• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Magic Duels |OT| Magic The Hearthstonening [Update Support Ending]

Y

Yeef

Member
Everyone gets the same cards after the tutorial, but the booster packs you get from later campaigns are randomized like every other pack.

[EDIT] To clarify, finishing the campaigns will get you another set group of cards, but also a booster pack on top of that.
 
N

norm9

Member
Does anyone else concede a game (in story mode) if you don't get the perfect hand. I generally need three mana, an instant, and 2 two mana creatures or else I generally lose the match.

Feels like I'm not playing in the spirit of the game. But if I do play the imperfect hand, I'm just dragging out the inevitable loss.

Eta- even though the campaigns been frustrating and fun, I'm finally up to Chandra's campaign. Some of these matches I've lost up to 20 times.
 
Y

Yeef

Member
It'll come with practice. The AI is bad enough that I typically will keep any hand where I have at least 2 lands. I don't know if I can even remember the last time I legitimately lost to the AI (excluding when someone online concedes and I keep playing anyway).
 
P

platypotamus

Member
While true that the AI is bad, the campaign can be super challenging if you do it early without unlocking cards. There were definitely fights I got stuck on when I did it back in the day.
 
N

norm9

Member
platypotamus said:
While true that the AI is bad, the campaign can be super challenging if you do it early without unlocking cards. There were definitely fights I got stuck on when I did it back in the day.
Click to expand...

I'm just using whatever default deck I get in the story for that particular mission. Playing Chandra is fine as I like the red deck especially the add a 1/1 minion bonuses, but without a good opening draw, I can't counteract White's Thopters and (buffed in some way if an artifact is on the table) other cards and get overrun by the fourth turn.

It happens on the previous campaign missions too. I forget which one exactly, but I KNEW I would need this one black enchantment card which eventually turns into a 5/5 zombie if I had any chance of winning.

And on and on where I'm replaying these missions over and over that I'm getting the hang of what cards I need to counteract a particular enemy card, which should be helpful when I eventually build my own deck. In fact, the reason I'm actually bent on making a Black or Black/Red deck when I'm done with the campaign is because I got destroyed for a few weeks on a campiagn mission so many times against a black deck that I now feel like I'm an expert on Black creatures and enchantments. :/

With all that written, I'm still having a good time with it.
 
Y

Yeef

Member
The story decks are always the same; cards you unlock for your own decks don't affect them.

A big part of the strategy in Magic is understanding when to play offensively and when to play defensively. Typically (but not always) red decks are going to be the aggressor in most matchups.
 
P

platypotamus

Member
Oh yeah, that's right. I remember in one of the Chandra missions the deck they give you is a total troll. Some card in the deck they give you has some enter the battlefield effect that would have been super useful on the previous mission, but is completely useless on the current one or something like that.
 
N

norm9

Member
Ended up beating the Chandra mission I was complaining about in one try last night when I got home. And then like clockwork, lost like ten attempts in a row to the next level. I'm predicting I'll beat it in one try when I get home. It really is the opening hand that makes or breaks you.
 
T

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Should I scrounge up the money for the Black Lotus and Full-Art Lands? Can I turn them off I don't want them in a deck? /r/magicduels says "yes." But I want a second opinion before I take that plunge.
 
A

archnemesis

Member
I'm saving up gold for the next expansion. I currently have close to 8k.

The full art lands are pretty. I'll probably pick those up at some point.
 
U

ultron87

Member
TheSeks said:
Should I scrounge up the money for the Black Lotus and Full-Art Lands? Can I turn them off I don't want them in a deck? /r/magicduels says "yes." But I want a second opinion before I take that plunge.
Click to expand...

Yeah. You can pick whatever sleeves you want per deck including the default to switch back to and there's a toggle in the deck building interface to turn off full art basics.
 
U

ultron87

Member
AI decks have gotten back to the old "every deck is the same" game where everything just has Smuggler's Copter. Which I guess makes sense, cause that card is dumb, but hey, maybe have them use cards from other sets too?

My favorite interaction in this game is playing and activating Eldrazi Displacer after my opponent has flipped Westvale Abbey.
 
N

norm9

Member
Polished off Ulamong in the ZendiKar campaign after a couple days of trouble. Didn't realize the importance of the large hedron trap that exiles it. Once I made sure I had that card in my opening hand, was pretty easy to just be patient and wait till all those +1/+1's got overwhelming and beat that level.

Sprinting through the Oath campaign now. These stories are very loose and make very little sense, but I sure am glad they try to tie some of this stuff together with the lore. Makes it feel like more than just a card game, even though it essentially is just a card game.
 
U

ultron87

Member
I'm pretty happy they're in a good rhythm for updating this now. I still play this almost every day at least a few games on iPad. I'm like 6 packs from finishing Kaladesh so I'll finish it up right on time as usual.

Better deckbuilding interface. Yay!

gja47TE.png
 
U

ultron87

Member
The decks they give you in the AER campaign are pretty fun to use! I especially liked the Ajani one with all the recursion you could do with the Revolt cards.
 
Y

Yeef

Member
ultron87 said:
The decks they give you in the AER campaign are pretty fun to use! I especially liked the Ajani one with all the recursion you could do with the Revolt cards.
Click to expand...
Managed to get two Call of Unities out with 5 counters each. It was pretty unfair.

I thought the last match was a little too easy though. Starting with Heart of Kiran in play and getting a free Gideon Jura and Chandra, Torch of Defiance is worth way more than the extra 20 life Tezzeret gets.

[EDIT] Apparently there's a bug with Ubridled Growth. If you put it on a land that taps for colorless, you can cast spells for free when you tap that land. We'll see if Stainless breaks their normal update cycle to fix it. It seems like that's too big a bug to let stick around until Amonkhet.
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
Yeef said:
Managed to get two Call of Unities out with 5 counters each. It was pretty unfair.

I thought the last match was a little too easy though. Starting with Heart of Kiran in play and getting a free Gideon Jura and Chandra, Torch of Defiance is worth way more than the extra 20 life Tezzeret gets.

[EDIT] Apparently there's a bug with Ubridled Growth. If you put it on a land that taps for colorless, you can cast spells for free when you tap that land. We'll see if Stainless breaks their normal update cycle to fix it. It seems like that's too big a bug to let stick around until Amonkhet.
Click to expand...

Haha, so both this and paper are getting insane combos.
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
can't wait until I unlocked Fatal Push, because we need to end the damn copter meta already. I have 25% of the set now and got 2x harvester, both planeswalkers, 2x the white legendary, one of the 6/6 "pay 2 mana activate to vehicle" vehicles, a dreadnaught and the legendary ship so I built a silly variant of the R/W vehicle deck with siege modifications and start the engines, since I have all the required Kaladesh cards (75% unlocked) anyway. The problem is, that deck type is very common, I don't much like playing fast decks and aggro versus aggro heavily favors the player that gets to start first

also upgraded my copter deck (URB) with more black back cards (3x unlicensed disintegration, Tez) and harvester and doing pretty well with it, but I really need Fatal Push

my WG humans deck is Azban now, thoughit's not really working out so far. Eventually planning to drop the humans theme and build fully around +1/+1 counters and the premium creatures, but don't have the card for that yet

and I'd really like to do a spells only deck and BWR superfriends but I have only <5% of both Zendikar sets, most importantly no radiant flames
 
A

archnemesis

Member
Quixzlizx said:
Have they managed to unify accounts yet, or do you still need a different account on each platform?
Click to expand...
Accounts are still completely separate and there is no cross-platform multiplayer. At this point it seems very unlikely that they will add it.

On iOS they use Game Center to track player progress. 18 months after launch they still have issues with achievements, deck lists, and season rank. The best solution would be to scrap the current approach and start using server based accounts.
 
Rex_DX

Rex_DX

Gold Member
As an avid Magic player over a decade ago is this game for me?

I quit around the end of the Mirrodin block. Will I recognize and of the cards in this game? If not it's cool but I'd love the recapture some of those decks.
 
U

ultron87

Member
Rex_DX said:
As an avid Magic player over a decade ago is this game for me?

I quit around the end of the Mirrodin block. Will I recognize and of the cards in this game? If not it's cool but I'd love the recapture some of those decks.
Click to expand...

This game is almost entirely cards from more recent sets. So it generally won't be the cards you remember. The game is still pretty good though!
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
MTGO is basically just for if you REALLY need to play Magic but can't physically. Wizards hired actual game developers to fix it, but the improved version is still way off.
 
C

ChackanKun

Member
SigmasonicX said:
MTGO is basically just for if you REALLY need to play Magic but can't physically. Wizards hired actual game developers to fix it, but the improved version is still way off.
Click to expand...

Well, I have some physical cards. I stopped playing some time ago (in the Dark Steel, Mirrodin, Kamigawa blocks), but am slowly building two or three Decks to play.

But I lack the time I had before to play with people, physically.

So that's why I'm asking. Is Magic:Duels enough? I'm still at the tutorials, but I wonder how close of a real Magic experience it is.
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
ChackanKun said:
Well, I have some physical cards. I stopped playing some time ago (in the Dark Steel, Mirrodin, Kamigawa blocks), but am slowly building two or three Decks to play.

But I lack the time I had before to play with people, physically.

So that's why I'm asking. Is Magic:Duels enough? I'm still at the tutorials, but I wonder how close of a real Magic experience it is.
Click to expand...
It might be enough to scratch an itch, but it's intentionally limited to drive people to paper or MTGO. Not only do they not include every card from a set, but they add a restriction on cards in your deck based on rarity.
 
S

shawnoftheshred

Member
Anyone got lists to the established decks?

I'm still mostly playing with a W/r aggro humans list (first strike/renown mostly) and wouldn't mind getting some different looks in. But also not feeling heavily invested in crafting some new decks from scratch knowing that new cards are pretty imminent.
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
shawnoftheshred said:
Anyone got lists to the established decks?

I'm still mostly playing with a W/r aggro humans list (first strike/renown mostly) and wouldn't mind getting some different looks in. But also not feeling heavily invested in crafting some new decks from scratch knowing that new cards are pretty imminent.
Click to expand...

this is more or less what the top deck looks like atm
https://www.magicduelshelper.com/decklist/details/d147bb46-a382-40de-8c6c-08257d732641
I threw this together quickly so the mana base requires some work, some cards can be replaced, but you get the idea. Btw everyone hates vehicle decks
 
S

shawnoftheshred

Member
archnemesis said:
• http://magicduels.wikia.com/wiki/Decklists
• https://www.magicduelshelper.com/decklist
• http://forum.nogoblinsallowed.com/viewforum.php?f=52

I'm doing pretty well with my green/white/blue flicker deck. The last two seasons I've reached rank 30+ by just doing the daily quests. The only deck it does consistently poorly against is "super friends".
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. I've been looking for a decent midrange deck and I like the choices this one seems to present. I'll try and build it tonight! I was actually building a more mid range-y GW humans midrange deck, but this one speaks to me more.

I've gone to these sites a few times before, but was never sure if those lists were agreed upon to be high quality, or were just whatever users submitted. I'll dig through a bit more soon.
 
S

shawnoftheshred

Member
Violet_0 said:
this is more or less what the top deck looks like atm
https://www.magicduelshelper.com/decklist/details/3cc63c0e-2854-4fc4-acb2-a52913840a5a
I threw this together quickly so the mana base requires some work, some cards can be replaced, but you get the idea. Btw everyone hates vehicle decks
Click to expand...
Thanks! Yeah, the vehicle mechanic doesn't really seem fun to me to begin with, ignoring the fact that it's so prevalent. Bonus reason not to build this deck? Many of the cards from a set that I haven't unlocked much of...
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
shawnoftheshred said:
Thanks! Yeah, the vehicle mechanic doesn't really seem fun to me to begin with, ignoring the fact that it's so prevalent. Bonus reason not to build this deck? Many of the cards from a set that I haven't unlocked much of...
Click to expand...

here's the deck I've been playing most of the time, GB midrange
https://www.magicduelshelper.com/decklist/details/46a0d077-6bcf-4f21-ba71-7747523bf168

I'd advise you to save up for Amonkhet, at a quick glance you can build a neat looking blue/black cycling deck with almost just the cards from that set. Or a R/B madness deck together with Shadows over Innistrad that I'm pretty sure is going to be one of the coming decks to look out for, seriously it looks pretty nasty

or make use of the current Kaladesh sale for the Copters, Harnessed Lightning (anti-copter), Skysovereign, Nissa and lots of other stuff, it's the most powerful set atm. Aether Revolt gives you Fatal Push, the other main anti-copter and general anti-aggro card
 
S

shawnoftheshred

Member
Violet_0 said:
here's the deck I've been playing most of the time, GB midrange
https://www.magicduelshelper.com/decklist/details/46a0d077-6bcf-4f21-ba71-7747523bf168

I'd advise you to save up for Amonkhet, at a quick glace you can build a neat looking blue/black cycling deck with almost only cards from that set. Or a R/B madness deck together with Shadows over Innistrad that I'm pretty sure is going to be one of the coming decks to look out for, seriously it looks pretty nasty

or make use of the current Kaladesh sale for the Copters, Harnessed Lightning (anti-copter), Skysovereign, Nissa and lots of other stuff, it's the most powerful set atm. Aether Revolt gives you Fatal Push, the other main anti-copter and general anti-aggro card
Click to expand...
Thanks for these tips. As a fan of cantrips and drawing cards, Amonkhet UB cycling sounds perfect for me.

I'll spend some time building some decks. If anyone wants to add me for some games, gt: shawnoftheshred
 
Y

Yeef

Member
I liked that the Trial of Knowledge was a pair of puzzles, but the second one was a little awkward. It;s almost impossible to get it the first time because of hidden information.
 
U

ultron87

Member
Yeah that was a neat little thing. Was a good lens into what the trials actually involve. I wish more of them had been alternate scenarios instead of just normal duels, but it was still cool. Having some powerful classic cards show up was nice too.

The board got so clogged up in the first match with everything the opponent had being an embalm card!
 
U

ultron87

Member
I'm enjoying Esper Zombies with Anointed Procession soooo much. I dunno if I'd have Procession in there if I wanted to be as competitive as possible, but you get SO MANY zombie tokens.
 
U

ultron87

Member
This really sucks. Whatever the new digital thing is better work super well on iPad and be playable without spending a ton of money.
 
Shai-Tan

Shai-Tan

Banned
I really disliked the limited card pool in Duels since they added deck building so my desire is that MDN has a lot more cards, even if it ends up costing a bit. I mainly play Eternal right now because of how limited the pool is in Origins and that even gets boring since they're only on set 1. I would love to come back to a digital Magic that is not Magic Online although I might think twice if they try to ream everyone with Magic Online TCG pricing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Magical Girl Witch Trial an upcoming Mystery x Death adventure game, uncover who is the witch and who must die.
5
720
Vampire On Titus replied
RTTP: Forgive me, I was wrong about TOTK and I have finally succumbed to the magic.
Opinion Spoilers
35
2K
Hudo replied
Marvel Snap |OT| Unleash your inner Venom
|OT| Community 2
55
3K
Tarnished replied
Rise of the Rōnin | OT | Gaming Edo Age Forums
|OT| Social Community 3 4 5 6 7
315
16K
Arsic replied
Sea of Thieves PS5 Impressions - Improvements Over the Xbox/PC Versions
2 3
110
8K
Havoc2049 replied
Top Bottom