Magic: The Assembly Arena comes to mobile phones on January 28th with a new early access version for Android devices. The free game features the latest decks of cards including the Viking themed Kaldheim, which will be available in physical form on January 29th.
This new digital version of magicThe game, developed by Wizards of the Coast in-house, has been around since 2018. Designers and developers have worked together over the past few years to sync the physical and digital versions of the game and create daily and date releases for new sets of cards like the, that we’ll see this week.
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Image: Wizard of the Coast
arena It’s free to download, but you have to spend money to make a decent book of maps online. That’s because it’s effectively separate from the physical version of the game. None of the cards that you have physical copies of will be translated into arena, with one exception: Planeswalker decks contain a code to unlock their cards online. This limitation has not slowed the adoption of the game’s new platform. If anything, the ongoing pandemic has accelerated things. Even local shops flocked to arenaThis is now the place to be for Friday Night Magic at Home events that started in March 2020.
After spending some time with the PC version of the game I can say that it faithfully reproduces the experience of playing it magic. It’s also a really good teaching tool as it helps improve the rules visually and mechanically for new players. For veterans, it’s also much faster than a personal game. The servers are also very well staffed. I never had to wait for a pick-up game for sure.
How exactly do you crush a sprawling tabletop game? magic on a cell phone? Very careful, says the Wizards team.
First of all, player avatars have been moved all the way to the side. This allows the playing field to take up most of the screen, giving users a little more room to hold their phone near that one side. There is much more typing than right-clicking, and only when you hit the right “zone” of the play area can you access context options. If you’re lucky, it will be easy for newbies to learn, but if you switch from the PC version, be sure to check the official website to see how the controls change.
Note, however, that this is still an early access. magic is a strange and wonderful hobby, and players can come up with some really bizarre strategies and situations. arena will likely fail in these situations.
“Some games from magic can be quite complex, “wrote Wizards in perhaps the greatest understatement of 2021.” There may be decks or board states that are not as conducive to mobile gaming due to the platform’s inherent limitations.
“But it’s the potential for explosive or complicated gameplay magic, magic. We do not intend to change our approach magic Designed specifically for mobile gaming. We also don’t want to offer a limited, watered-down mobile experience. “
An iOS version and a tablet version of Magic: The Assembly Arena are on the drawing board, but Wizards is not yet looking for a release date.
