Mage Wars Academy contains gameplay similar to Mage Wars Arena (originally called Mage Wars) with two mages in head-to-head combat to see who will be victorious.

Mage Wars Academy is a two-player starter set that comes with two mages, two spellbooks, and a new "boardless" gameplay design that's more portable and fast-playing than Mage Wars Arena. All of the spell cards in Academy are compatible with those in Arena.

Multiple core sets (or future expansions) may be added together to create a 3 or 4 player game.