Magic Duels: Shadows Over Innistrad Review

<p>The universe is filled with multiple planes of existence and each one is unique&period; People and creatures are unaware of how vast the multiverse is&comma; except for those who ignite their spark to become Planeswalkers&period; These planeswalkers are the only beings able to withstand the intense magical energy of the aether and travel between planes&period; In the game of <em>Magic the Gathering<&sol;em> from <strong><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;company&period;wizards&period;com&sol;">Wizards of the Coast&comma;<&sol;a><&sol;strong> you ignite your own spark to travel between worlds and duel other planeswalkers&period; With <em>Magic Duels<&sol;em>&comma; a digital format of the table-top game available through <strong><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;316010&sol;">Steam<&sol;a><&sol;strong>&comma; you can play through the stories of known planeswalkers and learn more about the recent sets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;104575" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-104575" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-104575" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03193330&sol;magic-duels-pic-2&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"Magic Duels&sol; Wizards of the Coast" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"337" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-104575" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Magic Duels&comma; Wizards of the Coast&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In the<em> Shadows Over Innistrad&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> story-mode&comma; you can take on the role of Jace and set out on a mystery to learn why fellow planeswalker and ally Sorrin&comma; didn&&num;8217&semi;t help seal the ravenous titans on the plane of Zendikar&period; In all honesty&comma; the overall canon story of <em>Magic the Gathering<&sol;em> is so complex&comma; it seems the wizards of the Wizards of the Coast seem to forget previous storylines and elements&period; After all&comma; who could keep track of every single event that goes on in the entire multiverse&quest; Each plane introduced to the game through the card sets have it&&num;8217&semi;s own culture and story to tell&period; In <em>Shadows Over Innistrad<&sol;em>&comma; we revisit the world of werewolves&comma; vampires&comma; ghosts&comma; soldiers and heavenly angels&period; The angels who once kept the darkness and evil at bay in Innistrad have fallen into a dark madness that causes them to turn on the humans they once loved and protected&period; The cards reflect these dark times and some still offer a glimmer of hope for the angel&&num;8217&semi;s redemption&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In<em> Magic Duels<&sol;em>&comma; you must start out by playing through the first part of <em>Origins<&sol;em> and go through an enormous amount of tutorials and trails before starting the <em>Shadows Over Innistrad<&sol;em> expansion&period; For veteran players and pros&comma; <em>Magic Duels<&sol;em> would probably be too slow and annoying&period; I started playing <em>Magic<&sol;em> when the first <em>Innistrad<&sol;em> block was released and I still consider myself a novice&period; Originally I thought having tutorials would be a good refresher&period; But after the 15<sup>th<&sol;sup> time of being told how to tap a land and having pop-ups explaining the use of a land and how to attack with a creature&comma; I become annoyed quickly&period; Thankfully the tutorial pop-ups began to taper off after awhile and the fun of battling with spells returned&period; With <em>Shadows Over Innistrad<&sol;em>&comma; I found myself enjoying the story-mode mainly due to the art work presented in-between the AI battles&period; Seeing enlarged card art and having the short paragraph of story progression aided in the illusion of solving the mystery of Sorrin&&num;8217&semi;s disappearance in Jace&&num;8217&semi;s boots&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;104621" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-104621" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-104621" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03192859&sol;magic-duels-pic-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Magic Duels&sol; Wizards of the Coast" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"337" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-104621" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Magic Duels&sol; Wizards of the Coast<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There is an option for playing <em>Magic Duels<&sol;em> against real players online after completing the first <em>Origins<&sol;em> story&period; One of the biggest elements of <em>Magic<&sol;em> that pulls me into the game is the flavor of the planes&period; Having influences of real civilizations and mythology along with completely new cultures&comma; is what helps make <em>Magic the Gathering<&sol;em> so special&comma; that and having awesome intricate game mechanics&period; <em>Magic Duels<&sol;em> is mostly story-driven with the player going against AI characters&period; The gameplay revolves around seeing a piece of art&comma; reading a short paragraph and then playing a game of <em>Magic<&sol;em>&comma; and then you repeat this process until you finish the campaign&period; At first&comma; you MUST play with pre-generated decks based on the mana color of the planeswalker you are playing as and then after reaching a certain point you earn gold coins that can be traded in to purchase packs from the <em>Origins<&sol;em> set up to the current set of <em>Shadows Over Innistrad<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After gaining packs&comma; you can begin to build your own deck of cards&period; The filter for deck-building is actually perfect to locate cards based on their type and color&period; I am usually over whelmed with trying to find cards for creating and updating decks with my own collection&comma; so it&&num;8217&semi;s a relief to have a simplified way to locate cards&period; The downfall of building a deck through<em> Magic Duels<&sol;em> is the need to gather a large enough card collection to build a single strong deck&period; The game can technically be played for free but earning the amount of coins needed to purchase a large number of packs to craft decent decks is difficult&period; Wizards of the Coast is relying upon the players purchasing in-game gold with real money to obtain card packs&period; There is a major flaw with this&comma; that Magic players&comma; especially serious ones&comma; would rather put money into purchasing physical card packs or buy single cards&period; Since many Standard tournaments &lpar;even local&sol; casual Standard tourneys&rpar; are so competitive&comma; the decks are compiled of very expensive cards&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;104619" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-104619" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-104619" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03192918&sol;magic-duels-pic-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Magic Duels&sol; Wizards of the Coast" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"337" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-104619" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Magic Duels&sol; Wizards of the Coast<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Another MAJOR problem I ran across in <em>Magic Duels<&sol;em> is the game&&num;8217&semi;s program practically prohibits the use of instant spells&period; The game only lets you use instants basically as sorceries and you must stop the timer only at certain parts of your turn&&num;8217&semi;s phases and it is infuriating&period; This is troublesome especially for the <em>Shadows Over Innistrad<&sol;em> expansion since there are so many fun instants to cast&period; It takes away so much from gameplay and frankly it&&num;8217&semi;s completely wrong in terms of the actual game&period; Another issue is the lack of a chat function&period; Even <em>Hearthstone<&sol;em> from Blizzard has a friend-chat available&period; The two-headed giant mode is played in pairs and without being able to speak to your partner and strategize the games tend to go poorly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Magic Duels<&sol;em> seems as if it was created more for introducing the card game to new players or as an option for casual online play&period; I like the idea of learning and practicing the new sets like <em>Shadows Over Innistrad&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> mechanics and becoming familiar with the newly released cards in a free digital game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also a fun and interactive way to experience the new set&&num;8217&semi;s stories by playing through the story instead of only reading the story through released articles&period; If you are looking for tutorials and easy gameplay to learn how to play<em> Magic<&sol;em> then <em>Magic Duels<&sol;em> is great for you&period; But&comma; if you are a seasoned planeswalker and is looking for some new challenges it&&num;8217&semi;s better to stick to face-to-face game time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You can play <em>Magic Duels&colon; Shadows Over Innistrad<&sol;em> for free through <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;316010&sol;"><strong>Steam<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;