A solid game that's a great introduction to Magic: the Gathering, but no more.

User Rating: 7.5 | Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 PC
For its price, Magic: the Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 12 offers a surprising amount of content and hours of play, provided you like this type of game. However, it misses out on what's arguably the best thing about Magic, which is building your own deck.

The game features various pre-made decks, each with a unique thematic and gameplay element. The decks are very well-crafted and play differently enough that it's worth trying them all. They are also very balanced, so that no deck is really better than the other, and in the end it all boils down to tactical decisions.

The problem here is that the decks feature very limited customization, offering no more than 15 extra cards (which in actual M:tG is known as the sideboard, and is actually part of the deck). It is not possible to start a deck from scratch, using any of the cards present in the game. This is especially annoying, since most of the decks can improved by simply switching out a few cards with those in other decks or other cards found in the non-playable boss decks or the puzzles. The game would have been much more interesting and fun had it contained a whole expansion of cards (such as the Kamigawa or Ravnica Blocks), with a small number of pre-made decks and the option to create a deck from scratch. Because, M:tG is really about making your own deck and trimming it until it actually starts winning.

Despite this major flaw, the game offers an intelligent AI that rarely makes mistakes, three campaigns (which, while limited in storytelling, are still fun to complete) and various entertaining and difficult puzzles (which manage to give an indication of what Magic is really about better than the other decks) and a multiplayer (which thankfully counts rage-quits as victories.)

This game is totally worth the money, but if you've had any experience with Magic before, you're not likely to be very impressed.