Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 announced, release includes Android
March 21, 2013 – RENTON, WA – Ignite Your Spark! Wizards of the Coast today announced the product lineup for Magic™ 2014 this summer, which includes the Magic 2014 – Duels of the Planeswalkers® video game* and the Magic 2014 – Core Set for the paper trading card game (TCG) and Magic Online®.
Available on the Android™ platform for the first time ever in addition to iPad®, Xbox LIVE® Arcade, Steam® and PlayStation® Network, Magic 2014 – Duels of the Planeswalkers will offer players exciting new features as they partner with Planeswalker Chandra Nalaar to track down a manipulative and dangerous Planeswalker foe. An immersive storyline and strong integration with the Magic 2014 – Core Set ties the experience together for players, culminating in an end-of-summer Magic Celebration that brings all Magic fans together in stores across the world.
“The Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers franchise has been engaging and exciting gamers since we launched in 2009 and continues to be the best way for new players to learn how to play Magic,” said Worth Wollpert, Executive Producer – Magic: The Gathering at Wizards of the Coast. “This year, with the addition of a fifth platform – Android – along with new features and a more focused integration between online and offline play, we continue to deliver a best-in-class gaming experience.”
Magic 2014 – Duels of the Planeswalkers builds on the success of previous games in the franchise and adds all new features including an immersive storyline, 10 brand new decks, 15 new encounters, 10 new puzzle challenges, and an all-new play mode in addition to other exciting features. Magic 2014 players will get the first look at cards from the Magic 2014 – Core Set in Duels of the Planeswalkers, creating even more seamless integration between the online and offline games.
Attendees at the PAX East convention taking place in Boston this weekend are invited to come to the Magic: The Gathering booth (#562) to demo Magic 2014 – Duels of the Planeswalkers on PC and iPad, earn exclusive Chandra themed items, purchase current product and licensed goods and help Chandra in her quest to receive a flame-kissed picture with Chandra. Fans of the paper game will have a chance to play Magic against invited celebrities on the show floor or participate in events designed for players of all levels in Gaming Hall B. In addition, 16 players will compete for the Magic Online Championship, with tournaments running all three days of the show, and the Magic: The Gathering panel will take place on Saturday in the Corgi Theatre.
*Launch timing may vary by platform and region. Only iPad platform available in China.
About Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering is the first and most widely played trading card game. Players take on the role of Planeswalkers – powerful mages who battle others for glory, knowledge and conquest. Their weapons include spells, creatures, and artifacts gathered from a vast Multiverse of unique fantasy worlds. With more than 12 million players and fans worldwide, Magic is printed in 11 languages and played in more than 70 countries. For more information about Magic 2014, visit www.magicthegathering.com.
About Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), is the leader in entertaining the lifestyle gamer. Wizards’ players and fans are members of a global community bound together by their love of both digital gaming and in-person play. The company brings to market a range of gaming experiences under powerful brand names such as MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and KAIJUDO. Wizards is also a publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information about our world renowned brands, visit the Wizards of the Coast Web site at www.wizards.com.
Oooh!
Well, I guess they’ve fulfilled some of our wishes. Some bloody storyline… well, pretty much that, but anyhow. It’s more DotP, and that’s what we’re all waiting for, right? I’m still hoping for a (non-affinity, Artemis knows what could happen otherwise) artifact deck.
Any guesses on what new mode there’ll be? I mean, there are only so many ways to play Magic, and I think we can rule out EDH for its length, which is simply too long for an online game. Uh… Crazy Magic? Will we get some kind of watered down Draft after all?
I appreciate that we’ll get to see some recent cards, which DotP in my memory usually avoided like a Razor Boomerang. Instead, we get stuck with cards that are kind of in the flavor of what it’s trying to do, but not really since all the real (guild’s, in this case) cards are prohibited. Do I remember correctly that some decks actually featured banned cards?
Anyhow. I know that you should pick on gifts, but then again, I’m a cynic in addition to a writer, so as much as I’m a sucker for story, as easily will I criticise it. Why are we going to team up with Chandra, of all people? Why not Jace? Okay, going out with that dude will likely end with you being in an alley with no memory, money, or left kidney, but still.
Surely it’ll be nice to have a backstory, but to me, Chandra never looked like the person who would need or even accept help. I mean, her usual strategy involves setting everything on fire, then setting everything that’s still moving on fire HARDER, and that works out perfectly fine. Surely, she could manage some wimpy planeswalker, if she technically could defeat Nicol Bolas himself in DotP13.
Chandra can never could defeat the Bolas, the only thing that could even give Nicol any trouble was an avatar that was a copy of himself (courtesy of our scarfaced leonin planeswalker). Why would we want to team up with the poster boy of mtg who has been shoved into our face for the last ten years? I think Stainless and Wizards might just have realized that Jace is a overvalued, overused character who everyone is tired of and I personally love a good anti-hero who is forced to team up with a PC in any game.
I know that he’s a bit more powerful than the game makes him out to be, but in DotP13, you can beat him up with a bunch of frickin’ goblins! Come on! Or, if that’s more your thing, with Chandra’s deck.
Jace is awesome; your argument is invalid.
In all seriousness though, it is an interesting idea, though I foresee having to play 2HG with an AI that might not improve as much as it should. Yes, Chandra is a nice character, but I don’t see why she should get help and particularly get yours.
I understand why Stainless make her, seeing as she’s also a recurring, but still *fairly* recent character and people are likely to know her, if only through DotP itself.
Still, out of all the people who ever made some dude in a plane be no longer on that plane, there could have been other picks. Jaya, for instance. Okay, she’d drive the point of “I don’t need your help” ad absurdum, but she’s frickin’ awesome, but underrepresented. Some love for poor task mages please!
Or, team you up with some less-known or even no-name ‘walker, maybe even make yourself be the known one, and help him uncover the meaning behind a cryptic prophecy which forebodes a man rising to bring doom to all.
Then, once you’re nearly finished, the power goes to his head and he can’t stop thinking that you’re the man of prophecy, so you have an epic showdown with somebody who has been drinking in the secrets and power of your enemies and also you for the entire journey. Once defeated, he realises that he was the one the prophecy cared about and you walk away with a justified, but nevertheless bloody murder on your mind.
Hang on a second, I’m gonna copyright this so Stainless has to give me money.
I am confused as to which part of my statement you are trying to refute. I agree that Jace’s deck was no match for speedier decks but I am not sure that is a counterpoint to anything I stated. And he is waaaAAAaaay more powerful than DotP makes him out to be. The idea is that he is struggling with the fact that he could just destroy just about anyone by obliterating his opponents mind, but in the end, too much of that would lead him down the same path as Nicol or the Phyrexians. Don’t get me wrong the character in itself is really cool, I (and I sure many many other Magic fans like myself) am just so tired of seeing his face on everything I do. Geez you’d think he was Urza with all the publicity he gets.
With “him”, I actually meant Nicol Bolas. Yes, I know the game isn’t lore accurate, but it still feels weird to kill the most powerful being in… well, ever with a bunch of gobos.
Also, if your Dream Puppets doesn’t stand at least a fighting chance against every deck, you are playing it wrong. But that’s beside the point. DotP shouldn’t be taken as substitute for lore, as it allows everything to theoretically beat everything. Except Yeva, I mean, jesus fucking christ.
It’s funny because, if you think about it, Nicol Bolas isn’t even that hard an enemy. He’s just a major removal spamming bitch, like about everyone you’ll find on MTGO.
I am not even going to go into you calling out removal spamming. Everything that works in mtg is a type of spamming in one way or another, that is why you can only have four of a card in you deck (minus those fucking rats). I bet your favorite color is blue.
That it is, though Esper fascinates me. Honestly, I have no interest in arguing here, but know the following:
You can’t understand what I mean by a true removal spammer until you’ve run into one. That type of dude whose game plan is only to prevent you from playing the game while they build their playset’d Walker. That sort of people are the reason why you don’t get to freely customise a deck in DotP, because they know someone’s going to go ahead and stuff every single removal spell into a single deck.
You could argue that everything boils down to spamming creatures and/or spells, but at least that’s playing Magic. If you only want to make sure that no one gets to play, I’d advise you to play Yu Gi Oh, where at least no one will mind you playing stupid strategies.
You-gay-oh is not and will never be in my game play time ever again…still have bad memories from hyper fusions and 5000/5000 monsters attacking me in the second turn. I have been playing Magic since I could hold a card, now I am 25 and I can truthfully say I have seen every card and played against probably over 95 per cent of them. I have played strategies that range from simple goblin smash and spank to the landless deck “reveal cards from the top till you find a land and then deal damage based on the number of cards revealed”. I have seen sunburst, I have seen dark ritual ruin peoples days, and I am only sure about one constant; people who prefer a specific color will ALWAYS complain about the primary strategies that are boasted by other colors. For instance a primarily black player will complain about the artifact and enchantment removal capabilities of white and green. I have run into countless “true” removal players, most of them run a combination of green and white and black. I have never seen you play but I can assume with all confidence that (if you have any idea how to play at all) you will be counter/control spamming your way to victory all the while causing everyone else who is weak of spirit, to complain about how they “Can’t seem to get a god d*** spell to stick.”
Oooh, internet fight.
Yes, I dislike Rakdos, because they’re dicks. And because Demigod of Revenge still left scars in me from DotP13. What better way to take an overpowered card which warped the metagame when it came into constructed than to put 3-4 of it into a game where 90% of the decks have no way of dealing with it?
A 5/4 flier would’ve been borderline playable for the colours, 5/4 flying haste would’ve been acceptable at 5 due to the colour weight, as it is it’s just ridiculous. Couldn’t it have been an “ETB, if you cast it from your hand,” clause, Wizards?
But I digress. The person whom I was specifically referring to for removal spamming was literally doing nothing else. Well, spam the Best-in-Slot removal cards and charge up one of their playset of Tamiyo and Jace, that is.
And I could accept even that, but that wallet warrior was going around in the new players section of MTGO! That’s not playing, that’s just shoving disabled kids out of their wheelchairs to feel stronger.
But I digress. Yes, I’d be countering, controlling, and flying to victory, because that’s what Azorius does. But I also have a decent Golgari deck. (Pretty much had to draft it, I mean, two Dreg Manglers and other decent Golgaris early on, those are the shits in Limited.) And guess what, then I’ll be pushing and trying to outlast my opponent through GY play and cheap Deathtouchers.
The point is, how you play depends mostly on your colours. If I’m UW, then there’s not much to do besides stalling, not much that would be effective anyway. Though I’ve built a fairly decent enchantment deck utilising Sphere of Safety. If I’d just forgo countering and Detaining, I’d be smashed by much more effective creatures and spells.
However, is loading your deck with approximately 30 removal spells, many with flashback even, and 20 nonbasics the only way to play U/R (splashing black for the bloody Terminate)? No, I wouldn’t say. Even if it is, is it fun to go against that? Especially if you’re in the newbs lobby where you build your deck out of what you have, rather than what you’d like?
Ha if you think that rakdos deck was bad than you should have been playing when the first ravnica series was released. The madness mechanic would have made you smash your face into the play field. Look I am not saying you are wrong for your play style. The reason I love this game so much is because of how accommodating it is in relation to the different types of intelligence. I am just trying to tell you not to knock others for figuring out a really effective way to win. On another note unless you you have gotten mad (I don’t think you have yet) then this is not a fight it is a…DUEL!!! Exodia, OBILITERATE!!!
“I appreciate that we’ll get to see some recent cards, which DotP in my memory usually avoided like a Razor Boomerang.”
They used new cards from the 2013 core set in dotp 2013. They just stick to core sets because the cards as general rule are simpler.
Look at me, I’m commenting like it’s my website again.
Anyhow. Yes, there are new cards, but equally many are reprint fodder or not even that, but plain old. I understand that some mechanics are too complex for a casual game or plain wouldn’t work, like… uh… nonbasic lands would be a good example, as DotP neglects the mana pool. Or they’d just be plain unfair most of the time, like Infect.
But it nevertheless feels odd to play with decks that are kinda like what the respective guild does, like Aura Mastery, but at the same time knowing that I have decks in MTGO which feature recent cards with the guild’s actual mechanics and flavor.
I mean, this game’s expansion was literally RTR themed, yet it barely featured that set’s cards, if any. Yes, I know that there are some which technically stem from Ravnica, but that was seven years ago!
I understand why the pool is built like that. Complexity, but also power. While some may not agree, DotP is, on the large scale, balanced, (except for OP AW,) because there is very strict control over what does and doesn’t make it into a deck. Every deck has some bombs, but not too many, and they can all be dealt with. Had they given the Gruul deck something like Domri Rade? That might be flavorful and the players certainly would appreciate it, but it’d be far too easy to create a forced loss situation where your opponent just wouldn’t have a way to get rid of it.
Except if they’re playing red burn or AW, I mean, JFC.
So yes, I see why it is so, but sometimes, I just want to play with my newest toys, and I’d appreciate if they’d let me.
You seem to be forgetting the real reasons they aren’t included in this game.
1. I’m pretty sure this 2013 dropped before RTR actually came out, so including cards from a block that isn’t even released yet is a bit foolish.
2. They want people like you to go out and pay money for the cards in paper or MtGO to use the new mechanics, not get them for “free” in DotP