Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 (Game)

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

GAME » on June 19, 2012

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The third of Stainless Games' Duels of the Planewalkers adaptation of the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game, featuring the "Planechase" variant and a new selection of decks, opponents, and puzzles.

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Overview

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, sometimes known as Magic 2013, is a fantasy-themed virtual collectible card game developed by Stainless Games and published digitally by Wizards of the Coast for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and iOS devices on June 19, 2012. The game was later delisted from all storefronts in 2020-2021.

The third installment of the "Duels of the Planeswalkers" adaptations of Magic: The Gathering, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 builds on its predecessor with a new selection of decks (with cards up to the Magic 2013 set) and new "Encounter" and "Revenge" campaigns (the former challenging enemies who have a stacked deck and the latter being a tougher version of the standard campaign). It is notable for being the first official mobile adaptation of the card game.

Replacing the "Archenemy" variant is the free-for-all "Planechase" variant, which involve separate decks of unique oversized "Plane" and "Phenomenon" cards (known as the "Planar deck") and a special die to determine if the game "planewalks" to a new Plane (which provide special game effects).

It was later superseded by Magic 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers.

New Features

Magic the Gathering Duels of the Planeswaker 2013 has a number of new features, a new mode and a few gameplay tweaks, they are listed below:

Manual Mana (Land) tapping: Allows you to choose which lands you want to tap (currently only comes into effect with the "Exalted" deck (see Deck List) and DLC decks).
"Encounter" challenges: Similar to Puzzle challenges except your opponent has a stacked deck (will draw the exact same cards every time) that represent a very specific play style for that Deck.
Planechase Mode: 4 Player online or offline multiplayer game mode. Uses the new Phenomenon Card Type (cards that trigger effects when switching from one Plane to another). It is worth noting that Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 does not have Archenemy; it is replaced this year by Planechase.
Local Co-op: In addition to the usual single and online play, players can now share a single pc/console and play via keyboard and one or more controllers.
Improved Deckbuilding: Players are now awarded up to 30 cards to improve their deck with, with an additional 10 gained through promo unlock codes, making for a grand total of 40 extra cards, per deck.

Game Modes

Single Player

Campaign - A series of increasingly difficult matches against the AI, ending in the final fight against Nicol Bolas. There is also a separate Planechase campaign, where the player must face 3 opponents at the same time instead of just one.
Revenge Campaign - Rematch fights against the same opponents in the campaign, these fights are harder than the regular campaign as the AI will use more complex strategies and have access to cards you can unlock for that deck.
Challenges - Puzzle challenges return in 2013, these are pre-set games where the player needs to use the cards they have available to win the game in their current (and only) turn.
Encounters - A specialized duel where the AI will draw either a pattern of cards (or the same card) for the entire duel and will play only those cards. This creates challenges for players to overcome such as the AI breaking the usual only 4 cards in a deck rule. For example, the first encounter will consist of the AI playing a one mana 1/1 flying hawk every single turn of the encounter.

Multiplayer

Competitive - The standard competitive modes; Free-for-All (2-4 Players) and 2-Headed Giant (4 Players) [2-Headed Giant not available in iPad version.]
Planechase - This is the new multiplayer mode added in DotP 2013 (4 Players) [Only 2 players in iPad version.]

Decks

Magic: The Gathering 2013 offers ten core decks for use in game. Some decks are improved variations of pre-existing Magic 2012 templates while others are entirely new concept decks.

Like in previous entries, Wizards of the Coast published the deck lists for all decks, along with their unlockable cards, on their website (archived here for the core game, here for the expansion, and here for the deck packs).

Each Deck in DoTP2013 is presented with ratings in 4 categories, from 1-5 stars. These ratings are completely arbitrary given the fact that the performance of a deck would depend entirely on the specific build of the deck, and which cards you end up using. The ratings don't change to reflect your current build, making the ratings nothing but generalisations.

Stat	Description
Creature Size:	Average Creature "size", a 5 star rating in this category signifies the deck is full of high powered / high cost creatures.
Deck Speed:	A high Deck Speed rating means the cards in the deck are generally lower cost, so can be summoned quickly, and creatures will usually have abilities such as Haste (no summoning sickness).
Deck Flexibility:	A "flexible" deck describes a deck that can quickly adapt to whatever strategy the opponent is using, or that the deck can be customized to suit a wider set of strategies than most.
Card Synergy:	How well the various cards in the deck work together, high "synergy" ratings mean the deck will be full of cards with abilities that complement each other well. Sometimes a deck relies on these interactions as a core component of that deck's strategy.

Core Game

The decks packed in with the game are listed below:

Ajani Goldmane's "Celestial Light" - Mono White

Creature Size - 2
Deck Speed - 3
Deck Flexibility - 1
Card Synergy - 4

Players of this deck can look forward to having insane amounts of life and being nigh-untouchable because of it. Damn near every card here seeks to just give you life, whether it's by having creatures with "Lifelink" (you receive health equivalent to any damage dealt to opponent by that creature) or by just giving you life when you summon the creature. The deck capitalizes on these life-gaining effects by having cards that become more effective as you gain life. To top things off the deck has some powerful creatures in the form of Angels and Elementals.

Chandra Nalaar's "Born of Flame" - Mono Red

Creature Size - 4
Deck Speed - 2
Deck Flexibility - 4
Card Synergy - 1

Born of Flame is this games Direct Damage deck (Direct Damage refers to damage done out of combat, can be dealt to either players or creatures), and as is befitting of such a deck, is full of sorcery and instant cards all with some variation of "Deals X damage to Target".

It also contains some pretty powerful creatures as well, so the player isn't wholly reliant on his/her sorcery to win the game. Said creatures also have a propensity to be resurrected with plenty of Phoenixes that, once killed, can be returned to your hand for a Mana cost. This ensures you can always have a steady stream of powerful creatures, especially in the extreme late game, when Libraries are small.

Garruk Wildspeaker's "Pack Instinct" - Mono Green

Creature Size - 5
Deck Speed - 2
Deck Flexibility - 2
Card Synergy - 3

Like a lot of Green decks, Pack Instinct is full of very large and very powerful creatures. One potential downside to this is the high Mana cost of these creatures (some cards do offset this however) causing the deck to take a while to really get going as the player builds up their Mana base, but once it goes, next to nothing can stop it!

As indicative of the name "Pack Instinct" there is a fair bit of what the game calls "Card Synergy" going on, with creatures getting buffed in the presence of other creatures, cards costing less for every creature you control and the Power of a creature being based on the number of Forests lands you possess.

Jace Beleren's "Dream Puppets" - Mono Blue

Creature Size - 1
Deck Speed - 1
Deck Flexibility - 4
Card Synergy - 4

This is the first honest to goodness "Mill" deck to appear in a DoTP game.

"Milling" refers to the strategy in which you win a match by forcing your opponent to be unable to draw cards (by making his/her Library have zero cards left) the game automatically ends when this happens and the player with the empty Library (regardless of the current state of the game) loses.

With this deck there are various cards designed to force the opponent to draw extra cards a turn or, worse still, force the opponent to discard cards from either his/her hand or directly from the top of his/her deck.

Krenko, Mob Boss' "Goblin Gangland" - Mono Red

Creature Size - 1
Deck Speed - 5
Deck Flexibility - 2
Card Synergy - 4

The "Goblin" deck, emphasises speed over power and thus has plenty of extremely cheap, weak creatures usually with Haste (does not suffer from summoning sickness that would normally prevent them attacking on the same turn they were summoned).

You will also get a fair few cheap Instants and abilities with direct damage effects or quick one off buffs to all creatures currently on the field to ensure you deal as much damage as quickly as possible before the opponent inevitably kills them.

Liliana Vess' "Obedient Dead" - Mono Black

Creature Size - 3
Deck Speed - 2
Deck Flexibility - 5
Card Synergy - 3

(Description of Deck)

Odric, Master Tactician's "Peacekeepers" - Mono White

Creature Size - 2
Deck Speed - 4
Deck Flexibility - 3
Card Synergy - 3

Peacekeepers is a mono white deck with the theme of creating hordes of Soldier tokens and Spirit tokens. (Tokens are essentially copies of creatures.) Many of the creature cards in the deck put tokens into play, effectively giving you 2 (or even 3 or 4) creatures instead of 1. This strategy becomes even more effective when combined with effects that buff the strength of all your creatures, or creatures whose power/toughness increase the more creatures you have out.

Nefarox's "Exalted Darkness" - White & Black

Creature Size - 1
Deck Speed - 3
Deck Flexibility - 2
Card Synergy - 5

The only two-colored deck released with the game, this "Exalted" deck relies heavily on all of the cards working together, hence the high "Synergy" rating. As a result no one creature or card in this deck is particularly dangerous on it's own, it's only when they start becoming more numerous that things can get hairy.

A lot of the creature cards have an ability called "Exalted" which will give a small buff to a creature you control if said creature is the only one attacking, and every Exalted creature will give this buff, so that lone attacker will receive the buff from every other Exalted in play (that you control).

Yeva's "Ancient Wilds" - Mono Green

Creature Size - 3
Deck Speed - 2
Deck Flexibility - 4
Card Synergy - 3

This is one of the two green decks of the game. This deck relies on a large number of creatures with strong effects when they come into play. These creatures can then be returned to the players hand by certain creatures or enchantments, thus repeating the effect several times over. It also has many spells that allow for creatures to come into play directly from the deck, thus skipping the mana cost of the deck's most powerful and expensive creatures.

Talrand's "Crosswinds" - Mono Blue

Creature Size - 2
Deck Speed - 3
Deck Flexibility - 4
Card Synergy - 2

(Description of Deck)

Return to Ravnica Expansion

Azorious' "Aura Servants" - Blue & White

Creature Size - 3
Deck Speed - 2
Deck Flexibility - 2
Card Synergy - 4

This is the games only blue and white deck. The deck almost solely relies on casting auras on relatively weak creatures to strengthen them; and most creatures either allow auras to put into play or your hand, or are hard to block by your opponents. While this reliance on enchantments can hinder the deck as the only way to influence the duel is through the creatures on the field, the auras also allow for supercharged creatures with abilities suited for the current situation.

Izzet's "Mindstorms" - Blue & Red

Creature Size - 1
Deck Speed - 2
Deck Flexibility - 4
Card Synergy - 4

(Description of Deck)

Rakdos' "Grinning Malice" - Black & Red

Creature Size - 3
Deck Speed - 3
Deck Flexibility - 4
Card Synergy - 2

(Description of Deck)

Golgari's "Sepulchral Strength" - Black & Green

Creature Size - 3
Deck Speed - 2
Deck Flexibility - 3
Card Synergy - 4

The green and black Golgari deck thrives in death, many of its strongest creatures have power and toughness directly related to the amount of cards in the graveyards of the players. It also has several cards who can sacrifice themselves or other creatures to draw cards from your deck or strengthen themselves or others. Once your strongest creatures are in play they can be saved from death by "regenerating", which allows the creature to survive where it would normally die. Unsurprisingly, it also has many ways to kill opponents creatures outside of combat.

Selesnya's "Collective Might" - Green & White

Creature Size - 2
Deck Speed - 3
Deck Flexibility - 2
Card Synergy - 4

The Selesnya deck uses hoards of 'Token' creatures to overwhelm the enemies lines, which while weak in isolation, act together to become much stronger than the sum of their parts. The deck has many ways to create token creatures, and once they are on the battlefield they can be strengthened by several creatures and enchantments. The tokens can then themselves strengthen some creatures massively. Once the token hoard attacks together, they can be protected by creatures who will sacrifice themselves to protect others. To make up for the deck's lack of flying creatures there are multiple creatures who can attack or destroy opponent's creatures outside of combat.

Deck Pack 1

Boros' "Act of War" - Red & White

Creature Size - 1
Deck Speed - 5
Deck Flexibility - 4
Card Synergy - 2

(Description of Deck)

Simic's "Sky and Scale" - Green & Blue

Creature Size - 4
Deck Speed - 2
Deck Flexibility - 3
Card Synergy - 3

This deck, which is based around the Simic guild of Ravnica, uses creatures where other decks may use spells. For example, instead of using a spell to counter an opponent's spell a creature can be summoned to counter the opponent. The deck also has many ways to draw cards, which has both an intrinsic benefit by increasing the player's options, and an extrinsic benefit by strengthening certain creatures. To deal with threatening creatures of your opponents, there are several ways of turning creatures into weaker, basic creatures, which can be dealt with.

Deck Pack 2

Orzhov's "Grim Procession" - White & Black

Creature Size - 4
Deck Speed - 2
Deck Flexibility - 2
Card Synergy - 4

(Description of Deck)

Gruul's "Berserker Rage" - Red & Green

Creature Size - 3
Deck Speed - 3
Deck Flexibility - 2
Card Synergy - 4

(Description of Deck)

Deck Pack 3

Rogues' Gallery - Black & Blue

Creature Size - 2
Deck Speed - 4
Deck Flexibility - 1
Card Synergy - 5

(Description of Deck)

Mana Mastery - Green / Blue / Red / White & Black

Creature Size - 5
Deck Speed - 1
Deck Flexibility - 2
Card Synergy - 5

(Description of Deck)

The first "pentacolour" deck.

Promo Codes

There are a number of Promo codes that were given away for DotP 2013, each of which unlock 10 new cards for each of the main decks, enter these one-at-a-time.

(They work on every version of the game)

WMKFGC
KWPMZW
FNMDGP
MWTMJP
FXGJDW
GDZDJC
HTRNPW
NCTFJN
PCNKGR
GPCRSX

There really isn't much point in not using these codes as they unlock some of the best cards in the game.

To unlock them, go to the "Player Status" screen, then click the "View promotional unlocks" button. On this screen pressing X (on a 360 controller) will let you enter these codes.

System Requirements

OS: 7 / Vista / XP
Processor: 2GHz CPU (Pentium 4 or equivalent)
Memory: 1GB RAM (2GB for 7 / Vista)
Hard Drive: 1.5GB HDD
Video: GPU capable of Pixel Shader 3 or better
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c or later
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Additional: Local Co-op requires a controller

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