Welcome to the Summer of Mage Wars! It is hard to imagine that it has been almost a year since we introduced our flagship game to the gaming world. Now the time has come to release our creation upon the masses. We hope you will join us at GenCon Indy 2012 for the launch of Mage Wars.

In this issue, you will find our Origins 2012 experience, creature highlights with new card art, interviews with the Mage Wars' team, and much more. 

Thank you for joining us, we will see you IN THE ARENA!

Dice Tower Con
July 5th - 8th, 2012
Kissimmee, FL

Texicon
July 20th - 22nd, 2012
Fort Worth, TX

GenCon Indy
August 16th - 19th, 2012
Indianapolis, IN

Bryan Pope and the Mage Wars team flew into Columbus, OH to bring the Mage Wars® experience to the 2012 Origins Game Fair. With the date change this year, the team was not sure what to expect. However, they were pleasantly surprised by excitement players had to “Enter The Arena.”

On Wednesday night, the team had the pleasure of running a demo for the very talented Adrienne Wilkinson, of Xena fame, who was pitted against the amazing Michael Mirth, magician extraordinaire. As one of our top demo-ers, Alan Gerding, taught Adrienne and Michael the gaming system and rules, spectators started gathering and requesting a demo of the game. What started out as a small PR campaign turned into a heavy night of teaching Mage Wars to our fans. In the few hours of play, the team completed nearly 100 demos.

The interest continued throughout the entire convention, with the team working tirelessly to conduct a total of 700+ demos and giving away 700+ t-shirts and caps. The Mage Wars team also took the opportunity to share a t-shirt and cap with Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day. The Mage Wars phenomenon went viral thanks in part to interviews with Board Game Geek, Play Unplugged, and Gamer Goggles (check out the links below to each of their videos).

After the exhibit hall closed, the Mage Wars team continued to entice players into the arena offering opportunities to participate in 16 player tournaments on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Players were given a random mage from the pool of Beastmaster, Priestess, Warlock, and Wizard. Most night players competed in a single-elimination contest for the grand prize of a canvas print of Mage Wars art. To hear the comments of the players, check out the video below.

The Origins 2012 experience was a very positive one for the Mage Wars team. We had the opportunity to add more people to our family, as well as, our fanbase. Thank you GAMA, led by John Ward, for putting on such a great show, and especially our fans who continue to make Mage Wars the best game in the business.

Check out our video testimonials! <click here>

Check out the following Mage Wars interviews from Origins 2012!

Board Game Geek

Play Unplugged

Through Gamer Goggles

On behalf of the Mage Wars Team at Arcane Wonders, I would like to congratulate one of our top playtesters, Alan Gerding, and his fiancee, Crystol Shelton on their engagement and future wedding!

You can see Alan's amazing Ascension proposal here. Alan set the bar for all future gamer proposals pretty high!

Congrats Alan and Crystol! I hope you have many, many years of happy gaming together!

The Wizard has a very useful ability called Mage Sight.  As a master of meta-magic, the Wizard can always find out what secret magics his opponents are weaving.  Mage Sight enables him to spy on their hidden enchantments and expose their plans.

Here is how it works:  Once per round, as a quick spell, the Wizard may pay one mana, and reveal (flip over) a target hidden enchantment up to 2 zones away.

The Wizard can use Mage Sight to see if a zone has a trap in it before moving in, or find out what curse the Warlock has cast on one of his creatures.  It’s also is an excellent way to expose and destroy spells like Jinx, Block, and Nullify.

Do you have what it takes to Enter the Arena with the most powerful Mages in the realm?

A Priestess, one of the chosen of Asyra?

A Beastmaster, defender of the Straywood Forest?

A Wizard, seeker of Voltari?

Or are you a Warlock, blood-thirsty warrior of the Arraxian Crown?

Mages from across the globe have travelled to the arena to duel for power! You have travelled far to test your abilities. However, in the arena you find an old ally lying dead at the hands of a fiery Warlock. As you watch in shock, the Warlock yells, "Is there no one else?" You can't believe it. Can no one hold back the scourge? Battle, glory, honor, and power rest within these arena's walls...who wants some?!

We drove six hours one morning to travel to Ohio just to play Mage Wars and the team was so awesome and accomodating. After one match we understood the rules and Bryan let us try out his spellbook. After exploiting a Tanglevine and Force Hold / Teleport combo, Bryan asked us if we would like to become playtesters and we accepted the challenge. We came in very late to the project, but we studied the rulebook everyday for five days while we waited for our playtesting set to arrive. When we received it, we just went nuts. We tried everything we could to exploit Mage Wars and break the system and from that we gathered data and started to even form our own abilities and cards.

-Cameron Maynard and Derek Dix

Cameron recently earned his Bachelors degree in homeland security, but his dream has always been to be a part of a design team working on an amazing board game.

A gamer at heart, Cameron is originally from Indiana. His next adventure is marrying the love of his life next June.

Congrats Cameron, welcome to the team! We wish you the utmost happiness and success!

Hailing from Illinios, 21 year old Derek, has a degree in law enforcement. He grew up around cornfields, not board games.

Derek met Cameron in college. New to gaming, the two young men became best friends and gaming buddies.

Thanks for all of your hard work Derek! Welcome to the Mage Wars team!

The primary military force wielded by Adramelech, Lord of Fire, in battle against his enemies is the Infernian Legions.  Though nominally under Adramelech’s direct control, the Legion is made up of Companies raised by the various Demon Prince and Princesses.  These Companies are made up of various lesser demons, as well as beasts pulled from all the regions of Infernia.  However, the vast bulk of the army is made up of shock troops, and the greatest number of these soldiers are recruited from two Demon species; the Drokkar and the Flaming Hellions.

In the arena, the Warlock can combine the two soldiers for an effective attack.  The Drokkar can be moved towards an enemy, hitting him hard, while a Flaming Hellion can sit back and pick off targets with its flame attacks, multiplying the damage potential through the application of burn condition markers.  These two creatures are an important of any demon summoning Warlock’s retinue, and he should summon two or three to best capitalize on their strengths.

The Drokkar are a tall, six-armed race of demons, which live in the region of Infernia controlled by Bael, Demon of Blood. Drokkar thirst for combat, and love nothing more than charging into battle, to rend enemies with their many arms, or stab them with their deadly tail barbs. 

Drokkar are hatched from clutches of eggs, and as soon as they are born begin fighting amongst each other for dominance. In Drokkar society, only the strong survive, and only the strongest are taken to fill the ranks of the Infernian Legion.

Flaming Hellions dwell in the lands overseen by Adramelech, and believe that this closeness to the Lord of Fire makes them superior to the other types of demons that serve in the Legion.  Little is known of the Flaming Hellion’s life cycle, as Adramelech keeps it a secret, but most speculation points towards them being born of the supernatural fire that suffuses Infernia.

Possessed with the ability to hurl bolts of flame at their enemies, the Flaming Hellion prefers to soften up its targets before closing for a kill.  Flaming Hellions tend to believe that they are the elite forces of the Infernian Legions, and look down upon the Drokkar for their brutish tactics.  In return the Drokkar see the Flaming Hellions as weak, and afraid to dirty their hands in the joy of combat.  Despite their animosity, the two types of troops work well together, and more than one overconfident Angelic raiding party venturing into Infernia has been cut off and destroyed by the combined actions of both Demon species.

Congratulations to Jeff Bogle for winning our May Mage Wars Feedback Contest! Jeff was randomly picked from all the people who posted comments and / or reviews of Mage Wars on our Facebook Page during the month of May to win a Mage Wars Baseball Cap.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Fans, post a comment or review on Facebook or Twitter and be entered in a drawing to win Mage Wars merchandise. Each month we will randomly select a fan that has posted a comment to win genuine Mage Wars swag! This month, we will be giving away a T-shirt featuring the Beastmaster. So, don't delay, sign on to Facebook or Twitter and let us know what you think! We are also at Board Game Geek here.

The contest starts this month! On the 5th of the following month (July 5th), we will draw the winner! Make sure to get your entries in by 6/30! Good Luck, we will see you IN THE ARENA!

In the near future, we will have a variety of Mage Wars merchandise available at our website, including T-shirsts, posters, and the awesome Mage Wars baseball cap. Make sure to check for our newly redesigned website for our awesome swag at www.magewars.com.