Note that a lot of stuff here may already be known, but please read everything carefully, especially if you are just starting out in the arena. The thing I do most is go to the arena and managed to make it to warlord now so I'm confident in this theory. While I try to be as inclusive of all schools as possible, I am a myth wizard so that will have more detail than the other schools.
There are many schools in Wizard101, Life, death, Myth, Storm, Ice, Fire, Balance. And when one enters the arena, it can become a seemingly impossible task to prepare yourself for your opponent given you do not know who it may be. Perhaps using my deck as an example will serve and guide wizards in how to ready themselves for a fight and to increase the confidence in their hand.
I try my best to have four tower shields and four weakness spells on me at all times. The reason for this is that defense is extremely important especially when you are trying to be prepared for all schools. Tower shield and weakness are great because these spells can soften the damage coming in from ALL schools. These two spells I consider permanent keepers in your deck. Note that these spells do not cost any pips, allowing you to collect pips for your big hit spells while softening any possible incoming damage to you.
As a myth student it is important to me to keep in a "bubble" like Time of Legend. Because of this spell, A global field spell (many other schools have versions like it) I am able to avoid having to put traps in my deck. Time of Legend allows me to focus on Buff then attack, whereas without it I may end up buffing, trapping then attacking. That would take too much time especially since myth's bigger spells are two hit attacks. Double trapping would be a terrible way to set up your opponent for each hit.
Also keep in mind that aside from the global tower shield and weakness I have specialized shields too. some for the spirit schools life and death, and some for the elements Ice fire and storm. I tend to carry four shields for storm and fire. This is because fire and storm are the two most aggressive schools and it is important to be extra prepared for them.
I also have the cleanse ward cards in my deck at all times. This myth card allows me to remove traps my opponents may place. This is very important and fits in well with my philosophy of preventing my opponent from getting the most out of their spells. That is one very important line in my battle strategy and has served me well.
In fact, along with earthquake, which allows me to remove all shields and blades from my opponent, this defense strategy of removing traps, placing towers and weakness spells has aided me in reaching a nine game winning streak and more. But no deck is perfect. King Isle has designed a very tricky system here and this is what makes the arena so challenging.
VERY IMPORTANT READ BELOW TWICE No matter how prepared you may think you are, you are at the mercy of what is in your hand. The amount of fizzles you have to push through and the order in which your spells appear in your hand will determine the victor of any match. VERY IMPORTANT READ ABOVE TWICE
Keep in mind the spell infection. This death spell is great for handling players who try to heal themselves. I highly recommend this against life students.
Now I cannot speak for all schools but mine alone, as a myth, the minotaur/orthrus, earthquake and the Cyclops Minion spells along with Time of Legend are the true game changers in the match.
Now you may have some cards that come equipped with some of your gear. A lot of these spells, depending on what school you are, can be considered discard cards. Consider discard or trash cards those that can be replaced with more useful spells for you. This is where your treasure card deck comes into play.
Recommended treasures for all schools: Tower Black Mantle Satyr/pixie Weakness A bubble from your school: Myth=Time of Legend Ice=Ice Dome and so on. Reshuffle (you may find yourself in a much longer fight than expected)
Aside from spells from gear that may be tossed away, you may also toss away extra cards in your deck depending on what school you are fighting.. if you are fighting a death student, you know there is no need to have fire shields. So discard them. And if you want, replace that discarded card with something you can use. once you break past captain and reach commander and warlord the matches will become significantly tougher and you will have much longer matches. Do what you can to make the best out of your deck and be sure that all cards are put to their best possible use.
As far as secondary schools go, don't bother. Unless you are only using the shields don't bother attacking with spells outside of your school. When you reach higher levels you learn to trust your school much more. Take advantage of those power pips and trust how your school was designed by King Isle. Figure out what works best for your school and find your winning strategy along the lines of your schools spell set.
My winning strategy is to keep my opponent from getting the best out of their spells, and to keep up the pressure as I can. The winning spells in my deck are earthquake, Time of Legend and the Minotaur/orthrus , along with a once in a while Ninja Pig.
Find your winning strategy and trust your school. Keep in mind that tower shield and weakness are very important. Each school has a unique design to them but no school is perfect. There is no denying that.
If myth was perfect I would never lose. Hopefully this proves useful for those who are not confident in their arena dueling or are just beginning with their arena dueling.
I would like to make a special note to all myth wizards out there: When dealing with feint, if you go first and your opponent uses feint, there is a one or two turn opportunity where you can take advantage of the negative effects of feint and cause it to backfire on your opponent. Break out that Ninja Pig and capitalize on their temporary handicap before they try to make up for it with a tower shield or something. Do what you can to make your opponents spells back fire on them.
I once managed to squeeze out 1900 points of damage on someone who used feint on me. That extra trap they gave me, along with my time of legend and a myth blade made for a nice boost to my ninja pig.
Always remember that you are playing with multiple things out of your control and remember that the amount of fizzles you have to push through, the gear you are wearing, the power pip chance, and the order in which your spells appear in your hand will be the deciding factors of any match. All matches require some level of luck. I wish I could post my deck video but since links are not allowed I had to put all this text here, haha. So yeah. Any questions, please ask.
Tips on proper shielding: If you are facing a death or fire student, note that two schools have shields for these schools When placing shields, be sure to place a death or fire shield from only one of the schools first. do NOT place the same shield from different schools. The following attack from that school will end up eating both of the shields. You want to try to stretch out your defenses. Careful to not stack them.
This is especially true for tower shields. If you have your standard 50% tower shield placed, do not place a treasure tower shield (55%. 70%) while you have the standard shield placed. If you do so, it will be read as a stack and both shields will be lost on only one attack. But if you place two standard towers, you will be protected for two turns.
Watch the school of your shield and stretch your defenses.
One final useful note in preparing for your opponent, I suggest you start each match with shields from as many schools as possible since you do not know who you will face. But during the countdown before the match starts, you are still able to look at your deck and make last second changes!
Sometimes when you enter a match you might catch a glimpse of your opponents school through the symbols that appear when he ports into the fight, or it can be given away by their clothes, their pet and sometimes their wand. Within those last few seconds, after you find out your opponents school, quickly press the P button on your keyboard to open up your deck. Then remove the unnecessary shields before the fight starts.
So if you find you are facing a storm student, quickly take out the legend/spirit shields from your deck. They will only take up space. And you don't want to have to discard so many cards. Think of it as a last second adjustment that can slim your deck to increase the chance of you getting the right cards.
I do this all the time, I read the school, during the countdown, open up my deck and put away those few cards not needed. And it seriously works wonders.
Practice with this tip and practice reading your opponents school, which shouldn't be too difficult. And happy dueling.
Wow. Just, wow. That certainly changes my pvp strategies.
My main wizard is a former Fire/Storm Veteran (adept is when I reached it), and as it, my go-to spell was immolate. With what you said for spells like feint, I'm able to remove that trap on me, while doing damage to my opponent at the same time. My common strategy was to buff up, trap the opponent, shield myself, then use immolate. Sometimes I would throw in a wyldfire, but with that combo, i would get over 1,000 damage (keep in mind at the time i didn't have the tri blades/traps), and with this strategy i beat allot of my opponents (including a master life wizard with her minion out).
My strategy over time changed as before i rarely encountered fire shields, if any, so now that i'm a grand, pvp matchs are allot harder for me, especially ranked team matches (which is why I prefer to stick to 1v1).
Once I got my minion, I used him allot. Most people I know don't really work with thier minions, but I do. For example, If Flash (minion name) gives me a fireblade, then sometimes I give him one in return, a blade for a blade, if you will. I'm very well aware that he spams fire elf constantly, and that he can sometimes ruin traps, but I've learned to use his elves to my advantage, and work with him so I can get a little bit of an advantage.
Now that I'm a grand, i've kinda lost my little edge I had as an adept (which is why I think that doing ranked pvp at lower levels is usually better), and don't win matches as often as I do, but with it, I've learned to work around most fire shields with my prism. If my prism is placed after the fire shield is placed, then when I attack, the fire shield won't activate, which has saved me allot, and usually works (except for when shields like the thermic shield is placed).
I also have a level 14 Myth, who is a former knight, and I'm able to work with my minions even more, and even do cool combo attacks like double cyclops. Since my myth has a damp demon pet (pet that gives dragonblade), I can get a little more attack power out of my spells.
I've been thinking of leveling my myth to level 19, so he can get the cyclops minion, while still being able to fight in the initiate-journeyman bracket.
Tower shield does work wonders too, especially when fighting balance wizards. With balance, they can buff, trap, and then use judgement, but with tower shield, the damage is cut in half, which can give us time to get an attack or two in, since judgement is a X rank spell and uses all thier pips.
Thank you for this guide, I know it will be a big help to not just me, but to all players who are either struggling with pvp or our just starting out, or both.
Seth ShadowCloud-Grand Fire/Storm Seth EmeraldFlame-Initiate (lv.14) Myth Seth GhostHaven-Initiate (lv.13) Death Terri GhostStone-Initiate(lv.13) Life Logan StarBloom-Initiate(lv.13) Storm -------------------------------------------------- A good friend.
Wow. Just, wow. That certainly changes my pvp strategies.
My main wizard is a former Fire/Storm Veteran (adept is when I reached it), and as it, my go-to spell was immolate. With what you said for spells like feint, I'm able to remove that trap on me, while doing damage to my opponent at the same time. My common strategy was to buff up, trap the opponent, shield myself, then use immolate. Sometimes I would throw in a wyldfire, but with that combo, i would get over 1,000 damage (keep in mind at the time i didn't have the tri blades/traps), and with this strategy i beat allot of my opponents (including a master life wizard with her minion out).
My strategy over time changed as before i rarely encountered fire shields, if any, so now that i'm a grand, pvp matchs are allot harder for me, especially ranked team matches (which is why I prefer to stick to 1v1).
Once I got my minion, I used him allot. Most people I know don't really work with thier minions, but I do. For example, If Flash (minion name) gives me a fireblade, then sometimes I give him one in return, a blade for a blade, if you will. I'm very well aware that he spams fire elf constantly, and that he can sometimes ruin traps, but I've learned to use his elves to my advantage, and work with him so I can get a little bit of an advantage.
Now that I'm a grand, i've kinda lost my little edge I had as an adept (which is why I think that doing ranked pvp at lower levels is usually better), and don't win matches as often as I do, but with it, I've learned to work around most fire shields with my prism. If my prism is placed after the fire shield is placed, then when I attack, the fire shield won't activate, which has saved me allot, and usually works (except for when shields like the thermic shield is placed).
I also have a level 14 Myth, who is a former knight, and I'm able to work with my minions even more, and even do cool combo attacks like double cyclops. Since my myth has a damp demon pet (pet that gives dragonblade), I can get a little more attack power out of my spells.
I've been thinking of leveling my myth to level 19, so he can get the cyclops minion, while still being able to fight in the initiate-journeyman bracket.
Tower shield does work wonders too, especially when fighting balance wizards. With balance, they can buff, trap, and then use judgement, but with tower shield, the damage is cut in half, which can give us time to get an attack or two in, since judgement is a X rank spell and uses all thier pips.
Thank you for this guide, I know it will be a big help to not just me, but to all players who are either struggling with pvp or our just starting out, or both.
A good friend.
While I may not have ANY wizard other than a myth, I think I can comment on fire wizards with some confidence. I have faced many fire wizards, and the ones that annoyed me the most (because they were using their school pretty well, HAHA) were the ones that used their fire elemental. It is perfect for eating up shields of your enemy. As one who uses minions too, I suggest you work with your minion. Not just summon it, but use spells that can increase the effectiveness of the turns of the minion. An example from my own use, I carry a storm wand all the time. When my cyclops is going to storm shark, I use a storm wand spell to take off any storm shields. Like that.
As a fire wizard I might suggest you do rely on your damage over time spells much more than just spells like helephant or immolate, which can be very good, but for fire, given they have so many damage over time spells, you might want to experiment that a bit more. Why not try this out in a few practice fights:
Have a lot of heck hounds and link spells in your deck. Do not use Heck hound until you at least have around six or seven pips. Fire students rarely use heck hound. I think it is an under appreciated spell that can do immense damage over time. And this is what your school was designed for.
Give it a shot in the practice arena. Note that the link spells will help you gain some health while attacking. The fire students that gave me the most trouble used spells like link and the fire elemental. Keep your opponent COOKING. See how it works for you. Not to mention doing this will also help eat away all of your opponents fire shields, leaving them open to a helephant or something.
