Magic Duels

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Very Positive · 86%Very Positive · 86%2015

The verdict

A free, faithful digital Magic: The Gathering with a good tutorial and story campaigns, but it is abandoned, offline-only in practice, and limited to old sets. Skip it if you want live PvP or new cards.

Great for

Newcomers learning Magic basics and fans who enjoy solo story campaigns against AI

Main risk

The game is discontinued and off sale: no active multiplayer, no new content, some achievements unobtainable.

What players love

Excellent for learning Magic

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews

“this is a great tool to learn how to play and learn the way the cards and decks are designed to work together.”
Steam review · 77.9 h played ↗

“this game is actually how i got into mtg, teaching me everything from very basics to more advanced playing tactics.”
Steam review · 44.9 h played ↗

“The best way for beginners to learn and start playing Magic The Gathering without paying.”
Steam review · translated · 7.1 h played ↗

Free to play with fair card unlocking

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“You can collect the cards by winning games or doing daily quests, you never need to spend money on it, if you don't want to.”
Steam review · 513.7 h played ↗

“I didn't pay a penny. 3900 hours for years' worth of enjoyable gaming.”
Steam review · 3903.6 h played ↗

Story campaigns and lore

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“I enjoyed the story mode.”
Steam review · 67 h played ↗

“it had a story campaign (such as it was) and a mode to play with a buddy, which the new Wizards game still lacks.”
Steam review · translated · 343.9 h played ↗

Faithful MTG with deep deckbuilding

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“This game is a pretty faithful recreation of the Magic: The Gathering card game”
Steam review · 68 h played ↗

“Great MTG format.”
Steam review · 268.5 h played ↗

Two-Headed Giant co-op mode

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews

“This is still the best experience for digital two headed giant.”
Steam review · 297.1 h played ↗

“I wish these features like the Co-op two headed giant were put into the new Magics that are made today.”
Steam review · 73.4 h played ↗

Still playable offline vs AI after unlock

Mentioned in ~1 in 17 positive reviews

“They had unlocked all the cards and all the story quest etc.”
Steam review · 685.9 h played ↗

“Now that they've made all the cards available it's basically an Origins-Amonkhet sandbox to play in.”
Steam review · 68.1 h played ↗

What players complain about

Abandoned and discontinued by Wizards

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews

“They announced one month away from the release of the second half of Amonkhet, with no forewarning, that it's dead--no more sets, cards, bug fixes.”
Steam review · 463 h played ↗

“this Duels product is sort of "a walking dead", with a decreasing player base and no support.”
Steam review · 196.2 h played ↗

“Playing Duels is a completely pointless waste of time since your built decks will go nowhere.”
Steam review · translated · 164.9 h played ↗

Bugs, broken rules and unfair tutorial/puzzles

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“Almost a year after release Duels remains a buggy mess.”
Steam review · 219.8 h played ↗

“Cant get past the tutorial because of the bugs.”
Steam review · 0.9 h played ↗

“having an impossible and glitching puzzle on the second level of the campaign that makes it impossible to progress is just stupid”
Steam review · 24.2 h played ↗

Grindy pay-to-win card economy

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“The game is a micro transaction trap.”
Steam review · 49 h played ↗

“So this game has become one of these typical mobile games, that are frustrating on purpose to squeeze the money out of you.”
Steam review · 312.4 h played ↗

Poor connectivity and server problems

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“Terrible connectivity: Disconnects all the time, dropped players get replaced by AI”
Steam review · 801.5 h played ↗

“Organising a 2HG game with just 1 friend is a complete and utter trainwreck.”
Steam review · 74.4 h played ↗

Slow, clunky UI and timer problems

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 negative reviews

“The game is too slow, delaying every time a phase changes and someone plays a card”
Steam review · 87.6 h played ↗

“The slow animation is infuriating.”
Steam review · translated · 6.6 h played ↗

Deck restrictions and missing cards

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“they are disallowing you from using more than 3 uncommons, 2 rares or one mythic each type of card.”
Steam review · 27.3 h played ↗

“some of the cards are removed and the limit for uncommon, rare and mythic rare in a deck ruin the play.”
Steam review · 102.5 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Unsupported

Minimum

OSWindows 8/7 (XP not supported)

Processor2GHz CPU (Pentium 4 or equivalent)

Memory1 GB RAM

Graphics512MB DirectX 11.0 compatible video card with Pixelshader 3.0 support

Storage2500 MB available space

OSWindows 8/7 (XP not supported)

Processor2GHz CPU (Pentium 4 or equivalent)

Memory1 GB RAM

Graphics512MB DirectX 11.0 compatible video card with Pixelshader 3.0 support

Storage2500 MB available space

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