Magic The Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers Review

A funny thing happened on Magic: The Gathering’s way to finally becoming a board game after over 20 years of success in the CCG format. It crashed into Heroscape, the much-loved Craig Van Ness/Stephen Baker/Rob Daviau design that lasted longer in the mass-market retail sector than many expected. When Arena of the Planeswalkers was first announced earlier this year by Hasbro, many a gamer tongue was set to wagging because it was pretty clear that the core of the design was Heroscape, and many wondered if this game represented a second coming- or at least a brand-supported second chance.

The facts are this. Yes, the new Magic board game is essentially a retooled, repurposed and modified version of Heroscape. And it’s familiar to the point where those experienced the previous game will not only be able to jump right in with virtually zero friction, but they will also be able to use (with a little rules-jiggering) existing figures and terrain from their collections with both backwards and forwards compatibility It is a complete, low-cost two to five player game out-of-the-box with expansions on the way in 2016 and Hasbro has stated that they will not be blind-buy boosters. In the initial offering, you get five different fully-painted miniatures of Planeswalker characters along with two squads of creatures in each color, provided unpainted. It does not include piles of Heroscape’s trademark plastic terrain, instead just a few pieces to use on the six flat hex boards that comprise the map. . It is not somehow “dumbed down”, it is instead “smarted up”. It no longer features an “anything goes” mash-up setting but is now specific to the current Magic: The Gathering world.

It is also awesome.

Arena of the Planeswalkers is, like Heroscape, one of those “X-factor” games that has exactly the right mix of mainstream accessibility and hobby market depth. It’s simple enough that a complete foreigner to the world of hobby gaming can read the rules and immediately grasp concepts like line of sight, terrain advantages and rolling dice depicting swords versus shields. Yet the range of unit abilities – and spell card effects – combined with potential squad building and more hobby-facing elements make it more advanced than pretty much anything else Hasbro currently produces.

That said, this is a game that goes from zero to fun in about five minutes. The rules are almost completely intuitive for hobby gamers, despite a couple of minor wording and timing issues that can be easily resolved. Purists will lament the lack of terrain tiles, but this game does not suffer from Heroscape’s often off-putting setup/teardown time and there’s no need to store the pieces. The modular boards are rather plain, but do feature some water to slow down advancing Planeswalkers and their summoned creatures. There are also a couple of cardstock walls to break things up a bit. It’s interesting how a small hill in the middle of a map can be more impactful and relevant to gameplay than a whole table full of varying elevations and terrain types.

The core rules are extremely simple, just like Heroscape. Activations are by choice, the old secret shields of the original game are streamlined away. Units are rated for movement, they move that much on a turn with some penalties for moving into water or away from engaged figures. The attack and defense ratings tell you how many dice to roll in each situation and there is a bonus if you are doing either at a terrain level higher than your opponent. Each unit is depicted on a card that also details a couple of special abilities, which is where some of the more gamer-ly complexity begins to peek into the simple, meat-and-potatoes design.

That’s all more or less the Heroscape part of the collision. The Magic part is where things become even more compelling and the game emerges very much like a “2.0” revision. The biggest change is how your units enter the game. With just, I think, two unit-specific exceptions the standard Heroscape squad started completely on the board. In this game, your Planeswalker starts alone on the map and summons his or her minions throughout the game. Each turn you can summon a unit into play up to five line-of-sight spaces away, which creates all kinds of tactical and strategic possibilities in terms of deployment. Your Planeswalker might be parked on a beneficial rune behind cover when suddenly they are beset by zombies, phoenixes or rhinoceros guys that weren’t there a couple of turns ago.

Each of the Planeswalkers correspond to one of Magic’s cardinal colors and themes, and each is equipped with a deck of spell cards that can be cast- much like in the CCG- as instants and enchantments. Buffs, debuffs, direct damage, counters and other classic effects come into play and you can drop up to three of these cards per round. I really like how some enchantments and other effects are kept secret on a unit’s card until they are triggered, which makes for some fun surprises and unexpected turns of events. If you lose your Planeswalker, you also lose the ability to cast spells or summon creatures – or you may just lose the game, depending on the scenario.

All of the above puts the emphasis on the Planeswalkers as the primary in-game unit. Unlike Heroscape, where you might have squads of common figures that you hope can knock out a couple of enemy units before they lose their one health point or where you have a big, unique unit that acts as your primary piece, these Planeswalkers are very much the focal point of everything you do in the game. And each turn you just get to activate one of your cards, so deciding when to move and attack with squads or take an action with your Planeswalker becomes a major strategic decision each turn. I think it is also quite appropriate to the Magic setting, where in the CCG the idea is that the in-game ego is an abstracted spellcaster deploying units and spells to do their bidding.

The included scenarios aren’t particularly inspired, mostly offering king-of-the-hill style fare, battling over runes, or deathmatches. But I expect that between whatever this game offers in terms of future releases, the sort of “unofficial” Heroscape support and whatever the Internet comes up with the possibilities are endless. There is, however, a big “if” hanging over this game that I hope will not deter folks from looking into it. Some have voiced concern that Hasbro/WOTC will not adequately support the game, and some have pointed to the failed Battleship: Galaxies as an example of a game with great potential that was left to die on the vine before any additional content made it to market.

I think we have at least a few years worth of support in this game, possibly more if it takes off like I hope it does and players get on board with it. I think the Magic brand may be what Heroscape needed to reach a bigger breakthrough, and I believe that board gamers and CCG players alike will find much to enjoy here in an casual, appealing package. Comparative titles like Mage Wars, Imperial Assault or any number of more traditional miniatures games may offer much more depth and customization, but none are as accessible, playable and purely fun as this game is. It would be a shame to see this game tank in the sales because consumers are afraid to invest $30- about a third the price of a Kickstarter title these days- to check out a game that’s lots of fun as it is, whether or not it ever sees another SKU in its product line.