@twestern
This is far from a bad game. I am not sure what was you expectation for it was but it's definitely a lot for an XBLA game. Here is what the designers said was the reasoning behind the restriction on deck building and cards
"Yes, you hit the nail on the head when you suggest that the lack of card removal was for reasons of deck balance. To be honest, I also felt the same way as you originally (being also a jaded old Magic player!), and fought against the decision during the design phase with Wizards. However they were adamant that the Live arena must not be dominated by players with the sort of mindsets that dominate the Pro tour. They wanted all players to have the fun of adding unlocked cards to their decks, without the ability to create killer decks that upset the balance online.
As Wizards of the Coast do seem to know a thing or two about Magic, let’s face it, they’re probably right!"
I am sorry that this game did not meat your lofty expectation but everything that you ask to be include in this game is what it is not suppose to be. You keep saying it's a bad game yet you give no reason why it's a bad game. It's full feature, the on-line part work, it got good graphics, the control is a big clunky but once you adjust to playing card game on a TV then it's become natural.
As for multiplayer, you play against AI decks in co-op mode if you are on the same Xbox 360. The game also provide 4 players on-line game and host of other features. It even include the "puzzle" mode where you try to figure out how to win a game in a given scenarior. For $10.00 I think the game is feature rich and a lot more than I expected. There's card to unlock, deck to unlock, ranking, there are far worst game than this that cost a lot more on XBLA.
