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I think that a simple website for playing magic would be ideal. No heavy desktop client, and just simple cards with rules set by the players.

Has this been done before ?

edited Apr 4 at 5:28

ripper234♦♦
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asked Oct 27 at 4:33

ungamedplayer
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ripper234 · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-25 09:56:11Z UTC

I don't know about a website, but there are two methods of playing Magic online with a desktop client (it's not particularly heavy though):

Magic Online

Developed by Wizards of the Coast, this is the "official" way to play Magic online. It's a quality game, where the software knows all the Magic rules and doesn't let you cheat. You must use priority, phases, etc... in order to play it correctly.

The downside - In order to draft in Magic Online, you have to pay money for each "virtual booster", and you can only ever play with the virtual cards you own.

Magic Worktation / Netdraft

These are free alternatives to Magic Online. Workstation is a program for managing a collection and playing Magic games. It does't know the rules of Magic, but it does have a concept of "hand", "library" "graveyard" and so forth. You can manually draw cards, tap lands for mana, play creatures, and play a full game of Magic using Workstation.

Netdraft is a separate client that allows you to play drafts. It handles connecting several players, seating arrangements, and lets each player draft a deck. After he's finished, a game the follows in Magic Workstation (though usually you play only a single opponent and not a swiss-style tournament).

While Magic Online contains everything you need to play, in Workstation/Netdraft you have to find your opponents on IRC channels such as #draft4you and #magic-league (see MagicLeague for more information).

Draft Simulators

There are a few:

I think there is one at Wizards homepage
one at TCGPlayer
And another at Bestiaire.

These don't require any software.

Ancarma · Answer 2 · 2009-10-27 17:02:31Z UTC

MWS (Magic Workstation) is a very good alternative to playing Magic, in my opinion. I recently sold all my cards to a close friend, and now I play only tournaments by sending him the decks I want to play with. Magic Workstation lets me test those decks, and create new ideas.

The downside of the program is that it doesnt have the magic feel as much as Magic Online does: not all the cards have a picture, even when you download image files, and cards don't have the 'new' look like the series after 8E have in the real game.

Beside that, it's a great tool for developing, testing, and simulating Sealed / Draft deckbuilding.

rif-raf · Answer 3 · 2009-10-30 14:59:37Z UTC

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There is a site that allowes you to draft with your friends or vs. bots. it is: ccgdecks.com

you can download the decks to Magic Worksation and play out the draft matches later.

answered Oct 30 at 14:59

rif-raf♦
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There is also a draft simulator in TCGPlayer - magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?id=7366 – ripper234♦ Nov 22 at 11:51

Erick · Answer 4 · 2009-11-25 00:16:47Z UTC

According to MrOrange's Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXVrSMkOT4g, The official MTGO app will be web based shortly and work on multiple platforms. In the video he states that everything he is showing in running in Safari on a Macbook Pro.

MagicSearch · Answer 5 · 2010-04-06 08:36:45Z UTC

There also is a program called Forge. Here is the introduction from the site Forge. It is free and multiplatform.

My computer program Forge lets you play the card game Magic: The Gathering against a computer opponent using all of the rules. This is very different than playing solitare Magic with Apprentice or Magic Workstation because the AI will attack and play spells. Currently there are over 1,800 cards ranging from old power cards like Ancestral Recall and Lightning Bolt to newer cards like planeswalkers. The user interface is basic, but it does let you download all of the cards pictures and view them while playing the game.

(If you don't know Magic, the easiest way to learn is to download this demo fromhere or here for Windows, it is 85 MB. Also checkout the YouTube videos at playmagic.com.)

You can also play sealed deck, draft, or the new quest mode. In draft mode the AI drafts for the 7 other opponents and builds the decks from the cards that it chooses. In the quest mode you start out with a few cards and the more games that you play the more that you win. As you get more cards you can update and change your deck.

There is also a "quest mode" where you start out with a small, random cardpool and you win more cards by playing against opponents. This is a scaled down version of Shandalar that is only menu based. On easy mode your goal is to win 10 matches. Easy mode is well easy because you always win cards after the match whether you win or lose. On some of the harder modes you only win cards if you win. Quest mode is challenging since the computer uses cards that are better than the stinky ones that you have. The computer opponents are divided into three categories so they get progressively harder.

Forge supports a number of keywords such as exalted, fear, flying, shadow, flanking, protection, wither, flash, defender, reach, and haste. Forge now also has a mana pool and supports creature enchantments.

The AI is very simple and does the best that it can. It tries to do reasonable actions. Sometimes the computer seems smart and sometimes it doesn't. Truthfully the AI plays random cards from its hand and each card has some AI code programmed into it. The computer can play cards like Counterspell but in all other cases the computer will never respond to a spell or ability on the stack. Also the computer will only play spells during its Main phase.

Forge runs on Windows, Linux, and Macs. You can download Forge from the panel on the right.

Web based magic game

5 Answers