Magic the Gathering: Tactics - First Impressions

I've been PM'd over Steam more than a few times while playing MtG: Tactics concerning the quality of the game. Well, it's not as much the quality that people ask about, but more on that in a moment. The first thing to mention, which I find important, is that you're playing with other Station users, not just other people on Steam. There is an established community and you shouldn't have a problem joining in on games.

I think I should mention that a friend of mine is a QA Tester II over at SOE and he's worked hard on this game. So, I thought I'd give it a shot and see if it's worth playing a F2P game with an in-game store. This is where it might get complicated for casual gamers or people new to this model. There are different options when it comes to the in-game store, as solo campaign chapters and boosters cost real money.

The game has two separate types of currency: Station Cash and Gold. Station Cash is shortened to "SC" and it is the primary currency in the game as everything in the in-game store uses Station Cash. After finishing the very short tutorial, you'll probably start on the solo campaign. This gives you experience points and additional cards to throw in your decks. You'll notice immediately after beating the fifth mission that each additional chapter in the game costs 250SC. Let's do the math.

If you were to put $20 in your Steam funds, you could buy 2,000SC for $20 in-game. At the moment, there are six chapters to buy. That's already 1,500SC for them all. While you probably wouldn't buy all of them at once, this is important to note before getting serious about the game. The solo campaign already felt pretty quick to me, so the obvious alternative is to get serious about competitive play.

There are drafts, casual games, tournaments, and an auction house. There is also trading and voice chat is supported. Though, this is where you start getting into the other type of currency: Gold. You can earn gold by playing the game or buying gold and spending it on the auction house to buy spells. If you're thinking about playing competitively, this is where it can get pricey. It is Magic, after all.

I only played the tutorial and through the first chapter, and I've already accumulated 20G. I can turn around and look in the auction house for more powerful spells to buy. Gold is only used for Auctions and Tournaments, such as entering Drafts. There are also Dailies that can have Gold rewards. When it comes to competitive play, only a couple of modes allow you to use talents from leveling up.

Altogether, there are five competitive modes: Casual Open, Open, Draft, Bracket ,and Constructed. Casual Open is where you can use your talents from leveling up. The other Open is a limited time format where the top players get rewards. Bracket has a 30 gold entry and the winners are rewarded. Each round, a player is eliminated and a player is rewarded, and moves on to the next bracket. Bracket mode allows talents.

Draft is entirely different from the previous modes. You need an unopened pack and pick a card to throw it to the next person. When everyone is done, you'll have constructed your deck. The top players are handsomely rewarded in Draft. Doing a draft is probably a great way to get passed some really good cards. Though, winning a draft should be your goal. The reward is a few booster packs depending on where you placed.

There is probably a lot I'm leaving out, but I've just started playing the game. I know Tactics had a rocky start, but I've often read it's been getting a lot better over the last few months. The prices of cards went down a lot and it's apparently a lot less buggy. I'm going to give it a serious shot because I'm an absolute sucker for TCG, and I'm hoping for competitive Magic online play that isn't MtG:O. Though, unlike MtG:O, there is no way to redeem your cards on Tactics.