Here is their website
http://au.infinitywarsgame.com/roadmap?geo=0
For those who are familiar with Magic, you should pick up Infinity War easily. The winning conditions are slightly different. In MTG the winning conditions are a) reduce life b) make them run out of cards c) get 10 poison counters (rare tactic) and d) miscellaneous, essentially whatever the card says. Infinity Wars the two win conditions are a) reduce life b) reduce morale.
Now I am going to be using some MTG terms, and if anyone isn't familiar with CCG and are wondering WTF I am talking about, just ask. So lets just get cracking with the comparisons.
1. Mana vs resources.
Magic utilises land to produce a type of mana to allow you to play your cards. Infinity wars has resources, which can be used to play any card, unlike MTG where the cards are specific to the type of mana. So straight away we can see there is less of a problem here. Although to be fair, with correct choosing of land, you can avoid this problem in multicoloured decks in MTG.
The one innovation which Infinity wars has over Magic, is that each round you automatically get resources. First round you get one, second round you get two etc up to 10 unless you have cards which increase it. This eliminates the problem of being screwed over for mana. It does however mean you can't play those MTG tricks of getting powerful cards out by using the right combination of cards cheaply. For example in MTG you can bring an artifact creature which costs 11 by turn one, or realistically turn 3 if you use the right combination of cards (an artifact land and tinker if anyone is interested).
Overall I will give this edge to Infinity Wars
2. Drawing the right card
Ever played those games of Magic where you need the right card and all you get is land? This is less of a problem in Infinity Wars, since there aren't any lands. Moreover any player can use the trading post option which allows them to trade resources or cards for the ability to draw more cards.
So Infinity wars has the edge.
3. Variety of styles
What sets CCGs apart from some other tactical games, lets say chess is that there is such a wide variety of play styles. MTG has shit loads of styles and constructing a deck is one of the fun things about the game. Infinity Wars obviously doesn't have as many cards as MTG, but so far it appears to have various styles of play which an MTG player would recognise.
There is the graveyard manipulation stuff, the defensive where you win by some other means rather than attack (sort of like control/permission decks in MTG), the aggressive decks etc.
However by shear volume of cards with different game mechanics, MTG still has the edge. However... if you buy the MTG game Duels of the Planeswalkers you most probably don't have as many decks (I haven't gotten the latest one) and I would argue the edge MTG possesses disappears.
4. Mixing and matching cards
Well there are five colours in magic, plus artifacts. There are seven factions in Infinity Wars plus artifacts.
In MTG to mix different types of spells (by colour), you have to have different lands or at least mana sources which can produce them. Infinity Wars uses a different concept called purity. Essentially each card has a purity rating, and this limits the number of mixes you can have between the different colours factions. So in MTG you could still get a hold of the really powerful spells from a particular colour / faction, but it might be difficult to play if you don't have the land. Since resources are less of a problem, Infinity Wars needs to compensate by using this purity rating.
Overall I would consider this different and most probably the same.
5. Game phases
I am going to discuss this in terms of "flow of the game" and also tactical, in the sense what the game allows you to do.
Firstly in terms of flow of the game, Infinity War would most likely win out. Let me explain. In Magic each player has their own turn. This can get tedious if the AI takes time to think or in player vs player when some opponent takes forever to make a decision reading everything. This is less of a problem in Infinity Wars because both players have their turn at the same time. The beauty of this is, since its an online game, we can't see what each other player is doing until its time for combat.
This however also leads to some differences in how tactics work. Now depending on your preferences it might not bother you too much. However if an MTG player could interact with an Infinity Wars players, the MTG player would get more reaction time.
Simply put its hard in Infinity wars to do the equivalent of some instants, because when resolving battles, the move is made before hand, requiring more anticipation and less reaction. Let me give you an example.In MTG say my opponent brings on a creature onto the battlefield. I can instantly unsummon and return it to my opponent's hand on the same turn if I had the unsummon card in my hand. This is the important part, the same turn. Otherwise the creature stays on the battlefield for x number of turns until I get an unsummon card. In Infinity Wars I have a similar card, but I have to play it AFTER the turn he first summons the creature. The reason being since we both play at the same time, and we can't see each other's moves until combat, I cannot unsummon a creature he is planning to bring out, because I don't know he is bringing it out, and by the time he does so, I cannot play the unsummon until the next move.
Now there is a card that allows you to unsummon all creatures of that type. So if the opponent has a zombie on the battle field, you can cast it and unsummon the zombie and any other zombies he brings out that turn. It he doesn't bring out any other zombies, you just unsummon that singular creature. Thus it you could anticipate them doing so, you would get more utility from playing that card.
6. Graphics and animation.
MTG computer versions like Duel of the Planeswalkers have very few animated cards. The art is stunning of course. Infinity wars has a different style of art, and I would be hard press to say one is better than the other. Its really preferences. However.... the art on the cards is animated. That is you see the creatures moving.
I have to give this presentation edge to Infinity Wars because of that.
However in DoTP, Magic has the superior Avatars for your characters.
7. How do they make money off you?
This is quite an important question because it does affect how much we can do before we have to pop out cash.
In previous versions of DoTP we just got the base game, and a few DLCs. If you search for the promo codes, you got all the cards. In the latest itineration of DoTP, they also sell you booster packs, to get more cards. In other words you don't unlock all of them just by winning games.
In Infinity Wars, well its free. They do however sell you booster packs as well. Theoretically you can play all the campaigns, special missions etc and you'll eventually unlock almost all the cards. But it does get tedious. I will most probably purchase a pre constructed deck (it will cost the same as buying DoTP anyway). At the current rate it looks like it will take me a loooong time to accumulate the points to spend on buying preconstructed decks, unless I pay with real cash. However by winning games you still get access to cards.
8. World building.
Yeah, ok, MTG has rich worlds with a host of fiction published. Infinity Wars doesn't quite have that yet. But there are clearly characters, some mythos albeit not in detail yet.
So MTG has the advantage here.
9. Storyline
Yeah I know. You expect RPGs to have storylines, but not CCGs. Nevertheless DoTP has some sort of storyline which makes the player feel like part of the story. In DoTP 2014 we helped Chandra against her nemesis Remah. In DoTP 2015 we help partially cure Garruk from his curse.
Doesn't appear to have anything like that in Infinity Wars. To be fair, the storyline is most probably not that important as a reason people play the game, but I feel the immersion factor enhances it.
10. Variations of the games.
Infinity Wars has the usual game, and the epic game where it appears you start with higher life and morale. The tactics would be somewhat different especially with aggressive decks which run out of steam if its prolonged. It apparently has cubed (which I assume is 3 player) and Two headed giant (where you and a parter share life).
Magic and the computer version, multiplayer, two headed giant. It also has variations like Commander (not on the computer game though), Archenemy (which was hell fun) and Planechase (which got tedious).
I think if Infinity Wars has two headed giant format, it pretty much has the same advantage as MTG in multiplayer format because its so much fun. In innovative formats, though I give MTG the edge especially with the Archenemy format.
11. Themes involving other franchises
Remember a few years ago on this board we would make Magic the Gathering cards involving comic characters, and Star War characters etc. Well Infinity Wars does just that with Star Trek TNG. Apparently they can be played with the usual Infinity Wars cards. This of course means that some mega dragon is twice as powerful as a Klingon Star ship.
12 This game is just different
These are just things which boil down to personal preference.
In MTG after combat, creatures are automatically healed. The exception is when fighting creatures with the infect ability. The automatic healing makes sense when you consider that its a card game played by two people without a computer, so it can get tedious keeping note of so many numbers. This ain't an RPG.
However in the modern age with better software, the computer keeps track of all damage done. In Infinity Wars, if a creature gets damaged, it doesn't heal unless you use a card. Obviously this changes tactics compared to MTG.
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If anyone is interested in trying out this game, my invite code is 875B4. Hey it gives me extra points.