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Someone has to talk about this sooner or later and hey - it may as well be me. For the uninitiated, Magic Online is a program that lets you play draft and constructed games (sanctioned and casual) over the internet. You buy the booster packs online (with the current exchange rate it costs around $18) and then have to purchase event tickets to play. The event tickets cost approx $2 and you need two of these tickets to play in a sealed deck/draft match.

You can only build a constructed deck from the cards in your online collection so you will need to buy a fair bit of product to do this (unless you can find a way to forge virtual cards!). The other way is to play in drafts where you receive eight boosters if you win and four for coming second. The drafts are single elimination, best of three matches and you will need to beat three opponents to win the draft. At this point in time Judgment is not available online so you will have to make do with Odyssey and Torment (Invasion block draft and 7th edition are also available).

Once you have a few choice rares, head to the trading post so you can offload them for some extra event tickets or cards for your deck. If you can handle the nonstop spamming then you should have no problem getting the stuff you want. As is in the real world watch out for people that will try to rip you off (at least your cards can’t get stolen here!).

For the competitive (read: addicted) types there are also sanctioned tournaments and leagues online every day so you can draft to your heart’s (or credit card’s) content. Better still you can join a clan with your friends and play against rival clans for magic superiority.

So what is it like to play online I hear you cry? The interface is easy to use, the card artwork looks great and there is even a time limit on games so your opponent can’t stall. The turn sequence is broken down into phases and even a magic novice will work out what can be played when very quickly. It does pay to know the rules though as you can’t take things back (apart from untapping land) and you don’t want to lose a game because you forgot to attack, etc.

Other playable features include a mulligan option if you don’t like your starting hand and a statistics tool, where you can view your deck by colour, casting cost, etc. You can also view your cards at any time during the draft (this is normally not allowed) and sort them accordingly.

Overall Magic Online is a good step forward for the game and I will be wasting my fair share of money on it. Magic Online may hurt the sales of cardboard initially but I’m sure that gamers will keep Wizards of the Coast's pockets lined.

Check it out at Magic Online - you won’t regret it (but your credit card might!)

Until next time

Dan Turner

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