MTG Duel of the Planeswalkers 2013

[Kaden]

It's not a "flaw" in the game, it's an intentional balancing mechanic. If you absolutely knew at what rate you would be hitting your land drops, every single mana curve and most decks would look exactly the same. You would never see decks like Red Wins and Eldrazi ramp in the same format. There's a risk to playing expensive spells because of that random element and there are entire decks that work really well because they either sidestep that element entirely (Birthing Pod) or use the cards that are printed to smooth out their lands (almost any ramp deck).

Yeah, getting mana screwed happens. You always notice that more often than you curve out perfectly, though. You also notice that more often than you do when your opponent gets screwed and you walk away with a completely free win.

Minimizing the impact of too many/too little lands is part of building your decks. Red and White are great for keeping your curve super low so you can actually win a game with only two of three lands, while Green can actually do something game-changing when you draw that sixth land in a row.

I really wish Duels let you tweak the number of lands in your deck, though. I want to be able to tune Chandra's deck to be super aggressive, for example, and I'd love to run just 20 land for that. I understand why they did it that way, but it would be a nice advanced option.

Honestly, I like how deck construction (and, as a result, performance) works in Magic and, very likely, wouldn't play if it were different. The WoW CCG had a resource mechanic that let you have a perfect curve every game and I did not find that at all interesting. The DBZ CCG completely eschewed resources as they exist in Magic and, while I greatly enjoyed the game (mostly because of how Main Personalities were used as a defining mechanic of a deck) that lead to a lot of scenarios where half the cards I own don't get played because the other half are strictly better.

I kind of rambled, but my point was: I disagree that it's a flaw in their design. I agree that it can lead to some un-fun scenarios. Ultimately, though, I find that the fun it provides greatly outweighs un-fun-ness.