Build went 6-4 for the next 10. I tried removing the Parrying Bucklers and the Blazing Shortswords but the wizard matchup is still horrendous. I tried using an elf warrior for Quick Run but that build went a disappointing 2-3 before I decided to go back. I don't think there's anything I can really do without diversifying my threats but that would go against the spirit of testing specific cards. Highlight of the batch was a dwarf vamp with Talented Healer and a hidden Duck in hand who stepped next to my warrior who happened to have the full double All Out Attack + Feinting Strike in hand. Lowlight was running an All Out Attack assisted Powerful Hack into a dwarf wizard only to get fall to Parry. I had Feinting Strike in hand but I thought I had to save it for a critically injured dwarf warrior who was in Walk distance. It was the right call since the warrior turned out to have 2 copies of Parry in hand but it still felt like a kick to the balls.
Whirlwinds, huh? The strategy that I think of immediately is to Stone Feet your opponent, play volcano, and then Whirlwind. Voila, you probably aren't standing on lava anymore, and because they have Stone Feet they don't move. Or wait, if you cast Stone Feet on your opponent, does it prevent their cards from moving them? That can't be right, that would be way stronger than Entangling Roots. Does it affect team moves? Regular moves? Hmm. ... Whirlwinds are pretty terrible. So random. If you could have something like 3 wizards with 12-24 volcanos and whirlwind enemies, you could pretty much spam lava until the whole board was covered. If they move their characters, Whirlwind will *probably* put them onto a lava square. With Robes Of Lightness and Novice Teleportation, you could avoid getting burned and get maximum spammage.
So Stone Feet does prevent your opponent from being moved by YOUR cards? (EG the volcano /whirlwind combo won't move them)? Eh, I like the second idea better. Such a troll build.
I have to say though, are you really using Advanced Battlefield Training to the fullest? Or are you just using it for cheap AOA combokills? I think it's pretty cool that humans can give any card they want to anyone else. You could give Sparkling Cloth Armor, Avenging Touch, Counterspell or Entangling Roots to a warrior. You could give Parry and Mighty Hack to a wizard. The potential teamwork is there. You could beat control wizards with Advanced Battlefield Training if you diversify a little from 3 warriors maybe?
I have thought about diversifying the threats but I feel that unless you are looking for specific combo cards pure draw spells are a lot safer than Advanced Battlefield Training. I have also thought about Officer Harness and Enchanted Harness stacking to make a virtually invincible character but that may be a little too gimmicky.
Nah, enchanted harness stacking is a joke. You would get Sundered, you would get Impaled, you would get ignored. What I would do is diversify the characters a bit. Put Parry, Surging Shield Block, Reliable Mail, maybe Dodge or Jump Back and certainly a few powerful attacks on a human warrior for starters.
Only Surging Shield Block really helps against wizards but I don't think it's enough. You need a lot more movement to keep up with all the potential Telekinesis type cards but that turns you into a regular deck without an all in combo to take advantage of the all in nature of Advanced Battlefield Training. A regular deck swapping cards between characters will get out carded very fast.
Oh yeah, that's what your deck is really missing. All those nice attacks, but 0 step attacks. No wonder ...
I'm willing to give it a shot though. Better than basically conceding against wizards before the match starts. Will see if I can build some sort of ultra mobile warrior team later. Edit: Well that worked about as well as I thought it would. Was able to hunt down a control wizard but was outgunned by everything else. Could have used a buff priest but passing buffs around doesn't seem appealing.
It hasn't been a full week but I'm ready to move on. Not much changed from the initial build besides adding Goat Boots for Immovable. Spoiler: Everything is Better With Goats Lorgav Level 21 Human Warrior Crazy Sal's Halberd Trickster's Maquah Blazing Shortsword Perilous Ringmail Parrying Buckler Tough Leather Cap Goat Boots Perfect Flexibility Superb Bruising 1 x Flimsy Block 2 x Devastating Blow 1 x Weakened Armor 3 x Feinting Strike 1 x Clumsy Chop 1 x Reliable Mail 3 x Polearm Slash 1 x Dash, Team! 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 2 x Advanced Battlefield Training 3 x Blind Rage 1 x Powerful Hack 2 x All Out Attack 1 x Stab 1 x Combustible 2 x Bruiser 1 x Traveling Curse 1 x Thickened Mail 3 x Fiery Stab 1 x Immovable 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 3 x Parry Growler Level 20 Human Warrior Trickster's Maquah Blazing Shortsword Troll's Ire Perilous Ringmail Aegis Of The Defender Tough Leather Cap Goat Boots Perfect Flexibility Superb Bruising 1 x Immovable 2 x Devastating Blow 1 x Weak Chop 3 x Feinting Strike 1 x Clumsy Chop 1 x Flimsy Block 1 x Reliable Mail 2 x All Out Attack 2 x Sundering Strike 2 x Strong Hack 1 x Weakened Armor 2 x Advanced Battlefield Training 2 x Blind Rage 1 x Powerful Hack 2 x Defender's Block 1 x Stab 1 x Combustible 2 x Bruiser 1 x Traveling Curse 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 1 x Thickened Mail 3 x Fiery Stab 1 x Dash, Team! 1 x Toughened Hide Strips Winsla Level 20 Human Warrior Crazy Sal's Halberd Trickster's Maquah Blazing Shortsword Perilous Ringmail Parrying Buckler Tough Leather Cap Goat Boots Perfect Flexibility Superb Bruising 1 x Flimsy Block 2 x Devastating Blow 1 x Weakened Armor 3 x Feinting Strike 1 x Clumsy Chop 1 x Reliable Mail 3 x Polearm Slash 1 x Dash, Team! 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 2 x Advanced Battlefield Training 3 x Blind Rage 1 x Powerful Hack 2 x All Out Attack 1 x Stab 1 x Combustible 2 x Bruiser 1 x Traveling Curse 1 x Thickened Mail 3 x Fiery Stab 1 x Immovable 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 3 x Parry Overall the build went 44-36. As with any combo deck, the biggest problem was that you cannot change a lot of the core cards without hurting your chances at assembling the combo. Without step attacks, Team Walks, or command cards on human skills, wizards were very hard to get next to let alone kill. Often, I would use Advanced Battlefield Training to add 2 movement cards to an attack heavy warrior and it was still not enough to fight through control cards. Playing with Advance Battlefield Training is all about putting all your eggs in one basket. Sometimes you wind up making a glorious omelette of death and sometimes your eggs rot away and eventually get discarded at the end of turn when your opponent throws a wrench in your plans. I still maintain that regular decks shouldn't touch Advanced Battlefield Training but it is pretty good as a combo enabler, especially if the card you're after is only available in small quantities. The options are fairly limited right now but I would keep Advanced Battlefield Training in mind as the card pool expands and new combos emerge. Next up is Inspiring Presence which should fit into a lot more different types of builds. I will try it out with Firestorm, the peanut butter to its jelly from way back when, to see if it's any good anymore. If that doesn't pan out Flash Of Agony may be a better choice. If those two don't work, well I'll just have to think of another way to hurt myself.
Back on the larger January maps I was able to use my Whirlwind Warrior deck. It was pretty much a wizard with just WW/WWE and 2 maneuvering elves. The concept was to use WW to spread the opponent around and then use the elves to take out any isolated character. Additionally, WW is really useful for camping VPs. On maps with multiple VPs you can camp a VP but if your opponent does the same you can just WW them off to force them into action.
Inspiring Presence is not so much a bad card as it is a difficult one. To take advantage of it you need a lot of attack cards, a way to keep opposing characters out of range, and for maximum value a way to ensure your own characters all get damaged slightly. The last one isn't a must but I am not one to pass up on value. Without further ado, I present my first attempt at breaking Inspiring Presence. Spoiler: Firestormin' Like it's 2014 Marroo Level 21 Dwarf Wizard Wym's Lavastaff Mordecai's Staff Of Magma Chartwell's Ring Chartwell's Ring Magma Scepter Azgul's Orb Firehide Robes Kerrick's Steel Boots Perfect Toughness Focused Pyromancy 1 x Glob Of Flame 1 x Resistant Hide 1 x Shuffle 2 x Reliable Mail 2 x Short Perplexing Ray 1 x Burning Fingers 1 x Rusty Armor 7 x Volcano 3 x Firestarter 13 x Firestorm 2 x Flash Of Agony 2 x Toughness Gorlgrik Level 20 Dwarf Priest Knife Of St. Blenko Purging Mace Untouchable Plate Aegis Of The Defender Sliding Boots Skull Of Savage Iljin Xlaka's Sacred Bundle Skull Of Savage Iljin Raging Battler Superb Piety 1 x Predictable Stab 1 x Mass Frenzy 1 x Flanking Move 2 x Spear Of Darkness 1 x Weak Chop 3 x Purging Burst 1 x Triple Heals 1 x Sparkling Cloth Armor 2 x Blind Rage 1 x Reliable Mail 2 x Defender's Block 4 x Savage Curse 2 x Penetrating Lunge 1 x Holy Armor 1 x Team Walk 2 x Purging Strike 1 x Healing Rays 5 x Inspiring Presence 2 x Arrogant Armor 2 x Altruism Gitkhrum Level 20 Dwarf Warrior Barreling Club Enormous Tree Branch Enormous Tree Branch Perilous Ringmail Aegis Of The Defender Crusty Helm Hawkwind's Moccasins Raging Battler Focused Crushing 1 x Thickened Mail 2 x Dangerous Maneuver 1 x Hardy Mail 4 x Bludgeon 1 x Weak Chop 9 x Barge 4 x Blind Rage 1 x Powerful Hack 2 x Defender's Block 1 x Obvious Maneuver 1 x Escaping Run 1 x Traveling Curse 3 x Crusher 3 x Reliable Mail 2 x Powerful Bludgeon The wizard is a pretty standard Firestorm spammer with Volcanoes thrown in to prevent vp camping. I am slightly worried about Resistant Hide so I may have to toss in some armor removal in the future if it becomes a problem. For the priest, I don't have a second Knife Of St. Blenko and I didn't think spending an extra token on a weapon for something like Brightblood Glaive or Ripping Mace for an extra copy of Inspiring Presence was worth it. Though now that I'm thinking about it, Brightblood Glaive does look pretty awesome in this build. Will look into it if Purges aren't as useful. Finally we get to the oddball of the group. A full on Barge warrior. I certainly could use a control wizard in this spot but I couldn't resist trying out the "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" aka Barreling Club. I've only gotten a couple of games in at this point but it looks fairly promising. Highlight of the day was my Savage Cursed wizard with Resistant Hide and Firestarter roasting the entire opposing team with 2 Firestorms while only hitting my own priest with 2 Arrogant Armors in hand.
After we played against each other early today, I though "why isn't he bringing tons of Team Heal with this build?". Now I kinda get why It's quite an effective build, I shall add
Very cool. Too bad it isn't worthwhile to run both Perfect Flexibility and General Gideon's Helm. That would be an interesting (if obviously much worse) build.
This is really great iniative and thread! Would it be too much to ask to give the start/end ELO rating for the deck as well as the win/lose ratio or do you play with other decks at the same time as well?
I keep track of wins and losses but I don't think ELO will do much good. Rating went from 1700s to 1400s with the Advanced Battlefield Training build. Lost around 100 to the new build but that's testing out both the Barge warrior and a cold wizard in the control slot. Back up to around 1400 with a Illusory Barrier wizard.
The Barge warrior was a complete bust. There was too much Parry running around for him to do his job and he wasn't great against opposing wizards. Went 13-17 with the initial build. I was having a lot of problems with mobile elf warriors so I tried a cold wizard instead. Angruff Level 21 Dwarf Wizard Whiterune Staff Staff Of Winter Ring Of Appropriation Booming Ring Booming Ring Ring Of Appropriation Rockshard Robes Kerrick's Steel Boots Perfect Toughness Electroporter Novice 4 x Telekinesis 1 x Resistant Hide 1 x Shuffle 1 x Cold Snap 4 x Gusts Of War 4 x Path Of Knives 2 x Force Bolt 1 x Dimensional Traveller 4 x Frost Jolt 2 x Reliable Mail 1 x Rusty Armor 3 x Chilling Rime 2 x Stone Spikes 2 x Toughness 1 x Spark Inductor 1 x Spark Generator 2 x Acid Jet This one was better against melee characters but horrendous against other wizards. Went 3-5 with Frosty before I decided to retire him. Also had a match were my opponent and I each only had a fire wizard left both with Resistant Hide. It all came down to who could Short Perplexing Ray the other's armor first and I was the unlucky one. Decided to add armor removal to the Firestorm wizard. I picked up a second Illusion when it was in the Daily Deal so I decided to try that out as a middle ground against melee and wizards. Also switched out some Volcanoes for, you guessed it, more Firestorms. Purge and Savage Curse weren't too hot either so I switched out some items on the priest. Spoiler: Smoke and Mirrors Marroo Level 21 Dwarf Wizard Wym's Lavastaff Wym's Lavastaff Chartwell's Ring Chartwell's Ring Azgul's Orb Akon's Amulet Firehide Robes Kerrick's Steel Boots Perfect Toughness Focused Pyromancy 1 x Glob Of Flame 1 x Resistant Hide 1 x Shuffle 2 x Reliable Mail 2 x Short Perplexing Ray 1 x Rusty Armor 4 x Volcano 2 x Boiling Armor 3 x Firestarter 16 x Firestorm 1 x Dissolve Armor 2 x Toughness Gorlgrik Level 20 Dwarf Priest Knife Of St. Blenko Brightblood Glaive Dark Chain Shirt Aegis Of The Defender Kerrick's Steel Boots Ravenna's Incense Jygpin's Healing Ring Ravenna's Incense Raging Battler Focused Piety 2 x Consuming Spear 1 x Sundering Strike 2 x Spear Of Darkness 1 x Shuffle 1 x Weak Chop 1 x Polearm Slash 1 x Team Heal 3 x Sapping Spear 4 x Reliable Mail 2 x Defender's Block 1 x Consecrate Ground 1 x Light Heal 2 x Penetrating Lunge 2 x Blind Rage 1 x Hardy Mail 2 x Cleansing Presence 6 x Inspiring Presence 3 x Altruism Angruff Level 21 Dwarf Wizard Illusion Illusion Phantom Pain Ring Of Appropriation Rod Of Palver Pree Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Rockshard Robes Kerrick's Steel Boots Perfect Toughness Electroporter Novice 5 x Telekinesis 1 x Spark Generator 1 x Resistant Hide 1 x Shuffle 4 x Stone Spikes 1 x Rusty Armor 1 x Path Of Knives 1 x Hot Spot 2 x Reliable Mail 1 x Gusts Of War 1 x Spark Inductor 1 x Dimensional Traveller 12 x Illusory Barrier 2 x Flash Of Agony 2 x Toughness
