Magic Duels: Origins

If you’re a new player looking to learn Magic: The Gathering, Magic Duels is the best place to start. If you’re a seasoned veteran, the way the game uses rarity restrictions to create a unique environment make it an attractive alternative for some duels.

Despite having some imperfections that would be easy to polish the character of true free-to-play makes more lift up his hand as to the requirements with the work of Wizards of the Coast.

After the problems of the 2015 edition, the Stainless Games series returns to be a catching card game, thanks to the new free to play formula which, fortunately, does not bet everything on the pay per win system.

The potential is really good, but not really capitalized on. It's nonetheless an evolving platform, and future updates could work around the bugs and crashes, making it really interesting for all Magic fans out there.

With Magic Duels: Origins, Wizards of the Coast tries a new beginning for the digital series, managing to build a solid game that will probably satisfy most players’ needs. That said it’s too early to praise unconditionally, as future updates will be vital for the health of the game.

Those new to Magic will find it easy to dive in and learn the intricacies of deck-building, while more experienced players should finally have the customization and card variety they’ve been asking for.

A great way to enter the world of Magic: The Gathering, but due to some simplifications and design choices that’s pretty much all Magic Duels is good for. [11/2015, p.59]

Awesome, Wizards finally realized the hearthstone model ! no more new renditions every year, now we have something to build upon here in this version of magic.. this isn't MTGO, but it is free, and fun. I am new to Magic, and am enjoying it (along with hearthstone). I hope Wizards of the Coast finds this version (F2P) to be profitable and ever growing, and therefore will build upon this as time goes on(invest $$). if so, this game will just become much more rich in cards and play styles as time goes on... (maybe we can hope it will come close to MTGO in implementing all newly released cards, in the future, not just a subset) i gave it a 9 because of some bugs, and because of the inability to really search your card collection, through keyword search... TLDR; great game.. it is a nice change of pace to the simple play of hearthstone...

*OCT 25, 2016* Most of these reviews represent an ancient version of this game, so I'd like to re-evaluate this game as it stands now. Pros: -great card selection -best UI in magic to date -most bugs have been squashed -improved music -still very balanced -free to play elements are among the best around -most importantly, it's the game we know and love Cons: -there are still occasional bugs -deck building is slow and has few sorting options; needs an overhaul -two headed giant sometimes splits up you and your friend, or just crashes before it even starts -can be hard for beginners, especially those who don't spend Overall this is a much better game than the launch title, and I am glad to have spent a few bucks and kept with it. 8/10

pros: -truly free2play -fast grind (booster for 8 wins on pvp vs 30 on hearthstone with similar dailies) -2v2 mode -no p2w -offline game mode -great music -enough deck slots -has huge potential cons: -common server problems -no chat -boring and poor graphics -not enough features -not enough cards -copy paste of another online card games

so here is where I start with this free to own but if u really want to win at all in this game u have to spend money and in all honesty I would rather just pay the 10 or 15 dollars and buy it out right its tedious to earn the coins and its near impossible to be some of the AI with the "arch type decks" like wtf why should I have to play the decks you design for me when I always end up drowning in mana I would never in my entire life put 24 land in a 60 card deck that makes no sense what so ever (unless it was a green mana land ramp deck in that case totally fine) but seriously how am I supposed to do the special quests for these bonus coins if I cant even get a hand to beat an "easy" AI the easy should mean a guarantied win every time to test out decks really. then the packs yeah you can buy the packs with legit money I get it pay to win because i mean in that case i might as well just play the game out right and do the real life thing but yeah i have played since release on and off and have bought just as many packs as my friend at work has (with the in game currency cuz screw spending money on that) and he has all the planeswalkers and i haven't gotten one seems so legit this whole random crap is why i don't buy actual packs in the stores anymore. but on the positive side of the game the actual build your own deck portion where you fully customize your deck is amazing (only if i had more cards though) but i have seen some decks run so flawlessly that i wont play the game for a week or two at a time because by turn 5 i am decked, dead, or cant pull a creator out (makes for a real enjoyable experience when they put u at rank 1 in the pvp scale against a 35+)

I love MtG. I have loved MtG for years, and I will say this about the 'free' to play Origins - if you really like Magic, and you're familiar with it, give it a whirl until you're tired of it. Then go back to one of the other digital versions of the game. This one really, honestly is not worth putting any money into. The constant online requirements, the sparse rewards for time/money invested, the 'pay to win' strategy in full swing, the crashing servers, the lack of rewards for playing with friends... I'd rather buy actual cards for the kind of money I'd need to put down to really enjoy this game, and even then, I don't think the sets and cards on display are actually anything to write home about. The main campaign has you playing with set decks, against set decks. To build your own deck, you need to unlock booster packs. There are six cards in a pack. Granted, none of those are going to be land cards, but considering the FIFTEEN cards you usually get in actual, physical booster packs, this feels... sparse. A single booster pack costs 150 in-game currency. You get 5-15 currency for winning 'solo' matches against AI opponents. No matter the supposed difficulty setting you play on, matches can range from fast-paced and easy to prolonged and tedious. There are bonus challenges that can get you somewhere more in the vicinity of 50-80 currency/gold, but they are irregular. The problem is, the game encourages you to build a deck based on strategy, but there is basically no way to ensure you actually get cards that are sufficient to any kind of engaging play. Even in the real world, gaming boutiques will often sell individual cards if players really want to build decks around them. Ordinarily I would just be happy to carry on and gradually unlock more and more cards, but the snail's pace is tiresome, and I can't imagine beginners find trying to build a workable deck anything other than impossible. A friend of mine who used to play ages ago and just recently got back into to it had a wealth of trouble that the game's tutorial (which is unskippable, yeesh) was just inadequate for. In a good, dynamic Magic game, losing can be as interesting as winning (though, obviously more disappointing). Some tedium is inevitable just because of how the game is set up. Bad luck on the draw could net you endless handfuls of land or no land at all, four cards of a much-needed type could never once fall into your hand, your opponent could hit pay dirt right out of the gate and just sweep victory out from under you. But Magic Duels: Origins manages to be 90% tedium. The game's initial story mode gives you examples of one each of the basic colour decks to play with and upgrade as you go along... but you don't keep them outside of the campaign. I fully expected those five decks to be the starter kit, but (and it was tricky to tell, because there's no way to see the content of your deck while you're playing the story) there are definitely cards that were in those decks that did not show up in my inventory. Instead I seemed to unlock the world's most lackluster starter pack, and proceeded to play through in an effort to unlock more cards. Not to put too fine a point on it, but spending hours grinding for, like, 3% of a deck that can actually get me through a decent number of matches is not fun. 'Oh, that card looks useful!' I say. Too bad there is only one of it, or nothing complimentary to go with it, and any potential benefits of playing digital versus just buying the real deal vanish in a puff of smoke. I understand that the game wants to make money. My modest proposal is that they just go about it in a **** way. Sell the game for money. Or sell specific cards, for as much as a booster pack. Let people decide if they want to spend 150 gold on six random cards, or one specific card. Don't try and make your players suffer just so they'll pay to ease the misery, that's liable to chase players away. Especially new ones.