Before Cockatrice we used Apprentice and Magic Workstation. Playing MTG online used to have a very active scene, setting up matches in IRC. Sadly most people only want to play the Commander variant of the game anymore, hard to find other matches on Cockatrice.
Hearthstone doesn't cost much if you play it a lot, but that does require a big time commitment if you don't want to pay. I've only spent $120 on the game since 2014 and won more money than that over the years from tournaments. There are far less tournaments now, but I still play off-and-on and always get to top 100 legend if I feel like it.
Both games suffer from powercreep. MtG has more flavor, especially the older cards, and its concept could be used for a great MMORPG game, but its powercreep has also come with exhausting amounts of rules baggage and token/counter generation. Hearthstone games generally flow better, although there does tend to be annoying random effects that can be frustrating when it determines games. Overall MtG is still probably the better game, but I very rarely play it, because my very expensive collection was stolen and I have more attachment to how the game used to be, which makes its current form that much less enjoyable in comparison.
|