Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

[sadlyblue]

It is official.
To be released this summer.
Read more about it:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/945

Seems it will have new features, and the all important optional manual tapping of lands.
Again, i just hope we can costumize it, and even recode the current decks for it.

[thefiremind]

I came here as soon as I found this article, but you discovered it sooner than me.

I hope they don't change the structure too much, so we can use what we already have. Considering that DotP2012 seems to be prepared for more than they actually implemented (planeswalker type, trigger for clashing...) I have high hopes about it.

The fact that they call Nicol Bolas "new" makes me smile... he is in DotP2012 already! Maybe this time he'll be a planeswalker card, too...

[Eglin]

This is exciting, indeed. A day-one buy, for sure. I do hope they include planeswalkers this time around, though.

I know that manual land tapping has garnered a lot of discussion, but just in case anyone wants my opinion... I'm not thrilled about it being an all-or-nothing affair. It can be kinda' tedious to manually tap everything. I rather liked the way the old Microprose game did it - there, you can manually select lands which will never auto-tap. That game also had much better management of mana pools - I can't imagine that being able to manually tap land will be a huge benefit if you can't also manually manage mana-pools.

[thefiremind]

I can't imagine that being able to manually tap land will be a huge benefit if you can't also manually manage mana-pools.

I understand your point: there's a high chance that manual land tapping just means that you have to click on the lands after choosing the spell/ability to play, but you won't be able to tap them before and manage a mana pool.

I would be happy even with just a better implementation of the <MANA_ABILITY>: adding some tag that lets us choose among multiple colours, and making it sensible to summoning sickness and <AVAILABILITY> conditions. This would totally eliminate the need for mana tokens.

[Eglin]

I would be happy even with just a better implementation of the <MANA_ABILITY>: adding some tag that lets us choose among multiple colours, and making it sensible to summoning sickness and <AVAILABILITY> conditions. This would totally eliminate the need for mana tokens.

Not really. How would you handle things that generate mana off of triggers, like Lotus Cobra? The mana tokens that Kev and Nabe came up with are really brilliant, in my opinion, and I doubt they will be easy to entirely replace regardless of how much functionality the new game adds.

[thefiremind]

Yes, you're right, I was thinking only about activated mana abilities. Triggered mana abilities don't even have a meaning without a mana pool, so they will still need mana tokens.

[CWheezy]

Still no planeswalkers? That sucks.

Maybe they will be in there maybe

[Pesi]

Gameplay trailer: (v=Ww7mx2uUr6g)

Unmake can be seen at 0:35 so I assume they got hybrid mana to work properly.

[thefiremind]

Gameplay trailer: (v=Ww7mx2uUr6g)

Unmake can be seen at 0:35 so I assume they got hybrid mana to work properly.

That's good news. I'm also quite happy for the Planechase matches: I never played one, but more randomness is always welcome to make each game different.

[agentx]

Can anyone confirm there will be a change to the interface showing colors of mana in your mana pool?
With the ability to tap your own mana how will the game prevent you from tapping too much by accident?
Thanks

[thefiremind]

Can anyone confirm there will be a change to the interface showing colors of mana in your mana pool?
With the ability to tap your own mana how will the game prevent you from tapping too much by accident?
Thanks

I can't see anything like that in the video, but maybe it shows up only if you decide to use manual tapping... though I'm afraid they won't go so far with the manual tapping. My bet is that there will still be no mana pool and if you choose manual tapping you'll be asked which lands to tap whenever you play a spell or ability. If somebody here ever played the introductory PC game for the 6th edition, that's what I mean.

[MisterBenn]

Really looking forward to this. Even with the rereleasing of the main game and the DLC packs in between, it seems to be amazing value for money to me - it's amazing the time I have put into DOTP 2010 and 2012. Hopefully the hybrid mana shows that they will be making some more mechanics available once more, activated abilities from cards in the hand, a convenient transform mechanic and so on.

[Miraika]

A topic in the Wizards forum posted a video of the manual mana-tapping. It won't let me post the link (new user).

Anyway, the deal is that when you hover over a spell, it shows what lands will be tapped by default (they're highlighted like targets for spells). Then you can press left-ctrl (or whatever on other systems) to switch to a different configuration before you cast it.

[thefiremind]

Anyway, the deal is that when you hover over a spell, it shows what lands will be tapped by default (they're highlighted like targets for spells). Then you can press left-ctrl (or whatever on other systems) to switch to a different configuration before you cast it.

That's just... awful!

As I said before, they had a nice system in the introductory game for 6th Edition (I know the best one is on ManaLink but I'm talking about a good trade between ease of use and control): when you click on a spell, a small window with the spell cost pops up, for example:
[ ]
If you select a Plains, the shown cost becomes
[ ]
but if you selected another land instead of the Plains, the shown cost would become
[ ]
and this goes on until you select enough mana sources to pay the whole cost: when this happens, the mana sources are used (tapped) and the spell starts.
Why didn't they make something like this?

[Pesi]

The video in question : (v=_hBp9UZ2dGg)

I can only say...
"Son, I am disappoint"

First, there is an entire second wait between highlighting the card and the lands being highlighted. I'm not seeing why there should be any wait at all.

Second, it treats one land of a type as equivalent to another land of that type. Mighty Leap, in the video, could in no way tap the swamp on the far left side. This can make it impossible to use lands that are being targeted by something on the stack before they become unusable somehow.