[MTG] Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015

From the official Wizards DoTP web page:

Hunt Bigger Game this year with Magic 2015—Duels of the Planeswalkers and discover a number of cool new things:

Be at the heart of the story: Players will find themselves dropped into the wilderness at the heart of the story: You’re not just on Garruk’s list—you’re next. The Curse of the Chain Veil has corrupted Garruk’s body and soul. His skin has paled, his flesh struck through with blackened veins. His hunter’s instinct has turned away from beasts of the wild toward the ultimate quarry—Planeswalkers! You will have to confront the deadliest hunter in the Multiverse. But, how will you defeat Garruk before he finds you?

Full, Open-Ended Deck Building: Players can build their own collection of cards to create any style of deck they want.

Platforms: It will be available on Xbox One, Xbox LIVE Arcade, iPad, PC via Steam, Android tablet via Amazon App Store and Google Play.

New Content: Five planes to explore and exciting virtual booster packs.

Single and Multiplayer: Battle the AI or your friends with your fully customized decks.

New Cards: Magic 2015—Duels of the Planeswalkers will feature some of the hottest cards from Magic 2015.

Launch Date: Coming soon in 2014!

More information

IGN Preview

Excited! So the massive news here is full deck building for the first time in a Duels game. I'm curious what the size of the card pool is. I've heard anywhere from a few hundred to up to a thousand cards (unlikely).

And they have a release date: July 18, 2014. Same date as the release of M15 core set.

Oh no. I have 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Maclintok wrote:

Full, Open-Ended Deck Building: Players can build their own collection of cards to create any style of deck they want.

It looks like I'm buying 2015, too.

I ended up buying 2014 twice, so I'll probably get this next one at least once. Then again the Scavenging Ooze card that came in the physical booster pack for D14 was worth about as much as the game cost, so it wasn't a hard sell...

I thought I'd read what rares the D15 promo packs would have, but I can't remember and it doesn't seem to be in any of the links here...

This year's installment was completely off my radar until I looked at my calendar a week or so after E3 and thought to myself: hey, hasn't it been nearly a year since 2014 came out? Turns out they did some quiet previews here and there... but I did expect them to sound the trumpets a little harder this time out.

This is change to free form deck building is a bit of a big deal for the series. No doubt it is a reaction to Hearthstone and the smaller players who have barged onto the digital CCG scene. I for one am glad the competition has forced them to rethink their digital game strategy somewhat. But what is that strategy?

More microtransactions of course. But continuity between 2015 and all future releases of Duels that feature deck building? Probably not. Also an introduction of two types of booster packs. Those that are earned by playing the game and premium packs (with a guaranteed Mythic pull I'm sure). They have shown some consideration of pay-to-win behaviour possibly ruining the fun for casual players so they are tuning the rules for deck building:

4 max. of any Common
3 max. of any Uncommon
2 max. of any Rare
1 max. of any Legendary

No mention of any crafting system to get some value out of duplicate rares so it appears Stainless Games is yet again coming in strong with good intentions but incomplete execution. Looking forward to 2016!

For the first time in this series I am also extremely indecisive on which version I want to go with. With the focus on acquiring boosters I feel like I want to avoid the Steam version with all the tampering that's gone on with previous installments. That leaves the XBLA or iOS versions. I've long been weaning myself off further digital purchases for my 360. I would love to play this on my iPad but from a casual glance it looks like the least supported version? The reviews for Duels 2014 are filled with complaints of crashes even months after release.

Soon: Magic 2025, coming in 2018.

Malor wrote:

Soon: Magic 2025, coming in 2018.

This joke ©2009 when Magic 2010 was released.

Such is the curse of a summer release that's supposed to last all year... apparently their market research said their sales would drop drastically come January if the current set was sporting last year's number.

A running, speculative card list for this year's game.

http://community.wizards.com/forum/mtg-duels-planeswalkers/threads/4104891

In regards to the total card pool there is still much confusion (at least from me) on whether we're going to see 300 cards or more. The Steam store page touts 5 "collections":

Innistrad
Theros
Ravnica
Shandalar
Zendikar

It's looking like it will be a small, curated sample taken from the paper game equivalent sets. A 300-card offering seems a bit small, especially with the new deck construction rules of 4/3/2/1. Then again, the Duels series has never made it a habit of going full out on features/content seeing as they need room to iterate for each yearly release.

As much as I love these games and have bought every iteration, the decision to not include 2HG in this years version has made me not one to buy it. The group of 4 I play this with would spend hours on Friday/Saturday night playing 2hg in various pairings and not being able to do that just makes me sad.

MrAndrewJ wrote:

Oh no. I have 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Maclintok wrote:

Full, Open-Ended Deck Building: Players can build their own collection of cards to create any style of deck they want.

It looks like I'm buying 2015, too.

Yeah same boat. I just told my friend last week there was no way I was buying it again for locked decks the way they have had it the last couple years. And yet, now they are finally letting you build your own.

Hm...

Didn't even realize this popped onto the App Store on the 9th. Downloading now!

Maclintok wrote:

They have shown some consideration of pay-to-win behaviour possibly ruining the fun for casual players so they are tuning the rules for deck building:

4 max. of any Common
3 max. of any Uncommon
2 max. of any Rare
1 max. of any Legendary

No mention of any crafting system to get some value out of duplicate rares so it appears Stainless Games is yet again coming in strong with good intentions but incomplete execution. Looking forward to 2016! :D

Just thought I'd clarify that point about crafting. They don't need it since any card that you've obtained the maximum number of copies for is now effectively taken out of the random drop table whenever you open new booster packs. This of course makes a lot of sense and has the added benefit of upping your chances of pulling a brand new card with each successive pack.

I have to say that I HATE the menu system for this game (playing on IPAD). Give me a normal menu list please!!! These fancy interfaces are only made to do one thing and that is to ANNOY!!

KramNesnah wrote:

I have to say that I HATE the menu system for this game (playing on IPAD). Give me a normal menu list please!!! These fancy interfaces are only made to do one thing and that is to ANNOY!!

Oh, their front end is horrid. It's like we went back in time to the advent of Flash web sites. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to reveal only one button label at a time.

Maclintok wrote:
KramNesnah wrote:

I have to say that I HATE the menu system for this game (playing on IPAD). Give me a normal menu list please!!! These fancy interfaces are only made to do one thing and that is to ANNOY!!

Oh, their front end is horrid. It's like we went back in time to the advent of Flash web sites. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to reveal only one button label at a time.

Even worse than 2012 (PC), where they didn't modify the menu from the console release?

So, what are the impressions from the few that have tried 2015? I like Magic, I like the basic additions they've had since the first DotP, but they also seem to (always) make quite a bit of mistakes, or weird decisions.

I think they sandbag it, each year, to try to get you to play the big brother version.

Be at the heart of the story: Players will find themselves dropped into the wilderness at the heart of the story: You’re not just on Garruk’s list—you’re next. The Curse of the Chain Veil has corrupted Garruk’s body and soul. His skin has paled, his flesh struck through with blackened veins. His hunter’s instinct has turned away from beasts of the wild toward the ultimate quarry—Planeswalkers! You will have to confront the deadliest hunter in the Multiverse. But, how will you defeat Garruk before he finds you?

I guess that means nothing, but I had a faint hope that this meant that we had a Shandalar-esque mode in the game where there was an open world single-player RPG aspect with quests/exploration/dialog/loot/shops/etc., but that's probably not the case.

No, no its not the case. Just a series of 'missions' and several of those.

cyrax wrote:
Maclintok wrote:
KramNesnah wrote:

I have to say that I HATE the menu system for this game (playing on IPAD). Give me a normal menu list please!!! These fancy interfaces are only made to do one thing and that is to ANNOY!!

Oh, their front end is horrid. It's like we went back in time to the advent of Flash web sites. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to reveal only one button label at a time.

Even worse than 2012 (PC), where they didn't modify the menu from the console release?

So, what are the impressions from the few that have tried 2015? I like Magic, I like the basic additions they've had since the first DotP, but they also seem to (always) make quite a bit of mistakes, or weird decisions.

I'm basically out for this version. Right now Hearthstone is scratching the itch for me.

I've played all the ftp parts of this latest version and just cannot bring myself to actually put down money for the good stuff (multiplayer). Also I just cannot get into the slow pace of the game right now. I've been playing some form of MtG since 1997 and to me it feels like I could be done.

Hearthstone has ruined MtG for me!

Edit : Aaarrrggghhh double post

cyrax wrote:
Maclintok wrote:
KramNesnah wrote:

I have to say that I HATE the menu system for this game (playing on IPAD). Give me a normal menu list please!!! These fancy interfaces are only made to do one thing and that is to ANNOY!!

Oh, their front end is horrid. It's like we went back in time to the advent of Flash web sites. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to reveal only one button label at a time.

Even worse than 2012 (PC), where they didn't modify the menu from the console release?

So, what are the impressions from the few that have tried 2015? I like Magic, I like the basic additions they've had since the first DotP, but they also seem to (always) make quite a bit of mistakes, or weird decisions.

I am still working through the campaign to unlock as many cards as I can. I like it so far and feel like I'm getting my $10 worth. The AI puts up a better fight on Normal difficulty which is a bit of a shock at the start when your starter deck is still a mash-mash of ideas.

The menus are rubbish as I already mentioned. Very pretty with lot of animations but it's also slow and cumbersome. During gameplay, the UI is fine and is nearly identical to previous versions.

The biggest omission this year is Two-Headed Giant which is a fan favourite mode. Aside from that, their biggest "mistake" is that the developers are forever constrained by the original purpose of DotP which was to be Magic-Lite for newcomers. As the feature set expands and the game becomes more robust year-to-year, the expectation grows for it to become something more... something it quite possibly has no chance of ever becoming. Understandably, people want it to be a persistent platform like Hearthstone, not some rink-a-dink downloadable title that gets played for a year before being discarded for the next iteration.

Which is to say the DotP series is in a weird place now. I can't knock them for finally adding deck building to the game but I think the writing is on the wall for WotC to spin off the DotP games into something more hardcore and full-featured or find a way to combine the MTGO and DotP experiences together into one cohesive service.

I want to get online soon and see if I meet a lot of people who sprung for premium boosters. There was a rather vocal backlash against this business model leading up to release but I will most surely see many, many decks with cards I am unable to attain through gameplay. Can anyone comment on this?

Yes, I would much rather they have a base price, or free core, that they continuously add with campaigns (Heartstone's Naxx) or expansions. They've grown the game so much that I don't agree with the annual model anymore. Maybe I wouldn't mind if a new year was a different take on Magic/DotP, but they're just constantly progressing and asking us to pay for similar content.

Ugh this game has some gnarly F2P. One campaign, aka 4 games, and then it's 5 for additional campaign and 10 for multi-player. No thanks.

To the designer who put together the Zendikar random encounter "All Out Sprint"...

Wow. So obnoxious.

Anyone buy in at the base $10 level, beat Garruk and find that they're not unlocking boosters anymore?

I wonder if that is the game's way of pushing players to go online. I was hoping to unlock a few more card copies before hopping into versus but this will have to do.

Is anyone playing online? How has your experience so far?

The iOS version occasionally has problems jumping into matchmaking or is slow to find an opponent. I have been having decent success with my Vampire deck and maybe not all that surprised to find many G/W weenie or straight up Goblin decks out there in the wild.

If anyone would like to friend me up on Game Center to duel my id there is also Maclintok.

Happy spell slinging!

This looks like such a disaster. I guess they decided they weren't making enough money, and decided to make even more cash-grabby than it already was.

Devs: anytime you're charging per fun, you're screwing up your game.

Is there a thread started for this year's Duels iteration? I did a quick forum search, but came up empty.

I skipped Duels 2015, but the PR coming out of E3 for Duels: Origins has me interested. Every digital incarnation of Magic has overpromised and underdelivered, but I think I'll probably give it another shot when Origins releases.

And supposedly Origins is it - they will add cards/packs/precons? as DLC instead of coming out with a new version every year.

Yeah Origins is on my radar but I haven't played Duels 2015 in months so creating a catch-all for the new game wasn't on my mind... until now!

It will be great if this is truly a persistent platform that they keep building on. Always seems like they are trying to reinvent the wheel a bit much with each yearly release... with net positive results I'll admit but really I'm hoping for a more expansive card pool and a way to really invest in something that won't just flip after 12 months.