I enjoyed Duels 2015, and I still play it occasionally. There were definitely a lot of bugs, but not any game-breaking ones(at least when I started playing). I tried the new one, and I just couldn't take it. It felt so clunky and buggy. I am very appreciative this article has been written.

I've only owned the Magic2015 version (because I was told it was the best one), but even then I see your complaints. That has been the only one I've been exposed to, yet it still felt mediocre and couldn't compare to the real game. These are valid points, but I'm afraid that Wizards isn't needy enough yet to listen to us--They'll keep having their cake and eating it too, as long as we keep buying these games.

To be fair, though, I would walk straight away from the franchise if they made it subscription based. I'm for buying games, not leasing them.

To be fair right back, did you buy each year's rehash? A subscription fee that I suggested would be nothing more than buying a new Duels and the DLC deck packs each year like we all did beforehand.

Not sure if it's clear from the article, but the stated intent of the development team is to only release patches during content updates. So, a lot of existent problems (the big priority bug among them) are not going to be addressed until Eldritch Moon releases. This is pretty annoying.

I'd guess it has to do with the game being on iOS. I've heard they have a pretty expensive testing/release process, that makes updating expensive for a company with thin margins, but I don't know where to find data to back this up so it could just be an excuse some small developers use. I've seen as many that update routinely as those that don't.

Archangel of Tithes is actually going to be rotated out to be replaced with something (last I heard what was not decided yet- that may have changed). The reason isn't balance though, it's because they can't get the card to work right. In case you were wondering what you're looking at with Duels, perhaps?

That said, based on what I've seen, Hearthstone's got an even steeper grind.

I really do wish theyd fix Duels. I played it a good bit back before I could afford to jump into paper magic again, since it was a decent deal to buy a coin pack each week, even cheaper thana weekly draft. I'm really sad to see the game in the shape its been in, and even sadder to see so little being done about it.

I hate to be a nay sayer but I wouldn't hold your breath for any repair to the online games. I have Duels for the computer, through Steam. With the death of Modern in Pro Tours, Wizards is simply locking down the franchise to be controlled by them, not the players. This post just further cements this belief of mine, into my mind and is also why I see player created formats rising up and eventually overtaking the formats that Wizards has, while simply using WoTC pro tours for the only thing they'll be good for now: free cards.

What does this translate to for Duels? Simple: If it's not going to make WoTC money, in the same way it does with the paper cards, they don't care. Their amount of concern for the project is evident by the gaming company they chose to create and maintain the project.

You should look into Microprose's M:TG computer game from 1997.

I mentioned it in the beginning of this article. :P

Excellent article zandl.

My friends and I used to really enjoy multiplayer games with four of us, 2HG, and Archenemy.

Removing 2HG from the game for one year basically stopped us playing it.

Personally I'd rather pay for a fully unlocked version of the game than grind away to avoid micro transactions.

Story Time! I got started in Magic playing the Duels 2013 on Xbox 360. I only actually played it because it was one of the free games with gold xbox offers bi monthly, and I figured, why the hell not. I got in with low expectations, but I discovered a deceptively deep and intuitive game, and that was only Duels... Imagine how I felt when I was exposed to actually building decks.

Unfortunately, I feel as though my story is fairly uncommon one. One of my best friends is not a Magic player, he'd never been exposed to it and his first experience with it was... well you'll see. 2 years ago or myself and another friend were just getting started into paper magic and were playing pretty frequently casually. He saw us play and got curious, and decided to download Magic 2015. Had I known at the time, I would have dissuaded him from doing so, for 1 simple reason. Magic Duels of the Planeswalkers can be an excellent game if people have absolutely no Magic experience but enjoy that type of game and may want to get started in Magic, or for experienced players who just want casual games of Magic when you don't feel like having to do all the more tedious aspects of Magic. But Magic Duels 2015 was... problematic. It had a mandatory tutorial that was just horrible, like mind numbingly bad. It just bombards you with information, rigid learning, and tons of game mechanics before you can do anything else. In fact, you're given the choice of a deck... that you cannot change. You're stuck with it. And if you have trouble in the tutorial because it sucks at explaining something? Whelp sucks for you, the entire game you paid for is blocked until you progress through it.

So my friend quit. He quit after the third tutorial duel because he was overwhelmed with information, he was forced into something he had no experience with, and (most importantly)... he was bored. And that one 15 minute experience completely turned him off to Magic, at all. And I'm sure that many others have had the exact same experience.

And it saddens me, because I completely understand where he is coming from. I played the same tutorial, it sucked. But I knew what I was doing so I could at least blaze through it, and get to the other side.

WOTC has opted to simply create a game series that acts as a revenue source. Its almost as if they saw an empty slot in their portfolio and said, "Screw it, one more thing to slap a label on". I know they have the capacity to make an amazing game... because they are WOTC. It's literally their claim to fame. So why they decided to simply phone in Magic Duels I will never understand, because, like so many other things that aren't Standard, it felt like they half assed an attempt to assauge their fanbase. The most unfortunate part of the whole thing is that, Magic Duels could be so much more. It could be the perfect answer to people who want to start learning Magic, It could be a perfect fit for people who just want to get a game or two in casually. It has the potential to perfect the trifecta of Paper-Online-Duels... and yet I doubt it ever will. And based their past performance, that's a pretty fucking safe bet.

I have only played the first two installments of the game, neither for very long, and no bugs I can really remember. I have fond memories of the puzzles that were included in one of them (where you had to win the game from a pre-determined setup within a turn or two), but that's because I think it's strictly a single-player game, as it doesn't solve everything that's needed for a proper MTG player-vs-player-experience. I've seen it as a promotional tool that was meant to teach new players how to play the game, never as a substitute for the real deal, and I don't think it ever was intended to be that, as MTGO is.

That being said, my primary annoyance is the inaccuracy of things, most of all the denotation of damage as "reduction of toughness". I'm not sure if it's still present in recent installments, but I know it caused a lot of confusion regarding that topic in the paper world.

But all in all (and again, based on the few games of the series I played), I don't think the game was intended to or would ever be an equivalent to the paper game. It was developed for a mass audience with just enough money and thought behind it to make it not suck. I guess the best light to view it in is as a spin-off of the game, doing it's own thing and having it's own qualities. Of course, whoever doesn't know both ends won't see the features of either, and will blame the digital game's problems on the paper game as well, which isn't something WotC likely wants (which would be where the fact sets in that at the end of the day, they care about making a profit, not making the gaming world a better place).

I really hope that somebody important at WotC reads this article - however unlikely that may be. I would love to be able (maybe 'able' is the wrong word - but I just can't bring myself to play a game that crashes so often) to play magic duels but the releases I've seen were all hugely buggy and lag-inducing. Until WotC do release a decent (mobile) version, I'll just be sticking with Hearthstone and paper magic.

I played all duels titles. I hate them. For all the reasons above and more. even the first mtgo client wasnt as bad (ohh it was bad, but it was playable) imo. Steam should have listed the duels titles under indy games & early access

To be a little less negative: I do like that Duels lets you play against the AI. I don't know of anywhere else I can play an AI at MTG.

I do wish the AI had more coherent strategies. The current incarnation of Duels, it uses random decks, but they often lack solid strategies. In previous incarnations, it always used prescripted decks that had definite strategies and better cohesion. Among these were some fun gimmicky ones, for example. It's unfortunate they can't find some middle ground for it (like having it be 50/50 prescripted or random deck, or having the scripted decks have random card slots, etc).

Great Article!

Concerning Duels, I play regularly. I also see a lot of bugs, and then I report them to Wizards, and they just say "oh yea, we will fix that in Eldritch Moon". It looks like the game will go with the same pattern: Release, tons of bugs, fixed in release, tons of new bugs, and so on. Some other bad parts included me forcing to continue a match against an opponent after they conceded and me getting underpaid coins. I am not surprised that Wizards chose mediocrity at our own expense, I mean, they sell copyrighted cardboard, right? But if they had the ingenuity, they could have pulled this one right and made it the "beginner's intro" that they wanted it to be. Wizards wanted beginners to play duels. How would the Beginners feel when their experience is bug-filled and unbalanced. I do not understand why they removed some card from duels either. Without the entire sets of everything, just play a planeswalker and win. I remember when I got a perfect hand in a match, started off well. Then the opponent dropped Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and I could not get rid of it. I lost.

But again, really great article. Maybe you should next do an article on why the site administrators need to add article +1-ing.

yea, they're already working on a new game.

http://toucharcade.com/2016/03/08/magic-digital-next-aims-to-bridge-the-divide-between-magic-online-and-magic-duels/

Also nobu_the_bard on Archangel of Tithes, Wizards said they would replace her with a similar card. Anyone else wanna see if Ghostly Prison can get broken?

I've played every iteration of DotP, and the franchise lost me when deckbuilding went from the original locked-down model to the current open model. I got a lot of fun out of learning each deck, unlocking all the cards for them, and figuring out some of the more interesting ways they could be customized. Then I would take them to online matches and have more fun seeing what other people had done with their decks. Even though I went through the process of unlocking all the cards in Duels 2015 (including buying the Premium boosters before WotC realized what an idiot idea that was and made them free), I only ended up building about 3-4 decks and then I was done.

As it stands right now, with the open deckbuilding and free-to-play with microtransactions business model, Duels is basically a crappy MtGO. I prefer to put my Magic funds into the paper version of the game, so I wouldn't even go for playing regular MtGO, much less a worse version. In the current Duels game I've played through the single-player campaigns, did a bit of AI grinding before I got sick of the stupid and clunky quests, and played just a couple of online matches before I realized how awful my card pool was and gave up.

It used to be that WotC could count on me to lay out however much money each year for the new version of Duels, but under the current system I can't see myself spending any more than $0. If they went back to the old system I would be all up on it.

I play this game somewhat regularly still. The amount of money I've spent on it? $0. I once sat and stared, drooling, at the $25 coin option and just imagined how many cards I could get all at once. The thing that stopped me? I asked myself, "Do they deserve $25 for this game?"

Then I backed out of the store and continued to grind at their expense.

They are making a third online game to fill the gap between duels and magic online, I don't think we can expect to see any improvements whatsoever to magic duels as far as player support. Wizards has stated that duels will be marketed towards the very newest of players, if you have any magic experience whatsoever I wouldn't advise investing in this version of online magic, rather get into MTGO or wait for the next non-competitive version of magic to be released

Magic's idea of filling the gap between Duels and Magic:

Step 1: Make it so you have to buy cards.

Step 2: Charge 5 bucks to start.

Step 3: Make it look like it came from Windows xp.

I stopped playing it because I can count on my 1 hand how many times I've gotten the multiplayer que to actually find me a game on my xbone. That and never being able to play the card exiled by Abbot because it skips my priority after i play him.

So I bought the M15 duals because I was just learning how to play with my friends and a computer game that showed each step and phase explicitly while starting you with a very basic deck really helped me learn the rules and even introduced some lore, but once I had learned how to play I had no desire to return. I like paper magic because I like owning physical cards and it's a social experience. The appeal of MTGO is you can find a match anytime for any format really. between the 2, I don't see the need for Duals of the planeswalkers other than introducing the game to new players. Honestly they should just get rid of it and instead make it a tuturial mode for MTGO.

I just hit rank 40 last night. I also own all of Origins and BFZ, with 70% of SOI (OGW will be the last of my grind).

zandl hit most of the issues with Duels, especially where Stainless has really damaged the brand with a buggy game. A lot of people don't want to get into it because of all the negative reviews on Steam from launch (where no one could connect to the server to even play).

That being said, this is by far my favorite iteration of the series and one of my favorite games on Steam at the moment. This is the most generous free-to-play game I've ever seen. You can play 2 games against the AI to get your daily quest, which is often enough to get a pack. You can often get 2 packs a day by playing only a handful of games if you go against other people.

There's definitely a discrepancy in power level, but I'm not convinced it's planeswalkers. On my way to rank 40 this season, I've been playing White Weenie and R/B Nantuko Husk. I rarely win with planeswalkers, but often win because the colors I'm playing (especially white) are more effective than what my opponent is playing.

Right now, white does everything. It has the best spot removal (Reprisal, Celestial Flare, Gideon's Reproach), the best boardwipe (Planar Outburst), and it has the best mana curve out of every color. It's been like this almost from the start. The removal of Foundry Street Denizen hasn't helped much for making another, aggressive color. Black's removal is rather narrow and less efficient. Green is still king of ramp, but it's often dead to aggro decks. Blue only has Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip, Part the Waterveil, and a couple of decent draw spells.

They've done a fairly good job at choosing what cards to add in and there is a pretty diverse number of decks. But it feels like there's 1 deck in S+ Tier and every other good deck is in B tier, with no A tier present.

I feel the most important detraction from the game is matchmaking. There's no non-ranked play for people wanting to goof around or play with friends. Ranked doesn't do a very good job of separating new players from more experienced players.

As I said in the beginning of this post, I own a large chunk of the cards. At the start of a new season, how is it fair for the new players to be paired up with a guy who had a high rank last season with most of the cards unlocked? I think this is what has been really undercutting the game.

It doesn't help there are a lot of people who intentionally lower their rank so they can be paired against new players in order to grind gold faster by winning games quickly. There needs to be more done about people leaving the game and rewarding people who play a game to completion.

The game is definitely better than it was at launch. There's still a lot of bugs and the change to priority has been an absolute fiasco. I'm hoping they get their shit together. Really, WotC needs to ditch Stainless as they've shown themselves to be subpar as a studio. There's no reason for Hearthstone to be raking in millions while MODO is stuck in Windows 95 and Duels is such a buggy mess.

I always hated the fact that they tried to introduce new features and game types into each iteration of the game. Now ordinarily, that would be a good thing, but with these games, putting something else new in always meant they took out something else, which was just stupid. Why can we not have 2 headed giant, Archenemy, plainchase, and other game formats all in the same game? I can see not adding them all at once, but each years game should have added onto the existing one. Add a new game type, add cards from the new sets that have come out since the last one, add some new formats that have become popular, but keep all the existing stuff that people already like about the game.

Poor design choices from the very beginning really.

I agree with alot of what you said, but I have a few reservations: 1) I don't think a pay wall is the answer. This and duels '13 were the only duels I've ever played precisely because they were free ('13 was free with xbox GwG, as previously mentioned) I think that, if done right, this game could be a serious competitor for hearthstone, but that will never happen if one is FTP and one is not. I think the current coin system is fine, and grinding packs is just a hallmark of FTP online TCG's. Also, realistically, this game's meta will never have the same kind of balancing attention that a given standard has. Maro has stated many times on his blog that playtesting simply doesn't occur for many paper magic formats because resources are so strained. There is no way they are going to expend resources to re-playtest this format every time they release a new expansion. The biggest glaring feature lack that I find in this game though is trading. trading is a massive part of the magic experience, especially for beginners. It would make it easier to get the cards you really want for a specific deck by trading off some good cards you may just not need. As for all of the bugs, I think its high time wizards dumped stainless for a better studio with more resources. The source of all evil (EA) would be a great partner and have already done pretty good ports of some notable hasbro games (monopoly, scrabble, life). I really want duels to be the hearthstone competitor it can be, but until wizards gets their crap together, I'll be playing an inferior, but way more reliable game. Also, anyone got a source for the comment about archangel getting the axe? can't seem to find it.

Have a PSA video about the importance of removing Sphinx's Tutelage in 2HG. I swear, whenever I pack a deck without Enchantment removal and I get paired with a random partner in 2HG, my partner NEVER takes the initiative to destroy it and one of us gets milled out.

Also, ban Fall of the Titans in 2HG

Suggestion: ignore the official versions of digital Magic, and play the unofficial versions, such as Wagic, Cockatrice or Forge. They're completely free, update regularly, work pretty well, don't overdo the animations like Duels does, etc. They're often multi-platform, too (Wagic: Android, PSP, Windows, maybe another one or two systems; Forge: Windows, Android (I think)). I first got into MTG after learning the game and playing for ages on "Wagic: the Homebrew?!"

@TheBoraxKid: lol My teammate and I use both Tutelage and Fall of the Titans in 2HG. So much fun.

It's probably us you're playing against.

@zandl: Oh god.. you guys are the WORST type of people lollll

I will say though, when I unlock those cards, I'll definitely be using them :P

My $.02, because why not:

On one hand, I enjoyed Duels because you got to use what would be Modern-level cards (read: no longer standard but not playable in Modern) in a casual environment. hell, It's how I fell in love with Predator Ooze. But, here's the sad thing: WotC doesn't really make money off it- let's be honest here, the majority of folks are downloading the free version and not paying- so they don't give a single flying Eff about the game. But let's add more fuel to the fire... it's well known that MTGO is filled with bugs as well, and WotC sorta pushes that version, if mostly because Legacy and Vintage. So if Wizards can't/won't fix a digital game that people do pay for on a regular basis and in large amounts... what makes you think they're even going to attempt to fix a free version?

At the end of the day, WotC only really cares about one thing: those packs you crack open to get physical cards. And even then, they really only care about what's in Standard, because that's what their professional Pro Tours are going to be solely focused on, from my understanding. Sure, they add the supplemental products, but the good stuff (such as MM and EMA) are still only done in limited runs, which is why it feels like those are just carrots for the donkey Magic players.

Great article!!You've done the MTG community (future/present) a great service _

TL;DR: Mostly agree with the article except comment about F2P model. Some issues stem from the format. Some additional stuff about the ranking system and the update policy.

Wall of text inc:

This article is very accurate in summing up the issues that Magic Duels and the DotP series have faced.

My experience with the series: I got about 1200 hours logged on Steam over all the Duels game - 450+ hours of which are from Magic Duels alone - have every single achievement and card unlocks in all of them except the 500 daily quests one in Magic Duels (currently not quite possible) and I bought the original DotP initially on Xbox 360 where I ALSO got all achievements and card unlocks. I also currently have 17000 Gold saved up in Magic Duels and haven't spent a single dime.
I mostly play 2HG with friends vs AI to grind gold (90-ish% win rate for 30 coins for both players) and I still have fun doing so, although I occasionally do ranked to slowly get to lv 40 where I have been all past seasons.

As you can see, I'm quite the avid player of the series. I realise fully well that there have been ups (Planechase, 2HG) and downs (Sealed, lots of bugs) over the series' lifespan, and I agree with most points you touch on to make the current iteration good but the very first one:

Charge players to own the game: I'm pretty sure they will not change their model, ever, for the current game. That's just not how business works They'll possibly adjust the prices though.
Also, I believe the current gold system is very fair for the gold farming crowd. It's not too fast that you'd never want to buy gold, but not too slow that you can't grind your way to all the cards.
They might need to reduce the gold prices by about half though, it's ridiculous that you can't buy a full set (neither big nor small) with the most expensive option, which is €36.

Fix the connection issues that have been plaguing multiplayer since launch: This is an obvious one. Fix all bugs, please. See the last paragraph for a bit more in-depth on the reason behind this.

Offer occasional incentives to get Duels players into card shops: A really good point. One that they should implement asap.

Manage the meta in the game: The meta is somewhat polluted with 3 to 5 color rares/mythics, the reason for which I think is the rarity restriction, in both ways.
Unfortunately there hasn't been a "kill target creature or planeswalker" spell introduced yet, although the problem would likely be that black would just get a stronger if there were, while the meta would remain similar, if not even worse.
I don't want to ramble on about the meta, so I'll just stop by saying that there are a lot of archetypes that are Tier 2 and you can win with against non-perfect draws from the Tier 1 deck, which is how it's always been in all formats of the (Magic) game.

Release Magic Duels on PS4: Doesn't really interest me and I can't say much about this, so I won't.

Two points you haven't touched on:

The ranking system is horrible and discourages players that want to maintain their rank 40 (coughOCD*cough) from ever playing again after reaching it. It would be way better if they'd implement something like the Legend-system in Hearthstone, where after max rank, there'd be some other form of ELO ranking system. Alternatively have the highest rank in a season count, not the current one, although that might bring some other problems with it.
Introducing incentives for rank would increase people's demand for cards and thus gold, which in turn would up the revenue and therefore quality of the game (hopefully).

Speaking of which: The devs have stated multiple times that they have a contract for "4 updates per year" which limits their freedom (and/or budget?) in terms of bug- and hot-fixes. This is likely due to WotC not really caring about the game and might not be completely Stainless' fault.
I work in the video game QA industry and have worked with enough other devs to know how the ball is played. Let's just say that this model doesn't do the game's quality any good. However, the QA could definitely be better, *especially if they only (have to) do it 4 times a year.

@zandi,

First off, well written post. Not exactly timely, though; similar to the post on the mothership about the expansions dropping, here's some decks to try...two months later. For the mothership, it's baffling. I figure you are on Summer vacation now (speaking of which, thank you for the job you do!).

A few comments on your post:
Charge players to own the game. You say the F2P model sunk the franchise...I'd disagree with that, but it really didn't help it, either. The biggest issue is the barrier to entry for the game is getting to look a lot like the wall in Game of Thrones. I've got all the cards on Steam, and just over 20,000 gold for the next set, so I'm good to go there. I went over the my XBox One and started up there and...well, I've got a long way to go to stay a free player there.

Charging to get the game, even the subscription service, with a nice healthy discount to older sets would be pretty good in helping to overcome that barrier.

As far as the gold you get...they give the players a lot of gold for a F2P game. Like, ridiculous amounts. I've amassed my gold stash since the end of April without putting too much effort into it...a few games a day, finishing the quests, and helping with the community quests. And I know of several people with upwards of 40,000 gold. What we need is something to spend that gold on that is worthwhile.

Fix the connection issues that have been plaguing multiplayer since launch. Yeah, that would be great. It isn't really a problem on Steam, and it could be argued not on iOS either (low, low playerbase), but it is a crapshoot on XBox One.

Offer occasional incentives to get Duels players into card shops. Yeah, this one is so "in your face great idea" I'm wondering why they haven't thought of it.

Manage the meta in the game. Well, to be fair, if you paid attention, they are doing just that. Remember Mwonvuli-Acid Moss? Whereas I don't think it would be as dominant in the current meta as it was in the B4Z era, they listened to the players and concluded it needed to go. They are working on the meta in the game...but, if they are only updating 4 times a year, those meta shifts are 3 months apart.

I fully expect the next update or two we will see ways of dealing with planeswalkers (and it really is needed).

Release Magic Duels on PS4. That might be too little, too late, at this point. What I'd like is to have cross-platform support. One of the more common "disagreements" online is what platform has the better players, XBoners, Steamers, or the Sixers (iOS)...this would squash that and blend us together into a more tight-knit community.

Kryder out...

As a PS4 user, I'm extremely frustrated with Wizards flat out disregarding us. But then, WotC have been slipping in terms of quality in everything so it's not too surprising.

I played Magic Duels Origins for about ten minutes, then quit. It holds absolutely nothing for me. I had about six horrendous misplays due to my mouse being a piece of shit, and I still won. Something like that, where I can fuck up royally yet still manage to pull out the W, is not something I can really enjoy. Plus it made me realize just how immensely boring online Magic is to me. It's the MTG equivalent of watching cardboard paint dry.

Wizards should consider buying/renting/leasing/getting licensed to use that AI which learns to play games just by watching other people play them, and use it to learn the way cards interact. The AI was the first to learn the board game Go, and I'm sure the researchers who made it would like to see it put to use.

I completely agree! I almost bought an Xbox one solely to get Magic Duels for free. Thankfully another family member bought an Xbox one and I tried the game out first. Within the first week playing it, my decks and save data bugged out and disappeared! Some sort of cloud save issue causes the game to lose coins and cards! This is an enormous setback for a game that demands you pay actual cash to build a decent deck!

Another huge oversight is the fact that you can only play 1 legendary creature mythic in a deck. You cannot even get more than 1 in the game, as it has a cap on how many of each card you can own!

This game was extremely disappointing and I am incredibly glad I didn't buy an Xbox one for this badly developed game! It was never released on my ps4 and i'm guessing the company knew how broken the game was and decided not to waste time to port it to another console!

The worst thing about all this...I have a yugioh game on ps4 that is developed incredibly well. I'm not even a huge fan of the yugioh card game, yet, the yugioh game got everything perfect with hardly any bugs at all! Honestly I wish the developers from the yugioh game made a new version of duels! It has an infinite amount of collectable cards, all which come from booster packs that don't take hours to get credits to buy! Searching for a multiplayer game only takes a minute or less! It follows a restricted list and allows you to build decks the way you would like them to be played!

The creators of magic duels could really learn something from a game like yugioh. Though I'm not a big fan...the gameplay mechanics and lack of bugs makes magic duels look like it was designed by a 10 year old!