Was thinking along similar lines with regards to the timer- there should be a "bullet variation" for OU, like 30 or 60 seconds to move like in chess.Timer should be 60 seconds tops, If you sit down to battle I assume you want to battle, not what everyone on the ladder seems to want to do
If you dont know the calcs by now, too bad, they aren't that hard to learn
Would make for faster pace games like you want, but add this feature in addition to the normal time control to not turn away new players trying to learn calcs. Remember you were once a new player too.