The wizard walked softly over the broken ground, picking through the rubble and burnt plants. No one had noticed his presence yet; he still had a chance to grab the treasure and run. Unlocking a huge energy door with a Master Key, he slipped into the corridor and saw the treasure, glimmering on a stone pedestal. Halfway down the little tunnel, ancient signs swirled dizzyingly. He really should have chosen a different point of entry…

Malefic Curses , the new expansion for Wiz-War , does far more than introduce a fifth player, new energy, and new schools of magic. In the School of Hexcraft, you'll discover an entirely new form of creation spell – hexes!

In our earlier previews, we’ve been able to excavate the ghostly powers of Necromancy and get a handle on the haphazard randomness of Chaos , but in this preview, we’ll focus on the new powers you can tap through the study of Hexcraft and hexes.

Inscribe Hexes

As other wizards duel with lightning bolts and crackling spells, you may choose to take a more defensive role. By playing the appropriate magic card, you may create a hex anywhere in the sector. Once you inscribe its arcane symbols, a hex becomes permanent, making it an admirable method of defending a corridor and declaring it off-limits to the opposition.

The hexes in Malefic Curses vary in their effects, but all of them have one thing in common: They’re bad news for the wizard that dares to cross them. A wizard crossing the Hex of Amnesia suffers a sudden loss of memory and must discard a random number of cards from his hand, incurring the same penalty every time he crosses the hex. The Hex of Lethargy creates a similarly unfortunate penalty for unwary wizards by stunning anyone entering the space and ending their Move and Cast phase. As an added bonus, the Hex of Lethargy makes an excellent treasure defense, dealing two stun tokens to any player carrying a treasure when he passes through the space. These hexes and others like them open entirely new avenues of strategy and defense in the back-and-forth action of Wiz-War .

Expand Your Bag of Tricks

The study of Hexcraft has more to offer its students than the creation of hexes. This school of magic is a grab bag of sneaky tricks and conniving ways for you to gain the upper hand in a wizard duel. Some of the tricks included in the Hexcraft school of magic are new and powerful curses. A spell like the Curse of Ice not only damages your enemy, it impairs his movement as long as you maintain the spell. This can provide a powerful advantage in battles fought on the run between one location and another. A similar spell for the more vindictive wizard is the Curse of Fire . In addition to the initial random damage it causes, this curse continues dealing damage to a target wizard as long as it is maintained, and with new flash energy, spells can be maintained for quite a long time. Flash energy comes in large amounts, but it cannot be used to boost your speed. Rather, this kind of energy can only be used to boost the power of your spells. 

Hexcraft is all about tricks, and when other options fail, a prepared wizard can always pull the Counter Curse out of his hat. One of the best answers to any attack, this counter not only cancels the effects of the attack spell played against you, but also inhibits your attacker’s ability to play counter spells, potentially leaving him unguarded for your own attacks. By keeping a spell like this in reserve, you can arm yourself for nearly any peril, unless you cross a Hex of Amnesia or are targeted by another wizard wielding one of the other innumerable tricks of Hexcraft!

Malefic Curses offers a host of new opportunities for mixing and matching different schools of magic. New energy and a fifth player add even more fun and mayhem to your magical duels, but by mastering the intricate tricks of Hexcraft, you can get a leg up on strategy over your opponents. Preorder Malefic Curses at your local retailer today!

Deep underground in a magical maze, dueling wizards scheme to steal each other’s treasures during the classic, clever (and sometimes comical) confrontations of Wiz-War ! This classic board game of magical mayhem for 2-4 players pits players’ wizards against each other in a stupendous struggle for magical mastery.

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