My point was more general than specific, but if we are going to look at specifics, then I'd suggest any two spells in FE intended for similar purposes in different spellbooks should differ somehow.  A fire spell that administers a lot of direct damage should cost a lot, but a death spell that administers the same damage might cost less while also draining the life force of either the caster or another team member in battle.  Which I think fits in well with your next point:

I agree that every ability should have its counter, and every spell should have its use within at least one given strategy of gameplay, but hopefully more.  The current spell trees seem a bit pale, in this respect.  There are quite a few spells I can't conceive of ever using.  I would like to see all those new spells that my research has just provided access to, and figure what a treasure trove of knowledge my sovereign has just acquired, with but the investment of some time and effort to unravel.  As it is now, I never use most of what I get.  There's no perceived need for them.

On a side subject, I think that spells that are truly all-purpose in some way (huge damage, huge heal, etc) should be available, but at such a cost as to make them prohibitive in all but emergency circumstances.  Sure, this spell can heal all the damage your entire team is suffering, but do you really want to suffer the loss of your last major advancement in life spells afterward, as a result?  Draconian, in a non-Fang sort of way, but I think the point is valid.

And I'd also like to see spells applied by adepts in two elements form synergies, if possible: a chain lightning spell with a fire component might shoot flames that bounce from one enemy to the next, etc.  A boulder spell and an air spell might create an explosion on impact spreading dangerous debris over an area, etc. 

Agreed, and nice choices, by the way.  I would go so far as to advocate themes in a couple of instances.  As in M:TG, death magic has powerful summons and direct damage, but with a personal price.  Or a shortterm benefit with a longterm drawback, such as healing a unit in battle completely, only to have it die directly after the battle finishes.  Life is all about healing and regeneration, and might offer summons as well that healed your team, but did nothing else, etc.  Given the sheer variety of damage types, melee and magical, in the game, that would leave Life magic with a lot of spells.

I believe even in the current Beta 2 there are damaging spells in each element. They are just not all at level 1. I don't think water gets one until like level 3 or 4. Same with Earth. And I'm fine with that. An earth mage should have to live with stone skin and melee weapons until he gets that spell. I think it's called fissure. Even then it's uses are limited . . .

That is how things should be. I would think of an earth mage as more of a warrior mage. Limiting mages to purely damage type spells is kind of cliche. They should have way more options to deal damage than that. In effect Stone Skin is increasing the damage they can do because they can survive longer. So it's passivley offensive in it's own right.

I think what we need though is maybe a more generic school of magic that every wizard starts with. Say Arcane or something that will have some low level damaging spells not based on any element. it doesn't get any shard bonuses and maybe gets some boost based on int or level? it might have some generic utility spells too that really any wizard should have learned in his training.

It would be nice if Path of the Mage offered some generic spells or allowed that hero to utilize spells you have researched in the tech tree.

M:TG if you allow all cards (which we do from Alpha set to the current) is not watered down at all. Of coarse we don't ban cards we have the 4 card limit (except normal lands) for any card in the game to include the unglued cards.  Of coarse the unglued cards do need special rules to normalise them. (basically we take all the humorus elements out of the cards, for example The Knights of the Hokey Pokey you don't have to sing the Hokey pokey song to use its ability.)

If you would like to discuss M:TG content, I suspect another forum would be appropriate.  I was using it here in context, as an example in its first expansions of maintaining a lack of balance between the colors, so that each played out differently, and required various strategies to succeed.

Great Idea.  It sucks going with path of the mage but not having any good spells to get you through until the ones you want are available.