So today I saw some people playing a pick-up game of Magic at my FLGS, and it made me remember Mage Wars yet again. I believe that Mage Wars is superior to Magic in almost every way, but it takes far too much time for most people to play initially. Now, I haven't played for almost a year, and do not have Necro V. Druid, Academy, or Battlegrounds (and won't be buying them in the near future due to a lack of funds). However, I saw the academy rulebook online and gave it a read through. I like the idea, but I wondered about something. Could we mash the two play modes together into something even better? I am thinking about using the original Mage cards with the spellbook values halved to 60 spell points, and the play area would be set up like Academy except their would be two zones, one for your opponent and one for you. Melee creatures would have to move into your opponents zone one turn and then attack the next (so only one action allowed except for mages), while ranged attacks could target enemy provided no walls (which can be placed between the zones) are blocking LOS. Fast would allow you to move into a zone AND attack in one turn, other traits still work as normal. Conjurations lose their limit of one per zone, any number are allowed and all limitations listed on the card are ignored. Mana is determined by Arena rules, and everything else stays the same (attack wise and phase wise the two games appear near identical). What do you all think? Anything I should tweak, and is it worth playtesting?
