A variant that plays faster

[Lightseed]

i played a small scale creature variant:
-each player starts with 6 or 7 creatures with the limit on mana cost, but the creatures must be different and they must be the exact number. The goal to win is the kill all 6 or 7 creatures of your opponent. Mages cannot be targeted they target only creatures.
I like to think of it as you standing on the balcony of the arena and sending your creatures and spells as a skirmirish. It is all about chosing the right creatures and boosting/helping then with the spells in your book.
-Also you got 60 points to build your book with.

And to spice it up, add 1 or 2 walls of random type on the board but be carefull where as to not give advantage to the other guy. (set the walls in a balanced way)

-Pick creatures in a hidden or a draft way (whichever you like best) place walls after the creatures have been picked.

I see it as a skirmish where you live to fight another day, just like you are a leader of a house of gladiators (or your mage is ) .

[dexmark]

After competing multiple times and each time we get better and better our hours of game increased!
We play to a point that our spell books are almost out of cards. 3 to 4 hour games. It's like each card or spell we played gets countered the following turn and both our lives are about 1 to 5 left each after 3 to 4 hours. This mean we have figured out how how to build our deck that pretty much counter each other. We have 2 core sets 2 spell tome 1 1 spell tome 2 and 2 force master and warlord expansion.

Our answer to this speed up----> half life. It works!! We now play for half an hour of multi countering to the point that we satisfy our Mage wars itch and we get even better in speed killing or speed defending. We congratulate each other for a fast finish.

[Shad0w]

Try telling the other player that you want to play with normal stats and custom spell books. Then read the forums and try using some of the builds listed. I would also look to the the post in the tactics section to try to help improve your game.


Remember we are here to help  

[reddawn]

The best way to decrease your play time is to play aggro.  The base aggro strategy in MW is big creatures.  It is the fastest, easiest way to get the biggest board presence.  Turn 2, you can reliably drop Adramelech, a pet Steelclaw, one of the legendary angels, etc and I can guarantee your games WILL be shorter and more fun.

I wrote an in-depth guide on aggro in the strategy section, and I would highly recommend using one of the openings I have listed there.  They're at the top of the page, so you don't have to read the rest if you don't want to.