What defenses do I need for Malistaire?

I got a nice long letter from Christo Thundersinger. I really appreciated his kind words! Thank you! At the end of his letter, he had a question about defense against the dark arts for his storm/life and myth/life combo that he and his wife run:

I'm wondering about defenses: I've got Spirit Armor, which totally rocks, but can be a bit expensive, pip-wise (3); and Ether Shield (life/death) and Legend Shield (death/myth). In addition, my gear gives me one Elemental Shield (storm/fire/ice) and one Tower Shield, but they can come up pretty infrequently.

Do you think I've got the spells I need, defense-wise, to make it to and through Malistaire? I also have 3 training points to use. I'm wondering if there's a spell I should try to pick up from a different school? Or should I be investing heavily in treasure cards and/or gear?

Thanks again, and Happy New Year!

Well let's see.

You can skip the first two fights in Malistaire's Lair by 1- having yourself or your wife run into the battle and then 2- have the other person run around the side. 3- the person in the fight flees then teleports back once the other is safely past the fight.


You'll probably want to fight both of the Oni's since they drop fantastic loot. A couple tempests should take both of them down with no problems at all since one is a fire-based fight and the other is a cold-based fight. Have your wife's storm wizard load her deck with a bunch of Thermic Shield for those fights. I'd take a 0 pip Thermic shield over a 3 pip/power pip Spirit Armor any day. (You know, that thermic shield is only 3 deep in the storm line of spells if she doesn't want to do that.)

Inside the final part of Malistaire you'll need a lot of elemental defense for the first fight and a lot of death defense for Malistaire and his buddies.

Here's a tip. The fight right before Malistaire isn't too difficult for a storm wizard. It's really just a buffed tempest away from victory. So, have the myth/life person run into the fight first and grab the agro before running the storm/life toon into the fight for the second round. Shorten your deck for the fight and only load your ether shield, legend shield, and a few healing spells . . . I wouldn't even worry about loading an attack spell with the myth wizard . . . just let the storm wizard do her thing while you play offensive linebacker (or lifebacker if you're a wizard ;-)).

You know, after I typed that, I thought . . . I have a level 20 myth/life . . . I wonder . . .





hehe. Well that was fun.

As you can see for the final fight with Malistaire I'd take the same lifebacker approach. however, go ahead and load a couple orthrus or ninja pig just to help your wife do some damage on malistaire after getting the minions down.

In the end though, I'm sure you'll do fine even if you don't take my advice. The fights in Malistaire's Lair are difficult, but they aren't anything really more terrible than what you've faced before getting to that point.

Hope that answers your question in a round about way!

Happy Dueling!