John Zeitler

It’s been a while since I sat down with a game demo, and I figured it might not be a bad idea to try my hand once more at a game I played in its non-electronic incarnation. It’s a little strange for me to think that, at the start of this decade, Magic: The Gathering was a pretty big part of my social activities; I didn’t exactly get much of a chance to play against anyone once I got out of college, and while I have a couple of preconstructed decks, they’re about five years old at the least. To say I’ve been out of the game for a while would be understating it to an extreme.

I can’t honestly say that the XBLA version does a whole lot to endear me to the game once more. First, as has probably been belabored for a while, preconstructed decks are the only decks available: you cannot construct a deck out of whole cloth as you can with Magic Online. On the other hand, you’re not nickel-and-dimed for cards as you are in MTGO; once you make the initial outlay in DotP, you’re set. Still, deck-building is a pretty big portion of the Magic experience, and while it’s understandable why Wizards of the Coast wouldn’t want to allow user-made decks (balance purposes) it’s still disappointing.

Secondly, and probably most damningly, the game is slow. Every action is greeted with a three-second timer that waits for you to respond, even if you can’t logically respond with the cards in your hand at the time. It’s intended to allow players to cast counterspells or the familiar “before the end of your turn”, but was it really necessary to give me the option when my hand was full of basic lands? Worse, it’s inconsistent on what pauses the timer and what resumes it. I sat there waiting for the turn to advance for ten seconds before realizing why it wasn’t moving.

Overall, if you’re new to Magic, the game might be a pretty cheap way to learn the rules or get acquainted with the different styles of deck construction. However, for anyone who plays the game with any amount of regularity, Duels of the Planeswalkers is $10 that’s likely better spent on dues for a gaming club or a couple of booster packs.