Cockatrice VS forge

Check our Cockatrice.

I'd suggest going to any deck browsing site (like https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/pioneer/full#paper) and glancing at the top decks and seeing which one interests you. It's okay to post and ask questions about decks if you're not sure how one works (I personally struggled understanding how legacy control decks can seem to run 0 win conditions but also have no issues winning games for instance). When you find a deck you're interested in you can find a discord for that deck or make a post to ask questions and be sure you want to play it. There are also online tools to help you play for free with any deck like https://cockatrice.github.io/ and similar, so you can try the deck online if you'd like

Props for your resourcefulness, but you could just use Cockatrice, or XMage.

Go to https://cockatrice.github.io/ and download the software, installing it afterwards;

Cockatrice can do that, configured for magic by default if i remember correctly. Youll have to cough up image files for different card sets.

There is a client and a server, so not super easy, but not hard if you have any sysadmin experience. I had a server up for almost a year once

https://github.com/Cockatrice/Cockatrice

https://cockatrice.github.io/ - haven't used this too much myself but this one does have built in servers and decent controls

My favorite is Cockatrice even though you sound like a mostly in person seeking fellow. It is a web application that is like a card game simulator, it plays magic and can auto update to show you card images, doesn't cost a dime and theoretically could play other games like Android Netrunner if you really wanted to, downside is it sometimes changes domains if the authorities try and shut it down, but the last one https://cockatrice.github.io/ has been around a while. also no rules enforcement, but upside is play any format including some weirdness like "bring your own standard" from any era or tiny leaders, the all less than 3 mv commander played 1v1

If you like Magic The Gathering card playing game, avoid Forge (Desktop + Android) because it is open source (made in Java) and it has all the cards, gameplays, you can build your deck or choose from a huge list of ready-made ones and play against the AI and online up to 4 players in the same game I believe.

https://github.com/Card-Forge/forge

https://github.com/Card-Forge/forge/wiki/User-Guide

Please read into it if you care to criticize.

If you did want to see something like this, the MTG program Forge(https://github.com/Card-Forge/forge) has a command line tool included that allows you to pit ais against each other using different decks. It isnt terribly hard to setup, and im sure the discord server can help out as well.

The last thing I recommend to you is to download a piece of third-party software called CardForge. It lets you play Magic on your phone or your computer. It's a little clunky, but it includes all 26,000 cards, for free, and it's free, meaning you can get your hands on (IE import) other people's decks and try them out. For instance, mine. ;) You can even compare it to yours! I don't mean to be dismissive, but this will be the easiest way for you to find out what we're all talking about. I didn't find this app until... I dunno, a little before the pandemic started? But it completely changed my understanding of how to play the game... or, more accurately, let me try out decks that win at very high levels and figure out why they do. Now you can too! =)

Y'all could check out the adventure mode on Forge, pretty similar vibe!

That said, if you really want better legitimate options, go play MTG Forge! It supports every major format under the sun, has 2 dedicated RPG modes and the ability to run against gauntlets of decks. You could probably import all the Duels 2015 decks there, find a Duels 2015-esque skin, and enjoy the meta of that game that way.