Also I had an idea for a game mode where its almost a 2v2, each pair has an Arena Mage and an Academy Mage on their team. This can be played with 4 people or just standard 2 people and u control your arena and academy mages. The idea is Teacher (arena) must protect Student (academy) from dying. If the Arena mage dies its ok but the Academy mage has to be alive to win. Maybe if the arena mage dies then the academy mage has to kill both of the opposing mages, but normally the goal is to kill the academy mage. idk. just an idea of bringing in the academy mages to play with the big boys but without trying to change or boost the academy mages' abilities and stats.
it could be fun with 2 decks per team, especially since the academy mages have smaller spellbooks and some have different training restrictions e.g. academy warlord.
you could just have the academy mage use the basic spell book. Not sure if allowing the academy mage to use arena spells in their book would be fair, but it could be fun.