The Daily Deal

St. Malaj's Cuirass

Spoiler: Previously Reviewed

Multiplayer
Cleansing Ray is the type of card that you should only play if you expect to get use out of it a majority of the time. While it has the potential to net you two cards there are too many builds that don't run any terrain attachments in which case you're stuck with two Minor Heals with greater range that can't be used to draw out blocks. St. Malaj's Cuirass is best used in setups where you run your own terrain attachments. It is particularly useful when used after moving characters to hide knowledge of an incoming Volcano. If you run other types of terrains chances are there will be a few useless squares you can use to cycle the Cleansing Rays.

Singleplayer
You have active knowledge of AI deck contents so Cleansing Ray becomes a lot more useful. However, there are a lot of items that have terrain clearing effects. While these draw cards you often just want to draw another cleansing card in terrain attachment heavy modules in which case Cleansing Burst and Cleansing Presence may be more suitable. St. Malaj's Cuirass' biggest advantage over most alternatives is that it doesn't cost tokens.

Peon's prescription for prodigious players- Terrain clearing effects are not only narrow but also plentiful. This combination makes St. Malaj's Cuirass a poor buy in most cases. Would not purchase unless you run your own terrain attachments and/or you need Ca tokenless source of cleansing.

Substitues- Cleansing Hide Armor (E), Armor Of Negation (E) minor token, Cleansing Mail (U) minor token
The Daily Deal

Did Peon Buy It?
Nope. Found one already and I'd never buy it over Cleansing Hide Armor.

Epics
Hydrogen Staff- Acid Blast is a little too weak to run for double major tokens. Even when you do manage to catch a character there's too much potential for it to only do a piddling 3 damage if they're naked.
Petochl's Sword- Solid anti-armor weapon though I prefer extra utility and easier token costs of White Katana or Troll's Ire.
Shimmering Helm- Shimmering Aura sucks. Quick Reactions isn't too hot either. You often can't afford to hold on to it in hopes of some card draw when you have better cards with guaranteed value in hand.

Notable Rares
Xipil's Ring- Cheap Volcano. The expansion brought some new sources of Volcano but Xipil's Ring has an easier minor token cost.

 

Cadefel's Savage Maul
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
At first glance Cadefel's Savage Maul seems like a bad Darkblood Glaive and if you're only after Savage Curses you would be correct. It has one less copy of the signature card and you're stuck with a narrow Cleansing Burst. However, if there's one strategy where Cadefel's Savage Maul is top dog it's Volcano. You actively have a use for Cleansing Burst, Volcano isn't buffable so you don't need as many Savage Curses, and most importantly, Lunging Bash is awesome for getting characters off of or on to lava terrain. For the low low price of 4 hp, you can get 2 characters out of a hot spot in one swoop. Would get if you are trying to build a Volcano team. Darkblood Glaive is better for everything else.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
Volcano is a much better strategy in singleplayer but the very reason it is so effective is also the reason why Cadefel's Savage Maul is unnecessary. Since the AI does not play around your actions, you do not need cards like Cleansing Burst and Lunging Bash to run the "I used up all my revealed movements so I definitely don't have Volcano" bluff. All you need to do is use up extraneous cards and pass the turn and the AI will eventually run out of movement cards. This can be particularly difficult against ranged mobs since they have a habit of not moving unless you move closer but you can just ration your own movement cards to avoid damage. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
None

Did Peon Buy It?
No, but I do use the one I found for constructed leagues all the time. That said, if I didn't own it already I probably wouldn't have bought it since I have Darkblood Glaives.

Epics
Dual Optimum D-45- Suffers from Emeralditis. Symptoms include bloated top end, awful filler cards, and diarrhea. Ok, that last part isn't true but the low end cards are garbage and I'm not too fond of Scatter Laser. Cooling Laser is cool but not when the rest of the staff has no cold spells to benefit from it.
Fingerbone Of St. Ob- Too weak for multiplayer and I'd use a pure vamp item like Wuuna's Vampiric Shroud instead and make the priest the tank for singleplayer.
Foley's Footwear- I don't think Violent Spin alone is worth the minor token, especially when you have to run 2 bad cards. If you must have Violent Spin on your minor token boots I'd go with Vinorkin's Boots or Infernal Boots instead.

Notable Rares
Gauntlets Of The Giant- Decent armorwise and a good boost to your attacks.
Infused Greatclub- Good old fashioned damage.

 

The 3 Lunging Bashes can work in favor of Cadefel's Savage Maul. A significant part of the buff priest's job is not to die, and bashing enemies out of melee range of yourself or your mages can certainly help. Allow the mages to deliver the follow-up attacks. Probably works better in SP than MP.
Still, I didn't buy mine, and consider Darkblood Glaive the better purchase.

 

I agree that the Lunging Bashes make it easier to keep your troops out of harm's way but I think this applies more to multiplayer. To keep out of melee range in singleplayer you would need more Lunging Bashes than there are mobs plus however many movement/block cards they're holding. That is a pretty tall order. I've never tried using Cadefel's Savage Maul in singleplayer though so I could just be talking out my rear. Do you use it over Darkblood Glaive?

 

Hawlic's Robes
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
Although there are more cards that dish out attachments now, Mystical Wyrmhide is still not as cool as one would hope. It will reflect attachments from Radiation Bomb and Radiation Bolt but merely discards the ones from Irradiated terrain. Also, while adding to the armor roll is nice, Leather Harness is nearly useless when you don't have the Mystical Wyrmhide in hand. My rule for running weak cards is you need 2 strong ones to compensate or at the very least there needs to be card draw attached to one of the other cards. Hawlic's Robes has a nice concept but poor execution. Would not purchase.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
Attachments can be annoying but they are far from devastating for the most part. The only one I'm particularly scared of is Mind Munch and surprise surprise, it completely hoses Mystical Wyrmhide if it lands. Stick with Resistant Hide robes which cover poison (like Infected Bite) and burning attachments, the two most damaging attachment types. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Boltswap Robes (R), Hutul's Robes (E)

Did Peon Buy It?
Nope. If there ever comes a day when Mystical Wyrmhide becomes more useful I might consider buying Meztis Wyrmhide Robes but never Hawlic's Robes. Leather Harness is just too awful.

Epics
Greyworm Mace- Greyworm Mace is the best divine weapon ever, but that might just be the Mind Worm talking. Divine weapons either need to have fantastic attacks or fantastic spells. Greyworm Mace has neither.
Torching Staff- Nice damage for a tokenless staff but it isn't strong enough for multiplayer and Staff Of The Inferno is better for singleplayer.
Trained Flexibility- Passing emergency blocks to a character in danger of dying is just delaying the inevitable. You will likely still be in trouble once those blocks are gone except you're now down a card from Advanced Battlefield Training as well.

Notable Rares
Acrobat's Aegis- Two high impact blocks and a cycling trait with a symmetrical effect.
Savvy Attacker- The best martial skill to spend a token on if you have widely varying or unbuffable attack types.

 

It's unclear whether you're saying this is a good card or a bad card. I prefer advice columns to be very obvious what the actual advice is (and generally, you do a good job with that).

 

I'm rather certain he's noting it's quite a bad item because Mind Worm is quite terrible. See the thread "Brewing with Peon" for supporting evidence.

 

Searing Pain
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
Searing Pain is widely regarded as the best staff in the game and for good reason. At Burst 2, Fireball is almost impossible to play around. You need serious wall coverage to avoid getting hit and if you're not in Fireball range you sure as heck won't be able to attack back either. The insane range also makes Fireball the fairy godmother of spells. You can pretty much hit anything from anywhere so you don't need to be as careful with your positioning. What makes Searing Pain even more devastating than staves like Blue Destruction is its token cost. You are free to use those major tokens buff up your defense with cards like Toughness, Force Field, and Violent Spin. If you haven't been introduced to the joys of buffing up and bursting, otherwise known as burffting, let Searing Pain be your guide. Highly recommend purchasing.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
While not as good of a farming staff as Wym's Lavastaff or Mordecai's Staff Of Magma, Searing Pain is still very powerful. I myself use it in the levels where you only have a single major token available. Fireball gets bonus points for hitting huge swaths of mobs without self damage. On levels with good line of sight, Flash Of Agony is no slouch either. I wouldn't so far as to say that Searing Pain is a must purchase but it still gets the Peon seal of approval. Would purchase.

Substitutes
Staff Of The Fire God (E)

Did Peon Buy It?
Yup. I now have 4 so I think that's it for me for Searing Pains since the last party spot is reserved for the obligatory Savage Curse priest.

Epics
Mckay's Energy Cube- Healing Blessing is a bit weak but Radiation Bomb and Unholy Energy more than make up for it.
Spitting Flames- Hot Flames is usually going to be worse than Firestarter and Flame Spit is not good enough to replace traits.
Trickster's Blade- If you're going to run ranged attacks with such low damage you might as well be playing a wizard.

Notable Rares
Buckler Of Protection- Great all purpose blocks with card draw. Jarring Block isn't the best but it'll more than likely prevent more than the 2 damage it deals you.
Perfect Ferocity- Vamps in particular will want the armor ignoring Frenzy Aura to get maximum value out of their vamp attacks. Warriors get more out of the tokenless Blind Rage skills.

 

Searing Pain
While I almost completely agree with Peonprop's analysis, there's still much to consider. Searing Pain may be the best all-round damaging staff, but only half of its cards are burning, so it isn't going to accompany White Flame; look for Staff Of Embers, Barnum's Staff or Staff Of A Million Embers instead. Also, you might still prefer Blue Destruction versus enemies with Resistant Hides, though Searing Pain would be better versus Adaptable, since it delivers various damage. Finally, you should know that Searing Pain favors more-or-less open maps, as it hopes to strike several enemies at once. You should prefer something like Mindspliter Staff for the labyrinths, but the Volcano strategy would be even better.
As for SP, the Searing Pain is still great there, of course, but not that irreplaceable. Personally I prefer White Flame + a lot of burning, partially for the fact that it can be used even without yellow tokens at all. Anyway, if you're playing Searing Pain in SP, you should bring Savage Curses, since it really makes wonders with Fireball. I am not saying you shouldn't bring Savage Curses in MP, but people there are smart enough to avoid placing their whole party to be hit at once... at least most of them
I don't agree that Staff Of The Fire God is a substitute for Searing Pain: it's pure burning staff that isn't strictly area-hitting. I'd say the closest substitute is Oxha's Sparkspreader, as all its cards also try to hit several targets. Their usage is very similar: both favor the open maps, both require Savage Curse.
Rating: 5!/5.

Did I buy Searing Pain myself? Of course I did! Firstly, I didn't have it before, and secondly, it's my birthday!

McKay's Energy Cube offers you three nice cards. It may be not as focused as Atomic Drop Console, but at least you have no weak cards here. Personally I prefer the Cube even when creatng a focused Radiation Bomb deck, since I consider two Cursed Radcannons + the Cube better than the same Radcannons + Console.
Rating: 4?/4
Spitting Flames. Peon said all about this. If you would ever need Penetrating for your burns, get Focused Combustion instead.
Rating: 2/2.
Trickster's Blade. A very focused weapon, with the good tech (range 2 and Hard to Block 3) and solid damage for - 30 damage total. The damage can be pumped by Mass Frenzy and Blind Rage as usual. What's not to like? It has no movement, of course, but range 2 attacks rarely have them...
Rating: 4?/4.

 

Happy Birthday, Ector!

(I snatched up Searing Pain too, of course.)

 

Yay! My first Searing Pain

Lets hope We'll see the elusive Wym's Lavastaff soon also. (Never had the luck to see this in any of the shops)

 

Gotta say this is a good "welcome back" present from the game, I got home from vacation yesterday at about 9pm and when i woke up this morning i see this thing in shop! And its my first!
Ah its good to be back

 

It was my third and fourth one. So now I am fine with Searing Pains as Peon is. So lets hope for more open maps in the next season. Or may be not, because playing Burff against Burff in Roll out the Barrel already causes headache to me.

 

If everyone plays Burff in RotB then i may have to change my deck a bit.

 

This is true but it is also slightly misleading. Wizards in general favor open maps. On closed maps targeted spells get far worse so Searing Pain's burst spells are way more preferable to Mindsplinter Staff's Obliterating Sparks.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering, the best thing to pair with Searing Pain is another helping of Searing Pain.

 

Not to mention Skull Of Savage Iljin. Axe Of Dark Souls are also nice, but you pay a high price for the card draw and buffs on that weapon. But I think we are going off topic. As far as I remember there was a discussion about burff somewhere in the deckbuilding forum.

 

@Obernoob , if you can figure out a way to get Skull Of Savage Iljin on my wizard, please let me know

 

About today's daily deal.

Peonprop, do you think you could brew something from Cooling Laser ? Since I first saw this card I really thought there was something unique and original to be played.

I'd rather build from Supercooled Laser than Richie's Frigid Laser though. Scatter Laser really feels underpowered. May be with a couple of Xochu's Icy Circlet ?

 

I don't think there's much you can do with Cooling Laser. I would pick Supercooled Laser as well and you're pretty much locked into playing a cold staff. I basically just shoved Supercooled Laser into the old build but here it is.

Spoiler: Mr. Freeze

Galduraz
Level 22 Dwarf Wizard

Supercooled Laser
Staff Of Winter
Xochu's Icy Circlet
Xochu's Icy Circlet
Booming Ring
Booming Ring
Forceful Robes
Pergop's Slippers
Advanced Toughness
Electroporter Novice
​

3 x Force Bolt
1 x Chilling Rime
2 x Cooling Laser
1 x Cold Snap
1 x Force Cone
2 x Violent Spin
2 x Jarring Block
1 x Spark Generator
1 x Resistant Hide
6 x Frost Jolt
1 x Weak Block
2 x Force Cannon
1 x Toughened Hide Strips
1 x Flash Of Agony
4 x Path Of Knives
1 x Toughness
1 x Spark Inductor
4 x Cone Of Cold
1 x Dimensional Traveller
​

I picked Staff Of Winter since you get more Cone Of Cold from arcane items and I'm not too thrilled about buffing it when you sometimes have to hit your own team. I kept the Path Of Knives subtheme but that could easily by anything else. I just can't get enough of adding insult to injury. I don't know if it's better than the old build but it should have an easier time actually killing stuff with help from the Cooling Lasers.

 

Richie's Frigid Laser
Peon's Prescription for Prodigious Multiplayers
This is another case of Emerald quality cards totally unbalancing an item. When I see Emerald cards, the first thing I do is check out the low end. There will invariably be Paper or Black quality cards on the far right. Are they playable? If you see good attacks like Flash Of Agony or easy to deal with handicaps like Squeamish then you're golden. Laser Spray isn't unplayable but it is inconvenient enough that I'd avoid it if possible. Next up is the filler. Cone Of Cold is obviously fine with Cooling Laser and Short Perplexing Ray is always decent. Jumpspark is pure garbage and I would actually pile it in the low end section. At best it does 4 damage. At worst it's an overcosted Spark, another paper quality card I wouldn't be happy to play. Last but not least you look at the Emerald cards themselves. Do you actually want to play them? Ok, so this is actually the first thing you should do but it would have made for an awkwardly short review. For me, Scatter Laser just isn't worth it. It's a decent card but you aren't going to have multiple targets often enough to make it much more than a 5 damage attack. The next time you play a wizard take note of how often you have line of sight on enemy characters within 6 squares. Odds are your opponent will be hiding behind cover until they are ready to strike. In the end, Richie's Frigid Laser has 2 cards that need a major incentive for inclusion and only a lonely Cooling Laser to prop them up. Would not purchase.

Peon's Perspective for Penny-Pinching Singleplayers
I consider Cold spells to be control cards. They are too slow for farming but sometimes necessary to beat particularly nasty modules. That said, I don't think Cooling Laser is a good fit for either. It is not a Cold spell itself so all it and the cards that come with it does is take slots from the control cards you actually need. Would not purchase.

Substitutes
Dual Optimum D-45 (E)

Did Peon Buy It?
Nope. I don't think I'd ever build around Cooling Laser without using Supercooled Laser.

Epics
Dworia's Soulstone- It's no Bleneth item but with 2 fantastic buffs it's a great substitute while you wait for one.
Impervious Panoply- Best minor token option for Arrogant Armor heavy armor.
Silver Fir Staff- One of the most playable minor token staves. My advice would be to find another token for something better.

Notable Rares
Defensive Buckler- Yes, Defender's Block is that good. I prefer Buckler Of Protection but sometimes you want the trait cycling from Loner.