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....