I read the articles on Tempo and find them similar to the military strategy term Momentum. The ability to deploy threats at an operational and strategic level. However, the articles seem to relate this back to the mana supply as the limited resource each opponent is seeking to optimize.

In Mage Wars I find that Momentum/Tempo has additional nuisances as many types of threats introduced into the arena provide additional non-mana consuming opportunities to attack or create new threats. The prime example are creatures who, once in the arena, can manuever and use their own abilities to create new threats. i.e. Actions become an additional resource in addition to optimizing the flow of mana.

Archtypes for deck designs don't seem very useful to me unless we add the element of which specific mage we are discussing. This is one aspect that makes Mage Wars interesting for me, while MTG was not. The unique abilities and training of each Mage is what forces players to have unique deck designs. Even if two mages wanted to have the same spellbook I believe the spellpoints costs for different schools of magic would make this impossible. I haven't validated this premise, but it seems likely.

I can see the archtypes described above have meaning in the world of MTG, but players do not have the unique mage abilities and training limitations imposed on them when designing a deck. At least I do not believe they do. For me it would be more interesting to develop archtypes for Mage Wars around schools of magic and mage abilities rather than existing archtypes from MTG.

For example, has anyone done an analysis of each school of magic by spell type (or threat type) to see if this offers insights into strategies that are more efficient for a given mage? As the schools of magic evolve with new spells, the builds for each mage will be influenced in certain directions as the cost of spells in trained schools are cheaper.

It may be worth the time to research Roman gladiator combat to see how strategies were categorized in those arena battles. Or modern boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, etc.

Mage Wars is an enhanced model of arena combat to the death. The spellbook design discussions just feel like evaluations of different starting sets of resources. Perhaps comparing them against opponent spellbooks would be more effective. i.e. match ups between opposing scenarios. Think of Ali versus Frasier or Spartucus versus a Lion den.

In some situations I have found that initiative can be used to put distance between your enemies. If you get the last action in one turn and with initiative you get the first action in the next turn your mage can effectively move 3 zones (Hindered action - move 1 to an 'open' zone + First action of new turn - move 2 more zones) while the creatures engaging you will only be able to pursue 2 zones without incantations.

If you can retreat 'behind' your own creatures then these will help you to disengage by hindering the opponents pursuing creatures.

This is also a good combination of actions if your mage needs to save mana for casting an expensive spell.

I think of it as a simple tradeoff which can be worth it in the right situation.

Your opponent has just spent 16 - 24 mana bringing on a high level creature. For the cost of 16 mana you have now removed 3 turns of benefit the opponent would have received from this creature including the extra action. Note - IIRC if you Banish the creature after it has acted in the current turn, then it returns with the action marker in the same state and remains inactive for the turn it returns to the arena.

But than it's impossible to bash a creature into a wall, because there is always an alternative direction than the wall... No matter how you Jet Stream, the creature can always be pushed farther away...

I did find one situation that you could bash with Jet Stream. If target is in the corner zone and you cast it 2 zones away diagonally, then you cannot move the target one zone and be further from the caster. In this situation the spell would bash the target against the corner wall.

This situation could also occur in combination with conjured walls if you arrange them correctly.

What if "soldier" is a new Creature Type? Conjurations, Incantations and Enchantments from the War School may effect unique creature types rather than all creatures.

Another possibility would be to have equipment spells that can be cast on "soldier creatures" rather than mages only.

Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer to find out.

Fly is a non mage spell.

Thanks! I forgot to check the spell before posting. Don the Elemental Cloak and take the hit.