The Evolution of Magi-Nation Duel
In this article I wanted to cover something other than just card strategies.
I wanted to cover where Magi-Nation Duel started and were it has come to now
and the changes it has gone through for better or for worse...
In the beginning there was the Base Set and it was good... it introduced the
basics of Magi-Nation and gave players a great insight into a fresh promising
CCG. The Base Set featured the five main regions and Universal which as it’s
name indicates is used with all regions. It introduced magi, weather they be
weak or strong, creatures, relics, and spells. Nothing really stood out in the
Base Set probably because it was the first set of a totally new game so no ‘new’
mechanics could be put out there for the public to evaluate.
Next there was the long awaited Awakening which featured the infamous Core region
the bad of the bad region. In the Awakening a few new mechanics/rules were released
such as the rule that Core magi can only play cards from the Core region with
a few exceptions of cards that read ‘X Shadow Magi can play X creature/spell/relic’,
this also worked against the other regions making the other five regions unable
to play Core cards with a few exceptions of cards that read ‘X region magi
may play X creature/spell/relic’. The Core also had two different types
of magi, basic Core magi such as Agram and Morag, and Shadow Magi who were magi
turned from one of the other regions to the core, such as Ogar, Qwade etc. These
magi were able to play a few select cards of their own region, i.e. Ogar can
play some Underneath cards like Pylofuf and Weebat because she is an Underneath
Shadow Magi.
Another not quite so noticeable change was that regions became more focused
on a specific strategy such as Naroom focuses on building up huge creatures
for extremely cheap energy cost and Underneath became more Burrow/defensive
focused. These changes were very settle but seemed to work because players began
to play regions they way they were originally supposed to be played.
The third expansion was Dream’s End, this expansion featured on two new
regions, Kybar’s Teeth, the region who’s strength was in being able
to make walls of one or two huge creatures with powers that allowed them to
take beatings and stay on their feet, and Weave, the tricky defensive region
who could control much of your offense. The main thing that jumped out in this
expansion was the ‘region effects’ such as Weave and Invulnerability,
these effects appeared on most of the Kybar’s Teeth and Weave creatures(Kybar
had Invulnerability and Weave had ‘Weave’). Each new region also had
cards that enhanced the special ability of that region such as Targ’n,
who gave all creatures with Invulnerability a boost, and Kesia who gave a boost
to any creature with Weave.
A smaller change was the introduction of Keepers who were much like region’s
Elders. In Dream’s End only two Keepers and Staff of the Keeper’s
was released though(Delia and Groll). As if teasing us 2i released Bungaloo
in Dream’s End giving us some insight into the next expansion and multi-region
cards.
NIghtmares Dawn is the latest region to be released, it is just now arriving
in stores and I am already anxious to see how the multi-region cards will be
played. Most of the set was composed of multi-region cards such as creatures/spells/relics
that were Cald/Underneath or Orothe/Arderial etc. Even magi were multi-region,
when a card is of more than one region that means it can be played by both of
those regions with out restrictions or penalties making mutting, or throwing
out-of-region cards into your deck, much more famous and playable.
There is a problem I see with this and it lies in the rarity of single region
cards in Nightmare’s Dawn, that is that if there are two of almost every
single card in the expansion(one for each region that of the card) it will make
it twice as hard to get the single region cards because their is only one of
them in the set while there is two of every other card. Mind you there aren't
very many single region cards but rare cards like Tropical Vinoc and Tropical
Hyren(among others) are going to be harder to get than most other cards. Unless
2i has done something to fix that problem(I have not heard of any) then that
might be a minor concern to all those collectors and a few players but it shouldn’t
keep you from buying the cards.
Over all I think that 2i has done a marvelous job of keeping us on our toes
as to what to expect for the next expansion and hopefully it will stay that
way. I will probably update this article every time a new set comes up so if
you liked it keep your eyes peeled.
