As usual, excellent post everyone. I've got a ton of advice so here's what I'm going with:
DronesThis isn't just to throw off mages but someone mentioned that they are cheap. I've been using more metahuman security than I should have when drones are a better option. A few thousand for a excellent sec drone or a few thousand every month for a fleshy? I'd go with the drones myself. Still, I don't think everyone (the common citizen) would carry a drone because most wouldn't have a use for them.
Background countI don't pay enough attention to this. My runs tend to hit the Redmond Barrens a lot and that place has to have some really nasty astral spots.
Spirits on LoanI tend to forget that mages can bind spirits and loan them to people. I know that if I was a semi-wealthy shop owner I'd pay for a mage to loan me a spirit of man.
WardsEven smaller stores should be able to afford wards. Also, Street Magic has a lot more on wards; I need to check it out.
Send Mages on Runs that Require MagesAnother "oops" of mine. I keep running the game as if two samurai are playing. Now that it's a mage and a samurai these guys can go after runs involving magical threats. Even better paying jobs which will make my players happy.
UltrasoundUltrasound has always confused me a bit in the past. It helps with vision but it's not an eye enhancement, it's headwear. I think I finally get it and I'll be including it a bit more often. Not so much as cyberwear but it'll be in all high end sec-gear helmets.
Shock WeaponsIt seems kind of wierd that normal weapons do not work yet electricity attacks will. We've been playing before SnSs came out so they seem a little foreign to us. But if it's the only thing that mundanes can use to drop spirits I guess they'll swiftly get integrated into our games. Shocking a fire spirit, or earth spirit, into submission seems to be such a cheesy workaround though.
RTFMMeh. I don't want to read Street Magic right now but I think it'll help. I've browsed it and I know that the defenses versus magic were promising but... meh. I'm still spinning from Unwired.
Skipping for NowI am not going to add houserules or use the optional rules to fix these issues; yet, anyways. There is obviously more that I can do with the world itself to limit the mage's impact of the game.
Thanks again gang! I really appreciate the help!
Edit:
Thanks for the link Octopiii. The Magical Guard sounds good but I really liked the idea of a offsite sec mage showing up in astral with his spirit army when an alarm sounds. Seems so obvious; somehow I missed it. That is a great service for freelance sec mages to offer. I bet my player may start a side business for his mage when I mention it to him.