Magic: Legends will have us bash and zap monsters as different classes of Planeswalker, the all-powerful wizards we play as in the card game. Magic’s five elements of magic are here formalised into classes, like the Mind or Geomancer. It looks like wizards will still be summoning creatures like their cardboard counterparts. It’s an action-RPG game set in the fictional worlds of Magic rather than an attempt to capture the card game in action-RPG form, which is reasonably the only way they could do this - though a bit of a shame to me. The Magic I know and adore is so much larger and weirder than scrapping and zapping on a battlefield. It’s about wizards scheming to complete their carefully-crated plan while foiling their foe’s scheme, which might work in a wildly different way with a whole other vibe. The range of options and the theming of cards make duels so much larger and weirder than goblins fighting in a car park. As I said back in 2017: Ah but y’know, it can be fun to click on monsters until they burst. I’ll reserve judgement and not get lost up my own arse. I’d rather celebrate the wider worlds of Magic: The Gathering than try to tear down this game. They’re different and separate and that’s fine. But by god, I’d like to see how Legends could handle something like a titan which towers over cities. Magic: Legends is due to launch in 2020.
