Spells rating judging by their efficiency on the board

This is my personal meta rating on efficiency of spells (in terms of comsuming/giving rescources onto the battlefield) from 1 to 5 based on analysis of nora cost/damage they can do/ap they can generate and situations they can be used in. I do the rating granted, that the spell is played around to its full potential in a really average situation. (you manage to sacrifice a champion that will die next turn, or you hit 3 champions with maddening echoes but it's possible to hit 4th by moving your own champion or kill a champ with sheoul's fireball). I also assume that you know what spell does and know its nora cost. I also try to make full use of all components of the spell at once.

Acrid smoke:
3/5 This spell deals too low damage for its nora cost and blind can be cleansed

Animosity:
2/5 You need to hit a relic to kill it, and too low damage to champions, really bad spell.

Arise:
5+/5 this spell is worth building a bg around it. Stitched are a strong theme with one of the reasons this spell exists in this form. (champions are real, have real hp, speed and damage)

Arthropod frenzy:
3/5 I can't imagine situation where you use all of the components, but pounce on all champions can be good

Avenging flame:
3/5 Damage too low, immobile is too situational (25 nora)

Bane shift:
3/5 Situational and hard to use, also single target, but the effect can be nice but 25 nora makes it worse than expected.

Banish:
2/5 High nora cost, makes your opponent have more possibilities (nora).

Befoul:
3/5 The effect is not worth nora unless in combination with something, used in trick decks.

Blast doors:
3/5 I assume you have 2 dimention doors on the battlefield. Also they were placed in another purpose than self destruct. Damage is okay. nora cost could 5 lower.

Blood exchange:
3/5 Used for tricks. Can be good. No pressure on the battlefield though, because your hp stays the same and nora goes lower.

Blood for mortar:
1/5 hp on the board stays the same. You pay nora and sacrifice champion. (assuming your champ has 15 hp left)

Brand of brutality:
3/5 Good damage, good in situation melee against ranged, but a bit overcosted

Breath of ash:
5/5 50% damage reduction when you play it correctly (when built bg around it and use when you are going to be hit by ranged units)

Burnout:
4/5 Good damage, knockback is just a flavor. I assume you manage to hit 2 champions.

Cauterize:
3/5 Low damage, defile is average, inhibited is good.

Coward's Reach:
3/5 Your opponent can play around it. You save some ap when someone engages your ranged champion. Not worth a slot though.

Dark Pact:
3+/5 Very good if triggered against vertical push, essence drain, etc., but there are tons of ways your opponent can play around NOT using those spells. If trigerred corectly, then 5/5.

Darkness:
3/5 in a standard meta it could be used if you were running low on champions because of double sacrifice late game. 30 nora makes it usefull for that. Probably not worth a slot, though.

Demolish:
5/5 Really efficient, especially when its possible to destroy multiple relics with 20+hp.

Demon Call:
1/5 When you would like to use one champion more than another, but its not efficient to spend 25 nora.

Drain Vitality:
4+/5 It's a good, efficient spell. Stats are worth 52 nora. Speed is something you would like to have in UD.

Erupt:
3+/5 Damage from lava traps is low, and they can be destroyed by ranged champions, but it's still pressure on the battlefield.

Exile:
4-/5 soulsift will eventually pay off and the champion still can stay on the font. Stats from loyalty are okay but not desired that much. There is a better option for almost same situation: sacrifice.

Eye for an eye:
3/5 16 damage for your champion is a lot, blind can be cleansed, unless used with combination of befoul. then 4+/5 Used in trick decks more than meta.

Fading recollection:
2/5 Overcosted for it's use for standard gameplay. I recommend using it if you face dreadnought bgs and such, but it's really inefficient to deny abilities for 55 nora.

Fiery Ambush:
5/5 Movement block, 12 aoe damage. I assume opponent has 2 champions in the font to be efficient.

Fire blast:
4/5 probably wouldn't use 2x because of its small aoe. I assume you should hit 2 champs +1 of any unit (summon, relic) to make it worth its use.

Grimlic's Treachery:
4/5 you need to deploy 4+ champions to make it worth

Hellfire:
4/5 good damage, a bit situational, but cheap and efficient. (fire deck spell)

Late to battle:
4/5 This spell shouldn't exist. If you draw it early, you can capture a font for 35 nora cost.

Maddening echoes:
4+/5 I assume you hit 3 champions when you cast this spell. You can move your own unit to deal even more damage. its nora cost make it a really good spell. too bad everybody will expect it at first place.

Mandate from sheoul:
4+/5 situational, but distastrous. same class as above.

Masochism:
3/5 not really efficient, cuase the hp ap and damage stay the same on the board.

Mass web:
4-/5 cc can be cleansed, you need to deploy couple champions to make it efficient.

Mindslicer boomerang:
4+/5 It usually kills a champion at cost of your own health. Defenseless component is hard to trigger but is nice, because it serves same purpose as the spell itself

Mindstorm:
3+/5 not worth 35 nora. Damage too low (overtime can be healed) and ap denial is just not that great (I assume you are not playing deep elves. it's probably 4/5 in this theme) Also its usually ~4 ap denied.

Pillars of flame:
2/5 I dont know if its possible to play around this spell in terms of positioning. 40 nora for its basic use (which is 12 damage with knockback champion or similar) is not efficient.

Price of victory:
4/5 Ap is desired but the spell itself is medicore. I recommend playing it anyways, because it's ap is worth much more than in other factions.

Protect the nest:
let spider players comment on this one.

Purefire:
3/5 The spell should be 10 nora cheaper.

Rain of blood:
Let vampyre players comment on this one. Probably 4-/5

Rapid Assault:
4/5 Ap is desired and the spell costs really low. consumes a slot for a minor effect though.

Red sand:
3/5 Medicore.

Retribution:
4/5 The damage is high, but the nora cost is high as well. the most balanced spell of the UD spellset imo.

Sacrifice:
5/5 Absolutely one of the best spells. If used correctly it gives you many possibilities to play a turn. Returns most of the champions nora cost if you manage to collect the globe, for a slot in deck.

Scorch the earth:
3/5 unless combined with cc its damage is too low.

Secret meeting:
4+/5 Big pseudo ap generation, really good, cheap spell.

Shadow:
1/5 trick decks only.

Shatter:
3/5 If you consider your opponent used an equip and you shatter it next turn, opponent is still ahead one turn of using the equip.

Shattered nerves:
3/5 it's hidden component makes sure your opponent will use more ap this turn. Less total damage makes it same class as red sand.

Sheoul's Fireball:
5/5 Great spell, great damage. Hard to use efficiently though. I wish every UD player tried to play around this spell at least once.

Smoke cloud:
2/5 Stealth is not really good in this game in terms of efficiency. Can be annoying but played around by opponent.

Smoldering ashes:
2/5 Really inneficient. Costs 30 nora for low damage and defile which isnt a great utility.

Soul feed:
3+/5 almost same as coward's reach.

Split personality:
4+/5 If used correctly, Makes damage, prevents damage to your champions, and prevents your opponent from attacking next turn. 40 nora is perfectly balanced for this spell.

Summon borghas:
3/5 if not used with tricks, it's rather medicore.

Summon trap spider:
2/5 its a summon, and its nora cost is too high for this rune.

Superiority:
5/5 really efficient damage spell. Universal as Well. Might be even 5+/5

Vulcanic burst:
4-/5 really good damage but you need to predict your opponent's movement.

Votaev's Grasp:
5/5 really gives you champion for 30 nora, which can be useful depending on the opponent champion.

edit: edited some descriptions so they dont midlead players and fixed description.
edit2: changed drain vitality to 4+ after i did the math.

 

Of course the spell usage is left for the player, this is just a rating on spell efficiency. I don't claim you should play votaev's grasp over retribution. Just comparing it's nora cost to what damage/health/ap you get on the board by playing this spell.

 

dude demon call 1/5? getting all your champs early game means you can deploy to counter your enemies deploys i/e heretic overlord and you'll have your key spells and relics to counter faster. Its even useful late game to trigger backfires and other anti-spells with how cheap it is.

 

I'd say 4+/5

 

I've always found the word efficient to be used strangely in Pox.

Surely the most 'efficient' rune is the one that helps you win most effectively.

Which is the same as saying 'best' runes.

But would you call FR efficient? 55 Nora is enough to deploy a champ and all it does is remove abilities.

But obviously it can be used efficiently, if it lets you one round something that would have consumed much more resources then it is providing an efficient move.

Which doesn't necessarily mean the rune is the best choice if these situations don't come up often enough.

Just thinking aloud here.

 

technically you can use every cheap spell to counter backfire (if you know its used) and the spell in terms of efficiency is a loss of rescources.

 

Well any other cheap spell you might actually need and a loss of resources would be to have a dying champ and not have revealed a sacrifice or a retri whearas with demon call you have all 30 runes revealed by like round 7 and can pull off the combos that you want instead of what you can with what you currently have. CLEARLY you're not a UD player because most of these "reviews" are horrible

 

Efficient rune is that one that gives you the most rescources. The rescources in this game are following:
Health (and all boosting, healing), damage (including damage shields, overtimes and instant kills like drown), ap, position (this is strange, and this includes range as a rescource) and possibilities (this includes non damaging abilities, revealing runes, and your nora bank). For example swap is not giving you any ap, but changes your position and gives you a possibility to play it or not or play it on different champions, therefore it is a rescource.

 

These reviews aren't meant to rate the spell on 'would I use it or not'. These are just meant to give my personal feeling about how much the rune makes pressure on the battlefield and how much rescources it gives you.

 

you're making yourself seem stupider with every reply lmao save yourself the embarrassment, scrap this post and let real ud players that actually play it in ranked and know exactly "how much the rune makes pressure on the battlefield and how much rescources it gives you."

cuz this is just gonna mislead people

Hell i barely play UD and i have 5 times the UD points you have -_-

 

Let me explain in an example:
With all my conditions met (you killed the champion) Votaev's Grasp gives you technically a champ with short lived for 30 nora. You get his hp, you get his damage, range, and produce ap for 3 turns. this is much more worth in terms of efficiency than damaging your own units with Mindslicer Boomerang and dealing same damage to opponent. Maybe I wrote the descriptions like it was an advertisement, which shouldnt sound like this and this is my mistake, but the rating itself is generally correct. Also I use mindslicer boomerang and do not Votaev's grasp. And yes, I don't play a lot but I analyze much more. I think mindslicer Boomerang is a better spell, because it lets you kill a champion which is leading to your main goal, of destroying the shrine by clearing the board from champions.

 

Actually he is pretty straight forward about what this list is and he is correct that Demon Call is not an "efficient" spell. I personally would give it like a 2.5/5 for the very reason you listed of being able to use it as a counter-counter spell but normally you are paying for an effect that happens for free. You are just getting it faster. It has no offensive benefits or an ability that can defend an investment. It doesnt cost your opponent anything when you use it. You are correct that it is a very viable spell but he is likewise correct that it isnt an efficient spell.

 

Mindstorm is amazing, 15 single target dmg and zou stop no-khan-do for just 35 nora is a steal

 

Its not efficient, because it can be healed or cleansed. 15 damage and about 4 ap is not worth 35 nora. You can do much more with sheouls fireball or hellfire. Maybe i misjudged this spell by not giving 4 but im not counting nkd counter at all. Nkd is like 5% of the situations, so i didnt count it.

 

Last time I checked healing dead champs was rather diffucult.
While fireball is pretty much the same as mindstorm (1 dmg difference both shine in different special circumstances) hellfire is straight worse at just 10 dmg while hitting your champs for sure.

 

Mindstorm is also a damage which has almost no immunities or resistances out there. Every faction has fire immune.

The AP loss also gives it tons of utility - not just NKD, but also in preventing double taps and limiting their mobility, and also for cull if you are running a deep elf deck.

It is a clear x1 include in all my decks.

 

I stated that hellfire is usually a fire deck spell becuase of its aoe, and it deals 13 dmg at first turn, so its more eficient using this + 8 aoe damage to 4 spaces away champions than denying about 4 ap max to a single target. maybe its a matter of half a star for a spell but generally im okay with my rating.

 

I gotta say i'm impressed with the effort put into the thread... Thanks for that to start with. I really like the approach.

My opinion:

Demon Call: early draw of that one can make a huge step into allowing you to play your deck the way you've idealized (best case scenario). Just think of how many times you lost (or almost lost) a game because the damn cleanser / dispeller rune wouldn’t just be drawn !! or the relic you've built your bg around is still not revealed ... that said though, i don’t run it in most my bgs

Mindstorm : hands down auto include at least x1. x2 in cull decks. lets not compare single target dmg to AoE. i know Sheoul's Fireball does 1 more dmg but it still is fire. its like everyone is immune to fire or likes eating it and the AP loss is sweet CC

FR : situational i know, but it costed me games before ! extremely effective in so many situations


Again.. Good job Iron

 

Should change list for BGs, spells in-general differ in power level when changing UD bg style. As in, Superiority is good in things like spiders, minos , not often played races, but demons it'll be useless vs most UD bgs (as well as hit your own units if your meta isn't fully demon).
As well mandate of sheoul, utter garbage spell in meta atm, but in a decent beater set up ( vamps/minos), worth running.


Also i personally think acrid smoke is the most garbage spell ever. i'm not sure who convinced UD players to start running it again. ( I say this using the spell alone, not including defile combos.)

 

About mandate: Im taking into account that you make full use of every component in the spell. therefore you heal 50% get +7 damage use it on a melee champion and you have a cahnce of you opponent deploying a hero. (you can adapt to make full use and your opponent not nessesarily deploys heroes vs you therfore its a chance). its an efficient nora spend on rescources you might need. I compared it to spot heal fs fountain for 35 nora where you use nearly same component but with harder use. about superiority: I assumed you built a bg around it and dont hurt your champions.