f13.net

I see they're running a pre-order bonus on Duels of the Planeswalkers (http://store.steampowered.com/app/49400/) for a couple more days... anyone played it? I somewhat enjoyed magic many many years ago but not sure how much gameplay there will be in this product. It's mentioned on the magic forums here but pretty much only "why weren't they making the online magic suck less instead of working on this?".

My friend has it on xbox live and raves about it, as a big magic fan.  I haven't tried it myself, but apparently its pretty decent.   I think (but am not 100% positive) that there are single player scenarios that you can do (you are down to 1 life, opponent has x life, win this turn with this hand), that you can do to unlock other cards or something, and then you can build decks and play online like normal M:TG with the decks you build.

From what I understand deck building is extremely limited in this game. Basically you play with preconstructed decks and you can unlock a handful of additional cards you can swap in if you choose.

I see that as a good and bad thing. Sideboarding made for interesting play. Not having to face overly expensive combo of doom decks always made seal deck tournaments alot of fun.

Repost of basically what i said when i got the xbox live version

Good: smooth interface, play flow and rules engine.  Nice artwork.  No bugs that i found.

The Major Bad: No deck building!  All the decks are prconstructed ones you choose from or unlock by completing missions in the campaign.  You can also unlock sideboard cards but the game only lets you ADD cards to the preconstructed ones, you cannot remove any base cards, adjust lands etc.  Which makes it stupid and cuts out at least half the appeal of magic to most non new players.  Play is limited to the few campaign missions, and a challenge section which is like the old Magic the Puzzling from the Deulist.

If interested, go here to see the cards per deck (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1205260)

For me it was worth $10.  For others, prob not.

You now pretty much get this for free on MTGO, or $5 with an existing account.

There is a feature on MTGO that lets you buy all the DotP cards in a gold border edition for $5 on an existing account, all new MTGO accounts get them for free (New accounts cost $10, but come with $10 voucher for the card store). You can then play them in a special format against other gold border decks, so you don't get annihilated by 'good cards' in the casual room. This way you get to play DotP beginner magic, but you also get deckbuilding.

And magic without deckbuilding is like diablo 2 without loot, like rainbow 6 without mission planning, or like deus ex 2 without... well actually it is exactly like deus ex 2.



Interface is still a bit crap ofc.

Details:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/mtgonline/planeswalker

 :heart:

Yeah, no deckbuilding is annoying as hell. I loved the starter white deck and wanted to play through the game with it, but guess the Platinum Angel does neither care for -50 life nor for the deck running out on the opponents end and you only have one Wrath of God to get rid of it. Fuckers!

I had a play around with this tonight - nice execution overall and I don't mind the lack of deck building (I still hve cards going back to Beta even though I started playing during unlimited) BUT the inability to keep a deck at 60 bites big time. Fix sideboarding and I'd be happy to pay for expansions as it's a nice alternative to MTG:O.

Edit: Fix regional locking and make it manual. I live in Australia FFS, there's bugger all online games here and I'd like to be included in the online pool with at least a few other countries.

Magic: The Gathering: Gateway Drug Edition.

Damnit, now I'm re-installing MTGO.

The damn game needs to pause between setting blockers and resolving damage when you have instants to play.  There have been at least 3 games I have lost because I have not been able to push pause in time.

When did the rule change so that if you remove the blocker with an instant the damage is resolved like it is unblocked?  I remember being able to block with a creature, boomerang it, and take no damage.

The rule hasn't changed.  Sounds like a bug.

Edit:  At least, in the card game the rule hasn't changed.  Maybe the computer game version works differently?

With M10, there is no longer a "stop" between putting combat damage on the stack and resolving damage.  You have to use your boomerang before after declaring blockers and before any damage goes on the stack.

There should be a stop after declaring your blockers before you get to the damage step.

There are still stops for first strike versus other damage.  So you can assign first strike damage, damage resolves, you get to cast an instant before regular damage is assigned and resolved.

Yep, this.  No more "damage on the stack".

Combat Phase -

Beginning of combat step
Declare attackers step
Declare blockers step
Combat damage step
End of combat step

I did this yesterday. I haven't played since v2 and the changes to the interface have me confused.

Or maybe it was the alcohol I'd consumed - I'll look at it again tonight.

Ya, block and boomerang does work.  The game makes an attack animation from the card to the player but the player's life doesn't go down.

I chalk this game up as a $10 reminder that I hate the RNG in the Magic and should stay away from MTGO.