Magic: Legends is an MMO action RPG from Wizards of the Coast. The open beta will start in March 2021, and you can already sign up for it. Originally, the game was marketed as a pure MMO, but the gameplay looks much more like a Diablo clone. Now, a new gameplay video has come out, and a release date has been confirmed!
Magic: Legends is launching into open beta on March 23, and we are unbelievably excited to jump in. The trick to avoiding disappointment here, however, is to completely ignore developer promises. We can understand why some people wanted a flawless MMO, and now feel screwed. But nevertheless, what we've seen of the game still looks pretty damn awesome.
Deckbuilding
Deckbuilding replaces the usual 'classic skills' from other action RPGs. Instead of 60 cards, like in the OG card game, you will use a compilation of twelve different cards. Four of them are in your abilities bar. When you use one of them, it will be replaced by a random card from your deck. Because, if there's one thing we love about Magic, it's the RNG, right?
In the beginning, there was a character to select, and that character, like in Arena, was complemented by a ready-made, single-color deck. As the game progresses, you'll collect more and more cards, allowing you to improve your deck. Apart from new cards, you will also find so-called Spell Pages. With them, you can improve your own cards. The maximum level is ten, and it doesn't matter which character you have chosen, as you can play any color.
Spells cost mana, as usual. You have a fixed mana value, and you don't have to put lands in your deck. No more Flood or Screw, yippee! It's not quite clear yet how this will work with generic mana costs. There will be four different rarity grades: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Mythic Rare. Of course, the higher the rarity, the stronger the cards become.
Colors
It will not be possible to put more than two colors in your deck. How will players get rid of their money, then?
- White, as always, draws the shortest and will be responsible for healing. Hopefully, it will get better cards than in Magic: The Gathering.
- Blue will offer crowd control and debuffs. So again, Wizards is staying true to itself – blue will continue to be the absolute assist-color.
- Black gets cool summon spells and life drain. Classic Necromancer s**t.
- Hmm, what could red do... Well, who has an idea? All jokes aside, if you thought Red would do anything other than throw damage in people's faces, then you've never played MTG: Arena Bo1
- Green remains the Timmy color and summons the fattest, dumbest and strongest creatures. That's how we like it!
If this has made you want to play RPGs again...
Types of Cards
In Magic, there are many types of cards. Three of them are also found in Magic: Legends...
Creatures: Each color will be able to summon creatures. White gets Soldiers and Angels, Blue gets Elementals, Black gets Zombies, Red gets Goblins, and Green, as mentioned before, gets Big Stupid Monsters. Creatures are limited by so-called creature points. You have a total of twelve of them at your disposal. The stronger a creature, the more Creature Points it consumes.
Enchantments: Unlike in the card game, enchantments are not permanent here. In Magic: Legends, they are temporary effects like buffs that synergize with other cards.
Sorceries: As in the original, Sorceries have the shortest retention time in Legends. They are one-time effects that pack a hell of a punch.
A Few Doubts Remain...
Unlike in Magic: The Gathering, the numbers here are very high, as is usual in RPGs. One of the Goblins shown has a 1280 attack. Must have been a good muxus hit, however, its effect is to give all goblins +1/+0. What's the point of that, now? Well, we'll see...
The only concern we have is that 12 cards, with no lands, don't provide much in terms of depth. Assembling 60 cards, from up to five colors, and finding the right land to spell ratio is what makes Magic's deckbuilding so interesting. On the other hand, games like Slay the Spire still manage to offer an incredible amount of replay value despite the simpler deckbuilding.
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This article was originally written by Lukas Lechner.