Let's talk about... Wiz-War

Chaz wrote: Eventually, I just cast Disease on myself and chased her around trying to do damage until she threw up a wall between us.

...but since I was down to 2 life, had no cards that would do anything except delay, and no prospects of getting new cards, I just let her kill me.

*gurgle* "Baby! I love yooo. Give us a hug!" *gurgle*

"Ugh, you disgust me." *Calls the contractors and builds a wall*

*gurgle* Please... just kill meeee.... killlll meeee!" *gurgle*

It's one thing you can say about Wiz-War. Even when the session sucks, there is always a story.

charlest wrote: We use Ian Allen's suggestions ... and it's produced the best possible play experience for my group. Ian really knows the game and was a key playtester for Malefic Curses. He pushed hard to keep the counterspells in that expansion minimal.

We've tried those on 9 different occasions. The consensus was that there were seeds of a good idea that could blossom with some refinement.

Ian came to these conclusions after playing two games of the new version, which automatically raised a few skeptical eyebrows within our group. If a game is not fun for someone, then it simply isn't fun. That's how it goes. But the general opinion here was expressed that it was extremely naive to make a wide swathe of blanket variants after merely two games. Especially since these elements existed long before FFG's influence on the game. If anything, the inclusion of counters has been objectively toned down drastically since FFG entered the picture, which also caused more skepticism in the logical inconsistencies of his assertions.

The suggestions just weren't enjoyed by the groups I played them with, who appear to enjoy giving a game design more of a chance to work out its own idiosyncrasies with more than two games before we formed opinions about a design and decide to throw in variants to alter the experience.

Trial and error after 86 sessions so far using my copy (poor beat up thing), in addition to results of games played using their own copies, has yielded more inclusive as well as playable results for us. Though not yet so brazen as to make a public pontification as to what those changes would be, since their alteration seems so situational thus far.

But then again, after this many sessions, we have found counters on the whole to be less problematic and only add or remove them from the magic deck occasionally to fine tune the experience that we feel is already solid and enjoyable overall. Rather than the viewpoint that the game is bad because of their inclusion, as is Ian's rather oft repeated assertion.

Anyways, that's the explanation as to why it wasn't a good fit for us.

This is proposal for an 85 card magic deck which incorporates cards from the Malefic Curses and Bestial Forces expansions. The goal is to remove card redundancy found in the schools, ensuring some uniqueness in the magic deck composition using the expanded pool available, as well as giving a more concentrated experience for those who are either beginning or infrequent players of Wiz-War, while still being fun for vets to play.

It mimics the "big book of spells" special rule in a way, yet is more deliberate and calculated in how and with what it is constructed.
80-90 cards seems to be a sweet spot where the deck is large enough that you aren't gauranteed to see every card every game unless it runs long and the deck is reshuffled, but small enough to where variety is ensured between the 2-4 player scale, eliminating the major shortcoming of the "big book of spells" special rule, who has a more negative impact as expansions are released and the average odds of good distribution are reduced.

To facilitate this goal, with the help of trial and error, was to consider the criteria of what comprises the fundamental hook that makes Wiz-War a subjectively attractive and compelling game experience on an intrinsic and even extrinsic level.

* The expectation of a covenant formed between players for light hearted mutually assured schadenfreude.

* Static and dynamic game state manipulation at a highly interactive and creative level. (Modifying the board during the game and having a chance to respond to modifications made. From the creation and destruction of obstacles on the board, to attacking and countering in order to attempt to thwart opponents goals.)

* Granting meaningful agency on a primary level where actions are immediately resolved, that consequently allows for quicker gameplay and less player frustration at what the random card draw has granted them as choices for their actions. As opposed to secondary or tertiary level where the agency relies on specific conditions arising before the action can be instituted. (An "Add" spell which relies on multiple energy cards in hand before the choice to use it becomes relevant, for example.)

* The ratios of card types which have historically comprised the magic deck and the variety of card choices in previous editions. Its worked for years. Combined with the 84 cards of the FFG deck method which seems to give a more focused draw than more diluted decks with larger card counts.

* Unique variety offered when redundancy is drastically reduced. This is made possible with the 2 noted expansions with the increased card pool and the interesting designs with them.

With these criteria in mind, the following justifications of choices are submitted for your consideration:

The historical magic deck ratio was roughly:
Neutral 45%
Numbers 25%
Counters 8%
Attack 22%

Yet, as we see in the link above regarding ratios, its not as simple as that. We can't just throw all straight damage cards into the attack category, we have to add something less boring. Half of the attack deck wwas comprised of spells that were PITA (pain in the ass) and screwed with your opponents in interesting and fun ways. Same goes for each other category as well.

The one major departure in FFG's 8th edition that we must address is how energy has changed. You get a lot more energy through hybrid magic/energy cards now. But unless it is random energy, it never goes above 3 and averages at about 2.5 on the whole. Since you cannot combine 2 energy cards without the aid of a third to power a fourth or boost speed, and it sacrifices a likely needed potential game effect, I feel that trade-off is fair. The energy amount is still high, but manageable. This is the main reason why I only added 10 energy in 85 cards. Because 20+ other cards are hybrids.

So the ratios now look a bit like this 8th edition deck proposal:
Neutral 49% (this counts for neutral, neutral/counter, and items combined)
Energy 12%
Counters 14%
Attack 25%

This may seem like a considerable boost to the counters category, but again, the ratios only tell half the story, inside we find more utility cards such as fools gold and ward, and others that thwart in interesting ways other than merely straight denial. Its still only 12 card, about only half of which have a direct denial approach. In line with how the deck classically worked.

This gave a good starting point in which to tweak the deck to test it out. Below is the culmination of those many games in the last several months.

Neutral: 31
Around the Corner (cantrip) *
Astral Projection (mentalism)
Bone Armor (necromancy)
Boneyard (necromancy)
Booby Trap (conjuring)
Chaos Claws (chaos)
Create Door (conjuring)
x3 Create Wall (cantrip, conjuring, elemental)
x2 Destroy Wall (cantrip, elemental)
x2 Dispel (cantrip, conjuring)
Dust Cloud (conjuring)
Glue (conjuring)
Mad Dash (transformation)
x2 Meditate (mentalism)
Mist Body (elemental) *
Nevermind (chaos) *
Pass Through Wall (thaumaturgy)
Prismatic Mist (chaos) *
Rosebush (conjuring)
Rotate Sector (cantrip) *
Stone Block (elemental)
Stone Spikes (elemental)
Strength (transformation) *
Thornbush (conjuring)
Treasure Lust (draconic) *
Wallivore (transformation)

Neutral/Counter: 4 cards
Invisible (thaumaturgy)
Pain Link (mentalism)
Teleport (mentalism)
Wall of Fire (elemental)

Counter: 12 cards
Absorb Spell (mentalism)
Backlash (thaumaturgy)
Counter Curse (hexcraft)
Delay Death (necromancy)
Dispeleport (chaos)
Featherweight (transformation)
Fool's Gold (alchemy)
Full Shield (cantrip)
Magic Resistance (draconic)
Mercy of Quetzalcoatl (mythology)
Negate Neutral (cantrip)
Ward (conjuring) *

Attack: 21 cards
Brain Burn (mentalism)
Chaos Shards (chaos)
Curse of Ice (hexcraft)
Embrace of Jorogumo (mythology)
Fireball (elemental)
Fire Darts (conjuring)
Globe of Pain (thaumaturgy)
Ka-Bong! (conjuring)
Lightning Bolt (elemental)
Medusa's Gaze (mythology
Mental Force (mentalism)
Mind Meld (chaos)
Prismatic Bolt (chaos)
Prismatic Storm (chaos)
Screaming Skull (necromancy)
Siren Song (mythology)
Swap (conjuring)
Terrify (hexcraft)
Thought Steal (mentalism)
Winged Strike (draconic)
Yoink! (Thaumaturgy)

Items: 7 cards
Handful of Tacks (conjuring)
Dagger (thaumaturgy)
Fire Cloak (elemental)
Null Powder (alchemy)
Powerstone (alchemy) *
Universal Solvent (alchemy)
Wizardblade (thaumaturgy)

Energy: 10 cards
x4 "Four" (conjuring, elemental)
x2 "Five" ( conjuring, elemental)
"Six" (cantrip)
Random Energy:
x2 "D4+2" (chaos)
"D4+3" (chaos)

* Denotes cards that can be easily substituted to use the "More Summons" optional rule, adding the 5 relevant creatures (Drake, Boggart, Genie, Minotaur, Grendel) and the 4 planar calls. This is of course, to taste. Some are removed because of reduced efficacy or direct conflict with the addition of creatures.

There is also a pool of 35 other cards besides the creature group that I selected to change out the deck according to taste and whim. I won't list those as these are very arbitrary in choice for our group and you should, as always, customize this game to suit your own needs.

The only regret I have with this is the lack of utilizing the totem school, but ithe totem school is so specialized, that it is difficult to validate its presence in such a generic yet deliberately focused deck.

To save bandwidth space, as well as an even larger wall of text from being posted here, if you want to read further deck design rationale, follow this link.

You are on fire with excellent Wiz-War posts. It sounds like ~90 cards is a sweet spot for variety of draws vs. likelihood of seeing good stuff. I really like that you take a much less heavy-handed approach than "remove all counter and healing spells because they are so dumb."

Do you see this proposed deck as being your standard? As in, unless you specifically decide to change things up for a game, this is the deck you leave in its own baggie in the box, ready to go? Or is this more of a base upon which you will add and subtract each time you get ready to play?

Dammit, I was reasonably happy with my DIY edition of Wiz War that I made ten years ago, but now I am starting to crave the FFG Wiz War and expansions despite my tight cash situation.

Cambyses wrote: Do you see this proposed deck as being your standard? As in, unless you specifically decide to change things up for a game, this is the deck you leave in its own baggie in the box, ready to play?

More less this. If I were a part of a dedicated and regular wiz-war group I wouldn't have bothered with this. But since I don't, I've found this to be an easier, and better representative of the possibilities within the game for newer, less experienced players than the big book of spells or FFG's suggested deck for the first game. I do regularly add and subtract the 9 relevant creature cards though, and prefer to play with them in it.
But I've only been at this particular deck for the past month, since bestial forces is so new. When this was just base + malefic curses, the deck was a bit more redundant.

Awesome thread. All the deck building nerdery of Magic the Gathering. I need to get the new expansion and try it out.
Does anyone actually cast those stupid morphing spells? I always want to because it's cool and you have the nice figure. But they are all really a waste of time. Should be easy enough to boost them somehow, right? Cause I really want to transform into a werewolf and rip some wizard's face off! But it would take 4 turns to kill someone with the werewolf.....

I just wrapped up my Bestial critters.

You look mahvelous, dahling.

I just saw this pic on a review of the base game at spielkult. I have no such card in my game.

Is this just alternate art in the german version? My deutsche sucks so I can't tell. Anyone know anything about this?



(The card in question being the split wizard/wolf? pic.)