Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

[sadlyblue]

I agree.
This seems much harder to code that PutIntoPlayTappedAndAttacking.

[MisterBenn]

I also agree. Hopefully some similar abilities like "must be blocked" and "can only be blocked by 2 creatures" will appear too. Haven't seen any Soulbond creatures yet.

Incidentally that wingspantt chap posted 4 more videos all about 2013 Encounters:



Edit: I've just watched them all... Encounters are the not the newest feature that I care most about!

[thefiremind]

You know, some of them are interesting, and they could be used as test for other decks. But thinking as a modder, I hope we will find a way to add campaigns in DotP2013 so we can invent new encounters!

About the third encounter, the annoying "discard + mill + reanimate"... I wonder what happens if I play it with a custom deck featuring many copies of Treacherous Pit-Dweller... haha I'll invent a deck with it just to do that!

I noticed a small but nice thing: did you see 3 fireball animations starting from Inferno Titan when it had 3 different targets? If I didn't miss it, I think in DotP2012 the animation is always limited to 1 target.

[MisterBenn]

Yeah I saw the Inferno Titan effects. The first time it attacks, all three points of damage are aimed at the player and still all 3 fireballs are drawn with slightly different arcs. Looks like they have given some love to the effects, that's a really good thing and I hope triggering them has been improved too. Just getting the audio and visual clues to appear how you want is an art form of its own currently!

You could be right about the encounters, hopefully they become more complex than those examples. I like the idea of encounters that are a pre-canned devastating set of cards like you might encounter during a match, and you have to select and tune a deck to find a way to beat it almost like a puzzle mode.

Overall I am really excited about this. I don't actually mind giving up Archenemy mode as that was the mode I played least. My favourite was probably FFA mode, I am hoping for a miracle that another player or two are supported in 2013 although I've heard nothing to that end. I know little about the Planechase mode but that sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

[thefiremind]

Bad news today: an article on the Wizards site clearly says no to Planeswalker cards in DotP2013.
"What that means is that even though the Planeswalker decks don't actually contain their respective Planeswalker cards—Duels unfortunately doesn't support this functionality yet—the cards should feel organically like they'd make perfect sense in their respective decks."
That "yet" could make us hope, but I'm not so optimistic.

EDIT: ...but... there is a good news, too! Wingspantt posted a Planechase video, and the mechanic we were waiting for is here! Look at the Kharasha Foothills plane...

[MisterBenn]

Aha I see it, "put into play tapped and attacking" is there! I am getting quite optimistic about how many mechanics are getting added in this time. It looks like all the medallions are getting new artwork from the looks of these videos, I recall you were looking for that thefiremind!

I much prefer the look of this free for all board. The graphics in 2012 made planeswalker portraits look like they belonged to the next players cards! I notice there is a single, central Planechase deck. I wonder if they are selectable or whether there is a single set. We may have to whip up a megapack of all the plane cards or if plane decks are selectable, make some themed sets...



Edit: also I saw the Eon Fog plane card has the ability to untap all permanents. It's a shame we can't manually tap our lands as you can double up your mana pool this way. I don't see a way to manually tap basic lands, looks like you can just spend them in response to the Chaos ability and get them untapped again.

[sadlyblue]

I still think we should make a token to act has a mana pool. I think it's possible. Kind of like the cycle token.

[MisterBenn]

I saw that one of the plane cards has a blink ability, it's great there will be a new funtion or recommended method of doing that the sticks to the rules since I never got mine behaving perfectly.

I wonder if all the plane cards will be in? A few of them give new activated abilities out to existing permanents, it will be interesting to see how they handle that. Do they just squeeze up the existing text on a card and cram in on afterwards?

[thefiremind]

I wonder if all the plane cards will be in? A few of them give new activated abilities out to existing permanents, it will be interesting to see how they handle that. Do they just squeeze up the existing text on a card and cram in on afterwards?

After seeing that not all the Archenemy schemes were in DotP2012 (not even one ongoing scheme, and a few non-ongoing missing too), I wouldn't be so sure. Actually, they could have a way to add abilities to cards without messing with the card frame: if you look at one of wingspantt's videos (can't remember which one, probably the latest but I'm not sure) you can see that he opens a sort of menu on a card, and there's a replication of all the card's activated abilities on that menu. That menu could contain additional abilities without writing anything on the card itself... but I have very little hope about it. Especially about your example: I didn't see creatures that produce mana in the videos, so it seems that they still want to trick the new players into thinking that only lands (and a few artifacts if they include a Mox again in a high-level AI deck) produce mana.

[MisterBenn]

You're probably right. I do remember the popout menu thing, that would be a great place to put new abilities if they are included. I am still a bit optimistic on this one, that menu doesn't really bring any advantages unless it was made to house newly granted abilities in this way. Probably I am way optimistic, we'll see in a few days. I agree the DOTP's are strict with giving out mana abilties to nonlands but perhaps some of the planes that give all creatures firebreathing, or all instants and sorceries flashback might be in...

[Pesi]

I just wanted to post why I think certain non-ongoing schemes where not in Duels2012.

All Shall Smolder in My Wake : The lack of nonbasic lands.
Dance, Pathetic Marionette : Game can't handle displaying cards from more than one zone at a time.
A Display of My Dark Power : The lack of a mana pool.
My Wish Is Your Command : Same as Dance, Pathetic Marionette.
Perhaps You've Met My Cohort : The lack of Planeswalkers.
Drench The Soil In Their Blood : Game can't reverse the turn structure/add new phases/however this would be implemented.

[Pesi]

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/A ... ily/td/199

They tell us that Cathedral of War is in Dotp2013. It is extremely good news that they are now willing to include nonbasic lands that generate mana (with some restrictions).

This gives me hope that the following lands might make an appearance, or at least be easily make-able:
Blasted Landscape
Darksteel Citadel
Glimmerpost
Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai
Reliquary Tower
Seraph Sanctuary

[MisterBenn]

Nonbasic lands would be a great thing, some built-in and natural way of handling them would be great. Perhaps they'll line up with the basic lands rather than the enchantments... perhaps they will be included in the "manual" tapping! Most of those lands got made for 2012, the only ability I see that's tricky is Cycling since I haven't seen activated abilities from the hand yet. Maybe someone got a workaround for Cycling working?

Pesi you reminded me - with all the camera controls we had last time like the aerial view and other players' perspectives, I wish/hope there could be a view to check the exile zone by panning for example to the right of the main play area. I fear that is wishful thinking though.

[thefiremind]

They tell us that Cathedral of War is in Dotp2013. It is extremely good news that they are now willing to include nonbasic lands that generate mana (with some restrictions).

This gives me hope that the following lands might make an appearance, or at least be easily make-able:
Blasted Landscape
Darksteel Citadel
Glimmerpost
Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai
Reliquary Tower
Seraph Sanctuary

I don't know about Glimmerpost, but Cloudpost will be in an encounter, it's the land I'm most excited about.

Nonbasic lands that produce just 1 mana of a single type were already doable: I coded Terrain Generator and Vault of the Archangel for example. The problem was that in the check about whether the second ability was affordable or not, the land itself was counted! Obviously this was a mistake because the land itself should have been tapped without gaining mana. So I fixed them by adding an AVAILABILITY block to the second ability, that checked if the player could afford the price of the ability plus 1 colorless mana.

Cycling is a totally different problem, it would require the possibility to activate an ability on a card in a player's hand.

[GamerXYZ0]

I wouldn't be so hyped about Cloudpost, it will most likely be coded very basic: "Pump all of the colorless mana it produces in a spell: no choice to use less in case of Earthquake and such. Even if Cloudpost produces, say, 5 mana for instance, and you play, say, Goblin Piker as an example, all Cloudpost's mana is still used up and not stored anywhere". Fortunately auto-tapping is only optional now, or that would be another problem.

Thinking about it, Earthquake is a bad example, since you can just say "I make its colorless cost 3. I pump Cloudpost for 5 and satisfy the colorless cost". But you get what I mean: you can't control how much of Cloudpost you pump in a spell, unless the spell itself allows you to choose (which Earthquake does: you just save the remaining colorless mana in the mana pool, which doesn't exist and therefore the remaining colorless mana disappears).