Beastmistress Openings

[Aarrow]

Liar is the hardest thing to kill though. Its worth the mana alone if your opponent spends the time and actions trying to get rid of it. Never mind the fact that you can get out three foxes on turn two with a lair. If you go the Grizzly buff route, then it might not be your best option, but other than that, Lair and Fellella with the Beastmasters ability make him......well.......a Beast.

Party on Darth!... um.. I mean...  well said!

@Sdougla2
When I started running beastmaster, I ran the flowers and they worked great!  But it gave my opponent a lot of time to develop his strategy which lead to a game of "who could get the strongest or build up the most".  IMO, the Beastmistress shines when in her quick adaptation and versatility.  This allows me to blitz fast and put the pressure on early, which limits my opponents options quickly (or at least reveals his strategy).  In many games, I'll abandon my end of turn fox to change it up and foil my opponents agenda with other cards.
You're the the third person in this thread to mention Fallela.  I need to try that Pixie out!

[DarthDadaD20]

Liar is the hardest thing to kill though. Its worth the mana alone if your opponent spends the time and actions trying to get rid of it. Never mind the fact that you can get out three foxes on turn two with a lair. If you go the Grizzly buff route, then it might not be your best option, but other than that, Lair and Fellella with the Beastmasters ability make him......well.......a Beast.

Party on Darth!... um.. I mean...  well said!

@Sdougla2
When I started running beastmaster, I ran the flowers and they worked great!  But it gave my opponent a lot of time to develop his strategy which lead to a game of "who could get the strongest or build up the most".  IMO, the Beastmistress shines when in her quick adaptation and versatility.  This allows me to blitz fast and put the pressure on early, which limits my opponents options quickly (or at least reveals his strategy).  In many games, I'll abandon my end of turn fox to change it up and foil my opponents agenda with other cards.
You're the the third person in this thread to mention Fallela.  I need to try that Pixie out!

LOL  I laughed harder than I should have! Yeah, Fallela is great. If the BM is using swarms, he can enchant the team twice as fast with fallela. And as a plus, if the opponent is not prepared for her defense, she can be a huge pain to get rid of. And since all enchantments cost 2 to play....she can enchant something every turn without it being a drain on your mana, making her very tempo based (With actions). You could even spend the entire game summoning creatures while Fallela sits there and enchants you and the creatures. With flying, defense, and the ability to enchant herself with; rinohide and other buffs, she can become a big problem all by herself. Put her in a zone with armor +2 enchantment,(The name eludes me at the moment Contested ground maybe?) and rinohide she is a pain. Not to mention if you have curses like magebane or chains of agony...shes good.

[Tim]

The enchantments-stacking build is very good but with the expansion their are a few cards that can make a huge difference against this build: specially the 2 cards that destroys all enchantment in the zone and the card that destroys all enchantments on a target.
Okay, you can counter 1 with a nullify/reverse magic but it won't be enough. If I saw that your abusing enchantment I would make sure that my spell hits it target so that all your enchantments are gone. I would prepare a decoy and one of the above spells. Before I move I would use my quickcast en then as a full action I play the spell.
The above spells cost a lot of mana but its worth it.

If your opponent isn't prepared for this strategy then its a very good build/strategy.

[dexmark]

The enchantments-stacking build is very good but with the expansion their are a few cards that can make a huge difference against this build: specially the 2 cards that destroys all enchantment in the zone and the card that destroys all enchantments on a target.
Okay, you can counter 1 with a nullify/reverse magic but it won't be enough. If I saw that your abusing enchantment I would make sure that my spell hits it target so that all your enchantments are gone. I would prepare a decoy and one of the above spells. Before I move I would use my quickcast en then as a full action I play the spell.
The above spells cost a lot of mana but its worth it.

If your opponent isn't prepared for this strategy then its a very good build/strategy.

With an enchantment based deck and your comments above, all your doing is removing enchantmens while the BM is pounding on you. Remember the Faella is constantly putting enchantments and as a quick spell the BM is also putting enchantment so in his turn he is really putting up the pain.

I tried this opening as I mentioned above, death of a mage in only a few turns. I stopped doing this strategy because it makes the game too quick. I like long strategic battles where me an my opponent have like less than 10 cards left in our spellbook because all our creatures are dead (we used up all our incantation, attack spells, equipment) and we have like 5 life each.

The weakness of this strategy is if your opponent knows how powerful this is they would kill Faella first with a one hit kill (Thunderbolt) + Unavoidable (incantation).

[sdougla2]

I was curious about how your aggressive opening would work out in practice, so I tried a variation on your aggressive opening, although I ended up focusing on beatdown with my mage while my Lair summoned creatures. I didn't realize how much better the Lair is when it constrains movement so well. The big advantage it offers is the ability to play fast creatures to the far center every turn, which prevents a single zone attack from wiping out all of your little creatures (assuming you aren't fighting in the zone with the Lair), and makes it much harder to run away. It's not as flexible as my normal BM play, but I enjoyed that strategy much more than the slower Lair plays I've seen before. I'm not sure how well it will handle mana denial strategies, but I was pleasantly surprised by it's effectiveness.

[Tim]

The enchantments-stacking build is very good but with the expansion their are a few cards that can make a huge difference against this build: specially the 2 cards that destroys all enchantment in the zone and the card that destroys all enchantments on a target.
Okay, you can counter 1 with a nullify/reverse magic but it won't be enough. If I saw that your abusing enchantment I would make sure that my spell hits it target so that all your enchantments are gone. I would prepare a decoy and one of the above spells. Before I move I would use my quickcast en then as a full action I play the spell.
The above spells cost a lot of mana but its worth it.

If your opponent isn't prepared for this strategy then its a very good build/strategy.

With an enchantment based deck and your comments above, all your doing is removing enchantmens while the BM is pounding on you. Remember the Faella is constantly putting enchantments and as a quick spell the BM is also putting enchantment so in his turn he is really putting up the pain.

I tried this opening as I mentioned above, death of a mage in only a few turns. I stopped doing this strategy because it makes the game too quick. I like long strategic battles where me an my opponent have like less than 10 cards left in our spellbook because all our creatures are dead (we used up all our incantation, attack spells, equipment) and we have like 5 life each.

The weakness of this strategy is if your opponent knows how powerful this is they would kill Faella first with a one hit kill (Thunderbolt) + Unavoidable (incantation).

If I see that the opponent beastmaster summons Fellella it becomes my number 1 priority to kill it. It would take me 1 attack to kill it (falcon precision, or attack spell, ...) so okay, that's 1 action your BM isn't getting, but your 12-mana creature is no more . One more thing, you need to be in range for your enchantments to put them on your mage for the build to work, but this also means that it is in enemy-range. 1 attack with falcon precision ruins your play. Attacking with Fellella isn't a great option either, because its very easily killed unless you pimp her with enchantments but that means that your BM have less.

Don't get me wrong I love the concept and the idea really, but I think its to dependent on Fellella . I agree that Fellella  just need to stay a live for a few rounds and its okay (because its pricy). Another advantage is that not a lot of spellbooks play destroy enchantments (all-in-one). I also agree that if your opponent isn't prepared for this situation you will take the advantage. :lol:

I shall try it and I will see how it went.

[DarthDadaD20]

Official statement from DarthDadaD20:

I will no longer be using the term- Buff

From now on, I will be using the following- Pimp

That is all.

[sdougla2]

I've tried first turn Fellella plays, but I haven't explored that option as thoroughly as I'd like.

What I've mostly used Fellella for is followup on a Mana Flower -> animal play. If my opponent is occupied with my animals, and my mage is a few zones away from the action, Fellella lets me gear up rapidly, pressure my opponent with curses, and protect my creatures. They may focus on killing Fellella, but I can typically get several actions out of her first in this situation, since my opponent's creatures are a few zones away with my creatures hindering them.

[Kytan]

I also haven't tried a fellella opening but I've stopped running her because people know how powerful unchecked enchanting is, so they are prepared for it.  You will win a few games with this strategy but people typically learn after one game and make it a priority to kill her.  I always run a knockdown specifically for familiar killing (incapacitated removes flying and defenses). For me personally I think its too much risk for that big of an investment, but then again I'm a very cautious player in every game except first person shooters and paintball. That being said from what I've read here the fellella opening seems to have allot of potential and ill have to try it.
In other news, jet stream + wall of thorns in a swarm deck is AMAZING! I think it's one of the strongest parts of a beastmasters spell book. The damage it causes, the bad positioning it can put opposing mages in, the charges with lvl 1's it sets up. I just love it. IMO one of the closest things to a mtg style combo there is in mw.

[piousflea]

I've played with or against Felella a few times and my impression is that she is too expensive for what she does.

An aggressive build can easily spare the quick actions for around 3 enchantments in the early game just with the Mage. Having Felella around can increase this to 5-6 enchantments. Problem is, if your spending mana on a big creature, and your spending mana on summoning Felella, you simply don't have the mana to reveal those enchantments! Worse yet, you could spend mana on Felella and be left enchanting Wolves instead of Grizzlies.

The main problem with her is that she is an Enchantment familiar. Efficient use of enchantments requires that you already have big creatures out; as opposed to a Huginn which can work quite well with a small creature or no creature at all. This intensifies the mana crunch that a Familiar already places you in.

[sdougla2]

I agree that you can't really afford Fellella and a big creature early, and trying with an aggressive build is going to lead to disappointment. Enchantment buffs are much more efficient on big creatures, but it doesn't necessarily follow that Fellella is poor for aggressive builds. You can buff your mage and curse your opponent with Fellella while using your quick actions to play Bitterwood Foxes, Thunderdrift Falcons, and equipment. Marked for Death in particular works well with many small creatures. Still, it's probably easier to use Fellella in a midrange build.

[Tim]

I also agree. Fellella is to expensive. I rather summon a bear next turn then summon fellella. Fellella is easily killed with 1 action if your opponent is prepared for it. With a big creature (bear) they have much more problems and it stays alive much longer (mana efficient).

I also agree with Piousflea that you can easily buff your mage with quickcast.
However yesterday i played a few games against the forcemaster. We all know that the forcemaster has problems with flying creatures. You also know that if the opponent plays a FM he is probably being aggressive. Summoning a fellela first turn really is annoying for the FM. While the FM is getting in position for attacking, fellella has enchanted a few enchantments including a fast on self. When you see the FM closing in run 2 zones and quickcast enchantments on mage or curse the FM (a agony is great). If you suspect a move on Fellella, quickcast shift enchantment to mage.
However if you want to save fellela you have to invest in her, and all the mana you invest in her, you are not investing it on your mage/big creatures.

So not really a big fan of Fellella.

[sdougla2]

Maybe it's a function of my opponents failing to efficiently attack Fellella (and I agree, there are efficient ways to do it), but I've been impressed with her.