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Spell of Mastery
Screenshot SpellOfMastery
Realm Icon ArcaneArcane
Spell Type Instant Spell
Casting Cost Icon Mana 5,000
Research Cost Icon Research 60,000
Effects
The caster wins the game immediately.

The Spell of Mastery is an Instant Spell belonging to the Icon ArcaneArcane Magic realm. This spell is the most powerful and expensive spell in the game. Cast on the overland map for a massive Casting Cost of Icon Mana 5,000, this spell will instantly defeat all rival wizards, ending the game in sudden victory. Casting this spell also increases the player's Score by +250 points.

Description[]

The Spell of Mastery is a legendary formula for mobilizing the Arcane Realm, the realm representing the building blocks of magic, to obtain total control over magic on Arcanus and Myrror. This spell can only be researched; it does not exist anywhere on the two planes, and a Wizard who successfully develops it will not share it with another at any price. To develop it, the practitioner has to muster the efforts of all institutions under his control and immerse himself in the project for years.

The Spell of Mastery has a unique property: a dynamic, reducible research cost. The more spell knowledge a Wizard accumulates during the campaign, the more methodical he can be in assembling this ultimate spell, cross-referencing his knowledge of the Arcane with the spells and Realms he understands best.

When the casting begins, the powers of heaven and earth rise and surge through the dimensions, gathering in a gigantic vortex over the caster's Fortress. It's not a quiet event. Other Wizards abroad will understand exactly what is going on and will go into a frenzy, as they cannot tolerate this spell being cast by anyone but themselves.

If the caster weathers through these difficulties and manages to complete the Spell of Mastery, the other Wizards are destroyed. Their abilities dissolve utterly, their enchantments dissipate, their summoned creatures return to the realms from whence they came, and the caster alone remains to hold the title for which the game is named: Master of Magic.

Effects[]

The Spell of Mastery wins the game— it's as simple as that. More pertinent, however, is what takes place when a wizard starts to cast it. Starting the Spell of Mastery raises a ruckus; all Wizards notice when the incantation begins without any help from Icon ArcaneDetect Magic, and Diplomatic Relations with all rivals plummet. Every Wizard knows that he will be defeated if he allows this spell to be cast successfully! This leads to wars being declared on the caster by virtually everybody else.

Winning the Game[]

Successfully casting the Spell of Mastery is one of two ways to win a game of Master of Magic. The other way is to physically defeat all enemy Wizards by conquering their Fortresses until it is signaled that they are defeated. Defeat means that the Wizard is not casting the Icon ArcaneSpell of Return. Any Towns remaining under their control will revert to the neutral faction, with their banners changing to brown. Whereas if the enemy is merely banished, these towns noticeably remain under enemy control.

Once the Spell of Mastery has successfully been cast, the game ends immediately with an animation of the casting wizard destroying the spirits of his rivals. After this, the Scoring sheet is shown, indicating the player's relative measure of success. Winning via the casting of Spell of Mastery awards the player with 250 bonus points to the score (before taking difficulty modifiers into account). It also credits the player with defeating each of the other Wizards, meaning +50 points each, regardless of how matters actually stood in the campaign. There is no opportunity to return to the now-mastered campaign, other than by loading an earlier save game or autosave.

Animosity[]

Most Global Enchantments and all Town Curses trigger a Diplomatic Reaction when they are completed. The Spell of Mastery represents a special case where this backlash happens at the very instant casting begins— even before any Mana has been spent on it. On the -100 to 100 Relations scale, the disposition of each Wizard plunges by 50 points (pending multipliers for breaching agreements and the AI player's Personality trait), and 25 points are deducted each turn thereafter while casting persists.

Computer-controlled rival wizards are well-aware that the Spell of Mastery means defeat for them. In most cases, any and all of the caster's alliances are wrecked, and the rivals declare war. Rivals possessing Icon SorcerySpell Blast may attempt to stop the casting of the Spell of Mastery, while others will likely send large armies in an attempt to destroy the caster's Fortress.

Enemy Wizards Casting the Spell of Mastery[]

You will be notified whenever an enemy wizard begins casting this spell. Unless you wish to lose the game, it is imperative that you try to stop it from being completed by any means necessary.

Sorcerers are able to use Icon SorcerySpell Blast to counter an enemy Spell of Mastery. This method requires a large amount of Mana. Even though Spell Blast always succeeds, it will cost the same amount of mana the target has already spent on casting it, which rises turn-by-turn as the enemy makes progress on the spell. Nevertheless, this is the simplest way to bring an enemy Spell of Mastery to a dead stop.

The only recourse for non-sorcerers is to seek out the caster's Fortress town and conquer or destroy it. By Banishing the wizard, the casting of this spell is stopped - at least until that wizard completes his Icon ArcaneSpell of Return. Sorcery's Icon SorceryTime Stop can buy some time, so to speak, for this emergency assault; however, most Wizards who know this spell will also know Spell Blast, so taking down the enemy's Fortress is in their case just a longer-lasting fix.

A wizard who has already started casting Spell of Mastery once will eventually try it again and again. The only way to stop the spell from being cast permanently is to defeat that wizard completely, or to cast the Spell of Mastery yourself, winning the game before he does.

Usage[]

Spell of Mastery Started

The Spell of Mastery may only be cast on the overland map, for the massive base Casting Cost of Icon Mana 5,000 - making it the single most expensive spell in the entire game. Most wizards will take upwards of 50 turns to complete this spell, giving their opponents time to try and stop this from happening.

Upon selection of this spell for casting, an animation will play showing the wizard's Fortress being engulfed by a magical energy vortex. This animation occurs regardless of which wizard is casting the spell, and thus can serve as an indicator to the player whenever an enemy wizard makes the attempt.

Diplomatic Relations between the caster of Spell of Mastery and his rivals are affected immediately - worsening virtually to the point of universal hatred. Discounting any flukes in the game, all rivals will immediately declare war on the casting wizard as soon as the turn ends.

Upon completion of the spell, the game ends immediately with the proper animations and the Scoring display - where the +250 point bonus from casting the Spell of Mastery is shown, if the player was the one who cast it. You are then returned to the main menu to start a new game.

Acquisition[]

The Spell of Mastery is an Arcane spell, which means that it is available to all wizards regardless of anything else.

The spell must, of course, be Researched before it can be cast. It will usually be the very last spell to appear on the research list, and so cannot be researched until the late stages of the game.

The Spell of Mastery has the highest (initial) Research Cost of any spell - at a whopping Icon Research 60,000. An entire Realm's repertoire of 40 spells costs Icon Research 59,950. It can take many turns to complete research on this spell, even for an advanced, powerful empire.

Fortunately, the actual Research Cost of this spell is dynamic, and will decrease significantly during gameplay. Each time a new spell is acquired, whether through Research, Spell Trading or as a reward from Encounter zones, the Research Cost of the Spell of Mastery is reduced by half the Research Cost of the acquired spell. For example, acquiring the Skeletons spell, which has a Research Cost of Icon Research 20, reduces the Research Cost of the Spell of Mastery by Icon Research 10.

On top of this, a wizard possessing at least 11 Spellbooks in any of the magical Realms gets a reduction of Icon Research 3,000 in the Research Cost of the Spell of Mastery.

Note that only spells acquired during the game have an effect here. "Guaranteed Spells" chosen by the wizard prior to starting the game are not accounted for. This also includes the Magic Spirit and Spell of Return spells (which are given by default to every wizard) nor any spells acquired prior to game-start due to Retorts.

Finally, as with any other Arcane spell, research of the Spell of Mastery is about 20% faster for wizards possessing the Runemaster Retort - except here those 20% could amount to many dozens of turns shaved off the Research time, making this one of the most important benefits of Runemaster.

Strategy[]

The Manual calls the Spell of Mastery "a scholarly approach," in contrast to the aggressive approach of conquering the world. Pursuing the Spell of Mastery is alike to a tech or space victory condition in 4X strategy; to succeed, you have to build up a base of magical and secular power strong enough to outpace the competition.

As for whether the Spell or conquest is easier to achieve, this will depend on your Wizard's build and your own viewpoints about it. Note that military prowess is required in both objectives, if not because of enemy Fortresses, then because of Nodes.

Capturing a lion's share of the worlds' Nodes and drawing a large Icon Power Power income always proves decisive for the Spell of Mastery. It requires a huge amount of Spell Research and Spell Casting Skill. Your Wizard's power base determines whether you can bring these up to scratch. Several Retorts can help you out with Nodes. Consider among Nature/Chaos/Sorcery Mastery, Archmage, and Node Mastery (if you are built to fulfill its requirements) for strengthening your Wizard.

Finally, the Spell of Mastery is a component of a top Score. If all the momentum is on your side and you "win" conquest for all practical purposes, you could swiftly end the game to maximize the Time component of the score (which starts at +2000 and decays by 2 points per turn). Alternatively, you could try to outrun this decay by increasing the number of Townsfolk you control, earning Fame, and learning more spells during the long trek towards the Spell of Mastery (which itself offers +250 points and full credit for eliminating every opponent), and your score may very well end up a lot higher as a result.

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