Magic Workstation

Ever wonder where these tournaments for cards that haven't even been released yet are happening?

Look no further than http://www.magic-league.com/.

Magic-League is a free to play online Magic: The Gathering format. I've just recently started getting into it, after learning about it over at MTG Salvation. One common piece of software used is Magic Workstation. The setup and install is not clean, and definitely not pretty, and you need to dig your way through several menus and downloads just to get Magic cards into the database. It's definitely not as easy to use as MTGO on the mothership. However, it is free, and because it isn't controlled by Wizards, as soon as a full set is spoiled, it's available to be played with.

There are several downsides to all this of course. Game play is not governed at all, basically each player gets to move his/her cards around however they wish, nothing in the client prevents you from drawing in the middle of your opponents attack phase, or simply refusing to reduce your life total or destroy a permanent. All of which are features in MTGO. Basically, the client just provides you with a shell that is capable of playing magic as long as everyone behaves themselves. As is typical of the internet, you will come across a bunch of griefer players on the free servers, but there are good players out there, that want nothing more than to test the next big thing on a free service.

If you are interested in playing, I highly recommend reading up on it on the MTG Salvation site, and becoming a member there. That will give you access to the MTGS IRC server, and a great community to pick playtest buddies from. The MTG Salvation thread can be found here, and the current players testing Standard decks is here. My name on there is [MTGS]Rabbit, say "hi" if you see me around!

-D