The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

-Rulings and Clarifications-

• - TBA

-Combinations and Synergies-

• - TBA

Synergy Benefits Received

• - TBA

Synergy Benefits Offered

• - TBA

-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• - TBA

Unit Strategy Review

• - TBA

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

I'll be the first to chime in here.

Does anyone else feel like this figure is only so-so at best?

We only have 1 other figure to really compare it to, Kor Aeronaut Captain, but I feel like this figure ended up with a lot of it's points tied up in abilities that aren't particularly useful.
The Merfolk roughly trades 1 movement and 2 attack dice for 5 range

The Kor is able to easily make up for the lack of range with the combination of Flying+Ride the Currents, and his comparable 'team movement' ability is useful basically all the time whereas 'Part Waters' is super cumbersome to set up and rarely useful.

Instead of Part Waters it would have been nice to see something more along the lines of the MTG card that references Roilmages, Roilmage's Trick http://magiccards.info/scans/en/bfz/83.jpg

Some sort of targetted debuff would have been nice. "Once per turn choose a Squad creature within 4 clear sight spaces of Merfolk Roilmage, Until the end of your opponent's next turn that Squad gets -1 Power"
or even 'gets -X power where X is the number of colors amongst creatures you control' to support the Kiora multicolor/converge theme

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

My brothers camp this dude on water and do okay with him. I think he is second rate to the kor aeronaut captain though. That's my preference.

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

Well heck ..I have the expansion but was busy with other stuff so I had not looked at the cards yet ., like making Merfolk. Glad to see I was close, same no stop on water but where I gave a +2 movement like road rules if in water. The creators gave +2 Defense. I better go look at them all so I don't waste time reinventing the wheel ...tho I feel the +2 to movement while in water makes better sense...

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

Not to mention that most of the time it's really a +1 def buff, because by being in the water you're typically giving up height advantage. Which has the other side effect of essentially meaning you give your opponents +1 DEF when you attack with him from water.

Played a 2v2 last night with him Jace + Nissa vs Ob nix + Gideon. Roilmage got activated once because of the 'buff a creature +X atk where X = cards in opponent's hand' spell, Probably still would have been better off using Jace or the Phantasmal Images that turn too. Compared to the Kor Aeronaut Captain flying over a bunch of figs intended to block, and taking a buffed 11 dice attack at Nissa on the opening salvo of attacks. Definitely still underwhelmed with him as a hero

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

This would be a great figure for the Innistrad "Ambush" scenario to help get you and your allied figures across the water...

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

If I am using the Roilmage on the AotP terrain, do the water spaces count as being a lower space than the rest of the terrain, or are all terrain types on the mats considers the same?

It seems to me that they are all the same level on the mats.

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

On AotP mats they are the same level - think of them as water on top of some other terrain the same level as the mats. Yea, definitely different than most Heroscape mats where they are lower (or for that matter real life where water always goes to the low ground).

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

In other words, as per the AotP mats, the roilmage's defensive ability is much better than the water elemental's in Heroscape. Really its a lot better because it is two defense instead of one, but you know what I mean.

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

Yeah, and really map dependent. The 6 range is nice, as it keeps figures 6 spaces from all water, but depending on the map, the main battle might be farther away from water, unless you put your summoner and/or other figures near the water. I guess if you startegize like that you can make the game less map dependent, but most maps have height within 6 spaces of water so it kinda washes away the sea born defense.

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

@Tiranx
Forgot about this in the AotP rules, does make it confusing because I guess then water is lower, but not 100% sure. Merfolk need the help so I would just say they get +2 Toughness, but could see only 1 if you want to extrapolate one rule from another.

Re: The Book of Merfolk Roilmage
 

obfuscatedhippo said:

So water is 1 level lower, meaning Roilmage (and Kiora) negate water's innate -1 for lower elevation and then add an additional +1 defense on top of that. Works for me.