The universe is filled with multiple planes of existence and each one is unique. People and creatures are unaware of how vast the multiverse is, except for those who ignite their spark to become Planeswalkers. These planeswalkers are the only beings able to withstand the intense magical energy of the aether and travel between planes. In the game of Magic the Gathering from Wizards of the Coast, you ignite your own spark to travel between worlds and duel other planeswalkers. With Magic Duels, a digital format of the table-top game available through Steam, you can play through the stories of known planeswalkers and learn more about the recent sets.
In the Shadows Over Innistrad’s story-mode, you can take on the role of Jace and set out on a mystery to learn why fellow planeswalker and ally Sorrin, didn’t help seal the ravenous titans on the plane of Zendikar. In all honesty, the overall canon story of Magic the Gathering is so complex, it seems the wizards of the Wizards of the Coast seem to forget previous storylines and elements. After all, who could keep track of every single event that goes on in the entire multiverse? Each plane introduced to the game through the card sets have it’s own culture and story to tell. In Shadows Over Innistrad, we revisit the world of werewolves, vampires, ghosts, soldiers and heavenly angels. 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. The cards reflect these dark times and some still offer a glimmer of hope for the angel’s redemption.
In Magic Duels, you must start out by playing through the first part of Origins and go through an enormous amount of tutorials and trails before starting the Shadows Over Innistrad expansion. For veteran players and pros, Magic Duels would probably be too slow and annoying. I started playing Magic when the first Innistrad block was released and I still consider myself a novice. Originally I thought having tutorials would be a good refresher. But after the 15th 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, I become annoyed quickly. Thankfully the tutorial pop-ups began to taper off after awhile and the fun of battling with spells returned. With Shadows Over Innistrad, I found myself enjoying the story-mode mainly due to the art work presented in-between the AI battles. Seeing enlarged card art and having the short paragraph of story progression aided in the illusion of solving the mystery of Sorrin’s disappearance in Jace’s boots.
There is an option for playing Magic Duels against real players online after completing the first Origins story. One of the biggest elements of Magic that pulls me into the game is the flavor of the planes. Having influences of real civilizations and mythology along with completely new cultures, is what helps make Magic the Gathering so special, that and having awesome intricate game mechanics. Magic Duels is mostly story-driven with the player going against AI characters. The gameplay revolves around seeing a piece of art, reading a short paragraph and then playing a game of Magic, and then you repeat this process until you finish the campaign. At first, 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 Origins set up to the current set of Shadows Over Innistrad.
After gaining packs, you can begin to build your own deck of cards. The filter for deck-building is actually perfect to locate cards based on their type and color. I am usually over whelmed with trying to find cards for creating and updating decks with my own collection, so it’s a relief to have a simplified way to locate cards. The downfall of building a deck through Magic Duels is the need to gather a large enough card collection to build a single strong deck. 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. Wizards of the Coast is relying upon the players purchasing in-game gold with real money to obtain card packs. There is a major flaw with this, that Magic players, especially serious ones, would rather put money into purchasing physical card packs or buy single cards. Since many Standard tournaments (even local/ casual Standard tourneys) are so competitive, the decks are compiled of very expensive cards.
Another MAJOR problem I ran across in Magic Duels is the game’s program practically prohibits the use of instant spells. The game only lets you use instants basically as sorceries and you must stop the timer only at certain parts of your turn’s phases and it is infuriating. This is troublesome especially for the Shadows Over Innistrad expansion since there are so many fun instants to cast. It takes away so much from gameplay and frankly it’s completely wrong in terms of the actual game. Another issue is the lack of a chat function. Even Hearthstone from Blizzard has a friend-chat available. 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.
Magic Duels seems as if it was created more for introducing the card game to new players or as an option for casual online play. I like the idea of learning and practicing the new sets like Shadows Over Innistrad’s mechanics and becoming familiar with the newly released cards in a free digital game. It’s also a fun and interactive way to experience the new set’s stories by playing through the story instead of only reading the story through released articles. If you are looking for tutorials and easy gameplay to learn how to play Magic then Magic Duels is great for you. But, if you are a seasoned planeswalker and is looking for some new challenges it’s better to stick to face-to-face game time.
You can play Magic Duels: Shadows Over Innistrad for free through Steam.