I've already posted my thoughts on the Bad Borg deck.
The critical elements of the deck include:
Draksar Doomslayer x2
Temple Guardian x2
Skeezick Arthomancer x2
Draconic Benediction
Taint x2
Hive x2
Crypt Guardian
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Mason's Spire
That represents the core conceits of the deck: SL creatures allied with the FW, Hives, and a few parity-breaking spells. I'd like to further bolster these selections with some Area Damage spells (because, really, why not?) and more units which benefit from Regeneration and a defense boost. Executioners are wonderful for this, especially with a potential regenerating Avatar. Ravenwraiths are also superb, and a great target for a Shield of Darkness; I try to play them whenever I'm not running Nora Gen. The Flesh-Sewn Helm's disease aura is nasty, but Physical Resist 2 probably makes up for it, especially with Regeneration. Drakewing Swarms seem great for this, since they're resilient and, once dead, will pop back quickly. They also provide Range 1-2 on their attacks and a non-physical damage type, as well as distract. I'm back and forth between a Krikkinwing (Ranged attacks, area effects, poison immunity) and Draksar Berserker (Massive damage and quasi-range/AoE in Pounce). I go with the Berserker because he's new and I want to xp him.
Here's an initial list, then.
Drakewing Swarm x2
Draksar Berserker
Draksar Doomslayer x2
Draksar Psion x2
Skeezick Arthomancer x2
Temple Guardian x2
Warcharged Skeezick
Draconic Benediction
Firestorm
Taint
Abomination
Anthropomancer
Crypt Guardian
Dead Fairy x2
Executioner x2
Ravenwraith x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Mason's Spire
Flesh-Sewn Helm
Shield of Darkness
Showing posts with label Forsaken Wastes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forsaken Wastes. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Deck Construction: Three Concepts for January- Death Bailout Build
Death. Profit Sounds like an incredible film that hits straight to DVD and stars actors from movies that made lots of money (though the actors, apparently, did not).
However, for the purposes of both this blog and my personal entertainment, the title instead evokes a particular Forsaken Wastes/Shattered Peaks deck devoted to letting your own fellows die, selling them dearly, and profiting from the result. I already have a Death Benefit deck, and this iteration represents my efforts at improving on that initial creation. The main focus of my revamp is making the deck more aggressive; Death Benefit is powerful in the long game but somewhat (or extremely) slow to hit critical mass. In the early game it relies mostly on Cyclops Nemeses, but they're a limited tempo gain since they're granting my opponent a creature. The Earthmover they grant is easier to kill than the Earth Golems which they used to, but it's also markedly quicker to find a fight and make its presence known. Even with the Nemesis rule change (wherein if your man dies so does your foe's free one, prior to which Nemeses were wretched) playing the Cyclops doesn't tend to put me as far ahead as I would like.
As mentioned in my previous article, there are some fundementaly broken elements of this deck which I do appreciate, like the interaction between Death Harvesters, Devour, and Moga Dens; or between Collections of Souls and Cyclops Battlefeinds. However, I want to find homes for Suicidal attacks and Utterdark Voidhowlers, at the very minimum. Rather than try to trim my previous deck, I'm starting from scratch, with eyes on the following runes.
CHAMPIONS
Angel of Death
Animated Blade x2
Anthropomancer x2
Archfiend x2
Arctic Beast x2
Bile Zombie
Blood Fiend x2
Bonecrusher x2
Cleric of Unrest x2
Collection of Souls x2
Corpse Golem
Crossbone x2
Crypt Guardian
Dark Messenger x2
Death Guard
Death Harvester x2
Essence Devourer
Eternal Lich
Executioner x2
Festering Corpse x2
Necromancer
Ravenwraith x2
Revenant
Skeletal Berserker x2
Utterdark Voidhowler
Vampyre
Wandering Zombie x2
SPELLS
Chain Lightning
Corpse Collection
Delay x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Necroweave x2
Reanimate
Soul Cage x2
Soulreave x2
Weaken x2
RELICS
Graveyard
EQUIPMENT
Blight Ring
Ethereal Mindshank x2
Sacrificial Dagger x2
Shield of Darkness x2
Shattered Peaks Champions
Clay Form x2
Cyclops Battlefiend x2
Cyclops Nemesis x2
Cyclops Seer x2
Cyclops Shaman
G'hern Birthmother x2
Gluttonous Overseer x2
Moga Cannon x2
Moga Sapper x2
Mogahern Destroyer x2
Parasitic Fesh
Sonic Elemental x2
Shattered Peaks Spells
Avalanche x2
Bad Blood x2
Extended Reach
Implant x2
Lightning Storm x2
Stormwrack
Suicidal Attack x2
Shattered Peaks Relics
Echo Chamber x2
G'hern Scarecrow x2
Moga Bartering Post x2
Moga Den x2
Shattered Peaks Equipment
Diamond Mace
G'hern Helm
Slaver's Whip x2
Again as mentioned in my previous post, plus added now because they make sense, the following runes are non-negotiable:
SP 2xCyclops Battlefiend, 2xImplant, 2xMoga Den, Gluttonous Overseer, Suicidal Attack x2
FW 2xEssence Drain, 2xUtterdark Voidhowler, 2xDeath Harvester, Collection of Souls, Sacrificial Dagger
It's hard to justify making a FW deck without Mobilization, so that's going in. I want to have ample AoEs to maximize the benefit of the Voidhowlers, and my Bile Zombie is both an AoE and another dying creature. I'd love to squeeze in double Echo Chambers on similar principle: it's a cheap AoE I can drop wherever I like with no threat to my own units, and in a long and sloppy game it's arguably repeatable. It also allows for +1 range font contesting, which is a tactic I think every deck should be able to take advantage of.
So I'm looking at a deck of:
Champions
Cyclops Battlefiend x2
Gluttonous Overseer
Death Harvester x2
Collection of Souls
Utterdark Voidhowler x2
Spells
Avalanche
Bad Blood
Implant x2
Lightning Storm x2
Suicidal Attack x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Relics
Echo Chamber
Moga Den x2
Equipment
Sacrificial Dagger
If I added an Elsari Bazaar I'd have yet one more way to kill my own men, but if I'm truly interested in that I should probably focus on indiscriminate AoEs (like Lightning Storms). Obviously I need more men, and quick-to-die men like Blood Fiends and Skeletal Berserkers give me early beats and Battlefiend-fueling corpses in a single convenient package. The Corpse Golem provides another method of eating my Moga babies, plus proven combat ability, plus Swarm for more non-summoned expendable creatures. That caps my FW side. Doubling down on my Avalanches finishes my SP side and I have a quick and dirty 30.
Champions
Cyclops Battlefiend x2
Gluttonous Overseer
Blood Fiend x2
Corpse Golem
Death Harvester x2
Skeletal Berserker x2
Collection of Souls x2
Utterdark Voidhowler x2
Spells
Avalanche x2
Bad Blood
Implant x2
Lightning Storm x2
Suicidal Attack x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Relics
Echo Chamber
Moga Den x2
Equipment
Sacrificial Dagger
Just looking at the deck, I'm already concerned that I lack sufficient durable fighters, meaning I may switch 1 Berserker and/or Blood Fiend for Executioners. No matter how I play it, that puts a lot of damage on my Shrine. However, I lack a Tome of Hate so there's not much I can do. There's also a distinct lack ranged champs, and a dangerous absence of non-physical damage. The latter can be addressed with a single Soul Rend, and I've definitely found that when I play a FW deck without that spell I miss it. It's a shame I can't think of two spots to cut for Moga Sappers, as well, since they'd practically be cooldown 4 direct damage spells with a Battlefiend-boosting kicker.
I had also planned, earlier, to try my Essence Devourer in this deck and feed him using a combination of Necromancers and Graveyards. I could peel out a Berserker, Fiend, and Collection for that alternate build, but I'd like to try the current version to see how it plays first.
However, for the purposes of both this blog and my personal entertainment, the title instead evokes a particular Forsaken Wastes/Shattered Peaks deck devoted to letting your own fellows die, selling them dearly, and profiting from the result. I already have a Death Benefit deck, and this iteration represents my efforts at improving on that initial creation. The main focus of my revamp is making the deck more aggressive; Death Benefit is powerful in the long game but somewhat (or extremely) slow to hit critical mass. In the early game it relies mostly on Cyclops Nemeses, but they're a limited tempo gain since they're granting my opponent a creature. The Earthmover they grant is easier to kill than the Earth Golems which they used to, but it's also markedly quicker to find a fight and make its presence known. Even with the Nemesis rule change (wherein if your man dies so does your foe's free one, prior to which Nemeses were wretched) playing the Cyclops doesn't tend to put me as far ahead as I would like.
As mentioned in my previous article, there are some fundementaly broken elements of this deck which I do appreciate, like the interaction between Death Harvesters, Devour, and Moga Dens; or between Collections of Souls and Cyclops Battlefeinds. However, I want to find homes for Suicidal attacks and Utterdark Voidhowlers, at the very minimum. Rather than try to trim my previous deck, I'm starting from scratch, with eyes on the following runes.
CHAMPIONS
Angel of Death
Animated Blade x2
Anthropomancer x2
Archfiend x2
Arctic Beast x2
Bile Zombie
Blood Fiend x2
Bonecrusher x2
Cleric of Unrest x2
Collection of Souls x2
Corpse Golem
Crossbone x2
Crypt Guardian
Dark Messenger x2
Death Guard
Death Harvester x2
Essence Devourer
Eternal Lich
Executioner x2
Festering Corpse x2
Necromancer
Ravenwraith x2
Revenant
Skeletal Berserker x2
Utterdark Voidhowler
Vampyre
Wandering Zombie x2
SPELLS
Chain Lightning
Corpse Collection
Delay x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Necroweave x2
Reanimate
Soul Cage x2
Soulreave x2
Weaken x2
RELICS
Graveyard
EQUIPMENT
Blight Ring
Ethereal Mindshank x2
Sacrificial Dagger x2
Shield of Darkness x2
Shattered Peaks Champions
Clay Form x2
Cyclops Battlefiend x2
Cyclops Nemesis x2
Cyclops Seer x2
Cyclops Shaman
G'hern Birthmother x2
Gluttonous Overseer x2
Moga Cannon x2
Moga Sapper x2
Mogahern Destroyer x2
Parasitic Fesh
Sonic Elemental x2
Shattered Peaks Spells
Avalanche x2
Bad Blood x2
Extended Reach
Implant x2
Lightning Storm x2
Stormwrack
Suicidal Attack x2
Shattered Peaks Relics
Echo Chamber x2
G'hern Scarecrow x2
Moga Bartering Post x2
Moga Den x2
Shattered Peaks Equipment
Diamond Mace
G'hern Helm
Slaver's Whip x2
Again as mentioned in my previous post, plus added now because they make sense, the following runes are non-negotiable:
SP 2xCyclops Battlefiend, 2xImplant, 2xMoga Den, Gluttonous Overseer, Suicidal Attack x2
FW 2xEssence Drain, 2xUtterdark Voidhowler, 2xDeath Harvester, Collection of Souls, Sacrificial Dagger
It's hard to justify making a FW deck without Mobilization, so that's going in. I want to have ample AoEs to maximize the benefit of the Voidhowlers, and my Bile Zombie is both an AoE and another dying creature. I'd love to squeeze in double Echo Chambers on similar principle: it's a cheap AoE I can drop wherever I like with no threat to my own units, and in a long and sloppy game it's arguably repeatable. It also allows for +1 range font contesting, which is a tactic I think every deck should be able to take advantage of.
So I'm looking at a deck of:
Champions
Cyclops Battlefiend x2
Gluttonous Overseer
Death Harvester x2
Collection of Souls
Utterdark Voidhowler x2
Spells
Avalanche
Bad Blood
Implant x2
Lightning Storm x2
Suicidal Attack x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Relics
Echo Chamber
Moga Den x2
Equipment
Sacrificial Dagger
If I added an Elsari Bazaar I'd have yet one more way to kill my own men, but if I'm truly interested in that I should probably focus on indiscriminate AoEs (like Lightning Storms). Obviously I need more men, and quick-to-die men like Blood Fiends and Skeletal Berserkers give me early beats and Battlefiend-fueling corpses in a single convenient package. The Corpse Golem provides another method of eating my Moga babies, plus proven combat ability, plus Swarm for more non-summoned expendable creatures. That caps my FW side. Doubling down on my Avalanches finishes my SP side and I have a quick and dirty 30.
Champions
Cyclops Battlefiend x2
Gluttonous Overseer
Blood Fiend x2
Corpse Golem
Death Harvester x2
Skeletal Berserker x2
Collection of Souls x2
Utterdark Voidhowler x2
Spells
Avalanche x2
Bad Blood
Implant x2
Lightning Storm x2
Suicidal Attack x2
Essence Drain x2
Mobilization
Relics
Echo Chamber
Moga Den x2
Equipment
Sacrificial Dagger
Just looking at the deck, I'm already concerned that I lack sufficient durable fighters, meaning I may switch 1 Berserker and/or Blood Fiend for Executioners. No matter how I play it, that puts a lot of damage on my Shrine. However, I lack a Tome of Hate so there's not much I can do. There's also a distinct lack ranged champs, and a dangerous absence of non-physical damage. The latter can be addressed with a single Soul Rend, and I've definitely found that when I play a FW deck without that spell I miss it. It's a shame I can't think of two spots to cut for Moga Sappers, as well, since they'd practically be cooldown 4 direct damage spells with a Battlefiend-boosting kicker.
I had also planned, earlier, to try my Essence Devourer in this deck and feed him using a combination of Necromancers and Graveyards. I could peel out a Berserker, Fiend, and Collection for that alternate build, but I'd like to try the current version to see how it plays first.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Deck Construction: Three Concepts for January- Bad Borg and Bonus
Concept the Third...Fourth? Unfortunately, at least part of what I thought I was clever in considering for Concept the Third is not working in the fashion I'd expect, so I'll be eyeing the thread.
To whit, I love the flavor (if not necessarily the synergy) of combining Sundered Lands and Forsaken Wastes. They're both bad, bad crews but seem to have a greater depth than (ironically) the Underdepths, which feels like a faction of mean dudes and sexy mean ladies. The Sundered Lands represent an almost zerg-like cultural expansion, continually welcoming new races into their collective; Draksar Berserkers and Draksar Psions being my two favorite examples, though I'm looking forward to Lonx and Yeti flavors. The Forsaken Wastes, meanwhile, have such an elegiac quality to many of their runes, and mechanically they can be brutal. The synergy doesn't always stack up, however, since the factions are on opposite poles in terms of central thesis.
Sundered Lands runes, and their faction bonus, tend to focus on longevity. High defense and regeneration keep a particular creature in the fight for at least a few rounds longer than his cost might indicate, and the brutal area spells the faction possesses allow it to win wars of attrition by simply standing after the other guy has fallen. Many of the runes are expensive, given all the defensive qualities stitched into their designs, but their ability to slog through lesser runes (especially in a full-faction) justify that.
The Forsaken Wastes, by contrast, die a lot. In fact, most of their runes were dead before you cast them. Traditionally FW runes have been relatively fragile, because the faction bonus and design of many creatures and spells is all about recovering slain runes quickly, rather than agonizing over keeping them alive. There's also a disease thread which was popular for a while, but combining disease and another faction tends to be very difficult (though one could probably do something with Ironfist Constructs and Medics) because even if your other faction isn't suffering much damage from disease effects, the stat reduction from disease is bad enough. Similarly, the good FW relics penalize non-undead creatures often as not. Luckily, I don't have any of said relics.
Nonetheless, I think careful rune selection can yield a very profitable balance between the two factions. Besides obvious inclusions like the Draksar Doomslayer (which has Ally: FW trainable) and the Temple Guardian (same, plus bodyguard to hedge somewhat on FW fragility) the main rune I'm interested in combining with FW is the Arthomancer, since his Hive laying ability dovetails wonderfully with the Mason's Spire. Or would, if it was working correctly. Working correctly, the Spire would boost each lain Hive's hp by 10, counteracting the 1/2 hp limit on lain Hives almost entirely. It would also provide a nora refund for the Hive, which turns Arthomancers into limited nora generation engines not far below a Deepcave Extractor or Elvish Artisan. The Hives themselves do minimal damage to the FW creatures in the deck, since creatures with Boon of the Undead have significant poison resistance.
There are also spells in each faction which grant favored race to any target creature, so I could be turning my Draksar/Skeezick into undead (to grant them disease immunity) and my undead into Draksar for Draconic Force and Hive immunity. With 2 Arthomancers and 2 maindeck Hives, plus Mason's Spire and Crypt Guardian, there'd be a lot of battlefield control at a relatively cheap price. The Doomslayers provide excellent font contesting, particularly backed up by Essence Drains to clear defenders. Both factions have powerful rare-level spells that grant extra attacks (Quickening and Mobilization/Draconic Benediction, natch) as well, meaning that the deck could provide both stable attrition and extremely swingy rounds.
Finally, if I hew Sundered Lands for my Shrine I get a regenerating Avatar, which should help to counteract the shrine life loss of Skeletal Berserkers, Executioners, and/or Blood fiends. With a toolbox of creatures and damage types available on both sides of the fence, this deck would be highly technical to build but quite likely resilient and abusive on the field.
Bonus! I'd also like to put something together abusing the Sundered Lands spell Sandspout and the K'thir Forest spell Reclaim. I'm not sure I've ever combined those two factions before, and Garu/Skeezick springs to mind as a resilient, melee-focused team that would greatly benefit from enemies being incapable of making attacks for a dozen or so turns a game.
To whit, I love the flavor (if not necessarily the synergy) of combining Sundered Lands and Forsaken Wastes. They're both bad, bad crews but seem to have a greater depth than (ironically) the Underdepths, which feels like a faction of mean dudes and sexy mean ladies. The Sundered Lands represent an almost zerg-like cultural expansion, continually welcoming new races into their collective; Draksar Berserkers and Draksar Psions being my two favorite examples, though I'm looking forward to Lonx and Yeti flavors. The Forsaken Wastes, meanwhile, have such an elegiac quality to many of their runes, and mechanically they can be brutal. The synergy doesn't always stack up, however, since the factions are on opposite poles in terms of central thesis.
Sundered Lands runes, and their faction bonus, tend to focus on longevity. High defense and regeneration keep a particular creature in the fight for at least a few rounds longer than his cost might indicate, and the brutal area spells the faction possesses allow it to win wars of attrition by simply standing after the other guy has fallen. Many of the runes are expensive, given all the defensive qualities stitched into their designs, but their ability to slog through lesser runes (especially in a full-faction) justify that.
The Forsaken Wastes, by contrast, die a lot. In fact, most of their runes were dead before you cast them. Traditionally FW runes have been relatively fragile, because the faction bonus and design of many creatures and spells is all about recovering slain runes quickly, rather than agonizing over keeping them alive. There's also a disease thread which was popular for a while, but combining disease and another faction tends to be very difficult (though one could probably do something with Ironfist Constructs and Medics) because even if your other faction isn't suffering much damage from disease effects, the stat reduction from disease is bad enough. Similarly, the good FW relics penalize non-undead creatures often as not. Luckily, I don't have any of said relics.
Nonetheless, I think careful rune selection can yield a very profitable balance between the two factions. Besides obvious inclusions like the Draksar Doomslayer (which has Ally: FW trainable) and the Temple Guardian (same, plus bodyguard to hedge somewhat on FW fragility) the main rune I'm interested in combining with FW is the Arthomancer, since his Hive laying ability dovetails wonderfully with the Mason's Spire. Or would, if it was working correctly. Working correctly, the Spire would boost each lain Hive's hp by 10, counteracting the 1/2 hp limit on lain Hives almost entirely. It would also provide a nora refund for the Hive, which turns Arthomancers into limited nora generation engines not far below a Deepcave Extractor or Elvish Artisan. The Hives themselves do minimal damage to the FW creatures in the deck, since creatures with Boon of the Undead have significant poison resistance.
There are also spells in each faction which grant favored race to any target creature, so I could be turning my Draksar/Skeezick into undead (to grant them disease immunity) and my undead into Draksar for Draconic Force and Hive immunity. With 2 Arthomancers and 2 maindeck Hives, plus Mason's Spire and Crypt Guardian, there'd be a lot of battlefield control at a relatively cheap price. The Doomslayers provide excellent font contesting, particularly backed up by Essence Drains to clear defenders. Both factions have powerful rare-level spells that grant extra attacks (Quickening and Mobilization/Draconic Benediction, natch) as well, meaning that the deck could provide both stable attrition and extremely swingy rounds.
Finally, if I hew Sundered Lands for my Shrine I get a regenerating Avatar, which should help to counteract the shrine life loss of Skeletal Berserkers, Executioners, and/or Blood fiends. With a toolbox of creatures and damage types available on both sides of the fence, this deck would be highly technical to build but quite likely resilient and abusive on the field.
Bonus! I'd also like to put something together abusing the Sundered Lands spell Sandspout and the K'thir Forest spell Reclaim. I'm not sure I've ever combined those two factions before, and Garu/Skeezick springs to mind as a resilient, melee-focused team that would greatly benefit from enemies being incapable of making attacks for a dozen or so turns a game.
Deck Construction: Three Concepts for January- Death Bailout
Concept the Second Concept the Second is an update on my current Death Profit deck. As built, the deck is FW/SP, with a brace of Death Harvesters but no Tolltakers (I don't have any). It abuses Moga Dens to feed either Cyclops Battlefiends or G'hern Gluttons, with the goal being to both profit (or rather break even) due to the Harvesters and bring the Battlefiends online in stupid-swift time. I also run a single Collection of Souls at present, since they interact wonderfully with the Battlefiends- a fiend devours a moga and gains a +1 to damage, bumping the Collection's damage by 1. The Collection then Imparts that damage back to the fiend. The Collection can bump the fiend every turn, and there's a double bump at least every other turn, depending on the number and disposition of Moga Dens on the board. The nice thing is that Gluttons can sit at home with the Dens while the Battlefiends go running into battle, trusting in their ridiculous initial Defense and Health to keep them going. Once the Battlefiend procs, equipping them with a Sacrifical Dagger tends to keep them in the fight until there's nothing left to fight. Implants provide another quick source of Battlefiend/Collection pumping, though it's not as great now that they can't target Crested Feshes.
I really enjoy this deck, as it's one of the first examples I have of taking a thematic concept and successfully putting it into practice. However, the current build is slow. There are a number of exciting new runes, most significantly Utterdark Voidhowlers and Revenants, which I would like to try in this archetype. The inclusion of more martial creatures, in turn, suggests I also bring a pair of Suicidal Attacks online. The biggest challenge with this deck is ascertaining what to cut, so I think it might be best to burn the entire deck down and start from scratch. That's the real challenge, as looking at my original list I'm not sure what I even could do without.
I figure the core is double Battlefiend, double Death Harvester, double Implant, double Voidhowler, double Essence Drain, and one to two Soul Collections. This more aggressive build would do well to run other short-lived creatures besides the spellbought Feshes, so two of either the Bloodfiend or the Skeletal Berserker will probably make the cut (or both, or one of each?). Beyond that, though, this deck requires a fair amount of tinkering and I'll probably have to lose at least one of the Gluttons. I also enjoy the idea of bringing in more death nova creatures like Festering Corpses, since the new Suicidal Attack grants Pounce to at least marginally counteract Lumbering, then provides a sure kill at the end of the turn. Combining Suicidal Attack with the Voidhowler is the idea at the core of this deck; that, in turn, encourages me to have as many AoEs as possible to keep enemy health within Voidhowl range.
This, then, is Concept the Second: improving my current death benefit deck into something more aggressive, which advances with expendable creatures begging to die while holding the line with the ever-worsening Battlefiends and Collections of Souls.
I really enjoy this deck, as it's one of the first examples I have of taking a thematic concept and successfully putting it into practice. However, the current build is slow. There are a number of exciting new runes, most significantly Utterdark Voidhowlers and Revenants, which I would like to try in this archetype. The inclusion of more martial creatures, in turn, suggests I also bring a pair of Suicidal Attacks online. The biggest challenge with this deck is ascertaining what to cut, so I think it might be best to burn the entire deck down and start from scratch. That's the real challenge, as looking at my original list I'm not sure what I even could do without.
I figure the core is double Battlefiend, double Death Harvester, double Implant, double Voidhowler, double Essence Drain, and one to two Soul Collections. This more aggressive build would do well to run other short-lived creatures besides the spellbought Feshes, so two of either the Bloodfiend or the Skeletal Berserker will probably make the cut (or both, or one of each?). Beyond that, though, this deck requires a fair amount of tinkering and I'll probably have to lose at least one of the Gluttons. I also enjoy the idea of bringing in more death nova creatures like Festering Corpses, since the new Suicidal Attack grants Pounce to at least marginally counteract Lumbering, then provides a sure kill at the end of the turn. Combining Suicidal Attack with the Voidhowler is the idea at the core of this deck; that, in turn, encourages me to have as many AoEs as possible to keep enemy health within Voidhowl range.
This, then, is Concept the Second: improving my current death benefit deck into something more aggressive, which advances with expendable creatures begging to die while holding the line with the ever-worsening Battlefiends and Collections of Souls.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Rolling Update: Forsaken Wastes Collection
This post is a continually updating display of the runes I have in the Forsaken Wastes. Last update 1/3/10
CHAMPIONS
Abomination
Afflicted Corpse x2
Angel of Death
Animated Blade x2
Anthropomancer x2
Archfiend x2
Arctic Beast x2
Bile Zombie
Bladed Corpse
Blood Fiend x2
Bonecrusher x2
Boneguard Infantry x2
Broken Bones x2
Carrion Colossus
Cleric of Unrest x2
Collection of Souls x2
Corpse Golem
Crossbone x2
Crypt Guardian
Dark Enchantress x2
Dark Messenger x2
Dark Seductress x2
Dead Fairy x2
Death Guard
Death Harvester x2
Decayed Mercenary x2
Disturbed Spirit x2
Essence Devourer
Eternal Lich
Ethereal Soldier
Executioner x2
Fallen Draksar
Festering Corpse x2
Forsaken Follower x2
Grekin
Lich King
Mute Stalker x2
Necromancer
Necrotaur x2
Nether Wraith x2
Ravenwraith x2
Revenant
Risen Yeti x2
Shadestalker x2
Skeezick Boneblade x2
Skeletal Berserker x2
Skeletal Raider
Utterdark Spectre x2
Utterdark Voidhowler x2
Vampyre
Wandering Zombie x2
SPELLS
Black Ops
Chain Lightning
Chains of Corruption x2
Corpse Collection
Delay x2
Drain the Earth
Essence Drain x2
Festering Wounds
Foul Rite
Ghostly Visage x2
Mobilization
Necrosis x2
Necroweave x2
Plague x2
Reanimate
Serkan's Touch
Soul Cage x2
Soulreave x2
Spell Trap
Throw Bones
Wake the Dead
Weaken x2
RELICS
Chopping Block x2
Elsari Bazaar x2
Elsarin Vex
Graveyard
Mason's Spire
Mist of the Dead x2
Skull of Decay
EQUIPMENT
Blight Ring
Ethereal Mindshank x2
Fleshsewn Helm
Ghost Pendant
Reaper's Blade
Sacrificial Dagger x2
Shield of Darkness x2
Wraith's Tear x2
CHAMPIONS
Abomination
Afflicted Corpse x2
Angel of Death
Animated Blade x2
Anthropomancer x2
Archfiend x2
Arctic Beast x2
Bile Zombie
Bladed Corpse
Blood Fiend x2
Bonecrusher x2
Boneguard Infantry x2
Broken Bones x2
Carrion Colossus
Cleric of Unrest x2
Collection of Souls x2
Corpse Golem
Crossbone x2
Crypt Guardian
Dark Enchantress x2
Dark Messenger x2
Dark Seductress x2
Dead Fairy x2
Death Guard
Death Harvester x2
Decayed Mercenary x2
Disturbed Spirit x2
Essence Devourer
Eternal Lich
Ethereal Soldier
Executioner x2
Fallen Draksar
Festering Corpse x2
Forsaken Follower x2
Grekin
Lich King
Mute Stalker x2
Necromancer
Necrotaur x2
Nether Wraith x2
Ravenwraith x2
Revenant
Risen Yeti x2
Shadestalker x2
Skeezick Boneblade x2
Skeletal Berserker x2
Skeletal Raider
Utterdark Spectre x2
Utterdark Voidhowler x2
Vampyre
Wandering Zombie x2
SPELLS
Black Ops
Chain Lightning
Chains of Corruption x2
Corpse Collection
Delay x2
Drain the Earth
Essence Drain x2
Festering Wounds
Foul Rite
Ghostly Visage x2
Mobilization
Necrosis x2
Necroweave x2
Plague x2
Reanimate
Serkan's Touch
Soul Cage x2
Soulreave x2
Spell Trap
Throw Bones
Wake the Dead
Weaken x2
RELICS
Chopping Block x2
Elsari Bazaar x2
Elsarin Vex
Graveyard
Mason's Spire
Mist of the Dead x2
Skull of Decay
EQUIPMENT
Blight Ring
Ethereal Mindshank x2
Fleshsewn Helm
Ghost Pendant
Reaper's Blade
Sacrificial Dagger x2
Shield of Darkness x2
Wraith's Tear x2
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Deck Construction: Full-Faction Forsaken Wastes 5 PVP and Conclusions
After those four battles I'm sitting on some more experience, particularly with the runes who were below the cusp at the last runthrough. I increased Speed on the lower speed Enchantress to 10. Bought Charm 2 for one of my Dark Seductresses, and Disease Immunity for the other. It's difficult to decide how to level the Shadestalkers, so I just put the points into buying up their exertion; I want to keep them cheap but I would like to, at least, see them putting out higher damage. I may go back and increase that later. The Ethereal Soldier gets Hex 2, and the Mute Stalker bought into Evasive 3. I can finally afford Speed 8 for my slower Wandering Zombie- just 13 more points for Speed 9! Finally, I bump the Utterdark Spectre's Speed to 10.
With all that xp spent, it's time to trot the BG into actually PvP. There's a lot working against me here, most specifically that I've played several games with a friend of mine and apparently that increased my rank. I expect to eat a day's worth of losses, but I'm only too happy to be surprised.
Game 9- PvP(Hastatus 1559, Level 1) Versus gaverion (Princeps 1378, Level 1)
I'm always surprised by maps that seem totally unfamiliar; apparently they change a lot of the maps in PvP, so the Ironfist Stronghold map with the narrow pass now has a font there to capture. I draw some Berserkers, Enchantresses, and the Lich King and think I have a decent chance of racing the font. Unfortunately, gaverion is able to drop a cheap Scorched Dwarf he uses to take the second font while his Deep Elf Priestess contests the font. Ultimately I'm not sure if I was supposed to run away with my Lich King or stick around, but his Priestess and a Deep Elf Masochist eventually run me off. By the time I lose the central font I've picked up the northern one with my Mute Stalker, and dropped an Eternal Lich. However, gaverion controls the central font and drops a Deep Elf Ritualist and Deep Elf Scout in rapid succession. Thanks to a beckon he takes the northern font away from me, and then I'm stuck trying to defend my Shrine with the Eternal Lich (sans phylactery, he took that away real fast) and a Skeletal Berserker. I'm facing two Priestesses, a Grimlic, a Ritualist, a Deep Elf Summoner, and a Scout until I kill it.
Thinks progress predictably. My proud moment is when his Grimlic drops three mirages and I base up a Plagued Skeletal Berserker, which kills them all with the infection damage. He removes my Lich and my Berserker in the same turn and, since I can't cast anything else for xp, I concede.
Game 10- PvP Versus Alazel (Princeps 1378, Level 1)
While Game 10 loads, my trades come in; I have a second Mute Stalker, a second Utterdark Spectre, and two Nether Wraiths (which are stealthing energy thieves with Hex). The game starts up and I'm facing Forglar Swamp. I draw both Liches, an Enchantress, an Animated Blade, and a Wandering Zombie, and lead with the Lich King again. I'm up against a lot of Firk, it looks like, including the Mind Shredder. I quail, because I've used the Mind Shredder to great effect but as of yet not faced off against one. Alazel also has a Soulsphere, meaning all of his units share damage. Since my only ranged attacker is a Lich King and Alazel is playing a Firk Sensorate (Resist Magic 3) this means I'm only doing about 4 damage to each of his other units, and a single damage to the Sensorate. Combined with his Boghopper Shaman, Three rounds in the Mind Shredder still has full health. Then he drops a Feeding Frenzy on my Lich King, who barely survives. The Frenzy has the other delightful effect of further spreading out the damage his units are taking- my Lich is doing his best but he's not even putting out a dent.
I render my Animated Blade incorporeal to escape from a poison trap and take one of his fonts away. The next turn starts up with both of us seizing a font from the other; his Firk Sensorate is outside a deployment zone, while my Lich goes down to the Mind Shredder. The Delay I dropped (I finally get to use it!) prevents me from having to deal with a Salaman Negamage. Unfortunately, he opts to drop Kartch, Finlord instead. I manage to fight it out and kill off his Boghopper Shaman, do serious damage to Kartch, and just as I'm about to tear into his Salaman Dervish...he drops another Soulsphere. Followed by a Marsh Gargantua.
I battle it out for the eastern shrine for a long time; I'm using a Mute Stalker, which negates the advantage of his Kartch. However, the Stalker's not fast enough to catch the Mind Shredder and attack, so I'm running in circles, storing one more ap each round, while my zombie tries to kill his other troops. Judicious use of various disease effects, meanwhile, is enough to break his second Soulsphere, though it does nothing to his titan. When he has my Stalker at one hitpoint, and poisoned, I make him insubstantial, as I'm facing no magical damage. That lets me hang onto the font for one more turn, but my attempt to throw Reanimate down on the Stalker meets a Backfire.
Eventually I'm staring at another Boghopper hero, I have no champs on the board except a devastated Skeletal Berserker, and I concede. I'm proud of my boys.
Game 11- PVP (Principales 1886, Level 1) Versus yewsef (Signifier 2398, Level 1)
The fact that yewsef's Shrine has over 80 hitpoints indicates I am going to be badly, badly hurt in this engagement. My opening hand only includes 1 champ, and it's the Skeletal Berserker. This is less than ideal, so I play aggressive and pump a mobilize into him so I can grab the central font on turn two. yewsef contests the font and I decide discretion is the better part of valor, fleeing back with my Berserker to grab the font closest to me. The opening hand has me in a bad way, so I'm looking at things as a workshop to play with strategy. I run my Vampyre up to the central font and he's hit with a Devolve and reduced to 11 hp. I Phase Shift, again facing absolutely no magic damage, and get two Skeletal Berserkers into the mix. After Phase Shift ends I slap Ghostly Visage on the Vampyre, now a few hp higher thanks to a very weak swing on a summoned snake. yewsef drops a Thorn Collection on my Berserkers, then Vortexes my insubstantial Vampyre, meaning he now has uncontested control of the central font. Yewsef does what I would have done, and moves one of his pieces to contest my font; but he overshoots and misses its control zone. He manages to plant a serpent in the font, though, meaning I'll be without 10 nora on my next turn.
The Vampyre tries to take my font back while a Shadestalker and Ethereal Soldier attempt to hold off the Centuar Regulator I've been fighting since the beginning of the game. The Shadestalker falls, but I pull a Skeletal Berserker out to help my soldier; the Centuar runs away to rejuvenate himself. My chicanery with Plague and Ethereal Soldier is fun, but doesn't actually accomplish anything in the vein of preventing my game loss. Still, things went far, far better than I expected, and I'm again proud of my boys.
Game 12- PvP Versus nickybaby (Principales 1851, Level 1)
This is the first split-faction warband I've gone up against. The shrine has more hp than mine so I'm a little concerned, but at least the first creature he drops isn't the end of the world. I draw Wandering Zombie, Mute Stalker, Animated Blade, Vampyre, and lead with the Vamp (I'm thinking about naming him Edward). Edward and my Mute Stalker go for the southern font, facing off against a Krikkinwing and a Drakon. Meanwhile an Ethereal Soldier goes for the northern font, boxing out against a Skithmaw. Edward's Shield of Darkness is Disarmed, but he's not in position to take any hits so that's okay. I eat the Krikkinwing thanks to a timely Mobilize, while the Ethereal Soldier removes the Skithmaw.
The battle for the southmost font devolves into his using dragon after dragon, and me using...Edward. It's just Eddie. I hold three fonts for much of the game, but eventually I relinquish my hold on the northern one to focus on a thrust to the south. The game drags on; I kill every dragon he throws at me, but he never runs out. Eventually we've both popped our avatars, but there's just so much space taken up by his big units that I can't get a swing in on his. Font control really decides the match; I hit a point where he uses Broodcall to take my closest font and I can't recover it in time before he burrows a Sand Dragon into the control area. Once that happens I have nowhere to deploy units- even though I got the fun Reanimate effect wherein the nearest area I control leaves my control at the same time Reanimate triggers, meaning I immediately contest it and get to swinging. I manage to beat back his assault on my shrine with a Berserker, a Mute Stalker, and the shrine himself. I still get surrounded though, and he pops a Strip Armor before piling three dragons onto my shrine.
This proved an excellent experiment, both in terms of getting me to think closely about deck building and getting me back into playing PvP at all. I went 0 and 4, but I also have 63 career ranked wins (most of which were back when you could play ranked games against your friends). By comparison, nickybaby had close to 550 career wins; close to the same number of losses too, granted, but that indicates participation at a much higher level of play. For a deck I put together yesterday using a combination of runes I've never played and runes I don't tend to like playing, I'm very satisfied with the results.
Since the trades went through, I have some runes to swap in and I'll toy with the overall bg composition. The major thing to house me in that last game was Granite Bracers, because so much of my fighting was reliant on Edward. When he's up against a creature who automatically blocks and ripostes the first attack each round, he's not only limited to hitting every other round (when he has enough ap for two attacks) but he's forced to hold his ap on the in-between rounds, because he's sure not to hit. I'll tweak the bg and return to it later, perhaps, to see how the new version plays.
Full-Faction Forsaken Wastes Deck (Stealth/Insubstantial Focus)
Final Single-Player Record: 7/8
Final PvP Record: 0/4
With all that xp spent, it's time to trot the BG into actually PvP. There's a lot working against me here, most specifically that I've played several games with a friend of mine and apparently that increased my rank. I expect to eat a day's worth of losses, but I'm only too happy to be surprised.
Game 9- PvP(Hastatus 1559, Level 1) Versus gaverion (Princeps 1378, Level 1)
I'm always surprised by maps that seem totally unfamiliar; apparently they change a lot of the maps in PvP, so the Ironfist Stronghold map with the narrow pass now has a font there to capture. I draw some Berserkers, Enchantresses, and the Lich King and think I have a decent chance of racing the font. Unfortunately, gaverion is able to drop a cheap Scorched Dwarf he uses to take the second font while his Deep Elf Priestess contests the font. Ultimately I'm not sure if I was supposed to run away with my Lich King or stick around, but his Priestess and a Deep Elf Masochist eventually run me off. By the time I lose the central font I've picked up the northern one with my Mute Stalker, and dropped an Eternal Lich. However, gaverion controls the central font and drops a Deep Elf Ritualist and Deep Elf Scout in rapid succession. Thanks to a beckon he takes the northern font away from me, and then I'm stuck trying to defend my Shrine with the Eternal Lich (sans phylactery, he took that away real fast) and a Skeletal Berserker. I'm facing two Priestesses, a Grimlic, a Ritualist, a Deep Elf Summoner, and a Scout until I kill it.
Thinks progress predictably. My proud moment is when his Grimlic drops three mirages and I base up a Plagued Skeletal Berserker, which kills them all with the infection damage. He removes my Lich and my Berserker in the same turn and, since I can't cast anything else for xp, I concede.
Game 10- PvP Versus Alazel (Princeps 1378, Level 1)
While Game 10 loads, my trades come in; I have a second Mute Stalker, a second Utterdark Spectre, and two Nether Wraiths (which are stealthing energy thieves with Hex). The game starts up and I'm facing Forglar Swamp. I draw both Liches, an Enchantress, an Animated Blade, and a Wandering Zombie, and lead with the Lich King again. I'm up against a lot of Firk, it looks like, including the Mind Shredder. I quail, because I've used the Mind Shredder to great effect but as of yet not faced off against one. Alazel also has a Soulsphere, meaning all of his units share damage. Since my only ranged attacker is a Lich King and Alazel is playing a Firk Sensorate (Resist Magic 3) this means I'm only doing about 4 damage to each of his other units, and a single damage to the Sensorate. Combined with his Boghopper Shaman, Three rounds in the Mind Shredder still has full health. Then he drops a Feeding Frenzy on my Lich King, who barely survives. The Frenzy has the other delightful effect of further spreading out the damage his units are taking- my Lich is doing his best but he's not even putting out a dent.
I render my Animated Blade incorporeal to escape from a poison trap and take one of his fonts away. The next turn starts up with both of us seizing a font from the other; his Firk Sensorate is outside a deployment zone, while my Lich goes down to the Mind Shredder. The Delay I dropped (I finally get to use it!) prevents me from having to deal with a Salaman Negamage. Unfortunately, he opts to drop Kartch, Finlord instead. I manage to fight it out and kill off his Boghopper Shaman, do serious damage to Kartch, and just as I'm about to tear into his Salaman Dervish...he drops another Soulsphere. Followed by a Marsh Gargantua.
I battle it out for the eastern shrine for a long time; I'm using a Mute Stalker, which negates the advantage of his Kartch. However, the Stalker's not fast enough to catch the Mind Shredder and attack, so I'm running in circles, storing one more ap each round, while my zombie tries to kill his other troops. Judicious use of various disease effects, meanwhile, is enough to break his second Soulsphere, though it does nothing to his titan. When he has my Stalker at one hitpoint, and poisoned, I make him insubstantial, as I'm facing no magical damage. That lets me hang onto the font for one more turn, but my attempt to throw Reanimate down on the Stalker meets a Backfire.
Eventually I'm staring at another Boghopper hero, I have no champs on the board except a devastated Skeletal Berserker, and I concede. I'm proud of my boys.
Game 11- PVP (Principales 1886, Level 1) Versus yewsef (Signifier 2398, Level 1)
The fact that yewsef's Shrine has over 80 hitpoints indicates I am going to be badly, badly hurt in this engagement. My opening hand only includes 1 champ, and it's the Skeletal Berserker. This is less than ideal, so I play aggressive and pump a mobilize into him so I can grab the central font on turn two. yewsef contests the font and I decide discretion is the better part of valor, fleeing back with my Berserker to grab the font closest to me. The opening hand has me in a bad way, so I'm looking at things as a workshop to play with strategy. I run my Vampyre up to the central font and he's hit with a Devolve and reduced to 11 hp. I Phase Shift, again facing absolutely no magic damage, and get two Skeletal Berserkers into the mix. After Phase Shift ends I slap Ghostly Visage on the Vampyre, now a few hp higher thanks to a very weak swing on a summoned snake. yewsef drops a Thorn Collection on my Berserkers, then Vortexes my insubstantial Vampyre, meaning he now has uncontested control of the central font. Yewsef does what I would have done, and moves one of his pieces to contest my font; but he overshoots and misses its control zone. He manages to plant a serpent in the font, though, meaning I'll be without 10 nora on my next turn.
The Vampyre tries to take my font back while a Shadestalker and Ethereal Soldier attempt to hold off the Centuar Regulator I've been fighting since the beginning of the game. The Shadestalker falls, but I pull a Skeletal Berserker out to help my soldier; the Centuar runs away to rejuvenate himself. My chicanery with Plague and Ethereal Soldier is fun, but doesn't actually accomplish anything in the vein of preventing my game loss. Still, things went far, far better than I expected, and I'm again proud of my boys.
Game 12- PvP Versus nickybaby (Principales 1851, Level 1)
This is the first split-faction warband I've gone up against. The shrine has more hp than mine so I'm a little concerned, but at least the first creature he drops isn't the end of the world. I draw Wandering Zombie, Mute Stalker, Animated Blade, Vampyre, and lead with the Vamp (I'm thinking about naming him Edward). Edward and my Mute Stalker go for the southern font, facing off against a Krikkinwing and a Drakon. Meanwhile an Ethereal Soldier goes for the northern font, boxing out against a Skithmaw. Edward's Shield of Darkness is Disarmed, but he's not in position to take any hits so that's okay. I eat the Krikkinwing thanks to a timely Mobilize, while the Ethereal Soldier removes the Skithmaw.
The battle for the southmost font devolves into his using dragon after dragon, and me using...Edward. It's just Eddie. I hold three fonts for much of the game, but eventually I relinquish my hold on the northern one to focus on a thrust to the south. The game drags on; I kill every dragon he throws at me, but he never runs out. Eventually we've both popped our avatars, but there's just so much space taken up by his big units that I can't get a swing in on his. Font control really decides the match; I hit a point where he uses Broodcall to take my closest font and I can't recover it in time before he burrows a Sand Dragon into the control area. Once that happens I have nowhere to deploy units- even though I got the fun Reanimate effect wherein the nearest area I control leaves my control at the same time Reanimate triggers, meaning I immediately contest it and get to swinging. I manage to beat back his assault on my shrine with a Berserker, a Mute Stalker, and the shrine himself. I still get surrounded though, and he pops a Strip Armor before piling three dragons onto my shrine.
This proved an excellent experiment, both in terms of getting me to think closely about deck building and getting me back into playing PvP at all. I went 0 and 4, but I also have 63 career ranked wins (most of which were back when you could play ranked games against your friends). By comparison, nickybaby had close to 550 career wins; close to the same number of losses too, granted, but that indicates participation at a much higher level of play. For a deck I put together yesterday using a combination of runes I've never played and runes I don't tend to like playing, I'm very satisfied with the results.
Since the trades went through, I have some runes to swap in and I'll toy with the overall bg composition. The major thing to house me in that last game was Granite Bracers, because so much of my fighting was reliant on Edward. When he's up against a creature who automatically blocks and ripostes the first attack each round, he's not only limited to hitting every other round (when he has enough ap for two attacks) but he's forced to hold his ap on the in-between rounds, because he's sure not to hit. I'll tweak the bg and return to it later, perhaps, to see how the new version plays.
Full-Faction Forsaken Wastes Deck (Stealth/Insubstantial Focus)
Final Single-Player Record: 7/8
Final PvP Record: 0/4
Monday, September 21, 2009
Deck Construction: Full-Faction Forsaken Wastes 4 Intermediate Testing
Game 5- Trials of the Savage Tundra Normal, Redux!
My initial pull is Mobilize, Animated Blade, Dark Enchantress, Reanimate, Skeletal Berserker. I plop the Enchantress and send her toward the south font on turn one, and present a Shadestalker on turn two. Since the Icefisher tends to Break the Ice and retreat, Shadestalkers should be able to eat up a lot of their AP. There's a beautiful moment where two units lose all of their ap to an insubstantial Shadestalker blocking the Shardcaster.
The fight became much more exciting when I realized my touchy net connection hadn't saved most of the stat increases I paid for after Game 4. That meant, for instance, I plotted out one round in such a way that I would get several hits with an Animated Blade with Multiattack 3, but only had Multi-1 (and no Rend).
Still, after a pretty long fight I managed to pull out a victory. It really came down to the Shadestalkers on this one, as well as diligent use of the Shield of Darkness. I even got some good use out of the Dark Enchantress, though her rounds would have been more impressive if the Animated Blade flanking with her had his stats. I never managed to take the north font, but managed to hold my shrine with just a Vampyre, an Eternal Lich, and a few Wandering Zombies/Skeletal Berserkers. I didn't even have to pop the Avatar and run away, which usually ends up happening on this map.
Game 6-Trials of the Sundered Lands Normal
I draw Ethereal Soldier, Wandering Zombie, Dark Enchantress, Vampyre, and Shield of Darkness. I lead with the Enchantress (she has speed 11 and I want to get more practice with her). On turn two I back her up with the Eternal Lich. Dark Enchantresses do great with the Reaper's blade, and a Wandering Zombie and Skeletal Berserker help feed her dark appetites.
The combo of softening up those high-Def targets with a combination of Essence Drain, Plague, and the Eternal Lich lets me keep my Enchantress at full health through two fonts. There's a small slowdown when the Cannoneer hits the board, but I push through and cut down everything in my path. Each purple-base falls apart in just a few rounds, and the biggest headache I have is maneuvering two Shadestalkers around each other.
Game 7- Trials of the K'thir Forest Normal
I draw Utterdark, Animated Blade, and Skeletal Berserker. I lead with the Utterdark; the Berserker would have had the 11 speed but I can hit the font with 6. Turn two I bring back the Enchantress/Reaper's Blade combo, then phase shift both of my units to get the stealth. The first few champs fall easily, but things get tricky when I cross the river. There's a lot of magic damage, and the Grimlic's Eyes destealth all of my champs whenever they move anywhere near the northern font or the shrine. I manage to push through thanks to zombies and phase shift, along with somewhat cheaty use of Dark Seductress- when summoned, she Fears the board, but the AI won't attack with a Feared creature at all. Two Seductresses buy me the time to move a few Shadestalkers and the Mute Stalker over the river, and Reanimate keeps the Vampyre in play until the bitter end.
Game 8- Trials of the Underdepths Normal
From elves to...evil elves! I draw Vampyre, Animated Blade, Shadestalker, Plague, and Delay. Yes, I've kept Delay in even though I can't use it...it's all about discipline. This isn't much of a choice, and I lead with Vampyre. I back him with Shadestalker, which is a great early play for this map since you're facing melee fighters first. The next turn I add an Utterdark, which lets me phase shift the Shadestalker and Vampyre and pick up stealth on both.
It's stealth and incorporeal that push me through most of the map, picking the targets off one at a time. Anytime things clump, the Enchantress is able to drop a Charm and/or Fear (the latter being useful against the Gahlroon) to gum creatures up; she only has both at range 1, but careful positioning makes it work. The Nefari Messenger's magic damage makes her a threat but she doesn't have detection, so I just keep turning everyone invisible and things work out fine. The high base damage on the two techy pieces in my set (Utterdark and Mute Stalker) really help ensure that my warriors strike hard the whole time through. I suffer very few losses, mostly the Shadestalkers; but the Stalkers come off of cooldown so quickly that by the time I have the space in my rotation to cast the second one, the first one is available again.
I've found that the deck works best when I'm picking a few key champs to run into combat, then supporting them with other pieces who take swipes at the primary champ's target. Between the insubstantial and the energy thief, the BG is able to isolate one target while simply not dying from attacks inflicted by others. This is different than a lot of my BGs, which tend to fight battles on multiple fronts. With this battlegroup I devote a large quantity of resources to a single target, but can often kill two, even three such targets in a single round. Although many games had a slight tension point, the cheap, quick-popping champs had an easy time of pushing through. I would definitely like to have a few more pieces; most notably I'd add in another Utterdark and Mute Stalker if I had them. I'm looking into the Rune Bank concept in hopes of picking some up.
My initial pull is Mobilize, Animated Blade, Dark Enchantress, Reanimate, Skeletal Berserker. I plop the Enchantress and send her toward the south font on turn one, and present a Shadestalker on turn two. Since the Icefisher tends to Break the Ice and retreat, Shadestalkers should be able to eat up a lot of their AP. There's a beautiful moment where two units lose all of their ap to an insubstantial Shadestalker blocking the Shardcaster.
The fight became much more exciting when I realized my touchy net connection hadn't saved most of the stat increases I paid for after Game 4. That meant, for instance, I plotted out one round in such a way that I would get several hits with an Animated Blade with Multiattack 3, but only had Multi-1 (and no Rend).
Still, after a pretty long fight I managed to pull out a victory. It really came down to the Shadestalkers on this one, as well as diligent use of the Shield of Darkness. I even got some good use out of the Dark Enchantress, though her rounds would have been more impressive if the Animated Blade flanking with her had his stats. I never managed to take the north font, but managed to hold my shrine with just a Vampyre, an Eternal Lich, and a few Wandering Zombies/Skeletal Berserkers. I didn't even have to pop the Avatar and run away, which usually ends up happening on this map.
Game 6-Trials of the Sundered Lands Normal
I draw Ethereal Soldier, Wandering Zombie, Dark Enchantress, Vampyre, and Shield of Darkness. I lead with the Enchantress (she has speed 11 and I want to get more practice with her). On turn two I back her up with the Eternal Lich. Dark Enchantresses do great with the Reaper's blade, and a Wandering Zombie and Skeletal Berserker help feed her dark appetites.
The combo of softening up those high-Def targets with a combination of Essence Drain, Plague, and the Eternal Lich lets me keep my Enchantress at full health through two fonts. There's a small slowdown when the Cannoneer hits the board, but I push through and cut down everything in my path. Each purple-base falls apart in just a few rounds, and the biggest headache I have is maneuvering two Shadestalkers around each other.
Game 7- Trials of the K'thir Forest Normal
I draw Utterdark, Animated Blade, and Skeletal Berserker. I lead with the Utterdark; the Berserker would have had the 11 speed but I can hit the font with 6. Turn two I bring back the Enchantress/Reaper's Blade combo, then phase shift both of my units to get the stealth. The first few champs fall easily, but things get tricky when I cross the river. There's a lot of magic damage, and the Grimlic's Eyes destealth all of my champs whenever they move anywhere near the northern font or the shrine. I manage to push through thanks to zombies and phase shift, along with somewhat cheaty use of Dark Seductress- when summoned, she Fears the board, but the AI won't attack with a Feared creature at all. Two Seductresses buy me the time to move a few Shadestalkers and the Mute Stalker over the river, and Reanimate keeps the Vampyre in play until the bitter end.
Game 8- Trials of the Underdepths Normal
From elves to...evil elves! I draw Vampyre, Animated Blade, Shadestalker, Plague, and Delay. Yes, I've kept Delay in even though I can't use it...it's all about discipline. This isn't much of a choice, and I lead with Vampyre. I back him with Shadestalker, which is a great early play for this map since you're facing melee fighters first. The next turn I add an Utterdark, which lets me phase shift the Shadestalker and Vampyre and pick up stealth on both.
It's stealth and incorporeal that push me through most of the map, picking the targets off one at a time. Anytime things clump, the Enchantress is able to drop a Charm and/or Fear (the latter being useful against the Gahlroon) to gum creatures up; she only has both at range 1, but careful positioning makes it work. The Nefari Messenger's magic damage makes her a threat but she doesn't have detection, so I just keep turning everyone invisible and things work out fine. The high base damage on the two techy pieces in my set (Utterdark and Mute Stalker) really help ensure that my warriors strike hard the whole time through. I suffer very few losses, mostly the Shadestalkers; but the Stalkers come off of cooldown so quickly that by the time I have the space in my rotation to cast the second one, the first one is available again.
I've found that the deck works best when I'm picking a few key champs to run into combat, then supporting them with other pieces who take swipes at the primary champ's target. Between the insubstantial and the energy thief, the BG is able to isolate one target while simply not dying from attacks inflicted by others. This is different than a lot of my BGs, which tend to fight battles on multiple fronts. With this battlegroup I devote a large quantity of resources to a single target, but can often kill two, even three such targets in a single round. Although many games had a slight tension point, the cheap, quick-popping champs had an easy time of pushing through. I would definitely like to have a few more pieces; most notably I'd add in another Utterdark and Mute Stalker if I had them. I'm looking into the Rune Bank concept in hopes of picking some up.
Deck Construction: Full-Faction Forsaken Wastes 3 Initial Testing
Game 1: Beginner Shattered Peaks (Normal)
Open with Lich into Vampyre. Haven't played the Lich in a long time and screw up his positioning (he was distracted and thus not able to teleport around). Pulled a Berserker out of the font and slapped a plague on him, dropping the Pit Wolf in one one round Pummel+Basic Attack. Lich and Vampyre remove the Cyclops Youth. The game moves so quickly I don't really get a chance to test out a lot of my new runes, and I may need to think about doing the trials missions rather than the beginner missions.
Game 2: Beginner Sundered Lands (Normal)
I lead with the Utterdark, which is a poor choice because his speed is low and he has no form of special movement. Turn two I make up for it with a cheap Skeletal Berserker, so I'm only a turn behind the ideal on the first font. I confirm that Delay doesn't work, which is a shame. Otherwise things proceed swimmingly; I overextend with the Utterdark but have a Reanimate for when he goes down. The Utterdark and the Mute Stalker are the big MVPs this game, though a Wandering Zombie also helps. The Zombie basically ignores everything that's thrown at him thanks to his physical resistance, while the Mute's Evasion-granting ability cuts down on the damage from the Draksar Archer and Skeezick Netter. I do try making the Netter ethereal, and he apparently just hangs out right where I drop the spell; he's stealthed as soon as the first turn ends but he was in pretty much the same space when he became solid and attacked.
Playing the beginner stuff on Normal is definitely too easy; I move on to try the Trials.
Game 3: Trial of the Savage Tundra (Normal)
The Eternal Lich is unlikely to remain Eternal, since the Tundrabot spams Arctic Wail and the Lich's little urn only has 10 hp. Turn 3 the Wail hits, but the Lich is already earning its keep with ranged attacks. I pull both Shadestalkers and put them both on the board, hoping to screw with the Bot's action points and survive as a result. Things fall apart quickly once the ranged wave of attacks hit though, and my shadestalkers tangle up in each other's robes and stop the rest of my folks from progressing. Things look grim.
Bless the AI tho; it wastes two full creatures blowing up the Eternal Lich's urn when my Reanimate kicks. Still, once the fulcrum tips it's that familiar old wave of ranged attackers beating up on my shrine. I manage to muddy things up with the Zombie and a Shadestalker, but not nearly by enough. By the time things wind down, I still haven't killed the Bot's stealthing first spawn, largely because I lack detection and started with too much in the way of ranged attackers.
Game 4: Trials of the Shattered Peaks (Normal)
Going into this I'm both optimistic and nervous. Optimistic because the wide-area attacks my guys pack should do well on the swarms, but nervous because I don't think I do enough damage fast enough to kill the late game G'hern. My opening hand is Lich King, Eternal Lich, Shadestalker, Wandering Zombie, Reanimate- I lead with Lich King because he has the highest speed, though I expect him to get hit by the Distract and lose teleport; luckily he doesn't. I'm able to take out the G'hern scarecrow with the Lich King, which does give me hope for the game. I follow that up by Essence Draining the G'hern Sustainer and shooting him twice with the Lich King, meaning he's down to 8 hp before he even reaches my font. Then I plant an insubstantial Shadestalker in the way, ready to soak up his AP. Deprived of their leadership, the moga are much easier to deal with and I debate whether I should play aggressively or hang back at my font and pick off the moga with my ranged liches. I decide to mix both, and then have a tense moment as my 0 ap Vampyre is left by a cliff edge and I worry about an avalanche. I leave my Shadestalker in range of the Slinger as well, because I struggle with sacrificing ap to him from my other champs.
I also forget how Festering Wounds works (I really, really don't play FW much) and there's a round where I expect to clear the board and most certainly do not. However, when the gravedust settles it's a win for Team Diaphanous. Being able to kill each G'hern at extreme range with the liches means that the moga fall quickly, and in the whole game I suffer very few losses.
With four games down I settled into the Forge to tweak my runes. I buy the unleveled Seductress disease immunity and one level of Charm. Eternal Lich, who has no impressed me, picks up Dark Favor- so each time he's summoned he hits all of my enemies with a 3 life loss. Between his own ability and Reanimate, I can conceivably do this up to four times in a game, not counting his shortened cooldown. I'm holding off on picking up Exertion for both of the Shadestalkers, but I do up their speed; when a Champ has Energy Thief it's nice to have a big speed base to store all those stolen points.
The Utterdark is an interesting upgrade choice, because he can either pick up Phase Shift or Stealth, for the same price. Phase Shift has a survivability element, and he would automatically stealth the same turn he shifted; but being that my opponent would know exactly where he was, I don't know that it would necessarily disguise his position, and imagine someone would make an effort to destealth him immediately. Stealth would give me an active invisibility and an immediate boost (due to the Surge-Shadows ability) but it's an expensive ability and I've been playing the Utterdark as more of a brawler than a sneaker. I pick up Phase Shift. I boost the Wandering Zombie with better starting stats to Speed 9 and 40 hp.
I'm going to stick with the Dark Enchantresses for the moment, even though they've seen absolutely zero active use. However, I'm dropping the Disturbed Spirit and one of the Ghostly Visages; the latter would be better if I had an option of dropping insubstantial sooner, but as I don't I hardly ever used it.
In the place of those two runes I add in a pair of Animated Blades. The Blades are different than the last time I used them, as they no longer have Dodge. However, their Defense and HP both seem to have increased, so the hope is that they'll prove less fragile now. I buy one up to Multiattack 3 and Rend 1, and the other Multiattack 3, Rend 1, Speed 9. The intent with the Blades is to have some more melee options, a little bit more damage, and some quasi-range in that they're quick fliers able to pick a far target and engage it. They also give me anti-equipment options, and I will probably want that at some point.
With those changes made, I'm ready to run through four more Trial games. However, I probably shouldn't do so at 2:40 in the morning.
Open with Lich into Vampyre. Haven't played the Lich in a long time and screw up his positioning (he was distracted and thus not able to teleport around). Pulled a Berserker out of the font and slapped a plague on him, dropping the Pit Wolf in one one round Pummel+Basic Attack. Lich and Vampyre remove the Cyclops Youth. The game moves so quickly I don't really get a chance to test out a lot of my new runes, and I may need to think about doing the trials missions rather than the beginner missions.
Game 2: Beginner Sundered Lands (Normal)
I lead with the Utterdark, which is a poor choice because his speed is low and he has no form of special movement. Turn two I make up for it with a cheap Skeletal Berserker, so I'm only a turn behind the ideal on the first font. I confirm that Delay doesn't work, which is a shame. Otherwise things proceed swimmingly; I overextend with the Utterdark but have a Reanimate for when he goes down. The Utterdark and the Mute Stalker are the big MVPs this game, though a Wandering Zombie also helps. The Zombie basically ignores everything that's thrown at him thanks to his physical resistance, while the Mute's Evasion-granting ability cuts down on the damage from the Draksar Archer and Skeezick Netter. I do try making the Netter ethereal, and he apparently just hangs out right where I drop the spell; he's stealthed as soon as the first turn ends but he was in pretty much the same space when he became solid and attacked.
Playing the beginner stuff on Normal is definitely too easy; I move on to try the Trials.
Game 3: Trial of the Savage Tundra (Normal)
The Eternal Lich is unlikely to remain Eternal, since the Tundrabot spams Arctic Wail and the Lich's little urn only has 10 hp. Turn 3 the Wail hits, but the Lich is already earning its keep with ranged attacks. I pull both Shadestalkers and put them both on the board, hoping to screw with the Bot's action points and survive as a result. Things fall apart quickly once the ranged wave of attacks hit though, and my shadestalkers tangle up in each other's robes and stop the rest of my folks from progressing. Things look grim.
Bless the AI tho; it wastes two full creatures blowing up the Eternal Lich's urn when my Reanimate kicks. Still, once the fulcrum tips it's that familiar old wave of ranged attackers beating up on my shrine. I manage to muddy things up with the Zombie and a Shadestalker, but not nearly by enough. By the time things wind down, I still haven't killed the Bot's stealthing first spawn, largely because I lack detection and started with too much in the way of ranged attackers.
Game 4: Trials of the Shattered Peaks (Normal)
Going into this I'm both optimistic and nervous. Optimistic because the wide-area attacks my guys pack should do well on the swarms, but nervous because I don't think I do enough damage fast enough to kill the late game G'hern. My opening hand is Lich King, Eternal Lich, Shadestalker, Wandering Zombie, Reanimate- I lead with Lich King because he has the highest speed, though I expect him to get hit by the Distract and lose teleport; luckily he doesn't. I'm able to take out the G'hern scarecrow with the Lich King, which does give me hope for the game. I follow that up by Essence Draining the G'hern Sustainer and shooting him twice with the Lich King, meaning he's down to 8 hp before he even reaches my font. Then I plant an insubstantial Shadestalker in the way, ready to soak up his AP. Deprived of their leadership, the moga are much easier to deal with and I debate whether I should play aggressively or hang back at my font and pick off the moga with my ranged liches. I decide to mix both, and then have a tense moment as my 0 ap Vampyre is left by a cliff edge and I worry about an avalanche. I leave my Shadestalker in range of the Slinger as well, because I struggle with sacrificing ap to him from my other champs.
I also forget how Festering Wounds works (I really, really don't play FW much) and there's a round where I expect to clear the board and most certainly do not. However, when the gravedust settles it's a win for Team Diaphanous. Being able to kill each G'hern at extreme range with the liches means that the moga fall quickly, and in the whole game I suffer very few losses.
With four games down I settled into the Forge to tweak my runes. I buy the unleveled Seductress disease immunity and one level of Charm. Eternal Lich, who has no impressed me, picks up Dark Favor- so each time he's summoned he hits all of my enemies with a 3 life loss. Between his own ability and Reanimate, I can conceivably do this up to four times in a game, not counting his shortened cooldown. I'm holding off on picking up Exertion for both of the Shadestalkers, but I do up their speed; when a Champ has Energy Thief it's nice to have a big speed base to store all those stolen points.
The Utterdark is an interesting upgrade choice, because he can either pick up Phase Shift or Stealth, for the same price. Phase Shift has a survivability element, and he would automatically stealth the same turn he shifted; but being that my opponent would know exactly where he was, I don't know that it would necessarily disguise his position, and imagine someone would make an effort to destealth him immediately. Stealth would give me an active invisibility and an immediate boost (due to the Surge-Shadows ability) but it's an expensive ability and I've been playing the Utterdark as more of a brawler than a sneaker. I pick up Phase Shift. I boost the Wandering Zombie with better starting stats to Speed 9 and 40 hp.
I'm going to stick with the Dark Enchantresses for the moment, even though they've seen absolutely zero active use. However, I'm dropping the Disturbed Spirit and one of the Ghostly Visages; the latter would be better if I had an option of dropping insubstantial sooner, but as I don't I hardly ever used it.
In the place of those two runes I add in a pair of Animated Blades. The Blades are different than the last time I used them, as they no longer have Dodge. However, their Defense and HP both seem to have increased, so the hope is that they'll prove less fragile now. I buy one up to Multiattack 3 and Rend 1, and the other Multiattack 3, Rend 1, Speed 9. The intent with the Blades is to have some more melee options, a little bit more damage, and some quasi-range in that they're quick fliers able to pick a far target and engage it. They also give me anti-equipment options, and I will probably want that at some point.
With those changes made, I'm ready to run through four more Trial games. However, I probably shouldn't do so at 2:40 in the morning.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Deck Construction: Full-Faction Forsaken Wastes 2- Rounding Out the BG
My real hitters are the Ethereal Soldier, Skeletal Berserkers, Utterdark, and Vampyre. Spell-wise, I'm going to want to have an eye out for things that help me put the cripple down on my opponent's creatures, setting them up to die quickly. There are also a few runes that are sure to be useful in PvP, but won't help me much when it comes to playing the computer given the way the AI's units are deployed. I like the idea of using Delays to keep enemies off the board, for instance, but I'm pretty sure they won't slow the computer down at all. Mobilization and Festering Wounds are obvious inclusions- the current build has two creatures (the Dark Seductresses) that will take damage and a debuff from that, but they're only a few points away from me being able to buy disease immunity. I also really like the Plague spell; it's a quick cast spell that works well with insubstantial creatures, and it's very fun to slap it on a possessed creature because he'll make himself sick if he's not undead. Necroweave is also nice as a reset button, since it lets me lose all my guys and be set to summon them up again. However, it's been so long since I've gone full-faction I think I'll wait on the weave until I see what kind of cooldowns I'm dealing with. I also don't know what to make of Serkan's Touch; I like a big debuff but the manner of this debuff, being a reduction over time, seems to fit poorly with a 55-nora expenditure. I'd have to cast it very early in the fight to get any real use out of it. I also really like Ghostly Visage; it can be a defensive spell, it can remove an attacker for several rounds, and obviously it has the potential to boost my Utterdark. I'm not sure how using it on my opponents will work though, since I believe they'd stay invisible even after they lost insubstantial, which means I'd need to have several detection creatures on my end. That may be best saved for the partial faction version of the BG.
For spells I'm taking:
Delay
Essence Drain x2
Festering Wounds
Ghostly Visage x2
Mobilization
Plague x2
Reanimate
I'm capping things off with a Shield of Darkness to increase survivability on my life-drinking and insubstantial champions, a Reaper's Blade to make up for the low overall damage of my champs, and an Elsari Vex because so long as my premium membership is up I've got free access to one.
Now I'll distribute the CP on the units which already have it, and jump into the game!
For spells I'm taking:
Delay
Essence Drain x2
Festering Wounds
Ghostly Visage x2
Mobilization
Plague x2
Reanimate
I'm capping things off with a Shield of Darkness to increase survivability on my life-drinking and insubstantial champions, a Reaper's Blade to make up for the low overall damage of my champs, and an Elsari Vex because so long as my premium membership is up I've got free access to one.
Now I'll distribute the CP on the units which already have it, and jump into the game!
Deck Construction: Full-Faction Forsaken Wastes 1- Champion Selection
I find it fascinating how unevenly rune distribution seems to break down when picking up packs. There are 8 factions in Pox, and 10 runes in a pack; I don't know how they handle pack sorting but I don't believe there's a ton of care put into ensuring that every faction is represented. This isn't a bad thing, since the game's setup really encourages sticking to one or two factions and developing your ability with them.
Still, there are a couple of factions with what feels like really lackluster representation in my collection. I often feel like the Wastes are one of them, even though I should ostensibly love this faction. It's almost entirely made up of undead, be they skeletons, zombies, or more exotic creatures. It's focused on debilitating effects, weakening your opponent in ways that your own creatures can ignore, and profiting from the death of your own and your opponent's pieces. This meshes extremely well with the Wastes' faction bonus, which is a reduction in the wait time before your dead creatures recover (the cooldown). To reflect this, many of the runes are extremely fragile, sometimes ridiculously so. Cooldowns for creatures are based on total nora cost, and there are many runes which a full-faction FW deck can cast every few turns; a few, I believe, can even be cast every turn if you don't do much to upgrade them.
As someone whose favorite color in Magic when he started was black, whose first truly great Magic deck was a black deck focused on graveyard reanimation, and who gradually came to appreciate the permission assholery of Blue in conjunction with black, I should love everything about FW.
Unfortunately, FW decks seem to be extremely dependent on a few crucial, excellent runes. That's one thing that runs differently than Magic or DnD Minis: certain runes simply become must-haves. Although some cards are simply excellent in Magic, the tight 60 card limit most serious players try to adhere to and high percentage of resource cards that are necessary combine to prevent any color from having must-play cards. Particular deck archetypes might hinge on a few key cards, but a different deck in the same color might ignore them entirely. In Pox, certain runes seem to be must-haves across the board- if you're playing the faction, you're playing it in part to have that rune (or two of that rune). It's no surprise the runes in question aren't commons.
I don't have most of the critical runes in the FW set. I don't have the Unholy Tomb, which damages non-undead and pays you for it. This is a critical rune not only because you're profiting and hurting all the living foes you face globally, but also because it sets up all the extant creatures to be targeted by Festering Wounds, another must-have (non-rare, surprisingly!) rune of which I only possess one. Festering Wounds inflicts a disease effect on all wounded creatures currently in play; disease both reduces the creature's attack/defense stats and inflicts continual damage over the next 5 turns. Not only does this soften your foes for the killing blow, it also breaks stealth on hidden units, mediates the effects of regeneration, and increases (albeit slightly) the damage all of your units do.
FW runes don't have great area of effect spells, and generally aren't doing the greatest damage. Many runes are initially slow, and as I mentioned before they're often fragile. Those hurdles are overcome in part by the FW having some of the techiest abilities of any faction. There are powers that screw with healing, powers that feed your bank or repair your home base, and many keyworded powers that just don't exist anywhere else.
Starting with my champions, then, here are the key pieces I'm interested in using:
Animated Blade-C Stupidly fragile, the blade is a quick flyer with multiattack and shatter. Shatter helps me avoid dealing with equipment, and I'm simply a sucker for multiattack. Multiattack feels like breaking the game to me; getting more attacks with fewer points means increased efficiency. On an Animated Blade, though, the rune is usually dead before it can pick up enough AP to achieve the fabled 3-swing turn- at least without Mobilize.
Anthropomancer-U I love healing because I feel it lets me get greater use out of my runes; Anthropomancers heal the entire group when they come into play, and I think that's valuable. They also have curse 2, which lets you gang up on a creature and tear him down, or nerf an opponent's speed in order to drastically reduce their threat. Their third ability, auruspicy, grants an extra rune reveal and bonus action points when the Anthropomancer scores a killing blow. While neat in theory, it seems difficult to set up.
Arctic Beast-C This is another one of those runes which are presumably horrible, but I can't help but love. The picture for this rune would actually display when the game loaded during an expansion in which it wasn't released, and the grinning, skeletal zombie-G'hern was very attractive. I like that the beast has climb, which is an easy 1st turn font on a couple of maps which are otherwise tricky. Chill and attack-frost are also nice, because outside of the Savage Tundra you don't run into a lot of frost resistance/invulnerability. Their base damage is also high- the only real problem with the Beast is that it has horrible defense.
Blood Fiend-U For a short time, these guys were insane. They have an interesting mechanic whereby they don't gain action points through regular means, and instead damage themselves for 8 action points- enough to swing twice. Blood Fiends used to be able to activate this power as soon as you cast them, meaning they were faster than any other unit in the game. Now, though, there's a 1 turn delay before the ability is available- I believe it's the only rune in the game with that trait. Since the change I haven't bothered to return to them.
Carrion Colossus-E I have this weird luck when it comes to getting rares, exotics, and limited editions; I very, very often pull runes from the Forsaken Wastes but they tend to just suck. The Colossus is no exception; I'm not sure how to make him great, and he's so expensive to play that once he comes out I really want to see him win the entire game. He does not. I wish he would, though.
Dark Enchantress-R See above. At one point I think I had three or four of these. Her base damage is just ridiculously low, and her defense is wretched. Back when Possess was good she still wasn't able to get the best version. I simply don't understand what the developers want me to do with her. She can serve as an okay road block between charm, fear, and (I suppose) possess; but she's so fragile that she just dies at range and her damage is too low to really help restore her with lifedrinker. She does have Phase Shift though, and I'm eyeing an insubstantial BG which that would benefit.
Dark Seductress-U Yeah, creativity reigns in the naming here. I like this quirky piece, and it would go well with the stealth-insubstantial concept. She also has zealot-lich, but all the liches I have I generally don't care for.
Death Harvester-R I want this piece to be awesome; profiting me to no end as my foes fall. However, his Dead Eater power wants him to be in combat, but he can't attack undamaged opponents. I'm sure this is no problem for people with Unholy Tomb, but as I said earlier...yeah.
Essence Devourer-U I was reading a deck-building column one of the devs for the game maintains, and he built a concept around this guy. It's something I could pursue, I think; I probably have enough token generators to keep him fed and he is big and scary.
Eternal Lich-R I think the name is woefully misleading. When this guy is summoned he produces a relic; when he dies he returns to the space where the relic was, assuming the relic is there. What I was expecting, though, is that he'd then drop another relic. Without that he's not really eternal, he's just something who pops back. Unfortunately, that is his only ability. Despite being a floating wisp he doesn't even fly. His range is awkward and his stats don't blow me away.
Shadestalker-C This is another strange rune; Energy Thief was originally an iconic ability for a sort of stealthy Skeezick creature without much else going for it. Given to a creature without stealth removes the biggest frustration associated with that guy, which was when you'd run around losing action points, no clue where it was. However, I'm eyeing a concept that would give insubstantial creatures stealth, meaning that the Shadestalker might be worth trying out (he has Phase Shift).
Utterdark Spectre This is the guy I'm angling to use. He surges off of stealthed units, gaining increased attack and damage. Since his damage starts at 12, that's already quite impressive. He also gives all insubstantial creatures stealth at the end of each of his turns, and so I think there are several ways I could make that useful. The real challenge is that I think this deck would be best served as a split-faction deck, bringing in the Underdepths for all of their excellent stealth champions and the new stealth spell available there; plus the Shadow Master, which has an area stealth it can drop on all of your units.
I think I'm going to pursue the stealth/insubstantial concept as a full-faction experiment, but I'm already preparing myself to abandon this project in favor of a split faction approach.
Tenative Selections:
Dark Enchantress x2
Dark Seductress x2
Disturbed Spirit x1
Eternal Lich
Ethereal Soldier
Lich King
Mute Stalker
Shadestalker x2
Skeletal Berserker x2
Utterdark Spectre
Vampyre
Wandering Zombie x2
For the most part this is a lot of folks who can go insubstantial, and thus profit from the Spectre. The pieces that aren't that are generally intended for offense (Lich King) or clogging the ground (Zombie). I'm already not crazy about this build, but it is a starting point. I'm already anticipating the need for more range and a little more beef on the ground; if I cave and buy the FW starter to mine for parts I'd definitely add a second Ethereal Soldier.
Still, there are a couple of factions with what feels like really lackluster representation in my collection. I often feel like the Wastes are one of them, even though I should ostensibly love this faction. It's almost entirely made up of undead, be they skeletons, zombies, or more exotic creatures. It's focused on debilitating effects, weakening your opponent in ways that your own creatures can ignore, and profiting from the death of your own and your opponent's pieces. This meshes extremely well with the Wastes' faction bonus, which is a reduction in the wait time before your dead creatures recover (the cooldown). To reflect this, many of the runes are extremely fragile, sometimes ridiculously so. Cooldowns for creatures are based on total nora cost, and there are many runes which a full-faction FW deck can cast every few turns; a few, I believe, can even be cast every turn if you don't do much to upgrade them.
As someone whose favorite color in Magic when he started was black, whose first truly great Magic deck was a black deck focused on graveyard reanimation, and who gradually came to appreciate the permission assholery of Blue in conjunction with black, I should love everything about FW.
Unfortunately, FW decks seem to be extremely dependent on a few crucial, excellent runes. That's one thing that runs differently than Magic or DnD Minis: certain runes simply become must-haves. Although some cards are simply excellent in Magic, the tight 60 card limit most serious players try to adhere to and high percentage of resource cards that are necessary combine to prevent any color from having must-play cards. Particular deck archetypes might hinge on a few key cards, but a different deck in the same color might ignore them entirely. In Pox, certain runes seem to be must-haves across the board- if you're playing the faction, you're playing it in part to have that rune (or two of that rune). It's no surprise the runes in question aren't commons.
I don't have most of the critical runes in the FW set. I don't have the Unholy Tomb, which damages non-undead and pays you for it. This is a critical rune not only because you're profiting and hurting all the living foes you face globally, but also because it sets up all the extant creatures to be targeted by Festering Wounds, another must-have (non-rare, surprisingly!) rune of which I only possess one. Festering Wounds inflicts a disease effect on all wounded creatures currently in play; disease both reduces the creature's attack/defense stats and inflicts continual damage over the next 5 turns. Not only does this soften your foes for the killing blow, it also breaks stealth on hidden units, mediates the effects of regeneration, and increases (albeit slightly) the damage all of your units do.
FW runes don't have great area of effect spells, and generally aren't doing the greatest damage. Many runes are initially slow, and as I mentioned before they're often fragile. Those hurdles are overcome in part by the FW having some of the techiest abilities of any faction. There are powers that screw with healing, powers that feed your bank or repair your home base, and many keyworded powers that just don't exist anywhere else.
Starting with my champions, then, here are the key pieces I'm interested in using:
Animated Blade-C Stupidly fragile, the blade is a quick flyer with multiattack and shatter. Shatter helps me avoid dealing with equipment, and I'm simply a sucker for multiattack. Multiattack feels like breaking the game to me; getting more attacks with fewer points means increased efficiency. On an Animated Blade, though, the rune is usually dead before it can pick up enough AP to achieve the fabled 3-swing turn- at least without Mobilize.
Anthropomancer-U I love healing because I feel it lets me get greater use out of my runes; Anthropomancers heal the entire group when they come into play, and I think that's valuable. They also have curse 2, which lets you gang up on a creature and tear him down, or nerf an opponent's speed in order to drastically reduce their threat. Their third ability, auruspicy, grants an extra rune reveal and bonus action points when the Anthropomancer scores a killing blow. While neat in theory, it seems difficult to set up.
Arctic Beast-C This is another one of those runes which are presumably horrible, but I can't help but love. The picture for this rune would actually display when the game loaded during an expansion in which it wasn't released, and the grinning, skeletal zombie-G'hern was very attractive. I like that the beast has climb, which is an easy 1st turn font on a couple of maps which are otherwise tricky. Chill and attack-frost are also nice, because outside of the Savage Tundra you don't run into a lot of frost resistance/invulnerability. Their base damage is also high- the only real problem with the Beast is that it has horrible defense.
Blood Fiend-U For a short time, these guys were insane. They have an interesting mechanic whereby they don't gain action points through regular means, and instead damage themselves for 8 action points- enough to swing twice. Blood Fiends used to be able to activate this power as soon as you cast them, meaning they were faster than any other unit in the game. Now, though, there's a 1 turn delay before the ability is available- I believe it's the only rune in the game with that trait. Since the change I haven't bothered to return to them.
Carrion Colossus-E I have this weird luck when it comes to getting rares, exotics, and limited editions; I very, very often pull runes from the Forsaken Wastes but they tend to just suck. The Colossus is no exception; I'm not sure how to make him great, and he's so expensive to play that once he comes out I really want to see him win the entire game. He does not. I wish he would, though.
Dark Enchantress-R See above. At one point I think I had three or four of these. Her base damage is just ridiculously low, and her defense is wretched. Back when Possess was good she still wasn't able to get the best version. I simply don't understand what the developers want me to do with her. She can serve as an okay road block between charm, fear, and (I suppose) possess; but she's so fragile that she just dies at range and her damage is too low to really help restore her with lifedrinker. She does have Phase Shift though, and I'm eyeing an insubstantial BG which that would benefit.
Dark Seductress-U Yeah, creativity reigns in the naming here. I like this quirky piece, and it would go well with the stealth-insubstantial concept. She also has zealot-lich, but all the liches I have I generally don't care for.
Death Harvester-R I want this piece to be awesome; profiting me to no end as my foes fall. However, his Dead Eater power wants him to be in combat, but he can't attack undamaged opponents. I'm sure this is no problem for people with Unholy Tomb, but as I said earlier...yeah.
Essence Devourer-U I was reading a deck-building column one of the devs for the game maintains, and he built a concept around this guy. It's something I could pursue, I think; I probably have enough token generators to keep him fed and he is big and scary.
Eternal Lich-R I think the name is woefully misleading. When this guy is summoned he produces a relic; when he dies he returns to the space where the relic was, assuming the relic is there. What I was expecting, though, is that he'd then drop another relic. Without that he's not really eternal, he's just something who pops back. Unfortunately, that is his only ability. Despite being a floating wisp he doesn't even fly. His range is awkward and his stats don't blow me away.
Shadestalker-C This is another strange rune; Energy Thief was originally an iconic ability for a sort of stealthy Skeezick creature without much else going for it. Given to a creature without stealth removes the biggest frustration associated with that guy, which was when you'd run around losing action points, no clue where it was. However, I'm eyeing a concept that would give insubstantial creatures stealth, meaning that the Shadestalker might be worth trying out (he has Phase Shift).
Utterdark Spectre This is the guy I'm angling to use. He surges off of stealthed units, gaining increased attack and damage. Since his damage starts at 12, that's already quite impressive. He also gives all insubstantial creatures stealth at the end of each of his turns, and so I think there are several ways I could make that useful. The real challenge is that I think this deck would be best served as a split-faction deck, bringing in the Underdepths for all of their excellent stealth champions and the new stealth spell available there; plus the Shadow Master, which has an area stealth it can drop on all of your units.
I think I'm going to pursue the stealth/insubstantial concept as a full-faction experiment, but I'm already preparing myself to abandon this project in favor of a split faction approach.
Tenative Selections:
Dark Enchantress x2
Dark Seductress x2
Disturbed Spirit x1
Eternal Lich
Ethereal Soldier
Lich King
Mute Stalker
Shadestalker x2
Skeletal Berserker x2
Utterdark Spectre
Vampyre
Wandering Zombie x2
For the most part this is a lot of folks who can go insubstantial, and thus profit from the Spectre. The pieces that aren't that are generally intended for offense (Lich King) or clogging the ground (Zombie). I'm already not crazy about this build, but it is a starting point. I'm already anticipating the need for more range and a little more beef on the ground; if I cave and buy the FW starter to mine for parts I'd definitely add a second Ethereal Soldier.
Deck Construction One: Full-Faction Forsaken Wastes
Starting out, I'm going to take a long look at my Forsaken Wastes runes and see if there's something I could compose in a full faction direction. Taking my cue from the great deck-building articles on Star City Games and the Wizards of the Coast Magic site, I'm going to put a BG together, then run it through its paces, then modify, then retest.
I'm thinking a good order of operations is to run the deck through the beginner battles for both alignments, giving a good re-think after every two games, and then trot it into the ranked play for, say, five games. It's a bit tricky because I could very well lose these games, so I'm holding off saying I have to complete one of the campaigns before I change the set.
We'll see how it goes. First though, the list of everything I have in FW as of right now.
CHAMPIONS
Abomination
Afflicted Corpse x2
Angel of Death
Animated Blade x2
Anthropomancer x2
Arctic Beast x2
Bile Zombie
Bladed Corpse
Blood Fiend x2
Bonecrusher x2
Boneguard Infantry x2
Broken Bones x2
Carrion Colossus
Cleric of Unrest x2
Collection of Souls x2
Crossbone x2
Dark Enchantress x2
Dark Messenger x2
Dark Seductress x2
Dead Fairy
Death Guard
Death Harvester
Decayed Mercenary x2
Disturbed Spirit x2
Essence Devourer
Eternal Lich
Ethereal Soldier
Executioner x2
Fallen Draksar
Festering Corpse x2
Forsaken Follower x2
Grekin
Lich King
Mute Stalker
Necromancer
Necrotaur x2
Risen Yeti x2
Shadestalker x2
Skeezick Boneblade x2
Skeletal Berserker x2
Skeletal Raider
Utterdark Spectre
Vampyre
Wandering Zombie x2
SPELLS
Chain Lightning
Delay x2
Drain the Earth
Essence Drain x2
Festering Wounds
Ghostly Visage x2
Mobilization x2
Necrosis x2
Necroweave x2
Plague x2
Reanimate
Soul Cage x2
Spell Trap
Throw Bones
Wake the Dead
Weaken x2
RELICS
Chopping Block x2
Elsari Bazaar x2
Elsarin Vex (Virtual)
Graveyard
Mist of the Dead
Skull of Decay
EQUIPMENT
Ethereal Mindshank x2
Fleshsewn Helm
Ghost Pendant
Reaper's Blade
Sacrificial Dagger x2
Shield of Darkness x2
I'm thinking a good order of operations is to run the deck through the beginner battles for both alignments, giving a good re-think after every two games, and then trot it into the ranked play for, say, five games. It's a bit tricky because I could very well lose these games, so I'm holding off saying I have to complete one of the campaigns before I change the set.
We'll see how it goes. First though, the list of everything I have in FW as of right now.
CHAMPIONS
Abomination
Afflicted Corpse x2
Angel of Death
Animated Blade x2
Anthropomancer x2
Arctic Beast x2
Bile Zombie
Bladed Corpse
Blood Fiend x2
Bonecrusher x2
Boneguard Infantry x2
Broken Bones x2
Carrion Colossus
Cleric of Unrest x2
Collection of Souls x2
Crossbone x2
Dark Enchantress x2
Dark Messenger x2
Dark Seductress x2
Dead Fairy
Death Guard
Death Harvester
Decayed Mercenary x2
Disturbed Spirit x2
Essence Devourer
Eternal Lich
Ethereal Soldier
Executioner x2
Fallen Draksar
Festering Corpse x2
Forsaken Follower x2
Grekin
Lich King
Mute Stalker
Necromancer
Necrotaur x2
Risen Yeti x2
Shadestalker x2
Skeezick Boneblade x2
Skeletal Berserker x2
Skeletal Raider
Utterdark Spectre
Vampyre
Wandering Zombie x2
SPELLS
Chain Lightning
Delay x2
Drain the Earth
Essence Drain x2
Festering Wounds
Ghostly Visage x2
Mobilization x2
Necrosis x2
Necroweave x2
Plague x2
Reanimate
Soul Cage x2
Spell Trap
Throw Bones
Wake the Dead
Weaken x2
RELICS
Chopping Block x2
Elsari Bazaar x2
Elsarin Vex (Virtual)
Graveyard
Mist of the Dead
Skull of Decay
EQUIPMENT
Ethereal Mindshank x2
Fleshsewn Helm
Ghost Pendant
Reaper's Blade
Sacrificial Dagger x2
Shield of Darkness x2
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