Codex of Bountiful Arcanum

[Maverick]

I like flashy names so sue me. 

This variant is quite simple and quite ridiculous. If you are like me you have a massive box (or binder) of cards for Mage Wars. This variant lets you use ALL of them. Your collection is essentially your spellbook.

Chose a Mage when you start the game and abide by all abilities, card restrictions, and channeling associated with that Mage. Cards that are exclusive to a certain Mage remain so in this variant. When discarding cards keep a count of cards played and make sure you never play more than 6 copies of a  lv 1 spell, 4 copies of higher level spells, or 1 copy of an epic spell. For all mechanical purposes each players Mage Wars collection is their spellbook.

The lure of this variant is you get to test players knowledge of the game as well as their tactical ability. There is essentially no "better" spellbook only the skills and know how of the players (with a few dice rolls) to determine the outcome. It should go without saying but expect a much longer play experience.

[Sailor Vulcan]

I like flashy names so sue me. 

This variant is quite simple and quite ridiculous. If you are like me you have a massive box (or binder) of cards for Mage Wars. This variant lets you use ALL of them. Your collection is essentially your spellbook.

Chose a Mage when you start the game and abide by all abilities, card restrictions, and channeling associated with that Mage. Cards that are exclusive to a certain Mage remain so in this variant. When discarding cards keep a count of cards played and make sure you never play more than 6 copies of a  lv 1 spell, 4 copies of higher level spells, or 1 copy of an epic spell. For all mechanical purposes each players Mage Wars collection is their spellbook.

The lure of this variant is you get to test players knowledge of the game as well as their tactical ability. There is essentially no "better" spellbook only the skills and know how of the players (with a few dice rolls) to determine the outcome. It should go without saying but expect a much longer play experience.

This reminds me a lot of a variant I made called "mental mage wars"

[BoomFrog]

This is essentially how my brother and I develop our spellbooks. Keep track of the cards you always use and try to fit them all in one book.

We also frequently concede and then rewind one round to try again. Well usually I'm the one conceding since he is usually the winner. :p

[Maverick]

I like flashy names so sue me. 

This variant is quite simple and quite ridiculous. If you are like me you have a massive box (or binder) of cards for Mage Wars. This variant lets you use ALL of them. Your collection is essentially your spellbook.

Chose a Mage when you start the game and abide by all abilities, card restrictions, and channeling associated with that Mage. Cards that are exclusive to a certain Mage remain so in this variant. When discarding cards keep a count of cards played and make sure you never play more than 6 copies of a  lv 1 spell, 4 copies of higher level spells, or 1 copy of an epic spell. For all mechanical purposes each players Mage Wars collection is their spellbook.

The lure of this variant is you get to test players knowledge of the game as well as their tactical ability. There is essentially no "better" spellbook only the skills and know how of the players (with a few dice rolls) to determine the outcome. It should go without saying but expect a much longer play experience.

This reminds me a lot of a variant I made called "mental mage wars"

I just looked up Mental Mage Wars and you are right they are very similar. Looks like the only key difference is your variant seems to put a cap on spellbook size where as this one is open ended. Still I bet either one would be fun assuming players have enough time to play a game like this.

[BoomFrog]

Using up 120 SP of perfectly appropriate spells would be ridiculous. Spells generally cost about 4 mana per so, let's say 3 mana per SP to be safe. Assuming 12 mana generated a round that is a minimum of 360 mana and 30 rounds of combat to use all your SP.  I'm pretty sure someone wins by then.

[Sailor Vulcan]

Using up 120 SP of perfectly appropriate spells would be ridiculous. Spells generally cost about 4 mana per so, let's say 3 mana per SP to be safe. Assuming 12 mana generated a round that is a minimum of 360 mana and 30 rounds of combat to use all your SP.  I'm pretty sure someone wins by then.

It is not ridiculous. Making mages pay more spellbook points for out of school spells keeps their general playstyles intact.

Yes, a regular game is always over before running out of spellbook points. However, such spellbook points costs are one of if not THE reason that people don't run out of cards during a game. If spellbooks were built with no regard for spellbook costs being higher out of school vs in school, they would have much fewer cards in spellbook and perhaps could actually run out.

Not to mention that in Mental Mage Wars, players have to make these sorts of deck building decisions during the planning phase, so someone can decide to go out of school more than would be advisable for a regular game, either for strategic reasons or because the spells they thought of during the planning phase happened to be out of school more often than normal. I think it's actually quite realistic for players to run out of sb points in mental mw, but it probably would happen less often with good players.