Magic: The Gathering is one of my favorite games of all time. Yeah, not just board games; my favorite game. So that being said, a free-to-play version with online functionality allowing me to play at any time should be the best thing ever, right? Well...
So I guess I should get this out of the way since it's clearly everybody's problem with this game. Yes, it's insanely predatory, but so are card games? This is no less predatory than actual Magic realistically but I don't think that's most people's problem with this game. Their problem is that when you do get cards and do make a fun deck based around those cards, that deck is rendered almost completely obsolete only a few months later. The fact that Standard is what they decided to base the game around instead of Modern really makes it hard to justify buying cards. Why would I buy cards that have no use outside of this game if they aren't going to be worth anything in said game after a year or so? With paper Magic, there are so many ways to play, with so many formats, casual play is so common that you can use any of your cards in any deck with limitless rules. And with real Magic cards, you can sell those guys when you're done with them if you want. But if you pull cards you don't want in this game, you're just kind of stuck with them, which makes pulling commons even more annoying than it is IRL. At least with paper Magic, you actually own something tangible, even if it's barely worth more than a few cents. I think the easiest way for Wizards to circumvent this would literally just be to let you have the cards. Build and try out any decks you want, just like Magic: Online. I know this isn't realistic and that they have to make their money somehow but I don't think that having ads or something would be any less immersion breaking than scummy monetary practices.
That being said, how is the game as a service for Magic? I'm not going to judge the Magic format because I would simply say that it's perfect and mastered the card game style in '93 but I do want to judge the way this game provides a place to play Magic. In my honest opinion, it's alright. It works well, and processes everything at a nice pace. It certainly feels like I'm playing a game of Magic. But, it doesn't do much in the way of offering me customizability and this ties back into the problem with basing your game around Standard. It's my opinion that the Standard format is inherently flawed. It promotes playing the game for as few turns as possible and it shows by how few control decks are played in the format. However, I understand that there is a market for this format and that a lot of people really do like it. But, what about me who is not one of those people. What do I get to work with? Well there's Brawl which is certainly a lot of fun but other than that, there's only variations of Standard, and considering that most cards in the game are simply 2018 and onward, it really all just feels like Standard. There's barely any variations, no Two-headed giant, no Commander, no Archenemy and no real variations on the Draft formats. It feels like this was constructed entirely for competitive one-on-one... oh yeah... is was. All MTG tournaments since the release of this game have been on Arena. They simply made this as an official way to have pretty presentation for Magic tournaments. I'm happy that these players have their way to play now but most people play Magic as a hobby and would like some variation from time to time. Throwing a bone to your main fan base would probably do you some good, Wizards.
Regardless, the game is presented very well. Special animations for legendary creatures, sound design is delightful and everything looks really good. They did not have to go this hard for a simple card game. The game is updated consistently to keep up with Magic's ever-expanding line of products. But man, those updates are killer and keep me from opening this thing so often. I don't think I need a 7GB update every single time I open your app, Wizards but I appreciate you being on top of things. Also, the lack of social features on here is abyssmal. Magic always has been a very social game and while I'm not saying you need voice chat or anything, but the ability to say something beyond a "Hey!" or a "Nice job." would be nice.
This honestly, just feels like Wizards attempt to kill paper Magic that did nothing but make paper Magic fans more dedicated to their cardboard. It's a nice application but until more features are added to be more inclusive to casual formats, I don't think this will replace paper Magic for me and millions of others.
So I guess I should get this out of the way since it's clearly everybody's problem with this game. Yes, it's insanely predatory, but so are card games? This is no less predatory than actual Magic realistically but I don't think that's most people's problem with this game. Their problem is that when you do get cards and do make a fun deck based around those cards, that deck is rendered almost completely obsolete only a few months later. The fact that Standard is what they decided to base the game around instead of Modern really makes it hard to justify buying cards. Why would I buy cards that have no use outside of this game if they aren't going to be worth anything in said game after a year or so? With paper Magic, there are so many ways to play, with so many formats, casual play is so common that you can use any of your cards in any deck with limitless rules. And with real Magic cards, you can sell those guys when you're done with them if you want. But if you pull cards you don't want in this game, you're just kind of stuck with them, which makes pulling commons even more annoying than it is IRL. At least with paper Magic, you actually own something tangible, even if it's barely worth more than a few cents. I think the easiest way for Wizards to circumvent this would literally just be to let you have the cards. Build and try out any decks you want, just like Magic: Online. I know this isn't realistic and that they have to make their money somehow but I don't think that having ads or something would be any less immersion breaking than scummy monetary practices.
That being said, how is the game as a service for Magic? I'm not going to judge the Magic format because I would simply say that it's perfect and mastered the card game style in '93 but I do want to judge the way this game provides a place to play Magic. In my honest opinion, it's alright. It works well, and processes everything at a nice pace. It certainly feels like I'm playing a game of Magic. But, it doesn't do much in the way of offering me customizability and this ties back into the problem with basing your game around Standard. It's my opinion that the Standard format is inherently flawed. It promotes playing the game for as few turns as possible and it shows by how few control decks are played in the format. However, I understand that there is a market for this format and that a lot of people really do like it. But, what about me who is not one of those people. What do I get to work with? Well there's Brawl which is certainly a lot of fun but other than that, there's only variations of Standard, and considering that most cards in the game are simply 2018 and onward, it really all just feels like Standard. There's barely any variations, no Two-headed giant, no Commander, no Archenemy and no real variations on the Draft formats. It feels like this was constructed entirely for competitive one-on-one... oh yeah... is was. All MTG tournaments since the release of this game have been on Arena. They simply made this as an official way to have pretty presentation for Magic tournaments. I'm happy that these players have their way to play now but most people play Magic as a hobby and would like some variation from time to time. Throwing a bone to your main fan base would probably do you some good, Wizards.
Regardless, the game is presented very well. Special animations for legendary creatures, sound design is delightful and everything looks really good. They did not have to go this hard for a simple card game. The game is updated consistently to keep up with Magic's ever-expanding line of products. But man, those updates are killer and keep me from opening this thing so often. I don't think I need a 7GB update every single time I open your app, Wizards but I appreciate you being on top of things. Also, the lack of social features on here is abyssmal. Magic always has been a very social game and while I'm not saying you need voice chat or anything, but the ability to say something beyond a "Hey!" or a "Nice job." would be nice.
This honestly, just feels like Wizards attempt to kill paper Magic that did nothing but make paper Magic fans more dedicated to their cardboard. It's a nice application but until more features are added to be more inclusive to casual formats, I don't think this will replace paper Magic for me and millions of others.