I have to admit I am a sucker for this series as they drip feed me features one per year. Almost everything I wanted was in 2013, I just wanted to be able to set the number of basic lands and some more side baord cards.

Instead in 2014 we have some kind of 'sealed deal' mode with booster packs. Details are vaguge (that I have found) and make me very worried. This game had managed to avoid booster packs, random cards and 'purchase more packs' which is why it is a M:tG product that I still purchase.

What do other people think? Holds promise or are they in danger of killing the golden goose?

I am sad that it went the Madden rout of yeary sequals rather than just selling booster packs as dlc :(

It's better than that, they do both! I don't mind so much because the base game is so cheap ($10 when not on sale, often 66%-75% off on sale).

It's my guilty pleasure. Just about all I play on XBL anymore. I intend on getting 2014 only because I'll be getting it on Steam.

But I doubt they will completely sell out and start offering booster packs for Duels of the Planeswalkers. It seems that premade decks was a standard of the series. And, if you were really hardcore into the series, there was always Magic Online that you could play.

From the steam page:

"Deck building: Open virtual booster packs of Magic cards to build decks and battle in single-player and multiplayer modes."

"Sealed Play Mode; introduces deck building"

This is along side the standard features and doesn't offer much explanation.

I rather play Magic the Gathering Online on the PC.

Right. But I was referring to an open-ended system where players could do the deck building thing and then supplement that with optional booster packs. Basically you can have an advantage on others if you decide to purchase the optional content.

It's going to be like the rest in the series just with a deck building system. My gut tells me that everyone will have access to the same cards. Without having to purchase a booster deck dlc. Duels of the planeswalkers has always been a more streamlined version of Magic when compared to Magic Online. It's going to keep on being that way.

So some more details have emerged and I'm not happy. As best I can tell it works like this:

- As you work through the campaign you unlock boosters (9 in total).

- You can use these to build a deck to play online with.

- If you don't like your boosters you can buy more slots to get another set of 9 boosters.

So you have to keep paying $2 every time you get a dud draw. This sounds a lot like pay to win to me.

Don't tell me you're surprised about a "Magic the Gathering" product having "Pay to Win" mechanics. I mean, the whole franchise is based on that very concept, isn't it?

DotP has been the lone exception to that rule. Until now.

IMO the only really good Magic game for PC was Shandalar I got the 2012 and finished the single play way too fast I don't like playing human opponents as I can't pause or quit when I want without incurring some sort of penalty. I just wished Shandalar would get a boost so it would fit todays standard that was a game I would play.