Magic Duels

Moderate overall intensity

Highest flag: Spending — real-money purchases

FantasyStrategy

What's in it

Spending real-money purchases

High

Real-money microtransactions let players buy in-game currency, individual cards, and randomized booster packs to expand their collection.

Violence cartoon/stylized

Low

Combat is abstract card-versus-card dueling; creature and spell art shows stylized fantasy battle with some blood in illustrations, never animated on-screen gore.

Dark themes mild

Low

Story and card art include necromancy, demons, and death, most notably the Planeswalker Liliana Vess who raises and controls the dead.

Horror & psychological spooky

Low

Some card sets draw on gothic-horror imagery, with artwork showing zombies, vampires, and other undead creatures in a spooky fantasy style.

Spending pressure optional

Low

Purchases were optional with a full card library obtainable through gameplay and daily objectives; no pay-to-win gating.

Who can reach your kid

Real-money spending

What it is

Magic Duels is a free-to-play digital version of the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game. Players build decks and duel computer or online opponents, casting spells and summoning fantasy creatures that battle by reducing each side's life total to zero. A single-player story mode follows the origins of five spellcasters and includes fantasy themes of death, necromancy, and demonic figures, plus gothic-horror card sets with undead and vampires. Combat is abstract and card-based rather than graphic. Online matches connect players together but the game has no voice or text chat. It uses real-money microtransactions to buy currency, cards, and randomized booster packs, though all content can also be earned through play.

How it's framed

The game presents its magical combat, death magic, and dark creatures as the fiction of a fantasy card game rather than as anything endorsed or condemned; players win purely through strategic deckbuilding and skillful play, and the necromancers, demons, and horror-themed cards are drawn from the established Magic: The Gathering setting as gameplay pieces.

Details

Developer: Stainless Games Ltd.
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast LLC
Released: Jul 29, 2015

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