Magic Duels

I recently started getting back into magic after being inactive for around 15 years. However, other than standard tournaments, I don't have many opportunities to play against other players, so I figured I needed an online version of magic to practice. Magic duels is OK to get back into the mechanics and see what other people play, but other than that, it's a HUGE disappointment: - Insane grind. buying boosters as a poor kid in the 90ies (p2w in its pure form) was more fun. - Stupid deck restrictions: rares 2x, uncommons 3x (to keep serious players away or p2w low?) - Strange format: not pure standard, balance seems off ( banned smuggler's copter still being played, too many cheap removal spells...) - Terrible connectivity: connection losses all the time, dropped players get replaced by AI and most of the time, you have to beat the AI in order to not receive a loss, alt+tab is all it takes to get disconnected, possibly lots of room for exploits. Lags are so hard that often you can't...

A little background, I am both a big fan of the 'free to play' model as well as the Magic The Gathering card game. I've been playing Magic for about four years now. I've owned a few of the other digital game versions as well as having a few competitive decks in real life as well. It's been no secret that many people have found the digital series to be pretty hit or miss. I don't know what Wizard's of The Coast does to miss the boat so hard. But I'll first put this review into a technical and then a business sense: What works about the game: -Bare bones, the game launches, plays, has a GUI and from what I've seen as of February, very little bugs. It's a smooth experience to start and once you get into the interface it's an enjoyable segue into the game. -The music as always is top notch. I have yet to see anyone lodge a complaint against the music -Fair art direction. The cards already have art that they have on file so it's hard to say that they really go out of their way with the ar...

[i]"Magic Duels is kinda like your hot crazy ex. She looks good and smells good, so you talk with her and start remembering why you loved her in the first place and want to try it again, and everything is great until she stabs you in the hand with a fork because you were chewing or breathing too loud. But sooner or later, you'll want to try it again."[/i] [h1]ACTUAL REVIEW[/h1] I've invested a decent amount of time and more money than I care to admit in this game, so I feel its time to give it an honest review. [u]Pros[/u] + Teaches you how to play MTG, So it's a good game to pick up for new players along with returning players needing a refresher. + Atmospheric campaigns that introduce you to each new set while also earning you coins. + Game limits your collection and deck to only one mythic, 2 rares, 3 uncommon, and 4 common cards of any individual card. This creates an artificial buffer and prevents players with too much money/time from building crazy decks that will dominate the...

Game constantly getting updates unlike the Duels series, tonnes of active players in PVP. My only complaint is that PVP is being really forced on people, even those who start out if you're trying to just complete dailies. Bulk of the daily quests are "In Versus Battles" which a newbie couldn't really stand a chance against.

I barely recommend this game but to be honest - it's really good for newbies like me. The Story Mode and Skil Quests are great to introduce MTG's mechanics. But some issues ruins all game: - Turn will complete automatically if I have nothing to play. Do you realize that it gives too much info to my opponent? Especially if I am playing control deck. - UI is awful. Did you try to rename your deck? As a gamedeveloper myself I can't imagine how did you manage to hide this so good - UI is still awful. When a spell in a stack you can zoom it to read some information from the card. You have to right'click it and select "Zoom in". My God, it's the only item in this context menu! Why should I select it when I have no other options? Anyway, all this problems can be fixed and I hope you will do it, community will be thankful (just kidding, community is never thankful)

For a long time it was a fun game with a lot of little flaws; great for scratching that itch to play MtG when I hadn't for about 10 years. The one thing that finally made me quit was the introduction of daily quests with very specific requirements that only work in PvP. Even with a daily quest refresh, this often ends up requiring you to use decks in PvP that are substandard either because they don't fit the meta or you don't have enough cards unlocked to build them. So, in short, the best way to unlock cards now often depends on already having cards unlocked. In PvP. I understand this was probably an effort to get people to buy boosters. The game does need to make money or it gets shut down, of course. And while there are things I would pay for, boosters are not one of them. I started playing Duels [i]specifically to get away from having to pay for boosters[/i]. If Stainless wanted to get money from me there are some things they could charge for: [list][*]Access to older blocks (i....

Magic The Gathering is an easy game to learn and a very difficult game to master no matter what version you play (original physical collectable card game or any digital rendition that has been made over the years). MTG Duels is a free to play game, and even if you stick to playing just the story mode and completing the challenges that the current 7 stories which complement the 7 decks available in the game, it will offer you a good few hours of enjoyable gameplay. To be honest it offered just as much enjoyment and gameplay as some of the other MTG: Duels of the Planeswalkers games that you have to pay for on Steam. If you are new to MTG then this is a great way to learn the game and get to grips with the mechanics of the game, and if you are like me and have played MTG on and off for over 18 years, it was a great way to get back up to speed with some of the new abilities introduced in newer decks. The game offers Skill Quests whenever you encounter a card with a new ability and gui...

A few things I would Like to point out about this game: I absolutely enjoy playing magic, and getting to try out different decks is my thing. However, when I try to play with friends, it becomes extremely difficult to connect, especially in Two-Headed Giant. Until this gets fixed, I feel like the game isnt living up to expectations for such an esteemed gaming company

The game is great, the app is poor - The animation is pretty time consuming. Even if you turn off all possible animations, there are still some animations left which are really really slow. That is pretty exhausting if you play the whole evening. - It is still pay to win. The story mode gives you the illusion, that there is a possibility to earn enough good cards to create a good deck, but its still an illusion. Even if you spend some money, it will not be enough. You have to spend a lot or your money is wasted. - A booster has only 6 cards for a real price of 1.79€. Thats pretty expensive for a few virtual cards in comparison to a real card booster. The only advantage is, that you cant get cards double. Because of this, it is best to focus on one edition to get at least all good cards from one edition (if you spend tons of money). -The battle interface is poorly designed. If the developers would have spent half the time they took for animations to create a good battle interface,...

The Grind..... The most you can win at a time after the campaign is a measly 30 coins per match, playing other players. Yes, you get quests to gain a bit more but these are daily and really make a small impact on coin gain. And each "Booster pack" costs 150 coins which only has 6 cards... yes 6. In comparison, you get 15 when buying real packs. The main problem with this game is new players start with a very small card pool from finishing the campaign and the starter cards.This makes it VERY difficult to compete with other players who have either payed a ton of money to unlock cards or have grinded for months. The game has a ranking system on how many wins you have NOT the strength of your decks. I have been playing ranked matches against 1-7's and i'd say 90% of those "LOW" ranked players I'm matched against have unlocked most of the cards in sets. Because too many of them seem to have a lot Legendarys and Plainswalkers. So say you want to pay around how much the previous DOTP ga...