Advice on Wizard Universalist feat and other tips.

[Dakkonn]

So the short version is a friend and I rolled two wizards, he will be doing Item creation focus (Counterspell School) While I will be going Universalist School with a focus on Combat and Metamagic feats while assisting in item creation.

Now I have never played a wizard, I have played a Dread Necro and a few other casters but I usually play things that are a little easier to build. Wizard is a very interesting class to build (You can do A LOT with it) So I am looking for general advice / pointers. Keep in mind I am by no means new to Pathfinder or RPGing in general but I would like to hear other ideas/points of view. (The more you know and all that :D )

We are Level 1 so not really much to play with but I want to plan this guy out a little so I am thinking about what feats I want to take 1-10.

ATM I took Eschew materials as my level 1 but I am open to change that. (I figure not having to go back to town to get materials would be nice HOWEVER I understand that the cost on said items is so low that I should most likely pick a better feat (Imp. Int.).

Also ATM the only feat I am committed to taking is Quicken Spell by level 10. (since that will be the first level I can quicken even a level 1 spell)

Other than that I am open to ideas. I have gone over all the MetaMagic feats and made a list of ones I like (also have done a few searches on here but have not come up with another topic close enough that I feel satisfied)

I was thinking things like,
Metamagic Feats - Spell Slot increase
Silent - 1
Still - 1
Extend - 1
Empower - 2
(Wouldn't Intensified spell be better at higher levels that Empower?)
Maximize - 3
Merciful - 0
Echoing - 3 (theoretically I could cast 4 spells)

(Level 10+) Spell Penetration and Greater S P (I'm an elf so that would be 1d20+caster level+6) However with Piercing spell it would -5 spell resist for only 1 feat at the cost of increasing the spell slot by 1.

Also keep in mind I plan to make as many scrolls as possible(To give me versatility)

Anyways this is getting REALLY long so I'll leave it at this for now. Thank you in advance for any advice.

[Maerimydra]

Drop Eschew materials unless your playing in a campaing that is all about survival in the wild. Without Eschew materials you just need to buy a spell components pouch at character creation and that's it.

Take Toppling Spell at level 3 or 5 and now you can cast Toppling Magic Missile! :)

[Nipin]

If you want to focus on combat I would suggest choosing Evocation school or Admixture subschool. I am personally not a big fan of the Universalist school. If you want to be more of a true Universalist I would suggest the Arcane Bloodline (or Sage Bloodline if you want to be INT based) Sorcerer. With the human favored class bonus you can get more than enough spells known and you can still cast anything from a scroll(which I'm sure your friend the Wizard can craft for you at half price if you buy him the first scroll to add it to his spellbook).

[LazarX]

Look up Treantmonk's Wizard Guide on the d20pfsrd site.