Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 Out This Summer

As is now the custom for Wizards of the Coast, a dual announcement of the new 2013 Core set of Magic: The Gathering cards along with Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 has been released today. Both come this summer, the latter to XBLA, PSN, Steam, and iPad. DOTP is a fairly rigid version of the trading card game, reducing the enjoyment quite significantly, but if you ever wanted to get your friends into the game but didn’t have the time to run a teaching session, DOTP is ideal to start learning on. Its 2013 incarnation sees players, for the first time in the franchise, face up against legendary dragon planeswalker: Nicol Bolas.

If there’s one complaint that players have about DOTP it’s that it doesn’t reflect the ever changing nature of playing with friends: as tactics, decks, and luck of the draw changes from match to match the enjoyment of the card game never ceases. The same cannot be said for DOTP as the structure does not allow for customisation. This leads to a lack of replay value with the game which I’m hoping Wizards of the Coast can do something to rectify. No specific date has been set, but get prepared to spend around £10 on the video game and a whole lot more on your ensuing addiction to the card game.