I’m lucky enough to live in an area where there are sometimes as many as four Legacy tournaments throughout the week within driving distance of my house. Legacy is as easily accessible as Standard, if not more so, since while I can think of multiple stores offering Standard, it’s all on the same day of the week. The downside is you end up playing against a lot of the same people and the same decks, not the best way to become a better player. So I caved, I downloaded MTGO and thought I’d give it a try. Here’s why it didn’t go anywhere.
1. The layout is straight awful
This is the worst browser I’ve ever had the misfortune of using. After trying MTGO I turned around, downloaded Hearthstone, and started playing purely to spite MTGO. That’s not even a joke, that’s how much I hated the browser. It’s slow, clunky and ugly as sin. If the 80s had internet gaming, I would imagine that it would look like MTGO.
2. Not Beginner Friendly
It isn’t just an awful layout that’s the problem—it isn’t intuitive at all. I figured when I downloaded it, oh I’ve been playing Magic for a couple years, I’ll be up and going in no time. Haha no. While you can figure out how things work, it seems significantly more complicated and intimidating than necessary. This is probably half the reason I walked away, which is ridiculous. Figuring out Hearthstone involved no googling and about 10 minutes, something that MTGO needs to do.
3. Money
It’s hard for me to convince myself to rebuy my collection again just to play online. While the prices are cheaper, they aren’t cheap enough to convince me that I need to own a digital copy of a card I already own. Even a Standard deck is going to cost a couple hundred bucks online and Legacy I’d still be spending at least $500 most likely. While I did have people offering to loan me cards the whole thing was just a giant pain in the ass to me which leads me to my next point.
4. Bugs
MTGO is infamous for the numerous bugs it has, I’m having an even harder time convincing me to shovel out that kind of money for a program that doesn’t really work well. I know it must be incredibly complicated to program every little necessary interaction but if they did can you imagine how successful it would be? Look at Hearthstone. I don’t have any deep appreciation for the game but the browser makes playing so easy that I’ll play it over MTGO everyday of the week even though I love Magic way more.
Overall I really want to play MTGO, I love playing Magic and it’s a great way to get more experience. However, I am really not willing to put up with all of the above issues when there are other games I can play online that don’t have them. I really wish that Wizards would put a little more work into overhauling the browser. There are several games that have proven how successful it can be and there should be plenty of incentive for them to do so.
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH. She has recently succumbed to MTGO.