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SpellNews

Issue # 4
April 1997
Editors:  Arevar & Cesstris
Email: arevar@aol.com  

This Issue:

*  Introduction
*  Cesstris' Thief Deck
*  SpellNews Word Search I
*  Poll # 1 Results
*  Fan Deck Ideas
*  Notices

Introduction

Well, this issue is the largest yet. It features a thief deck by Cesstis himself--trust me, it is an annoying deck to play against. Then we have a word search where you try to find certain Spellfire terms. Then the poll results from poll #1, which only three people responded to. Then there are two deck ideas submitted by fellow SF players. Finally, notices--trades, etc. Remember that if you want to send 'fan mail' to talk about SN, what you like/dislike about it, ideas for improvement, etc, they are more than welcome. Now, on with SpellNews #4!

Realms (13)
Menzoberranzan
The Bright Desert
The Bandit Kingdoms
Duchy of Tenh
The Horned Society
Perrenland
New Giustenal
Burneal Forest
Furyondy
The Forbidden City
Ancient Kalidnay
Nyrond
The Bone March

Holdings (2)
Assassins Guild
Guild Shop

Magical Items (5)
Dagger of night
Net of Entrapment
Tarokka Deck
Dancing Sword
Whip of Disarming

Champions/Thieves (11)
Jacqueline Renier
Artemis Entreri
Daryth of Calimshan
Turin Deathstalker
Simpkin "The Weasel" Furzear
Moriad
Storm Silverhand
Donval
El-Hadid
Jamlin
Julio, Master Thief of Haslic

Thief Skills (4)
Use Poison
Concealed Weapon
Climb Walls
Detect Noise

Events (4)
Cataclysm!
The Caravan
Good Fortune
Spirit of the Land

Allies (16)
Assassins
Punisher
Beggar
Flaming Fist
Galek
Aurak Draconians
Guild Master
Gladiators
Ashathra
Sivak Draconians
Loric the Fence
Cat Burglar
Halfling, inc
Cha'thrang
Myrmidons
Ninjas

Cesstris Speaks:
       Good Combos--Artemis Entreri with The Net of Entrapment. This is a good combo during a battle. not only can your opponent not play allies, But Artemis then gives himself a bonus.
Jamlin and Assassins or Aurak Draconians. If you don't feel like putting up a fight and your opponent isn't up by 10, the assassins take out a champion, and/or the Auraks blow up the opposition, and Jamlin strolls back to his pool.
       Even if you don't win with this deck, in my opinion it's a fun deck to play with. As my opponents have said: "...that is one annoying deck.". (This is an annoying deck.) So--enjoy yourselves, and kick some butt!

~ Cesstris

The words you are looking for:

Ally Artifact Artifacts Birthright Cleric Draconimicon Dragonlance Dungeons Event Forgotten Realms                              Hero Holding Magical Item

Monster Nightstalkers Powers Psionicist Ravenloft Realm Regent RunesARuins Spellfire Thief Underdark Wizard

Unfortunately, there were only three responses to poll #1, so instead of showing a "chart" overview of the results, I will list the results independantly with the person to whom they belong.

The first is OrngNBlue.

1. Favorite card: Rings of All Seeing (I like to choose)
   

2. Favorite Champion Kind: Could not care less - it totally depends on the deck
   

3. Favorite Type: Regent (Huge BR fan)
   

4. Favorite ed.: 4th - these cards just kick butt
   

5. Expansion booster - FR - Helm, Lim. Wish, Cold Cup, are in EVERY deck I make
   

6. a) Favorite Combo: Age Dragon on Celestial Emperor - When he casts Elemental Swarm, he discards all cards 23rd level or lower. Tee Hee! b) Least Favorite Combo: Gloriana and Rand the Bowyer in the same pool - ANNOYING
   

7. a) Favorite type of deck: Dragons of Speed b) Least Favorite: "Let me draw from my discards" Decks
   

8. Spellfire world: (For playing purposes) FR - Menzo, Helm, Living Wall
   

9. 3 Events: Cold Cup, Caravan, Slave Revolt! (side note: wasn't it "other than Calm, Caravan, Good Fortune...?)
   

The next listing is from LordLich:

1. Favorite Card: Hettman Tsurin. A truly devastating first turn card.
   

2. Favorite Kind of Champion: Undead and Dragons tie.
   

3. Favorite Type of Champion: I love my Wizards.
   

4. Favorite Edition/Why: 4th, definately. It's very well balanced, the print is more straight-forward, there is a wider variety of cards, and overall it was just such an improvement.
   

5. Favorite Expansion/Why: Don't have too much a preference, I kinda like all of them.
   

6. Favorite Combo/Least Favorite Combo: A champion w/a Rod of Shapechange, and Dr. Mordenheim and either the Assassins or Starving Artist in the discard pile. Least: Rule Lawyer/Event Wheel/Royal Tax Levy/Bronze Dragons (when it works against me).
   

7. Favorite Type of Deck/Least Favorite Type: I love to see funky combo decks work. Least: Don't really have a least.
   

8. Favorite Spellfire World/Why: Dark Sun, lots of card manipulation.
   

9. Three Favorite Events? Deflection (Big Fat Advantage), Unusually Good Fortune (so fun when it works), Caer Allison (who doesn't like it).
   

The final listing is from Zifnab. (Ironically, he was the first one to respond.)

1. What is your favorite card? - Remnis!
   

2. What is your favorite kind of champion (Undead, Flyer, Earthwalker, Dragon, etc)? Dragon.
   

3. What is your favorite type of champion (Hero, Regent, Thief, etc)? - Hero
   

4. What is your favorite edition and why? - 3rd - all those really cool allies (Galek, Miles, and so many others)
   

5. What is your favorite expansion booster, and why? - hmm....Draconomicon (with Birthright a close second) - Almost every card in Draconomicon was usable - and there were already enough dragons that the dragon only support cards could be used extensively.
   

6. What is your favorite combo? Least favorite? - favorite - Remnis & Estate Transference - least favorite - Shadow Dragon & Wand of Orcus (only because I don't use it!)
   

7. What is your favorite type of deck? Least favorite? - favorite - Retrieval (brings cards back from discard) - least favorite - Defenders that don't die (Drizzt, Ochimo, Jamlin, etc)
   

8. What is your favorite Spellfire world (so far) and why? - Greyhawk - the realm powers are awesome, and the artifacts are great.
   

9. What are your three favorite events? (other than Calm, Caravan, Cataclysm, and Good Fortune.) - ummm....Cold Cup, Unusually Good Fortune, and Crossed Blades.
   

The Following are two deck ideas sent to us by Lord Ogre and LordLich.

Here is Lord Ogre's deck: (please forgive the lack of card #'s. Unfortuantely, I, the typist of SpellNews, currently lack the time to look them all up and type them in.)

Realms (14)
Menzoberranzan
Bluet Spur (Artifacts version)
Slave Realm of Tunek
Lake Island
Euripis
Gulg
Tyr
Shining Lands (Artifacts version)
Urik
Shault
The Last Sea
The Forest Ridge
Ancient Kalidnay
Nibenay

Holdings (4)
Silver Spring
Black Waters
Arkhold
Lost Oasis

Rule Card (1)
City States

Champions (13) 76 levels
Helm
Delsenora
Gib Kcir
Erellika
Adventures! (spellcaster version)
Karlott the Shaman
Onad the Weasel
Shadair Mesker
The Outcast
Borys the Dragon (4th Edition)
Korgunard the Avangion
Dregoth
Gatekeeper

Events (10)
Land Ho!
Cataclysm
Cold Cup
Spirit of the Land
Caer Allison
Good Fortune
Hurricane
Caravan
Calm

Spells (12)
Time Stop
Intercession
Limited Wish
Dispel
Dispel Magic (cl)
Dispel Magic (wz)
Disintegrate
Estate Transference
Wish
Spell Turning
Creeping Doom
Recall

Artifacts/Magic Items (2)
The Winner's Cape
Amulet of Spell Protection

Basis of play of the Deck: Get the realms out. Destroy the opponents realms. Eventually the will raze yours until you get a champion limiter (flyers, earthwalkers, etc), and they will hit each other with fighting, because you have 2 or 3 razed realms.

This is a basic "turbo realm" deck. Get the realms out and win hopefully in turn 4 or less for the most part. The "One Turn Win" almost happened for me in the second round of the tourney. Here is the basic play by play of it. (I'm player 2)

#1: Plays Spiderfell. Knocks.
#2(me): Play Shining Lands & Helm. Knock.
#3: Plays Coral Kingdom. Knocks.
#1: Plays Horned Society, & Living Wall. Cataclysm's Coral Kingdom. Knocks.
#2(me): Play Anc. Kalid. & Menzo. Raze Kalid. Play City States. Play Tyr & arkhold. Play Korgunard, discard to unraze Anc. Kalidnay. Play Caer Allison. I win.

It was just wrong, I know, but these things don't happen to me too often. Usually I get Cold Cupped on the opening draw.

Here is LordLich's deck:

Okay, here's the deck's idea: It centers around razing your own Realms to take away resources from your opponent and lulling them into complacency, and then tossing out the Rule "Playing to Lose"!! I've played it a lot and it's really fun. It's quick enough to win either way, by having six razed or unrazed Realms out. Well that's the concept, you can figure out what most of the cards are there for, but I'll note some specific ones. Here it is:

Realms (13) (* means it has a power that can voluntarily raze it)
The Last Sea*
Stonefist Hold*
Free and Independent City of Dyvers*
Scarlet Brotherhood*
Lendore Isles
Ancient Kalidnay*
Avanil
Mithas
Temple of Elemental Evil
The Sphinx
Menzoberranzan
Duchy of Tenh
Haunted Hall of Evening Star

Champions (14) (90 Levels without the Avatar)
Iuz, Avatar of Evil (used to control # of razed/unrazed realms the opponent has)
Delsenora
Onad
Karlott
Korgunard
Gib Kcir
Pelath
Dregoth
Ellorelloren (or however you spell her name)
Bigby
Cyan Bloodbane
Noble Outlaw (attacker win no spoils, who cares if they raze a realm)
Lyr of the Mists
Dragon Hatchling

Events (10)
Caravan
Calm
Caer Allison
Good Fortune
Hurricane
Deflection
Tarrasque
Spirit of the Land
Labor of Legend
Safe Harbor (razed/unrazed control, and the ability to "use" a realm twice)

Wizard Spells (6)
Disintegrate (instead of Creeping Doom or Raze because it discards the realm)
Estate Transference (")
Dispel Magic
Wish
Limited Wish
Re-Target

Cleric Spells (5)
Dispel
Dispel Magic
Intercession
Resurrection
Heal

Rules (2)
Playing to Lose (Heart of the Deck)
Cosmic Intervention (especially for all those Ultimate Rule Card junkies)

Magic Items (4)
Bag of Holding
Bag of Beans
Bell of Might
Midnight's Mask of Disguise (too many common Champions)

Ally (1)
Starving Artist

One of the best tricks the deck has is to get the Duchy of Tenh out and lay Menzo (draw 3), then use Iuz the Avatar to raze Menzo(draw 3 more), to raze one of the opponent's Realms. You can then rebuild it with one of many rebuilding type cards (Safe Harbor, Labor of Legend, Spirit of the Land, Korgunard), and do it again next turn. Draw, draw, draw. The 2 Bags are there for some deck cycling ability, (you need it with the lack of holdings like Mulmaster and Arkhold. The Dragon Hatchling is there as quick defense (something Myrmidons can't do) and retrival of the discards. The Realms that don't raze themselves can be razed by Iuz, the Avatar, or Tarrasque. Be forewarned - the only way to get Iuz out is with Dregoth - protect him. All in all I think it's a pretty good concept. It has a good deal of speed without being your typical speed deck, and it's fun to play (unlike your typical speed deck). Many of the cards in the deck are Chase's (9, or 10 w/ Delsenora) so it may be a little difficult to build, but die hards shouldn't have a problem. Besides, you can always substitute things out to see which ones you like and don't like. Hope you like it, if you have any criticism for it I'm always looking for improvements, so feel free to tell me if there's anything you'd change. Maybe you can use it as a sort of theme deck for the Spellnews. The theme could be killing yourself or something...... (I think that this is a good, fun deck. Sure, may not win all the time, but remember--isn't the point of the game to have fun?...)

Well, that's it for this time, folks. During the last couple weeks, Cesstris and I have found time to be more precious than before. Therefore, instead of even attempting to make SN a weekly 'zine, we will simply ATTEMPT to make it Bi-Weekly, but as school, etc have priority for now, there are no guaruntees. Hope you enjoyed this issue. Next issue should have the results to Poll #2. The deadline to get them in by is Friday, May 2, 1997. Remember that there are several ongoing things right now. Send in combos, deck ideas, etc. You will be given credit for them.

Until next time...