[Alneyan]

I am not sure if Magic Duel discards *all* boosts, but it isn't affected by most of them. In one of my tests, a mage with a seven level difference (with one of those seven levels coming from a spell) still lived through 500 Magic Duels, while his base level was a mere 6 levels above the target. It could have been plain luck however: 500 tests on a 1/36 odd is probably inconclusive. In other cases, the Magic Duel spell worked as "featured", and disregarded boosts coming from items.

My Pretender should come in a little while, once I am done with my final changes.