25th
Duels of the Planeswalkers, or how I learned to stop worrying and love Magic again.
Magic: The Gathering has always been a tough game for me to play. When you find a group of people who play for the sake of fun and enjoy each other’s company it’s a blast. The problem is that Magic tends to attract the sort of over competitive personality that is incapable of playing a game without constantly seeking a crushing victory.
I’ve had the itch to start playing again recently, but I was hesitant to go to the local gaming store for pickup games and tournaments because they are usually populated by the kind of people I don’t want to play with. I have some friends who play, but they are spread out all over the country so it’s tough to get a game going outside of PAX.
I picked up Wizards of The Coast’s new Magic video game, Duels of the Planeswalkers, over the weekend and so far I have been having a blast with it. You start out with a basic set of decks and options for online battle, co-op, and a campaign mode. The campaign is basically a tournament bracket. Every time you beat an opponent you add their deck to your collection and unlock another challenge. The CPU opponents are very tough. I have yet to beat one on the first attempt. Be prepared for a little frustration when you first start playing, but once you learn how to play the decks you will start beating opponents. There’s also a great deck building tool which can quickly become more time intensive then the battles themselves. I have been having a lot of fun with theorycrafting and researching cards online.
Considering that buying the physical magic cards can quickly become an expensive hobby, the $25 price tag for DoTP was very reasonable. I encourage everyone who likes playing Magic to pick it up, and that’s not just because I need people to play against. ;)
