Black Magic Run diaries

[Kysafen]

Having finished my 2nd run yesterday with 2 Maguses, 1 Devout and one Ninja, I came to a realization; the game poses multiple problems whose most efficient solutions start with choosing the correct class, but one thing I noticed was that throughout the entire run, I almost always seemed to find a Black Mage viable. So I wondered: can you go through the game just casting black magic, or with classes capable of casting black magic? So I decided to find out. In the instances where toad or mini was required, I did not engage in any fights until I was at a point where I was able to reclass back to a black mage.
The beginning of the run is somewhat grind-y; you have access to Blizzard from a chest in Castle Sasune. This is going to be the only Black Magic I'd have access to until I killed the Djinn. Knifegrinding, and he eventually went down, opening up the magic stores in Kazus and Canaan.
From then the entire run goes like I was playing on Easy Mode, up to the point where I faced Goldor. It's naturally to pass that I'd face difficulty facing someone when they'd offer high magic resistance. After using up my limited Blizzaga uses, it soon became a battle of attrition, with my Mythril Knives dealing as much damage as my Level 3 magic, and so, I decided to stick to physical attacks. The only real trouble was when Goldor would occasionally cast Thundaga and OHKO one of my party members, but it ended up being a first-try kill, due to having a stock of Phoenix Downs and Hi-Potions on hand.
Garuda was trouble. I had to spend an hour grinding and leveling up from level 21 to 29; while Goldor was an example of a boss having too much HP but not enough attack, Garuda had low HP and far, far too much attack. It casting Lightning every turn killed my party in 2 rounds, guaranteed; I didn't even get the chance to expend my Blizzaga spells. I ground from level 21 to level 29, just to be able to take 2-4 hits from the bastard casting Lightning every turn, and thank ♥♥♥♥ I was able to get it when I finally did; I was just about ready to end the run, but nope, the bastard went down. The run then went into lightspeed. The overgrinding would have me more often than not ORKOing whatever mobs I found with level 2 magic.
It was also a really simple run, too. Hardly ever do mages get armor upgrades, and when they did it felt like a big leap forward in defense. It also simplified selling decisions; "can the Black Mage/Magus/Sage class equip this? No? Then sell it". It resolved pretty much any financial difficulty I would've had in an otherwise vanilla run, especially when the later spells do a number on your gil wallet.
Pretty much every battle is punctuated with using my potion/hi-potion count, which I'd regularly restock to 99 each between dungeons. If I decide to reclass one or two of my maguses to sages in Eureka I may end up using them as the necessary healers for the CoD fight. Without at least one the vast majority of the run would be a joyless, lifeless grind in the World of Darkness and being able to rationally blow whatever Elixirs I might save up during the run. The balance of viability is so abjectly skewed towards Maguses/Devouts, whatever early magic MP they offer means nothing next to their LV 5-8 magic MP, especially in the Crystal Tower gauntlet.
I got to the Earth Crystal at last, Titan going down, and then went off and killed Doga/Unei for some Magus job EXP. I saved a separate file after killing TItan but before reclassing to Magus. Is reclassing to Magus killing a Black Mage run or is Magus such a replacement that it doesn't matter if you reclass to them? Does reclassing to a Sage and using White Magic in such a run invalidating the run? I dunno, you discuss, I'll decide once I get some freaking sleep

[Zsrai]

You first said a black magic run, but then later only used Black Mages? I think you did more than was required by your original thought; you easily could have used a Red Mage or two early on for Mini and Toad (and some low level healing). By the same token, upgrading to a Magus and/or Sage wouldn't break it either since they both also use black magic, even if their title isn't "Black Mage".