Community

Mar 22, 2013 -- 3:03AM, monk1410 wrote:

I am a bit surprised more people from here don't play magic online, especially pauper. Anyone else who plays add me or post your username here.

So, I broke down and bought the $10 start pack to see how this would work for me. I'm pretty intrigued by the pauper format and though it might be something I could get into. I decided to use the wide beta client, since most people seem to indicate this is the best way to experience mtgo.

I have to say, so far it has been less than encouraging. One can play the game with a good number of cards that they give you, but it is a limited format 'planeswalker' with an untradeable (is that a word?), unchanging set of special cards. I don't even know if every new players gets the same set of cards, or something else. The deck building aspect could also use some help. After I build a mono white deck, it indicated I had cards in it 'not in my collection' (no idea how I even did that since I just dragged and dropped from the collection area) without an easy way to identify those cards that were not in my collection. It also indicated that I was using multiple copies of a restricted card, without showing me which card was restricted. And one wonders why they'd give you multiple copies of that card in the limited format, if you can't construct a deck with multiple copies in it? Having said that, the actual playing of the game is a different experience from DotP and in my mind a better version. The graphics are inferior, but the game mechanics work better IMO. And starting the games is much quicker and better organized, you can observe games, etc. So, if I' willing to stick with that, it seems like a reasonable value. But if that's what I'm sticking with, DotP feels like an even better value to me.

On the 'serious' part of the game, I'd look forward to constructing some decks and playing in some of the scheduled events, but it seems pretty hard to get my hands on the cards needed to play there, unless I'm willing to part with some serious money. It's possible I'm just missing the mark, but trying to find how to get some of these cards, even the pauper cards is a daunting effort, with trading bots, folks that are willing to prey on your ignorance, etc. From that perspective, DotP is a much better experience. And if WotC wants to make this an entry into 'serious' magic, I think they still have some work to do.

Anyway, so perhaps this is why you don't see more folks at MTGO. And, I do appreciate that you accepted my buddy invite monk!