Being a LONG time fan of MTG, I was really excited to see a decent PC version of the game come out. But sadly, thats as far as this game goes: decent.

Like I said, I've been a fan of Magic the Gathering since it first came out in the mid 90's (yes, I'll be 50 in November of this year). With that said, I feel I really know the game and what makes it so great. I'm not saying I'm an expert at the game, no one is. And anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. MTG is a complex yet elegant card game, where anyone with a half decent understanding of the rules can beat a long time player like myself. Thats part of what make the game so great. There are simply way too many cards with way too many combos for someone to think they can create the "Unbeatable Deck".

Now, about this game. Magic Duels is a decent PC rendition of the card game, and should give you as many hours of enjoyment as it does frustration. Just like the real game does. Only foe very different reason.

Will you spend hours attempting to build the perfect deck? One that melds your play-style with beautifully artworked cards, and devastating combos? yes.

Will that deck be beaten my someone else with a lucky opening draw and sporting a 1/1 weenie deck? yes, just like in the real game.

Is the AI easier to beat than a real, living, thinking person? yes.

Are there lots of expansion card sets to build your deck from? yes. there are 8. Zendikar, Amonkhet, Innistrad, Revolt, Origins, Kaladesh, Gatewatch, and Eldrich Moon. All in all, a good representation of expansion sets. Some suck, others are awesome. Which ones are which? It all depends on your playstyle. The fun is in discovering for yourself...

Then there is the discovery process itself. Consisting of buying expansion packs and opening them up the see what your hard earned, in game coin has bought you.

The economy in the game is handled well (although not perfectly). You earn in-game coins by completing daily quests, story line quests, and dueling other players in the arena. Coins can be spent in the store where you can easily buy 5-6 booster packs of your choice a day, which is not bad at all. Especially since you are guaranteed one rare per pack and a chance at a legendary.

But there are problems with the economy too. There is a hard cap on how many coins you can earn in a 24 hour period. I've never calculated what that cap is, but I have reached it several times and it seems to be around 600 to 700 coins a day. Like I said earlier; I can buy 5 or 6 boosters packs at 150 coins each before I hit my limit. In my opinion, there is no reason to hard cap in-game coin winnings other than to force the player to spend real world money to buy more in-game coins to build a better deck faster. At $25 USD for 15 packs, that adds up pretty quick. Who has that kind of money to throw at virtual cards with no lasting value?

And that has been a problem with online MTG since the first PC game versions. Not everyone is made out of money. And a lot of the reason MTG has seen a declining interest among young players is the money issue. With so many action packed games out there to choose from, a card game is a pretty boring choice to the young teen set. Especially when most other games cost $40 and up. And there a few parents out there able to afford more that a couple games a month for there kiddies. So when a young teen is forced to choose between the latest iteration of "Call of Duty", or a card game that cost you more and more money to be competative, the choice is easy for them. They'll take a one time cash cost for virtual guns and bombs over the never ending money pit for virtual cards everytime.

Listen up Wizards of the Coast, If you want interest in your game to continue to grow, you have to make it accessable to the adolescent gamers out there. And most of them dont have, or aren't willing to throw cash into buying virtual "cards" just ot become competative on a higher level.

Then there's this caviet. You don't receive anything of real "value" with online cards. At least in the real world, there is the collectors value of the cards you're spending your money on. What collector is going to give you $500 for a digital "Black Lotus" twenty years from now?

And finally, let's discuss the actual game play and the annoying mulligans.

If you've played Magic the Gathering at all, you have encountered the opening draw land mulligan. Or the opening draw land drought. Everyone has experienced this hair pulling frustraion, but its usually the exception to the rule, and easily cured with a re-draw.

But in Magic Duels, mulligans seem to be the rule, not the exception.

People, I kid you not, it's not AT ALL uncommon to have an opening hand with one land and six spells, or the reverse, Six land and one spell. Take a mulligan? Sure. and the next re-draw will be all spells and no land or all land and no spells. This happens about 5 games in ten. (yes, really) It's so bad, you can even tell what the game is going to do by what your opening draw is. If you start with 3 land and 4 spells, it's gouing to be a fair game. Your draws for the rest of the match are gong to be pretty evenly distributed between land cards and spells. ANYTHING other than this perfect ratio however, means you are in for a very hard time of it.

Start with one or two land cards and the rest spells? Then you will not draw another land for at LEAST 7 more turns. And this will happen every single time this opening draw occurs. Start with 4 or more lands and you will not draw a spell card for 7 turns minimum. This also will happen every single time this is your opening draw.

People I kid you not; I had an opening draw of four land cards and three spells; Two counter spells and a raise from the dead. Then I drew mothing but lands for the next eleven turns! I only survived to turn 11 because of my two counter spells.

The very next game was the complete opposite. I started with two land cards and 5 spells. Then for 9 turns I watched in frustration as my opponents pecked me to death with a couple of 1/1 flyers while I drew nothing but spells and no land to cast them with.

Is Magic Duels a decent game? Yes. But most of the time either you or your opponent is handicapped by either too much land or not enough.

Like I said, I'm a good player. But in a ten game streak, I will "win" only five. And at least two of those "wins" will be because my apponent was land flooded or suffering a land drought. The same can be said of my losses. Of the five, I legitimately lost 2-3, the rest were because of land issues.

As of the writing of this review, I have logged 169.3 hours of gameplay. So I guess it's decent enough to keep me coming back for more I supose. But it could be sooo much better. Come on Wizards! Put a better random number generator in for fair draws, and remove the hard cap on coins per day! Then I can give you five/five stars. Till then, it's only 3/5.

IMPORTANT: This review is about "Magic Duels: Origins" itself from the perspective of a newbie to the Magic: The Gathering game. Therefore, it may be invalid for (returning) veteran players.

Magic Duels: Origins (a.k.a. Magic Duels) is the digital version of famous TCG (trading Card game); Magic: The Gathering. Unlike previous digital versions of the game, this game is designed as free to play (f2p). There is in-game coin and booster pack store. Booster packs can be bought with coin. Players can earn coin by winning, completing daily missions or buy it directly with real money. I find the store and amounts earned fair enough, because TCGs are based on spending money on new sets and booster packs by nature. Also, all cards are unlockable, so spending money is not mandatory.

Game’s most noticeable part is its tutorial. It has an extensive tutorial showing the player every rule and beginning level gameplay of Magic: The Gathering. Its design is also nice. Unlike showing all aspects of the game in one go, it teaches the basics at the beginning and sends the player to the story mode. During story mode, if a situation arises such as a new type of card or an ability on a card, a notification asks the player if he/she wishes to play tutorial for it. Playing that tutorial pauses the current game and starts the tutorial. After tutorial is finished, interrupted game continues. It is possible to skip these tutorials and play them later from the menu. Every tutorial also gives a small amount of coin, so it is a good idea to complete them all.

First “basics tutorial” and first story mission are kind of mandatory. Because most features are locked until they are finished. After that, the game sends the player to create his/her fist deck and lets the player to have a solo battle. When solo battle is finished all features are unlocked. This way of unlocking the features is not a problem for newbies. Actually it can even be considered a good choice to prevent newbies from losing in multiplayer too much, resulting them dropping the game. But for veterans, it is a big problem. They already know the game and want to jump right in multiplayer with their custom decks.

Other than the story mode, game has solo battle mode which is against AI, versus mode which is against another player and two-headed giant mode which is 2 vs 2 mode against either AI or other players (The player needs to invite his/her friend to able play against AI).

Solo battle can be played against 3 different difficulties. Interestingly though, “Hard” difficulty feels the easiest. These battles give coins depending on the difficulty (5 to 15 coins).

Versus mode can be played against either a friend or an opponent that is ranked the same as the player. The rank of the player changes depending on the result of the matched battle. Battles against friends and AI don’t affect ranking. Also battles against friends don’t give coins. Matched versus battles gives 20 coins.

Two headed giant mode is the only multiplayer mode where more than two players play together. 4 players split into two teams of two players and battle. Team players share the life and a player can block an attack against his/her teammate. A Player’s teammate’s hand is visible but interacting with it is not allowed. This also apply cards on the board. Players can’t use abilities on their teammates cards. Two-headed giant mode doesn’t affect ranking. It also doesn’t give coins.

UI is good and clear. There are no unnecessary animations or information bombard. Most of the in-game actions (such as attack animations of the cards) can be toggled in the settings. That said, I read veterans don’t like this UI. Until “Magic 2014” it was different, and indeed there are big changes. When I checked 2014 version myself, I realized that both button locations and general information design had big differences. For a newbie, it won’t matter. Actually I like the new one more. In the old UI, it felt weird not to be able see how many cards my opponent had in his/her hand. For veterans though, it will feel like switching from Mac OS to Windows.

It appears that previous editions had also chat feature and it was removed in this version. There are mixed opinions on this subject. Personally, I don’t think it is a must have but it certainly could be useful, especially in two-headed giant mode. it is impossible to talk to teammate if the player is playing together with a random player. That said, if the player is playing with a friend, he/she can use steam chat to overcome this.

Booster packs contains 3 common cards, 2 uncommon cards and 1 rare or mythic rare card (total 6 cards). Also packs can’t drop the cards that reached its deck limit so eventually every card is unlocked. Every booster pack is 150 coins. Winning against hard AI gives 15 coins and winning against a player gives 20 coins. Daily missions and weekly mission give 40 coins (there are up to 3 daily missions and one weekly mission). It is said that about 80 booster packs are required to unlock all cards. But there is a daily coin limit (400 coins) so players can’t grind coins (note that daily missions are not counted towards the limit).

During my gameplay, I came across one serious and one minor bug. Serious bug was that during my solo battle against the easy AI, it played 5 of the same card which is clearly against the game rules. (Note: a developer responded to my screenshot of this issue and wrote that they were going to investigate it). Minor bug was that the coin amount was not being updated after completion of the daily missions. It required (and still does) a restart to be fixed.

I didn’t have any issues finding opponents in both versus mode and two-headed giant mode. Also my test for steam friend invite worked without any issues (I need to note that I tested friend invite with only one of my friends, so it might be just luck).

+ Extensive Tutorial: This is very good for newbies to Magic: The Gathering game.
+ Same Drop Limit: Thanks to this limit, all cards are eventually unlocked.
+ Simplistic: All menus and buttons are cleverly put together in a clear and simple manner. (Although, there are big changes)

- Mandatory Single Play: This is only a con for veterans. As a side effect of the tutorial, some single play elements must be finished before multiplayer modes are unlocked.
- Daily Coin Cap: Normally this is not a very big issue. But because of the ability to buy coins with real money, this creates a “pay to win” side.

I can safely assume that Magic Duels is designed to make new players interested in Magic: The Gathering title and not as a solo product to make money. Due to its extensive tutorial, it is very easy to learn the basics of Magic: The Gathering. As a newbie to the title myself, I can recommend this to everyone who wants to learn (or at least try) Magic: The Gathering.


P.S: As a rule, I won't comment on price tag. Everyone has a different opinion on whether it is worth the price tag or not. So it is up to you to decide (Note: this game is f2p but has in-game shop to buy coins so the rule still applies).

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Edit: Fixed some typos

A Decent Magic the Gathering opion for people looking to experience the best TCG in the world - albeit with a few frustrating problems.

Positives-
+ Great at teaching new players the ropes via a quick campaign and tutorial.

+ Fun cards that are currently in standard.

+ The option to unlock cards by playing versus players or AI on Easy, Medium, or Hard.

+ The option to purchase coins to buy packs for those who are short on time and want to be on the same level as their friends.

+ New card releases coinciding with the paper version of the game.

+ Two headed Giant "2v2 mode"

+ Daily Quests and bonus events help with gold coin collection.

+ A fun Deck building option.

Negatives-
- It takes a long time to unlock all the cards for free.

- There are a few bugs that can cause you to lose games in PVP, freezes, disconnects, timers not stopping etc.

- There are limits put on cards of a certain type "Only 1 copy per mythic, 2 copies per rare, 3 copies for uncommon, and 4 for common" instead of the standard 4 of each per deck.

- There are also cards from each set missing for some reason.

- There are also random non-standard cards in the game for some reason. "although some have been removed"

- Lacks a draft mode, or something similar to Arena from Hearthstone. Which would be a great addition for new players and veterans.

It is MTG alright. It's free and it's fun. I want to give this game a thumbs up, because how do you not thumbs up a free game. There are some frusterating factors though.

The Cons -

As many have commented, the card selection from expansions is not complete. The AI gets the cards for some reason, so they have been programmed into the game. Then why aren't they availible to receive from a pack of that expansion? There's no explination to this and it makes no sense. Why allow us to use for example the card "corrupt" during the AI story mode, then not have it in the origins card set? (When I first started playing I was so excited to see the old school cards I grew up with that it was dissapointing to say the least, when I discovered that hardly any of the cards I wanted to build decks out of had been added to the packs). Why even have them in the game in any form then, if we can't receive the cards and use them in our decks?

Ladder Ranking in multiplayer is done poorly IMO. Virtually every game I've ever played with a ladder ranking system will "save" your top rank that you achieved during the ladder session. Even if you drop some ranks later during the season. Your not punished by any means and posted at a lower rank than you earned through the season. This game does NOT save your high rank for the season. Let's say you made it to rank 25 around the halfway point of the season. Then have a lot of crashes, mana shorts, and general bad luck and you wind up dropping to rank 12 by the end of the season. Then this game posts you Rank at 12 permanently on your profile wall. As a permanent reminder every time you log in that you were screwed out of your high score. This is so frusterating to me, it's almost a deal breaker to want ot play this game anymore. I can't log in without it showing me the piss poor BS rank for the season that's just not true. Dev's you didn't do this aspect well at all.

Stability issues and crash/freeze will happen. That's a fact. It doesn't matter how good your computer is.

If your oppenent crashes during a duel, (which happens a lot) then the game turns them into an AI and you have to keep fighting it out. Only the duel takes at least twice as long now, because there is no timer during AI fights. And everytime the AI casts a spell it stays in your face until you click on the card. This will happen a lot at the very start of the match as it loads. I generally concede instantly since I wanted to duel a human being. If I wanted to play the AI I would be in solo play, not multiplayer mode.

Unfortunately what's worse, is that conceding against an AI during multiplayer mode still punishes your rank score. This will frusterate you a lot if you actually want to rank up and feel like you've gotten somewhere. Then the season will end and post your score as crud, because it kept turning your opponents into AI that you didn't want to fight. And you were punished by saying "no I don't want to fight the AI. Please restart a new match against a human."

Pros -

It's Magic the Gathering!

It's Free to Play!

The tuturials on game mechanics are very well done!

Gold to purchase packs can be gained fairly quickly by playing mutliplayer. Way faster than HS!

Note for Devs -

Please focus on fixing the server stability as a priority, not adding more content.

Please think about the the ranking system end of season scores, especially since you punish us for quitting against an AI we shouldn't be fighting during multiplayer mode.

Please don't put cards into the story mode that you are not going to add to packs. Seriously.

Thanks for your time ~ Jandar

First Review i've written for steam but i feel this game earned it. I personnaly love MTG and in a little over a year it has become my favorite hobby. Now this game is obviously not perfect but there are positives and negatives that i will go over here. First Let's begin with the positive
1. Probably the most attractive option about this game is that it is free to play. You earn coins which buy boosters that contain 3 common, 2 uncommon, and one rare or mythic.
2. The User interface is amazing. Unlike magic online (which also has many positives) the UI is very smooth and easy to use.
3. Solid card selection from the 5 most recent sets (origins-Eldrich moon) and still growing
4. You can have up to 30 custom decks
5. Load times are usually pretty quick
6. It is just fun to play IMO
7. As of 8/29/16 there are currently 15 planeswalker cards and mo0re to come.
8. When you unlock cards you can not unlock the same cards once you have reached the maximum amount of that card. For example, If you unlock all 4 copies of prey upon (a common) you will not unlock another prey upon ever again. Same for if you get an avacyn you will not get another. It is like what overwatches loot boxes should have been.
Negatives
1. It is free to play which means that it does have microtransactions. I know this turns a lot of people off but IMO if you enjoy the base game then spending a little bit shouldn't be a negative. I feel the quality of the product is worth spending some money on it but i will still count this as a negative.
2. Not all cards from the set(S) are in the game. While the majority of the cards are present i was a little disappointed to see that there was no drana from zendikar or demonic pact from origins.
3. Only 4 updates a year
4. Earning coins could be a little quicker
5. Unlike previous games in the series there is no text chat in game. (some might see that as a positive so you don't have to deal with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥)
6. Lack of game types. Currently you can only play 60 card standard and two headed giant. So do not expect commander or any limited formats.
7. This bothered me a lot at first but i got use to it, In any given deck you can have 4 copies of any common, 3 of any uncommon, 2 of any rare, and only 1 copy of a mythic. This is to keep the game more balanced but if you dont like that then i get it.

Thats about it. I feel that the positives out weight the negatives with this game and you may disagree and thats cool. I hope this gave some people a better idea of this game and what it is like. :)

This is a review written 2 days after launch so alot of the cons may have been ironed out by the time you read it.

The pros:
- Reasonable F2P business model: 400 gold cap per day, enough gold for around 8 packs from the campaign, 150 gold for a booster of 6 cards, you will never open duplicates that you don't need, ~72 boosters to fully unlock the current card pool, this equates to 720 wins against the difficult AI (or 540 wins vs players) with out any questing or free gold. Almost all dual lands are given to you at the start and foiling all copies of a card only costs 5 gold (regardless of rarity). Buying boosters costs around 1-2$ per pack depending on the rate and exchange ratio.
- Expect decent content updates: it's promised that this version of the game will be constantly updated with around 70-80% of the cards from each new block of card releases (every 3 months).
- AI has access to every card so there is / will be massive variety even with single player play, and the AI's deck you play against are randomized every time you play.
- AI is proficiently programmed in regards to most keywords (more on that below).
- Two-Headed Giant is back.
- Full deck building: Want to make that Penta-colour deck filled with bombs and flavor of the month? Now you can!
- A very good tutorial system: The tutorial teaches you the basics through game play, when new keywords pop up during a campaign, you are often given the choice of jumping into a short tutorial scenario (half a minute to a minute) for the keyword to earn some free gold, or you can just skip them all together.

The ambiguous:
- Rarity restrictions: 4 commons, 3 uncommons, 2 rares, 1 Mythic. This restricts the potential power and consistency of decks and requires different planning of cards, but also in a way reduces the potential Mythic bombs and makes the disadvantage for newcomers smaller.
- Two-Headed Giant and duels with friends grants no gold, understandable from a F2P perspective.
- AI takes over for players if someone concedes.
- A basic campaign that's atleast better than most I've seen from online tcg's, with a story, custom artwork, and a cutscene at the end.
- UI is mostly functional but also lack customization options.
- 30 deck slots.

The cons:
- Attrocious launch, disconnects, and bugs for alot of people.
- No trading.
- No cross-play between platforms.
- Always-online requirements.
- Chatting is gone (though some might consider this a positive).
- Lobbies are gone.
- No FFA / 3v3 / 4v4 / additional formats.
- You have to finish the game against the AI after someone concedes if you want the gold reward.
- The AI programming is flawed when it comes to dropping creatures on second main phase even if it has an ability that impacts the board prior to combat phase.
- The deck builder could be improved upon with more sort and filter options.

All in all I see alot of potential in this title as the card pool increases and bugs get ironed out. For me the full deck building aspect, decent amount of card slots, decent solo experience, and the F2P model was enough to sway me over to bear with the launch server problems and other bugs. Worth checking out once the launch issues are resolved.