[EXEMPLARY FEEDBACK] Maniafig's Measurements

Discussion in 'Castle Mitternacht Playtest' started by Maniafig, Oct 1, 2016.

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  1. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    NOTE FROM FLAXATIVE: This is a good level of detail. Playtesters should aspire to something like this.

    Matches played as of this post: 6
    Username: TestingAccess     (My regular test server account bearing my forum name won't load, probably because of a too large inventory that takes too long to load. You're free to delete the account or empty its inventory if it reduces server stress.)

    Sarpedon
    Level 1 Elf Wizard

    Zendo
    Level 3 Elf Wizard

    Vinegar
    Level 1 Human Priest
    This build is based around stalling using control cards and Nimbus while waiting for Ancient Grudge to accumulate power through card usage and discard.
    4 matches played, 4 matches won.

    1: Quickly thrown together 1/1/1 Silver Elves CM deck vs Frostguard with Acid, Vengeance and Vampire Dwarves
    -This was a match I mostly played for intial impressions.
    -There seems to be a definite and deliberate power creep, cards have powerful effects for their value.
    -Double Hide Strips and Monster Hide removes need to consider what tokenless armor to use, and it’s on a Legendary item to boot. Very cheesy for a tokenless Heavy Armor and has no business being the same same level as Dependable Mail.
    -Hex can quickly accumulate power while Spray can ward off enemies. I wound up using powerful Hexes despite not using sprays because my opponent's use of acid.
    -Silver is one-trick-pony, powerful against forms but easily falls to Inq. Badge.


    2. Walpurgis spam 1/1/1 Elves vs Frostguard with Acid, Vengeance and Vampire Dwarves
    -Spamming Walpurgis is pure chaos, lots of cards are drawn and it winds up being a very random mishmash of all forms.
    -Lost rather quickly due to incompetence on my part, was too eager to mess around to focus on winning.
    -You can get a lot of Walpurgis in a deck, but just spamming Walpurgis doesn't seem like a good idea.


    3: Ancient Grudge + Nimbus vs stupid531 with double Grudge Elf Wizards and Leadership Human Priest
    -Here's where I start using a focused deck.
    -Mind Muddle is very powerful and honestly very annoying too. On last year's Chupacabulcker AA submission you commented "There might be a value at which Mind Muddle is balanced, but there's no value at which it is fun" and I'm tempted to agree.
    -My opponent wasn't able to get much use out of Grudge in this match.
    -Lava is useless vs Spirits, which means it's a counter to Volcano but also to regular terrain cards. I might test a Spiritual Volcano deck to see how it synergizes.
    -I had no counter to Boo in my deck, so one of my wizards was shut down for one turn when it got applied.
    -Medium’s Garb is very powerful, it's about as defensive as robe armor can be and provides more card advantage the longer it's in use.
    -Pathfinding doesn’t work with Spirit Form, my opponent who used it it simply drew one card and got a single Spirit card. My opponent voices disappointment at this.
    -Finished match with 3 Ancient Grudges at 11 power by round 5. Very powerful attack considering its range and quality.


    4. Ancient Grudge + Nimbus vs stupid531 with Grudge
    -I started with an Ancient Grudge and Pathfinding in hand.
    -Used Pathfinding, which immediately cycled through over half my deck and boosted Grudge to 21 damage, enough to OHKO 3/9 class-race combos. “It’s a game of hide and seek now." my opponent commented, using two Elf Wizards and a Human Priest.
    -Frightened Scouting is a poor idea, I swapped it out for Nimble Scouting after this match.
    -Daylight without Blockchecking ability seems underpowered, it's useless vs Spirits as my opponent realized.
    -I feel no worry putting Priest with two Sacred Shrouds next to enemies, on average it's 2.66 damage reduction and HP restored to my whole party.
    -Opponent surrendered after my Elf Wizard got line of sight to all three enemies with a Grudge in hand.


    5. Ancient Grudge + Nimbus vs Frostguard with acid wizard, zombifying priest, Vengeance warrior.
    -A map with a cluster of victory squares.
    -I spent 4 turns camping in the victory square with control such as Gusts, TK and Hypobeacon and use of Nimbus when in danger.
    -Finished the match by killing the opponent Dwarf Priest in 3 attacks with 9, 10 and 10 damage Ancient Grudges in round 5.


    6. Ancient Grudge + Nimbus vs Frostguard with acid wizard, zombifying priest, Vengeance warrior.
    -Again a cluster of victory squares in the middle.
    -4 turns of victory squares with control, same as before.
    -One of my wizards took a powerful Dissolving Hex, over 10 damage, and died, dropping two Grudges. I didn't expect that to happen, an Elf Wizard is dead in two Dissolving Hexes if there's 10 acid tiles.
    -Ended up winning mostly through Lava damage from my Hotglass staff and Wym's Buckets in combination with control and lucky hypnosis. Also got in some Ancient Grudges at 8 power.
    -Vanguard can come in useful, but it requires clever positioning and thinking to get the most use out of. Kudos to whoever came up with the idea, I absolutely love it.


    Closing thoughts:
    -I notice my Grudge build is very heavy on Epics and Legendaries on my wizards, except for the Gusting Feystaff, which gives Wizards access to a large amoung of control.
    -I also think this build is incredibly annoying to play against, after two tests (5 and 6) my opponent asked I shift to another deck because it was frustrating dealing with so much control.
    -Ancient Grudge is also really overpowered if a match goes on long enough, in each of my uses of the card it far exceeded its bronze value and a lucky start with Pathfinding can give you an attack that outperforms Pulverizing Hack with a range of 4.

    -I am also very fond of the art of both the new cards, characters and items. I really like the theme you chose for this expansion and it comes through well artistically and mechanically.
    -Using Walpurgis Night against a legion of Kobods while playing as Elves is a terrible idea in SP. :p
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 1, 2016
    Maniafig, Oct 1, 2016
    #1
    stupid531, Melancthon, wereviper and 2 others like this.
  2. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches played as of this post: 10
    Username: TestingAccess

    Old Fart
    Level 1 Dwarf Wizard

    Senile Coot
    Level 1 Dwarf Wizard

    Christy
    Level 1 Dwarf Priest
    This build is based around accumulating Acid terrain using Acid Jets and Sprays, preferably in a way that also hinders the enemy, and then unloading Dissolving hexes. Priest was an experiment to see how this combination would work out, but overall I'd say she was pretty ineffectual and poorly synergized with my other characters.
    4 matches played, 2 matches won.

    7. Double Acid and Vampire Kiss/Daylight vs Frostguard with acid wizard, zombifying priest, Vengeance warrior.
    -Vengeance strongly counters Gusts, I tried to push an enemy warrior away but before I could he nestled himself in my area of control and I couldn't get rid of him.
    -Acid Spray and Acid Jet are very good at stopping enemies and synergizing with Dissolving Hex.
    -Dissolving Hex reached 13 damage between our combined Sprays, which is insane damage at 6 range for silver value, with the addition of armor discard. Armor was pretty much worthless during this match as the use of Vampire Kisses and Dissolving Hexes meant they barely got to diminish any damage.


    8. Double Acid and Vampire Kiss/Daylight vs Frostguard with acid wizard, zombifying priest, Vengeance warrior.
    -Dissolving Hex is still overpowered, properly placed Acid Sprays makes the card do over 10 damage easily, tearing through enemies at range. This is especially prominent in mirror matches between acid wizards where it becomes a game of rocket tag.
    -Vampire Kiss is great utility, I used it on my character who my opponent had Zombified and replaced his useless range 1 attacks with a Swarm of Bats and powerful drains while my priest recovered HP. Then I used Swarm of Bats to fly over to enemy priest which I had weakened and disarmoured with Dissolving Hexes and started using frenzied drains to recover back the HP I lost through Vampire's Kiss.


    9. Double Acid and Vampire Kiss/Daylight vs Frostguard with Inq. Bolt wizard, zombifying priest, Vengeance warrior.
    -Inquisition Bolt doesn’t work with zombie cards, as it says, so there’s no synergy with Spark of Undeath.
    -Blight is very finicky, you have to be adjacent to an enemy and not to allies to get the most use out of it, so Silver value seems too high given it’s hard to use effectively. Given its Silver value and it being a pure Boost trait I don't think it should attach random handicaps to allies.
    -Daylight is also finicky to use, the big range means it’s hard to use only to your advantage while the fact that enemies can give you forms makes it risky to run as it can easily backfire, plus it even fails against Spirits which devalues its anti-form utility. Currently it’s best used as a blockchecker, but I've read it's meant to be Unblockable in which case I'm not sure what sort of deck Daylight would fit in. I might try to pair it with Spark of Undeath and see if that works.
    -This time I got Acid Jets instead of Sprays, which can create up to 9 squares and generally is easier to get more acid out of but it's as useful in creating a sort of 'acid moat' around your wizard, so it's more offensive than defensive. Again I was throwing around >10 damage Dissolving Hexes, quickly taking down the opposing Dwarves.
    -Offenvsive use of Spark of Undeath is very risky, you’d need something like Accel Time and need to make sure the opponent can’t use the new cards against you to get the most use out of it.


    10. Double Acid and Vampire Kiss/Daylight vs Frostguard with Boo! wizard, zombifying priest, Vengeance warrior.
    -Boo! is annoying to play against, my opponent had 7 stacked in his deck and could lock down my most dangerous looking characters easily. It’s up there with Stun, Halt and Control as types of cards that are simply not fun to play against since they deny you the ability to play your cards.
    -Dissolving Hex continues to be OP, but that doesn’t mean much when you can’t play the card.
    -Vampire Kissed my opponent’s Warrior who had 3 Vengeances and he got to move three times before they got discarded.

    Closing thoughts:
    -My Dissolving Hex built proved to be capable of doing a lot of damage from a long range while caking the whole board in acid tiles. It's not even optimized as I am not happy with my priest here.
    -Armor is pretty much meaningless in a meta like this since Vampire Kisses and Dissolving Hexes can quickly remove them. The biggest threat to this build was enemies using Dissolving Hex and Warriors with Vengeance since they can deftly make their away through layers of Acid and attack you.
    -This build is less reliant on Epics and Legendaries. Caustic Pain is great to use but Staff of Dissolution is a decent alternative.
    -Sunlight and Blight are difficult to use correctly.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 1, 2016
    #2
    stupid531, Melancthon, BlackVoidDeath and 2 others like this.
  3. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thank you, I am going to put you down for 10 games and keep counting as you keep playing. I want to give you a shoutout for the level of detail in your feedback, this is exactly the quality of response we're looking for.

    Just a couple notes -

    Working as intended.

    It's silver- (hence 3x Blight = minor token) but your feedback is still well taken.

    Sounds silly. I'm interested to see what kind of builds specifically counter/shut down dissolution builds. Does Cleansing Burst get played?
     
    Flaxative, Oct 1, 2016
    #3
    wereviper and Maniafig like this.
  4. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 16
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    Hotep
    Level 1 Human Warrior

    Vinegar
    Level 1 Human Priest

    The Discombobulator
    Level 1 Human Wizard
    Quite a different party here. I wanted to take up the challenge of seeing how to counter Acid, but I don't think Cleansing is the solution. Cleaning Burst only is Burst 1, meaning at most it can remove as much Acid as one Spray or Jet can create, and I think it's a pretty 1-for-1 card. The healing effect can work for you, but also against you, and even if you do Cleanse Acid somewhere, the enemy can still cast Hexes if they have Acid elsewhere meaning it's no guaranteed safety.

    Rather than Cleaning, my first though was Smoke Bomb. Smoke Bomb has several advantages, such as being Burst 2 which means it can counter multiple Acid Sprays or Jets in one go, it removes LoS for enemy wizards, priests and stabby warriors which makes it harder for them to just go back to Hexing or Acid Jetting you, plus it can be used to remove naturally occurring difficult terrain, such as in maps like Oasis.

    My Warrior here is a stepping-based warrior with the addition of some Vengeance to hunt down wizards. Ancient Heirloom Shield is chosen to test Lucky Charms. Snarlcub is the best of its kind in my opinion, while Subtle Positioning and Focused Dervish are used to complement with step attacks.

    The Priest underwent some changes, but I settled with this build for its six purges and general versatility. It can frenzy, heal, draw cards, has some big damage and rounds it off with Spark of Undeath for its situational usefulness against ally and foe alike. Holy Presence, Vanguard and Lucky Charm used for testing purposes. Also using Sacred Shroud since it's just really good.

    Wizard has a heavy focus on Smoke Bombs with some Flash Floods mixed in for board control. Chask's Relief added for its Lucky Charms and Inq. Bolts, as with the Silverfire Vials to counter form cards. Rounded off with Smoke Pins for Smoke and some control, double Medium Garb for card advantage and defense and Wlakwa's for some utilitarian movement. Electroporter was phoned in really, while vanguard was picked because Vanguard's just a really cool and nice card and I like that humans now have such a tokenless trait.

    Overall the party is a nice mix of CM and non-CM items, I think.

    11. Vengeance/Step Warrior, Support Priest, Smoke/Inq. Bolt Wizard vs Frostguard with Wind Dancer, Boo! and Kiss
    -Prowl is very useful, Free Move and attaches a 2 Frenzy at 2 duration. This card is very powerful in the hands of Warriors and Vampires and honestly seems far too powerful for combining two useful effects at a mere Bronze quality. I've had this card used against me a lot in the last few matches and it's sticking out.
    -Swarm of Bats is very heavy card advantage. Not only does it let you pretty much negate one enemy attack but you can also use the 4 Teleport to easily set up a back attack or chase down a weakened target. It's frustrating to play against.
    -Boo! was used a lot in this match but I blocked/purged it, which felt satisfying.
    -One of my characters was killed by a 15 damage grudge which got through two ‘Lucky’ Charms.
    -Another was killed by Doom as I'd used my Purges on Frights instead, I actually totally forgot Doom was even there too.
    -CM doesn't really bring a good new Smoke item to the table, but then Smoke is already very well itemized as it is.
    -I’ve had some good uses for Unreliable Blocks and Vanguard in this match as well as my other matches. Unreliable is unreliable as its name says, but pairs well with Lucky Charms and other Free Cards, while Vanguard's one step is often all you need.

    12. Vengeance/Step Warrior, Support Priest, Smoke/Inq. Bolt Wizard vs Frostguard with Wind Dancer, Boo! and Kiss
    -Inq. Bolt can be very powerful if your enemy has the right cards, I've had it do 9 damage pretty often. 9 direct damage is a lot for a card that can be found on a tokenless Arcane Item.
    -Sundering now triggers additional Inq. Bolt damage, a shame since it is the Warrior’s staple armor removal card.
    -Lucky Charm is unreliable but Free Card makes it worth it, I really like this card and think it's got a good niche.
    -Vampire Kiss can be used on allies to still generate HP advantage, which can be used to camp on the victory square as happened in this match.

    13. Vengeance/Step Warrior, Support/Purge/Undeath Priest, Smoke/Inq. Bolt Wizard vs Frostguard with Wind Dancer, Boo! and Kiss
    -I added the Shocking Skulls to my Priest for this match.
    -Boo! spam is still annoying, it’s hard to pack enough Purges to counter it, especially if enemies can have armor that creates the card.
    -Spark of Undeath can be very useful just for giving Frenzy, I used it on my Warrior who was next to an enemy Warrior and it gave me a lot of extra damage that turn.
    - I got lots of card draw from double Medium Garb, over the course of the game I got a ton of spirit cards, including Boo!. Medium Garb is up there for most overpowered cards, it's only kept in check by the absurdity of Dissolving Hexes.
    -Ended up winning through victory squares.

    14. Vengeance/Step Warrior, Support/Purge/Undeath Priest, Smoke/Inq. Bolt Wizard vs Frostguard with double Acid and Bless/Cleansing Ray Terrain on Batford’s Kitchen
    -Vengeance and Step attacks are very useful against Wizards, as usual.
    -Won through sheer force, my opponent didn’t draw a lot of acid cards to get a combo going which means I got an early lead and they couldn't get the most out of their Hexes.

    15. Vengeance/Step Warrior, Support/Purge/Undeath Priest, Smoke/Inq. Bolt Wizard vs Frostguard with double Acid and Bless/Cleansing Ray/Martyr on Batford’s Kitchen
    -Bless and Acid mix well, just as with Volcano.
    -Inq. Bolt punishes hexes pretty well, I got some high damage numbers with it.
    -Smoke Bomb can cover up a lot of acid and remove LoS for enemy wizards.
    -Even without Acid the Hex can still pack a punch, just because there's not a ton of Acid it doesn't mean Hex becomes a bad card.
    -Bless is still clearly way too good, its synergy with an Acid build is absurd, it removes the danger of Acid Leak, gives healing, gives more card draw and liberal use or Cleaning Ray means you can often draw it.
    -The match ended in a priest vs priest match on the victory squares.
    -Inability to selfcast Spark of Undeath makes it useless in close quarters when you have no allies.
    -I spent a lot of turns in the priest-off, in the end I had 2 shrouds in hand and kept drawing and healing, opponent had Cushioning and could spam Bless and Cleansing Ray. I resigned, realizing it was going nowhere and neither of us wanting to waste our time.

    16. Vengeance/Step Warrior, Support/Purge/Undeath Priest, Smoke/Inq. Bolt Wizard vs Frostguard with double Acid and Bless/Cleansing/Martyr on Oasis
    -Oasis is a clear Wizard map, Acid was in top form here.
    -Smoke helped remove difficult terrain and stop Acid, but against two dedicated Acid Wizards with help from a draw engine Priest I cannot keep up.
    -Warrior had a hard time focusing one enemy down, I did not have enough movement, didn't draw Vangaurd and my Smoke got int he way of my Impaling Stabs.
    -In the end my Warrior, then my Wizard and then my Priest fell to Hexes one by one. Once I run out of Smoke the opponent can just start Cleansing Raying until he draws a Bless, Acid away, use Bless and get crazy card advantage next turn without taking Acid damage while also having Martyr.

    Closing thoughts:
    -Medium Garb is too good, it's good armor and gives free card draws at the start of the round.
    -Swarm of Bats is too much card advantage and makes Vampires very hard to deal with.
    -Prowl is very good and something I'll need to try myself.
    -Spark of Undeath is very situational, but potentially great.
    -Lucky Charm, Wind Dancer and Vanguard all seem good both thematically and quality-wise. I enjoy the game more now these cards exist, they fill cool niches.
    -Overall I'm happy with this build but also sure that it could be better than it currently is. Humans seem a lot more viable now, which is a good thing. One issue I have is that even with a build I made to counter Acid I still can't reliably beat Acid, only one of the matches was a victory while one was a clear loss.I don't think a build with Cleansing would fare batter, having less overall utility and less bursting range.
    -I'm not sure whether triple Acid Wizard or double Acid Wizard with Drawing Priest is better, but either way Bless synergizes incredibly well with Acid builds. Bless removes the danger of being on Acid meaning you can be more reckless with Jets, Sprays and Leaks while hanging on to armor and receiving some healing on the side. Cleaning Ray also synergizes very well, drawing a lot of cards and being able to remove Acid or Smoke.
     
    Last edited: Oct 1, 2016
    Maniafig, Oct 1, 2016
    #4
    stupid531, Melancthon, Flaxative and 1 other person like this.
  5. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thanks, I've got you at 16.
     
    Flaxative, Oct 1, 2016
    #5
  6. Melancthon

    Melancthon Ogre

    Top-notch reporting Maniafig, well done.
     
    Melancthon, Oct 1, 2016
    #6
    Maniafig and Flaxative like this.
  7. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 21
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    Reusing some old builds here, I'm retiring my 1/1/1 Humans for now and think I'm done Grudging around. I'm not so sure anymore on Grudge Elf Wizards, they're very hard to use or I'm just not able to think as an Elf Wizard, being used to Warriors with a support Priest. Might try something with Warriors next, though it does seem like their coolest toys are shared with Priests anyway.

    17. Vengeance/Step Warrior, Support/Purge/Undeath Priest, Smoke/Inq. Bolt Wizard vs VermillionOcean with double Werewolves and support priest, Humans.
    -Wizard wasn’t very useful here, there were a way range 2 Polearm Slashes but other than that it was only handy for removing difficult terrain.
    -I think I'll retire this build since it failed to counter Hex even though it's meant to, unless I want to test it vs Grudge.
    -Didn’t see much Werewolf action, I managed to Purge off a Werewolf attachment with Purge but not much else to say, a decisive loss.

    18. Ancient Grudge + Nimbus vs VermillionOcean with double Werewolves and support priest, Humans.
    -Spent the first few turns just spamming control cards.
    -Warriors are tough opponents since your Elf Wizards are still Elf Wizards, they die very easily. Mileage varies between maps.
    -Priest died, but one of my wizards got Pathfinding, big boost in Grudge Power.
    -It’s a game of hide and seek after that, two Grudges could kill a Dwarf Warrior.
    -Ended up losing because I was weakened and couldn’t get through enemy blocks, after that I was open for a step attack and you don’t want that to happen to an Elf Wizard. Needless to say that Step Attack was enough to lose me the match.

    19. Ancient Grudge + Nimbus vs Kkarma with 1/1/1 CM Dwarves
    -As usual I went for the victory squares and relied on control to save me and fled when danger was near.
    -Elf Wizards are very squishy, even a direct damage enemy wizard can easily finish them off.
    -After enough rounds, my Elf Wizards were pretty battered, I placed a Nimbus on one and went to work using ~10 base damage Grudges on the enemy Wizard, who had Medium Robes. It took about 5 attacks but I killed him, winning me the match since I’d also had 4 points through control spamming.
    -Spirit Form and Spirit cards can work to my disadvantage, such as Traveling Curses when not in Spirit Form or making me draw spirit cards instead of the cards I want.
    -Blight has none nothing but hinder me these two matches, I’m taking it out of my deck and replaced with double Altruism and Minor Heal, it's a high-maintenance Boost and we all have stories of not remembering our or our enemies' attachments.

    20. Ancient Grudge + Nimbus vs Frostguard with double Inq Bolt+Boo! Wizards and Vampire Kiss Priest Dwarves.
    -Very scary deck to be up against as the other threads it's mentioned in makes clear. It makes clever use of Boo! and Vampire Kiss to set up devastating Inq. Bolts without allowing for an answer by vamping while also extending the opponent’s hand for more damage. It can even be paired with Talented Healer for a Cantrip combo.
    -Gusts, Winds and Hypnotic beacon all can’t be used when Boo! is in effect, it essentially shuts down three of the best control wizard tools.
    -I wound up losing when my remaining Elf Wizard got Cantrip Vampire Kissed and then Inq. Bolted for like 19 damage.

    21. Ancient Grudge + Nimbus vs Frostguard with double Acid Wizards and Bless/Cleansing Ray/Martyr Priest on Irrigation Chamber.
    -I didn’t think this match would last long, and it did not.
    -Hex simply has far superior range and requires less set-up then Ancient Grudge to reach high damage.
    -My Priest and Wizards quickly Hexed got to death, I don’t think there was a way to win this as I need to expose myself to do damage and have inferior range and need much more set-up to match Hex damage.
    -Acid also shuts down Hypnotic Beacon, not that the card is of much use when the enemy doesn't need to move, sitting on Blessed terrain rather comfortably.

    Closing thoughts:
    -A Grudge deck is a very unreliable deck overall, it's very reliant on getting certain types of cards at the right time, I'm not sure if it'd even stand up to current builds being used.
    -I’m not sure if my Grudge deck would be better with a third Elf Wizard, or perhaps a different focus on my Priest.
    -I give this deck credit for making memorable and tense matches, it’s really down to whether you get enough control early on to get some victory points over the enemy and then enough discards and grudges to finish the enemy.
    -A clever enemy uses the stalling Grudge needs to accumulate blocks or armor like Toughness/Cushioning.
    -I’m not sure Ancient Grudge has what it takes against movement-heavy builds and ranged direct damage wizards that don’t rely on Grudge, or Vampires who rely on Swarm of Bats.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 1, 2016
    #7
    stupid531 and Flaxative like this.
  8. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thank you, have you at 21.
     
    Flaxative, Oct 1, 2016
    #8
  9. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 28
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    Mr Gorgeous
    Level 1 Elf Warrior

    Star Man
    Level 1 Elf Wizard

    Christy
    Level 1 Dwarf Priest
    Back to 1/1/1 Elves like my first two matches! This time my focus is on direct damage through Inq. Bolt on my Wizard, which can be stacked into the deck in a very high concentration. The use of tokenless Silverfire Vials means I lack control of any kind and had to resort to triple Investigate to hopefully be able to survive longer. There's also some Stone Spikes which can create blocking terrain, Fire Jets for blockchecking and some damage and Obliterating Sparks to deal with opponents without forms or the like.

    I won't say much on my warrior here as he didn't perform well in my first match and I just think testing wizards is more worthwhile for now since they get some of the more abusable cards, and the Warrior was quickly replaced with a second Wizard.

    The priest here is very Purge-heavy and also has Walpurgis, this is used to set up powerful Inq. Bolts, disrupt enemy traits, pray for lucky draws on my end and mixes with my own Purges to get rid of forms I don't want myself or the enemy to have. There's also some Healing and Frenzy to add to the direct damage, and Inq. Strike to punish attachments. I really like Inquisitor's Morningstar, congrats to whoever made it for giving us a Common one-token Divine Weapon I love running.

    22. Inq. Bolt Wizard + Final Warding Vengeance Warrior + Walpurgis Purging Priest vs Khyle345 with Vampires, Vampire’s Kiss and Walpurgis Daylight.
    -It’s difficult to kill Vampires, especially if they have good armor and lots of lifesteal.
    -Vampire Kiss removing your hand is honestly annoying.
    -Ended up with a dead Warrior for being too risky, and then a dead Wizard.
    -I want to test Inq. Bolt more and don't like my Warrior here, so I'll switch things around a bit.

    My revised deck removes the Elf Warrior, adds an identical Elf Wizard and Replaces a Silver Lightning with True Silver and Mantle of Lingering with double Medium's Garb each. This means more reliable direct damage, less Obliterating Sparks and much better armor and a smidge of control.

    23. Double Inq. Bolt Elf Wizard + Walpurgis Purging Priest vs Fanturluche with triple Arrogant Walpurgis Daylight Purging Dwarf Priest
    -My Inq Bolts are fairly useless against any opponent using armor and no form cards, even if it’s boosted and on Arcane Items.
    -I lack armor removal also, meaning I can’t get past most armor, Monster Hide being the exception.
    -Fanturluche was hard to take down since he could keep healing himself with vampire attacks, Daylight and Inspiring Presence, it’s a potent build once it gets its staple cards.
    -He was also immune to forms meaning his Walpurgis just let him draw from the deck.
    -In the end I lost really badly, I was unable to get much damage off and got finished near the victory squares.

    24. Double Inq. Bolt Elf Wizard + Walpurgis Purging Priest vs Timeracers with 1/1/1 Grudge, Wind Dancer and Support priest.
    -15 damage Inq Bolt after double Walpurgis! It's very unreliable but can pack a punch, it's very punishing to form-reliant builds and ones using form cards. This also means it's a nerf to cards like Fly, AoA, Sundering and Vicious Thust. Warriors and Vampire Priests seem hit the hardest by this.
    -My Walpurgis doesn’t mesh with Fey Silversmith as it gets rid of it.
    -Got a few lucky Brains, which shuts down enemies hard, more than Boo!.
    -The cards I got from my random forms came in rather handy, the movement I needed as well as the attacks I needed to win.

    25. Double Inq. Bolt Elf Wizard + Walpurgis Purging Priest vs Adajon with Stepping Dancer, Inq Bolt and Vamp Kiss
    -Got early double Investigate on both wizards, meaning I could 'juggle' them to regain HP, I like this interaction, it pairs well with squishy Elf Wizards, especially against builds that rely on small hits. It was a large part of what allowed me to win.
    -Vampire Kiss does not work with Inq. Bolt, this works as intended but it feels very wrong, as most things surrounding Vampire's Kiss do.
    -Silver punishes Monster Hide, Nightling and Form cards very well, it’s good in the niche it’s meant to serve, I often got very powerful attacks with it, it's more reliable than Grudge with more range and direct damage boosting support from Elf Skills.

    26. Double Inq. Bolt Elf Wizard + Walpurgis Purging Priest vs Adajon with Stepping Dancer, Inq Bolt and Vamp Kiss
    -First turn Delegate put Kiss priest next to me first turn.
    -Walpurgis gave me the Brains I needed.
    -Next turn I got more Brains, but Priest Batswarmed away.
    -Vampire Priests are a pain to kill.
    -Opponent’s Fleet didn’t help him much from what it seemed, I am using mostly direct damage.
    -“Dawidrung recovered 16 HP.” “Dawidrung recovered 15 HP.” This should clearly not happen, Vampire Priests like this are unkillable, especially since Inq Bolt doesn’t care about Vampire Kiss.
    -Vampire Kiss is insane, it’s just a back and forth of Vamping until someone gets a good Swarm and the healing potential is absurd.
    -Wound up with one dead Wizard on each side, after that it was a tense match of trying to enough stars through victory squares and killing enemies.
    -Game ended when opponent had two people on three total victory squares, I might have won if my Medium Garb gave me a Grudge as I had 15 discarded cards. It did not.

    27. Double Inq. Bolt Elf Wizard + Walpurgis Purging Priest vs Frostguard with triple Human Howling Vanguard Warriors
    -Very scary matchup, opponent was using step attacks and Vengeance.
    -Map supported Wizards with little blocking terrain to shelter behind, but with one blocking tile in the middle of the map that proved crucial.
    -Vanguard meant my opponent could often duck and weave in and out of sight, meaning it was hard to focus down a single warrior.
    -Investigate comes in very handy in these matchups, Elf Wizards need them both for movement and healing. I really like this card in the context of Elf Wizard, though I'm not so sure if I'd like it against Dwarf Priests.
    -In the end I was able to do a lot of direct damage.
    -I wound up winning due to a fortunate Walpurgis giving me the cards I need and failing Battleaxe Blocks on my opponent’s side.

    28. Double Inq. Bolt Elf Wizard + Walpurgis Purging Priest vs Frostguard with triple Human Howling Vanguard Warriors on Gladius Wall
    -Opponent decided to come to my side, leaving me some time to prepare movement and Inq Bolts.
    -Opponent’s Howl gave him a Lycanthropic Form which is not what he was hoping for.
    -Once they arrived I used Walpurgis to amplify my Inq. Bolts, I got off two >10 damage Inq Bolts against one of the opposing Warriors which killed him.
    -I got a lucky Boo! from my Spirit the turn after Walpurgis.
    -After that one of my Wizards and my Priest died, with my last Wizard in Spirit Form with Medium Garb.
    -Remaining Wizard got just the right cards, a Fly to get to the other side of the map with ease and a Hex and Grudges to pick off the enemy Warrior standing on the opposing Victory Square, giving me the victory points needed to win.

    Closing thoughts
    -I don't understand why we lack a double Silversmith tokenless Elf Skill, since I assume Elf Warriors would still rather run Cautious Mobility and I think Elf Priests and Wizards could use the niche. That said, in this build I had the tokens to spare anyway because of Silverfire Vial so just picked Focused Silversmith although Fey Insight also looks very good.
    -As with Grudge, my build is unreliable since it relies on my opponent's card choices to reach its highest potential and Walpurgis can work for or against me.
    -I really like Inquisition Bolt, it has interesting synergies and itemization, though it’s very legendary-heavy.
    -Personally I am also in favour of having it work against monsters in SP that use vamp/werewolf/spirit-like cards as well as some standard player cards like Sundering , this gives the card a niche in both SP and MP beyond simply countering forms and forms only which I think would make the card too narrow like Cleansing cards are. I also think it should affect Vampire Kiss and Zombie cards, Vampire Kiss being excluded makes mechanical sense but no narrative sense while Zombie Form hinders the combo of Walpurgis and Inq. Bolt, though I also realize that would mean making Bludgeon and Shuffle affected by it and would mak Spark of Undeath possibly too good.
    -Silverfire Vial means you can make a very focused Silver build, but this build is also extremely reliant on Legendaries because it and the Staves I used are Legendary items. The Phial's also tokenless which means it opens up tokens for other slots, and overall I find Silverfire Vial to be a real oddball just as Kolt 45 is. The difference here is that Kolt makes up for being an oddball by being high level, whereas Silverfire Vial does it by being gated off behind a Legendary Barrier. I personally prefer the Kolt 45 approach.
    -Vicious Thrust is among the cards to fall to Inq. Bolt, which is interesting. Which is a nerf to some overused items such as Rageblood and Bejeweled.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 2, 2016
    #9
    stupid531 likes this.
  10. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thanks, got you at 28.

    If you get a chance, I'd love to see some reports of you running pre-Mitternacht builds (strong meta decks like Macizo's or Fry the Guy's) against folks using Mitternacht items.
     
    Flaxative, Oct 2, 2016
    #10
  11. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 33
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    Vinegar
    Level 21 Human Priest

    Mr Gorgeous
    Level 21 Elf Warrior

    Dori
    Level 21 Dwarf Warrior
    I tried playing with my own build rather than one of the meta builds since I feel like I have more experience with my own build plus I was curious to see how it could fare against CM decks. I'm currently around 1550 ELO with my build but haven't played enough ranked to say it's a stable level, I'm only at 100 games right now. I made a few alterations compared to my regular build, most of them legendaries I don't have but would use such as Pergop's and I included Venerable Positioning instead of the Make Haste I use in my regular real server build.

    The Human Priest is mainly focused on Frenzy and Healing paired with range-2 attacks that synergize with Flanking Move. The biggest cards in this deck are the two Laser Whips which can catch opponents off-guard, Delegate to set up a powerful hand and Inspirational Presence to get healing and potential attack cards. The shield provides potential movement-based advantages that cover magic and melee as well as a Pushback.

    The Elf Warrior is based on Lunging Bashes boosted by Frenzies and Bruiser and drawn by Maneuvers, Laser Whip because Laser Whip is cool and Sundering for armor removal. Pergop's and Angry Jacks provide additional movement, Rook is a nice Block Any Shield with a potential Extra Hack combo, and Ewix is used because Adaptable is cool.

    Dwarf Warrior uses two White Katanas for a mix of movement and armor removal (can't have enough armor removal), Strongarm because it's strong, Acrobat's to counter mostly wizards and otherwise the same as my Elf Warrior. Often I end up using him sort of as a tank, especially if he has double Reliable Mail or Adaptable.

    29. Non-CM vs Fanturluche with double Warrior, Priest with Anvil Strike and Walpurgis
    -Vengeance counters Lunging Bash
    -Adaptable prevented a double Loner, neat. I also assume it counters silverspamming builds.
    -Anvil Strike is annoying and I don’t like it.
    -Monstrous Hide is difficult to play around, I didn’t get the Sundering at the right time.
    -Walpurgis came in handy in giving me some lifesteal, but also removes Adaptations.
    -Having Sneaky Bloodsuck and Swarm in the same creation pool is a bit much.
    -Walpurgis screws with matches a lot.
    -Most test builds, unless they run Acid, are not using armor removal.
    -One magic spell can tear through multiple Bat Swarms, good counter in open maps and if you’re not exposed.
    -Ended up using Sundering to remove a Monstrous Hide that was bugging me for some turns, then finished it with a Laser Whip. Overall my build seemed to work pretty well on this map.

    30. Non-CM vs Fanturluche with Medium Robes Control Wizards
    -Unholy Curse can quickly pile up damage.
    -Control still isn’t fun to play against, Unholy Curse adds insult to injury.
    -Boo! and Ancient Grudge are near impossible to block when the opponent has Spark Generator, you'd need to roll a 6 even on a 3+ block.
    -Mind Muddle works against move cards but not Vanguard-induced movement.
    -Medium Robes complements control wizards too well, it's a no-brainer to run as many Medium Robes as possible on a wizard.
    -It was a very tedious match, it’s a waiting game for the opponent’s Medium Garbs to get the cards they need to finish me off after rounds and rounds of stalling with control and I wound up losing, though with one of their wizards dead and another damaged.

    31. Non-CM vs Xaphedo with 1/1/1 Form decks
    -Overall I feel my build can manage Werewolves and even Vampires, barring Swarm of Bats, but Spirits are a real pain for my deck with Boo!, Forgetfulness and Mind Muddle.
    -I Won by inactivity timeout.

    32. Non-CM vs Fanturluche with WizWizPri including control, Undeath Spark, Blight and Rad Bomb
    -My Priest got two Mass Frenzied Laser Whips on a Dwarf Wizard, which killed him.
    -After a while it becomes a match for getting more victory squares once both remaining opponents got a Spirit form though Medium Robes and Shifting Block, but with all the Mind Muddles, Forgetfulness and the threat of Doom and Grudge it was difficult to achieve victory square dominance.
    -A Boo! used by the opponent did help me get closer to the victory square, but I imagine that if the Wizard also had Mind Muddle when I used it that I might have just ragequit. :p
    -My Sunders didn't help against Medium Robes on account of the difficulty of being next to the Wizard wearing them.
    -My Priest died just as he got to the Victory Square on the other side of the map, but in the process I managed to bait the opposing Wizard into leaving the victory square, earning me the one victory point I needed to win with my remaining Warrior.

    33. Non-CM vs Fanturluche with two Dwarf Priests and Human Wizard with Blight, Spark of Undeath, Unholy Energy, Terrain and Accel Time
    -Spark of Undeaths used offensively mostly seem to matter when you don’t have any non-attack cards to discard at the end of the round, in my case I retained my Adaptable and Reliable Mails.
    -This changes when Accel Time is used, but the limited range means it can’t reach across the whole board. This seems more viable on some maps than others depending on the spread of victory squares.
    -All those Sparks used offensively can easily backfire if the target has enough movement to use the additional cards.
    -Wound up losing on victory squares, but it was a close match.

    -Somewhat mixed results overall, it doesn't seem the CM builds I faced were overpowered with the exception of Medium Garb being a recurring pain to deal with.
    -I've not been able to test my build against the most absurd CM builds yet, so I'll continue using my build for now.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 2, 2016
    #11
  12. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 39
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    Some more testing of the same non-CM party as before against some staple CM builds, with the help of Frostguard who played the builds I asked him to play.

    34. Non-CM vs Frostguard with Vengeance Stepping Wind Dancer Vanguard Human Warriors on Host
    -My opponent has a lot of movement using focused stepping and Vanguard, plus Vengeance and Prowl, making for a build that can be very aggressive.
    -My Elf Warrior quickly fell but also got off some nice damage with frenzied attacks and Trained Bludgeons from Mimetic Crown, though I couldn’t use Laser Whip in close quarters.
    -Between Prowl and Steps and Vangaurd and Vengeance, my opponent could disengage with weakened warriors, though he chose not to.
    -My opponent didn’t have armor removal, which dampened his damage output considerably, and I could stack frenzies and use Mimetic Crown to punish his attacks, allowing me to outdamage him.
    -I was on the brink of losing with my Dwarf Warrior almost dead and my Priest nowhere near to help out when I got off a well-timed and lucky Delegate after some positioning, which saved my Dwarf Warrior by giving me a Disorienting Block.
    -Wound up getting a second wind with my Priest getting some Inspirational Presence to heal my Warrior a bit.
    -I wound up winning when my opponent left the victory square to kill my Dwarf Warrior but had no means of returning to it.

    35. Non-CM vs Frostguard with Vengeance Stepping Wind Dancer Vanguard Human Warriors on Cyberspace City
    -My Elf Warrior went down quickly again, this time not getting to use most of his attack cards.
    -My Priest was almost dead so I just Wild Runned away ASAP.
    -This map is very unforgiving, my opponent got his squad in the middle of the map very quickly and it’s hard to engage with three Human Warriors packed together like that.

    36. Non-CM vs Frostguard with Vengeance Stepping Wind Dancer Vanguard Human Warriors on Competitive Catering
    -This was a very odd match. It was mostly a trade of blows between his warriors and mine.
    -My opponent was as mobile as ever, dancing around the battlefield. This proved to work to my advantage because Warriors like to be at a range before the use a Step attack, but my Laser Whip works best from a range.
    -Pushback works oddly with cards like Dodge, Vengeance and Swarm of Bats if it's not dodged altogether, it first determines the direction pushback should happen in and then the opponent moves and then he’s pushed in that direction. Probably working as intended but it's weird nonetheless.
    -I had a Meltdown from my Laser Whip kill my two Warriors who were both at 8 at the time though. Whoops! :confused:
    -After this it was one on one between my Priest and one Warrior, both on the victory squares. I quickly realized my Disorienting Block was useless so long as he waited until I struck first and he could get behind me with Vengeance, so I played the waiting game, and many turns were passed. I accidentally got rid of my Priest’s Laser Whip but redrew another copy some rounds later after some heals as well. In the end my opponent decided to attack and I got to use my Disorienting to set up a killing Laser Whip, narrowly winning me the match.

    37. Non-CM vs Frostguard with double Acid Wizards and Bless/Cleansing Ray/Martyr Priest on Barrel Battle
    -I got an early lead in movement, letting my Elf Warrior quickly descend on the enemy.
    -I got a lucky Laser Spray from a Laser Whip, boosted by Frenzy and only hitting my enemies.
    -By the time my Elf Warrior ran out of cards, my opponent was throwing out 11 damage Hexes, killing my Elf Warrior and damaging my Priest. I did manage to kill one Wizard though.
    -Once my Priest was dead I was at a disadvantage, I couldn’t stall since my armor would not work and the damage from Dissolving Hex accumulates too quickly, I tried to go offensive but it backfired leaving me stranded for victory terrain and quickly losing health.

    38. Non-CM vs Frostguard with double Acid Wizards and Bless/Cleansing Ray/Martyr Priest on Necromancer’s Heaven
    -Opponent got off an Acid Spray blocking me from walking through, which really makes me use up moves, makes me wish I had Vanguard.
    -Got off a 4 Frenzy combo of Extra Hack and Bludgeon after a Lunging Bash that also had a Bruiser buff for 10 damage, killing one Wizard.
    -At this point drawing attacks is crucial, armor is totally wasted against Acid.
    -Once enough Acid is on the field you pretty much need to be out of the enemy wizards' LoS, this is very difficult if there's two or even three wizards.
    -Martyr makes hitting my opponent a gamble, what if he draws Dissolving Hex?
    -All the Acid makes it hard to reach my opponent once he gets away.
    -I got Laser Whip and Fiery Stab in my Priest's hand, enough to kill the remaining Wizard if I had the right position.
    -Using movement, Walk, Team! and my warrior’s Disorienting Block I lined up a Laser Whip and Fiery Stab to kill the Wizard.
    -After that I just had to kill the already weakened priest, which I did with attacks from my Warrior and a second Laser Whip and Spear of Darkness from my Priest.
    -This map was hard to use Acid on, but it seems just spamming Acid is a gamble against Warriors, perhaps it’s best to also bring some control if you run Acid.

    39. Non-CM vs Frostguard with double Boo! Wizards and Vampire’s Kiss Priest
    -Baran took 14 Laser damage from Laser Whip! :)
    -“Baran recovered 12 HP.” Never mind that Laser Whip. :(
    -Then I got kissed to near death, and finished off by a Punishing Bolt.
    -My opponent had the electric Traits, giving Boo! a Hard To Block effect. This is an issue with many Arcane Cards and blocking against magic, but in the case of Boo! I don't see why the card is even Arcane rather than Sonic.
    -My warriors are locked down, it seems to me you need to use a Purging Priest or use anti-attachment armor in order to win against Boo. Wyvernhide would probably laugh at it, but that’s only for Wizards.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -Overall I'd say that my build is evenly matched with Vengeance, perhaps coming ahead a bit, can win against dedicated Acid/Bless on a favourable map but otherwise is outmatched and is hopeless against Boo!
    -The biggest issue with a dedicated vengeance/stepping build is armor removal, if I scrounged up enough armor then all those attacks are a lot less scary.
    -As I can tell dedicated Acid's 'weakness' is that it still requires some setup and its set-up cards only last two rounds, plus it lacks control needed to remove warriors who manage to get through the layers of Acid. I still think this is a very difficult build to play against, however, especially on large and open maps.
    -As far as I can tell Boo! can be stacked in such a quantity that you'd need a lot of Purges or to run anti-attachment armor to be able to do anything with your characters. Perhaps there is a new niche for Wyrmhide between Boo!, Shock of Undeath and Walpurgis Night? The card being Arcane also synergizes too well with Electric Traits, I think it should be reclassified as Sonic.
    -I used to think Laser Whip was overvalued, but ever since I've been using it I've come to appreciate it as an attack that can catch people off-guard and get otherwise impossible kills. Plus that Laser Malfunction can work out really well or poorly, and you can see an example of both in this report. ;)
     
    Maniafig, Oct 2, 2016
    #12
    Flaxative likes this.
  13. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thanks for this, it's very valuable. I've got you at 39 games.
     
    Flaxative, Oct 3, 2016
    #13
  14. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 46
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    Some more testing of my non-CM build against typical CM builds, overall I'd say there's some builds I simply can't handle and I assume most builds would have issues handling too.

    40. Non-CM vs Vitreo2084 with Triple Control/Grudge/Punishing Bolt Human Wizards on Cyberspace Arena
    -Priest died to a Lava Pool and a few Hard-to-Block Punishing Bolts, even though Wounded Block.
    -Leadership can quickly discard cards and get the control/Grudge it needs but it means missing out of more Vanguard. Looks like it’d synergize with Medium Robes' card generation.
    -Control continues to be annoying to play against, Vengeance would come in handy I’m sure.
    -Round 3 and my opponents had ~10 discarded cards each.
    -It wound up being a resounding loss.

    I need more mobility on my Dwarf, so I equip Vibrant Pain and Troll’s Ire to replace double Katana.

    41. Non-CM vs Karnal1 with triracial PriPriWiz with Vamp Kiss and Inq. Bolt on Cyberspace Arena
    -Cards created by Mimetic don’t get altered by Vamp Kiss.
    -Vamp Kiss spam recovers too much HP to combat with attacks and it laughs at armor.
    -Lots of Inq. Bolts, they punish my Sunderings and Vampire cards on my Priest.
    -Inq. Bolt + Vampire Kiss generally doesn’t seem like it synergizes as it should, but it doesn’t matter since Vampire Kiss is OP right now anyway.
    -Only my Dwarf Warrior left, I resign since I can’t hope to outdamage the enemy or win through victory squares.

    42. Non-CM vs Frostguard with Walpurgis+Inq Bolt Dwarven WizWizPri on Celestial Koi
    -Subterranean Ferocity is very good card advantage for a tokenless unless the opponent also runs three Dwarves.
    -3 TK in a row, that’s a nuisance.
    -Overall I’m finding the Hard to Block boost that Arcane cards get to be very insufferable in general, it feels like the electric traits are almost never used to boost electric attacks, it just shuts down magic/any blocks and dissuades me from not just using triple Parry. Especially so against control, Ancient Grudge and Punishing Bolt as those are some cards you want to block the most.
    -Adapted to Silver looks nice, very different.
    12 damage from an Inq Bolt after 1 Walpurgis, that’s what I get for packing Sundering and some Vamping on my Priest.
    -Next turn everyone draws form cards, both sides having one of each form but Spirit.
    -Walpurgis combos best with Inq. Bolt if you stock up on them both first and then unload double Walpurgis and a lo of Inq. Bolts, which my opponent did not do.
    -Adaptable’s constant attachments are somewhat helpful here.
    -Sundering counters Monstrous Hide.
    -Silver Lightning is a lot of direct damage.
    -A build like this struggles with armor.
    -Wound up going for stalling on the sole victory square.
    Opponent got a frenzied, Talented Healer combo going against my priest and TKed their Priest on the victory square after my Priest died, pretty much ending the match right there.
    -Walpurgis can backfire by giving Zombie Form.
    -Flight Aura is nerfed by taking extra Inq. Bolt damage.
    -Out of all forms Zombie is the most likely to redraw itself, with about 30% to redraw itself with just two cards.

    43. Non-CM vs Frostguard with Walpurgis+Inq Bolt Dwarven WizWizPri on Melting Glacier
    -Got a Flanking Move + Laser Whip for 15 damage.
    -Opponent got a Destructive Purged Creature of the Night on my Dwarf Warrior, which paired with the Sundering in my normal deck made me take a lot of Inq Bolt damage.
    -Double Nimble Strike killed opponent’s 8 HP Dwarf Wizard I had attacked with Laser Whip.
    -Destructive Purge gave me Fright and Trip, ouch.
    -Opponent used Walpurgis, cleansing my attachments in the process, including the handicaps and Mass Frenzy.
    -Walpurgis matches are fun, I’ll give it that. Unless everyone gets Spirit and starts using Spirit cards, those are annoying.
    -Ended up winning, but I notice that my build has some Inq Bolt issues even when no Walpurgis is used, which seems unfair since barely any non-CM Wizards care are punished by it. Only a few of the Spirit cards are Wizard cards, and Fragile Curse and Doom are Priest cards which means Priests get punished for having cards shared with a form deck from another class.

    44. Non-CM vs Frostguard with Triple Dwarf Wizard Acid/Boo! on Hyper Thalamus Havoc
    -Lots of movement on turn 1, like Violent Spin and Team Walk lots.
    -I was lucky and out of range of my opponent’s boos as I got close to one wizard.
    -Got lucky next turn with a Flanking Move Fiery Stab, I’m very lucky in all this really.
    -Opponent didn’t get off much Acid in first two turns, mostly just Blasts boosted by Acid Leak.
    -You really need Sprays and Jets in a Hexing build.
    -One of my Warriors got Boo!ed but the other did not, and the other was more dangerous that turn.
    -Nimble Strike laughs at Acid terrain, and then I blocked a Dissolving Hex, giving me the opportunity to slash up another Wizard and score the 2 points I needed to win.
    -Overall I won easily, not losing a single character, but I count this as a fluke given my luck and my opponent’s poor draws.

    45. Non-CM vs Frostguard with Triple Dwarf Wizard Acid/Boo! on Dungeon of Decay
    -First turn and my Elf Warrior is already dead after 3 long-ranged Dissolving Hexes after some Acid Jets/Sprays.
    -Clearly the Acid build is very draw-reliant, as my draws were still rather good, giving me lots of step attacks to cover a lot of difficult terrain.
    -Second turn my Warrior Nimble Strikes in, but is Boo!ed and retreats.
    -Priest died to two 12-damage Hexes.
    -Warrior was constantly Boo!ed and unable to do much, just stood there and took Hexes until she died.

    46. Non-CM vs Frostguard with Triple Dwarf Wizard Acid/Boo! on Maztec Melee
    -Second turn, I’m approaching with my Warriors thanks to generous movement, when both get Boo!ed.
    -All the Acid makes it hard to home in on enemies, especially if step attacks can’t be used. That Dash made from Boo! might as well be a Shuffle if there's a lot of Acid.
    -“Dori took 17 Acid damage.”
    -Dwarf Warrior was killed by another Hex, Elf stuck with Boo!.
    -I’m honestly not sure what to do in a situation like this, staying means death, leaving means giving them time to power up Hexes.
    -“Vinegar took 20 Acid damage.” And then he died to Acid terrain damage next round.
    -Killed one dwarf Wizard using Laser Whip, two Lunging Bashes and his own Acid Terrain.
    -Still wound up losing.
    -The only chance to win against this much Acid is to get lucky and not face much Boo!, draw enough movement and hope the opponent doesn’t get a lot of Jets/Sprays/Hexes.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -Vibrant Pain is simply required for my Dwarf Warrior to function, and with Troll's Ire to still have some Sundering I think this is much closer to what my ideal deck looks like. All it needs is more purging, but I'm not sure where to put it. I wish the game had a double Purging Burst tokenless Divine Item.
    -Hard-to-Block makes Arcane magic very hard to deal with, blocks are virtually useless against them. This has been a recurring problem since I started using my non-CM deck and is especially pronounced with Boo!, control, Ancient Grudge and Punishing Bolt.
    -Inq. Bolt is a problem in general, should it punish forms or form cards? If it only punishes forms, then wouldn’t it be similar to Obvious Maneuver in having an obvious SP/MP distinction, since forms aren’t used in SP? Then again, if Inq. Bolt did just punish forms that would still allow a combo with Undeath Spark or Walpurgis, so it wouldn’t be useless even on enemies without Forms in their deck. On the other hand, then something like Medium Garb has zero drawback at all.
    -Why should some cards that aren’t overpowered, like Sundering or Flight Aura, be punished? What is the rationale for punishing these cards but not others that people complain about, like control cards for example?
    -Furthermore, the degree to which Inq. Bolt punishes formless decks is heavily biased against Priests and Warriors, and would be even more so if Zombie form cards also get punished by Inq. Bolt.
    -Though I got one win against focused Acid, it was honestly a fluke and the other two matches, especially the second match, were disastrous. I shudder to think how much worse this build could get if it also included control, which is something Frostguard and I might test next.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2016
    Maniafig, Oct 3, 2016
    #14
  15. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thank you. I think we're ready to start making some changes, so you might want to take a well-earned break :)

    I have you at 46 games.
     
    Flaxative, Oct 4, 2016
    #15
    Maniafig likes this.
  16. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Since I've been taking a break from testing MP I've been having some fun playing SP instead with only CM items! So far I've done the level 1~5 modules and all AotA modules except Blizzy.

    -Low level priests get a lot of new toys. I'm fond of Flail of Fury and Inquisitor's Morningstar as low-level Divine Weapons. Nightmetal Shield and Galvanized Zombie Boots are nice for being low level, having harmless cycling and a neat Lunging Bash. For a token there's the triple Lucky Charm Shield and the triple Prowl or Investigate Boots which all seem like very nice items to use for me, and I've enjoyed using them too. There's not many new Divine Armours, but overall all of them are pretty nice, Ghoul's Rags and St. Hedvig's Black Halo are both fun to use right now, though the former's probably going to change. For a token there's more access to Sacred Shroud, which in my test runs have drastically added to my party's surviveability. A lot of the Divine Items are very good as well, many having harmless cycling and vampire attacks paired with buff/debuff magic, useful all around. When I first played CH Priests were still very hard to use, most assist cards couldn't even self-target, but since then using priests in SP has gotten better and better, which I like to see. :D

    -Wizards also get some fun new toys. A lot of the new low level staves are high on damage, having even up to three Silver Bolts for one blue token! Xemu's Conclusion is also fun to use in some modules since certain mods are massacred by Inquisition Bolt, and Subtle Parry is much more useful in SP than MP. Tokenless Arcane Items have tough competition from the cheesy Firestorm, but Silverfire Vial is a cool tokenless Arcane Item which is rather unique for having a Inq. Bolt, while the introduction of Boo! ad Ancient Grudge to Arcane Items also give Wizards more to use in SP than the control, terrain and burning I tended towards on my wizards. Nightling is pretty much the new Squeamish for SP Wizards. There's not many new Robes but overall all of them are good across all quality levels. Cautious Sentry Boots are nice for Wizards since they benefit much more from the Jump Back than other classes.

    -Out of all classes I think Warriors got the least new toys to play with, but I think that's because they share most of their toys with priests. Blazing Torchsword and Captain Cedric's Vow are my favourite new low-level weapons, while Pitchfork of Shelter is also nice in some modules. Haven't really seen Warding Lance much overall, perhaps it's something to try out. There's sadly not too many helmets, though Howl is an interesting addition to the Helm Card pool, with Chapeau of the Afflicted Artist and Outgrown Helm being good tokenless options for SP Helms. Right now Snarlcub is the go-to armor for pretty much any module, but Recruit's Coat is also nice for being itemizing Inspirational Mail on a tokenless. Inquisitor's Coat is similarly interesting as a Yellow token item, something worth trying and very accessible due to its commonness. Really, all the yellow token armor is very pleasing, they definitely add more longevity to Warriors if used. Meanwhile Haunted Mail showcases the absurdity of Enchanted Mail's quality by being level 17, I think that might be the game's most overvalued card. :p

    -When it comes to racial skill items, it seems everyone wins! Dwarves get two new tokenless options that suit Wizards and all-dwarf parties well while the tokened options are also overall very playable. The only missing piece seems to be a triple Antimagic Skin item, though it's already well-itemized as is. Humans get access to a tokenless focused blocking item and of course the much-lauded Subtle Positioning, which deserves every bit of praise it gets. Upgrading to a blue token gives access to some more focused Vanguard item or less Vanguard with the addition of cards that are always nice to have in a build while for a yellow token there's Savant and Venerable Positioning which both look very good. Though generally I think I would prefer triple Vanguard over Vanguard and two Forward Thinking. For Elves I'm fond of both Drow Rapidity and Scouting Silversmith for Wizards and Priests. A double tokenless Feysmith would be nice, but I also quite like Focused Silversmith and Fey Insight. The yellow token Fleet items look rather expensive given I'm not sure Fleet is worth that much, but Fleet is another one of those things I'll need to test more, perhaps I'll be surprised with how much I like it.

    -Similarly, the three classes also get some nifty new skills, even tokenless! While Delicate Dervish is a no-go in SP (Should Superstitious be Keep?), Reckless and Untrained Lycanthropy are nice tokenless Werewolf skills. For a blue token I'm fond of Focused Dervish as well as Frenzied and Howling Lycanthropy which both give nice access to Werewolves. Priests only get two tokenless options, but both of them are nice for a Priest that's strongly on the Unholy side of things. Stalking Vampirism is an excellent tokenless vampire skill while Beginner Corruption is cool for having Destructive Purge as well as some other negative attachments for the enemy. For higher costs Focused Corruption and Tainted Vampirism are both nice for having perfect cycling as well as being nice traits to have in general, assuming Blight gets buffed somewhat. I really like Blight and Wind dancer being Silver- cards that get blue-token focused items. For Wizards I'd say Battery and Bump in the Night are the most interesting tokenless items, Acid Leak is generally better in SP than MP while Bump in the Night mixes Spirit Form with nice cycling and the useful and flexible TK, while all blue token skills are interesting in their own right depending on how much Acid Leak, Spirit Form and direct damage you want. Vengeful Ethereality looks very unique especially. Oddly enough there's no double Spirit Form item for a blue token, if you want that then you are looking at a yellow token and at that point triple Spirit Form might serve you better. A deliberate omission?

    -Overall I think these new items definitely improve the SP experience for new players. When I first played I found that the introduction of skills just muddled my deck with cards I don't want, but balance changes since then and all these new skills that have been introduced make these slots far more interesting and exciting. The new items for other slots are overall also a very nice bunch, a lot of them are well-designed from both a mechanical as well as artistic standpoint. There's also many more viable items added for handicap quests since Creature of the Night is even better than Combustible for SP.

    -It’s nice seeing the SP banter again, some stuff even got changed since the first time I saw it! One thing I have been missing through CM is this sort of banter, I'm probably in the minority in that but an expansion's just not the same when there's no Gary and Karin to be excited over it while Melvin grumbles how Blue Manchu must be out of its mind. I do hope there'll be a CM-themed set of modules at some point in the future, regardless of whether it's playing through the story laid out in the blogs or playing through the aftermath of the events some modules pitting the players as monstrous vanguards while fighting against the forces of good. I'm also still rather curious how much CM stuff will make its way into CoC, I do hope we get some inquisition-themed and some form-themed characters. And perhaps a Laser Wizard while we're at it. ;)

    Really looking forwards to seeing what is changing and how!
     
    Maniafig, Oct 6, 2016
    #16
    Gingrich Yurr, timeracers, Melancthon and 1 other person like this.
  17. Kalin

    Kalin Begat G'zok

    Possibly, since that's exactly what I needed for a ridiculous Firestorm team.
     
    Kalin, Oct 6, 2016
    #17
    Melancthon likes this.
  18. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 50
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    Star Man
    Level 21 Elf Wizard

    Christy
    Level 21 Dwarf Priest

    Zendo
    Level 21 Elf Wizard
    This is an edited version of my old Inquisition Bolt strategy, using Spark of Undeath rather than Walpurgis to benefit from Inquisition Bolt's effect and with more control on the Wizards since I could save a token with Dainty Silversmith. I'm very happy to see that item in the game!

    47. Double Inq Bolt + Spark of Undeath vs Frostguard with triple Vangaurd Warriors on Heart of the Mountain
    -Unholy Curse followed by direct damage attacks quickly adds up to a lot of damage, it enough to kill a Warrior in one hail of attacks.
    -I prefer Acid Jet over Mind Muddle as a Spirit card, good call on that change.
    -Traveling Curse is a bigger risk to using Medium Garb than before.
    -I didn’t reliably draw Spark of Undeath but once I did I could unload my Inq Bolts, which is a nice combo.
    -I ended up killing an opponent with Inq Bolts, but the game froze when I did so. I had the upper hand as it happened, and resigned.
    -This might have been a fluke, my opponent didn’t get Vanguard.

    48. Double Inq Bolt + Spark of Undeath vs Frostguard with triple Vangaurd Warriors on Barrel Battle
    -This match-up was pretty much impossible, the map really favours warriors with how cramped it is and the lack of LoS, plus it’s really hard to keep all these warriors away between Vengeance and Step attacks.
    -I’m noticing I don’t reliable draw Spark of Undeath, which is a problem for this build. I might be able to cram in a little bit more Undeath but it's hard to really rely on drawing it.
    -Wounded up being overwhelmed, I lost with only one enemy warrior dead.

    49. Double Inq Bolt + Spark of Undeath vs Frostguard with triple Vangaurd Warriors on Forgotten Temple
    -This went even worse than the last match, I got the elements I needed to do damage; Sparks of Undeath, Inquisition Bolts and even a Punishing Bolt, but I can’t use Spark of Undeath if the enemy can just use all this movement from Vanguard, Steps, Vengeance and Shuffle to turn the extra draws and Blind Rage against me.
    -I wound up with two dead Wizards by turn 2 and resigned.

    50 Double Inq Bolt + Spark of Undeath vs Frostguard with triple Control/Punishment Human Wizards
    -This deck works better against other wizards because it overwhelms them with direct damage and they can’t really make use of Spark of Undeath’s benefits and generally hindered by Zombie Form.
    -I got the same bug as before, trying to reveal a defeated opponent's hand, and resigned as a result.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -This deck is currently bugged, but I can see that a lack of reliability regarding Spark of Undeath draws and control is its downfall, plus a lack of armor removal. I don't see this sort of build being very viable since it's a miracle if it wins against Warriors, Spark of Undeath is just very difficult to use.
    -Inq. Bolt is a lot less good than it used to be, it's hard to use its niche since you can't rely on opponents using forms on their own accord as a basis for building a deck so you'll need Walpurgis, which is unreliable and could kill your tempo which Wizards do not like, or Spark of Undeath which can backfire horribly and so far usually has for me. I think it could do with a bit higher base damage, like 3 base damage, but overall I doubt its viability. I do think the unconditional hand revealing aspect is nice though, perhaps there's a combo out there with Inq. Bolt and Devastating Blow.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 10, 2016
    #18
  19. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

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    Christy
    Level 21 Dwarf Priest

    Yew
    Level 21 Dwarf Priest

    Izzy
    Level 21 Dwarf Priest
    This build is based around applying Spark of Undeath and using Daylight to heal off resulting damage while harming the opponent with unpreventable damage.

    51 Triple Healing Dwarf Priests vs Frostguard with triple Vangaurd Warriors on Cyber Arena
    -This first match was played without the Spark of Undeather, but with a third Daylight spammer.
    -I have all the heals. http://i.imgur.com/gYxdpAk.png
    -As it turns out though, this doesn’t work since I don’t have enough damage, or control, or anything but healing really. I need a way to apply forms to use Daylight's potential.
    -It’s possible to get a lot of healing by using a lot of Radiant Goblets, but it’s hard to use them effectively with Dwarf Priests because they're so sluggish, especially on maps with poor LoS.

    -I changed one Priest to focus on Spark of Death, as is seen in the above decklist.

    52 Double Daylight and Undeath Spark vs Frostguard with triple Control/Punishment Human Wizards on Batford’s Sanctuary
    -Spark of Undeath was much better here than a third Daylight user, I could use it paired with Daylight to recover lost HP while also denying the opponent good card draws and making it so they don’t benefit from Daylight.
    -Had a good first hand with two Undeath Sparks, which I used to zombify two wizards.
    -Opponents used control to drag my Undeath priest to them and attack him, but my Daylights hept him at good HP while the zombies started falling. Since they only have 21 HP it only took 6 Daylights to kill them, but this is obviously much harder to do against Priests, let alone Warriors.
    -Investigate and Sacred Shroud also help to keep my party healthy, though it’s hard to juggle these Dwarf Priests.
    -Daylight’s biggest blessing is ignoring armor, which means it’s useful against all forms rather than useless against Spirits and Werewolves, I really like this new Daylight more than the old one.

    53 Double Daylight and Undeath Spark vs Frostguard with triple Control/Punishment Human Wizards on Lichard’s Mausoleum
    -This is an awful map for my sluggish priests, TK is a nightmare.
    -I can heal off any damage just fine, but control means I can’t really approach my enemies at all.
    -Blind Rage does come in handy against wizards just because it often winds up doing 3 or 6 damage.
    -Talented Healer works very well with Daylight.
    -This build is very reliant on the Undeath Sparker, if he’s gone then it crumbles.
    -Wound up losing, I was too aggressive with Blind Rage zombies near me, two Sacred Shrouds was not enough to withstand so much damage.

    54 Double Daylight and Undeath Spark vs Frostguard with triple Control/Punishment Human Wizards on The Fool’s Trap
    -Got Sparks of Undeath on two Wizards but they wound up being the end of my priest, since I just got pulled to the zombies with control cards while my Daylighters were pushed away.
    -After that the game was pretty much over, I couldn’t get enough Daylights to outheal the damage I was taking, Dwarf Priests are not nimble enough.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -I didn't think this build would be viable, since it looks really gimmicky, and that wound up being a correct assumption.
    -Just like the previous build I tried, Spark of Undeath is really difficult to use offensively since you need to be absolutely sure it won't turn against you. This means making sure they don't have more movement and control than you have movement and control, and that's rather situational.
    -Daylight is much more viable now that its offensive functionality has been buffed considerably and it has great use against terrain builds, which is another aspect I'll need to test. Overall I think the card can have a niche as the best cleansing card in the game and I don't see it being overpowered.
     
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2016
    Maniafig, Oct 10, 2016
    #19
  20. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 57
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    Tep
    Level 21 Human Warrior

    Hotep
    Level 21 Human Warrior

    Hohotep
    Level 21 Human Warrior

    This is a fun build I wanted to try, based around Werewolf Form, Howl, Nimble Strike and Vanguard.

    The idea is that the Howls serve as a source of healing while also giving me movement, armor and attacks needed to finish my enemies, while aggressively pushing forwards with the help of all the movement from Vangaurd and my Boots. Also using Inspiring Armor, though it only came up once in these three games. Defender's Block rounds it up nicely to give my characters a lot of chances to draw more Howls, steps and Strong Hacks.

    55 Triple Nimble Howling Human Warriors vs Frostguard with Draw, Control and Fire Dwarves on Dungeon
    -First turn I got ample movement and the means to kill the control Wizard who went for the victory squares.
    -It’s easy to stack Howl in a deck, this gives nice healing, some nice attacks, very good armor and a very powerful Charge. The armor is especially good against fire, being unhindered by armor removal.
    -Nimble Strikes are as good as ever in crossing the gap between warrior and wizard, I really like Howling Pain for that, plus it’s not even Legendary.
    -After this the priest came up to me for an attack and then tried to run away, though in doing so I got in some damage and got to set up a highly telegraphed 15-damage Might Charge once I realized the priest had no move cards.

    56 Triple Nimble Howling Human Warriors vs Frostguard with Draw, Control and Fire Dwarves on Haunted Hall
    -Started off the match with like 6 Howls, very good for stalling when you don’t want to pass.
    -I get access to a lot of movement, healing and armor with a build like this.
    -It was looking pretty close as I was moving in on my enemy, since he removed a lot of my armor and the fire damage was really building up, but I managed to break through using Vanguard and Team Walk, after which I took out the two Wizards.
    -After that it was a scramble to not die and get the last victory point I needed to win, at which point my Vanguard once more came in handy, as it made sure I could get victory square dominance.

    57 Triple Nimble Howling Human Warriors vs Frostguard with Draw, Control and Fire Dwarves on Quad Arena
    -Both me and the opponent got everyone on victory squares the first turn with Team Walk+Vangaurd for me and TK for the opponent.
    -Approached opponent and he got one of my warriors killed and I killed the fire wizard.
    -After that I had a weakened warrior and the opponent had a weakened Priest, but neither of us could get to the other the following turns, since I couldn't get past the amount of control the wizard was drawing thanks to the priest.
    -Ended up losing to a Medium Robes’ Ancient Grudge powered by a discard pile of 19 cards, since my opponent had a draw engine. Draw engines really crank up the power of that card.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -Howl is useful against builds you don't want to pass against as a stalling card.
    -The werewolf card/Howl pool is nicely balanced overall, I think. The attacks it has are nice overall, it has steps as well as anti-armor cards and AoA for a big surprise, but it does lack cards that are just flatly a lot of damage like Powerful Hack. Mighty Charge can be very hit-or-miss depending on the map as well, as sometimes it can lead to very high damage and other times the map makes it impossible to get more then 6 damage.
    -The healing from Howl works best when the opponent isn't focusing on one of your warriors exclusively, which with the amount of movement these warriors get should generally not happen, but it can mitigate Howl's advantage.
    -In its new form Medium Robes is riskier because Traveling Curse is more likely to hurt a lot, especially with two Medium Robes, and it lacks Mind Muddle and has a nerfed Boo!, but I still think having it be Keep Armor with such a powerful effect is incongruous with other weak armor armor with powerful bonus effects like Arcane Aura or Horned Plates. The main problem with the card was the incredibly powerful bonus effect and not its value as armor and I don’t think the changed address this enough.
    -Overall I'm not sure how viable Howling is, especially Howling Pain, but I definitely won't write it off as being unviable. I'll need to test this more, but I like it so I'll enjoy testing it.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 10, 2016
    #20
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