Man it's weird to be back here. Glad to see some names I remember from a few years ago. I've been away from the forum hoping for some new Arena content to be released. Do we know at all what's coming up for Arena soon?  

Dang, that was a speedy reply! I think I'll go ahead and order them together. It'll be like one great big beautiful Mage Wars surprise when 3 different boxes arrive together. Thanks

I'll be honest, I'm going off to college in a few months and I'm a bit nervous. But with all this amazing content for Mage Wars being released soon, I feel especially excited for the future. Thanks for your hard work everyone! Now I just hope I'll have enough desk space to build spellbooks...

My other favorite games right now are probably Duelyst, Lord of the Rings LCG, 7 Wonders Duel, and BattleCON:Devastation. With the exceptions of Duelyst and 7 Wonders, the general trend seems to be that all my favorite games take a long time to setup and play

I haven't played Mage Wars in months... I'm about to start college, however, and I expect that will either further limit or expand my opportunities to play games. Not sure which yet. :/

If we're talking non-board game type video games too, then I'm also an avid Overwatch player.

I'm hoping to start spending a regular amount of time checking the forums and playing the game again. For me, this game is very much still alive, especially with PvS on its way. I expect you may see a few other students become more active during the summer.

A couple friends and I are getting together for a Mage Wars party next month, which gave me an idea on some alternate ways to play the game with friends.

I occasionally play the online game Hearthstone, which has a fun tournament variant called "Challengestone". In this variant, players have to build decks using strange restrictions. For example: Using only even cost creatures and odd cost spells or only minions with the 'Taunt' effect. It can be really fun since you get to use a lot of cards that don't see as much play.

Obviously, if you tried this in Mage Wars with "All enchantments must be healing", Priestess would have an unfair advantage, so I think it might be best to try challenges like the following if you don't have enough sets to balance everything:

Sardonyx Wars
Each player must have Sardonyx in their book and cannot damage the enemy mage or cast other Creatures until their Sardonyx enters play. Sardonyx is a 'Legend' school spell and gains the traits 'Novice' and 'Cantrip'.

I'm not sure if players should be allowed to cast other minions besides Sardonyx, though. I might make him Living to eliminate Necromancer advantage/Beastmaster disadvantage as well. You could also equalize Mage's channeling and base health.

Has anyone else enjoyed setting creative spellbook restrictions with their friends? I'd love to try some more! Things like only 'Flying' or 'Minions can only attack if they have 2 or more enchantments on them' also sound entertaining.

Thanks for sharing these! I've been dying to play a 2v2 since I got the game, and another format of Truce at Straywood will be perfect.

I also miss the sheer number of options I have access to in Arena. I'm not expecting as many cards as Arena, but I think after the next few expansions I'll feel more inspired while building for Academy. Crafting books is, after all, my favorite part of Mage Wars.

The bright side is that if you're waiting for more options in Academy, you can still use Academy expansions as more cards for Arena.

I'm also not disappointed in the game, since this is what I expected. Although I haven't played the game with anyone but myself, the gameplay seems fast-paced and fun. I'm worried it could feel stale after a few matches since you'll run out of options, but again this will be remedied when the card pool expands.