Life Updates, and Duels of the Planeswalkers

With spoiler season over, and life back in full swing after vacation, I'm finding it difficult to sit down and write. Between work, my kids, the never-ending kitchen remodel and, to be completely honest, the Destiny beta, this week has just been packed. The only Magic I've played has been on my iPad, with Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015, and I have some very mixed feelings about this year's installment.

Way too much fun. I might finally have to get that PS4.
Too bad I can't play Magic on it...

Now I love Duels of the Planeswalkers, and I've been playing it since it released back in 2011. When a friend got hooked and told me to pick it up, I remembered how much I enjoyed the game and went and bought Magic cards for the first time in 17 years, and now here we are. So when Duels '15 was announced, and it was said it would have actual deck building, I got excited.

Then the bad news came. Unlike all the previous entries, Duels '15 is not available on the Playstation 3, or the 4. So if I wanted to try it, that meant my iPad or Steam, since I don't own an Xbox system. Last year I tried Duels '14 on the iPad and it was the buggiest thing ever. They've updated and improved it since launch, but it never could quite stop forgetting my achievements, so I just played on my Playstation 3. But the download is free, so I caved and tried it out.

New Garruk scares me just a little bit.
Purple is not his color.

Suffice it to say, I'm hooked. I've sunk over 15 hours into it, and I've explored most of what it has to offer, so let me break it down for you. If you've played Duels before and you've been frustrated with the deck building mechanics and wanted more freedom to construct decks of any colors with all the cards you've earned, then by all means play this game. This is the experience they wanted to create this time, and it gives you all of that freedom. The auto-builder is surprisingly competent, and you can unlock deck archetypes that will give you building suggestions, but you aren't required to follow them. You honestly can build whatever you want with all the cards you have, in any configuration, no matter how terrible it is. I would recommend the iPad version highly, as the bugs from last year seem to be eradicated, and the Xbox version has been reported as... umm... less than stellar performance-wise.

That being said, if you enjoyed the more powerful cards and crazy interactions of some of the decks from previous versions, or if you have never played Duels before, this is probably not the version for you. The card selections here are from newer sets, representing cards from M15, Theros block and Return to Ravnica block very prominently. The highlights from previous sets resulting in some of the overpowered decks you could win are not present here. Also with the overall strength of the deck archetypes being significantly weaker than the decks from past Duels, players with limited deck construction experience or no desire to design their own decks would likely be more comfortable with previous year's editions.

I would highly recommend last year's entry, probably on your Xbox or Playstation. I have no experience with the Steam versions, and last year's iPad version simply doesn't measure up to this year's. However, with past versions the online community for the earlier installments dries up quickly with the new release, so you will likely have difficulty finding opponents online if you are playing last year's version. But demo versions of '13, '14 and now '15 are free downloads on iTunes, so it costs you nothing to dip your toes in the water and see which one you prefer.

Still the best way to teach someone how to play.
Plus I do like setting things on fire.

Duels of the Planeswalkers have always been the easiest way to introduce someone to Magic since their release, because it handles the complex parts of the game for beginning players, and the tutorials are easy to understand and thankfully concise. The 2015 entry lacks in this regard and is a poorer entry to the game than 2014, but is a better fit for more experienced players who want the freedom to fully construct their own decks. Again, it costs you nothing to just try it out, so I can fully recommend downloading game and giving it a shot. If you have no one to play with regularly and just want to play Magic more often wherever you are, Duels of the Planeswalkers might just become your new favorite game, no matter which year you are playing.