[EXEMPLARY FEEDBACK] Maniafig's Measurements

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

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  1. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 63
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    58 Triple Nimble Howling Human Warriors vs Vitreo2084 with TK/Grudge Human Wizards on Cyberspace Dojo
    -Lots of movement on first turn, meaning I got close early.
    -Vanguard really helps against TK spam.
    -Killed a Wizard with a lot of steps, got the kill with Weak Strike.
    -Vangaurd really helps against Terrain too, it means even someone with an empty hand can get away.
    -After that my opponent couldn’t get enough control to keep my warriors away, it was a matter of homing in on the wizards and defeating them.
    -It’s hard to use Grudge against an aggressive build like mine, ideally there’s not enough time to get a high discard pile going unless they’re serious about card draws or get off Pathfinding.

    59 Triple Nimble Howling Human Warriors vs Vitreo2084 with TK/Grudge Human Wizards on Forest
    -Double Vanguard on first turn.
    -Got two Inspirational Armors that activated against one attack, and two Defender’s Blocks on the first turn also, enough to get to and kill one Warrior and get another to 1 HP. Vanguard pairs very well with Howling Pain I find, and my card drawing defenses really help to draw them.
    -Unsuccessfully tried to set up a Mighty Charge, it’s pretty hard not to telegraph those.
    -Overall an easy win, even though it’s a very open map with good Line of Sight. That also makes it good for Charges, I guess.
    -Is Shifting Block worth the silver quality? Its randomness already makes it less valuable, but ¼ odds of Zombie Form, a pure drawback, already makes it very risky, and generally I don’t think Wizards want to be Vampires or Werewolves with their low HP.

    60 Triple Nimble Howling Human Warriors vs Vitreo2084 with TK/Terrain Human Wizards on Cyberspace Temple
    -Once again I was able to get to the enemy wizards on turn 1 using movement boosted by Vanguard.
    -One Wizard dead by turn 2, another almost dead by turn 3.
    -After that I spent the rest of the game on the victory squares, with enough blocks and movement and Howl to be safe from control and damage.
    -Overall I think this build can really tear through wizards, though I do notice that the damage output is lacking, most likely due to a lack of frenzies.

    Vinegar
    Level 21 Human Priest
    Not a lot to say to this priest, it's a rather typical priest with a high emphasis on Frenzies but also with some healing and Martyr thrown in. Probably will need some revision. Also using Vangaurd to help with general mobility and can set up Cantrip Vanguard combos with Flanking Move, though I've not been able to use it so far.

    61 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr Priest vs Frostgaurd with Howling WarWarPri Dwarves on Haunted Cabin
    -Pretty similar decks, us two. I got an early lead though getting on the victory square but my opponent had very good draws, getting early Martyrs on both warriors and also two All Out Attacks in a row, which meant I lost both warriors before I could take down even one.
    -Overall, with this map, the match was pretty much just a trade of blows, there wasn't really much to it.

    62 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr Priest vs Frostgaurd with WarWarPri Dwarves on Heart of the Mountain
    -Bad first hand, but got a nice set of attachments on the second turn, used Martyr and Frenzies plus Nimble Strike to chase down and kill one of the Warriors.
    -After than one of my warriors was almost dead, and died to an AoA+Frenzied Extra Hack, but only after successfully blockchecking the opponent.
    -Once I realized the warrior had no blocks I diminished his 24 HP with a double AoA’d Sundering, which felt good.
    -Wound up losing nonetheless since I didn’t have enough attacks to kill the priest who sat on the victory square, she had 6 HP left and I had a Run and two Mighty Charges but the map made the card useless, I could only do 3 damage with it. It’s very situational.

    63 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr Priest vs Frostgaurd with WarWarPri Dwarves on Cyberspace Arena
    -This match was another disaster, my opponent got off early frenzies and Martyr on his warrior who was next to mine and that match-up didn’t last long. After that my other warrior was quickly overwhelmed and I resigned, since a lonely Priest isn’t going to win any matches by himself.
    -I don’t know if I was just unlucky the last few matches or this matchup is just bound to go poorly, I assume it’s both.
    -In a mirror match like this, the extra movement from Vanguard doesn’t help much if the opponent can put pressure on my team by sitting on victory squares and all the Sunderings the opponent used made any Monstrous Hide draws wasted.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -It seems obvious that this build is very good at taking down Wizards but has problems taking down other Warriors, especially if they are Dwarves and backed with Frenzies and Martyr of their own. I did get close to winning one of the mirror matches, while all the victories against the wizards were definite. Perhaps my matches with the warriors would have gone better if I had been less aggressive, but my builds overall do lack in defensed, relying on Monstrous Hides for their serious armor needs.
    -Vanguard's usefulness varies with the map and situation, though overall it's well worth running and makes humans far more interesting than they used to be. I'm still very fond of the card.
    -Adding the Priest does make my remaining Warriors much more damaging, but I'm not entirely happy with him, I think I might shuffle around items a bit to make him more varied as a backline supporter with more options to heal and make my warriors draw cards.
    -The randomness of Howl and generally being a Werewolf came through in these matches, cards like AoA and Mighty Charge are very situational while other cards like Monstrous Hide, Vicious Thrust and Sundering Strike are pretty much always welcome draws. Perhaps the Hide not so much when the opponent is stacked with armor removal, but if they're not then they could be looking at 6 armor without dice rolls.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 11, 2016
    #21
  2. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 67
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    Testing same party as previous post, except I lowered the amount of Mass Frenzies and increased the amount of Destructive/Bursted/Regular Purges and Martyr's Blessing by switching tokens around.

    64 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr/Purge Priest vs Vitreo with double control Wizards and Crazy Sal Dwarrior on Oasis
    -Oasis is a Wizard friendly map but I still got enough movement to get to the enemy.
    -I used my Purges to draw out a block and remove some Frenzies, pretty good I’d say.
    -The enemy Warrior didn’t get much damage off and my Howls gave me nice cards to deal with him despite his armor, he was dead by turn 3. That did activate my Priest’s Superstitious but it didn’t hinder me much.
    -After that I had Monstrous Hide on both Warriors and just tried to maintain movement and stay on the victory squares, which was not very difficult. After 4 turns I won.

    65 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr/Purge Priest vs Vitreo with double control Wizards and Crazy Sal Dwarrior on Haunted Graveyard
    -Defender’s Block, Martyr’s Blessing and Inspiring Armor are very good at drawing me more cards, which often means more Howls or Lycanthropic cards, so my build really maximizes Werewolf card use.
    -The game turned very laggy in round 2, after I applied Martyr’s Blessing and got attacked and my Inspirational Armor triggered.
    -Even my foil characters don’t seem to be shining properly, their rainbow glow is stuck.
    -I tried to refresh but the server wouldn’t even load properly. Not sure if this has to do with the many cards that were drawn as a result of one attack or just the test server being the test server.

    66 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr/Purge Priest vs KKarma with Triple Walpurgis/Daylight/Purging Burst Human Priest on Cyberspace Dojo
    -First card opponent used was Walpurgis, after I had already drawn Lycanthropic Form on both Warriors.
    -Second turn a Priest approaches me but I use a AoAed Massive Jaws and did 16 damage, then finished it off with the help of card draws from my Martyr.
    -One issue with Lycanthropic Form is that it’s an attachment, so cards with Purging effects, enemy attachments and even my own attachments can knock it off. That’s offset by it having a powerful effect however.
    -Sometimes the Howl Lottery pays off, twice now have I got an AoA Massive Jaws!
    -Between Purges and already using forms, my opponent’s Walpurgis did not do much, while Daylight’s damage output’s not that scary to a Human Warrior.
    -Spent the last few turns winning through being on the victory squares. My characters lack conventional armor but Howls still make them rather resilient, especially when paired with Lycanthopic Form or Monstrous Hide draws.

    67 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr/Purge Priest vs Vitreo with double control Wizards and Crazy Sal Dwarrior on Haunted Graveyard
    --Nice thing about Vangaurd is that tiebreakers get resolved in favour of the party member in the first, second and then third party position. So it's easy to make the tie work for the warriors and not the priest by putting the priest in last.
    -Opponent TKed my Priest to his warrior after my Warriors had moved, making him an easy target. He took a lot of damage but did heal some of it off, but as dead the next turn after getting off one last Martyr, this was definitely the turning point as from there on I had a clear disadvantage.
    -After that my opponent started doing hit and runs on my warriors, as I was stubbornly trying to camp on two victory squares while he only had one.
    -By turn 6 I was dealing with 10 damage Ancient Grudges, which even my Monstrous Hide can’t really do much against.
    -I lost when I got Force Cannoned away and was so encumbered that I could not return.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -I'm really enjoying playing this build, I think this is the most balanced I've made this party so far in regard to dealing with various builds. The amount of card draws from Martyr, Howl, Defender's and Inspiring Armor really adds up to getting a a pretty reliable deck of Werewolf cards, which is fun to play with. Should probably also test this against Acid Wizards and Vampire Priests some time though.
    -The build is not OP as far as I can tell, my priest is definitely the weak link if he gets singled out in combat, I need to be very careful with him and be cautious with movement.
    -My build still seems well-equipped to deal with Control Wizards and the Daylight build didn't cause me much grief either. I don't think a build based around Daylight can work, it cooked very gimmicky and Daylight has very narrow itemization.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 12, 2016
    #22
    Melancthon likes this.
  3. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 74
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    Old Fart
    Level 21 Dwarf Wizard

    Senile Coot
    Level 21 Dwarf Wizard

    Who is this even I dunno
    Level 21 Dwarf Wizard
    Bringing out the Acie Wizards again, and better than ever! Using all my yellow tokens to give my characters between 5 and 6 Hexes, though I think 6 Caustic Pains would work better so I'll change that if I ever run this again. My Arcane Items are a mix of Acid Sprays for more Acid tiles, Acid Blasts to block narrow pathways, one Spiked Terrain to serve as alternatives to Acid Blasts and 5 TK to get control and throw enemies over Acid to make them use 2 more moves to get to me without risk of Vengeance or to throw around allies. Rounding it off with cycling on my boots and robes, with Hover as a bonus, plus Advanced Corruption for yet more Acid Tiles. Subterranean Ferocity then rounds the build up with great card draw against anyone not packing 2 or more dwarves.

    68 Triple Acid Control Dwizards vs Frostgaurd with WarWarPri Dwarves on Cyberspace Arena
    -Killed a Dwarf Warrior in 3 Hexes after liberal application of Acid terrain by round 2.
    -Wasn’t able to get that much Acid or such damaging Hexes the rest of the game though, I struggled to get much damage in after and had some close calls with having just enough control to keep the opponent away.
    -Hover comes in useful in my build, and Acid Jet and Spray go well together in making map navigation a hell for the opponent.
    -Ended up losing when the second warrior took me too much time to take down and he was able to kill two of my Wizards, which won my opponent the match paired with 2 rounds of victory square dominance.
    -Changed my party to use Asmod’s TK Chain instead of Sensate’s Ring because TK can be used to push people over Acid terrain and has less risk of triggering Vengeance.

    69 Triple Acid Control Dwizards vs Frostgaurd with WarWarPri Dwarves on Cyberspace Temple
    -I got a lot of good cards early on, by round 2 I had 7 Hexes among my three wizards at 10 damage each, but my opponent managed to avoid my LoS enough that I couldn’t unload all of them, though I did reduce one Dwarrior to only 10 HP with them and did a number on another as well.
    -Werewolf Form is pretty hard to get around for my build, since unlike regular armor it doesn’t get removed by Acid magic.
    -Ended up losing because one Dwarrior managed to get to my party without control and used frenzies attacks to rip my Wizards apart, plus victory square points by the priest.

    70 Triple Acid Control Dwizards vs Frostgaurd with WarWarPri Dwarves on Cyberspace Dojo
    -Dwarven Battlecry’s not so useful against 3 other dwarves.
    -As before, my Acid was able to make quick work of one opponent, a Priest, but after that I couldn’t get enough control, Acid and Hexes to finish the match off.
    -One of my warriors quickly fell in the second round, another the round after, making me lose on victory squares again. The downside to this build is that it’s strongly hindered even if just one character dies, and generally two deaths are enough to lose the match to victory squares.
    -Free Move and Fly laugh at acid, so Prowling Nimbly Striking Warriors like my opponent’s were a big obstacle.

    71 Triple Acid Control Dwizards vs Frostgaurd with Triple Vampkissers on Celestial Koi
    -This map is very awkward for Acid, there’s barely room to place much of it.
    -It’s also very good for TK however, and Acid and Spiked Terrain can easily stop enemies dead in their tracks because of the narrow pathways, so it’s a double-edged sword.
    -By round 2 one Priest with Frenzies used a lot of moves to approach me, but I rebuked them with three TKs.
    -The rest of the game was pretty much pure control, my opponent wasn’t able to land a single attack against my dwarves while I could calmly lay down acid and use Hexes and TK from afar, killing Priests one by one. If you don’t have movement or ranged attacks then Acid must be hellish.

    72 Triple Acid Control Dwizards vs Frostgaurd with Triple Vampkissers on Citadel Engineering Bay
    -Round 2 and I was throwing out 4 12 damage Hexes, killing a Priest despite the priest trying to steal life from an ally to stay alive and weakening another.
    -After this I used 3 TKs to get one of my Wizards to the Victory square, far away from any enemies.
    -Next round the weakened Priest used Swarm of Bats to approach my Wizard on the Victory Square, but in doing so didn’t dodge my attack and took 13 damage. After some Talented Healer sucking I was still able to kill that priest with another Hex, and after that the game was over, since the last priest could not take over the victory square.

    73 Triple Acid Control Dwizards vs Frostgaurd with Double Daylight and Undeath on Heart of the Mountain
    -A very close match this turned out to be, my opponent using a revised version of my Daylight/Undeath deck. First few turns my opponent didn’t seem to get any Daylight or Spark of Undeath, which let me do a lot of damage against one priest.
    -After the priest had fallen my opponent managed to zombiefy two of my characters, and I was unable to get them to use their melee attacks to my advantage so that hindered me.
    -In the end I was able to use my remaining wizard after my zombies died to kill a second priest and I wound up winning on victory squares, though if my opponent had left my wizard’s LoS I think I’d have lost.

    74 Triple Acid Control Dwizards vs Frostgaurd with Double Daylight and Undeath on Gladius Single
    -Very awkward map, this. Good for Jets, not so for Sprays.
    -I got a Wizard on the victory square early using TK.
    -Two of my wizards were zombiefied and once that happens they’re likely to stay that way because Zombie Form is a Zombie card. But the Zombie cards I got were useful in killing two of the opponent priests, one Daylighter and the Undeath Sparker.
    -Sadly in doing this I gave up my victory square position, which with only one Wizard and a Zombie left, was impossible to outdamage with my Acid since Daylight ruined that plan. Daylight also killing my Zombie made this match a loss, though it was a close one I’d say.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -Very mixed results overall, my build did extremely well against triple vamps, pretty bad against Nimble Warriors and was about evenly matched against Daylight+Undeath.
    -Against mobile warriors, especially if they back Free Move and Fly, it's hard to have enough control to keep them at bay, and Acid items generally don't prove many defenses so once they're next to you you're pretty much dead. That said, it is often still very possible to kill off one character with focused Hexing, it's just a question of whether that is enough of an advantage to last you through the match.
    -Against Frost's Vampires my deck excelled, his vampires were helpless before my layers of Acid and TKs and lacked the movement they needed to get through to my characters, and even on a map without high damage Acid Hexes I was still able to take my time and snipe everyone down from afar.
    -The Daylight/Undeath party seemed to be the most evenly matched. Daylight can ruin high Hexing damage potential, but to reliably draw Daylight you have to use Radiant Goblets and at that point your Priest has to forgo using other priest staples. Spark of Undeath was a mixed bag here, as in the first match it almost won my opponent the game while in the second it almost won me the game, it's a very risky card to use and I imagine against warriors with a love for mobility it is too much risk to be worth using offensively.
    -Also noticed that once you are a Zombie it's easy to draw another Zombie Form, especially when cards like Dwarven Battle Cry are being used by my and my opponent alike. Nice if you have an adjacent opponent, not so nice otherwise.
    -When you draw and play Zombie Form it plays the 'Good attachment' sound effect even though it's a pure handicap.
    -Overall Hex still seems very powerful. It's a range 6 card with 5 base power that also removes armor and can accumulate double digit power in a focused build, I'm not convinced it's not overpowered even if it's less ridiculous than it used to be.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 13, 2016
    #23
  4. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 80
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    75 Triple Acid Control Dwizards vs Frostguard with Inquisiton Blt+ Control, Daylight and Undeath on Citadel Host
    -This map is rather special given the party starts off separated, which I’d say overall makes it easier to place more Acid but harder to keep enemies away.
    -My opponent got a lot of Daylights and Sparks of Undeath in this match, after a few rouns my whole party was turned into zombies, and would suffer from Daylight.
    -The opposing Wizard did not get a whole lot done, he mostly used TK to harass me and used an Obliterating Spark, but that was it.
    -I managed to kill the wizard and almost kill a priest with my zombie cards, but before I could the priest escaped and started healing herself. After that my loss was inevitable, I was stuck being a zombie and had no means to outdamage my opponent.

    76 Triple Acid Control Dwizards vs Frostguard with Inquisiton Blt+ Control, Daylight and Undeath on Frozen Tenement
    -Rather awkward map to build up acid in, and not as easy to block off enemies in either.
    -Generally I find that my build is better against enemies that can’t attack me from afar, which these priests and wizard certainly can.
    -First few rounds I set up Acid but only got one Hex, which was quickly healed off with Sunlight, which also removed some of my Acid tiles.
    -The Undeath Priest managed to use Flanking Move to cantrip move in range and immediately zombiefied one of my wizards without me being able to TK, and the wizard then died to two Inq Bolts after already having taken damage from an Obliterating Spark. This bugged the game and we had to quit, but it was looked rather bad for me.

    77 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr/Purge Priest vs Frostguard with Inquisiton Blt+ Control, Daylight and Undeath on Ice House
    -Having werewolves as a feature of my build makes this a rather risky matchup, since I can easily draw Creature of the Night to take 10 damage from Inq. Bolt and also take Daylight damage in that form. A normal warrior build would probably fare much better.
    -Early on I managed to Purging Burst one of my zombiefied Warriors, but the zombie cards I got in the process weren’t really useful in the long run.
    -One Warrior died after approaching the opponents and taking two Inq Bolts and then some Daylights and attacks, the other was zombiefied soon after, and though able to use the frenzy as well as some Brains!, was not able to kill anyone and forced to flee at 1 HP.
    -After that my priest was zombiefied and pelted with Inquisition and Daylight and also forced to flee at 3 HP, which was enough to let me die to Blind Rage, and by that point I was already lagging behind in victory squares.
    -My opponent also got 3 Dwarven Battle Cries from Subterranean Ferocity, two of them even in a row, which is rather frustrating since I was running humans.

    78 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr/Purge Priest vs Frostguard with Double Vampkissers and Frenzybot on Batford’s Ballroom
    -First rounds was a race to the victory squares, which I won thanks to Vanguard.
    -Soon after my opponent approached with a souped up vampire, with Mass Frenzy, Prowl and Martyr ready to Vamp Kiss me. I was able to land two AoA Massive Jaws but my opponent was able to fully heal from it, and then some, healing 43 damage in just that one turn by spamming Vampire Kiss and Invigorating Touch. That’s a ludicrous amount.
    -I was taken aback by how much my opponent was able to heal, and I stayed on the victory square and waited out until next turn.
    -Next turn I drew a Purging Burst, which I unloaded on the priest who approached decked out with Talented Healer and Mass Frenzy, and was able to use enough attacks from my own Frenzied warriors to defeat the priest despite her repeated use of draining attacks.
    -With one vamping priest left, my opponent went in the next turn to try and finish off my characters, but a combination of Defender’s Blocks gave me enough cards to also kill this priest, winning me the match.

    79 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr/Purge Priest vs Frostguard with Double Vampkissers and Frenzybot on Tezkal River
    -This is a very tight map in which builds like these quickly start to cash in the middle of the map, which makes this a fun map to me.
    -Vanguard came in very handy here as on a tight map like this one step is often all that’s needed to tilt the match in my favour.
    -Though most of the game my opponent was trying to accumulate buffs such as frenzies, Martyr and Talented Healer to unload Vamping combos, but my Purging Priest came in super handy here, with all of his Purges and Purging Bursts removing a lot of powerful attachments, which was very satisfying. Without those I’d have likely done poorly, however.
    -My opponent was able to use Swarm of Bats to avoid several attacks, but since I had so many Purges they weren’t able to exploit it to hunt down my priest, but it did make for a good escape mechanism. Overall I was not hindered much by it given its value, though other decks would be I assume.
    -Because of this, the match was rather slow-paced, with my using my Howls to heal HP and draw Werewolf cards I’d use to whittle down my opponents, who’d then suck back HP which in turn often gave me more draws from Defender’s and Inspiring Armor and in the case of Vamp Kiss attacks I could use to steal back most of my lost HP, especially if I was frenzied.
    -In the end my opponent was losing more HP than I was, and after saving up a lot of movement on my priest I was able to use him to kill one of the opposing vampire priests, despite the Frenzy Priest trying to keep her safe with Team Move.
    -After that it was just cleaning up the remaining Priest and then winning through victory squares.

    Sarpedon
    Level 21 Elf Wizard

    Zendo
    Level 21 Elf Wizard

    Vinegar
    Level 21 Human Priest
    A slightly revised version of my old Ancient Grudge Deck, without the Nimbus but instead a lot of card draw effects to ensure I can quickly build up those discard piles. Overall it looks very squishy and very reliant on getting those control cards early and those grudges late, with Pathfinding being the deck's Holy Grail.

    80 Double Elven Control Grudge with Draw Priest vs Frostguard with Double Vampkissers and Frenzybot on Tezkal River
    -I got a Pathfinding in my first hand, bumping Ancient Grudge to 10 damage straight away. I’ll need it. I focused all my card drawing effects on that Wizard.
    -Didn’t get any early control so my opponent was able to close the gap to get to me by round 2, killing my non-Pathfinding Wizard who was a Spirit at the time rather early before he got off much damage.
    -My other Wizard got a Hypnobeacon the next turn, but I totally forgot about that a second after when I used Acid Jet and removed my own Beacon, after than a Priest used Swarm of Bats to approach my Elf Wizard and kill him, prematurely ending the match.
    -I did have some souped-up Ancient Grudges by the time I died, so I think my build could have worked still, but overall this build seems very risky, definitely not something that would get you to a high Elo.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -Even with Unreliable Block as a third card I think Dwarven Battlecry shouldn’t be on a tokenless item, the potential card advantage is too high and it would only incentivize people to not stray from running Dwarf Wizards and makes the slot choice a no-brainer in all-dwarf parties that aren’t melee-focused.
    -My opponent's Spark of Undeath combo deck was overall very annoying to play against, once your character gets turned into a zombie they simply cease to be your character and they’re pretty much just marked for death. They’re not the character you spent time carefully decking out with the equipment you’ve earned while playing CH, all of that is meaningless once you have Zombie Form, and the worst part is that you can just redraw Zombie Form the next turn and you’re stuck with it for yet another turn. It’s just not fun to play as a zombie, access to Brains! is rather cool but aside from that your whole character just gets totally gimped and destroyed by Inq. Bolts.
    -I think that at least Zombie Form should be removed from the Zombie card pool, because as it is right now one Spark of Undeath can mean you won’t draw a single card from your deck for the rest of the game if you get unlucky, and that’s just really obnoxious given how the zombie deck only has two good cards and not the means to use them effectively.
    -When fighting Vampires it's absolutely crucial to have either control as my acid build did or purges as my revised holwers deck did, otherwise Vampire Kisses are insane.
    -When it comes down to it, Vampire Kiss can heal ridiculous amounts of damage, easily enough to let a character withstand enough blows to normally kill them twice over, it's a tough build to face without a Priest or investment in control.
    -Pathfinding can still make Ancient Grudge very powerful, but then I also think that Elf Wizards and Pathfinding simply need interaction this so I'm not against it.
    -Don't Acid Jet your own Hypnobeacons away when they're your last line of defense. :(
     
    Maniafig, Oct 14, 2016
    #24
    wereviper likes this.
  5. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Matches as of this post: 85
    Test Server Username: TestingAccess
    Real Server Username: Maniafig

    Old Fart
    Level 21 Dwarf Wizard
    Imagine an old Dwarven Wizard whose only joy in life is throwing around enemies with Gusts and Telekineses, multiply it by three, and you have my build. Basically a pure control build I slapped together to see just how it'd fare against CM decks as well as how much CM really helped a pure control build.

    Overall the CM-ness comes from the Gusting Feystaff which combines a pretty low token cost with some nice damage and a Force Bolt for some conditionally useful control, making it probably the best control staff available if you want to use yellow tokens elsewhere and very useful for crown control with Gusts. There's also Subterranean Ferocity which backfired quite hard in one match but overall still seems like a likely Dwizard pick. There's also the somewhat recent Pipes of Hamelin for some preventive control against racial moves and steps. Aside from that the rest is just cycling and more control, making this a probably unviable but nonetheless annoying build to face.

    81 Triple Dwarf Wizard control vs Frostguard with Triple Human Control/Punishing Wizards on Citadel Light Hall
    -This was a silly matchup, with my opponent getting his figures out in the open before me, but me having the upper hand in control and HP. Since my opponent was running Chask he had more damage but less control, which I used to my advantage by placing Spiked Terrain which I was able to easily keep my opponent on top of by spamming control, while also having victory square dominance.
    -By the time my opponent killed one of my wizards with punishment I had already weakened them all with my Spikes, which I had admittedly lucked into drawing. After that I finished off the very weakened opponents with damage from gusts, a silly way to win a silly match.

    82 Triple Dwarf Wizard control vs ilbqpdli with CM forms Dwarrior, HuPri and ElfWif on Cyberspace Arena
    -Awkward map, I have to divide my controllers.
    -My wizard quickly died to a barrage of magic silver attacks from the wizard while he had Creature of the Night, that was rather painful and a risk in running triple Subterranean Ferocity.
    -After that I got a very nice bunch of rounds though, with perfect control against the warrior and priest. I did take a few stabs from the priest and some hits from the Wizard, leaving my characters weakened, but I also managed to get the Elf Wizard down to low enough HP to make her cautious to enter any LoS.
    -It was pretty much 4 rounds of VP control, and then my opponent used Walpurgis which gave me a Vampire, which is decent enough, and a Zombie. I’d thought the zombie dead, but the turn after my opponent moved in with the weakened Elf Wizard and I killer her with an Able Bludgeon which gave me the victory stars I needed to win the match.

    83 Triple Dwarf Wizard control vs Frostguard with Triple Human Control/Knives/Punishing/Illusion Wizards on Filing Fracas
    -This map is incredibly awkward for pretty much any match-up.
    -Ended up losing to a combination of terrain and direct damage and not having victory squares.

    84 Double Nimble Howling Human Warriors with Frenzy/Heal/Martyr/Purge Priest vs Frostguard with Triple Human Control/Knives/Punishing/Illusion Wizards on Temple Tussle
    -Got two Defender’s on turn 2 which helped me against my opponent’s TKs, together with Nimble Strikes to strike back once I ran out of those. I also put Martyr on this warrior so my opponent was afraid to attack her.
    -Managed to get two wizards on ow HP early on, though in the process one of my warriors was battered with Punishing Bolts and Path of Knives, reducing her to about 10.
    -I turned the Path of Knives against my enemy by using a Martyr on the weakened Warrior, which gave me a card for every step for only 1 HP of damage since I had Inquisition Badge. This also paired well once again with Vangaurd as I was constantly able to chase down the enemy wizards.
    -Martyr prevented my opponent from using cards he got from his Medium Robes, as Acid Jet would just fuel my card count when Martyred.
    -I was able to hunt down and kill the weakest wizard and using my priest to finish off a second wizard, which was enough to win me the match with two additional victory square points.
    -My opponent said he had Illusory Barrier but they were useless against my Warriors given their Nimble Strikes and Vangaurding.

    85 Triple Acid Dwizards vs Frostguard with Triple Acid Dwizards on Vulcan Gold
    -As it turns out, Acid vs Acid is pretty much a game of who gets the most Hexes and who starts Hexing first, since any Acid tile spawned is as likely to help you as it is to hurt you.
    -In this case I got more Hexes than my opponent and was able to unload them after my opponent which means my Hexes were more powerful as well.
    -I was able to kill two Dwizards in the time my opponent killed one of mine and got another down to about 50%, at that point I’d won the match through victory square dominance.

    Closing Thoughts:
    -I sort of feel like I'm running out of ideas for builds to test. I think this is it for me when it comes to MP testing. 85 matches is quite a lot and I have Frostguard to thank for most of them, but I think from now I'll limit myself to finishing the campaign, I've already done most modules up to level 13.
    -CM has given Control Wizards Gusting Feystaff, which probably works better for stalling for Ancient Grudge than pairing for a pure control build. Pure control can work, but it can also quickly fall apart in a poor draw of cards or an ill-timed block or failed Hypnobeacon. It also just can't deal with direct damage builds, and the expansion has given Wizards some powerful Silver damage and Sonic damage options, the latter especially being punishing if you draw a Creature of the Night.
    -Control also has a powerful new enemy in Vangaurd Humans, which I'm honestly quite glad with. I've loved Vanguard ever since I first saw it and I think it's a love that will never fade away.
    -Acid Wizard and Control Wizard mirror matches are very silly.
     
    Maniafig, Oct 17, 2016
    #25
    Flaxative likes this.
  6. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thank you :)
     
    Flaxative, Oct 17, 2016
    #26
    Maniafig likes this.
  7. Maniafig

    Maniafig Thaumaturge

    Some more SP talk since I've been focusing on beating all modules in the game. So far I've done all of them except for the AI and AI Hard ones, which I might do later. There's some fun SP builds I tried and enjoyes playing, so I'll just discuss them here.

    -My most-used party has been direct damage Elf Wizards, focusing on Silver Bolt boosted by Silversmith and Arcane Shell with the addition of control or Silverfire Vials depending on the amount of tokens. This was a lot of fun to play with, since Silver Bolt is very well-itemized across all token costs, meaning you get to play around with it even in low level modules! It becomes especially fun once yellow tokens roll around and you can start using True Silver to throw around Silver Bolts all over the place, it annihilates armor-less mobs! Tokenless Jump Back Boots and triple Investigate Boots also came in handy here for survivability.

    -I didn't get to use Acid Wizards much since their playability hinges on high-level staves, but they really annihilate the Wyvern module which is as satisfying as it sounds. It felt really good to melt them in a flurry of Acid.

    -Triple Priests with Frenzy and Vamping is stronger than ever, with there being options to use for all token costs on Arcane Items and even some new high-cost vamping Divine Weapons, with Flail of Fury being the go-to Divine Weapon when tokens are sparse. Vampire's Kiss is especially good since it worked so well with frenzies, but even with its incoming nerf I think its ability to transform an opponent's oldest card is a potentially powerful one.

    -My Howlers were also fun to play with, though they definitely work best when paired with a support priest who can spam Martyr and Frenzy, one you get those going the party really starts. When I tried it against monkeys they could barely touch me thanks to Monstrous Hide and I'd often Howl off most of the damage they could inflict. A lot of fun to play with, especially if you get a well-timed Mighty Charge.

    -For EttSC I mixed things up, opting to use as much EttSC items as tokens would permit, and as it turns out it's actually pretty easy to do so using the level 17 EttSC items, so that's definitely nice. I'm hoping there could be more low-level EttSC-styled items some time, maybe in another AA. It definitely adds to the flavour to use a party using tons of Lasers and Radiation! Two particular highlights were getting Walpurgis in the QD battle and picking it, making the Security Bots draw Zombie cards, and killing the Troll in the Triple Duel-type map using my Rad Priest who got a lucky Destructive Purge.

    It was a lot of fun playing through the campaign again! The GM banter is a lot better than I remember from my first playthrough, Blue Manchu really improved their writing, and playing through the modules with new cards and and items almost exclusively is fun as well.

    It sounds like the testing is coming to its end, and I'm glad I was able to participate in testing and my feedback was useful! I had a lot of fun doing it and I hope I could similarly help out in any future beta tests! :)
     
    Maniafig, Oct 19, 2016
    #27
    ParodyKnaveBob and Flaxative like this.
  8. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    Thank you for all your help with the Castle Mitternacht playtest.

    Unless you posted more in another thread (in which case, sorry I missed it), I have you at 85 games.

    You will receive 17 Epic Mitternacht chests when this content is released.
     
    Flaxative, Oct 21, 2016
    #28
    Maniafig likes this.
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