IMPORTANT: This review is about "Magic Duels: Origins" itself from the perspective of a newbie to the Magic: The Gathering game. Therefore, it may be invalid for (returning) veteran players.

Magic Duels: Origins (a.k.a. Magic Duels) is the digital version of famous TCG (trading Card game); Magic: The Gathering. Unlike previous digital versions of the game, this game is designed as free to play (f2p). There is in-game coin and booster pack store. Booster packs can be bought with coin. Players can earn coin by winning, completing daily missions or buy it directly with real money. I find the store and amounts earned fair enough, because TCGs are based on spending money on new sets and booster packs by nature. Also, all cards are unlockable, so spending money is not mandatory.

Game’s most noticeable part is its tutorial. It has an extensive tutorial showing the player every rule and beginning level gameplay of Magic: The Gathering. Its design is also nice. Unlike showing all aspects of the game in one go, it teaches the basics at the beginning and sends the player to the story mode. During story mode, if a situation arises such as a new type of card or an ability on a card, a notification asks the player if he/she wishes to play tutorial for it. Playing that tutorial pauses the current game and starts the tutorial. After tutorial is finished, interrupted game continues. It is possible to skip these tutorials and play them later from the menu. Every tutorial also gives a small amount of coin, so it is a good idea to complete them all.

First “basics tutorial” and first story mission are kind of mandatory. Because most features are locked until they are finished. After that, the game sends the player to create his/her fist deck and lets the player to have a solo battle. When solo battle is finished all features are unlocked. This way of unlocking the features is not a problem for newbies. Actually it can even be considered a good choice to prevent newbies from losing in multiplayer too much, resulting them dropping the game. But for veterans, it is a big problem. They already know the game and want to jump right in multiplayer with their custom decks.

Other than the story mode, game has solo battle mode which is against AI, versus mode which is against another player and two-headed giant mode which is 2 vs 2 mode against either AI or other players (The player needs to invite his/her friend to able play against AI).

Solo battle can be played against 3 different difficulties. Interestingly though, “Hard” difficulty feels the easiest. These battles give coins depending on the difficulty (5 to 15 coins).

Versus mode can be played against either a friend or an opponent that is ranked the same as the player. The rank of the player changes depending on the result of the matched battle. Battles against friends and AI don’t affect ranking. Also battles against friends don’t give coins. Matched versus battles gives 20 coins.

Two headed giant mode is the only multiplayer mode where more than two players play together. 4 players split into two teams of two players and battle. Team players share the life and a player can block an attack against his/her teammate. A Player’s teammate’s hand is visible but interacting with it is not allowed. This also apply cards on the board. Players can’t use abilities on their teammates cards. Two-headed giant mode doesn’t affect ranking. It also doesn’t give coins.

UI is good and clear. There are no unnecessary animations or information bombard. Most of the in-game actions (such as attack animations of the cards) can be toggled in the settings. That said, I read veterans don’t like this UI. Until “Magic 2014” it was different, and indeed there are big changes. When I checked 2014 version myself, I realized that both button locations and general information design had big differences. For a newbie, it won’t matter. Actually I like the new one more. In the old UI, it felt weird not to be able see how many cards my opponent had in his/her hand. For veterans though, it will feel like switching from Mac OS to Windows.

It appears that previous editions had also chat feature and it was removed in this version. There are mixed opinions on this subject. Personally, I don’t think it is a must have but it certainly could be useful, especially in two-headed giant mode. it is impossible to talk to teammate if the player is playing together with a random player. That said, if the player is playing with a friend, he/she can use steam chat to overcome this.

Booster packs contains 3 common cards, 2 uncommon cards and 1 rare or mythic rare card (total 6 cards). Also packs can’t drop the cards that reached its deck limit so eventually every card is unlocked. Every booster pack is 150 coins. Winning against hard AI gives 15 coins and winning against a player gives 20 coins. Daily missions and weekly mission give 40 coins (there are up to 3 daily missions and one weekly mission). It is said that about 80 booster packs are required to unlock all cards. But there is a daily coin limit (400 coins) so players can’t grind coins (note that daily missions are not counted towards the limit).

During my gameplay, I came across one serious and one minor bug. Serious bug was that during my solo battle against the easy AI, it played 5 of the same card which is clearly against the game rules. (Note: a developer responded to my screenshot of this issue and wrote that they were going to investigate it). Minor bug was that the coin amount was not being updated after completion of the daily missions. It required (and still does) a restart to be fixed.

I didn’t have any issues finding opponents in both versus mode and two-headed giant mode. Also my test for steam friend invite worked without any issues (I need to note that I tested friend invite with only one of my friends, so it might be just luck).

+ Extensive Tutorial: This is very good for newbies to Magic: The Gathering game.
+ Same Drop Limit: Thanks to this limit, all cards are eventually unlocked.
+ Simplistic: All menus and buttons are cleverly put together in a clear and simple manner. (Although, there are big changes)

- Mandatory Single Play: This is only a con for veterans. As a side effect of the tutorial, some single play elements must be finished before multiplayer modes are unlocked.
- Daily Coin Cap: Normally this is not a very big issue. But because of the ability to buy coins with real money, this creates a “pay to win” side.

I can safely assume that Magic Duels is designed to make new players interested in Magic: The Gathering title and not as a solo product to make money. Due to its extensive tutorial, it is very easy to learn the basics of Magic: The Gathering. As a newbie to the title myself, I can recommend this to everyone who wants to learn (or at least try) Magic: The Gathering.


P.S: As a rule, I won't comment on price tag. Everyone has a different opinion on whether it is worth the price tag or not. So it is up to you to decide (Note: this game is f2p but has in-game shop to buy coins so the rule still applies).

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Edit: Fixed some typos

When this game was released the developers promised to keep up with the expansions of the MTGCCG. They did NOT do that, they have missed every expansion release.

When Stainless (the developers) missed out the MTG expansion 'Oath of the Gatewatch' completely (it wasn't late, they actually missed it), they tried to pass it off, they said instead of releasing this expansion, they would work on all the bugs and problems in the game, and then bundle that expansion with the next expansion 'Shadows Over Innistrad'.

Now that Shadows Over Innistrad is here, we are all very disappointed, the game has become almost unplayable.

MTG has TWO main phases, if you have abilities on the board and/or instants in your hand, this client REMOVES both of your main phases. THIS IS NO LONGER Magic The Gathering.

The developers knew about this problem as the game expansion was released and they chose to release it anyway, they even detailed this problem in the release notes. This is the FIRST and ONLY time that Stainless has managed to release the game on time, and it is nearly unplayable.

MTG is complex, you have to play around your opponent, now, you have to play around the game client as well.

As I type this, the Reddit Forum for this game is an orchestra of complaints.

I love MTG - I want to love Duels, but, in its current state - I cannot recommend MTG Duels

Intro
Hello gamers. I am a very good and experienced magic online player and I have over 300 hours of gameplay in this particular free magic variant so my review will be a critique as opposed to a casual opinion. After 300 hours of gameplay, I decided to write the longest review I've ever made about my experienced opinion as I have strong feelings that my review is 100% accurate. If you disagree with anything I have said, leave a comment before you rate and I will happily counter discuss with you.

Review
This card game is functional versus the AI and one online player but fails to be consistent in 2 headed giant mode[2HG]; the most prominent part of the game for many gamers where up to 4 players are supported. This is because match-making in this game (and all previous magic games) is utterly terrible with endless error messages and a host system which doesn't work 50%~ of the time. Teaming up with a friend is a nightmare; half the time you don't get a friendly match made or your friend is on the opposing team which causes lots of players to leave out of frustration, thereby ruining this game mode.

I don't recommend this game if you like playing with a friend on your team as it's a big hassle endlessly inviting friends in the hope that you will get a game eventually. However, if Stainless hire more competent programmers, they can potentially have a good multiplayer experience card game but as it stands.....the 2-headed giant multiplayer experience is a nightmare and it really shouldn't be.

This is the main reason why I don't recommend this game to everyone, especially those who enjoy playing with friends like I do.

Assuming there are no error messages in this game (which is rare), many other aspects of this game work fine outside of 2HG.

Pros
1) Free magic card experience
2) Decently good card sets
3) Nice card art
4) Decently good single player experience
5) Most card interactions work as they should

Cons
1) 2HG matchmaking system.
2) 2HG host system, error messages and network errors.
3) Earning coins to buy booster packs is a long and tedious grind.
4) No rewards for 2HG. How pathetic... Fixed.
5) Minimizing or tabbing out of a 2HG game will force other players to leave after a small amount of time which forces you to play versus the AI which is utterly stupid.
6) Unfair advantages can be gained by anyone who buys coins to get better cards and therefore better decks. I'm not saying this is a pay to win game but it certainly helps the buying player.
7) Deck organisation is terrible; it should be a 1 click process to pick a deck...
8) The AI frequently makes very silly decisions which reduces the difficulty for advanced players like myself.
9) No ranked 2-Headed Giant game mode.
10) No 1v1 or 2HG leaderboards. (If you do implement it, at least make it work this time please)

Conclusion
Stainless Games simply have bad programmers! This problem has been going on for too long and the game developers need to address this massive problem as soon as possible if they want to keep their fan base.

Wizards & Stainless Games could have a great card game if they addressed these aforementioned problems in my review but as it stands, it's severely bugged and suboptimal. A better name for their company, given their track record of highly bugged games would be Stainless Magic Bugs!

I hoped and prayed after the M:TG 2015 debacle that stainless (and WotC) had learned from the negative press it got, but alas... new game, almost all the same problems...

I cannot recommend spending ANY money on this game, or even wasting time grinding out packs, for the following reasons:

1. Its a team game with NO TEAM CHAT. Do not waste your time playing this for the two headed giant matches (which is really the only draw this game has) unless you like constantly pulling your hair out because your teammate decides what cards to play with lawn darts from 20 feet away from the screen.

2. This is the buggiest M:TG game ever released by Stainless games. I dont know how it made it past QA but that QA lead should have been fired... twice. The game constantly bugs out during multiplayer matches or kicks you back to the multiplayer lobby or just plain permenently freezes while finding more players.

3. The "Free to Pay" style of the game doesnt make it any more fun to play, since of COURSE you are punished for playing anything other than 1v1 games by getting no gold grind or quest credit in multiplayer games.

Credentials: I have been playing and collecting Magic the Gathering since the mid 1990s, this is the first revision of my review for this game, the original was written at 51.2 hours and this one at 953. I cannot recommend this game either now, or when I first reviewed it.

IMPORTANT N.B : This game, as of the latest patch(April 2016 - Shadows Over Innistrad) is borderline unplayable, due a severe bug having been introduced concerning the way that priority and turn progression are handled in game(the game will automatically skip phase unless you have sorcery plays in hand, which breaks instant speed spells and abilities). The bug in question has broken many of the game's available cards and mechanics. Players with some prior experience with Magic The Gathering might find the following links particularly interesting, as well as new players who are keen on learning the game :-

- Reddit: Hold Priority bug [Must Be] top priority bug fix!

- Reddit: New Priority Passing was a design decision?

- Facebook: Wizards Announcement about Priority Bug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCNrlVjzBfk
We recommend that you contact Wizards directly by email and report this bug to them( wizardscusthelp@wizards.com ), Facebook( https://www.facebook.com/magicduels ) and Twitter( https://twitter.com/magic_duels ). Please also contribute to the debate on Duels' Subreddit and here in Duels' Steam discussion group. Thanks.

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Major Problems I have encountered with this game so far :-

After using my gold to buy boosters to complete sets, I was not given the boosters I paid for. This was made worse by the fact that I paid for my gold with real money.

Numerous cards have been bugged or broken with each release and have been left unfixed for 3 or more months, which has been the frequency thus far, at which the developers release patches.

The game has a tendency to randomly hang mid-turn when playing vs matches against human opponents online, requiring you to either concede and lose rank, or terminate the game's process and restart the game.

The game on occasion prevents you from stopping the phase transition clock, which can prevent you from casting spells.

After the last patch(April 2016 - Shadows Over Innistrad), they broke all decks players had built prior to update, in such a way that would leave the game hanging indefinitely whilst loading solo A.I. matches. This required players to delete all their decks and rebuild them all from scratch.

Trying to connect to a vs match against somebody online usually takes between 5 and 15 minutes, with the game either repeatedly disconnecting for no reason, or hanging in an unrecoverable way that requires the player to terminate the game's process and restart the game.

Anti-aliasing and shadow casting in the game has been broken since launch. This makes the edges in game geometry(e.g. cards) jagged and shadows appear as solid black blocks.

There are also many minor problems the game either has, or has had that are too numerous to list here.

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This game's development and release cycle thus far :-

They released the game at the end of July 2015. The game was due to receive the Battle For Zendikar update late September, Wizards announced on release day that the update had been delayed indefinitely, they didn't provide a future date. The Battle For Zendikar update was eventually released late November, they didn't announce its release, they simply announced the game was going into extended maintenance and went ahead and did it. The game was due to receive the Oath Of The Gatewatch update mid to late January, but the update was delayed until April to coincide with the Shadows Over Innistrad release, the game received no bug patches between November and April either. Both the Oath Of The Gatewatch and Shadows Over Innistrad updates were released early April, this update introduced more bugs than it fixed.

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Further Analysis :-

Almost every update released for this game has been delayed, bug patches have been infrequent and low impact.

This game violates multiple rules of paper Magic The Gathering. Turn phases do not work the same way, there is no upkeep phase for example, which renders some spells less effective. The game does not permit 4 of any non basic land card to be played in a deck as per constructed rules, instead, card count is restricted by rarity. 1x Mythic, 2x Rare, 3x Uncommon, 4x Common. This causes severe balancing issues to occur, because all of the cards featured in this game, are designed and play tested around the common rule that up to 4 copies of any card may be played.

Set releases are incomplete, they do not release every card in each set, with between a third and a half of each set excluded, this further causes balancing issues and substantially reduces the quality of the content this game has to offer, as many fun, low impact cards are excluded, as well as some of the more popular cards each set has to offer.

The game features a collection of starter box cards from many past and present sets and because these cards have not been balanced, or developed alongside recent set releases; which consist mostly of current Standard legal cards, they can and have caused severe balancing issues that are left unfixed for months on end between updates, this can make the game tedious and repetitive to play. This problem would be substantially less severe, if they invested more time into analyzing the impact the cards in question are likely to have on the format and/or if they more frequently patched the game.

Wizards of the Coast, who own the Magic The Gathering franchise, are notoriously averse to investing in or committing to products that deviate from their core business, which is paper Magic The Gathering. Because of this, Magic Duels does not presently have the resources either financial, human or otherwise to become the successful, feature rich digital trading card game that long term players such as myself know it can be, and until this changes, this game will not fulfill its potential.

There have been recent indications(2015 / 2016) that their attitude towards digitizing their game may be evolving to a degree, but as things presently stand, this game seems to have only minimal support of its owners ergo, its long term future looks bleak, which should be foremost on your mind if you intend to buy content or invest substantial amounts of your time into collecting cards and building decks.

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Conclusion :-

Having devoted nearly a thousand hours of my time to this game, I am regretfully going to have to walk away from it, at least until they fix the Hold Priority bug introduced in the latest update(April 2016 - Shadows Over Innistrad), which has caused widespread malfunction throughout its cards and mechanics.

On the whole, I cannot recommend this game, either to players who are new to Magic The Gathering, or to experienced long term players. I would especially advise players looking to use Magic Duels to learn how to play paper Magic The Gathering to steer clear, because the two are significantly different.

Bottom line... Keep an eye on this game, its owners may well get behind it at some point in the future and if they do, it'll become truly great, but right now(2016) your time would be better invested elsewhere.