I love this game but I've seen a major flaw in it. It would be great if some staff can pitch in and give me their opinion on this.
The problem
85% of the time you know who's going to win from the 1st regular round! (I am discounting the previous 2 rounds as they are just for setup.) The reason is simple. A game becomes very unbalanced, very quickly. Let's consider two players who's luck in dice-rolling and IQ are equal. By the end of the setup rounds both players will have roughly equally powerful cards in play. However, if during the 1st regular round, Player 1 happens to kill one of Player 2's creatures, Player 2 will be at a significant unrecoverable disadvantage for the rest of the game. And the gap will just keep growing exponentially. Main reason behind this is that if you have even one less creature out than the opponent, you are at a great disadvantage and must immediately go into the defensive - which then quickly takes you down a rabbit hole of defeat.
*This is also the reason why you don't see a lot of close games. Most games I've seen and played usually end up with a huge dmg difference between mages.*
Possible solution(?)
A rule that says something like "each of your creatures in play reduces your Channeling by 1" (almost like an upkeep cost). So, for example, someone with multiple creatures out channels less mana than someone with no creatures out, allowing the player with no creatures the chance to get back into balance with his opponent and at least giving him hope to continue playing.
I've had plenty of close games once I actually figured out what the real issue was. The problem here is that you are playing Academy like an Arena player. If you don't have first initiative then during the setup rounds you need to do things to protect yourself, like summon something that can guard you, or put armor on yourself, etc. in academy its usually bad idea to use the same exact opening moves regardless of initiative. Also, sometimes in academy it really is a good idea to pass on your quickcast to save mana.
So for instance, I have a deck that uses two sailfin hydras. If I have initiative round 1 then I might do something like put leather chausses on round 1, then round 2 summon sailfin hydra and cast arcane ward on it, then round 3 shrink or slumber an enemy non-pest guard, then attack the mage with my hydra.
If my opponent has initiative round 1, then I might open with an afflicted demon and face down giant size on it round 1, then round 2 have the demon guard me while I put on two armor equipments or one armor equipment and glancing blow. Alternatively, I can summon afflicted demon and equip myself with the chausses round 1 instead of casting giant size. Then round 2 my mage can cast sistarran robes and guard instead of the afflicted demon. It depends on what my opponent does.
If you don't have initiative round 1, and you start setting up your offense without setting up your defense first, then you are in trouble. While you might think that this will put you behind in actions, that is not so in academy. Academy doesn't have spawnpoints or familiars which can accelerate action advantage. If you spend the first two rounds preparing a defense to your opponent's offensive strategy, that will help put you in a position to use your offensive strategy to beat their mage. Unlike in arena, where if you invest in defense in the first couple rounds instead of investing in action or mana economy first, then you're usually in trouble. Even a solo rush deck in arena is going to invest in a little action economy, like putting on cheetah speed and a dancing scimitar so they can get in extra attack actions.
But Academy is not Arena.
