My Wife sent me a text one day and this is what it said,

Quote

As Rob Stark looked down the stairs he felt a sudden push behind him, and a voice whispering, "The Banisters send their regards."

Not gonna lie, I chuckled out loud at that one. That was clever

Both Lukard and Lord0fWinter hit it on the head. It all comes down to what cards you have access to and what sort of playstyle you prefer. I suppose that your own playstyle may be a little hard at first to deduce when you have only played a few rounds but usually you pick up pretty quickly how you prefer run a spellbook.

This forum topic right here http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=12477.0 has a fairly updated list of all the spellbooks people post on the forum if you would like to peruse and see what other ideas people have. Most of them have what the few opening turns would be and it sort of gives you an idea of how that spellbook should be played.

The community is awesome. Ever since I've created an account on this forum, everyone has treated me with the respect that should be given to every player. I know that e even if a comment may come of as a little aggressive,  I know they are just sharing their opinions and in most cases, trying to help me become a better Mage and I respect that. I have not been offended yet by anyone here and I apologize in advance if I have ever come off as rude.

I have the perfect solution for the draw problem: Don't set a time limit! Play until the game is over. If you plan a tournament, plan it for several days so there is enough time to finish every game.
Mage Wars is meant to be played until the bitter end.

If both mages die in the same round, just replay the game and you will have winner.

I would never participate in a tournament in my region with a set time limit for games.

I love the long games. That's what makes me keep coming back. The problem is, I have so few opponents who want to play for as long as we can. A lot of the new people I introduce this game to also mention at the end of the game that this game is long and I'm afraid it is turning some of the off to the game.

Apprentic games run about 45 minutes to an hour and a half which is a decent time. But once we break into the advanced deck setups, I 've never had a game last less then 2 and a half hours. Doesn't bother me, but my new mage friends don't like it too much.

Here is my stab at it:

Yo mamma is so fat, she is arena exclusive
Yo mamma is so fat, blanks still hit her
Yo mamma is so fat, she can't be obscured by rolling fog
Yo mamma is so fat, teleports are useless on her

Here in my area we just arm wrestle for tie breaker. That or have a "Yo Momma" contest.

Thumb wrestling should work too. You might be onto something with that Yo Momma contest idea.....

So I have been trying to come up with a new way to handle a tie breaker. I have never been a fan of the "Whoever has the most health after a certain amount of time wins" sort of thing because I felt that it didnt give the mages enough credit for how they played throughout the game. It sounds silly, but I didn't like the feeling of looking at the clock, realizing I only had 10 minutes left and have to abandon my strategy that I had been working the whole match for, just to try to dump as much damage as I can onto the other mage.

As I was playing Mario Party last night, I had a thought. What if a tie breaker could be done through a point system? If you don't know what Mario Party is, it is a video game that is centered around party games and the whole object of the game is to get at many stars as possible before the game ends. At the end of the game, stars are given to players who achieved certain goals in the game and that, usually, is what ends up tipping the scales for a person to win.

Essentially, what I was thinking was, what if there were certain categories prescribed at the beginning of a match that were given a point value? At the end of the game, the person who earns the most points wins. (This is strictly for handling tie breakers and not a way to replace how to actually win, which is to kill the opposing mage)A few example categories would be something like:

Most creatures still on the board = 1 point
Least amount of creatures in the dead pile = 1 point
Most health at the end of the game = 2 or 3 points
Most equipment still attached = 1 point
Most conjurations still on the board = 1 point

Those are just a few examples of categories that could be used for points, but you get the gist of what I am saying. Instead of a damage race at the last few minutes of the game, a mage could hold strong on their strategy and aim to try and win certain categories that could tip the scales in their favor. I figured still having the most health at the end of the game would give the most points, but it wouldn't be the only way to win. I'm sure there have been some games out there where a mage executes a decent strategy all game, and yet still loses in the end because the other mage just beat them out by one point of health or at the end of the game, a mage who had been getting beat on the whole game is starting to make an amazing comeback only to have the momentum stopped due to the timer running out.

I don't know; this is just something I thought of last night and I haven't had the chance to see if this would even work as well as I think it would. If I am missing a critical piece or rule to the game, let me know.