hmm, i see both sides of the argument here. i guess in order to enjoy it, you kind of have to drop a few familiar aspects of the actual Magic game and just go with this reduced version.

the sticking-with-pre-cons aspect sounds fine. that does help balance people who play a lot and those who just play every now and then. like others have said, it's not about building legit tournament decks here.

the 2.5 sec rule sound bad. but if you're willing to gloss over that, maybe it's not so bad.

not being able to keep mana open? that's one legitimate complaint since this simplication pretty much turns magic into a whole different game. it just changes too many things.

on battle: you know, they just recently changed the rules on combat. i don't know if this game is supposed to reflect the changes or what, but the new rule is that once you get to the combat damage phase, it's too late to regenerate or pumps. you need activate those abilities BEFORE the combat damage phase. as i understand the new rules, combat damage phase is now more like a state-based effect, there is no time for instances or abilities to be played here (such as, can't sac a mogg fanatic). also, the blocking rules and damage assginment have changed, so maybe those mechanics are actually being played out correctly.

more info on other rule changes (to be applied soon):

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/42a

That is what they did, so I am not sure what is your argument.  The game is XBL ARCADE Magic Duel of the Planewalkers. It's not Magic TGC the digital game.  It's never set out to be that game.  It's $10.00 , it's what it is.  So by your argument, Nintendo should never call any of their Mario spin off game Mario because it's not Super Mario Brothers? 

They used Magic name, because at its core it still is Magic card game, it's follow similar rule sets , used the same card pull.

I still fail to see why any of you would dismiss this game out of hand because this is not Magic On-line.  It never was reveal to be as such, or I never have seen they imply that this would be Magic On-line for Xbox 360.

To me, this is the best way to go and not turn the game into hardcore Magic.  Do you really want to spend all your Microsoft Space bucks on virtual card just to be competitvie?  How about hacking and cheating ?  If they want to create the real Magic experience as you want then they would have to create a server side storage so there would not be save game tampering (you know it will happen in any competitive type of game). 

Again, I think you guys clamoring for decks buildings, virtual cards buying etc are missing the point.  

I am not sure but I know in the XBLA Magic you have to do all that before damage is assign. 

@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.

i completely agree with this.  only complaint I had (which i stated earlier) is the fact that you can't play 2 head snake mode online unless you and your friend are on the same xbox.  Other than that i think this game is a blast.  Definetly worth the 10 bucks

Sad that it sucks. I still have way too many magic cards...

All cards game are based on luck.  Yes deck construction help but it's still luck.   I don't know why everyone is so hang up on this deck construction aspect of Magic.   What going to happen you will always have that meta game decks will always be the same you will just get a few competive deck.  ie all decks will be the same .. that's what happen in all card games you will have one or two deck that are dominating and everyone will make the same decks.

This is why people should not allow to make thread title game X = suck or game X = bad.  Did you at least not read the thread to see the pro and con? ....

Yes, even tournament decks are based on luck but you by building your deck smart, you can augment that luck to work in your favor.  In the XBL game, you just can't.  You get a good card and you can only add it to your deck and make it bigger making it harder to get all your good cards.  It's a shitty system.

I know you don't see why people hung up on the lack of deck construction but I don't see why you're so quick to defend it.  I know they make excuses for it but that still doesn't make it good.  They control what cards are in the game and that is how they balance it, not by giving you bad decks and only allowing you to add to them.

One of the fun things for *many* people that play game isn't just playing the cards, it's building the decks and playing the mind games.  They got rid of both of those.  Just playing the cards is probably my least favorite of those three things.  There's a lot of thought that can go into building a deck and that's awesome.  That is completely out.

There's also that game of psyching out your opponent and that's out too.  You can't leave certain mana open and your opponent just knows whether or not you actually have anything you can play.  It sucks.

Face it, it's just a really bad system.

I know you like it, but there are people out there that like bad games.  There's nothing wrong with that.

Yeah thats a great card game. .