Thank you for doing this. I've really wanted to see the Academy cards for a while.
I'm not particularly excited about the attack spells for Arena. A few might have some applications, but overall those cards aren't the ones I see driving changes in Arena play. The equipment looks very interesting though.
I like Emerald Elk Staff as a way to help keep your animals alive that is very action efficient. I'll have to try it to see how valuable I find the healing, but I can see it being a nice utility card.
Johktari Hunting Knife looks solid, particularly in conjunction with a pet Timber Wolf and Packmaster's Cowl. Put Vampirism on that puppy, prepare a Defend, and you can pretty much hold off an army of living creatures. Attack with your Beastmaster, put a guard marker on the wolf. They attack the wolf, activate the wolf and attack or guard. Later, use Defend to put another guard marker on the wolf. Even without a combo like that it is a very mana efficient damage source for any kind of extended fight, and it's vastly superior to the Staff of Beasts. I don't know whether I'll value the damage Johktari Hunting Knife offers or the utility offered by Morningstar or Mage Staff more, but we're finally seeing a worthwhile nature melee weapon.
Kajarah opens up a lot of options for the Johktari Beastmaster. It was possible to kite with Hunting Bow or Ivarium Longbow plus attack spells, and I think that strategy will still work okay, but I see more Johktari Beastmaster's running Kajarah. It fits very easily into a wide variety of openings, whereas if you want to fit a big creature or a Lair into your opening, even an Ivarium Longbow severely constrains your options. Because it can target creatures in the same zone, It makes your movement options very flexible. You can get right in your opponent's face if they try to run away from you, or you can use Tanglevines to lock your opponent down while throwing some damage at them.
Leather Chausses opens up other equipment slots for utility without weakening your defenses.
Packmaster's Cowl is incredibly action efficient, and I can't wait try try it.
Repulsion Cloak is basically Suppression Cloak light. I tend to hate mana denial, although I don't think I will dislike the implemenation as much in Academy as I did in several cases in Arena. I don't think it will be used that much in Arena, since I think Suppression Cloak is a lot stronger.
Rod of the Arcanum looks solid. It gives you a bit of a damage boost and slowly gives you a mana advantage.
Sistarran Robes I can see being okay for a Mana Denial Wizard in Arena, though I would tend to favor the more defense efficient Dragonscale Hauberk.
I really like Wispwillow Amulet as a way to boost economy without having to pay quite as much mana up front. I expect this card to be awesome with a Battleforge.
I expect almost everyone to run either Wychwood Ironvine or Regrowth Belt. For builds that have a lot of armor and are planning on using a Battle Forge to play lots of equipment, Regrowth Belt, with it's stronger regenerate is probably better. For mages that don't play a Battle Forge, I can see arguments either way. It's certainly an action efficient way to get a bit of defense, but it's not really a good way to reach a state of very strong defense, because once you've played about 3-4 cards to improve your defense, you'd probably rather have Regrowth Belt or Veterans's Belt.
