Magic The Gathering
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‘Magic: The Gathering’ publisher Wizards of the Coast sent the Pinkertons after a leaker
Magic: The Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast sent the Pinkertons to "recover" a set of cards a YouTuber obtained early.
eBay's app will soon use image recognition to automate listing trading cards
eBay is making it easier and much faster to list individual cards to its platform for sale.
Netflix is working on a 'Magic: The Gathering' anime series
Netflix is working on the very first screen adaptation of Magic: The Gathering with an anime series it's developing. Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo will be executive producers on the project.
World of Warcraft's Rob Pardo designs Magic: the Gathering card
If you play Hearthstone, there's at least an average chance you've heard of, if not played, Magic: The Gathering. If so, then check out this card designed by none other than Rob Pardo, Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard Entertainment. I haven't played Magic in years and I was never very good, but that seems like one heck of a card. It'll be part of the Magic 2015 set, and was previewed at this year's E3. Now I want everyone at Blizzard to design a card. Let's see Samwise's card. At least get him to do the art on one. It's funny, because Xathrid here reminds me a bit of Lilian Voss, who some say is a reference to this M:tG character (Blizzard says no.) Which is too bad, because it would be hilarious if we ended up with some kind of circular back and forth transfer between M:tG and WoW.
Wizards of the Coast sues Cryptozoic over Hex TCG
After Cryptozoic stopped producing the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game -- and around the time Blizzard announced Hearthstone -- the company turned its attentions to its own digital card game, Hex: Shards of Fate. Hex wound up with $2.2 million in Kickstarter funding and is currently in alpha testing. But the game's success hasn't been missed by the biggest player in TCGs, and Wizards of the Coast has sued Cryptozoic for willfully infringing on its intellectual property -- which is to say Magic: The Gathering. Wizards accuses Cryptozoic of copying cards, plot, elements, circumstances, theme, mood, creatures, pace, play sequence, and flow from Magic. Hex is markedly similar to Magic -- though many trading card games draw their inspiration from that base -- and even the community has commented on it. In fact, the body of the lawsuit copies substantial material from a blog post on Threshold: The Hex Podcast comparing the two games as well as quoting forum posts in which commenters have noted the same. If this seems like a weak source of evidence to you, then you're in agreement with Cryptozoic, which has come out stating that the lawsuit is meritless and it intends to fight. If Wizards wins this round, we have to wonder what it means for other card games like our recent favorite Hearthstone.
Check out Magic 2015's list of card-contributing game developers
Magic the Gathering is arguably the most iconic trading card game out there, and when a game is played for more than two decades, its legacy is bound to pick up some notable fans. The upcoming Magic 2015's Core Set, due for release in July 18, reflects that truth, incorporating ideas contributed by game developers into 14 cards in the Core Set. The Genesis Hydra, seen above, was fittingly spawned from a concept submitted by Plants vs Zombies designer George Fan. While the remaining cards in the set have not been shared, other designs include the ideas of Team Meat's Edmund McMillen, Mojang's Markus "Notch" Persson, and Penny Arcade creators Mike "Gabe" Karhulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins. You can check out the full list of contributors after the break, as well as the full scan of The Genesis Hydra in the gallery below. [Image: Wizards of the Coast]
Four ideas Hearthstone should borrow from Magic
I've been playing Magic for almost 20 years. In all that time, Hearthstone is the only other collectible card game that has ever really won me over. Hearthstone is a very different game from Magic, despite some obvious similarities. I want Hearthstone to remain a very different game. Even as wildly successful as Hearthstone has been, however, Magic and other card games have some great ideas that I think Blizzard should borrow to make their own game even better. 1. Format variants Magic has many fun variants, most of them multiplayer: free-for-all, Commander, Two-Headed Giant, Star (or Color Wheel), Planechase, etc. Some of these were invented by players and later adopted and supported by Wizards of the Coast. One of the joys of Magic is how flexible its formats can be. Compared to that, the single format of one-on-one battles in Hearthstone is less exciting. (Of course, Hearthstone is limited by its technology in a way that real cards aren't.) Sure, we're getting a raid in Curse of Naxxramas, which could shape up to be a fantastic single-player variant. But an online game like Hearthstone, with millions of available players, begs for multiplayer formats. They could be competitive or cooperative, playing against other teams or "bosses." A Planechase variant could be adapted quite easily by using the different game boards, once Blizzard adds a few more. Multiplayer variants will be more tricky due to the game's current layout, but I have faith that the developers can make it work.
Magic 2015 deals in Xbox One, out in the summer
This summer, Magic 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers brings the collectible card game series to Xbox One for the first time, but it looks like the game isn't coming to PlayStation platforms in the near future. Wizards of the Coast announced Magic 2015 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, Steam, iPad, Android and Kindle, with PS3 and PS4 conspicuously absent from the deck; previously editions have traditionally come to PS3 at launch. As for the summer due date, that's only specified for Xbox One, and Wizards of the Coast notes its releases may vary from platform to platform. Talking of decks, you'll be able to build customized ones in Magic 2015, and Wizards of the Coast promises "more robust" deck-building features to boot. Meanwhile, the story pits players as the prey of primal hunter and generally deadly dude Garruk Wildspeaker. Of course, we might be seeing Magic: The Gathering on bigger screens in the future, after 20th Century Fox's purchase of the series' screen rights earlier this year. We look forward to the inevitable video game based on the collectible card game based on the movie based on the collectible card game. [Image: Wizards of the Coast]
How Hearthstone won over a skeptical Magic veteran
I started playing Magic: The Gathering in 1995. I've loved the game ever since a friend introduced me to it. I've played both face to face and online, in one-on-one tournaments and in 12-player free-for-alls. It's the only collectible card game I've ever committed myself to playing. Then along came Hearthstone. I received an invitation to the closed beta. I gave it a few hours and then I dismissed it. I had a long list of reasons. The game was too simple. I felt helpless during my opponent's turn. I couldn't protect my most valuable creatures by keeping them out of combat. I didn't have enough interesting cards to develop the quirky strategies that I prefer in Magic. A few weeks ago, on the advice of a fellow Magic player who had been playing Hearthstone nonstop since open beta, I gave it another shot. I tried to approach the game without my Magic prejudices. I soon discovered that Hearthstone has a lot more to offer than I first thought. Here's how Blizzard won me over.
Perfect Ten: Online collectible card games that will tap your heart
While it might be a stretch to put collectible (or trading) card games in the same family as MMORPGs, it's hard to deny that their audiences are pretty similar and quite open to a little crossover between genres. Massively has made mention of TCGs as their numbers and popularity seems to be on the rise online. That led up to the day that my editor came into my office, smacked an Elmer Fudd Pez dispenser out of my hand, and told me that I better do a top 10 list on card games "or else." "Or else what?" I chirped before thinking. "Or else you'll be our full-time Darkfall columnist," my editor said. So hey! We're talking about card games today! How about, I don't know, 10 of them?
Fox to bring Magic: The Gathering to the silver screen
Magic: The Gathering is hoping to cast a spell on cinema-goers, after 20th Century Fox acquired screen rights to the Hasbro-owned card game. If your eyebrows aren't sufficiently raised, get this: According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film studio wants the 20-year-old series to become a mega-franchise like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Alrighty, then. Magic: The Gathering has been something of a gaming fixture in recent years, particularly through Stainless' Duels of the Planewalkers series. The Wizards of the Coasts card game has seen numerous adaptations into books, comics, and video games over the years, but if Fox makes good on those lofty ambitions, it'll be curious to see how it affects future video games; if there's one thing gaming is really lacking in, it's fantasy-based mega-franchises.
War of Omens CCG strives to cross Kickstarter finish line
War of Omens, a deck-building CCG by Fifth Column Games, is making an attempt to meet its Kickstarter funding goal by January 13th. The game is set in a dark fantasy world and has three factions to which you can pledge loyalty and undying devotion. The devs describe War of Omens a hybrid between deck-building games like Dominion and traditional collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering. Players will purchase cards during play that will then be shuffled into their inventory for future rotation. There are also resources to collect and use during the course of a match. Fifth Column is asking for $30,000 in funding to finish the title. As added incentive to donate, all those who chip in $10 or more will be given an early access beta key. You can get a look at how a battle works after the break. [Thanks to Mike for the tip!]
Magic: The Gathering - Tactics to be shut down March 28
Sony Online Entertainment will be shutting down the servers for online turn-based strategy game Magic: The Gathering - Tactics on March 28, 2014, according to an announcement made on the game's official forums. "Today we are announcing with our partner, Wizards of the Coast, that we will discontinue game services for Magic: The Gathering - Tactics on March 28, 2014," the initial post reads. "We are honored to have been a part of bringing you the magic of the Multiverse over the last few years. It has been a fun and memorable journey, and we thank you for all of your dedication and support." Unfortunately, if you wanted to experience the game before the hammer comes down and hadn't yet made an account, you're out of luck; new game accounts can no longer be created. Existing players' options will soon be restricted as well, as no new packs will be available to purchase in-game after November 18 of this year, and SOE will retain all code and data from Tactics, meaning no licensed or authorized emulators or fan servers. March 28, 2014 will see the end of Magic: The Gathering - Tactics. On that day, feel free to solemnly sing the following: Bye, bye, Mr. Minotaur Guy, tapped my blue land then my green land, soon my deck will be dry. Them good ol' boys was playin' dragons with Fly, singin' "This'll be the day Tactics diiiiies."
A lively evening of Hearthstone
The first thing that hit me when I logged into Hearthstone after begging a beta invite off a friend was an overwhelming tsunami of nostalgia for World of Warcraft. It wasn't surprising, of course; this is the card battling spin-off of WoW by the folks who make WoW. But for a player who hasn't set foot in Azeroth for some time now, the audio and visual cues were like the hit of a powerful drug that opened the pathways to all sorts of memories. The chunky, goofy exterior that Blizzard slathers across the Warcraft franchise often belays a serious depth that number-crunchers and elite strategists attempt to plumb. Both are perfectly at home in Hearthstone, which is affable on the surface but, like many CCGs, has no end to the possibilities in builds and play sessions. So what's it like to sit down to an evening with Hearthstone? I'm glad you asked.
MMObility: Perfect World's new mobile lineup
When I first heard that Perfect World was finally moving into the mobile space, I was excited and a bit worried. The gaming giant publishes a wide variety of games but tends to stick with classic, three-dimensional, client-based MMOs and has even rescued or bought out a few "Western" titles. If you want a publisher with a ton of different F2P games to play, Perfect World is a solid one. So how will it tackle the mobile world? Will it offer as much variety as it does with its other games? Will these mobile games be MMOs or pseudo-MMOs that are attached to social networks? I was able to snag some answers from Fabian Pierre Nicolas, General Manager of Mobile for Perfect World Entertainment.
Magic 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers available now on iOS
I got to see Magic 2014 in action back in May of this year, but the game is now available both on the iOS App Store and on Steam for both Mac and PC. (Update: Turns out it's not available for the Mac. Last year's version wasn't either, unfortunately.) The biggest new feature of this year's go-round is the "sealed play" mode, which allows players to build a deck using cards from a set of sealed random booster packs. Usually in these games, you have to use one of the prebuilt decks, but the sealed play mode provides another option for experienced players (or anyone looking ot mix things up). Unfortunately, you only get a couple of deck slots to build in, and you can't reset them, so you have to buy more if you need them. Kind of a cheap move on Wizards of the Coast's part. There are also brand-new cards in this game, and in fact some of the cards are available to play here even before they arrive in the paper game later on this year. Magic 2014 is a free download on the iPad, and then you can buy the whole game (or separate decks) via in-app purchase for $9.99.
Magic 2014 coming soon with new campaign and cards, sealed deck play
For a long time, Wizards of the Coast would not release anything official on iOS, even though the biggest collectible card game -- Magic: The Gathering -- seemed perfect for Apple's touchscreen platforms. Then, last year, we finally got Magic 2013 on the iPad, and now Wizards of the Coast is preparing Magic 2014. When the update is released in about a month, it will offer lots of new features and content to the iPad and Android devices. That second platform may not matter much to us here at TUAW, but it's a sign that Wizards is continuing to rethink its mobile strategy. The company kindly showed us the latest version of Magic: The Gathering running on the iPad this week, and it's very impressive. It runs faster than ever, and while the campaign is similar (you undertake a series of single-player challenges, or can take on other players in multiplayer), Magic 2014 has a definite emphasis on story that the current version doesn't have. Magic 2014 was designed to attract new players, so the various missions serve as a tour of the game's lore and background, with each section culminating in a battle against a "Planeswalker," one of Magic's big heroes. In addition to the new campaign structure, there's also new content, including lots of new cards from the past year of Magic. There are even some new cards from the Magic 2014 Core Deck, which isn't set to release until after the iOS app has arrived. That means that playing with this game will be the first time some Magic players can officially sit down and play with the new cards. There will also be more of a newer card type called slivers, so even if you've played Magic 2013 completely, the new version should offer up some more twists and turns. One of the biggest problems fans have had with these Magic: The Gathering video games is that in the single-player campaign, you don't get to build your own decks. Rather, you get to unlock cards for a certain deck. While there is some choice in which cards you use, all of the cards are basically tied to specific decks, so building a custom deck is out. Wizards is aware of this concern, and has an answer in Magic 2014. Sort of. The game will introduce a new mode called Sealed Deck play, where players will get six booster packs, featuring random cards from a larger pool, and will then be allowed to build their own deck from those opened cards. It's not complete freedom, because you only get a certain number of booster packs to choose from, and you'll need to make decks from those. But it does allow for a very structured bit of deck-building, and Magic 2014 contains a whole campaign and a PvP option centered just around using these sealed decks. On the game's initial purchase, you can create two total decks in this way, and then you can buy more slots for these built decks via in-app purchase. If you want to play with a sealed deck, but don't know how to build a Magic deck, the game offers an "autobuild" option. There are plenty of tutorials and difficulty options, so no matter what your level of Magic experience, 2014 has plenty to offer. The biggest drawback might be that while there are lots of new options and content, the game itself hasn't changed. Stainless Games is the company that makes both the console and the iOS versions, and as a result, both versions use the same pacing, same graphics and same gameplay. There's no iOS-specific touchscreen moves or fun tablet-specific tricks or graphics. But that's fine. The point of this is to play Magic, and Wizards and Stainless both deserve a lot of credit for producing such a well-made game. Magic 2014 should be available on the iPad in the next few months or so. We'll keep an eye out for it, and let you know when it's finally arrived.
MMObility: Dragon Eternity shines on the iPad
Dragon Eternity has always been a pretty neat browser-based game that drew me in more with its mechanics and UI design than with its actual gameplay. Frankly, the game is a grind. You'll be sent on quest after quest that is basically kill-ten-whatever, with the occasional gather quest thrown in for good measure. I wasn't terribly thrilled with it before, but I did find myself occasionally enjoying it. The artwork in the game is beautiful. That alone is a reason to poke my head into the title once in a while. Now that a new iPad version has been released, I just had to give it another go to see if it felt the same as before. I have to say, how you interface with a game can really make a difference. Sure, the grind is still there, and the quests are generally the same at higher levels as they are at level one, but the iPad works awesome. That's not all, however. I also participated in PvP combat for the first time and found out exactly where the game shines.
Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 taps final two DLC decks
The third and final content update for Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is available today, a double dose of new decks. The first deck is a blue-and-black hybrid called Rogue's Gallery, while the other is a five-colored collection called Mana Mystery.Both decks will set spell slingers back a cool $3 (240 MS Points) on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and PC through Steam today; however, iPad owners will have to wait until tomorrow before they can download these final decks.
Magic 2013 brings (the Xbox version of) Magic to the iPad
The iPad is ideal for card games -- its size and wonderfully inviting touch screen makes it excellent for representing physical cards on a digital device. That's why, back when the iPad was first introduced, one of the most popular apps was a simple deck of cards, a virtual set of graphics that you could move and slide around the screen as needed. Traditional card games have always been well-represented on the iPad, and collectible card games really shine. As the iPad has matured, we've seen more and more virtual card games arrive, from Hothead's popular Kard Combat to enjoyable titles like Ascension and Shadow Era. For the longest time, however, Wizards of the Coast has declined to bring its monstrously popular collectible card game, Magic: The Gathering, to iOS. There have been popular versions of Magic on both PC (and even in the browser) and on game consoles, but up until this summer, there was no official way to play Magic on iOS. Fans had even released makeshift versions of the title on the App Store at times, all of them crushed by Wizards of the Coast's legal threats. Finally, about a month ago, we got what we'd been waiting for. Magic 2013 is an official version of Magic, the full game playable on the iPad's gorgeous screen, with all of the modern game rules and strategies (mostly) intact. But is this the version we've been waiting for, or is it yet another stopgap to let Wizards exploit the brand on iOS without actually pulling players away from its core physical card game? In short, this is the game you've been looking for if you're a Magic fan. It's as close as you'll get to playing real Magic almost anywhere, and it's plenty effective at imitating the real thing. The biggest drawback of Magic 2013 is that it's basically a port of the popular Duels of the Planeswalkers console series rather than an all-new iOS version, so all of the complaints about that series (that you can't truly build your own decks, and that most of the content is buried in a segmented campaign) are still mostly valid here. But otherwise, this is Magic, and all of the features that you'd hope to find in an official Magic game, including multiplayer online play, unlockable cards, Two-Headed Giant and custom game modes, and any other little extras, are all here for the taking. The base game is free and that is just a tester version. It offers just five levels, and doesn't include any of the larger features or card unlocks. A very reasonable US$9.99 unlocks everything else. While you can buy other cards or packs, the single $9.99 charge will get you most of the Magic you want: A full 30-match campaign, 10 decks to choose from and multiple opponents, including that online mode. There's no problem with content here at all. The digital game obviously isn't as flexible as the offline game (where you can put together your own strategies or play any number of custom rules), but given that Wizard definitely doesn't want to stop selling physical cards, all of the limits here are completely understandable. The biggest issue with Magic 2013 isn't in what it has, but in what it doesn't, and that's an iPad-specific interface. Again, the interface is lifted straight from the console version, which itself was originally designed to work with an Xbox 360 controller. As a result, Magic's digital cards just don't feel as real as they should. You do swipe cards up to play them, but tapping to attack simply moves them into position, and cards tap themselves rather than having you push them to the side. It's mostly an aesthetic argument, but still -- the iPad's screen is so well designed for tactile interaction that it's disappointing the developers didn't take more advantage of it. Wizards is probably leery of investing too much in a brand new version of the game, so hopefully later versions will have a more touchscreen-specific interface. The other issue with porting over from the console version is that games tend to run a little slow. The game moves through each phase with plenty of time for either opponent to jump in and cast spells or play cards, and all of that waiting seems less workable on the iPad's closeup screen. Again, this is the fault of the way the game was designed (and, to a lesser extent, the way Magic works in general), but I can't help but think that if the game was remade completely for the iPad, it would run just a little smoother than it currently does. Once you figure why everything moves as slowly as it does, however (and you'll have no problem doing that if you're an expert Magic player already), there's not a lot of other issues. The cards are clear, colorful and easy to read, and matches work just as they do in real life. The game's graphics are actually a little flashy for Magic, I thought, but they're also well-designed, and the music is pretty good as well. I don't know if this is the ideal version of Magic. Personally, I will probably tend towards playing the game on the Xbox, since that's where this version started and that's what I'm most used to. But we do finally have Magic: The Gathering on the iPad, and it runs as well as you'd want an official Magic app to run, with all of the boxes checked that you'd need. Hopefully, when the next version of the game comes around (Wizards has been releasing both new digital and physical versions on a somewhat annual basis), iOS will get a copy of the game that's been designed just for the excellent touchscreen it's rendered on.
