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Mage Wars Arena

2-2 players 90-90 min 7.6 Board Game Geek Rating

Opposing mages battle to the death in arena combat using customizable spellbooks filled with diverse magical abilities. Players summon creatures, cast attack spells, deploy enchantments, and equip magical items on a zoned board. Each mage represents different magical schools with unique strategies and spells. Victory comes through tactical positioning, spell combinations, and eliminating the enemy mage.

Published 2012

Mage Wars Arena

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Acquire Core Set
This expansion requires the Mage Wars Core Set to play
2
Select Your Mage
Choose either the Druid (Wychwood subclass) or Necromancer (Darkfenne subclass)
3
Review Mage Attributes
Note your mage's starting stats:
4
Build Your Spellbook
Pay spellpoints equal to spell level for trained schools, double for untrained schools
5
Prepare Ability Markers
Keep Treebond marker (Druid) or Eternal Servant marker (Necromancer) ready
6
Set Up Vine Markers
Druid players should have Vine markers available for placement during play

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Place Vine Markers (Druid)
During each Deployment Phase, place a new Vine marker in your zone OR in/adjacent to a zone containing a Vine marker you control
2
Extend Vine Spell Range
Destroy a controlled Vine marker as additional casting cost to target that marker's zone, ignoring range
3
Establish Treebond (Druid)
When a friendly tree conjuration enters play, bond with it by placing your Treebond marker
4
Activate Plague Master (Necromancer)
During Upkeep Phase, pay 1 mana per object with poison markers to place 1 direct poison damage on each
5
Designate Eternal Servant (Necromancer)
When summoning a non-Legendary, non-Epic undead creature, place Eternal Servant marker on it
6
Use Conjuration Attacks
Once per round, before or after any friendly creature's Action Phase, conjurations with attack bars may attack
7
Handle Rooted Creatures
Rooted creatures cannot move but can guard, hinder, and Intercept normally
8
Utilize Intercept
Guarding creatures may redirect ranged attacks targeting non-flying objects in same zone to themselves
9
Apply Lifebond
During Upkeep Phase, transfer up to X damage between your Mage and bonded object
10
Manage Condition Markers
Track and resolve conditions:
11
Resolve Reanimate Effects
Destroyed creatures with Reanimate return face-down to their zone, entering play at round's end

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Destroy the Enemy Mage
Reduce your opponent's life to zero through attacks and damage
2
Utilize Obliterate
Completely remove creatures from the game using Devour attacks, preventing Reanimate and death triggers
3
Protect Your Treebond (Druid)
If your bonded tree is destroyed, lose all Treebond benefits permanently and the marker is destroyed
4
Maintain Creature Advantage (Necromancer)
Use spawnpoints and resurrection abilities to overwhelm opponents with undead forces
5
Manage Finite Life Interactions
Note that Innate Life, Lifebond, and Reconstruct bypass Finite Life restrictions

watch & Learn

Let the pros teach you with these top videos.

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

PDF RULEBOOK

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