The current map rotation will usually be posted as a future comment, so if you are looking for the current rotation, look there. I'd like to use this thread to talk about the maps for the multiplayer ranked matches. You can view a list of all the maps here. Here are the maps for ranked matches (for the Second Frozen Janizza season): Ice House (Ranked) Woodhome Blizzard (Ranked) Crundyup's Bridge (Ranked) Melting Glacier (Ranked) In my opinion, the maps feel very favorable for wizards, especially control ones. The maps are wide open for wizards to burst damage from far away. Items with damaging cards that have the Burst property are great if you're using wizards, including Blue Destruction, Staff Of A Million Embers/Barnum's Staff, and Searing Pain/Staff Of The Fire God. The maps also seem great for decks that focus on rushing and killing the opponent ASAP. The Rocket Charge card can be used very effectively due to the placement of the Victory Point tiles, notably on the Ice House map where the distance between the VP tiles (5 tiles) is perfect for charge cards. 1/1/1 decks (1 warrior, 1 priest, 1 wizard) look playable in this rotation as well. I've pointed this out because this is my go-to deck and I've noticed that the team is weakest on small maps favored for warrior-heavy teams. I'd like to hear other people's opinions. I will also use this thread for future map rotations if people are interested.
I think that is because there are Xmas maps and have different conditions compared to normal ranked maps. See them as a different type of maps allowed for ranked. Also remember than the best team is usually the one that fight against the meta.
Don’t forget the melting glacier map too! I agree with your analysis that all of these maps are wizard friendly. There aren’t much blocking terrain covering the victory points and in all the maps except woodhome, there is a lot of room to run around warrior/priest teams, and if they split up to flank you, a wizard based team can take the opportunity to pick a 2v1 or 3v1 fight. Responding to Force, I’m not sure if the best team is the one that counters “the meta”. The meta, at least early season, is quickly changing, and is usually made up of too many parallel builds and play styles to counter effectively with one build. In my opinion, It’s better to study the maps tactically and come up with a solid, flexible team that sets the trend and make the opponent adjust to your style, rather than respond to whatever happens to be popular now.
New season's maps: Gladius Wall (Ranked) Gladius Quad (Ranked) Gladius Single (Ranked) Gladius Triple (Ranked) For me, I've never played any of these maps except for Gladius Triple (or a reskin of it), so I'm just basing my opinion off first impressions of the maps. Right off the bat, I can see burst wizards (using items like Blue Destruction or Searing Pain) being very powerful as they require no line of sight in order to deal damage. However, the space of the maps are limited and don't give much breathing room to said wizards, making them super prone to warriors rushing them. As a result, I plan to see a lot more 2 warrior + 1 priest decks in play or even triple warriors for these maps. Since I've had no experience on these maps, this will be interesting to play out.
I do agree with your assessment that 2 warrior 1 priest is very strong on these maps, for example holding down the twin VPs on your side on gladius quad and launching a coordinated attack, or for contesting the single VP on gladius single, or for getting majority VP control of gladius triple. However, Gladius Wall is pretty wizard favored, as wizards can long distance pressure all the VPs with only three squares of movement. The midline river and difficult terrain are also ideal places for wizard to position behind and use control to deny warrior positioning. Gladius quad and single, in contrast, can be tough for wizards, since there are significant blocking terrain around the victory point(s). Contesting VPs is tricky for wizards on both maps, and they often need to resort to outright killing of the other team in order to win, which can be made harder by the fact that cover is easy to find on both maps. Gladius triple is a mixed bag for wizards. On the one hand, you can position three wizards to cover every victory point, but on the other hand, you have limited space to escape should the warrior/priest team save moves and step attacks and launch an offensive.
The two maps with river terrain remind me of I think it was August? Practically begging for vibrant-pain warriors and telekinesis wizards to do their thing.
Might be one of the few map rotations where dwarf warriors can shine! Then again, is it the dwarf or is it the Vibrant Pain?
July maps, like Showroom showdown and Lichard’s Mausoleum, were very Fly favored, so TKs and Nimbles had a high value that month. Gladius wall and single definitely reminds me of that rotation, but it isn’t quite as bad
Current season's maps: Batford's Ballroom (Ranked) Batford's Kitchen (Ranked) Batford's Parlor (Ranked) Batford's Sanctuary (Ranked) From my experiences, the times I lost were times where I just went ham, didn't care, and wanted VP control regardless of my card setup. Bad idea. These maps are not wizard-friendly, that is, if you move first on your wizard before the enemy. Basically, take advantage of the blocked terrain and abuse the line of sight mechanic by baiting your enemy in. At least, that's just what I think. Positioning is crucial for these maps as there is a ton of blocked terrain, which means your line of sight on your characters will be limited. It also provides cover to prevent your opponent from progressing onto the Victory Point tiles, standing right around the corner where no wizards can use Winds Of War on you.
The Batford's maps are terrible for wizard, in stark contrast to the christmas maps. You're right that control wizards are very good on control maps. They're still beatable but the advantage the map gives is big, especially after playing the Batford's maps for a while.
Ah, I missed out on the last map rotation. Sorry about that, been playing other games instead of CH (rip Huetotl's Firebrand that I missed in my RR). The current map rotation includes the Celestial PVP Maps: Celestial Dojo Celestial Koi Celestial Lions Celestial Temple Just from looking at these maps, they are super open for wizards to cast spells from a safe distance. The issue is that each map has spots where warriors can position themselves to lose their line of sight against the wizards. Elf warriors will especially have a great advantage if positioned correctly, where they are mostly built around rushing the opponent and then killing them quickly. Elves also have the Dash card for movement, making it even easier to maneuver around the map. Wizards with cards that apply Encumber, such as items like Instant Snowman, may find great success countering warriors or really anyone trying to cross the "no-man's land" of the maps. Once again though, line of sight is important for these maps.
