The Daily Deal

Crazy Sal's Halberd
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
There are 4 types of decks that want Crazy Sal's Halberd. You can use it as a stabbing weapon since the best stab weapons only have 3 premium stabs at most anyways. You can use the Blind Rages for self buffing on humans and elves that normally don't have access to it (or a really angry dwarf). You can use the ridiculous amount of trait cycling to reduce the size of your deck and find specific cards. Finally, you can use the Polearm Slashes for extra armor in an Enchanted Harness deck. Whichever way you go about using Crazy Sal's Halberd it is extremely powerful and unique. Even if you don't have a specific deck for it at the moment I would recommend picking it up. Being the only weapon with 3 traits just has so much potential to be broken.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
Crazy Sal's Halberd is still very powerful but you don't really need it. A warrior that just equips a few Infused Greatclubs or Bejeweled Shortswords will get the job done just fine. I wouldn't get it specifically for farming but if you've got extra gold Crazy Sal's Halberd is a fun item to play around with.

Substitutes
None

Apprentice Command- There are better skills for team movement and blocks. With a minor token I'd use Trained Command or Command for movement and Superb Command for blocks.
Hydrogen Staff- Acid Blast is too weak to take up space on a double major token staff. The other attacks are strong but work with different buffs making it less appealing than a more focused staff with weaker attacks.
Sergeant's Helm- Advanced Battlefield Training is hard to come by but it is guaranteed card disadvantage. The major token requirement makes it even more unappealing.

Notable Rares
Cleansing Incense- Nice option for cleansing cards.
Command- The Slowed makes it sub-optimal on a primary attacker but slap this on a support priest or wizard and you will be ambushing things in no time.
Stormward Pauldrons- Solid armor all around and great with Enchanted Harness.

 

I already have one Crazy Sal's, I'm just wondering if I need a second. Two does seem a little excessive, but it would allow me to run 2x identical warriors (or one really pissed warrior)

 

You should totally get 3 for THE ANGRIEST DWARF.

I picked up a second. While I am not a huge fan of warriors, I already have all the wizard items I need (besides illusion which I sadly missed).

 

Penetrating Zap is among the least offensive piddly damage cards... hmm. You're right, but that doesn't make it good or acceptable. I see your assessment as an explanation of why everyone tries to avoid taking any junky damage cards on arcane items. Most of the regularly played items have a handicap, a bronze card, or Stone Spikes as the worst card. The clear reason is that nearly every non-spikes paper card you can get on arcane items is too awful to deal with in your deck. When you can bring along something like Ring Of Appropriation or Runestone, why would you ever pick an item that puts a Penetrating Zap into your deck?

 

Side note: If you use movement buffs (I ran Necalli Cap in my last MP build), Slowed can work as a move card. I didn't realize this until I clicked Slowed to get rid of it, and got a "move 4" instead.

Probably because you REALLY want the other cards on the item.

 

The build that took me to the top of the ranking in January involved identical dwarriors each with a VP and a Sal's. I think a second Sal's will always be worth buying.

 

Right but...ring of appropriation costs you. If you are paying for the slot, you'd avoid ANYTHING bad, clearly. But when you are not paying for the slot I think it's totally viable. Blasting Amulet, for example is not a bad item. In fact, I think it's a good item. I get it that trait cycling is tech, but min maxing kills a wide assortment of games with a quickness. You have to allow for a gradient of fun, which = a gradient of item viability. If you discount cards as good as penetrating zap, I think you probably also class 99% of your collection as junk.

For the record, most items that have penetrating zap are pretty crummy, but blasting amulet is very playable and I've been in a games where penetrating zap was doing 6 and even 8 points of damage to my opponents.

 

Any comment on this one? - i am considering buying it.

 

If you're going the completionist route, you might buy one. But I think one is enough.

 

Bought a 2nd because my dwarf was not foaming enough at the mouth already. No legendary I'm really needing for builds right now so I'm mainly spending gold on unique build enablers like this. Best deck thinning weapon there is in the game.

 

Nothing else says fulfillment quite like a blind, foamy dwarf.

 

Sorry, was too busy to comment it... But generally the blank line means I don't recommend buying the item. This staff is too unfocused for its cost, and you generally need something focused.

 

Axander's Robes 3/3. If you would ever spend a yellow token on a robe with Arcane Shell, you'd want Robes Of White Wylla, since it provides two copies. The movement cards are nice to have, but not as nice to pay a yellow token for them. Same about Force Cone: Mullik's Blisterstaff has 4 of them, and it's tokenless. So I cannot recommend buying this robe.

Agility. 2/2. Probably the worst elven skill. You can always find a better one, both for movement and for the other tech. Buy Cautious Trickery instead if you want an elven skill right now.
Novice Stoutness 2/2. There are better skills both for blocking and for the armor, for the same cost.
Oxha's Sparkspreader 5!?/5!? The only good epic today. This is my favorite electro-staff: all 6 cards are electrical, and all of them hit several targets. If you manage to increase the damage by any means (Savage Curse, Arcane Shell, etc.), the damage will increase to each target, so you can deal 20+ damage total with Arcing Spark.

Notable rare: Cautious Trickery. Really nice tokenless skill.

 

Axander's Robes

Spoiler: Previously reviewed

Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
Well this sure looks familiar. Basically everything I said about Robes of Avak Seth applies here except that for a major token you could get the far superior Robes Of White Wylla. Would not purchase.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
Ditto.

Substitutes
Cotton Wizard's Robes (C) , Cursed Wizard's Robes (C)
The Daily Deal

Agility- Elvish Insight and Flanking Move can be great but there are more focused skills for both.
Novice Stoutness- Duck "draws" you a card but your opponent gets to pick that card most of the time. The armor cards are both mediocre.
Oxha's Sparkspreader- This is Chop for wizards. You are rarely going to hit more than one thing. If you do manage to pull it off you likely won't be able to do it again for the remainder of the match. It could be ok for singleplayer but Firestorm is just better.

Notable Rares
Focused Bruising- I am not a huge fan of Bash cards but Bruiser does buff 2 instead of the usual 1 for other warrior traits.

 

If you force the opponent to spread his team just to avoid the Sparkspreader, this alone can allow you to kill his chars one-by-one, since he will be unable to concentrate his forces. I am a bad player myself, but I don't believe somebody's going to go that far, especially considering that there are no staves with all six Arcing Sparks in the game. As for SP, Firestorm is better only if you don't have too many of them, in which case they lose some of their effectiveness. Plus, if you have a lot of Savage Curses, this should force you to avoid playing too much Firestorms, since you can burn your own chars. I've played two Sparkspreaders in SP and was happy with the build, though the token cost restricts them to the higher levels.

 

I'm just calling it how I see it, just like you. No need to argue about it. People can decide for themselves.

 

There's no need to spread out much to avoid the sparks, they just need to get out of sight of the caster. They can still be close enough to support each other. It's like Peonprop said, you're unlikely to get more than one hit per cast so the theoretical advantage with the attacks is only that. Basing your MP strategy on them is wishful thinking at best.

As to Firestorm and SP, there can never be too many Firestorms. It doesn't matter that each additional cast "wastes" the attachment, what matters is that overkill stacking them finishes the battle mucho pronto. There's no rewards for not "wasting" a single point of theoretical damage but the rewards for finishing quick are tangible and copious.

 

I can't really speak to Oxha's viability in MP, but using two is a lot of fun in higher-up SP. Spark Generator + Savage Curse or Wellspring is enough to deal 8 damage to several targets at long range without hurting your allies. On some maps the enemies don't come close, or aren't close enough (Gnomes for example) and you would probably rather kill them at range, Oxha is your pal. Even when you only hit one or two targets the value is still there.

It's unique, probably the best long-range electrical staff, and also good for leagues. What's not to like?

I mean it's not a Mighty Sparkping Staff but come on, there's no contest there.

 

I bought the Sparkspreader, solely because it's one of the few epics that I don't yet have, and based on this and Jade's post, might be fun to try out in SP. I have had some success with spark wizards in MP, but that was spamming Deadly Spark.

 

Mindshrinker

Spoiler: Previously reviewed

Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
Mind Worm is awful. It doesn't have an immediate effect on the board and possibly does nothing at all. Forcing a character to discard their second best card at the end of the turn just doesn't do a whole lot. Mind Worm does even less against wizards. They rarely have armor or blocks to stockpile and ranged attacks are the easiest to unload. It is most effective early on as the massive 8 range gives you something to do from across the map. Chances are you'll get a card out of the deal while both sides are still getting into position. Beyond that Mind Worm becomes block checking fodder and the occasional buff pusher off-er. Would not purchase.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
Mind Worm is pointless against mobs with large shared hands and bosses that draw extra cards. That one card is a drop in the bucket. If you're trying to use it as armor removal you're out of luck too. The AI seems to prioritize armor so you're never going to catch anything naked. There might be some secret use I'm missing but I doubt it. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Greyworm Mace (E)
The Daily Deal

Axe Of Evasion- Get 3 of these bad boys and you could be living the 6 attack warrior dream. Magic only blocks is what makes it truly bad.
Jaguar Buckler- Not bad but if you're going to play Pushback Parry you may as well go tokenless with Hexagon Shield or Twisting Shield.
Robes Of The Crab- I don't think I'd even consider these for anything besides Wicked Waterway leagues. There aren't many uses for Fly anywhere else.

Notable Rares
Chit Of Choking Smoke- I like Smoke Pin better for your wizard hosing needs but this is also fine.
Dependable Mail- I wouldn't play this over Perilous Ringmail and Spiked Tlahuiztli but it is the best pain-free tokenless armor outside of Xander's Mail.