Use Combustion Wizards with a distracting army
To tackle Northlands, build around a Wizard with Combustion and adjacent Libraries while Warlocks, followed later by Raptors, keep the Nomad army occupied. This older strategy gives you a set of priorities to follow as cards become available; loot and decree offers vary, so it is not a guaranteed card-by-card solution for every attempt.
Understand the Nomad matchup
Northlands is a King of Spells quest against the King of Nomads instead of the ordinary rotating enemy roster. The challenge emphasizes surviving mounted and moving Nomad units while establishing spell damage. Plan your support around keeping those attackers occupied long enough for the Wizard setup to work.
Quest Mode includes Knight, King and Chaos difficulties. Treat the older Wizard route as a starting strategy rather than an identical opening for every setting. Check your selected quest's conditions before copying a placement or spending a card.
Set up the damage and distraction
Follow these setup priorities as the relevant cards become available. Avoid waiting for the entire combination before responding to an army that is getting through. Keep the Wizard plan in mind while using your available distractions to manage the immediate pressure.
- Place a Wizard as the focus of your spell damage. Leave adjacent space for Libraries so you can build support around the same troop plot.
- Apply Combustion to the Wizard. This establishes the combination used by the older Northlands route and gives the Library setup an enchantment to copy.
- Place a Library directly beside the enchanted Wizard. A Library has a 50% chance each year to duplicate an enchantment from an adjacent troop, so its position and an existing enchantment both matter.
- Use Warlocks to distract or stall the attacking Nomad army. They supply the breathing room that the Wizard and Library approach needs.
- Add Raptors later when they become available. Use them to help occupy the attackers while retaining the Wizard, Combustion and Library setup.
- Use Offering once your board can afford its sacrifice cost. The older route uses it to obtain more useful tomes, so avoid sacrificing a plot you still need to keep the attempt stable.
Keep later support focused on the Wizard
Wizards gain damage for the enchantments they carry, making Library copies useful beyond the copied effect itself. When adding more Libraries, place them against the Wizard plot. Keep other troops away from their remaining sides where practical, so the copies stay focused on the troop you are building around.
Choose later cards and decrees according to what your attempt needs: supported spell damage or more time to deliver it. Northlands follows the same broad Wizard engine as Incantation, with extra emphasis on occupying Nomad attackers. Adapt to the offers you receive instead of holding out for an identical later draw sequence.
Adjust when the setup struggles
- If the Wizard is being overwhelmed, prioritize keeping the Nomad attackers occupied. Warlocks and later Raptors are the distraction tools used by this route.
- If a Library seems ineffective, check that it touches the enchanted Wizard. Its yearly duplication is chance-based, so a missed copy alone does not mean the placement is wrong.
- If Offering would sacrifice something essential, hold it. Return to tome generation when the board can bear the sacrifice without dismantling the setup you need.