Guys, the first floor of the tower really isn't bad if you just plan it well.
There are two strategies you can employ to get them dead. By killing Taurus (the minotaur) first or Ervin (the boar) first.
In truth, Ervin is the main boss, because he's the nasty one that messes up everyone's day, and killing him first is the way I prefer to do it (I'm a Myth, so I am biased, lol). I'll list the other way everyone seems to want to do it first though, since it is more familiar.
Here's the deal. (Globally) Casting a blade causes Taurus to steal it and give a +40% death blade to Ervin. Taurus will eventually cast earthquake, so be aware of that. Casting a single-target trap on Ervin is verboten.
(Specifics) Taurus, the Myth boss, casts smoke screen. It is fire-based. It causes you to fizzle. When you fizzle, Ervin, the death boss, casts bone dragon on you. In the meanwhile, Ervin casts a -90% tower shield each time he is hit. So people kill the Taurus while fire-dispelling him, and now you have Ervin and his minions. That's great you say, no more bone dragon to worry about.
Wrong. Most people do not have 100% accuracy, so fizzling is still an issue. And so you kill the minions, and then Ervin stops using Tower shield.
But...when Ervin is totally alone and is no longer casting his Tower shields, he casts Leviathan every two or three rounds. So you either need to have everyone cast storm shields on themselves, or have a storm mage cast dispel on Ervin. *sighs*
This is kind of taxing on the life mage, if you have one, and even more taxing on everyone if you don't have one.
The more successful way I have found is to kill Ervin first, asap. When Myth uses pierce or shatter on Ervin, his storm shield drops off and stays off until he is hit. And with the right spell deck you can have 14 pierce-type spells in the main board alone. There's also the side-board for even more, which anyone can use.
So while the fire mage is dispelling Taurus everyone can focus on killing that darn Ervin after each pierce/shatter. Yes, this means that with only one hit per turn since after a hit he will re-apply the Tower immediatley, this method takes longer. But it gets him dead so you no longer have to worry about fire dispelling the smoke screen, and that darn bone-dragon.
And usually by the time Ervin is dead, some folks have cast some AOE spells and gotten the balance minions dead.
Also, while the Myth mage is casting his shatter routine, he can also land some prisms on Taurus when the other mages are in between attacks. Of course, after a run of just Pierce, the Myth would have enough pips to blast Ervin with a Medusa. (Note: Orthous and Minotaur will cause Ervin to apply two Tower shields, so have a shatter ready for next cast if you use those.)
Hope this gives some folks some ideas on building their teams and stategies.
