A God am I - Egyptian Magic

Sorry for the tonne, really, its awkward, I know. That particular build has either sandstorm or chemical explosion and the leylines recharge for infinite mana right after that. Unless you got really unlucky with the wands I think you're supposed to blow them on the first bunch of rooms with no regrets, using the asp to help you melee. There not being an easily craftable lvl1 wand (components wise) does tie in with your completely correct assesment about magic skills not having nearly enough first lvl "oomph" outside a select few skills.

 

EM can clear single targets easily with Ra's Blast. And Tourist starts with a great Wand that can level the first floor pretty easily, and has a ton of charges, plus great trap detection and perception at level 2 and a point of mana regen at level 1.