MTG Salvation

While I was unable to attend this weekend (stupid east coast, stupid real life responsibility) I have been scouring the net for as many details as I can find about this game.

Below are the results of my search. If anyone else has some new details, post here and I will update with the latest info.

Summary

• A digital recreation of the card game where cards are unlocked by winning duels.
• It is to be released on the Xbox 360 Live arcade, development of the PC version appears to be halted (Thanks MTGColorPie)
• The interface is similar to that of the Dreamcast version with an isometric 3d view of the cards.
• Game is being produced by Stainless Games
• Game is being primarily focused to introduce new gamers to magic
• Game features "Rich 3d environments"
• Full single player and Co-op campaigns
• All cards must be unlocked in single player.
• Features online Vs play as well as a Co-Op two headed dragon and other "puzzles and challenges"
• No full deck creation, decks are pre-made and can then be customized. (Edit) Apparently decks can be fully customized
• Features a number of cards from Shards of Alara
• The left and right trigger blow a card up to be more visible while the left bumper defines keywords.
• Game is currently in an "alpha stage"
• Current release date is set for spring 09
• Cards appear to feature a 360 controller for a set icon
• Appears to feature Elspeth from the Alara set as one of the planeswalkers you duel
• Mana is automatically tapped for you, does not appear to be anything but basic lands in the game
• The game has a very "arcade" feel
• Features 3d versions of the cards in play, as well as animations for each spell
• You are limited to 23-30 seconds for instant effect choices
• Game appears to be RPG-esque. Walk around talk to people start duels, etc.

Pictures

In game footage



Deck manager


Links

Official Site
Audio interview on mypaxblog
Hands on discussion at ugo
Shaky Cam footage on Youtube
Hands on with Joystiq
Photo Gallery on Joystiq

This could be interesting... The lack of building from scratch is disappointing though. Perhaps they couldn't program to handle that kind of complex interaction? I wonder how many sets they will include? So much unknown!

From someone on the MTG boards who got their hands on it the guy at the booth stated that the decks can be fully customized

• A digital recreation of the card game where cards are unlocked by winning duels.

What the hell? this sounds like Ante all over again if you ask me~!

So it's Elspeth Knight-Errant, huh.

Pity that it's still a card game, I wanted something Battlegrounds'esque.

If they let you build your decks with any cards in would cannibalize mtgo.

This seems like it will be a lot like that Pokemon TCG game for Game Boy. You got deck, and when you beat more people and got farther in the game, you would get more booster packs and get access to more different cards.

Quote from Singer of White Line

So it's Elspeth Knight-Errant, huh.

Pity that it's still a card game, I wanted something Battlegrounds'esque.

Good finding! I posted it in the compiled orb thread (after I checked ofcourse: Elspeth - 2, Knight-Errant - 1)

Quote from Neyda

And what is the expansion symbol on Abyssal Specter? It looks like Mercadian Masques to me, but it doesn't make sense. Other cards I'm OK with.

What do you think?

The expansion symbol appears to be a 360 controller. Makes sense to have a new set symbol for this.

I was there at PAX and after I found out that they switched their focus from PC and 360 to 360 Live only, I didn't really pay any attention. The interface did look nice (they had the screen next to the MtGO demo) but dumb that they took this to the console only. It is not like the Microprose game that was made 10+ years argo beside playing the card game.

Quote from krunner

If they let you build your decks with any cards in would cannibalize mtgo.

Exactly what I was thinking...I'm curious as to how they will do this. If they can duel online then wont this basically become a better MWS after awhile? Where exactly is the profit in this? People would probably just drop MtGO and play this. There must be consistent payments somewhere...

Quote from Godseeker

Exactly what I was thinking...I'm curious as to how they will do this. If they can duel online then wont this basically become a better MWS after awhile? Where exactly is the profit in this? People would probably just drop MtGO and play this. There must be consistent payments somewhere...

From what I've gathered there is a limited card pool designed for the game, kind of like Master Edition. I doubt they are going to release every card as they come out so you won't exactly be able to build fairies 2.0. The profit comes from A the cost of the game of course and B all the people on Live arcade who get interested in Magic, and decide to give the paper version a try.

Quote from Credendo

Mana is automatically tapped for you, does not appear to be anything but basic lands in the game

So either there are no Elves, or this will be awkward. God forbid you have Incinerate and Cancel in hand with UURRR out or something that similarly demands proper tapping in whatever order you have to do it.

This seems like it could cause frustration to new players, but... well, it's still sort of in beta and they probably planned it.

Quote from Obscurus

What the ... ?! What are they thinking? I don't see what this is about... Why can't you build your own decks?

Or can the premade ones be 100% customized, so that no cards that were initially in a deck remain?

It sounds like they are taking the same direction as Shandalar, where you started the game with a pregen deck (with a number of splashes depending on difficulty) but where the deck was 100% customizable after you found the cards. I still play that game, it's just so much fun scouring the land for Conjurers to copy your P9 up to a playset

Quote from Glorious Gnome

It's going to be funny when people go from DoP to MTGO.. They are going to be like.. WTH is this?!

DoP is beautiful. Wizards should scrap MTGO3 and just license the DoP engine.

Onder: Conjurers can give you duplicate cards? I think my brothers use the Mind Controllers, or whatever the UB deck that can copy yours was called.

Quote from Godseeker

Exactly what I was thinking...I'm curious as to how they will do this. If they can duel online then wont this basically become a better MWS after awhile? Where exactly is the profit in this? People would probably just drop MtGO and play this. There must be consistent payments somewhere...

What, with no non-basic lands and no drafting?

This sounds a lot like Shandalar, which, everyone knows, was full of win.

Yes, for those who never played Shandalar, this will be very fun. The only people who won't find it so will likely be those who don't like having to work so hard building their decks. But once you're far enough along in the game I have no doubts the reward will be there, letting you build some pretty good decks.

All I will say is that the interface is BEAUTIFUL... flying creatures lazily hover over the field. They stole drag targeting from MWS. Its all very animated. The card images are very sharp. I could care less, because its basically gimped magic, no it IS gimped magic. but the interface was beautiful. If MTGO looked like this, I would consider it.

It does sound like the way wizards will diffrenciate between this and MTGO is by limiting the cardpool of this game to perhaps just a block worth of cards to build from plus a few secret bonuses.

Unfortunately, I think this game is the way to go, but there is no way wizards will scratch MTGO off the map now that people have sunk so much money into it. That's the tragedy of introducing a game without forsight.

Looks like the interface is looking great. Is the game similar to Shandalar? I like the concept of Shandalar before, I hope it covers all the cards and can be updated.

Wow, this actually sounds pretty decent. Thanks for the info.

Looking forward to this, looks like fun!