Magic 2014?

So I was looking for a low-intensity game to suit my mood recently and ended up going with Magic 2014. So far I'd say I've already gotten my 10 bucks' worth; a couple solid nights playing the campaign with probably a couple more to go. I'm just a little unclear, based on the game's presentation, how far that goes. Especially when it comes to the Sealed Mode.

Is the Sealed mode really a viable way to play the game if you aren't buying any cards whatsoever, or would it be too hard? Does it provide enough opportunities to add to my collection? (It looks like there are only maybe 3 more packs I can get just by playing the game, looking at the campaign screen). Can you buy addons to your "sealed" deck without buying real magic cards?

There is no other ways to add to your sealed cards other than the packs you can unlock. It's basically a riff on the real life sealed format where you open about six packs and build a deck with them. The point is the challenge of trying to construct a deck with limited resources. If you want a more classic, building a large collection sort of trading card experience in video game form you really need to check out Magic Online, or some of the shadier alternatives.

Thanks. I just hadn't played enough Magic to be familiar with that as a thing.

@veektarius: Also, you've probably noticed already, but there are about 20 unlockable extra cards per campaign deck that you get for winning a game with a specific deck. Not nearly as flexible as the 'real' game, but it can still allow you to customize enough to change tactics. Like building to play mid level creatures on turns 3 and 4 instead of building up mana and waiting for like turns 5 and 6 with the Chant of Mul Daya deck. I really hope they learn from games like Solforge and in future installments just open up the whole catalog to play online.

@joshwent: You're probably right. I think they probably are just treating the game like a gateway drug at the moment and hoping to hook people well enough to buy their physical product. Almost got me, had me remembering the days in my youth, opening packs of CCGs, smelling the cards, looking at the art. And I could afford so many now! But no, I have no need of these cards. I just want to play a video game.

It should also be noted that Magic Online does contain pretty much every thing the real game has, in terms of cards and deck building. It's just a shame it's just as big a money sink too.

I'd really prefer a totally single player version of the game, so Magic Online doesn't look like my gig. I always seem to lose in humiliating fashion to real players and the game is much less frustrating if I can just restart every time I get a bad shuffle.

Whilst that is a totally valid and fine way to play a version of Magic, you are only experiencing a small part of the larger game if you remove yourself from the deep, random, tight, fast, slow, creative, competitive, casual, crazy, cheap, expensive and human aspects of the full online/paper "version" of the game.

You can play totally fun and powerful formats like Commander (start with 40 life, 100 cards per deck, no more than one copy of any card, you can only play cards that share a colour with your "Commander") and Pauper (only common rarity cards allowed), where you don't need to keep buying the newest cards to keep up with Standard, for example. You have so much more control over how you build and play your own decks, and are also presented with many more crazy interactions whilst playing against real human players. That being said, it can be daunting, I understand that. But it can also be super fun. I'll play with or against ya (in any game or format) if ya want!

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Here are some cards that I've been playing in my Commander decks recently...

Gallery

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!