MTGO vs Magic Duels vs Hearthstone vs others (Hex, Infinity Wars)

I am not sure what the status is regarding MTGO and its development. Wizards of the Coast is shutting down its own forums for all of its games. Magic Duels is playable on PC, Steam, IPAD and Android so it seems pretty cool but limited so far. Blizzard's Hearthstone seems a bit simplified but can be played solo and you can get some free stuff. HEX and Infinity Wars both offer a PVE experience but they arent backed by big companies (MTGO/Magic Duels by Hasbro and Hearthstone by Activision/Blizzard). Right now I'm trying out Infinity Wars. Has interesting/fun game mechanics and relatively stable as of patch 1.47. Fun to play and more thinking than HearthStoned. As for MTGO - I may come back and visit if the interface and gaming has been stabilized/improved. I miss the PDC chat rooms and will miss the Wizards/MTGO forums. Lots of lost accumulated wisdom there. Live long and Prosper fellow Paupers!

Wizards making a mistake eliminating their forums (including the MTG and MTGO forums)

I really think it is a mistake of Wizards of the Coast (owned by Hasbro Inc) to get rid of their online gaming forums as of November 1st, 2015. This is a way to directly communicate and build up relations with the gaming communities for their games. Are there social media outlets available? Yes - but not everyone uses them and you are handing the keys of control to a 3rd party (FB, REddit, Youtube/Google+ etc). I met some great folks on the MTGO forums at Wizards.com's forums area. Intelligent postings, good flowing discussions and productive interaction between a dedicated playerbase/fanbase and the community/developers/WOTC folks. I do hope they reconsider. Forums did a lot for the game of MTGO back in the day. RIP community building if it is allowed to pass.

It has been a long while since I played a TCG. I saw Hex, Sol Forge and Infinity Wars in the last year or two and was not impressed. I tried MTGO last year and its lost the "magic community feel" to it. I hope that perhaps Magic Duels will build up to be the future of MTGO. MTGO was great practice and fun for paper Magic and for those of us who could not get to paper events. So after seeing a few games again - I'm playing Infinity Wars. Its interesting and as of the latest patch - VERY playable and fun. It has some great mechanics (makes you think deeply like MTG) but no land/mana starvation issues. Creative animated cards, tradining/drafting/constructed and what I really wish MTG had: Academy and Campaign modes as well as you can play constructed against AI-bots (you choose what type of color/faction you face). Academy does a great deep into/tutorial showing you gameplay mechanics broken into sections. Campaign mode shows you deeper strategies and offers some game situations to "figure how how to win when in a tough situation". So Infinity Wars has the fun of Ranked Play (player vs player), Drafting/Rift (similiar to MTG drafting except you keep playing til you rack up 3 loses) and Constructed play (vs players or bots as listed above). Infinity Wars is available free to play. You can start out with *zero* upfront $$ and play/learn and earn cards, boosters and whats called Infinity Points (in game currency for your achievements). LP, Light Pts are what you can purchase to buy stuff at the in-game store (decks, boosters, etc). Give Infinity Wars a try. Something much deeper than H-stone, less buggy than Hex and adds things that I wish MTGO had to this day....

It's been a long time. MTGO has a new version out. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I hope folks are enjoying it!

First Post in 2012 - 10 years of MTGO?

April 2012 and Where is MTGO in the online gaming (and social gaming) world? M59, PSO, UO and Everquest preceded it but it was still extremely innovative going Gold/Live in 2002 ten years ago. We will have to check and see where it is at. Blog updates to review and see how MTGO is now along with PDC gaming.

Two years minus two weeks

Thinking that life would be so much better, Hope, didn't hit well.

But we have survived.

I've come back to a V3.25xxx MTGO thats pretty decent.

It's lacking Leagues. But now instead of 32 cards per side in a trade, its up to 75.

Classifieds are the only official selling outlet other than player run rooms like /join auction, /join casual or /join trading.

For me, boof bots, CardNexus, MTGOTRADERS and CArdhoarder were all very nice to me. Boof bots allow you to buy 250 commons/tix -- 4 tix basically caught me up to WW from Morningtide.

I did some prerelease SCARS of MIR eventing but infect nailed me right before I killed the opponent.

Was expensive, but also ripped a few boosters. Converted the junk unc/rares into a near complete set of 4x SOM commons. If I had been patient and waited 2-3 weeks, could have bought a 4x common SOM set on EBAY (reliable 1000+ rated seller) for $4-$6 US Dollar.

I look forward to upcoming gaming. MTGO is stable and playable again. I like it again.

Sad that Hope for Change is now Change for Hope. Regime change may be needed.

The dawn of a New Day..

Today in the United States we have inaugurated a new President. A nation who has had a lot of pains the last 10 years - now is the time to heal.

I am looking forward to a new year. New President, new MTGO stuff and new stuff in WOW. Pauper is now a semi-official format for casual gameplay in MTGO v3.x live.

Also am glad my tank DK carrionwind and drunkadin tharionwind are doing well in WOW on SH server.

Hope all is well with you - blessings on this new day...

Tharionwind

Shards of Alara - Obelisks are fun

Obelisks - the 3 mana cost artifacts that let you grab one of 3 colors of mana...fun stuff.

Shards is interesting. A common 2/1 First Strike with Shroud for WU. Impressive fun - I do not like the 5c creatures with cycling. Reminds me of OLS.

More info as I get into Shards more.

Shards of Alara Premier Events tomorrow in MTGO

We've experienced casual drafting in Alara for a few days now. Folks are playing some interesting combos (much more colorful last few sets). The system seems to be stable and WOTC seems happy with the relative lack of issues.

I am taking a wait and see approach to this new set. We'll see how MPDC and TPDC hit *next* week (the 2nd week of Shards tech available to PDC players).

More updates as we see how Alara pans out in the next few weeks.

Rock on!

-tw

Shards of Alara going Live Monday 10/20/2008

Be prepared Paupers - the new booster format and Shards of Alara hit Monday. We already had this week's patch Wednesday that prepared the live system for MTGO.

IPA/OTJ goes to Classic from Extended. Futex is now just Extended Pauper (OLS onward) and STD loses PLC/TS. I will miss Vampiric Link - was fun in my BlackRush beatdown STD pauper deck. I reteched my stuff into white (still BW hybrid) using the nice 0/1 Moth that gets +4 lifegain anytime it blocks (it stacks as you declare blocking so you get the 4 lifegain even if its burned).

We have a pesky PDC classic bug with the Flagbearers. Coaltion Honor Guard and Standard Bearer do not work properly against storm affects (Grapeshot and Temporal Fissure specifically). Proper way to function - gotta target CHG/SB if in play until they are removed *then* you can target player/controller/other creatures in play. Been noted, Wotc_Lee Sharpe is working with devs (its not an A1 priority but its in top 20%) to get it resolved eventually.

Classic is tough - wide format from 7th/ipa to X/alara starting next monday. Thousands of commons to choose from. With the Gold (multicolor) and hybrid (two unique colors) commons - IPA isn't the only solution anymore. Discard decks still have some great tech so WATCH OUT.

I want to thank Wildman, Newman and Spikeboy for all the game testing as of late - its been lots of fun and got me back into STD pauper gaming. Y'all rock!

Last note - I really dislike this new booster policy - 1 land in each booster of Shards/Alara going forward. Meaning we're stuck with a ton of land as veterans. A Much Simpler solution for paper and MTGO -- SELL LAND PACKS TO THE NEWBIES. ITS bad that I already have over 750 lands as it stands now. Less reasons for me to buy boosters as I'm not in the mood to buy land this way. I don't mind random lands (foils preferred lol). But get the land packs out to the newbies and don't punish/flood veterans with common basic land.

Rock on folks!

TPDC - Classic Pauper can be rough

Thanks again to Lathspel for hosting TPDC. Was a fun event last night in /tpdc and /tpdc_results. Classic has over 2,000 unique commons to choose from in a cardbase from 7th/ipa to X/Shadowmoor.

First round I faced a very creative black deck. Had tough creatures that had some negative offsets (3/3s that gets -1/-1 for each spell casts til EOT or -1 life for every creature cast after etc). I had a hybrid black deck that had rats maindeck (chittering and relentless). Lost Game 1 but multiple Morning Thrulls for Games 2 and 3. Won 2-1.

2nd round was against my friend GSG. Very good deck - multicolor with Armadillo cloak, phantom tiger and a few nice trick cards. Hard to win game1. Took one of the games to 42 life but GG had enough cantrip/funk to keep my BHR classic deck under control. I had to prepare for work in any event - but it was fun!

Daily PDC free Pauper Events - occuring all over. Check PDCMAGIC.com or MTGO Boards PRE forums (Player Run Events) links on rightside of my blog.

Monday PDC event - MPDC was fun..Tactical Mulligans were missed

Monday's PDC event was a fun one! Thank you to ZeroFusion for hosting it (runs at 12pm Pacific, 7pm GMT in /join mpdc). We had 14 players and I do like the current flavors in standard.

My first round was a smash. I won 2-0 with some quick hitting Mimic flying. Nightsky Mimic with apparition, NG hag, unmake or the 4 cost wither hag makes for a fast hitting rush by Turn 5.

Round 2 - Mimics for my opponent and my mimics don't show. Should have done a tactical mulligan. Bogle the pain in butt is hard to remove. Note that Grave Peril should ONLY be deployed one at a time (if you have two out - BOTH get sac'd when next nonBLK critter comes out).

Round 3 - Mimics again (Red/Blue...RU) and very effective. I don't get my mimics out in a fast order (my deck is best when aiming for T5-T6 kill).

Just note to tactically mulligan - it can be important to get key cards for win condition. Also note to be patient as if you have a nonrush deck - you can survive and come back from the brink of defeat for the win.

Hats off to our PDC folk - glad to see y'all came out. Some upcoming things look good - be WARNED Shards of Alara is scheduled for release NEXT MONDAY on October 20, 2008.

Peace out!
-TW