[Micah]

Well, the most common site I've had experience with of this type is the steel ovens, which are great, and certainly have a lot of value...however, they require a LOT of mage turns to really shine, and while items are very very good I don't think any of them will singlehandedly win you the game.

Globals, on the other hand, take a single turn to cast (channeling hundreds of gems in a single turn), and are an order of magnitude greater in effect than item forging. Utterdark is basically an "I win" button for some nations, and anyone in a vaguely competitive position that gets off Gift of Nature's Bounty or Fata Morgana is gaining a HUGE advantage...all from a single mage in a single turn.

Globals are just too damn good to get a blanket discount on extra gems. I think Ballz has a great idea with the decoy casting before throwing up the real spell, and I DO think that not having to exceed the original cost to get credit for extra gems would be a good thing, but tweaking it to count extra gems as 120%+ is NOT a good idea IMO.