Lessons from Developing an AI to Play Magic: The Gathering

Talk at GeekCampSG 2015 on 26 September 2015.

Although computers have beaten humans at Chess, Checkers, and even Jeopardy, games with complex board states (such as Go) or hidden information (such as Poker) have remained out of reach. Magic: the Gathering is a strategy card game that has both complex board states and hidden information.

Magarena’s goal is to develop an open source competitive computer MTG player. This talk distills some of the lessons learnt in developing an AI that is able to make decisions under uncertainly.