Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014: Finally, there is deck building.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014: Finally, there is deck building.

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

RBA Starblade posted:

Have they announced what the new co-op or 1v3 gimmick will be yet?

It seems to just be Two-Headed Giant again, with Sealed taking the slot previously occupied by Archenemy/Planechase.

e: beaten.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2013 01:42

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 05:53

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

precision posted:

Hell, even I had quite a bit of trouble with several of last year's challenges. To me, the hard ones weren't really fun because they were based on having dozens of (often obscure) cards with weird effects all on the table in situations that would never come up in "real" Magic.

One of them was particularly obnoxious because it involved Birthing Pod, but there was no way to look at your deck except by using it, and when you used it it only showed you the cards of the appropriate converted mana cost. There were six or seven different potential CMC's, each with three or four options, so you'd need to restart several times just to see what your options were, and there was no way you'd remember all of them. Once you figured it out, the puzzle was straightforward enough that it wouldn't have been difficult if the game hadn't gone out of its way to give you way more information than necessary and make that information way too inconvenient to access.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2013 02:29

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

Mr. Peepers posted:

There were some pretty convoluted ones in 2013 to be sure, but if I had to choose between a challenge with an unintuitive 8-step process and a challenge that is literally "cast spell, swing in" I'll take the former every time. I'm terribly disappointed in 2014's offerings.

The problem wasn't that the solution was convoluted, the problem was that it wouldn't let you see most of the relevant information (unless apparently you went into the options menu and switched to a non-default option I never knew existed).

Having played D2014's non-puzzles now, I have to agree that they're much, much worse.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2013 03:34

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

If you think the game's sealed pool randomizer doesn't work correctly, it's likely that you're actually not randomizing enough in real life. Next time you're about to open some packs, try shuffling them very, very thoroughly first. You may be surprised by the results.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2013 06:38

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

Ugly In The Morning posted:

Switcheroo+ a phantasmal does NOT equal taking control of your enemy's creature, it just kills yours. Lame.

Switcheroo goes on the stack targeting an enemy's creature and your Phantasmal. Since your Phantasmal was targeted, its suicide effect goes on the stack. Then its suicide effect resolves and it dies. Then Switcheroo can't resolve because one of its targets is missing, so it fizzles instead.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2013 01:08

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

1. You can unlock the cards just by playing the game. Win a game with a deck and unlock a new card for it. Until they release the expansions, you don't need to buy anything else, unless you really care about making your cards shiny for some reason.

2. Last year, the promo codes were given out to people for attending some real-life events. Then people posted them on the internet.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 12:22

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 05:53

Lottery of Babylon: Apr 25, 2012; STRAIGHT TROPIN'

Bo-Pepper posted:

I've toyed from time to time to try one of these deck games. In general, I'm completely new to all of it. Is this a newbie friendly experience? How hard is it to pick up? Also, apparently I bought 2012 in some sale fueled binge at one point but have never fired it up. Does this version offer enough extra that I should consider purchasing it and playing that instead?

The DotP series is designed for newbies. 2014 has some nice features that 2012 didn't (manual mana tapping, end steps, sealed deck mode), but the biggest difference is that, since it's the current version, it's the one with the active online community. You may as well play 2012 for a while if you're planning on paying single-player at all.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2013 05:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014: Finally, there is deck building.