Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 (from here on in called Magic 2015) is the latest iteration of Stainless Software’s attempt to bring Magic The Gathering: The Card Game (from now on referred to as simply MTG) to screens. Whilst the previous versions were well received, the game has never been without its faults, with often fun features from one version cut and replaced with others of questionable value, and some design decisions which made the game somewhat unwieldy.

Until this year, Stainless could kind of rest on their laurels, as there was no real competitor. The previous “official” MTG games before Stainless were atrocious messes which completely ignored the card aspect altogether, or were woefully inadequate for playing online against others. Other Collectable Card Games (CCG) which were brought to screens were ok, but none could hope to match the complexity and artwork Wizards of the Coast brought the MTG series, nor have the polish Stainless brought to the screen versions.

But this year Magic 2015 has a competitor. Blizzard’s Hearthstone has leapt onto screen and into gamer’s hearts (and wallets) with an unexpected ferocity. When it was first announced Blizzard were going to a CCG the internet collectively went “wha!?” Little did we know that Blizzard not only had a completely serviceable online CCG in terms of playability, but that the humour and style of the Warcraft universe would be so suited to this new way of playing together. And Blizzard’s amazing understanding of gamer attitudes to multiplayer matches and buying items online created a fantastic and fair system for people to compete on an even level.

Magic 2015 starts you with the tutorial, even if you’ve played before and know the rules of the game quite well, you can’t skip it. For those who have never played Magic and reading this, you play the game with a deck of cards classed into 2 major types – land and spells. Lands grant you mana, in which you use to cast spells. Spells include Creatures, Artefacts, Instants, Sorcery and Enchantments. Each type of spell can only be used at particular points in a round. The tutorial walks you through all this, and for total beginners it’s really quite useful, but it doesn’t introduce you to any of the new types of cards and combinations that the new 2015 card set brings, so in that respect it’s annoying to be forced to play it.

After playing through it, you get to choose a deck of two colours. These starter decks are not unlike the starter decks they offer at expos and in stores. They’re functional and work reasonably well to play, with a usual spread of decent monsters and other spells. What it doesn’t provide are any special land cards, nor any artefact cards. There are some cards which work in good combination, but on the whole these decks are based around getting creatures out and killing your opponent before they kill you.

The real joy of MTG comes from deck building. Getting the right kind of cards and combinations that make your deck really competitive when playing with others. Whilst the deck builder in Magic 2015 is quite good, allowing you to see all your cards, filter by colour and type and so on, there is a real issue with this usually great part of the game this year. In previous Magic games, as you progressed in the game, battling various planeswalkers in the story mode, you’d unlock their decks to play with. This year, however, you’re not rewarded decks to play with, only booster packs. The issue this brings is you’re locked into a decision which you might regret. For example, I started with the Black / Blue deck and I found it rather weak, but because you only unlock boosters when playing through, I found I couldn’t change my deck around too much and felt like I was stuck.

The solution to this this time around is to grind through the “explore” mode, which is indeed a grind and just feels like a pointless add on to destroy your time and force you to buy cards, or to opt into the monetisation method and buy more boosters. Whilst this is precisely the same method of monetisation for the physical card game, it works because you can sell or trade cards you don’t want with other players. With Magic 2015 being digital and not offering a way to trade, it really becomes a matter of “he who spends the most money wins”. Even though the boosters are cheap, you have to spend about $20 on them to be assured of the cards you really need to flesh out your deck to truly competitive levels.

Previous Magic games gave us other modes, like the two headed Giant mode, Revenge, and Arch Enemy modes. All these modes are conspicuously absent, meaning the replayability comes purely from the online mode. As someone who doesn’t like online games and usually only plays with friends, this is a real head scratcher of a decision. These previous modes were fun, and although they swapped them out one year to the next, removing them altogether just seems like a stupid and ultimately a brand damaging decision.

Lastly and something I find most surprising is the game itself is drab. The menus are really plain and need a lot of clicks and swipes to get through, and quite often become unresponsive. The sound will stutter as different areas load, and overall it’s doesn’t feel technically competent. The cards themselves are amazing and feature some true greats of the fantasy world illustrating them, but this amazing artwork that used to adorn the loading screens and story screens has been replaced by black and white images. These images are still great, but they’re not really helping to sell the brand. Considering the amazing artwork on the cards, it seems a shame not to see them in the game wherever possible.

Conclusion:
Maybe Stainless couldn’t cope with making this game work on all platforms. Maybe there were design decisions and issues between them and Wizards of the Coast. Maybe we’ve been spoiled by Hearthstone. For whatever reason, Magic 2015 feels unfinished. When they could have re-skinned Magic 2014 and just added more cards and would have fans flocking to play, taking away modes and adding in questionable monetisation methods means many fans are going to be disappointed, and will be hesitant to pick it up again next year.

Pros:
Great looking cards as usual.
Great tutorial for new players
Deck Builder is really robust.

Cons:
Unpolished interface
Removal of some of the cool modes of previous games
Questionable monetisation strategy

60/100