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It's not often that IGN is relevant for MTG-related articles, but check this out. IGN has the first real information about the MTG board game that was announced last year.
It looks like the five planeswalkers rumored to be in Magic Origins will also be the ones represented in the MTG board game, now revealed to be titled Arena of the Planeswalkers. As you can see, it's a game for two to five players, and the miniatures look pretty darn good compared to a lot of the unpainted cubes that often get included with board games for cost reasons.
Even with pretty miniatures, IGN is reporting the MSRP to be "around $30," which is on the low end for this genre. The other information published today is the full contents list:
- Six modular pieces
- Four plastic terrain pieces
- Three plastic glyphs
- Two temples ruins
- Five painted planeswalker mini figures
- One 20-sided die
- Eight combat dice
- 30 damage counters
- 60 spell cards
- 10 squad stat cards
- Five planeswalker cards
Wouldn't it be cool if the 60 spell cards included stuff like Force of Will and Choice of Damnations? I know it will never happen, but one can dream.
Hasbro says no prior experience with Magic is needed to play this game. Do you think this has a chance of pulling a large crowd of tabletop gamers into the MTG universe, or will it mostly be something that Magic players looking for some alternative fun will buy? Let us know about your excitement, or lack thereof, below.
I think this will have good appeal if it seems fun to the board game crowd and the less intense tabletop crowd, like zombieside and x wing folks. As a long time miniature wargamer, I can tell you the minis would have to be a lot better and there is a stygma among some wargamers where they believe Magic is the enemy. Personally, I prefer MTG these days and board games have become my table of choice since my kids are getting older. I will likely pick this up and introduce the two of my three kids who don’t play mtg to the universe this way.
It’s worth noting that (I believe) this is being developed by an entirely different group at Hasbro, and likely doesn’t tie in much to what we consider “real” Magic.