[MTG] Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

Thank you so much for the info here and in the iPad thread, Cragmyre. I don't see myself dumping hundreds of hours and dollars into Magic like I did in the mid '90s, but it's still such a wonderful game and being able to iPad it is a great advantage, so I'm very tempted to play through the rest of Planeswalkers 2013. I've just got one last concern:

Strewth wrote:

I'm concerned that if I stop playing it for a while and delete it to make room for something else, if I get the itch to play again, I'll have to unlock all my decks again.

edit: hypothesis confirmed!

Don't EVER delete your app unless you are absolutely done playing! All your unlocks will be reset!

Strewth, did you try syncing and/backing up your iPad onto your PC (Mac?) before deleting the app? If that doesn't work, I wonder whether I could use my wife's iOS dev-kit stuff to remotely save the app data separately from the app itself?

Regarding dual lands and customization, DotP is what it is. It's a game that lets you play some Magic. It's not trying to BE Magic. I don't really care for it, because I'm a pretty hardcore player and don't enjoy the interface nor the initial decks.

It's really intended to be a gateway into the broader game of Magic, which is played with cardboard or on Magic Online. Lots of people love it as it is, even if I don't.

Before I give them money and invest hours and hours into the iPad version, I'd like to know if backing up to PC will prevent losing all your data if to uninstall for whatever reason.

Also, and maybe more importantly, I see a lot of complaints online about the game just completely erasing their unlock and campaign progress, but those rorts were from the summer mostly. It seems to be tied to Game Center profiles being unavailable because of bad Internet connections, and the game therefore starting you over when it can't verify your progress. Has this been addressed by the updates? What about using your device in airplane mode? Any problems?

The problem I'm having with the ipad version is that you need way more free space than is reasonable to install the update. I have the app installed, I have ~2gb free space (it's only a 16gb ipad, so I tend to not have a lot), but the app will not update, saying I need more free space. So my options are to delete and re-download the app, losing all saved data, or delete other stuff to make room for the update. It's already the biggest app I have by a fair amount.

Basically, it feels a lot like they just took the PC version, ported it over, and didn't do a heck of a lot of optimizing for the portable system. Fortunately, I don't care too much about the update, since it basically adds more DLC.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Regarding dual lands and customization, DotP is what it is. It's a game that lets you play some Magic. It's not trying to BE Magic. I don't really care for it, because I'm a pretty hardcore player and don't enjoy the interface nor the initial decks.

It's really intended to be a gateway into the broader game of Magic, which is played with cardboard or on Magic Online. Lots of people love it as it is, even if I don't.

It's definitely Magic-Lite and after being properly re-introduced to the game systems I see the over-abundance of single-colour decks as an interesting restriction or challenge. I try not to get hung up about the lack of options but there is a fair bit of improvement they can make to the customization for future instalments while still maintaining the series' newbie-friendly spirit.

Yes, allowing players to draw from a giant pool of cards to build whatever deck they wish would totally stomp on their Magic Online business. Simple tweaks like allowing me to tune the number of Lands or go below the 60-card limit before I decide to save the decks are the kind of incremental improvements I expect to see in 2014.

You know who's the new uber-frustrating deck in the campaign? Krenko in Revenge mode...
I haven't been able to match his creature & mana curve. The closest I've gotten was an excruciating 3 Life with all-white Peacekeepers deck and even that one struggles to keep up on the best draws.

Speaking of which, the player bias in me really suspects the game intentionally shuffles my deck like Satan.

Deck pack 3 came out today/yesterday/sometime in the near past. I don't know how much it costs ( though on Steam just wait a bit and it will be on sale ). Like the other deck packs, there are two decks within it, one is a blue/black deck, the other is a 5 color deck. Deck lists here

The blue mill deck is the easiest one to use to get past Double Trouble. For whatever reason the enemy hydra deck only has 30 or 40 cards you have to mill away.

TheGameguru wrote:

I've tried beating Double Trouble for 3 hours now??

Yikes, it took me a long time but I finally beat that one using the blue Crosswinds deck that features little blue flying creatures. What a freaking pain that was! I set up the deck to cancel and return as many of the hydras as possible to his hand, all the while leaching the legendary creature that puts a 2/2 flyer into play whenever I cast an instant or sorcery. Through that method I managed to piddle him down to 12 when I had 4 flyers and the flyer +1/+1 enchantment in play = win. Alternatively, I also had the copy-and-repeat-a-spell artifact and the extra-turn spell in the deck, but was always one turn short before enabling that autowin when they run me out of life. What's also fun is duplicating the return-to-hand, draw-a-card card. But with Crossroads, you really need your deck to give you almost the perfect cards. Keep restarting the campaign until you get a good starting hand.

In the end, beating that encounter with Crosswinds only unlocks another play-with-your-library face-up enchantment, so I don't think it was really worth my time.

Reportedly, it's a much easier encounter to defeat with other decks, so if you're not set on unlocking everything in Crosswinds, I recommend finding the explanations and videos showing how easy the encounter can be with those other decks.

Edit: oh, and whatever you do, never enchant the legendary creature that spawns flyers with the creature copier!

So I'm unlocked most of the cards (yes, including promos) for Crosswinds and now can fight the main campaign final boss, who I hear is a cheap monster. I've been wondering, I keep seeing these loading screens with planeswalkers cards in them....at what point do I get to add planeswalkers to my deck(s)?

They have not implemented planeswalker cards into MTG: DotP. I'm sure it will be a big deal when they do. Maybe next version?

Maybe I'm missing something but why would the duels of the planeswalkers not have planeswalkers? Good grief. (My long Magic absence means I never heard of that card type until I picked this up.)

Keithustus wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something but why would the duels of the planeswalkers not have planeswalkers? Good grief. (My long Magic absence means I never heard of that card type until I picked this up.)

Well, the players have been called planeswalkers forever. Cards have only been planeswalkers for less than half of Magic's existence.

Keithustus wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something but why would the duels of the planeswalkers not have planeswalkers? Good grief. (My long Magic absence means I never heard of that card type until I picked this up.)

Most of the campaign is dueling planeswalkers, so yeah. I expected after beating one I'd unlock the card, but no.

Well, they need a new gimmick every year so we start all over again, since they won't let you use decks from previous versions. 2012 let us tweak our decks, 2013 let us tap our own lands, 2014 ??

Keithustus wrote:

So I'm unlocked most of the cards (yes, including promos) for Crosswinds and now can fight the main campaign final boss, who I hear is a cheap monster. I've been wondering, I keep seeing these loading screens with planeswalkers cards in them....at what point do I get to add planeswalkers to my deck(s)?

It's a tease, a half-hearted sales pitch for you to go out and buy some real Magic cards.

Nicol Bolas is indeed a cheap monster. I used a burn deck on him but still needed a lot of luck. Having certain cards in the deck didn't seem to matter much. He has a tri-color deck with pretty good mana fixing.

I don't really care for it, because I'm a pretty hardcore player and don't enjoy the interface nor the initial decks.

I thought last year's decks were really good. (well, I guess 2 years ago, now -- 2011 decks.) Those were a lot of fun, especially the elf deck. The interface was even worse than this year's, but I thought the decks made up for the other sins.

For whatever reason, I just didn't enjoy this year's decks. They feel overpowered to me, too strong, too quickly. I liked the slower, subtler play last year.

Magic 2014 has been announced for multiple platforms. One of the new features reported was Sealed Play. Now if they could only reproduce Shandalar.

Cragmyre wrote:

Magic 2014 has been announced for multiple platforms. One of the new features reported was Sealed Play. Now if they could only reproduce Shandalar.

SEALED? That would finally get me playing this thing. Still, the description says you'll play against mono-colored sealed decks, which aren't really "sealed".

If you and a friend can each build a sealed deck and then play each other over the net...I can't imagine how much time I might spend with this.

How about some Planeswalkers cards for your decks?

And--the only feature everyone's been asking for this whole time--how about building a deck from scratch?

Well, imho Sealed Deck is the quintessential "build a deck from scratch". But I'm a Limited player, and rarely play Constructed.

Anybody looking at the Hex kickstarter? I'm gonna bite, I just don't know how hard yet. Looks like a great evolution to the whole CCG 'thing'.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:

Anybody looking at the Hex kickstarter? I'm gonna bite, I just don't know how hard yet. Looks like a great evolution to the whole CCG 'thing'.

Christ... there are too many enterprising people out there wanting my money. First SolForge, then Infinity Wars and now this. They all look fantastic and my wallet weeps bitter sweet tears of joy.

I will pick up Magic 2014 no matter what. M:TG has gotten its hooks into me but good and the Duels games are my only means of playing it regularly... besides using Forge which is still marvelous as a quick deck testing tool.

On the note of playing regularly: if anyone is interested in duelling on Magic 2012 (Steam) or OCTGN please feel free to send me a PM. I know OCTGN recently did a major overhaul so getting the client updated and reinstalling all the card sets is quite the process. I still have yet to play a match on that thing.

I was late to the party on Magic 2012 and really just got it to tide me over until 2014. I actually like it a lot more than the 2013 edition.

Maclintok wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:

Anybody looking at the Hex kickstarter? I'm gonna bite, I just don't know how hard yet. Looks like a great evolution to the whole CCG 'thing'.

Christ... there are too many enterprising people out there wanting my money. First SolForge, then Infinity Wars and now this. They all look fantastic and my wallet weeps bitter sweet tears of joy.

Tell me about it, but I'm more worried about my time.

I've been clean from the WoWCrack for several years now. We had some good times, and I'm sure I'll try an MMO again someday.

Lately, I've been playing so much Magic Online that I realized recently that it has become almost an automatic way for me to spend an evening if I don't have something else to do - kind of like WoW used to be.

AND NOW SOME BASTARD IS MAKING AN MMOCCG!

Penny Arcade had it right on Friday. This is a danger to our way of life.

...in happier news, my wife has been playing DotP lately, which will hopefully lead to us playing Magic together soon.

A bit more info on DotP sealed from the WOTC forums:

"Hi! I wanted to provide further explanation on how the Sealed Campaign will work in Magic 2014 – Duels of the Planeswalkers:

The game will come with two available slots for players to start Sealed Campaigns. These slots will keep all the deck edits and additions you make, plus your progress though the Sealed Deck Campaign. If you’d like to save more than two Sealed Decks, additional slots can be purchased for $1.99 each, and each slot will give you access to a different pool of cards and allows you to unlock different boosters. All Booster Packs use cards from a 180+ card “set” that’s unique to the game. To begin a Campaign, players will pick an open slot and get six 14-card Booster Packs to open. Players are then taken to the Deck Editor so they can create a 40-card Sealed Deck out of the 84 card pool they’ve opened (plus Basic Lands).

When finished creating a deck, players can then battle their way through the Sealed Deck Campaign in order to unlock an additional three Booster Packs along the way. At the end of the Campaign there will be a boss fight where the player will play to defeat another Sealed Deck. You can also use your Sealed Decks to play against other players."

I'm cautiously excited, largely dependent on how the microtransaction wrinkle pans out.

EDIT - I guess rookies can't hyperlink? Forum thread is here: http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Maclintok wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:

Anybody looking at the Hex kickstarter? I'm gonna bite, I just don't know how hard yet. Looks like a great evolution to the whole CCG 'thing'.

Christ... there are too many enterprising people out there wanting my money. First SolForge, then Infinity Wars and now this. They all look fantastic and my wallet weeps bitter sweet tears of joy.

Tell me about it, but I'm more worried about my time.

I've been clean from the WoWCrack for several years now. We had some good times, and I'm sure I'll try an MMO again someday.

Lately, I've been playing so much Magic Online that I realized recently that it has become almost an automatic way for me to spend an evening if I don't have something else to do - kind of like WoW used to be.

AND NOW SOME BASTARD IS MAKING AN MMOCCG!

Penny Arcade had it right on Friday. This is a danger to our way of life.

...in happier news, my wife has been playing DotP lately, which will hopefully lead to us playing Magic together soon.

I created a thread on HEX hoping to get responses from the goodjer community.

I managed to snag the King $90 pledge level, but have been going back and forth whether or not I should hold on to it. If I decide to back out, I can perhaps hold on to it for another Goodjer.

Right now, the daily emails I'm getting about HEX which differentiates itself is really persuading me to keep my pledge.

I'm kind of nonplussed about doing a sealed deck (84 cards) from a pool of 180 cards. A full-size set these days is around 250 cards; hopefully, there will still be enough variety to be interesting.

Still, it's a fantastic direction for DotP to be moving in.

Going to sit out. Hopefully they have constructed decks in 2015.

I'll wait and see some review comments before I jump in on 2014, but I'm afraid that Hex kickstarter is going to get me. Ah well, money is for spending.