I understand what you are saying, copying MTG is probably impossible at the time, just think how many games tried and failed, the auto-battling lower the fun but the introduction (one day) of the artifacts could make it all more interesting and less autopilot.
The strong element here is that in online MTG you have no real value while here you don't spend on useless items, if you, one day, choose to stop playing, you will have sellable assets in your pocket.
Spl has tournaments, but in my opinion, the real lack is the number of players, as I said, I don't like much the idea of always rewarding the wales, the WILD/MODERN format is really good for new players for example but it is the only good news in some time for "normal" players.