Magic Duels - Origins, MtG F2P on Steam

I've been addicted to Hearthstone for about a year and a half now but I still enjoy some MTG every now and then. Looks like the Duels of the Planeswalker series is being replaced with a F2P version on Steam by the end of this month. It'll include deck building + all content will be unlockable by grinding similar to Hearthstone.

They plan to have expansions every 3 months that coincide with their paper expansions.

Enter the world’s most popular strategy game with Magic Duels™ Origins, an all-new, free-to-play digital experience. Build powerful decks from an ever-growing collection of earnable cards, and sharpen your skills in a variety of unique solo and multiplayer modes. Begin your adventure here!

•Improved Deck Builder with step-by-step deck construction guidance
•First-ever playable Planeswalker cards
•Solo Battle mode featuring virtually endless AI opponents
•Expanded multiplayer options, including Two-Headed Giant mode
•Quest system with new individual and community challenges every week
•Limitless Free-to-Play with 100% earnable content
•All-new Skill Quest tutorial system

My most anticipated game for 2015!

1 Booster costs 150 gold = which you can earn through 10 Hard difficulty solo battles or 30 easy. No news on MP gold rate.
Each planeswalker's story nets 150 gold as well, there are 5 such stories.

Speaking of planeswalkers, Nissa looks awesome (in terms of power). I think my first builds will be Boros (reknown?) or Golgari Elves

The quests will be fun. It looks a ton like the Heathstone system through and through. I'm fine with that.

Still don't understand what this skill quest thing is but I think you can get decent gold from it.

Black Barney wrote: Still don't understand what this skill quest thing is but I think you can get decent gold from it.

I've got a beta test version of this. The Skill Quests are just mini-games you can play that teach you aspects of the rules. If you know the game they're not just annoying but a positive waste of time. And you have to sit through some of them before you can get access to the main game.

Aside from that, a couple of hours in and it's pretty ace. Best digital version of Magic since Shandalar. That said, I still think that Magic's turn structure is fundametally clunky played online, with all those wait timers for interrupts and such. But if you want to play online, this is going to be the way to go.

Thanks Matt.

What was Shandalar? Which year was that?

If you get gold from the skill quests, I bet they're tolerable. They better pay out stuff for that.

Oh I noticed the OP didn't put the release dates:

July 8 for iOS
July 15 for Xbox One & Steam (PC)
August for PS4

Black Barney wrote: What was Shandalar? Which year was that?

It was way before the current Duels of the Planeswalkers iterations, back in 1997:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_(MicroProse)

There's a freeware update of it with some more modern cards here, although I've never tried it:

www.slightlymagic.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=25

I really like Hearthstone, but Magic in a f2p format similar to HS? Sign me the hell up! I've already removed HS from my tablet and phone, so I'm not playing that on mobile. Also, can't wait to the pre-release of Origins this Friday night!

Awesome news. I liked Hearthstone but I really liked it's business model. I enjoyed Hearthstone's simplicity but for some reason I couldn't get into it like I can Magic.

And yet I *STILL* can't find information anywhere that says if if I can use my collection cross-platform. (or just link my account.)

I *will* put some real money into this if I can. I absolutely won't if I can't.

you can't carry your collection cross-platform

just play for free like the rest of us

No support for my ipad 2, I'm getting left behind

WOW...after Hearthstone, this game is sssssssllllllllllloooooooooowwwwwwww. Endless animations of cards floating around, "skill quests" to teach you how to tap a land, an interface that is NOT smartphone friendly because you have to zoom in on cards to even see their costs...I was excited, now I'm about to free up 1.2 GB on my phone.

the execution on iOS has ALWAYS been bad for these Duels games. It runs smooth as silk on Xbox One but I was always shocked with how difficult it is to play on iPad.

It's also their first time trying smartphone, which I think is a mistake for a game like this.

Barnes, you can turn off animations and I suggest you do. Even if the animations were smooth, they're still annoying.

Skill Quests are necessary since this is a gateway game (it's not Magic Online). Everyone complains about them the first time through but they net you a bunch of gold so they're worth the pain.

The game isn't going to get good until you start going through the 5 campaigns. Once that is over, you have a ton of unlocked cards and a bunch of gold for boosters. Now you can start having a serious look at your collection and deciding which decks to build (I suggest elves or boros reknown maybe).

My buddy has iPad 3 and is devastated that this doesn't run on it.

Can't wait for my Xbox One release next Wednesday!

Barnes, you think you might play on Steam or PS4 instead?

I might try it on PS4...but no cross-platform for your collection? That blows.

yeah, it's a big complaint.

What's your phone? I hear it runs great on iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S. Is your phone just an iPhone 5?

Might as well try it on PS4 next month. It's free!