A fun game for those who are just starting or are not familiar with Magic: The Gathering, but a bore for the experienced
I've fallen off the bandwagon over the last year or two and decided to impulsively buy this off the arcade because I was such a fan. I have to say it is definitely the best Magic: The Gathering game I've played to date. Keep in mind though that isn't saying much (Online and Battlegrounds anyone?).
My first reaction to this game was pure amazement, "You mean I can actually play Magic without having to track down someone who is willing to play with me? Awesome!". The decks that are allocated to you are fairly well built for what they are worth but you do feel that luck does play a big part when you have a large deck of such common cards.
My reactions began to slip a little after I started trying to edit the decks. The fact of the matter is that you don't so much edit the decks as add in a random few cards that you've won. The cards that you win after battles are nice and can definitely help but when you add 1 card to a deck of 70+ then your hopes dwindle a little.
The gameplay is nice in that if you could do it in a real game you can do it here also you get fun little actions when your card attacks or you play a nice spell. Plus the art on the cards is still intact to the fullest and the only bad thing about them is that you don't get the fun little flavor text at the bottom of it.
My biggest beef with this game is that you can't build your own deck. That's right fans Magic has fallen short again in what could have been the best Magic game to date. If you come into this game thinking that you could progress and build your own deck and win cards along the way you are wrong. You get the decks given to you and you have to deal with the measly additional cards they throw your way.
All in all a good game that had a lot of potential but in the end fell short. Hopefully they will update the game further and add on deck editing as well as more cards. We can only hope.