The only mage who is really affected by triple cost for spells is the Warlord, paying triple for arcane makes him not worth playing (I built a Warlord spell book then realized I could make an Earth Mage that would be better) especially when there are not enough high level war spells. The other mages that have to pay triple such as the Warlock and the Priestess really are not hindered very much because neither mage uses spells from the schools they are penalized. I am glad that the new mages are schooled in two schools instead of having a penalty that really never came into play anyways.

I really like using the thornlashers in combination with the bloodspine walls the only problem is most players will only let you do that once before they kill your blookspine wall, but if you can get a thornlasher on each side of your bloodspine wall then you should be able to kill most creatures or severely hurt a mage before your wall gets destroyed.

You don't need spell tomes 1 & 2 they are useful to have if you want to build multiple spell books without having to keep transferring spells from one book to another.

My mistake, either way it does not really change my opening move because it just means I will have more mana on my Vine tree to summon a creature with on round 3.

Here is how I am aggressive with the druid.
round 1 ring leaf and vine tree (bond to tree)
channeling now 10
round 2 (2) mana flowers and pay 1 off vine tree to play an extra vine
channeling now 12
round 3 pay 1 of tree for an extra vine and you should now have enough mana to play any plant creature in your spell book and should be able to summon them right next to the enemy mage.

Yes you spend 2 rounds upping your channeling, but by round 3 you can cast any plant creature or other large creature you choose.

If you want to play one of the mages that came with the original box set you don't have to have any expansions to build a competitive deck. I have a warlock deck that is very competitive and it only uses spells out of the original box and the spell tomes 1 and 2. It really depends on if there is a mage out of the expansions you really want to try. I am really liking the druid though I am still trying to figure out a really good way to play her.

It really just means that the druid needs to use his vine markers to cast a creature that can quickly get to the idol and destroy it or it will severely hurt the Druid.

I know that, but adramelech with vampirism is still scary and hard to kill and yes I would have a nullify on him