forgetfulencinda:
You know it possible to play MTG without draining your coffers, for one thing you could just buy one of the premaid decks. Or you could one of the spare decks of whoever your play MTG with because I don't know any regular players who don't have more then one deck. Though that last statement belittles the first statement...

note that only a small number of premade decks were ever worth playing with, and you cant get them anymore unless someone puts an unopened one on Ebay

Wouldn't get it simply because recreation is simply impossible.
Can't make the decks I had. Damn I was unstoppable with them.

I played magic like 10 years ago, when it was 4th and 5th edition. It was an early time when everyone had pretty equal decks, unless you where a hardcore collecter. But after a few expansions came out I began to think that it was getting unbalanced. Every game introduced new cards and awkward arguments about the rules.

I stopped playing because the library of spells was getting too large and it seemed newer released cards where far more powerful then my old school deck.

I still have a ton of 4th and 5th edition cards, a collection of three peoples librarys. I kept a large variety of each color and four of each of the colors strongest monsters, and big
box of land cards just in case someone wanted a half a deck of land and where playing four colors or something. Though no one has played with me in like five years.

I always liked having a white deck with any one of the other colors. Though I rarely played black, my friend always played a black/blue deck and it was a massive bitch.

Awesome review as always Susan.

My Dad bought a family starter pack of Magic cards one Christmas (they may have been actually first edition, I know we've got a handful that were later recalled for being far too hardcore), and I used to love playing - but I never knew anyone else who played apart from my sister. They're all gathering dust in the attic now. I actually had no idea it was this huge geek phenomenon until many years later.

I can see how this would be a fun game, and I actually quite like a campaign where you learn to use the different colours in turn - but even though we didn't spend a lot of money on it, when I played, customisation was key. I used to play not so much to win but to annoy my opponent as much as possible. I had a deck made up almost entirely of blue mind-screw-y cards...

The only encounter with Magic the gathering I've had to this moment is a few TV ad's some years ago, and I passed it off as 'just another yugioh', which to me was 'just another pokemon cards'.
And I loved pokemon cards, and grew fond of yugioh (in secret) for its more tactical play. But that was about a decade ago... and it was simple rule of the playground that you need them to keep friends, and it was amazing how many people instantly like the only guy who has charizard.

I've lost my train of thought now, but the point was I couldn't be bothered buying something which I deemed as popular in USA, but likely nowhere else, and for which buying it would deem me as a strange nerd.
However since this is XBLA I just might buy this out of curiosity, I've been getting self-concious towards buying games which appear childish, nerdy or otherwise not on par with the norm. Maturity for me was moving from gamer geek to closet gamer geek, and I like to keep that façade going.

toapat:

forgetfulencinda:
You know it possible to play MTG without draining your coffers, for one thing you could just buy one of the premaid decks. Or you could one of the spare decks of whoever your play MTG with because I don't know any regular players who don't have more then one deck. Though that last statement belittles the first statement...

note that only a small number of premade decks were ever worth playing with, and you cant get them anymore unless someone puts an unopened one on Ebay

Unless I was very lucky and just happened to run into all the cool premade decks I can't really agree with that. Sure they aren't to be worth much in say a tournment but for the purposes of playing among ones friends they seem sufficent, assuming ones friends decks aren't at tournment level.

I've got to strongly disagree with the part about keeping experienced players happy. First off, the decks. You don't have a whole lot of customization ability, and on top of that some (especially the Chandra deck) are pathetically weak compared to the others. The game play itself gets unwieldy when you try to time things like an experienced player would, ie regenerating your troll ascetic right before damage is dealt, or casting instants during your opponent's end phase because the stop time window during those times is narrow. Challenge mode was interesting, but like you said, very limited.

For an experienced player Magic Workstation is a better option for online play. It's free, has every card in the game, and phase progression is done manually, so you're never at odds with a timer. All of that being said, there's still one big incentive to buy Duel of the Planeswalkers and that's the Garruk Wildspeaker that you get along with it.

forgetfulencinda:

toapat:

forgetfulencinda:
You know it possible to play MTG without draining your coffers, for one thing you could just buy one of the premaid decks. Or you could one of the spare decks of whoever your play MTG with because I don't know any regular players who don't have more then one deck. Though that last statement belittles the first statement...

note that only a small number of premade decks were ever worth playing with, and you cant get them anymore unless someone puts an unopened one on Ebay

Unless I was very lucky and just happened to run into all the cool premade decks I can't really agree with that. Sure they aren't to be worth much in say a tournment but for the purposes of playing among ones friends they seem sufficent, assuming ones friends decks aren't at tournment level.

you mean non-retarded level? almost all of the premade decks lack the flexibility required of the decks you find in high school TCG clubs. the premade decks are ballenced against only the premades, not the tournament or even mid level decks.

usually if you find someone who is actually into MTG they'll be more than willing to and already have a deck you can borrow for purposes of learning, at least that's how it was with me, and that's how it was with my friend who I introduced to the game.

I just wish it was easier to get my hands on the cards.

i just rather play any of the yu-gi-oh ds games
1 i think there all most eave single card the game has now a days
2 the monsters come out of the cards and stuff more graphics

i think if i was Magic the Gathering should of look at toughs games next time

One dragon, for example, has a special ability that allows it to deal a certain amount of damage to your opponent based on the number of lands you choose to tap. Great ability, except I never found a way to actually use it. Either it didn't get programmed in, or the way to use it is so well-hidden and counterintuitive that I couldn't find it after several minutes of searching. Either way, it cost me a match.

The Flameblast Dragon's ability is programmed in, and although it's not the most intuitive thing to use, it does work. You use it like all the other activated abilities of creatures - select the creature, press A to zoom in on their card, then press A again to activate the ability.

The difficult thing about it is knowing when you can activate it. The card 'whenever Flameblast Dragon attacks...' what this means is that you have to activate the ability after you've declared attackers (by approving your selection of attackers) but before the blocking stage of combat. Basically what you have to do is this: Attack with the dragon, press Y to approve the attackers, then immediately press X (pauses the game so you can do something) and activate the dragon's ability.

It sound complicated, but once you realise where in the turn you're allowed to use the ability it's pretty straightforward.

This message brought to you on behalf of Magic geeks everywhere.

Now if only someone could teach the game how to use Giant Growths, then things might get a bit interesting.

I own this and Yu Gi Oh Stardust accelerator for the DS. MTG has two decks for each colour and quickly gets old as you can only unlock 16 or so cards for the deck and the majority are doubles. Yu Gi Oh on the other hand has over 2800 cards and since you buy the cards with the points you win, you also don't suffer a hole in your pocket.

i play with black decks only and i usually use rats =)

I don't see why people think MtG is expensive to get into. I live in a third world country where everything costs a gazillion times what it does in America, and even I could play the game - on a jobless high school kid's allowance, no less. Buying a starter deck in your preferred colour(s), plus one of those 100-card packs (that basically consist of a few booster packs plus a bunch of basic lands) is a fantastic and affordable way to get started, and from there you can probably trade to get some basic cards you need.

I still have my goblin deck (Siege-Gang Commanders everywhere :P) and I've been trying to convince my girlfriend to learn the game... No luck so far.

Anyway, cool to see that Wizards are making Magic easier and more accessible to pick up.

Kross:

Also, I love that the "ranked" matches have no disincentive for people who quit early outside of the Live rep system (of which I am apparently 50% aggressive and 50% quit early, when I have never quit early and have no idea how you can be negatively aggressive from Magic)

Ever played against a wizard deck? If not, they sit there for half the game doing nothing but counters and tapping your creatures then slam you with 20 1/1 wizards when you're all tapped out. Less aggressive and more defensive, with really only one attack in the entire game. This is probably the extreme end but blues often favour this strategy of waiting it out then for one decisive blow (look up Mermaid decks for another good example) as opposed to a red Burn deck.

Necrith:
mm, a 2 headed giant mode (2v2) but no grand melee (1v1v1v1)
I have a few friends to simply play the game without the console and game.

i will stick with my own made elf deck for now.
perhaps download content will make me buy it.

DLC (although honestly, its just going to make the Black/green elf deck go from overpowered to broken) for this game will hit the marketplace around october 4th, while you need 4 consoles for grand melee, as the programmers are smart enough to make it impossible to have 2 competing players know eachother's hands

henrebotha:
I don't see why people think MtG is expensive to get into. I live in a third world country where everything costs a gazillion times what it does in America, and even I could play the game - on a jobless high school kid's allowance, no less. Buying a starter deck in your preferred colour(s), plus one of those 100-card packs (that basically consist of a few booster packs plus a bunch of basic lands) is a fantastic and affordable way to get started, and from there you can probably trade to get some basic cards you need.

I still have my goblin deck (Siege-Gang Commanders everywhere :P) and I've been trying to convince my girlfriend to learn the game... No luck so far.

Anyway, cool to see that Wizards are making Magic easier and more accessible to pick up.

the fat packs are 120 cards, 72 if you exclude lands. the only thing is you are basically guaranteed to get a Mythic Rare. next month for $20 you can replace all your lands with beautiful full card mural versions

toapat:

Necrith:
mm, a 2 headed giant mode (2v2) but no grand melee (1v1v1v1)
I have a few friends to simply play the game without the console and game.

i will stick with my own made elf deck for now.
perhaps download content will make me buy it.

DLC (although honestly, its just going to make the Black/green elf deck go from overpowered to broken) for this game will hit the marketplace around october 4th, while you need 4 consoles for grand melee, as the programmers are smart enough to make it impossible to have 2 competing players know eachother's hands

that is true, going into a online match sounds like a fun way to solve that.

Im just getting back into magic after about 4 years and so many people have said that magic is on a decline and yeah the playerbase isnt as big but i think that the creativity in set design is just getting better.

Isn't the whole point of the game to play with outer people.
Like playing DnD alone isn't much fun.

wolf_isthebest:
Another console only game :( It would be nice if they made it for PC or at least psp.

I actually just bought this off steam.

lax4life:

wolf_isthebest:
Another console only game :( It would be nice if they made it for PC or at least psp.

I actually just bought this off steam.

I pre-order it too, now that they sell it on Steam BUT at the time of my post(14 July 2009 7:10 pm) there was no PC version. Guess somebody read my QQ and made one just for me :D

Spucktier:
Too bad it's a XBLA title only. Damn you, Sony - attract more publishers for PSN

Actually you can preorder it off steam now. I doubt you need a decent computer to run a game like this on it.

wrshamilton:
Not being able to take cards out of your deck as you add new ones to it ruined this for me.

I understand not having full deck construction, but just slowly making your deck bigger is the strangest introduction to Magic.

Yeah thats why this version has no longevity. Its fun for as long as it takes to unlock those additional cards then your just spinning your wheels. Apparently the PS3 is going to release some kind of 3D version with fully customizable decks and and booster packs you can purchase on the marketplace. There will be trading and selling between players as well. At least that's what a friend told me, I was too lazy to research.

So PC version's the joke version. Aside from the fact that you'll always be playing with fewer cards than irl (though at a much cheaper price to compensate), no deckbuilding means literally no reason to buy this. It actually pisses me off a bit that they'd do that with a mtg product.