Magic: the Gathering Arena — A First Look

Tweet by mtggoldfish // Sep 07, 2017

magic arena

Wizards finally unveiled the new Magic: the Gathering Arena game! Here's all information we gathered from the livestream and http://www.PlayMTGArena.com.

Audio / Visual

The first impression is it looks very Hearthstone-like in appearance (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Some key audio/visual elements from the new game:

3D tabletop, with location-based designs (welcome to Ixalan!)

Card frames are condensed with symbols indicating statuses, effects, and keywords

Rares and Mythics (and other "key" cards) have special animations. Carnage Tyrant was shown during the stream and it was especially impressive.

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Planeswalkers have voice lines! They're displayed in full art off to the side, with a pop-up menu to select abilities.

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Tokens are represented with a different frame.

Lots of animations: creatures attacking players, destroy effects, pump spells, etc.

Lots of sound effects (lots of unique dinosaur roars during the stream!).

Game Play

Mechanics-wise, the devs have promised the "full" Magic: the Gathering experience. In default mode, the game automates most mundane things like tapping for mana, 1-click attacking, etc, but also has a "full controls" mode which lets you maintain priority and execute things manually. The game moved briskly, much faster than a Magic Online match. Some mechanics displayed during the stream: 1-click attacking, multiple blockers, assigning blocking order, crewing a vehicle to block, using full control mode to hold priority to cast spells. Oh, and the most important thing: you can shuffle your hand!

Nuts & Bolts

The game is in pre-Alpha. If you want to register for closed beta, visit http://www.PlayMTGArena.com.

The game is PC-only on release, but is built on Unity which supports multiple platforms.

Free-to-play, but the exact mechanism are unknown.

Arena will focus on Standard, whereas Magic Online will focus on older formats like Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Cube, etc. Magic Online will continue to support new sets. Will have every card in Standard. Sets released alongside tabletop Magic.

Ranked Matches, Draft Events, Casual Constructed play modes.

Conclusion

Magic: the Gathering Arena is still far from finished, but everything looks promising so far: fast-paced gameplay, modern graphics, full Magic: the Gathering rules. The only concerns are the PC-only initial launch, and how this all plays out with Organized Play and Magic Online. What are your thoughts on the new Magic: the Gathering game? Excited? Worried? Impartial? Let us know in the comments below.

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