Wizards of the Coast is revamping Magic: The Gathering this summer with a new philosophy behind their annual Core set, so it only makes sense that they will be overhauling their digital presence as well. The company announced the upcoming release of Magic Duels: Origins, the successor to Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers.
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The F2P deck building game will be available on PC Steam, iPad, Xbox One this July when the new Magic: Origins set drops. A PS4 version is scheduled for release at a later time.
"This upcoming release is unlike anything we've ever done," said Drew Nolosco, lead designer for Magic Duels: Origins. "Players will experience the origin stories of our five most iconic Planeswalkers through immersive gameplay. We've also listened to our players. Two-Headed Giant is back! Taking it a step further, everything is earnable, making the game truly free-to-play. Magic Duels is the perfect way to start your journey into the world's best strategy game."
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This sounds like a step in the right direction after Magic 2015 failed to get people excited. Though the last version added full deck customization, it dropped a lot of the modes and methods that made the 2014 edition such a fan favorite. Course: corrected.
Both Duels and the physical card set Origins wil focus on five of the beloved Planeswalkers - Gideon Jura (white), Jace Beleren (blue) Liliana Vess (black) Chandra Nalaar (red) and Nissa Revane (green) - all the great mages who were gifted with a unique spark that allowed them to travel through the multiverse.
Other features included in Magic Duels are:
Improved Deck Builder with step-by-step deck construction guidance
Solo Battle mode featuring virtually endless AI opponents
Expanded multiplayer options, including Two-Headed Giant mode
Quest system with new individual and community challenges every week
Limitless Free-to-Play with 100% earnable content
All-new Skill Quest tutorial system
Now that sounds like something that will suck up all my time. No word on what the F2P options will be like, but I would assume, given the success of Hearthstone, that it will be similar to Blizzard's CCG. If anyone deserves a go at the reigning champ of digital card games, it's Magic - the game that started it all.
Ultimately, Wizards of the Coast sounds like they taking the good of the past several sets and removing the bad, having listened to the community on what went wrong. Granted, it would be hard to not hear the community - they have been rather vocal in their dislike of the 2015 version.
Watch the announcement trailer below, and brace yourselves, Orgins arrives this July.
