this point you should have More Total Attack Dice than your opponent. Your goal is to maintain that advantage until the other guy dies. Your play should be mostly reactive:

=====
Opponent Goes for Mage Kill:
This is usually the easiest to deal with. Throw on your favorite protection (elemental cloak, demonhide, rhinohide, etc) and get a Death Link out. Every turn he isn't focusing on Lord of Fire, The Lord is swinging 6 or 8 attack dice plus burns. Just keep yourself alive and the other guy will die first.

One REALLY SWEET way to mitigate incoming damage is to throw out a bloodreaper Imp. It only costs 2 Life. If your opponent kills it, that is at least 6 damage that your warlock didn't take. If they leave it alone, it leeches 2 life and deals some damage every turn.

-
Opponent goes for Lord kill:
This can be really tricky because you want to keep the Lord alive but can't throw so much stuff on him that control becomes ultra efficient. (Once Lord + Enchants exceed 40 mana total cost, the efficiency of sleep and banish are ridiculous)

The biggest threat to Lord is a buffed BM/Lock with Mage staff and battle fury. Be very careful around this and think about using Blocks on Lord.

Alternatively, if your opponent is just going balls out offense to kill Lord, don't bother keeping him alive. Battle fury yourself and Lash (soon to be Sectarus) him to death. It is quite possible for the other guy to kill your Lord but now he has taken 24 damage and your warlock has taken none.

-
Opponent goes for Lord control:
Hopefully you have thrown more enchants/equips on your Warlock than on your Lord. If you are able to hold your own solo while Lord comes out of sleep/banish/etc, you are set.

Sleep used to give me conniptions until I realized that you could use Death Link and Shift Enchantment to bust out of Sleep for very little cost. (Only 1 quick action and 3 mana more than just casting Link on and enemy creature) Deathlink him for 1 turn, which heals you and removes sleep, then shift it to an enemy. Note that this wont work if there are no valid enemy creatures to shift it to.

If Lord ever gets Dazed, consider putting him on Guard next to your lock. That way he gets a 100% effective counter strike instead of a 50% effective swing.

============

That is the end of my first section, will have to post the second later. Hope you enjoyed it!

alex02144

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2013, 11:12:50 AM »
How are you summoning a Vampire and Dark Pact on round two?  Don't they both take Full Actions to summon?

piousflea

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2013, 02:17:25 PM »
Vampiress Build:

The point of the Vampiress Build is to build an army around a relatively strong core creature (16 mana base, 26 with enchants) while still leaving enough options to flex around your opponent's build.

If your opponent goes creature heavy, you will want to back up your Vampiress with a Dark Pact. This is so that you have two "bigs" to Guard against swarms, so that they cannot focus fire and blow up either one of them. (Without spending a teleport etc)

Against a control deck, you will want to back up Vampiress with a swarm of bats and imps, but you don't want to overcommit to a swarm. (Due to Mordoks and Suppression Orb) If you see a Mordoks or Orb come out, immediately switch out of creatures and into equipment.

Against a solo/equipment build you want to go equipment yourself. The goal is to make both your Warlock and the Vamp into a threat, and make it difficult for the other guy to deal with both.

=====
Double Big Build: (anti Creature)
(16) Round 2 (+9):
(25) Full action summon Vampiress (-16)
(9) Quick cast place facedown Bear Strength on Vamp (-1)

(8 ) Round 3 (+9):
(17) Full action summon Dark Pact Bloodreaper (-13, -4Life)
(4) Quick cast place facedown Vampiric on Darkpact (-1)
-
This variant gives you the most tactical options against a creature swarm. It's main drawback is that you are well into "negative mana" territory with at least 10 mana worth of unrevealed enchants, and no protective equip on your Mage.

Your goal with Double Big is to keep both of your creatures alive, and to use Guard to keep enemies off your Mage. Vampiress is the best possible Guard because she gets to leech life AFTER she has taken damage.

You will have no mana, so plan to use a Guard or a Melee attack almost every round. During Preparation, always prepare one card you plan to use (ie, Agony) and one "oh shit" card based on what you are most afraid of. For example if your opponent seems to be preparing a trap zone full of foxes that he can teleport you into, ready a Teleport so you can get out.

During every turn, pass actions whenever you can, so that you get to act after most of the enemy swarm has already acted. Pick off opponent creatures whenever you can safely do so, but do NOT overextend. Think about firepower-on-target like a game of chess - if the other guy has a bunch of units capable of converging on one square, don't move into that square.

As long as you can constantly kill enemy creatures without losing creatures of your own, you will slowly build up a mana advantage. Either use that to put curses on the opposing Mage or equipment on yourself. (Especially if u are nervous about being nuked)
=====
Vampire Bats: (anti Control)
(16) Round 2 (+9):
(25) Full action summon Vampiress (-16)
(9) Quick cast facedown Bear Strength on self (-1)

(8 ) Round 3 (+9):
(17) Full action summon Darkfenne Bat (-5)
(12) Quickcast: either equipment on self (-X) or a Block on bat (-1)
-
Vampire Bats are designed to kill control builds. Against mana siphon, the Darkfenne Bat can be replaced by a Moonglow Faerie, or alternatively a Mage Staff. (Anti ethereal)

The Vampiress should draw the other guy's control spells. Against teleport and enfeebled, simply Shift Enchantment your cheetah speed (-1). Against Banish, laugh at the other guy spending 14 mana to banish a 17 mana (16+1) stack. Against sleep, I'd recommend the ghoul rot or Deathlink + shift enchantment trick.

Don't get more than 3 bats out at once. If a Mordoks or Suppression orb comes out, having 4 creatures will hurt a lot but not kill you, while having 5+ is lethal. If you already have 4 creatures, focus on Equipment.

Bats are fascinating because their attack deals nearly no damage but has a 1/3 chance to apply Rot. Rot is ridiculously powerful against anyone without Purify/priestess. Actually, it's still pretty good against priestess because it uses a full action. Maintaining an action advantage is key.

Never attack into Guard with bats. Any damage will kill a bat, and you want your bats to stay alive so they can swoop in again and again and keep rolling 9+ Rot. Use knockdown or use attacks from Vamp and Lock to break Guards before attacking with Bats.

The reason to use a Bat Swarm only versus control decks is that Bats kill very slowly. It takes a bunch of rounds to get a stack of Rots, and it takes even more rounds for those Rots to deal damage. Creature and equipment builds WILL kill you before your bats inflict enough damage to matter.

=====
Vampire Fisticuffs: (anti Beatdown)
(16) Round 2 (+9):
(25) Full action summon Vampiress (-16)
(9) Quick cast facedown Bear Strength on Vamp (-1)

(8 ) Round 3 (+17):
(17) Quick cast Demonhide Armor (-8 ) or Elemental Cloak (-6)
(9-11) Reveal Cheetah Speed (-3) and move into same square as enemy, then shift enchantment cheetah speed to Vampiress (-1)
(5-7) Reveal Bear Strength on Vamp (-3), move it and attack enemy.
-
The objective of this deck is to very quickly make your Mage defensively focused, and make your Vampiress offensively focused. This puts the Beatdown guy in a really bad position. If he goes for your mage he will simply get destroyed by the Vamp. There is absolutely no way he can kill off your lock before lock + Vamp destroy him. Throw in a Bloodreapered Imp (-5, -2Life) as soon as you can and you will win.

If the opponent goes for your Vamp, that is when things get interesting. With a 7 dice vampiric attack, the Vamp can easily heal itself, but it is very possible to blow up a Vamp in a single battlefury attack. This is where initiative and quickcasts become key.

If your opponent is sufficiently equipped to blow up Vamp, you need to do whatever you can to prevent it. If you have initiative it is simple. Battle Fury the vampiress and attack twice to leech health. But if you don't have initiative, you need to save her with a single Quickcast. Block (-3) will deflect one attack but a battlefury will still strike once. A Teleport (-6) on a non Fast opponent can prevent both attacks.

Consider placing your Mage on Guard next to the Vampiress to make her even harder to kill.

If you can keep both your Mage and your Vampiress alive, you can and will win against other Beatdown decks. This includes Lord of Fire builds - since the Vamp is 8 mana cheaper than lord of fire, your Mage will have an 8 mana equipment advantage which should include fire resist.

piousflea

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2013, 02:33:57 PM »
Minimum spell points: 91

Fill out the remaining 29 points  depending on what you like - especially in the equipment and curse sections. This is the minimum that will function as this build.

Creatures (18)
Lord of Fire (6)
Vampiress (4)
Dark Pact (3)
3x Bats (3)
2x Imps (2)

Equipment (9)
Enchanters Ring (2)
Demonhide Armor (2)
Elemental Cloak (2)
Fireshaper Ring (1)
Lash of Hellfire (2)

Enchantments (30)
Cheetah Speed (2)
2x Bear strength (4)
2x Vampiric (4)
Rhino Hide (2)
Death Link (3)
Ghoul Rot (2)
Agony (2)
Magebane (2)
2x Blocks (4)
2x Nullifies (4)
Decoy (1)

Incantations (25)
2x Shift Enchantment (2)
Steal Enchantment (6)
2x Dispel (4)
Dissolve (2)
Explode (2)
Battle Fury (2)
Perfect Strike (1)
Knockdown (2)
Teleport (4)

Attacks (9)
2x Flameblast (2)
Fireball (2)
Ring of Fire (2)
Rain of Fire (3)

sIKE

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2013, 02:46:04 PM »
Love to try my Priestess Anti (Solo) Warlock Beat deck against this build. She lost the first three rounds against my friends deck and took his head the last time. His deck is light on critters though so I am not sure how well she would handle this senerio, but it is desinged to counter an in your face kind of deck.
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Shad0w

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2013, 07:10:42 PM »
I hope you all had fun. I enjoy talking meta and tactics with the forum crew.
"Darth come prove to meet you are worthy of the fighting for your school in the arena and not just another scholar to be discarded like an worn out rag doll"


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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2013, 07:47:05 PM »
Really enjoyable read - gave me some ideas for my Warlock game. I would be very interested to hear a bit more about the other guys who where top of the tournament, their decks / strategy.

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2013, 10:32:15 PM »
Great write up! Very well thought out, i really like the diversity and counters you have built into the deck, it's sorta how I have my beastmaster build set up but after reading ur write up there's a few things I'm going to have to tweak and really think about. Thanks much!

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2013, 08:41:01 PM »
This is an extremely well articulated and thoughtful write up. It gave me more insight into the strategy of the Warlock and Beastmaster than everything else I've read on the forums put together so far.
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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #9 on: February 26, 2013, 10:38:46 AM »
Thank you for posting this well done write up.

piousflea

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2013, 02:55:38 PM »
New note: Dealing with Gorgon Archer

Last night I lost a game really badly due to Weak tokens stacking up from Gorgon Archer (GA). As a Warlock I do not have any means to remove "Weak", nor do I feel like spending the spellbook points and mana cost of Purify. Instead, I re-evaluated my approach to dealing with the GA:

-------
Enemy Number 1: Gorgon Archer
If the Gorgon Archer manages to stick 3 or more Weak tokens on your Mage and army, you are probably going to lose the game. Therefore, any time you see a Gorgon Archer it is going to be your #1, #2, and #3 priority to kill.

The Teleport Bomb
As long as your creatures are within 2 range of the GA they are going to be severely punished with Weak Arrows. The basic goal of the teleport bomb is to keep your Vampiress + Dark Pact Bloodreaper at 3 range from the GA, then move forward one space and Teleport the GA on top of your Mage (One square away from your army). Then your army piles on and kills it.

What about Nullify?
If there is a facedown enchant on GA, first use a Marked for Death as nullify bait. (if it wasn't a nullify, it just adds to your beatdown) Then use your quickcast marker for the Teleport.

What if opponent moves GA toward you?
If he uses force push or teleport to allow the GA to start firing, he's also placed GA within range of cheetah speed melee attacks. Your cheetah-sped creature can attack first, and if you had a Teleport prepared for tele-kill, you can teleport a second creature to attack also.

What if opponent teleports you in range of GA?
If you're in range for GA to fire, you should also be in range to tele-kill the GA. Teleport the GA to the best possible square (ideally 1 space away from both your Mage and your creatures), then have everyone converge on it.

It's the round-after-telekill. GA is hurt but not dead, my Mage and Creatures are all piled on it. It's fired once and put 2 weak tokens on one of my guys. What do I do?
The Wizard can go one of two ways; he can try to Push/Teleport his GA out of your melee pile so it can fire, or he can Push/Teleport one of your creatures (probably your Mage) to where it can be attacked.

If you have Initiative, put a Jinx on the other guy and then prepare a Charge. This counters one of his two actions for the round and guarantees you'll get at least two melee attacks: One before he acts, and a second one after he moves his GA away.

Otherwise, prepare a Charge and a 2nd Teleport (if you have one in your deck) so that you can follow the GA wherever it goes and beat it down. As long as the GA is only able to fire 1-2 arrows before it dies, it is unlikely to throw out enough Weak tokens to lose you the game.

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #11 on: March 01, 2013, 04:48:56 PM »
Quote from: "piousflea" post=8411
New note: Dealing with Gorgon Archer

Last night I lost a game really badly due to Weak tokens stacking up from Gorgon Archer (GA). As a Warlock I do not have any means to remove "Weak", nor do I feel like spending the spellbook points and mana cost of Purify. Instead, I re-evaluated my approach to dealing with the GA:

-------
Enemy Number 1: Gorgon Archer
If the Gorgon Archer manages to stick 3 or more Weak tokens on your Mage and army, you are probably going to lose the game. Therefore, any time you see a Gorgon Archer it is going to be your #1, #2, and #3 priority to kill.

The Teleport Bomb
As long as your creatures are within 2 range of the GA they are going to be severely punished with Weak Arrows. The basic goal of the teleport bomb is to keep your Vampiress + Dark Pact Bloodreaper at 3 range from the GA, then move forward one space and Teleport the GA on top of your Mage (One square away from your army). Then your army piles on and kills it.

What about Nullify?
If there is a facedown enchant on GA, first use a Marked for Death as nullify bait. (if it wasn't a nullify, it just adds to your beatdown) Then use your quickcast marker for the Teleport.

What if opponent moves GA toward you?
If he uses force push or teleport to allow the GA to start firing, he's also placed GA within range of cheetah speed melee attacks. Your cheetah-sped creature can attack first, and if you had a Teleport prepared for tele-kill, you can teleport a second creature to attack also.

What if opponent teleports you in range of GA?
If you're in range for GA to fire, you should also be in range to tele-kill the GA. Teleport the GA to the best possible square (ideally 1 space away from both your Mage and your creatures), then have everyone converge on it.

It's the round-after-telekill. GA is hurt but not dead, my Mage and Creatures are all piled on it. It's fired once and put 2 weak tokens on one of my guys. What do I do?
The Wizard can go one of two ways; he can try to Push/Teleport his GA out of your melee pile so it can fire, or he can Push/Teleport one of your creatures (probably your Mage) to where it can be attacked.

If you have Initiative, put a Jinx on the other guy and then prepare a Charge. This counters one of his two actions for the round and guarantees you'll get at least two melee attacks: One before he acts, and a second one after he moves his GA away.

Otherwise, prepare a Charge and a 2nd Teleport (if you have one in your deck) so that you can follow the GA wherever it goes and beat it down. As long as the GA is only able to fire 1-2 arrows before it dies, it is unlikely to throw out enough Weak tokens to lose you the game.


My Wizard build works off this strategy vs beat down too (obviously it uses other tactics vs swarms and control builds).  It uses Gorgon Archers and Stonegaze Basiliks to lock down beat-down builds and mage + big creature builds.  I think your method is a sound strategy to use against this, but I did want to add a few thoughts from the other side of this in a "devil's advocate" kind of way.  

When I play this, I focus on keeping my opponent away from me using a combination of Force Hold, Jet Stream, Tanglevine, Force Push, Teleport and Teleport Trap (and Cripple from the Basilisk).   A common tactic of mine is to prep a Teleport or Force Push every turn just in case my opponent gets up on my Gorgon or mage (if I don't have to use the Teleport or Force Push I save it and use Arcane Zap or Staff of Arcanum if I have it out).  So, what I'm trying to say, is that your opponent may be sitting on a counter to your strategy and Teleport/Force Push the Gorgon Archer to safety after you move it.  Force Push might not save it though since it will only move it one space, but obviously the Teleport would.

Anyway, you make good points and I like this kind of strategy talk.  Weak is very powerful and people should be preping for this kind of build because you will get wrecked if you aren't ready for this stuff.  That's what's so great about this game, the strategies are so diverse and the game is so dynamic that it really does come down to how well you built your spellbook and how well you anticipate your opponent.  I love it.

Good stuff here piousflea.

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #12 on: March 01, 2013, 05:54:29 PM »
hehe, I'd think you've been spying on my games Koz!  That's the key to my favorite book, basilisks and gorgons to control/debuff the hell out of everything while I keep them alive.  Eagle Wings can really extend longevity too (and gets my lovely archers and basilisks over enemy walls).

This is an interesting discussion as I almost always play the wizard this way, and everyone else plays the warlock in a beatdown style simular to flea's.  Of course, now it's ForcemasterMania2013 up here... everyone LOVES her.  I can't say I blame them, either. :)

piousflea

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #13 on: March 01, 2013, 10:49:41 PM »
Quote from: "Koz" post=8425
My Wizard build works off this strategy vs beat down too (obviously it uses other tactics vs swarms and control builds).  It uses Gorgon Archers and Stonegaze Basiliks to lock down beat-down builds and mage + big creature builds.  I think your method is a sound strategy to use against this, but I did want to add a few thoughts from the other side of this in a "devil's advocate" kind of way.  

When I play this, I focus on keeping my opponent away from me using a combination of Force Hold, Jet Stream, Tanglevine, Force Push, Teleport and Teleport Trap (and Cripple from the Basilisk).   A common tactic of mine is to prep a Teleport or Force Push every turn just in case my opponent gets up on my Gorgon or mage (if I don't have to use the Teleport or Force Push I save it and use Arcane Zap or Staff of Arcanum if I have it out).  So, what I'm trying to say, is that your opponent may be sitting on a counter to your strategy and Teleport/Force Push the Gorgon Archer to safety after you move it.  Force Push might not save it though since it will only move it one space, but obviously the Teleport would.

Anyway, you make good points and I like this kind of strategy talk.  Weak is very powerful and people should be preping for this kind of build because you will get wrecked if you aren't ready for this stuff.  That's what's so great about this game, the strategies are so diverse and the game is so dynamic that it really does come down to how well you built your spellbook and how well you anticipate your opponent.  I love it.

Good stuff here piousflea.


Good point - keeping a "prophylactic" Teleport in your hand completely counters the Telekill, allowing GA to get the hell out of dodge before my creatures ever have a chance to attack.

The drawback of preparing a "prophylactic" Teleport is that then you can only prepare 1 real spell for that round. If it turns out that I'm planning a telekill next round, not this round, you are stuck with only one spell instead of two. (or zero spells if you prepared both Teleport + Force Push)

By the way, for some reason I haven't played Warlock vs Forcemaster yet, but her abilities definitely make me want more Bats in my deck. She has a really hard time against any sort of weak flying unit swarm, as Galvitar cannot attack flying units so she has to use Invisible Fist, Knockdown and/or Bash to knock flyers out of the sky - highly Mana-inefficient against something as cheap as a Bat.

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Re: Lord of Terror (Bashcon Beatdown Build)
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2013, 06:08:38 AM »
An unchecked Gorgon Archer completely shuts down aggression, so my number one priority for beatdown and 1-2 big strategies is to eliminate enemy Gorgon Archers. I learned that from the other side of the equation, but seeing a Warlock with a Cripple condition and 4 Weak conditions instilled a healthy respect for the arcane creatures that inflict status conditions.
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