Great game, but its not much of an upgrade from the last one.
Unfortunately at times it seems the game is weighed down by Wizards of the Coast, who made the card game as they have not allowed you to make your own decks in order to keep people playing their much more expensive card game compared to this $10 iteration. At times you find yourself say "I could beat this guy if I had these cards all together in the same deck."
The most customization offered in the game is controlling how much of each card you have (up to 4 for most cards) as long as you have at least 60 cards, simple rules that also belong to the card game. The problem is that's where the customization stops. The amount of cards for each deck is very small with little room for any real customization besides small tweaks like taking out cards you don't need. Being a player of the card game myself I found I was disappointed very fast at the lack of cards. In order to get more decks you'll have to wait for DLC's to come out, one of which has been leaked and knowing the franchise more are sure to come.
Most players will find their play-style and find a deck that suits it very fast but a few games in and you'll want to switch it to be even more tailored to your play-style, that's when the game's fun starts to deteriorate as you either have to use the same mindless tactics over and over or trying playing with a new deck even though you don't really like it. Multilayer isn't much help for this as your opponents will still be using the same decks you have probably fought many times now, this time you'll just have the comfort of knowing your playing a card virtual card game with a real person this time.
Speaking of which brings me to the AI. The AI does feel very life-like and you usually don't notice the difference between online and offline play. Then again that may have something to do with THE CHAT FUNCTION BEING BROKEN EVER SINCE RELEASE. Yep, 2 months have gone by and the chat is still broken, even though its in the controls.
One of the game's features is a mode called archenemy which allows 3 players to play against one player called the mastermind (that's what its called in the card game anyway, they never actually stated their title in the game.) The archenemy needless to say has an advantage, these are their scheme cards. The mastermind gets to draw one before their turn starts and it gives the mastermind some insanely overpowered ability such as getting to summon huge monsters and getting more mana, something used to make more monsters and cast spells in the game.
While this is supposed to be balanced sometimes it feels like the mastermind is not balanced as depending on the schemes they draw they might lose the game very fast or win on turn 2. The mastermind also receives double the normal life points so that they just can't be beat early on through rushing tactics. The problem is its usually a legendary achievement to get a scratch on them as between drawing gigantic mana schemes that give them enough mana to summon 3 monsters on turn 1 while your still waiting for you first one to getting a gigantic dragon that is almost completely unblockable very early on can make other players very frustrated. I'll have to correct my last sentence, THE players because the mastermind is always AI controlled. The only way to be the mastermind is, surprise, buy the upcoming DLC which will provide 3 new decks and the ability to be the mastermind. The most annoying part of this mode is the fact that communication is key, but with the chat function still broken its nearly impossible to coordinate your teammates leaving you attacking by yourself when you could have won if you had attacked all at once or see your teammates making giving themselves more life points even though they aren't even scratched while the mastermind AI (who has a habit of ganging up on the players on at a time) has barely left you alive.
Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is a great value at its $10 price tag and it'll keep you entertained for a while but the puzzles that will only appeal to a specific audiance of the game as well as the small variety of decks will leaving you wanting more very fast and its bugs and balancing problems (like mastermind, the chat function and some decks being clearly underpowered) will have you praying for a patch, however there hasn't been a single patch to fix these problems since day 1.