• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Magic Duels |OT| Magic The Hearthstonening [Update Support Ending]

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
Messed with this for about an hour. Extremely disappointing. Game is ridiculously sluggish on my iPad Mini 2. Feels like a bad version of DOTP in general. Lack of cross anything is crazy.
 
Everything feels so sluggish. I wanted to like this and have it be a way for me to get back into Magic, but just starting a game and staring at my opening hand all I want to do is close it and play Hearthstone instead.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Is it just the Magic Origins set? Or are there more blocks since it's free to play? ~200 cards is nothing for a F2P card game.

P.S. Thank god WotC is dropping those horrendous core sets. What a waste of paper and ink.

? I thought they were still doing Core/editions for paper. They're just making Duels NOT have to yearly update/buy each year because people are tired of that. Simply update the game and let people keep what they've unlocked a la Hearthstone.

I really REALLY wish this was just them redoing the entire Magic: Online client, opening that up from being a money grubbing whore (for lack of better terms) of $5+ drafts and making THAT into their Hearthstone. 20+ years of cards able to unlock at your own pace and/or with money? Yes, please.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
? I thought they were still doing Core/editions for paper. They're just making Duels NOT have to yearly update/buy each year because people are tired of that. Simply update the game and let people keep what they've unlocked a la Hearthstone.

I really REALLY wish this was just them redoing the entire Magic: Online client, opening that up from being a money grubbing whore (for lack of better terms) of $5+ drafts and making THAT into their Hearthstone. 20+ years of cards able to unlock at your own pace and/or with money? Yes, please.

No, this year is the last paper core set apparently.
 
Would love an Android version, I've always wanted to play Magic.
I'll try the Steam version.

I'd love it to be like the Yugioh World Championship games. Buy packs by winning duels and unlock new packs as you buy older packs, so you have a huge library to choose from, but you have to unlock them by visiting older cards.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
5S/Air 1+.

Your device isn't supported.

Yes it is, they specifically list the Mini 2 and 3.

Compatibility: Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 3 and iPad mini 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular. This app is optimised for iPhone 5s.
 

linid0t

Member
? I thought they were still doing Core/editions for paper. They're just making Duels NOT have to yearly update/buy each year because people are tired of that. Simply update the game and let people keep what they've unlocked a la Hearthstone.

I really REALLY wish this was just them redoing the entire Magic: Online client, opening that up from being a money grubbing whore (for lack of better terms) of $5+ drafts and making THAT into their Hearthstone. 20+ years of cards able to unlock at your own pace and/or with money? Yes, please.

The magic online model makes so much money though, why would they change it to just 5 dollar drafts if they can charge 15?
 

Altima

Member
Holy crap

from reddit

Just so people know what they are getting into.
There will be no Cross play/buy from IOS, Xbox, or PC. If you spend money on one and want to play on another, get ready to start from square one.
There's still card limits, you want more than two of the same rare, welp sorry can't happen.
The game doesn't have the full Origin set and might never have it. If you had plans to look at or test every new Origin card, well that won't be possiable. I remember reading only 80% of Origins cards made it into the game. Many of the other cards added are just fillers for more deck options.

That is a deal-breaker for me.
 

Nome

Member
The magic online model makes so much money though, why would they change it to just 5 dollar drafts if they can charge 15?
Wizards is a pretty numbers and analytics-driven company. If they made the choice, we can probably assume there's some business advantage to it. This game is clearly positioned to catch the Hearthstone players who are looking for something deeper, so they have to model their business to be more familiar to take advantage of that.
 

Ryuukan

Member
Yeah WOTC seems to really want to make these spinoff games much less full featured than MODO so people have to spend tons of cash to get the full MTG experience...

Yes, this game is still a stepping stone to paper magic, not a real tcg
 
Even though there isn't cross-buy, am I safe to assume that if I play on both my iPhone6+ and my iPad...that those will be cross-compatible with whatever I unlock/buy?

Using the same Apple/GameCenter ID on both...
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
The magic online model makes so much money though, why would they change it to just 5 dollar drafts if they can charge 15?

Yeah WOTC seems to really want to make these spinoff games much less full featured than MODO so people have to spend tons of cash to get the full MTG experience...

Too bad for them, that isn't what most people want. I want to support Wizards but paying $15+ a pop in event tickets to do ONE draft is just "yeah, no. Sorry."
 

kirblar

Member
The magic online model makes so much money though, why would they change it to just 5 dollar drafts if they can charge 15?
The drafts right now HAVE effectively been much cheaper (~8-9) because they destroyed the MTGO economy when they bumped the fee for redeeming a set from $5 to $25.
 
I'm starting to think selling cards is their primary business model.

As long as you view everything Wizards of the Coast does from the perspective of a toy company selling toys in stores and trying to keep people coming to those stores to buy their toys, it makes perfect sense.
 
This exactly. WotC just doesn't seem to be interested in what the players want. I can't fathom why they wouldn't update MTGO and make it a little more user friendly and less of an eyesore.

It's not that they don't want to. The core problem is that WotC isn't a tech company; it's a game company owned by a much larger toy company, so they don't have any of the institutional support to make a good product in-house. If you want a good product on the order of MTGO, you need to pay high rates and treat the engineers pretty well; otherwise you just get a lot of people who want to work at WotC but aren't actually good at programming.

In addition, they went all-in on the current iteration of the client a couple years ago, and it's been a disaster, but that probably makes it hard to get their Hasbro snake-person overlords to approve another from-scratch rebuild (certainly without evidence of how this one will turn out different.)

We do know that they staffed up the MTGO team significantly in the past year, so it's certainly possible that they're working on some form of rebuild for down the road.

This makes the lack of a single account all the more baffling: if you're willing to go the games as a service route, make sure the service part is robust enough and future proof.

They just wouldn't be allowed to do this on the console versions, but I'm not clear why they didn't unify Steam and iOS. (Though it's not like they can't do this down the road by just letting you link a Gamecenter and Steam ID then merging the collections.)
My friend who recently got me into Magic has told me about numerous deals that Wizards has had to cut with game stores concerning MTG:O.

lol your friend is a liar
 

blackflag

Member
Holy crap

from reddit



That is a deal-breaker for me.

What is wrong with WOTC? How can they be so brain dead? This is so easy to get right. They really have to work to mess it up.

No cross platform save...lol
Different basic game rules....How does that even happen?
 

blackflag

Member
It's not that they don't want to. The core problem is that WotC isn't a tech company; it's a game company owned by a much larger toy company, so they don't have any of the institutional support to make a good product in-house. If you want a good product on the order of MTGO, you need to pay high rates and treat the engineers pretty well; otherwise you just get a lot of people who want to work at WotC but aren't actually good at programming.

In addition, they went all-in on the current iteration of the client a couple years ago, and it's been a disaster, but that probably makes it hard to get their Hasbro snake-person overlords to approve another from-scratch rebuild (certainly without evidence of how this one will turn out different.)

We do know that they staffed up the MTGO team significantly in the past year, so it's certainly possible that they're working on some form of rebuild for down the road.



They just wouldn't be allowed to do this on the console versions, but I'm not clear why they didn't unify Steam and iOS. (Though it's not like they can't do this down the road by just letting you link a Gamecenter and Steam ID then merging the collections.)


lol your friend is a liar

Did MGTO ever even add leagues back in? That was the day I quit and I haven't played it since.
 

Trace

Banned
Why is there no Cross-Platform account and why is there no Android port? This looked interesting to me but that just killed it.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
They really do need to kill the fake Magic rules aspect of this. It's no longer called Duels of the Planeswalkers, it's Magic. Since they're just releasing the cards en masse and cultivating a long term strategy the DotP15 restrictions are vestigial at best, damaging to the overall brand at its worse.
 

ultron87

Member
Considering this is going to be the platform for awhile, I guess things like limited play could be added eventually. Maybe I'll just keep a close eye on if it runs smooth/fast on Xbox One as a reason to dip my feet in or not.
 

blackflag

Member
Still...I love the game. I just have no time to go play it irl, I won't use MGTO, I was hoping this would turn out different.
 

Tenebrous

Member
80% of one set? For fuck sake, what's it going to take to get a decent MTG game?

I'd play MTG:O if it didn't look so atrocious and cheap.
 

Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
I don't love the 3 uncommon, 2 rares of the same card and one mythic per deck, but it's not a deal breaker. It forces some new thinking in deck design and limits overall power, but I' sure new creative decks/play-styles will arise from it. The biggest issue is not having a shared account. No excuse for that other than greed.
 

Gojeran

Member
I'll be on steam. This is great stuff. I liked hearthstone well enough I guess but mostly I just wished I was playing mtg.
 
Holy crap

from reddit

You're surprised that the game works the exact same way as all the previous ones, as the direct competitor it's aping in Hearthstone, and the way that ensures it'll play more as intended than as a place you can build full versions of paper Constructed decks? No one in the target market for this product cares about this even a little bit.

Did MGTO ever even add leagues back in? That was the day I quit and I haven't played it since.

They're on three years and running saying "leagues are coming this year" in their end-of-year summary post.
 

linid0t

Member
The drafts right now HAVE effectively been much cheaper (~8-9) because they destroyed the MTGO economy when they bumped the fee for redeeming a set from $5 to $25.

Oh wow, really? What happened? Haven't had the time to play much MODO recently so haven't been up to date. Have single prices crashed as well? Would be nice to be able to build some modern/legacy stuff for cheap haha
 
The thing that kills me with all of these Magic digital releases is how bad the UI is. I get that they want to make it look like the tabletop version but it is just too annoying to double click each tiny card on the "table" to figure out what you are up against. Just go ahead and make it like Hearthstone where you can see the card stats from a glance. Make it so once you play a mana you see a set of numbers above the corresponding symbol showing you what you have tapped and available. It would be so much easier to play, and easier for newbies to pick up. Instead, I am constantly tapping on cards to see the numbers.

For reference I am playing on a 6. I'm sure it is much better on an ipad but WotC has had so many chances to make this console/tablet/phone friendly and failed.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
I don't really see all the complaints. The game is pretty good. It's not a 100% recreation of Magic paper edition but if you expected that you're a fool. It's got the Hearthstone model, a good set of cards, and more to come every 3 months. What's the big problem? I understand no cross-platform is annoying but if you like the game it doesn't matter. Just pretend you only have it on one platform like almost every other game you play.
 

Yeef

Member
Different basic game rules....How does that even happen?
It's not so much that it's different deckbuilding rules; there just limits to how many copies of a card you can own based on rarity. It'll be itneresting to see how they handle reprints and rarity shifts going forward though. Cards like Naturalize get a new reprint like every other set. Will they just allow you to choose which art you use or will the different set versions be separate cards in your collection. If a card goes from being a rare in one set and becomes uncommon 3 sets down the line, will it be reflected in the Duels games?

Really disappointed in the lack of puzzles, just as I was last year. They're easily my favorite part of the whole series and it feels like it'd make sense to have something like a weekly puzzle challenge that you can complete to get some coins.
 
I'm fine with rarity restrictions on decks. Wizards still has an obligation to get people to buy physical cards, and that seems like an elegant solution. Plus, it may result in interesting deck variations.

That said, only have an Android, so I'll have to play this on Steam, and even then, I imagine I'll have to wait a bit for bug fixes.
 
I don't love the 3 uncommon, 2 rares of the same card and one mythic per deck, but it's not a deal breaker. It forces some new thinking in deck design and limits overall power, but I' sure new creative decks/play-styles will arise from it. The biggest issue is not having a shared account. No excuse for that other than greed.

The big problem I have with this is how it introduces unneeded variance. A huge part of Magic is building your deck to be able to normalize your opening hands and draws, know what answers you have access to, etc. While it is the same for everyone here, by limiting rares and uncommons, I'm worried that there'll be too many games that are draw dependent, though I guess that depends on what the pool of cards actually ends up consisting of.
 

Adaren

Member
On the rarity restrictions, I think they're just trying to create a different metagame and prevent people from building power decks that shut down newer players. Hearthstone only allows one copy of each Legendary for the same reason.

I agree that it's kind of off-putting, but I don't think it's objectively bad either.
 

Hendrick's

If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
The big problem I have with this is how it introduces unneeded variance. A huge part of Magic is building your deck to be able to normalize your opening hands and draws, know what answers you have access to, etc. While it is the same for everyone here, by limiting rares and uncommons, I'm worried that there'll be too many games that are draw dependent, though I guess that depends on what the pool of cards actually ends up consisting of.

Yeah I can see that. Certain deck types will suffer from this more than others as well, which could discourage some play-styles.
 

Nikodemos

Member
I don't mind the rules. They seem like a variation on the several different unofficial rules like Peasant (could this variant be called Ruined Noble orsmth?)

The lack of an Android client is highly unfortunate. No cross-platform play artificially limits the player pool.
 
No global account and no android. :|

These two niggles have completely shut down any urge of playing it.

Guess I'll stick with playing YGOPro.
 
I wouldn't take "no Android" as some kind of permanent state BTW; we know more platforms are coming down the road, so it wouldn't surprise me if they launch on Android a while later (pretty much the same way Hearthstone did.)
 
They just wouldn't be allowed to do this on the console versions, but I'm not clear why they didn't unify Steam and iOS. (Though it's not like they can't do this down the road by just letting you link a Gamecenter and Steam ID then merging the collections.)
Yeah, I had more Steam/iOS in mind but that sounds very unlikely on consoles. I'm trying to think of any kind of game as a platform or service that would have set a precedent but I can't think of any. Zen pinball or the music games are usually closed to one platform or family.

I do wonder if Blizzard would get a pass if they pulled a console version of Hearthstone though.
 
Top Bottom