[Introduction]
I meet a lot of different people in my travels in the various worlds of Wizard 101. I have met people who have many different and varied abilities when it comes to the combat system. I like to think of myself as a fairly hardcore gamer. I love to play games. I love to beat everything up. I love to min-max my attributes, prioritize my skill queue, and generally create havoc for an enemy unlucky enough to stand in my way.
That being said, this blog post is about helping players construct their decks. I meet a lot of people who just put in any old thing, and then wonder why they die all the time, or are always asking for help because they have a difficult time killing their enemies. Much of what I write here is going to be from personal experience with Wizard 101. Additionally, many of my thoughts on deck construction come from my experiences playing other TCG's, like Magic the Gathering. These basic concepts hold true in those games, and many of them have even more power in Wizard 101.
[Tip #1: David vs. Goliath]
I am pretty sure we all know the story of David versus Goliath. If you do, please skip the next paragraph. If you don't, please continue.
There was once a guy named Goliath. He was the largest, strongest, and fiercest warrior. He helped conquer cities and kingdoms. One day, he was challenged by a guy named David. David was a tiny lump of a man, hardly worth a second look. Goliath, in his most infinite wisdom and figuring there was no way he would lose, agreed to take up this challenger. David kicked his massive arse. Moral of the story: Large is not always the way to victory.
The idea behind this tip is to cut your deck size down as much as possible. I know there are plenty of spells in the average player's deck that rarely see use. I hear this line all the time: "Wait a second, I need to discard to get the card I need." Seriously? I almost never have that problem. Then again, I run a pretty small deck. In fact, I don't even need all the space in a starter deck. And I can kill most everything. In fact, I have killed the Jade Oni with my deck.
The most important thing to remember here is that if you have fewer cards in your deck, you will come across the ones you need far more often, and far sooner. Here is my general purpose deck (I am a balance wizard, in case you were wondering.):
1x Judgement
1x Hex
1x BalanceBlade
1x Feint
1x Power Play
1x Reshuffle
1x Healing Hands
I get the following spells from my equipment: 2x Guiding Light (Troll Ear Pendant), 5x Wrath (Oyotomi's Jade Blade). I have been farming Kagemoosha and Death Oni for Kagemoosha's Citrine Blade(5x Crusade, a balance spell) and the Headress of the Sylph(1x Dryad, a very powerful heal). If you'd like to join me for the loot drops, please feel free to contact me. I can run the instance in about 15 minutes solo.
When I fought the Jade Oni, I added Spectral Minion. This is a 4-pip spell that is either a very reliable damage over time spell, or a nice tank. Either way, it's a good use of 4 pips against a boss with 7500 health.
When I go into special dungeons, like Tomb of the Beguiler, I will double my Hex, Feint, BalanceBlade, and Judgement spells, if only to increase the speed with which I get them. As an aside, I have hit for over 4k damage with Judgement. Not many creatures can survive that. And even fewer can survive two of those.
[Tip #2: Waste Not, Want Not]
This tip kind of goes hand-in-hand with the previous tip. It will help you reduce the size of your deck. The most important thign to remember here is: Get rid of anything you don't plan on using. As a Balance wizard, I used to keep a couple of lower pip spells, like Scorpion and Locust Swarm in my decks in order to use fewer pips for some of the fights I was in. However, on a pip-by-pip basis, Judgement is far more reliable at 100 damage per pip, unlike the other spells which can vary from 60-105 per pip damage. This same thign holds true for all the other schools as well. Get rid of cards that aren't as useful to you. Death has Dark Sprite. Sure it is only 1 pip, but for 2 pips you can use Ghoul, which not only does a decent amount of damage, but heals you as well.
There are many spells which you can remove from your deck. Some have a use, some don't. My life wizard never uses the 0-pip heal spell. There is no real point in it unless I am doing nothing but healing, with healing bonused gear equipped. Dryad is far more effective than any other heal spell. Especially when combined with Guiding Light.
Again, I urge you to consider every card in your deck. Remove the ones that are not as useful to you. There is no need to keep a card in your deck that you only will use 10% of the time.
[Tip #3: Reuse, Recycle, Reduce]
This tip will also help you lower the number of cards in your deck. I urge every single player to go visit Colossus Blvd. Go to the little house there, and speak with the vendor. Reshuffle is possibly the best spell in the game. It will go into every deck you make from this point on. You only really need to put one of these in your deck. You can put in two if you want, but if you have a small enough deck, you will only need one.
This spell is a Balance spell. You can get it in treasure card format if you don't want to put it in your deck, but it is always better to put a few pixies in your sideboard. Nothing like a heal on demand to help you out. This spell reshuffles your discard pile into your deck, basically giving you an endless supply of cards to use. Additionally, after it is used, it goes on the bottom of your deck, so you will always have one available.
Seriously, this spell will save your life. Over and over again.
[Conclusion]
In conclusion, these three tips will help you succeed. Keep your decks small and lightweight. Remove the trash you don't need. Reshuffle to give you an endless supply of death-dealing goodness. If you keep these tips close to heart, you will find your game play far more enjoyable, and at the same time increase the number of friends you have in the game. Everyone loves an effective wizard, especially at higher levels.
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