For me, the key to impossible mage has been:
1) Pick up everything you can from Debir, Scarlett, and Bolo (if Rusty Map is unguarded on Bolo, then Rusty too) before fighting ANYTHING (except the 2 fights in the tutorial.)
2) Grind medals from the very start.
Don't worry about Battle Academy as much since that one goes REAL fast once you get Red Dragons. (Before that, my units/spells don't make much use of it anyway.)
Trapper is extremely easy to get to Level 3 if you are patient (mages need patience more than the other two.) I got mine after fight 28.
To get the physical resistance one, make the first fight you do the undead fight on Scarlett that is blocking the guaranteed Archmages. Bring only a full stack of Inq to that fight. You will get either 3 or 4 Archmages. Break them into stacks of 1 (if you got 3, make your last stack whatever you want.) Now hit the battles on Debir. Inq + random stack (if you have it) weakens enemies just enough for hero + dragon kick to kill with traps. Archmages spam Magic Shield every other turn. When there's only 1 enemy stack left, have hero switch to spamming L1 Stoneskin. Do this till Round 10 (drag out the fight if you have to.) If you were lucky enough to find 4 Archmages, you will get 20 to the counter per fight just from their Magic Shield alone.
Fire mage can be grinded the same way (~16-18 per fight) by abusing Oil Mist on easy fights. Since that spell does no damage, you can keep spamming it two per round on the battle field till round 10. Use one L5 stack and start the fight with Fear.
3) With a mage, sometimes less is more. Don't feel obligated to fight with all 5 stacks after you finish grinding the Magic Shield medal because that can actually make things harder. If you are going for no loss, the difficulty in that is only as much as your flimsiest stack. Using fewer stacks also means your dragon levels up much faster.
Using these tactics and more, I've never once had to use paladins and I generally dump Inq once I get L5 units (like that free Green Dragon.) Nothing wrong with using what's there, it's just playing completely defensive and ressurecting everything at the end just isn't really my style. Though I'm sure I might need to consider them for the last leg of the game to maintain no-loss.
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