Murphy came up with a rather ingenious version of 2v2 that really needs to be shared. It turns out he does not have an account on the forums, so I'm posting it instead.
1. Teammates start in corners 2 zones away from each other.
2. If any mage dies, that Mage's team loses.
3. Initiative and turns are NOT shared. Instead, they pass between each player in an hourglass shaped path. If the person who wins the initiative role does not want initiative in the first round, they pass it to the opponent directly after them.
Player 1A, Player 1B, Player 2A, Player 2B, Player 1A...
Where numbers represent teams, and letters represent which side of the table a player is sitting at.
4. You can look at your teammate's spellbook and planned cards during the game.
A little commentary...
While you are likely to be in range of an enemy mage in the first round, don't forget that you have a teammate. If you think an opposing mage is going to go aggressive on your teammate in the first round, you might want to cast a Nullify, Armor equipment or Defense on that teammate during the first Quickcast.
I think there are probably several reasons that teammates don't start in the same zone, but the main one is that some Mages need zone exclusive (or zone border exclusive) conjurations, like mana crystals and walls. It might be difficult to have enough room to cast them where you want to separately from your teammate.
Another thing to keep in mind is that this makes the game quicker than it would be if you started in the same zone as your teammate. I've heard that a single regular 2v2 game often takes 5 hours. Don't know for sure if that's true since I haven't tried it myself. I have however tried Murphy's version, and I think it is probably a reasonable game length.
Thoughts?
