Going up against wizards

[Sword of Solkan]

My next opponent's taken a wizard as an inducement (my team are Slann, he's playing Pro Elves).

Just wondering what I can do to minimise his effectiveness against my team.

For example:

(1) Lightning bolts to prevent lone players from scoring. (Solution: send another player as backup to scoop up the ball if the ball carrier gets fried.
(2) Fireballs to tear through cages (Solution: use loose screens instead.)

Do you use any other tactics when playing against a team with a wizard?

It also sounds as though coaches often take wizards mainly for the psychological impact on their opponents - any thoughts on that?

[Jimmy Fantastic]

Also you have option 3 - ignore it. Not always a great play esp vs pro elfs but it exists.
I wouldn't say it's the mean reason to take one but yeah, just the threat of the wiz is really good.

[burgun824]

I try to lure my opponent into a fireball. I make it temping by building a cage and playing as I normally would until they decide they have to try it. It's like a big red button sitting there in front of them and eventually they're going to want to push it. However, the fireball is much less predictable and therefore gives you a better chance to stay on your feet. Occasionally one will just blow up everyone and then you're screwed, but I personally find fireballs far less terrifying than lightning bolts.

[Vanguard]

I try to lure my opponent into a fireball. I make it temping by building a cage and playing as I normally would until they decide they have to try it. It's like a big red button sitting there in front of them and eventually they're going to want to push it. However, the fireball is much less predictable and therefore gives you a better chance to stay on your feet. Occasionally one will just blow up everyone and then you're screwed, but I personally find fireballs far less terrifying than lightning bolts.

Yup, 50/50 chance of your ball carrier going down and even if they do, there's a fair chance the ball will land in a tackle zone.

If the wizard is affecting your opponent's style of play, I'll hang on to him as long as possible to take advantage of it.

[Elyoukey]

I try to lure my opponent into a fireball. I make it temping by building a cage and playing as I normally would until they decide they have to try it. It's like a big red button sitting there in front of them and eventually they're going to want to push it. However, the fireball is much less predictable and therefore gives you a better chance to stay on your feet. Occasionally one will just blow up everyone and then you're screwed, but I personally find fireballs far less terrifying than lightning bolts.

i think the exact opposite, the fireball is far more effective, because when i use it, i am ready to use my blitz on the ball carrier if one of the cage pillar goes down. Any pillar down is good to open a cage if you are correctly prepared. Especially with pro elves, who can grab the ball and get very far away with it in one single turn
On a odd point of view:
odds for a lightning to game break: 5/6
odds for a fireball to game break : 1/2^5 around 96%

(Not to mention the nuffle effect of lightning : what ? 150Kpo on one single roll ? this is so much more fun for you to roll a 1)


for the match up, i would go for the TD race, you also have a very powerfull team to counter score, so go and score fast, with all the frogs around if you have some wrestle, strip ball or tackle around he cannot take the risk to ball control i think.

[Joemanji]

On a odd point of view:
odds for a lightning to game break: 5/6
odds for a fireball to game break : 1/2^5 around 96%

Not sure about this. I find the back corners of the cage nowhere near as game changing. So really you are looking at 1/2^3 = 7/8.

So it's 83% vs 88%. But the 83% is always on the ball.

This doesn't even take into account soft factors - what if the ball carrier has Blodge / ST4 / Sure Hands. What if the corner you don't get down has Guard? And so on. I find 5/6 of absolutely getting the ball down far more useful.

All that said, I played a guy on FUMBBL the other day who used it before his turn one on offence to Fireball my best players (otherwise hidden). All blodgers. He CAS'd one, KO'd another, took one off on the LoS and suddenly I was in a pickle. I was most surprised.

[lunchmoney]

All that said, I played a guy on FUMBBL the other day who used it before his turn one on offence to Fireball my best players (otherwise hidden). All blodgers. He CAS'd one, KO'd another, took one off on the LoS

Creative use of a Wizard, nice.

[Elyoukey]

Not sure about this. I find the back corners of the cage nowhere near as game changing. So really you are looking at 1/2^3 = 7/8.

that's where clever positioning comes into play, if you surround the cage, any corner is good to bring down. and if he does not make a four point cage, then you can enter on a 4+ (we are talking elf here) and don't have to use the fireball.

[Sword of Solkan]

Cheers, guys. As it happened, I got fireballed towards the end of the second half, which stunned 2 linemen and opened my ball carrier up to a blitz. Could have been a lot worse.

[burgun824]

But the fireball didn't take out the ball carrier....SEE.

[Gaixo]

Just played in a tournament in which every team got a wizard. Pretty weird! I was surprised that most people took grind teams, as agility teams are better suited to recovering from and capitalizing on wizard attacks. Maybe they just wanted heavy armor in case of a fireball.