The base game of Magic 2014 is concrete and gives new, experienced and professional players alike a chance to enjoy the card game in a new way. The expansion for this already solid game brings more content to the table. Decks, challenges and a new narrative are now available for purchase and play, but is it all worthwhile? Let’s draw our opening hand and find out.

The expansion brings in a new narrative that carries on from the base game. After helping Chandra take her revenge, you go on your own mission to find the answer to eternal life. You find out that you need certain materials to make your dream a reality and so you travel across the planes once more in order to fulfil your new goal. Although the story is compelling at first with a narrator, it doesn’t carry too well in the actual game. As you defeat your first opponent, they have a cutscene that hints towards them returning. This is false however as the character you see in that scene just leaves the tale entirely. Combine this with a lack lustre ending and you get yourself a really poor plot.

Although the story is lacking, the main emphasis on this expansion are the new decks and the new challenges. In the game mode, players will face epic confrontations that may be even more of a task than the base game. It puts to the test your skills as a player in its entirety as you are placed in a position where you must win. This is a great addition as the tough tasks in the base game are perfect for testing the skills of new players and is a great way to see if experienced players are indeed as wise as they say. The decks are a completely different story as each of them add a new play style to the game in both single player and multiplayer.

There are five new decks to unlock in the expansion campaign. First Dodge and Burn, a red/ blue counter burn deck that has an emphasis on casting instant and sorcery spells. As a plus to casting these spells, there are also creatures in the deck that gain benefits from these casts or help you get these cards back. Next is Lords of Darkness, a mono black deck that concentrates on releasing powerful demons. This deck has cards that can take life from you and your opponent, so managing your life total is essential to mastery. Hall of Champions is the first deck you will be able to unlock as it features Elspeth, a Planeswalker that has recently featured in the new Theros set. The deck has white, green and blue mana to play with as you will be bringing onto the field powerful exalted creatures. The mechanic allows your creatures to get incredibly buffed as they attack if there is only one attacking. The next deck available for play is Sylvan Might. This has a theme around elfish creatures, these are very cheap and buff each other up to create a formidable army. The final deck is called Sword of the Samurai. This collection of cards brings into the game the Bushido mechanic, originally seen in the Kamigawa block. Bushido will give a creature a +1/+1 boost, depending on how much Bushido that creature has, when it is blocked or blocking. This helps make the slower aggro deck just as menacing.

The decks in their entirety are incredibly solid and fun to play with. It is great to see some of the older sets come back into the series so that new players can enjoy them. As with the decks in the base game, these are not overpowered at all and are just as balanced. The reasoning behind this is because the game simulates the real life term ‘luck of the draw’. Although you may pick a deck that can counter your opponents strategy, you are still bound by drawing cards and having deck synergy in order to win your matches. This makes it so that these decks are a nice touch to the game but don’t break what was already available in the base.

Overall, the M14 Duels of the Planeswalkers Expansion is a great purchase for any player that wants some additional content. Although the narrative in the campaign missions is heavily flawed, the challenges and new decks available will have you playing this game more and more. With the inclusion of cards from Kamigawa and other classic sets, players will be able to enjoy a plethora of different play styles and won’t have to stick with the original selection.

So what do you think of the games expansion? Does it draw a legendary presence or is it just a common fad? Let us know what you think in the comments below and be sure to catch VGU’s Friday Night Magic every week.