Play an Archenemy in Duels 2012 Expansion

[Greg Tito]

Play an Archenemy in Duels 2012 Expansion

You'll be able to take on three enemies with a killer Archenemy deck in the first expansion to Duels 2012.

One of the drawbacks of playing Duels of the Planewalkers 2012 was that you could play as one of three planeswalkers trying to take down the big bad Archenemy but you couldn't play as the Archenemy yourself [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8985-Duels-of-the-Planeswalkers-2012-Review]. I mean, they get all the fun with the doubled life total and the devastating Scheme cards to play every turn, why shouldn't I get a chance to wreak havoc? It seems that Wizards of the Coast and Stainless Games have heard my pleas and will in fact let you be an Archenemy in the first expansion to Duels 2012.

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The word is that the expansion will drop early this fall, with no specific date yet set or a hard price announced. If the expansions to the original Duels are any indication, the expansion will likely set you back 400 Microsoft points or $4.99.

A new campaign of 11 matches will give the player the chance to earn three new decks, one of which is a brand spanking new planeswalker unique to Duels 2012 - Ral Zarek. The unnamed expansion also features six "preview" cards from the next set of cards being released for the Magic TCG called Innistrad. Multiplayer matches will have a little more variety now with Archenemy options to set both the three opponents and the Archenemy.

Here is the full list of features from Wizards:

Three new playable decks: Liliana Vess's "Grave Whispers" deck, Ajani Goldmane's "Auramancer" deck, and Ral Zarek's "Cloudburst" deck
Six exclusive sneak-preview cards from the upcoming Innistrad expansion
Players can become the Archenemy in single-player and online multiplayer formats
Six new single-player campaign levels and eleven Archenemy single-player campaign levels
Four Archenemy challenges
Four additional card unlocks for all thirteen Duels 2012 decks
New achievements on Xbox, Steam, and PlayStation
New loading screens featuring at and text exclusive to the Duels 2012 Expansion

I personally can't wait to get my hands on the new challenges. I had a lot of fun figuring out the best way to defeat the challenges in single player, but it will be even more fun to try my hand at the problems they set for the Archenemy.

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[Ushiromiya Battler]

Holy shit, that sounds awesome!
I was really disappointed when I found out I couldn't play as an Archenemy, definitely buying this when it comes.

 

[GeorgW]

I still say they should have included it in the first place, this seems like a cheap money grab to me. I haven't bought the game, I played the demo and was turned off forever by the pitiful customisations. I'd love to have a good Magic video game out there, but for now I guess I'll stick with the real deal.

 

[Pilkingtube]

Will this expansion also be fixing all the bugs in the PC version? Such as having a keybound button for text chat.. but not implementing a text chat system? ;D

 

[rees263]

I was pretty excited when I heard this news. After only a couple of archenemy games I started to think how cool it would be to actually play as the bad guy, and now you can. Probably getting this as soon as it comes out.

 

[Invariel]

But no mention at all of required bug fixes, broken card mechanics, and the like. I'm still going to buy it, but I'm still going to be grumbly at the bugs.

 

[Ganath]

Woop! New decks. Having fully unlocked all there is, this will be neat. Where's my Phyrexian deck though, damn it? Oh.. on second thought though, I never finished Unquenchable fire.. It just doesn't cut it for 4 player free for all. I hope this adresses some bugs as well, I've had a game crash too often simply by not stopping "Synching".

 

[Jodah]

Soooo...whens it coming out? *twitch*

 

[katsabas]

Can anybody help here? I really wanna buy this game cause I liked the Archenemy card set but from what I hear, you can't create your own decks in this game. Is it true?

 

[Ganath]

Can anybody help here? I really wanna buy this game cause I liked the Archenemy card set but from what I hear, you can't create your own decks in this game. Is it true?

It depends on what you mean exactly. But I'll take it as you mean that you can't create your -own- decks with any cards possible. No, you can't. You have 10 decks to choose from. Preconstructed with 60 cards, then you can switch out any card in that deck with unlockable cards, so basically, you can switch out (Currently) 16 cards in the deck with any unlockable card. The theme of the decks mostly retain themselves even if you switch out cards, but it's far more flexible than the last game due to the fact that you can switch out the -core- cards.

Also, another thing that's different is that you can have as many of those cards in your deck as you please. So basically, you can have 80 cards if you want to and still play against players with 60 cards. Though that's usually an awful tactic to use because more cards means less likely to get the cards you need, just like in any other deck. I got all my decks set on 70 cards, which I feel is an reasonable amount even if it's not "original". Oh, just to mention one more thing, the more cards you put in your deck, the more land cards you get too.