/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>9926446
Yes, it's called Duels of the Planeswalkers 20XX, where XX is always this year in the first half of the year and next year in the latter half of the year (so now it's '2013'). It's apparently a good starting point for new players (Mark Rosewater [important Magic dude] commented that DotP brought in tons of players). The demo is free, the game itself costs some money (but not much). However, you are missing out on the best parts of MTG; the main missing feature is deckbuilding (creating your own deck is absolutely essential unless you're a soulless play-to-win only tournament player), and playing against real human players with their own styles (and decks to fit that style) is what makes MTG so amazing; every MTG game is different since everybody plays in very different ways, creating lots of interesting interactions.

Once you know the basics and want to build own decks but don't want to spend money yet, you can try the old Win95 game 'Magic: the Gathering' (fan nickname is 'Shandalar', should make it easier to find). Its ruleset is very outdated and it has a relatively small (and most of all, old) card pool, but it allows full deck construction and is generally an awesome game. If you want to get serious, either find a group to play with IRL or play Magic: the Gathering Online (which requires buying virtual cards).

>>8811508
Yes. There's an old win95 game simply called 'Magic: the Gathering' by MicroProse that lets you do exactly that. The game around the card battles is pretty awesome too, you wander around a world traveling from city to city where you can buy cards, you can discover dungeons to search for banned cards, etc. Very much worth playing. The MTG fanbase generally refers to it as 'Shandalar', named after the plane it takes place on. It doesn't contain any of the newer cards, though; only all of 4th Edition and some Alpha/Beta/Unlimited, Arabian Nights and Legends stuff.

There's also the newer 'Duels of the Planeswalkers' games, but they're very limited and don't even allow you to construct your own deck. They're 20$ each on Steam, I think. One is currently 66% off if the offer hasn't expired yet (daily deal or something).