I've been refining this build for the last week. I started with two dwarf wizards and a dwarf priest, then moved to three dwarf wizards, and finally settled on three human wizards. The gear loadouts changed a tiny bit too, mostly on the racial front, but as an example: I used to run Cotton Wizard's Robes. After a few games, I decided that Cursed was just better for me. So: What's the point of Copper Old Men? They do damage. I know, I know—wizards aren't supposed to do damage. That's warrior (and frenzied vampire) territory. I know that, and that's why I thought this party would be terrible. Turns out, while it probably can't compete in the highest tier, it does just fine in the 1500s. I have a 75% win rate with it after 20 games. We'll see how that holds up as I play more. It's a very fun build. I'm open to any suggestions on how to change this, and I welcome questions about why I decided to run what I'm running. Without further ado, here're the old men. [SRC] Hammyman Level 18 Human Wizard Trembling Staff Mindsplinter Staff Copper Zapping Wand Copper Zapping Wand Greenstone Pendant Kelvin's Chunk Of Ice Cursed Wizard's Robes Xander's Boots Inspired Command Fireblinker Initiate 3 x Cone Of Cold 2 x Obliterating Spark 1 x Mighty Spark 1 x Inspirational Thinking 1 x Shuffle, Team! 1 x Escaping Run 1 x Powerful Spark 1 x Ember Burst 1 x Whirlwind Enemies 3 x Arcane Aura 7 x Big Zap 1 x Winds Of War 1 x Dimensional Traveller 1 x Combustible 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Weak Parry 3 x Flash Of Pain 2 x Vulnerable 2 x Flame Jet 1 x Firestarter 1 x Brain Burn [SRC] PaladinGP Level 12 Human Wizard Trembling Staff Staff Of Winter Copper Zapping Wand Copper Zapping Wand Greenstone Pendant Axander's Twisted Circlet Cursed Wizard's Robes Xander's Boots Inspired Command Superb Electromancy 1 x Escaping Run 1 x Obliterating Spark 1 x Mighty Spark 1 x Cold Snap 1 x Shuffle, Team! 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Whirlwind Enemies 3 x Arcane Aura 8 x Big Zap 1 x Winds Of War 1 x Combustible 2 x Short Perplexing Ray 1 x Weak Parry 1 x Brain Burn 2 x Vulnerable 2 x Flame Jet 1 x Chilling Rime 2 x Spark Generator 1 x Inspirational Thinking 4 x Frost Jolt [SRC] Jacques Level 12 Human Wizard Staff Of Winter Trembling Staff Copper Zapping Wand Copper Zapping Wand Greenstone Pendant Axander's Twisted Circlet Cursed Wizard's Robes Xander's Boots Inspired Command Superb Electromancy 1 x Escaping Run 1 x Obliterating Spark 1 x Mighty Spark 1 x Cold Snap 1 x Shuffle, Team! 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Whirlwind Enemies 3 x Arcane Aura 8 x Big Zap 1 x Winds Of War 1 x Combustible 2 x Short Perplexing Ray 1 x Weak Parry 1 x Brain Burn 2 x Vulnerable 2 x Flame Jet 1 x Chilling Rime 2 x Spark Generator 1 x Inspirational Thinking 4 x Frost Jolt
You should try Blasting Rod and maybe Arcane Crown. The range of Force Bolt/Blast combined with the slide allows you to deal damage from a safe (>2!) distance while keeping enemies at bay. Another good tech is Destructive Wand. Dissolve Armor has amazing range! Also, I absolutely love Locket of the Gale. Having extra Winds of War is never a bad thing! Ulalia's Boots and Advanced Flexibility work well for me. You can discard crap you don't need like Ember Spray/Zap/Officer's Harness (sometimes Run!) and draw new cards. Fireblinker Initiate? Shouldn't you put that on the guy with Staff of Winter instead of your guy with the Mindsplinter? Cotton VS cursed is interesting. I suppose that Brain Burn should seldom hurt but it could remove Arcane Aura. Here is how I look at the decktype: Staff Of Blazing Sparks Deadly, Deadly Staff Chillwood Staff Mindsplinter Staff Mighty Sparkping Staff Also: Staff of winter/of the Arctic/Frosty Staff Staff Of Pain Silver Fir Staff Trembling Staff() Pick what you like...and have! () Arcane Crown Blasting Rod Copper Zapping Wand Destructive Wand Locket Of The Gale Hylithia's Wand/Hasek's Icy Ring(Anything good with Cone of Cold) Robe Of Lightness () Hehe... maybe on one character? Cursed Wizard's Robes /Cotton Wizard's Robes Robe Of White Wylla Mouse Boots () (Flanking Move X2) Ulalia's Boots Xander's Boots Electroporter Novice () Focused Electomancy Superb Electromancy Advanced Flexibility Inspired Command Perfect Command may be ideal for this team; although if I had Perilous Agility I would certainly have an elf. How you build the deck is dependant on the person and the items they have...Also it is worth noting that Flash of Pain is dangerous to allies, and Volcano is good when your opponent is using all of their movement to stay out of range/get close enough to attack.... and Flanking Move is your friend!
There are maybe 2 squares of interest that you can hit at range 9-10 on all boards presently in rotation.
8 range, 10 range, what's the difference? It still has amazing range. That's part of why Frost Jolt is so good.
I tried out a pauper's version, since I don't have 3x Xander's Boots or 3x Inspired Command. I also went heavy on ember burst rather than frost jolt (because I don't like encumber), and used runestone rather than greenstone (because the day I play a whirl is the day I shut down my account). I think I'm also going to blacklist SPR after my experience of playing with it. It was fun to try out a different style of play, but it was very susceptible to a warrior rush and firestorm. I rarely managed to deal large quantities of damage, and usually lost to a combination of capture points and 1 or 2 kills. Your version most certainly works a lot better.
Have you considered adding acid? Acid Spray and Acid Jet can stall a warrior pretty good. Plus armor shedding is a bonus
Welp, I managed to tank my rating -200 points, so I think I've exhausted this build. It's neat when you get a fistful of Oblit Spark and Arcane Aura (happened once, it was fun), but most of the time you just get a pair of warriors sprinting into your face and bludgeoning you to death.
I haven't had trouble with armor yet, and Blasting Rod decreases my average damage a bit too much for my liking. I'll try these items out if I sense the end of my build's rope on the horizon, they're definitely good options for if and when I tweak things. I hate the fire cones, and what would you cut for it? Greenstone Pendant? Axander's? I don't like drawing Slowed. Ever. I've talked about this in other threads. The guy with the Mindsplinter doesn't have Staff of Winter, so I wanted him to be the one to carry my Chunk of Ice. Hence him not having the major token for Superb Electromancy, and being the perfect candidate for Fireblinker Initiate. So— You dislike encumber You dislike whirls You dislike discard What about wizards do you like? I'm kidding, I agree with you on all those points in principle but I feel I'm already going rogue enough by running 3x Arcane Aura and 8x Big Zap on each of my toons. I definitely feel like I'm not just spamming broken cards (note that I chose items with Big Zaps, even for WWE and SPR), but obviously you are welcome to disagree. Not sure Xander's Boots are particularly great; could switch to something with real armor (Kerrick's/Quellic's) or more movement (anything), possibly at lower token cost. I just happen to be going 'all in' on this. Anyway, yeah, the build is a bit weak vs. rush warriors (especially if they're dwarves with nimble strikes). I haven't had too much issue with firestorm yet because I can usually get line of sight and unload damage on the enemy (which makes fs harder to play). Of course, it depends on my draw and the map. Neat idea. Maybe I'll try running some acid instead of WWE/SPR on one of my dudes. Is there any super good acid staff? I can see that happening, especially with no encumber. Hope you don't begrudge me the rating points!
Oh yes, I also wanted to report that I was using a single copy of Advanced Battlefield Training, and I was pleasantly surprised at its utility. I could toss around spells to whichever character had line-of-sight or even stack an extra Arcane Aura (15 dmg hits from a wizard!).
I'd have to downgrade my class or racial skill in order to use the Sour Staff, but I might give it a shot on one of my guys.
After my defeat today I came to see your build, I hadn't realize about the names lol. Thanks for the tribute! Anyway, nice job (one more and counting) with this build! Now I understand your Big Zap taste, it was a killing machine today.
Thanks Jacques! I think I got pretty lucky that you didn't just obliterate me with nimble strikes though
Nah, I have only 1 lochaber and 1 nifty, so it's 3 NS in one warrior and 2 in the other one. It's not much. Not at least to avoid some bad draws like the first two rounds. But you won fair and square
I did my due diligence and tried to run this build with some acid/armor removal thrown in. The build felt less consistent and I lost a lot of games. I'm switching back to what's posted in the OP.
Update: I swapped out a wizard for my vanilla drawbot, and it made things a lot better (at least at the 1300-1400 level). I can regularly draw into the attacks I need, and stack as many auras as possible. edit: Presently 8 wins out of 8 played, excluding 3 auto-resigns to WW. Back above 1400. edit 2: I just drew the most awesome hand evar: 2x Arcane Aura + 3x Oblit Spark
I hadn't used this build at all since balance changes... until yesterday. Now it's 6-2, probably thanks in part to the fact that the Halloween rotation is very kind to wizards. My two losses were extremely close—but so were my victories. In general, this build lends itself to the kind of nail-biting positioningfest that I love playing in Card Hunter. It's probably long-term viable in the 1500-1600 bracket. Note that many of the legendaries could easily be replaced with lower rarity items without compromising the build too much: Aloysi's Ring can become another Blasting Amulet easily; Robes of White Wylla aren't necessarily better than Greenhide Robes; etc.. That said, it's true that this build is rolling in money. Without further ado, I present to you: Copper Older Men Spoiler: First Old Man [SRC] Hammyman Level 18 Human Wizard Mindsplinter Staff Mindsplinter Staff Blasting Amulet Blasting Amulet Blasting Amulet Aloysi's Ring Robes Of White Wylla Ulalia's Boots Trainee Command Superb Electromancy 6 x Flash Of Agony 1 x Walk, Team! 2 x Arcane Shell 1 x Flame Jet 1 x Bloodied Block 5 x Obliterating Spark 2 x Force Cone 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 2 x Powerful Spark 6 x Force Cannon 1 x Arcane Aura 2 x Flanking Move 1 x Vulnerable 2 x Spark Generator 3 x Penetrating Zap @Hammyman is the heaviest hitter, packing 5 Obliterating Sparks and three different ways to buff their damage. Blasting Amulet lets me deal damage while also controlling position, and Flanking Moves help me set up my game. Penetrating Zap is my sad card here, but Penetrating has actually been surprisingly relevant! You'll notice that now that Trembling Staff sucks I'm using more major tokens on my staves, and that translates to worse racial skills. It's okay, though: I'm actually far more consistent now than I was when I was drawing Shuffle, Team! and Weak Parry (no matter how often I joked about the latter being my secret tech). Spoiler: Second Old Man [SRC] PaladinGP Level 15 Human Wizard Deadly, Deadly Staff Silver Fir Staff Mindzap Bauble Rod Of Palver Pree Mindzap Bauble Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Robes Of White Wylla Mokk's Boots Trainee Command Superb Electromancy 2 x Arcane Shell 2 x Spark 1 x Walk, Team! 1 x Bloodied Block 3 x Telekinesis 1 x Obliterating Spark 1 x Weak Parry 6 x Deadly Spark 2 x Gusts Of War 3 x Stone Spikes 1 x Officer's Harness 2 x Potent Spark 2 x Big Zap 1 x Dangerous Maneuver 2 x Spark Generator 2 x Escaping Run 1 x Hot Spot 1 x Vulnerable 2 x Little Zap @PaladinGP is a bit confused. He's mostly linear attacks and terrain, which isn't the best combo in the world, but he does serious work. Definitely the least focused of my old men, he's clearly my weakest link. I want to give him more damaging attacks, but the control effects are useful too. Maybe Malachite Orb? Spoiler: Third Old Man [SRC] Jacques Level 16 Human Wizard Yoloxl's Staff Yoloxl's Staff Sensate's Ring Sensate's Ring Sensate's Ring Sensate's Ring Phantom Cape Sliding Boots Inspired Command Superb Teleportation 2 x Dimensional Traveller 6 x Jumpspark 10 x Gusts Of War 1 x Weak Parry 2 x Illusory Barrier 1 x Sparkling Cloth Armor 4 x Squeamish 1 x Shuffle, Team! 1 x Inspirational Thinking 1 x Flanking Move 1 x Team Run 2 x Thick Hide Armor 4 x Little Zap You've noticed, no doubt, the conspicuous lack of any Copper Zapping Wands. Yeah, I'm a sellout. But hey: these are the same old men, and they're doing the same basic thing, which is damage. Except for @Jacques, I guess. He's basically overclocked control all the way. I'm loving Yoloxl's for the Gusts Of War and Illusory Barrier. 10 Gusts and Sliding Boots help me create the board position I want to see, repositioning my allies and enemies for better lines of sight (or lack thereof). Of course, I sometimes get some dud hands with a ton of Little Zaps and Jumpsparks... but hey, that's how it goes. Does anyone else see a way to improve my control game on this character? Playing this build is pretty straightforward. Try to get line of sight to melee characters; try to stay out of line of sight from ranged characters. Use TK and Gusts to set up maximum damage from linear attacks. Use the third old man's damaging attacks first, because he's always Squeamish. You have a surplus of positioning cards on many turns, so don't hesitate to Gusts yourself onto victory squares. Flanking Move to get priority at the end of a round is often good even if you don't have a follow-up in hand; you want sente as often as possible because you're incredibly squishy. (These wizards aren't built to last.) Happy to hear from anyone running similar builds, or to give more advice on how to pilot this comp. Cheers!
