Confused about the arrangment of the spell books.

[Navuri]

Hello all,

This is my first post here. I just registered a few minutes ago. Yesterday I played my first game of Mage Wars ( 1 vs 1 ) with the help of the Arcane Wonders Youtube channel.

We bought the Mage Wars Arena (4th Edition) base game. But now I'm a bit confused about the spell books and the spells that me and my friend can choose. How does one have access to ALL of the spells in the game when you are playing 1 vs 1 with only the base game? Isn't that just simply impossible? Are we supposed to put all the cards in the game on one big pile and just choose one by one which spell we need and then hoping that the other player will forget which cards you've picked?

OR is it the intention that every player owns a copy of the base game and arranges his own spell book at home?

Arcane Wonders says all cards can be used by all mages, but there's no secret to which spells I'm choosing if the other player needs to search for the spells as well in the same big pile.

Can anyone clarify this for me please?

Navuri

[V10lentray]

While there are multiple copies of each card in the core set to facilitate building spellbooks it is ultimately best for each mage to have a core set of their own to get the best result. 

For example, each spell book is allowed 6 copies of a level 1 spell. In order to allow all 4 mages access to 6 copies of each level 1 spell, there would need to be 24 copies of each level 1 spell. each player is allowed 4 copies of each spell that is higher than level 2, so that would be 16 copies inthe core set.

Since MW is a "Living card game" while playing casually with friends you can sleeve your cards and Proxy cards for multiple copies if you run out of a particular spell, most likely Teleport, Force push, Dissolve or Dispel.

[Zuberi]

I'm not completely certain what the question is, so I hope I end up answering it.

In mage wars, you construct your spellbook ahead of time. That means spellbook construction is done outside of regular playing of the game, and before you ever sit down at the table with your opponent. The base game has enough spells to build 2 decent books with, or you could even build all 4 of the preconstructed books suggested in the rules. Most competitive players will suggest each person have their own, or even multiple, copies of the game but if you're just playing casually this is not necessary.

Now, if you do want to both build books from a shared pool of cards, you are correct that your opponent may get an idea what you're putting into your book. This does not hinder game play, though it does change it somewhat. Instead of building your book and planning your strategies around every possible scenario, you'll be tailoring your game play specifically to your opponent. This can create a sort of arms race as each of you customizes your book to better handle each other. Although this kind of gameplay might not be indicative of a "normal" environment, it is nonetheless fun and can create very exciting matches.

There are multiple fan suggestions for how to draft cards from a single pool if you want ideas other than piling the cards on the table. Search around on these forums as well as bgg.

Different from building your spellbooks though, during the actual game you will be planning your spells in secret. Even if your opponent knows what spells you've put into your book, they will never know what spells you are planning. Most good books contain 2 or 3 strategies they can follow, along with multiple fringe options, which gives you lots of room to surprise and outmaneuver each other.

[echephron]

This kind of thread pops up often. You are saying there are not of X card(teleport, dispel, regen belt, leather boots, nullify, ect) for both you and your opponent to make a proper spellbook. I disagree. Just cuz you cannot make every book you can think of(ie 6 falcons and 4 totems which give you charge) or have a fire wizard fight a fire warlock doesnt matter(or a heavy battleforge beastmaster versus a heavy battleforge warlock). There is more than enough in the core set to make a ton of mage pairs.

You want rules to tell you who gets to use the precious leather boots and who is stuck not getting the card they want. Its called being polite and letting the person who needs it more have it. If a guy wants ALL the nullifies and wont let me have one, do I really want to play a 2 hour game with him (no)?

You don't like your opponent to know how many dispels you have based on the remaining ones in the box? That's like counting cards at a casino. You will have a jist or how many of X are where(he has ~1-2 dispels left), but if you are keeping track(like going through the whole arcane pile to count how many dispels and teleports I have), then you are being a cheater-face and I will call you on it.

I got the game to play with my girlfriend long ago. It worked fine.

[Halewijn]

You don't like your opponent to know how many dispels you have based on the remaining ones in the box? That's like counting cards at a casino. You will have a jist or how many of X are where(he has ~1-2 dispels left), but if you are keeping track(like going through the whole arcane pile to count how many dispels and teleports I have), then you are being a cheater-face and I will call you on it.

I kinda disagree. It takes only a few games to realise there are only 3 teleports, 2 flameblasts, 1 pair of gloves, 1 staff of asyra, 1 gorgon archer, 2 battle forges, etc... You cannot not know. It is really unfair when you have 2 teleports, your opponent teleports once and you realise, now I can pin him down.

We solved this problem by just remembering how many extra cards you take if there aren't enough of them. If possible, we take them out of the discard pile during the game. This can help as long as you don't do it too much. For the falcon deck mentioned above it is too annoying. (If you're playing a childish cheater, you could write it down  )

For example Beastmaster vs. Warlock: I want an extra teleport, then I take a divine intervention and remember: this is a teleport.

[sIKE]

I always sleeve my cards so worse case scenario I use a unused card and put a "proxy" in over it. Just a piece of paper that says Teleport works or you could make a copy of the card and cut it and place it over the placeholder card.

There are also Core Spell Tomes (1&2) that you can purchase to augment you card collection if you insist on real cards.

[Halewijn]

But those spell tomes aren't really worth its money. Lots of cards I don't want extra and a measly 1 extra card for the cards I want 3 extra's of. 

Core + 4 expansions are already a huge investment in one game. (but worth it  )

[Laddinfance]

This was actually one of the changed in the 4th printing of the game. We went back and tried to increase the card count so that it gave players a few more of the "core" cards.

[Sailor Vulcan]

If you're playing competitively, take turns with the cards. if you're playing casually, share the card pool. if you want to test competitive spellbooks, either use OCTGN, use proxies, or coordinate with your playgroup for local organized play at your FLGS where you can compete with people from other mage wars playgroups in your area. That way you won't have to shell out for a second core set.

http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=15686

[auronvi]

The intention is that everyone who plays the game has a core set. I share a card pool with my Girlfriend but I was able to get a hold of a second core set, bought a couple of the spell tomes, and all the expansions so we don't have a problem with the amount of cards we have to choose from.

With that said I think you are placing waaaaaay too much value on having the contents of your spellbook a secret because high level Mage Wars play there are no surprises really. The game isn't about SURPRISING your opponent with some super secret spell. It's about building a spellbook that can handle anything your opponent can throw at you that hinders your strategy along with the cards needed to execute your strategy.

Since you just started playing I just recommend using the prebuilt spellbooks they recommend for a few more games before you decide to dive in and build spellbooks. If your friend doesn't want to invest but you want him to keep playing with you, buy some Spell Tomes 1 that have more of the common cards that you will most likely fight over. Thinks like dispels, teleports, force pushes and the like.

[Sailor Vulcan]

The intention is that everyone who plays the game has a core set. I share a card pool with my Girlfriend but I was able to get a hold of a second core set, bought a couple of the spell tomes, and all the expansions so we don't have a problem with the amount of cards we have to choose from.

With that said I think you are placing waaaaaay too much value on having the contents of your spellbook a secret because high level Mage Wars play there are no surprises really. The game isn't about SURPRISING your opponent with some super secret spell. It's about building a spellbook that can handle anything your opponent can throw at you that hinders your strategy along with the cards needed to execute your strategy.

Since you just started playing I just recommend using the prebuilt spellbooks they recommend for a few more games before you decide to dive in and build spellbooks. If your friend doesn't want to invest but you want him to keep playing with you, buy some Spell Tomes 1 that have more of the common cards that you will most likely fight over. Thinks like dispels, teleports, force pushes and the like.

If the intention was that every single person who plays the game has their own separate core set, then the core set would only have one set of action markers, not two.

Tbh, I'm kind of wondering whether the arena core set would have been better off split into two sets, each with only one set of action markers, and it's own cards, and then maybe offering a bundle that included both of them. Having four mages in the core set and two mages in each expansion, and having two sets of action markers basically means that you have to share your collection if you want to get the full value for what you paid for. There's just too many cards and other components that will see little to no use otherwise.

Splitting the arena core set like this would also make arena much more accessible to new players. Unfortunately this might not be an option since all the other arena expansions except battlegrounds are effectively designed for two people as well. I suppose it's too late to change it.