Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

[Waaldo]

I used to love playing Magic the Gathering and I just found out about the computer game for it. I was thinking about buying it on steam but I have a few questions first.

How do you get new cards (other than buying the decks on steam)?

How is the drawing system? As in, does it feel truely random like in real life? I saw the thread a couple pages back and it seemed like people had mixed opinions on this.

Is there a matchmaking system? if so, how well does it work/are there a lot of active players?

What would you rate it out of 10? And if you played the card game, how similar are they?

[Deleted]

There are a couple of facets you should really consider before going into this if you played the original. I've been a casual Magic player with the real-life version and played the 2012 version for roughly 100 hours.

You unlock cards each time you beat a encounter or a Enemy computer. The AI in 2013 is very much better then the 2012, as the highest difficulty setting will (unless you are very familiar with the enemy deck) time upon time surprise you at it's sheer resilience. As it never seems to simply give up or see out on a chance. In the 2013 version There is 30 to unlock for each deck by default. I cannot recall the amount of decks by my hand but i think it's like 8 or so Decks. So it's quite a lot of cards.

The drawing system is like in normal magic. There's nothing special to it, truly. And how would it NOT feel random? It's not like it would be any different from the real life game seeing how the game has no built in bi-as to cards.. so..? Except for Scenarios that are specific planned out Computer Versus Player situations that ALWAYS play out the same. That's different. ie the Computer will always have a set condition to win, and always draw the same cards/play in the same rate no matter what. The player plays as normal as has to defeat said Scenario by fufilling conditions (often killing the Computer before X time)

I cannot answer for the Multi-player. Never was a big fan of that.

I'd say it's an improvement over 2012, which puts it at roughly 8/10 i'd say, for me at least - but it does have it's flaws, that it does. The game it self is very similar to the actual game, but there IS a couple of things that you will not quite find in perhaps "traditional" Magic. Like that you play as a Archenemy against human players for example or AI's. That is that you become a mightier version of a planes walker (ie player), you get 40 hp, and each turn you draw a card. This card has Archenemy effects ; like draw 2 basic lands and shuffle your deck, or you drain 3 life from each opponent and gives it to you. These arch enemy cards usually don't have a cost.

Beyond this there is Planescape - Something i've not tested, but it's supposedly to be that you "traverse" different areas and there of get random effects in matches - Like i said, no big fan of MP, so i cannot tell.

So the real question, is it worth the money? If you have a hunger for exploring what cards there are and trying out different decks - Definitely. But sometimes i feel that in the start you have to have SOME luck to beat Computer AI on the highest difficulty, seeing as of how some decks you have are simply perhaps not.. very well equipped, to face these said decks. I had a harrowing win against a Goblin deck for instance where i won with 2 remaining HP, and i won only through Cassandra's Phoenix effects clearing the board.. So, yeah.

The flaws straight out of it, if i had to say - Is that some of the decks you face off doesn't boil down to skill. It's sheer randomness. I can't personally beat some situations, like for instance i recall facing off with a computer in 2012, that had a artifact deck. He managed to play out a dark steel golem (11/11 indestructible) in round 2 with Quicksilver amulet. The f'ck am i to do against that?

[Vvhooya]

I only play this game in cardboard lol.

[Waaldo]

@Doorsfan: thank you for the response! I'll most likely buy it when I get home.The fact that there is a small amount of luck just makes it more like playing it irl.

[Deleted]

Sorry to hijack the thread but is this game worth buying if im new to the series? i realy want a TCG to play and after realy playing the free pokemon tcg dry i wanted to try something new and ive been thinking of this one or is there any other thats better for beginners to start with ? (hopefully in a reasonable price range aswell )

[Waaldo]

Sorry to hijack the thread but is this game worth buying if im new to the series? i realy want a TCG to play and after realy playing the free pokemon tcg dry i wanted to try something new and ive been thinking of this one or is there any other thats better for beginners to start with ? (hopefully in a reasonable price range aswell )

It's only $9.99 on steam right now, and might even go lower in the next 2 days. Magic the Gathering was the only card game I liked playing. I haven't played the computer game yet which is why I made this thread. I'm pretty sure that there is a nice tutorial for new players.

[Blackdecker]

Sorry to hijack the thread but is this game worth buying if im new to the series? i realy want a TCG to play and after realy playing the free pokemon tcg dry i wanted to try something new and ive been thinking of this one or is there any other thats better for beginners to start with ? (hopefully in a reasonable price range aswell )

I never played Magic irl, and i have the 2012 and 2013, 40hours+ played, tutorial/tips explains well how to play.

[Deleted]

You can get into it pretty easily. The only tricky thing perhaps is the order of which priorities you can do in game - Like spells for example. Some spells are considered "instant" and some are "sorcery" - The difference being that Instant can shoot whenever (enemy turn, your turn or during attacks/blocks) - Where as of Sorcery can ONLY be played during your round, unless something says otherwise.

Beyond this there is perhaps small differences that are subtle - But you will learn those as you go along. (See ; Declaring a creature a blocker, but then sacrificing it by an ability/card - To effectively have the attacker count as hitting on the creature, but it's already dead, so damage just disappears.)

[manybadgers]

Each deck has 40 cards, make sure to get the promo cards. The game has 10 decks but I'm sure they will add more because there's only 1 multi color deck so far and 2013 was announced with mana tapping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtBj8E-lWq8

1- WMKFGC
2 - KWPMZW
3 - FNMDGP
4 - MWTMJP
5 - FXGJDW
6 - GDZDJC
7 - HTRNPW
8 - NCTFJN
9 - PCNKGR
10 - GPCRSX

[Vvhooya]

Sorry to hijack the thread but is this game worth buying if im new to the series? i realy want a TCG to play and after realy playing the free pokemon tcg dry i wanted to try something new and ive been thinking of this one or is there any other thats better for beginners to start with ? (hopefully in a reasonable price range aswell )

MTG is the best TCG but the most expensive one.

[Deleted]

MTG is the best TCG but the most expensive one.

Duels of the plainswalker isn't expensive at all. It's only if you want to play it IRL that it can get costly. ^^

[Pendulous]

Ugh. Has anyone had issue with this game crashing for no reason whatsoever? It's happened to me multiple times, and I can't figure out why.

Also, how do you get that loud shit in the intro, and when you pick certain duels to shut up? Turning the volume to nothing does nothing

---------- Post added 2012-12-24 at 02:51 AM ----------

Oh, and if you minimize the game during a duel, when you come back the cards get all out of whack until the next turn. Made it impossible for me to attack at one point.