[JaJacob]

@Kalzazz

Sorry, to clarify free variable access- I meant Unusual background (variable access) which is suggested solution if you wanted Threshold and classic energy gathering. It's in Laws of Magic p7 in Threshold limited magic.

Would counting all mages as adepts (essentially giving them free Adept advantage) be too much of a power jump?

I'm not sure if I understand correctly. Did you replace Magery with your Fast casting variant or in addition you bought it as a new advantage (that only removes penalty for reduced casting time) along with buying Magery as usual. So it would be 50pts to reduce cast times to 1 second with no penalties.

Using effect shaping, nothing limits you in how much you can cast correct? Only limitation is your skill. Not counting crit fails.

That sounds like a pretty good way of doing things. Though I would really like to use threshold calamities as well.