Wizard101 Arcane Deduction Spell Spotlight

Wizard101 recently released the Great Detective Bundle in GameStop stores everywhere. Follow the link there to learn more about how to get yours. The card includes a wand with an interesting new may cast ability. I decided to take a look.

Sherlock's Eyeglass

The wand from the Great Detective Bundle is Sherlock's Eyeglass, and it's a magnifying-glass-type weapon that shares animations with some of the other wands like that from the Accursed Play Gauntlet.

At tiers 11-13 (that's levels 100+, 110+, and 120+), the wand offers a maycast ability - Arcane Deduction. If you're not familiar with how these work, you use whatever cards come on the wand, and that generally gives an opportunity for the maycast to trigger. In this case, if you use the Shadow Wand hits, you get a chance to cast Arcane Deduction - but what is it, anyway? 

Arcane Deduction

This new spell available only as a maycast from the bundle wand is a four-pip Myth spell with the description "Spy Target 3 [Rounds]." Most of us assumed this works similarly to Beguile in that you can see your enemy's spell that they're using that turn. But, I wanted to test it out to be sure.

Activating the Maycast

I decided to take a trip to Wintertusk and try out the wand on some of the mobs there. I didn't have a lot of initial success - I used all of the wand hits in one battle and didn't get a maycast. It took a couple of battles before it finally activated. You can see what it looks like in the video below. (Sorry it's a little choppy.)

It does indeed work like Beguile in that you can see the spell your opponent selects. It is notable that unlike Beguile, you can still target the enemy and of course, they don't use spells on their own teammates. It's just a spying mechanism.

PvE Applications

This immediately creates some fun opportunities for seeing what a boss might cast. Now, if you can't Beguile them because they're Beguile-immune, you can still spy on those spell cards like Monster Mash, for example (see some rare enemy spell cards HERE). This is a Wiki Master's dream, as it can provide those card images without the hassle that was sometimes necessary in the past.

Impact on PvP

I'm curious how this would play out in PvP, but I doubt we'll be getting much of a chance to see it in action. I imagine that, like Beguile, you'll essentially get live updates about what your opponent is choosing that round. So yes, you can see what they're doing, but that still doesn't prevent them from doing it like Beguile might, and it's still possible they could simply change their spell at the last minute.

The other issue is that this is a maycast. And it's on a mediocre wand. That makes this spell, ultimately, a great concept used on a fitting wand, but probably not a PvP inclusion. Now if Arcane Deduction were to become an actual spell, it'd probably be closer to seeing use, but still only a specialty or niche use, as knowing that your opponent is about to destroy you with a shadow spell will never be as useful as preparing for or reacting to that destruction.

What do you think of this new maycast spell?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!