The Magus Circle Best Builds: What the Evidence Supports

What is the best build in The Magus Circle right now?

The strongest single observation on record: Supernova + spell size. Supernova is a Leviathan-tier upgrade players describe as a split beam firing away from your character; combined with enough spell-size stacking, one launch-week player reported that “seemingly no mob will be able to touch you anymore.” A build that removes the need to dodge — in a game where your drawing hand is periodically busy — is as close to a tier-S observation as the evidence has produced. The full context of the fight it comes from is in the Leviathan guide.

One freshness caveat applies to every row below: the 1.1.4 hotfix (October 15) buffed all spell synergies, the 1.1.5 update (October 19) kept rebalancing, and the 1.2.0 update (October 31) shipped another official balance batch (see below) — so grades first written in launch week are ratings of the evidence, not a frozen meta. Nothing published since re-grades them.

Vampire Survivors… But You Draw Your Spells?! — Matzel — YouTube

Vampire Survivors… But You Draw Your Spells?! — Matzel

Early observations, ranked by evidence strength

The tarot rows here are the short version — the tarot cards guide tracks every card the official record names, and the mansion guide covers how cards are earned in the hub.

Why the full matrix is still ungraded

Twenty spells and six mages is a real matrix, and grading it without verified numbers would mean guessing. The honest bar: verified in-game values (mana costs, damage, cooldowns) for each spell, more runs against the same bosses, and the community’s consensus as it forms in the Steam forums. The spell list and mages roster are the data backbone this page ranks from — spells with their own evidence pages (Exsanguinate, Prismatic Gale, Omega Beam, Poppet) grade first.

The official 1.2.0 balance changes (October 31)

The 1.2.0 update shipped the largest official balance batch since launch. These are the official changes, stated the way the notes state them — the patch published no specific numbers:

• Earthward — damage and AoE buffed, cost reduced; all Earthward spell upgrades buffed as well.
• Autocast upgrade — now ignores Earthward so it doesn’t block you.
• Wisp — base speed increased; now does an attack every second if it remains stationary.
• Wispblade — now properly creates Spellblades.
• Death Beam — now inherits duration upgrades.
• Shroud of Bones — attack speed buffed.
• Chain Lightning — base damage buffed.
• Meteor Swarm — base damage and attack speed buffed slightly.

What this means for the grades: nothing yet, by design. Buffs without published numbers are evidence of direction, not of magnitude, and no row moves on a guess — when verified in-game values land, rows shift under the same dated-note rule as before. The full patch context is in the 1.2 update guide, and the spell list is where per-spell evidence accumulates.

How this page stays current

1. When spell and mage numbers are verified in-game, the full tier table lands here with per-row evidence links.
2. When a patch changes a spell or upgrade, the row moves with a dated note — that has already happened more than once: Omega Beam’s displayed numbers were corrected in 1.0.2, Exsanguinate took its 25% area-of-effect nerf in 1.0.3, 1.1.4 buffed all spell synergies in one sweep, and 1.2.0 buffed Earthward, Wisp, Shroud of Bones, Chain Lightning and Meteor Swarm in another.
3. When a row’s evidence changes quality, the confidence column moves with it — Riptide’s move from D to ungraded (fix shipped) is the pattern to expect.

Until a deeper meta forms, treat the S-row as the one pick worth beelining, the tarot rows as cheap early power, and everything else as an open question the patch cadence is actively answering.

Sources: Steam store page, official patch notes 1.0.2–1.0.6 and 1.1.0–1.1.5 (Steam news, September 26 – October 19, 2026), and launch-week reports from the Steam community forums. Screenshots © By Witchlight.