I usually start off reviews by talking about the history of the games’ developers, or maybe romanticising about a previous version, but the problem is, I don’t know anything about Magic: The Gathering, other than it’s a card game that makes even me feel like less of a geek around the people who play it.
So instead, this is where I will apologise to fans of the card game; I will be writing this from a complete beginners point of view, I’ve done some research to try and give you some kind of comparison with previous versions, but beyond that, I can’t give you anything more than my own impressions on a game I’ve never played.
That may sound like the crux of any review, but in this case, I realise the hugely loyal following the tabletop game has, will be looking for insider knowledge. For those of you like me, who are new to the concept of the game, I will try to break down the basics, for my sake as much as yours.
Both players start with 20LP (life points), the objective being to reduce your opponents LP to zero. You deal damage to your adversary by casting spells or by using summoned monsters from cards you draw from your deck. You may draw one “land” card and one other card (providing you have the mana) per turn.
The land cards serve as a resource known as “mana”, a not uncommon term used in many games. Mana is used to summon creatures who have a respective value attached to them, it is also used to cast spells or pretty much do anything of worth. The amount of mana available will increase during the match, allowing you to summon beats that are more powerful or cast spells that are more destructive.
Some spells may cost additional resources, but I won’t go into that. Mostly because I don’t understand it fully.
Spell cards come in the form of “instants” and “sorceries” these are a onetime only use, and are moved to the “graveyard” pile afterwards. There is also “enchants” and “artifacts” which serve as a permanent buff to you, unless they are removed by the opposing player somehow.
Each player draws seven cards at the start, it’s done randomly, but you can choose to reshuffle the cards and draw again if you so wish. If you have any more than seven cards at a time, you will have to choose one to discard. The creatures you summon are laid out in front of you, they can be used to attack or block, but never both in the same turn. Some of your assorted beats may have other benefits attached to them that give them an advantage in some way.
Different decks center around different strategies, it takes some getting used to, as does adjusting and responding to different tactics from your opponents. When it all comes together (which it did very little for me) it can feel rewarding; the core of the card game is deeper than an afternoon with Yoda, and I imagine it takes a huge amount of time to master.
It’s complicated I know, but thankfully the games tutorial is in-depth and gives you a good introduction to the mechanics of the game. It’s broken down into several matches, each one introducing a new type of card or strategy and gradually giving you a final duel to bring it all together. It’s pretty tough for newcomers; it unashamedly took me a couple of tries to beat the last part of the tutorial, which you do have to best before you move on to the actual campaign.
The story behind the campaign is basic; the characters you inhabit are called “Planeswalkers”, they are wizards that can walk between the various realms of the multiverse. The campaign concentrates on a particular Planeswalker by the name of Chandra Nalaar. The incredibly thin narrative follows her as she tries to track down an artifact held by another wizard named Ramaz. It seems to be broken down into sections, each one utilising a different deck, the first set appears to use an undead pack. You have several duels with minor opponents which utilise certain tactics to get you used to battling different strategies, following this you face a much more capable Planeswalker at the end of each segment.
There doesn’t appear to be much more to it than that, from what I could gather of previous incarnations, the campaign seemed to be the weakest part of it, and it looks as though that hasn’t changed.
There are some other modes for you to tackle, one of which is sealed play, which has replaced last years “Planechase” style of play. You create a deck out of some random digital bonus packs, choosing whichever you wish for your customised deck. Rather than try and awkwardly explain it, below is a video from the publisher courtesy of gameplanetnz.
The main attraction for many of the M:TG vets this year (I imagine) will be the deck manager. A deck will consist of at least 60 cards which you can unlock through the campaign or by shelling out some hard-earned. You can have the computer construct the deck around just one card if you wish, it will pick what I assume is an optimal build around it. As well as unlocking the cards in the deck, there is an option to unlock a “foil” version. From what I can tell, this is a “more powerful” version of the deck.
The deck manager seem pretty robust and offers to sort cards by way of mana type, rarity, card type, and creature class. I will admit the whole system was a bit more than I could understand given my newbie status, however the inclusion is a good and long awaited one.
The multiplayer offers free-for-all, sealed deck and two-headed-giant game modes. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you too much about how it played as my internet provider is awful at present, so I wasn’t able to hold a steady connection enough to play. The sealed deck play I have already explained and the free-for-all tells you what you need to know. The THG mode allows teams of two to go up against each other whilst sharing a health pool and taking the turns together, basically you’re just playing as a team.
The audio/visual of the game is best described as functional, but not fancy. The table screen that you will spend most of your time looking at is particularly dull, being that this is the focal point, some imagination and a digital lick of paint would have been nice. The effects from the spells and attacks are passable, but again, it feels like a lot more could have been done. The ambient music during play is decent enough and doesn’t make you want to smash your speakers, which is always a good thing.
There is also a leaderboard and personal stats to peruse through, however, I couldn’t see exactly how people are ranked, there is a points system, but without any clue as to what those points pertain to, they remain rather redundant.
I’m not sure whether my indifference to a lot of these aspects is because of my lack of passion for the game, or simply because of the absence of any real effort in making something other than a yearly update. From what I can gather from the previous versions, and reviews of them, very little has changed. In fairness, this is a very niche market we are talking about; the game is hardly lightly to appeal to anyone outside of the core demographic. Maybe that’s the problem though, catering to hardcore fans means they are going to buy it regardless.
Despite my griping, I did enjoy playing the campaign, the card game itself is very complex and I can see why it has the following it does. It also makes the M:TG very difficult to score effectively; the game does what it sets out to do, but in the most minimal way possible. Will fans of the game enjoy it? I have no idea, it seems to create the game faithfully enough from what I can tell, as for any changes or things that they may have wanted included, I think the only inclusions are more decks, the deck manager and the “attack with all” button in the game. There may be some more things here and there, but that was all that stood out to me.
If you do like tabletop games but haven’t ever tried M:TG, you could do worse than to give this a go, as mentioned earlier, the tutorial is robust and eases you into what is an incredibly complex game. The time it will take you to get the most out of this is something similar to an MMO, I don’t just mean unlocking the cards (assuming you don’t buy the decks), moreover, the time it will take to become anywhere near competent enough to compete with some of the more experienced players. It’s an attractive prospect to me when it comes to strategy games, it’s not just luck of the draw here, it’s the knowledge of over 10,000 cards and the strategies that go with each one.
The infinite variation in the different decks you can use means there is probably no unbeatable hand, but an ever-evolving learning curve to a game that only the most dedicated will master. However don’t take that to mean that we all can’t get something out of Magic: The Gathering, learning is part of the fun here, meaning there is plenty to be had.