A growing collection of computer games that are freeware, open source or free to play.

MTG Forge is a java based program that lets you play Magic: The Gathering against a computer opponent using all of the rules of a real game. Currently 727 cards are available.

The developer choose cards that would be most interesting for sealed and draft. Some of the highlights include old school Wrath of God, Serra Angel, Juzam Djinn, Flametongue Kavu, Man-o’-War, and newer cards from Planar Chaos like Damnation, Serendib Efreet, Pyrohemia, Gaea’s Anthem, Serra Sphinx, Pongify, Brute Force. Other interesting cards include Phyrexian Rager (2B, creature, 2/2, when this card comes into play lose 1 life and draw 1 card), Radiant, Archangel (3WW, 2/2, flying, gets +1/+1 for each creature with flying in play), Faceless Butcher (2BB, 2/3, when this card comes into play, remove target creature from the game). The creatures Anger, Wonder, and Valor all work best if in the graveyard, they give your creatures haste, flying, or vigilance (can’t do first strike yet). He loves cool, big rares like Visara the Dreadful, Kokusho the Evening Star, Keiga the Tide Star, Rorix Bladewing, or ColdSnap’s Adarkar Valkyrie, which lets you steal any creatures that dies.

Features

You can play in constructed, sealed, or draft mode. In constructed mode, you can use any of the cards to make your deck. In sealed mode you are given 3 booster packs, 75 cards, and you have to make your deck using only those cards. In draft mode you choose the cards that make up your deck one at a time. In draft mode, you are sitting at a virtual table with 7 other computer players who are also picking cards. In essence, you open up one booster pack of 15 cards, choose one card and then pass it to your neighbor. In draft mode, the computer actually makes its deck from the cards that you saw, so if you can remember the whole draft, you will see those cards again. In all of the modes you decide what deck the computer uses. One good feature is that you can make a deck and then play against it, the computer can use all of the cards. Well technically the computer can’t play the cards Counterspell, Remove Soul, and a few other cards, but you probably won’t notice.

Currently the computer will only play cards during his turn, and the computer will play Giant Growth before declaring attackers which is suboptimal. Hopefully the computer will be smarter in version two, but I am pretty happy with the current computer AI. The AI is competent and very challenging. The AI is just a knee-jerk reaction that tries to play a random card in his hand, very dumb I know, but I think it still plays well. If you didn’t know how the computer AI worked, it seems smarter than it really is. I can’t tell you how many times the computer plays Wrath of God and then slaps down some big creature and beats me down. Or the computer has Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and he is copying Enormous Baloth and attacking with two 7/7 creatures. I loves those “Aha” watercooler moments than make up the best parts of any video game. I still remember winning a car race in Need for Speed by 0.00 seconds, it was one of the most memorable parts in the whole game.