User Reviews (1 - 11 of 22)

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I think the game is a fun way to get to know all the cards

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 25
Date: November 14, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This game will let you know what all the cards are and let you see them all you can also play with any of the cards you want. It will get you to where you know all the cards and you can tell all your friends whats what.

This is what I have been looking for, I bet you too!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 33
Date: November 16, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This program is it, when it comes to Magic on the computer. I bought this and found it to be wonderful. A lot of info and I like the search features, it has pictures of all the cards and you can play on-line. Online play is tricky at first. There is no on-line rules. It plays just like at home. for example you want to lay 10 lands you can. You will have to watch your opp. I love it! this is a must have!

Cool Games For everybody

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 41
Date: November 24, 1999
Author: Amazon User

This is a cool game for everybody. You should get it if you play Magic: The Gathering. And you should get it if you dont play Magic. If you dont play Magic LEARN HOW TO!

Awesome gaming package!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 81 / 84
Date: November 27, 1999
Author: Amazon User

As a magic player, I've found 3 huge features enormously beneficial to my game. They are: A) the Deckbuilder, that lets you build, analyze, and control decks to your heart's content. This deckbuilder is awesomely powerful, and contains every single feature I could think of -- it's amazing what they packed in here. B) the listing and viewing of every single card in the Encyclopedia section, that lets me just scroll through cards and compare them to the "real" ones I have in front of me on my play-mat. The fact that everything -- even Mercadian Masques -- is here, really kicks! And C) the Online Play section I think is done perfectly, because it doesn't constrain your style of play -- you just go online and get rocking with a friend. I really like the fact that they've respected how people really play Magic, and I can play championship decks against other people, and I can play decks built from any cards ever made -- I don't have to worry about buying the card -- I can just build a deck and play it. This product is really incredible !

WORTH THE CASH

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: December 22, 1999
Author: Amazon User

The encyclopedia is a wonderful resorce for magic players of all levels- beginner to Kai Buddie (1999 Magic: The Gathering World Champion) it has inspired in me an urge to play again (im retiered- however you spell that...) anyway this product is extreamly healpful in deck construction and bosting your magic versitility in game play and knowlage get out there and make your freinds jelous with your supioruor card knowlage (this product is extreamly healpful with this) but the ONLY downfall to this product is that you must have the net to get pricelists and to play ppl online

MtG Encyclopedia good but not complete

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: January 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

(Caveat: When I first got this product there was a problem with the Wizards of the Coast server that was preventing me from playing online against others. This seems to have been corrected.)

Good points: The virtual interface is done reasonably well once you are connected and playing a game against someone. All cards thru Mercadian Masques are known by the program (a major selling point). Deck builder is decent as well.

Bad points: My major complaints are 1)that you cannot play against a computer opponent, and 2)the program does not do any rules enforcement at all - it just provides a virtual play area and a chat function with your opponent. (This means rules interpretations can still be an issue. The program is like Apprentice in this regard.) Minor complaints: the program is also quite slow to load up and to quit (install take a really long time), and seperate parts of the program don't seem fully integrated (uses you web browser to connect find opponents at the WotC website). Documentation is not as comprehensive as I had hoped, but the program is easy enough to run anyway.

Overall: Good for head to head play and deckbuilding. Just be aware that you must already know how to play Magic and can't play vs. the computer. Program itself is seems a bit clunky, but this IS the first version of the software.

This collector is unimpressed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 19 / 22
Date: January 08, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I'm pretty seriously unimpressed with this product, particularly from a user interface perspective. Here are a few reasons why.

(1) It has only one graphics option, which is running full screen with a workspace that is 800 x 600. It can't be minimized, run in a window, or run at a higher resolution that wouldn't waste half of my display. In addition, my Start menu isn't accessible while the program is running. I find these kind of limitations frustrating and unacceptable.

(2) The windows are not resizeable, so even though I have plenty of screen space to work with, I can't use it. This means that I have to use the horizontal scroll bar to view only a small portion of any of the tables at a time, which makes the product particularly difficult to use.

(3) There doesn't appear to be a way to indicate multiple copies of a card in my collection without having multiple entries for that card. This might be useful for rare or special cards, but having hundreds of entries for lands, or dozens for commons, makes the feature much less useful.

(4) The text in general is a light font on a dark background, which is not terribly functional. The help text is particularly difficult to read.

(5) The online game interface is a separate application that I am unable to close without closing the product entirely, even though I can have both the online game and the encyclopedia running simultaneously.

The product *looks* very nice. I just wish WotC had put half as much effort into making a product that works as good as it looks.

GREAT RESOURCE-VERY HELPFUL-HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: January 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

As a MtG veteran, who has been playing the game since Ice Age came out, I can tell you that this is a great investment. With its many options, deck builder, and customizable search, it gives you a tremendous advantage over other rival players. It is a little costly, but well worth it! Just save up your allowances, and you'll have the CD in no time. Email me with questions at: archlord@angelfire.com

Flawed, but a must for every 'Expert' player

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 39 / 41
Date: January 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

With the number of unique magic cards getting big enough to stretch to the moon and back, I was pretty excited when I first read about Encyclopedia. "Spoiler" lists have long been available from the web, but not with illustrations. Encyclopedia is true to its name, containing pictures of every card in existence--even the oddities and "lost" cards. I was a little disappointed, though not too surprised, to discover that the "play" feature isn't an AI-controlled game like Duels of the Plansewalkers. Instead, it's just a virtual card table to play virtual decks against virtual friends online. As such, not really my cup of tea--it's the encyclopedia and deck analysis that interested me. That's right, not only can you keep track of your decks, but you can get charts of every conceivable statistic--ratios of spell types is only the begining.

It all sounds a litte too good to be true, and without a doubt, there are some significant shortcomings of this program. It's quite slow and resource-heavy, and the sloppy programming goes beyond that--you need a patch (available free online) just to get accurate deck analysis.

Another major problem lies in the fact that your collection as a whole can't be managed with nearly the same flexibility as your decks. You can't see how much your whole collection is worth, for instance--you can only view the price of one card a time. (Price lists are available for free download from the web.) And to see any other important stats of your entire collection, you'd have to create a giant "deck" using all your cards! Ridiculous.

Buy this program for what its title suggests; it works best as a visual encyclopedia of every card in existence. The bells and whistles need some serious work.

This might help

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 11
Date: February 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you set your start bar to auto hide, you should be able to access it while the encyclopedia is running.

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