Not new but New again

[SnackHappy]

For whatever reason I haven't played since shortly before Forged in Fire came out. Since I have been gone there is quite a bit of new yet not new stuff. Obviously none of my stuff says arena, and now there is stuff that says Academy. Where do I start? I kind of want the new stuff especially if there is awesome new cards, but my budget won't allow me to rebuild that much. Here is what I have: Old Core Set Old Forcemaster vs. Warlord Necromancer vs. Druid Conquest of Kumanjaro and I think the couple of Spell Tomes. Just looking for some advise and maybe a clarification on updates.

[Boocheck]

Well, Arena is a new name given to standard Mage Wars you already have and love. Academy will be not out in next 3 months so you have time. This new naming is for differenciate these two games Arena X Academy

I would definetly go for Forged in Fire. Rest stuff you have is not "old". There was not any kind of action from Arcane Wonders which would make your card Obsolete

If you missed that, there is a spell book builder aplication for tablets IOS and Android.

Thats probably all

[Sailor Vulcan]

Mage Wars Arena core set is just the 4th edition of regular mage wars core set. There are slightly different card counts of each spell compared to the 3rd edition, but for the most part they're the same. Adding "Arena" to the name was just rebranding of the regular game to distinguish it from Academy. You already have more than a decent enough collection to do well in organized play. If you want to get something more, my advice would be to just pick what you and/or your playgroup would most like.

If you want to play more mage wars even when you don't have an hour or two to spare, I think Mage Wars Academy is coming out at Gen Con. That will probably cost around $30 for a set. I don't know if they're first releasing Wizard vs Beastmaster and then Priestess vs Warlock later, or vice versa or at the same time.

Mage Wars academy is basically like arena but with only 1 zone, different spells and younger alternate versions of the arena mages with their own stats and unique abilities. You can't attack or cast spells on enemy objects for the first 2 rounds. The spells in Academy can be used in Arena, but not the other way around. Because of the differences I just described, the strategies and metagame that we end up seeing will likely be very different from arena, so even if the rules are otherwise quite similar, the gameplay should probably still be different enough that they both stand on their own merits. Also, Academy is much more portable.

I tried it at origins and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to play mage wars more often but feels like they don't have as much time to play it as they would like.

EDIT: Boocheck ninja'd me on some of this.

[Boocheck]

Nah, you use more words and hearth

And for Academy, Beastmaster x Wizard will came out first and boy how i cannot wait!

[SnackHappy]

Thanks guys. Currently I am the only one I know with a copy of the game so I have to share everything. This can be a bit trying but I still enjoy it. I am trying to find a way to play it a bit more. The hardest part is probably having time to build spell books.

[Sailor Vulcan]

It's easier to use a spellbook builder and save your spell lists. That way you can put them together and dismantle them and put them back together again whenever you want.

Additionally, I've noticed it takes a LOT longer to put cards into a binder than to just stick em together in deck form, since for a binder it's one card at a time, but with a deck you can just grab it all and go.

The only problem with a deck is that it's a bit harder to tell where all your cards are and how many copies of each spell you have left. It's a lot more organized in a spellbook. My advice for that is to keep the apprentice builds in binders, casual/test builds in deck form, and builds you're bringing to a tournament you put into a binder. If two spellbooks share some of the same cards, and therefore can't be built simultaneously, keep track of which cards are shared, so they can be easily found and moved back and forth between each of their spellbooks.

I wish there was an easier way to keep track of it all. One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started was to NOT KEEP MY COLLECTION ORGANIZED BY EXPANSION. I'm going to have to fix that eventually, and it's going to be an annoying and painstakingly long process, especially since several of my sets are not the latest editions. Speaking of which, I need to message Arcane Wonders for the 3rd edition spell lists so that I don't permanently lose track of my collection.

[exid]

that would be cool to have all spell lists! (not only the last editions's)

[sIKE]

that would be cool to have all spell lists! (not only the last editions's)

Remember all of the "previous editions" had the same card count so the old Spell List for Core is good for editions 1-3. I have on hand all of the spell lists on hand if any one needs a copy PM me.