He's doing better than me, I gave up on the first monster (Snail) after 2 hours. My book has the blue snail and 3 cards I happened to find doing a quest and that's about it.
I don't know how you can beat Mages on flat maps, red whip + icarus cape + speed pot give them max speed and they have teleport as well. Ultimates aren't their only attack, I/Ls have other decent ranged mob attacks too. CL is particularly good on mobs of weak stuff (where all 6 hits 1hko, and they're spread out horizontally)
I don't know how you can beat Mages on flat maps, red whip + icarus cape + speed pot give them max speed and they have teleport as well. Ultimates aren't their only attack, I/Ls have other decent ranged mob attacks too. CL is particularly good on mobs of weak stuff (where all 6 hits 1hko, and they're spread out horizontally)