Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 15 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 19 Ratings

  • Summary: Face a greater challenge with Magic: The Gathering — Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013! In the latest installment of this hit franchise, travel across the fantastic plane of Shandalar as you face encounters, and battle powerful Planeswalkers. Magic 2013 offers new features including statisticics-tracking for your game play and, for those already skilled in slinging spells, the option to choose what lands to tap when you cast your spells.

    Game includes:
    • 3 decks with 5 unlockable cards each
    • Single-player campaign across the plane of Shandalar
    • 4 deadly opponents, including the Planeswalker Garruk Wildspeaker
    • Encounters, a new feature in which you test your skills against different preset AI strategies
    • Planechase mode, which changes the rules with a randomized deck of cards based on the planes of the Magic Multiverse
    Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Jul 10, 2012
    100
    Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 has long since set itself up as a prototypical 'yearly' franchise, but for long-time fans this is nothing new and the iPad version of the latest title lends itself perfectly to the series thanks to visceral touch controls.
  2. Jul 1, 2012
    100
    Wizards of the Coast has done a phenomenal job of bringing the tabletop game to the iPad. The gameplay, despite a few small problems, is incredibly well done and we honestly can't think of a better way to do it.
  3. Jun 25, 2012
    85
    I had just as much fun with the new iPad version as I did with the PC and console versions--perhaps even more so.
  4. Jan 15, 2013
    70
    Yes there are a couple of niggles but for the most part Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is still very much the same, albeit cut down, game I fell in love with back in the day.

See all 15 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. 8
    Great game. Some aspects are missing like custom deck building, at this point you can only make changes to pre made decks. Some animations are kinda slow on my iPad 2 too. But overall a very nice game. Hope they fix those issues on next updates. Expand
  2. 5
    Back in high school I plaid quite a lot of Magic, but stopped later due to lack of playing partners. When I saw that a Magic: The Gathering game is coming for iPad I knew I had to get it. Sadly the part I used to enjoy most, deck building, is the part the game doesn't allow you to do. You can make some modifications to pre-made decks, but that's it. For me that takes a huge part of the fun and the motivation away, since I always enjoyed making new decks with interesting strategies much more than actually playing the game. I am surprised that this doesn't seem to be an issue for any commercial reviewers.

    The interface of the game looks quite beautiful, but has some flaws. As pretty as some of the animations look it get's annoying to have to watch the 1-2 second tapping animation so often. That doesn't sound like much but sums up. Want to attack with you pack of 10 wolfs? Well you will have to wait for every tapping animation to finish before you can tap the next creature. This alone wouldn't be that bad, but it contributes to to make the game feel very slow. This behavior also makes the interface feel wonky at times, because slow starting animations like tapping, don't give immediate feedback and needs some getting used to.
    Most other board and card games are much faster in the computer versions. Not so with this game. You have to wait for a timer for every phase of the game to finish, even if there is no action that possibly could be taken. This makes especially the first few round feel unnecessary slow.

    Overall it's an OK game, but could have been so much more. Just a little interface polish and the option to build you own deck (which Magic is all about) and this could be one of my favorit games.
    Expand

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