The Daily Deal

Skull Of The Savage Iljin 5!?/5!? Peonprop's review is absolutely correct, but I have a lot of thing to add, being the Skull's owner and avid fan even before the rebalance Savage Curse is an awesome buff, if your deck is built with it in mind. Virtually any mass-damaging card becomes better with it, and the less was the initial damage, the greater will be your benefit. For instance, Cone Of Cold now deals respectable 5 damage to all enemies instead of puny 1. Next, there are vampiric attacks: the more damage you deal, the more HPs you will heal. Even if you lose another vampiric attack, you will still have advantage, since you heal yourself faster and deal enough damage to penetrate possible armor. And finally, you can use it as a curse, if you see that the opponent's deck is totally bad for it (has low number of high-damage attacks, for instance)! This can be especially good tactics if you have enough blocks to counter these rare attacks.
I have to note that Firestorm is good with Savage Curse only in SP, where you have more life and better protection than the mobs. I don't recommend playing this combo in MP, since you will have less life and protection than enemy warriors (unless you draw your single Resistant Hide, of course), and you can just incinerate yourself. Flash Of Agony is much better, since it doesn't damage the caster, and you often may hide your teammates behind the wall.
Now what do you need when you have Savage Curse attached? You need more cards and healing, of course. Inspiring Presence provides all you need in a single action. Skull Of Savage Iljin is definitely an instant buy since it's a tokenless item with all three brilliant cards, and it's unique in that. You may equip all three Skulls and free the tokens for the other items and skills, having extremely good support for free. I've bought a second copy myself, and would buy the third one if I could

Ixtli Amulet 4?/3. Yes, it's a nice source of Illusory Barrier, if you can spare a yellow token, and it's even better than Phantom Pain in that case, since you need the walls only for the maps with the narrow passages.
Sharp Flames 2/2. Total crap. We generally want traits from our skills, or at least rare attacks. Here we have none.
Shimmering Hood 4?/4? If you ever need a special warrior versus wizards, this is your helm. Quickness Aura allows to chase the wizards, Shimmering Aura protects you, and the helm is tokenless. What's not to like?

Rares department has two nice skills: Raging Brute and Untrained Insight (changed recently). They cannot compete with the legendary skills, but still worth 100 gold IMHO, if you don't have them yet.

 

That's the key point. The discard is definitely a negative, but it can be great with low-damage cones, bursts, etc., and even single target attacks.

 

Savage Curse + Arcane Aura + Fireball = HolyJeesusBBQ

 

Well I was just about to buy Blue Destruction yesterday due to a lucky 1k legendary drop that brought my gold up to 2.5k, but I then felt like I didn't have enough cards to support a burst wizard build so I didn't.
...and today this gorgeous skull shows up.
I think this is the first time I'm so glad to empty my gold coffers on an item.

 

Oooh, Shield Of Ultimate Dodging so soon after the nerf. Ouch.

 

Shield Of Occasional Dodging?

Cashed up newbies can collect the Flaming Sword for any of the forest levels with the Combustible trees, although decently-equipped fire wizards will also do the job nicely on these levels. Combustible is definitely not something to carry into MP matches though.

Defo worth grabbing a Smoke Pin if you don't have one - it's especially handy in the fourth and sixth levels of Lord Batford's Manor, and all the Portal adventures.

Edit: Devs must've read my post about smoke breaking ranged mob AI (they would come charging into it, looking for your players, and be at the mercy of your melee characters). Looks like that's been fixed in the latest patch; now, they just sit where they are, waiting for the smoke to clear. Smoke Pins aren't so handy on all-ranged mob levels, but would still work on levels with mixed mobs, giving you a chance to polish off the melee enemies without getting turned into a pincushion by the ranged enemies.

 

Do you think the Daily Deal might be trolling us? VP after the nerf, dodge shield after the nerf. What's next, Bleneth's skull?

 

Shield Of Ultimate Dodging
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
Dodge gets worse the more wizards show up in the metagame. The current spike in wizards is mostly due to the map rotation so the environment is bound to get less hostile for Dodge users. It no longer gets shut down by encumber but that was such a small portion of the field that the clause might as well not have existed. Now we get to the biggie. Dodge has a 1/6 greater failure rate than before. I still think Shield of Ultimate Dodging received an inadvertent boost. Dodge is still an insane deal in preventing 1/3 of all range 1 attacks from the front with no real way to counteract it aside from Entangling Roots but now it only costs a minor token to get 3 copies on a shield. The jump in quality between major and minor token weapons and divine weapons is massive. Go ahead and look. There are a handful of acceptable double minor token options available. Once you upgrade one of those tokens the number of usable weapons increases dramatically. In fact, I think the only reason we aren't seeing a bunch of armed to the teeth dodging machines is that wizards are keeping them in check. I may be wrong but Shield of Ultimate Dodging is my pick for strongest minor token shield against melee parties. Would absolutely purchase. In fact, I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and pick up my second copy right now.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
Dodge is powerful but unnecessary. Against melee mobs, shields with Parry are more reliable and you often won't reach the point where you'll see the benefits of repeatable damage prevention from Dodge. Also, have you heard about this new thing called Impenetrable Nimbus? It prevents all the damage and all the cool kids are trying it. Go on, the first hit is free. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Jackrabbit Shield (E)

Flaming Sword
Jackrabbit Shield- Deja vu. Hit The Deck is awful but there are no other cheap options for shields with multiple copies of Dodge. I would look for Rusty Buckler instead though.
Xipe's Maquah- Decent damage but you really need a good reason to run weapons like this over a buffing or healing one.

 

Well, Vibrant Pain was still a sleeper hit after its "nerf" and Shield of Ultimate Dodging may well reach that status as well. Both items received minor boosts to compensate for their nerfs, and given that other elements in the game change as well, may actually emerge quite strong in the environment.

 

Perfect Footwork
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
This skill excels at putting distance between you and your enemy. That means it's optimal for ranged attackers or characters whose main job isn't attacking. or in other words, wizards and buff priests. Elves are not particularly good buff priests and certainly make for the worst wizards. As for the cards themselves Violent Spin is the only one worth paying for. On top of everything, you are paying a major token to upgrade a Smashing Spin in Advanced Footwork to Leap. Between the token cost and quality of cards, Perfect Footwork is the least playable Violent Spin elf skill in my opinion. Would not purchase.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
Heck no. I like using elf warriors for farming to chase down mobs more quickly but skills like this don't do enough. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Advanced Footwork (E) , Practiced Scouting (R)

Cottonwood Staff- It isn't the most powerful but this is a fun staff and fairly decent for being tokenless. Using Barge to push someone away after they discarded a Parry against your wizard team is priceless.
Maquah Of Ancient Blood- Best single token weapon in my book. Highly recommend purchasing.
Staff Of Chask- Way above average for a single token staff. Great for combating melee but the short range Punishing Bolt and the melee only blocks put you at a severe disadvantage against anything long ranged.

 

Eye Of Wicna
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
Flash Flood is decent at slowing down opponents. Whirlwind is not. You are just as likely to set yourself back with random symmetrical effects. At least with Whirlwind Enemies there is no chance of ending up in a worse position and improving you're opponent's placement at the same time. The best way to use Whirlwind cards is to play them while opponents have no movement cards available and limiting their ability to recover. This can either be done by stalling with non movement actions or using damaging terrains to induce movement. In any case, Eye of Wicna doesn't have the "good" Whirlwind spell, isn't a reliable source of Whirlwinds if you do want to build around it, and there are plenty of other Flash Flood options to choose from. Would not purchase.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
There are some instances where Flash Flood helps immensely but there are also a ton of cheaper options. I don't believe that there's a use for Whirlwind either. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Bimson's Water Stone (E) , Tauri's Watery Maze (E) , The Soulstone (E) , Pip's Anklet (E)

Agility
Manifold Medic
Oliver's Boots

 

For new players, who struggle with money - there is a Shuddering Relic in Daily Deal, very good source of Mass Frenzy for both SP and MP.
I'd purchase up to 3.

 

It isn't just a matter of money, Shuddering Relic is tokenless, so 3 is pretty standard for farming low levels with a frenzy priest.

 

Haha, Blu Manchu devs trolling hard.

I bought it anyway, MF is still very necessary for vampire builds and the +1 to spell damage half balances the nerf.

 

Bleneth's Skull. Who needs it at all? 5!/4? One of the most powerful items in the game, even after the last changes. Mass Frenzy isn't as powerful as it was recently, when everybody played it, but it's still strong for a party of two warriors and a priest or three vampire priests.

Crown Of Mad Eskin 3/4. Really nice Firestorm item.
Hydrogen Staff 3/2. Too expensive and unfocused.
Terxes' Medallion 2/2. Just too weak.

 

Bleneth's Skull
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
Still ridiculously powerful. Mass Frenzy doesn't replace Savage Curse or Unholy Wellspring for wizard buffing but it does make mixed class parties a little more palatable. Just be sure not to purchase it too fast or you'll get whiplash.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
The major token requirement makes it less of a slam dunk than something like Bleneth's Frenzy Medallion. Still, it's hard to say no to something so powerful.

Substitutes
None, no lesser skulls need apply.

Crown Of Mad Eskin- Firestorm alert.
Hydrogen Staff
Terxes' Medallion

 

Bleneth's Skull - I hope you've been saving some money (as I always suggested) for this one.

 

Oh, but Tarnished Goblin Skull applies for everything. Gets rejected every time, poor thing.

 

Just spent 4 hours grinding away at my sanity for Wym's Lavastaff in my Randimar's Rarities and this pops up.

 

Now the question for me is how many Bleneth's Skulls is the right number (I already have 2).