I've always had a wee soft spot in my heart for mages since my first hero was
Majiya
and my second (to my shame, but partly due to disconnection issues) was rush Elad. The new release has brought a bunch of changes for mages. Amulet of Conjuring works quite nicely so I thought I would try the much maligned
Raikka and her new draw toy. The following wall of text contains my impressions.
TLDR/Synopsis
After playing 28 games at a reasonably high level in QM I found that raikka is still not a strong hero and the gauntlets are a weak draw engine while sceptre is IMO worthless as is. Gauntlets need to be made more like scriptures of the righteous- this is by far the most important change needed. If the DT want to make
Raikka stronger and make her more unique, then her ability should encompass weapons and flameforged sceptre should be slightly reworked.
Change to Raikkas Ability
Now initially I thought the change to weapons was almost completely cosmetic, but it really is very useful against the weapon based heroes. Being able to selectively do so to prevent their swing turns with weapons proved quite handy and I probably had the best time against weapon heroes. Raikkas ability is spammable enough and generally fairly decent, although still far weaker than BB or the ilk. The change to Krygon also hurts raikka a little.
Flameforged sceptre
Didn't test this to be honest, I can't see it possibly not being complete crap. Taking retaliation damage and pissing away 1 SE to almost kill a 3CC creature isn't a great trade. I can see it is there to try and make the gauntlets trigger more often, but frankly triggering the gauntlets fairly regularly isn't the issue tbh.
Flameforged Gauntlets
Now before testing I assumed these would be pretty hard to get draw out of and that the durability decreasing would be a big issue. The first part I found not to be an issue, and could trigger the gauntlets at least as often as Therebin can play with his scriptures. Durability decreasing was a big issue, and even with all the attack reduction and mage board clearance to throw about, typically I only got 2 cards per set of gauntlets. Second big issue was the cost. 3cc makes them very hard to set up easily, and I often had to over-sac just to get to the point where they could be triggered. 3CC for 2 cards is not great out of a main draw engine. Being armour they were also destroyed more easily (smashing blow) although this was a more minor issue. The gauntlets are a nice idea, and it would be cool if they worked but they aren't quite nice enough. This would also give them some potential for Maj (who would have a harder time triggering them but generally needs less draw than
Raikka anyway). Finally, compared to Wizents staff, 1 armour is a lot less useful than 1 weapon damage. A 1 damage weapon os potentially handier for
Raikka due to the number of 6 health allies against your nova.
The flaming crew
Grimghast, Urigon and flameborn defiler all did a good job. Furion Terror was lacklustre since Raikkas ability has no synergy with it the turn it is played meaning all you have is an ally and slightly weakened opponents. Overall I felt there were sufficient decent fiery denizens of shadow to keep the fire damage coming through for the gauntlets and they generally meshed well with Raikkas ability in general.
The Sample
I played 28 games with
Raikka, using the flame-based theme. 11 Wins, 2 draws, 15 losses at the 300-313 level (over the last 24 hours). Played a fair range of different heroes and decks. Tended to beat zal and weapon based heroes, but struggle against the rest of the field.
Despite the element of surprise the deck provides, this was a poor performance overall, and I can generally get a much higher win ratio with other heroes. 1 Loss was due to SEB, the rest were just issues keeping Raikka pumping along. Even 3 Bad santa wasn't enough to stop me top decking a lot.
The deck
Initially was:
4 Karash
4
Grimghast
4 Gargoyle
4 Urigon
2 Flameborn defiler
3 FT
4
Fireball
3 Nova
3 Bad santa
And over the 28 games morphed in stages with -3FT, -2
Flameborn Defiler, +3
Lightning Strike, +2 fatebreak Familiar.
Analysis
Raikka is a very fun hero to play and used very rarely (in 60+ games in 2.86 I've encountered one other Raikka and they weren't using gauntlets either). The improvement against weapon damage is more useful than expected. Raikkas ability is decent when you have allies on the board, but it is very hard for her to retake the board once lost. Clearing the board with nova alone isn't as useful as it is with other mages. Flame based raikka also needs the deck to be built around getting flaming damage which reduces flevibility somewhat but is manageable. The biggest issue is the use of flameforged gauntlets as a draw engine- their expense and nature makes them both hard to set up and you tend to get only 2 cards for the 3CC investment on average making them by far the weakest mage draw engine. Flameforged sceptre is not needed to trigger draw and aside from this is a weak weapon in a mages hands with a poor special ability.
Concluding points
Raikkas ability is
definitely an improvement over what it was previously.
Flamforged gauntlets are a poor engine as they stand, which is a shame.
They need to be more equivalent to Scriptures i.e. 2CC and an artefact rather than an armour (I mean, how much protection are you expecting from a pair of metal gloves anyway).
If the change to flameforged sceptre is intended to make Raikka into a kind of fighter-mage ( a nice idea I think, and would help her when the board is lost), there needs to be more interaction with the two.
Raikkas ability should be "friendly allies AND WEAPONS...". Flameforged Sceptre's activated 1SE ability should grant ambush and +1 attack against allies only. This would allow Raikka (for 2SE mind you) to cause 3 damage + ablaze to an ally without taking retaliation damage. Extra damage from the weapon against heroes would only be +1 so there is no excessively big issue with mage burn combining with excessive weapon damage.
If these changes were made it would also rescue flameborn defilet, sceptre and gauntlets from obscurity in the land of "only in Meltdown will you ever see these, if then" and Raikka from being the weakest mage by a long shot and would have a fairly novel and interesting playstyle.
Originally Posted by DOXSTA
What are you two saying "In" for?
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