Enter the world’s best strategy card game with Magic Duels
Game producer, Wizards of the Coast, have provided quite possibly the best digital version of the beloved card game, Magic the Gathering. In this iOS (and recently made available on PC and Xbox One) mobile game app, Magic Duels takes deck building, mythical lore and the entire Magic franchise into a golden sphere of gaming like never before.
For someone who is very new to the trading card game scene, Magic Duels does a great job in taking up a huge portion of my day thanks to its inventive creatures, enchantments and quests. Magic the Gathering has been around since 1993 and has continued to thrive in its complexity, customisation and growing fan base. Magic Duels is much like Hearthstone – it’s free to play, but also allows you to buy digital card packs to make your own customisable decks, which you can then use to battle players online. And for a person in my new shoes, Magic Duels is excellent for newcomers to the Magic franchise and the overall trading card game genre.
Magic Duels is a lot of fun
If you’re just as nerdy as I am but have never played Magic the Gathering, here’s the basics. You use cards representing monsters, minions and spells to try to kill the other player. You also have Land cards that act as your resource for using all of your other cards. The game also makes sure to explain each ability on any card so you don’t need to spend hours on the internet doing some heavy, obsessed research. Magic Duels has less hassle than the actual experience of playing real cards, however, after spending hours playing the mobile game, there is already an Armed & Dangerous deck sitting next to my bed. So don’t be surprised to find yourself investing much more into this game, especially if you’re into to fantasy and gaming like me.
Tutorials
The Magic franchise can be a very complicated game. Magic Duels however is already one step ahead in teaching players the rules and showing the tricks of the game. The tutorial is quick, helpful and effective. During an introduction campaign, you are taken through the different types of cards playable in the campaign. It’s also great that whenever a new card appears, you’ll be taken into a short tutorial that explains how it works. After you get through the short tutorial, you are automatically taken back to your match where you left off. It’s the perfect place for beginners.
Excellent game, but involves money
While the game is free to play, you earn gold for completing story mode challenges which you can use to buy boosters and begin building your collection of cards beyond the limited ‘free’ starter pack you’re given. However the decks you can build with the free starter pack aren’t exactly the best when trying to win against the AI opponent. Battling online is worse as most players online would have bought better cards. If you really want to get the best and full experience of the game, you have to be willing to spend some extra dollars.
Reconnecting issues
Sometimes the game loses its connection to the server. Numerous times I’ve pressed the “reconnect” button but nothing happens. Though the bug does not massively affect the experience, it’s still annoying. There have been a few times where I’ve lost connection during the story mode and the game didn’t save my progress which meant I needed to re-win my duel. If you want to avoid this completely, playing the PC version is a better option.
While the bugs tarnish some aspects of the game, Magic Duels is still definitely the best digital version of Magic the Gathering. If you’re not willing to put in a lot of money to make your collection competitive, the free experience is still great. This is something to try for all Magic fans and those who are interested in learning to play it.
Posted in Blog, Games, Top Apps
Comments