[MTG] Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

I can see MtG: DotP 2013 is on Steam sale now (at least in Europe). They have the vanilla game, Gold Edition with Expansion and 3 Deck Packs added, and a Complete Bundle with all kinds of DLC (too much to list).

I'm not sure I understand the Deck Packs - are these brand new decks, or rather decks that are unlockable in the base game?

I did play DotP 2012, so I am considering the upgrade to 2013 now.

Outlandish wrote:

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.

Join ussssss....

MsbS wrote:

I can see MtG: DotP 2013 is on Steam sale now (at least in Europe). They have the vanilla game, Gold Edition with Expansion and 3 Deck Packs added, and a Complete Bundle with all kinds of DLC (too much to list).

I'm not sure I understand the Deck Packs - are these brand new decks, or rather decks that are unlockable in the base game?

I did play DotP 2012, so I am considering the upgrade to 2013 now.

The Deck Packs are brand new decks. Basically expansions, but without adding an extra "expansion" section to the campaign.

hbi2k wrote:

The Deck Packs are brand new decks. Basically expansions, but without adding an extra "expansion" section to the campaign.

Thanks! Got the Gold pack after all. The 'Foil conversions' and 'Deck unlocks' in the Complete Bundle sounded pretty pointless (and costed around 5-6 bucks extra too).

So, the sealed campaign will have two slots available for use, if you want to play more sealed, you need to buy additional slots for $1.99 each. Slots will not be able to be reset, so your only option is to buy. I got this information from the WotC DotP forums.

For me, this went from a must buy to a "wait for it to be on sale" ( which won't be long on Steam )

Wait, so you can only play Sealed twice, and then it costs $2 each additional time?

They really are making this a stepping stone to MTGO!

For reference, playing three rounds of sealed on MTGO with three real opponents and the prize support of (IIRC) one pack per win costs $4.

Correction: prizes are 3 packs for 1st place, one each for 2nd and 3rd.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Wait, so you can only play Sealed twice, and then it costs $2 each additional time?

They really are making this a stepping stone to MTGO!

For reference, playing three rounds of sealed on MTGO with three real opponents and the prize support of (IIRC) one pack per win costs $4.

Correction: prizes are 3 packs for 1st place, one each for 2nd and 3rd.

What format are you thinking of, Fed? I can't find any sealed events that only cost $4 and have such low prize support, or any events that pay out to the top 3.

Cragmyre wrote:

So, the sealed campaign will have two slots available for use, if you want to play more sealed, you need to buy additional slots for $1.99 each. Slots will not be able to be reset, so your only option is to buy. I got this information from the WotC DotP forums.

For me, this went from a must buy to a "wait for it to be on sale" ( which won't be long on Steam )

This isn't as outrageous as I initially thought, which was that your deck would be locked once you had constructed it from your 6-booster pool.

With a pool of 151 cards total they don't expect the longest tail for this mode so may as well monetize while the gettin's good. I can imagine milking those two default slots for a while. There's room for tuning and you never know what random sealed deck you'll face off against.

They should have went the extra step and implemented a prize schedule that awards in-game currency for Sealed wins. Prizes are after all very much in the spirit of limited tournaments. Earn enough Magic bucks to unlock a new slot... or simply give your dealer $1.99 and get your fix now. Of course they've never had in-game currency before so... one thing at a time, Stainless.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Wait, so you can only play Sealed twice, and then it costs $2 each additional time?

They really are making this a stepping stone to MTGO!

For reference, playing three rounds of sealed on MTGO with three real opponents and the prize support of (IIRC) one pack per win costs $4.

Correction: prizes are 3 packs for 1st place, one each for 2nd and 3rd.

What format are you thinking of, Fed? I can't find any sealed events that only cost $4 and have such low prize support, or any events that pay out to the top 3.

Phantom Sealed. Right now the only Phantom Sealed offered is for Gatecrash - I'm guessing they're only supporting the most recent format, except that they are lagging implementing it for the new expansion.

It's an ideal way to get a lot of practice with a particular sealed format, like if you wanted to attend Grand Prix Houston. Unfortunately, as I said, the $4 format online isn't caught up to DGM-GTC-RTR yet.

Maclintok wrote:

This isn't as outrageous as I initially thought, which was that your deck would be locked once you had constructed it from your 6-booster pool.

With a pool of 151 cards total they don't expect the longest tail for this mode so may as well monetize while the gettin's good. I can imagine milking those two default slots for a while. There's room for tuning and you never know what random sealed deck you'll face off against.

They should have went the extra step and implemented a prize schedule that awards in-game currency for Sealed wins. Prizes are after all very much in the spirit of limited tournaments. Earn enough Magic bucks to unlock a new slot... or simply give your dealer $1.99 and get your fix now. Of course they've never had in-game currency before so... one thing at a time, Stainless.

I'm interested to see how the community responds to this when it comes out. There's a lot of speculation in the WotC forums about whether there will be ways around the no-reset restriction (like reinstalling or "modding").

I'm not a fan of the microtransactions, but DotP continues to improve with each iteration so I'll take the wait-and-see attitude.

If anyone is interested, we are planning a Magic Online Sealed Deck League over here: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1...

Thanks!

Official trailer for Sealed Campaign:

Cracking pack is sort of like a religious experience in Magic. If you're not going to recapture that in the user experience at least make it look more organized and functional.

Display the cards in the sequence that you'd see them in out of a real pack. Group them together a bit based on their rarity types (with filtering toggles for colour and spell types) and put in a tagging system that pre-loads cards selected this way into the deck builder interface. Magic 2015 edition I guess!

Hey everyone,

I just downloaded and started the 2013 version of the game, and I'm wondering if anyone is around that wants to play. I was also wondering if this group has a mumble server or something like that. I just finished the single player campaign, and am working of revenge mode. But I would love to get involved with some multiplayer.

Nice! Magic 2014 release dates:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1259

After sampling previous iterations on all platforms I think I'll grab this on Steam. PC interface edges out the Xbox one just slightly.

Nice to see that it's getting an Android release this time around. Price point and features are finally converging at a point where I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on an Android tablet. I've got my eye on the Asus Memo Pad HD 7, which drops in August.

Does anyone know if there's a significant difference between purchasing through the Google Play store or the Amazon App store? I'm a total noob at this stuff.

hbi2k wrote:

Nice to see that it's getting an Android release this time around. Price point and features are finally converging at a point where I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on an Android tablet. I've got my eye on the Asus Memo Pad HD 7, which drops in August.

Does anyone know if there's a significant difference between purchasing through the Google Play store or the Amazon App store? I'm a total noob at this stuff.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, and love it. I use the Google store, but I don't think there's much difference. I do believe that updates have to be done via the store you purchased from.

As for DOTP 2014 coming to Android, I'm not sure if they're doing it the same way as 2013 on ipad, but that version was gimped and released differently than on PC/consoles. With the ipad version, you get the engine free, along with 3 decks, but additional decks are in-app purchases, and I'm not sure how much they are or what the value is compared to PC/XBLA/PSN.

Interesting. Well, since the tablet I want isn't available until August, I'll have plenty of time to get opinions on the Android version.

I'll probably go ahead and snag the Steam version in the meantime.

Maclintok wrote:

Nice! Magic 2014 release dates:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1259

After sampling previous iterations on all platforms I think I'll grab this on Steam. PC interface edges out the Xbox one just slightly.

Well that's coming up fast. I didn't realize it was this close. I've usually waited for Steam sales to pick up the yearly update, but if the draft function looks like it's catching on I may have to jump in early.

Never imagined I'd be excited enough about a new DoTP game that I'd pre-order on Steam.

2014 just dropped on Steam. Some thoughts:

* Shouldn't have preordered. The preorder bonus is getting the Chandra deck completely unlocked, but half the fun is unlocking cards through play.

* Performance seems a little snappier. For some reason 2013 would often "hang" in between turns or phases, even if there was obviously nothing the AI could do.

* The menu interface is actually decent for PC players for once.

* The UI now displays how many cards each player has in their graveyards, and there's a separate little stack for exiled cards next to the graveyard. It's the small touches.

* Oh, good, encounters are back. The feature whose return was clamored for by no one.

* Ha ha ha, cute, they're trying to have a story. SKIP!

I wish I had pre-ordered, for a free deck. Doing the tutorial to unlock Chandra was a pain.

Holy crap. I was down 43-3 to Liliana in sealed, and came back to win 2 to -12.

Have a weird deck right now with the Serra Angel that makes another permanent indestructible, and I have two blue Clone creatures. So I get a nice little chain of 2-3 indestructible units and go to town.

Stele wrote:

I wish I had pre-ordered, for a free deck. Doing the tutorial to unlock Chandra was a pain.

Oh, wow, you had to click through the dumb tutorial to unlock Chandra? All I had to do was click the "fight Chandra" button and defeat her. Never mind, I withdraw my complaint.

Yo, WotC, there are a bunch of us who buy these games every year. We know how to play Magic already.

hbi2k wrote:
Stele wrote:

I wish I had pre-ordered, for a free deck. Doing the tutorial to unlock Chandra was a pain.

Oh, wow, you had to click through the dumb tutorial to unlock Chandra? All I had to do was click the "fight Chandra" button and defeat her. Never mind, I withdraw my complaint.

Yo, WotC, there are a bunch of us who buy these games every year. We know how to play Magic already.

Oh no I don't think you had to do all the steps, just fight Chandra. But the tutorial fight vs her was a pain with only the green starter deck. And there was no achievement for beating the tutorial, or Chandra. The only thing you got for it was Chandra's deck. So if you pre-ordered, you saved yourself some time by having the deck already and not needing to ever click into Tutorial menu.

Don't mean to derail the discussion but I posted a dedicated thread for Magic 2014 here:

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/115324

Cheers!

My god, this game could be so great if it wasn't for the goddam land. Either you're getting none, the wrong sort, or you're choked with it.

Today was fighting Vampires with the white-red deck in Magic 2012. I'm up 45-7 life with no creatures on the board. Then I hit a land pocket. Huge. Seven turns later I'm dead because I cannot draw a creature or an offensive spell to (literally) save my life. Of the last fifteen games I've played in the campaign, half of them have had some variant of land problems leading to a loss.

Good thing other games have evolved in the last 20 years. Too bad there's no way to solve this issue within the context of the actual game, however.

Land balance is part of the strategic planning that goes into your deck.

I've noticed lots of folks in multiplayer running >60 card decks. When you win a match and unlock a card, it's auto-added to your deck, thereby diluting your mana.

I actually rage quit this game because it wouldn't let me use my Enchant Creature spells on Jace's creatures (who have "when this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sack it").

Top_Shelf wrote:

I actually rage quit this game because it wouldn't let me use my Enchant Creature spells on Jace's creatures (who have "when this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sack it").

I believe there's a setting in options that allows you to do that. Look for a checkbox for something like "simplified targeting." It's turned on by default and it prevents you from doing things that (the computer thinks) are against your interests, like targeting enemy creatures with beneficial spells or targeting your own creatures with harmful ones.

Oh, cool. I'll look for it. Thanks!