Magic Online is an official means of playing Magic: The Gathering over the Internet, launched by Wizards of the Coast in June. It offers a wide array of cards and formats, allowing players to collect, build, and duel other players on their schedule. The free-to-download basic account kit includes five ready-to-play decks for different constructed formats (Commander, Legacy, Modern, and more).
Magic Online is a strategy game unlike any other, available as a CCG video game on phones and PC. Players can collect, build, and master their unique decks, show off their personality by unlocking avatars, and play with friends old and new. The game is designed by Richard Garfield and has something for everyone, including worldbuilders, narrative lovers, and gameplay enthusiasts.
There are two official online programs: Magic Online and Magic Arena. Magic Online has nearly every card dating back to the game’s beginning in 1993, while Magic Arena puts the original CCG at your fingertips. Players can build a deck to play with friends or challenge AI to master their strategy.
Magic Online is a tabletop and digital collectible card game created by Richard Garfield. It offers a wide variety of play experiences, from casual games to large tournaments with awesome prizes, all found in the Play Lobby.
📹 10 Important Ways Magic: The Gathering Online Is Better Than Magic Arena
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How does Magic the Gathering online work?
Magic Online is an electronic version of the physical card game, with digital artwork replicating the look of the card game. Users interact with their cards on a virtual tabletop, and games are hosted by Magic Online servers using a rules engine. The logic for handling card interactions is provided by Perl scripts.
Players can set up or join casual games for free in several rooms within the Constructed Open Play area. These rooms include Just Starting Out, Just For Fun, Getting Serious, and Tournament Practice. Just Starting Out is for new players, while Just For Fun is designed for casual decks. Getting Serious is a step up from Just For Fun, but is usually unoccupied. Tournament Practice is the most competitive room, where serious players test their decks before entering a Constructed event.
In addition to free casual play, official competitive tournaments take place around the clock, including 8-person constructed events, limited sealed deck and drafts, and larger tournaments. Entering events requires an investment of sealed packs and/or event tickets, with winners receiving additional product.
Is Magic the Gathering online the same as MTG Arena?
MTG Online is a no-frills experience that offers authentic MTG gameplay, resembling in-person MTG with physical cards. Despite its dated interface and lack of audio-visual cues, it has a high barrier to entry and is preferred by most players. However, its main appeal lies in its full economy with a virtual currency called Event Tickets (TIX), which is not free-to-play. Players must pay $5 to create an account and can purchase cards or event access using TIX.
MTG Online also features secondary markets where players can buy cards from others, making them cheaper than their physical counterparts. Additionally, cards in MTG Online are not subject to the Reserved List, making rare and expensive cards like Black Lotus and Power Nine easier to obtain and play. For those looking to play formats like Commander or other modes using MTG’s extensive card library, MTG Online is the better option. Despite its clunky user experience and dated interface, MTG Online remains the favorite among MTG’s most well-established players.
Is MTGO free-to-play?
Cardhoarder now allows players to play for free without entry fee matches by challenging others or creating/joining games in the “Constructed Open Play” area. The new Cardhoarder site welcomes users and acknowledges the learning curve as everyone adjusts to new functionality. The page is no longer available on the website, and the team appreciates patience and looks forward to continuing to work with users.
Is Magic The Gathering online or offline?
Magic Online offers a wide range of cards, formats, and games to play on your schedule. With 5 ready-to-play decks, 2 common sets from recent legal sets, and 30 basic land sets, you can jumpstart your collection. With one entry into Super Jump, you can start gaming immediately with powerful strategies. The operating system requires a minimum of 650 MB free internet and broadband connection.
Why Magic cards are so expensive?
The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering is a market where prices are driven by three main factors: the artwork on the cards, the narrative and history of the game, and the emotional attachment that players have to specific cards. The intricate details, vibrant colors, and imaginative designs of cards make them visually appealing, attracting collectors who are willing to pay a premium for cards that resonate with them personally.
Do you need to buy cards for Magic Online?
MTGO provides two distinct modes of gameplay: those occurring within events and those occurring outside of events. Outside events are only available for constructed events, whereas events can be either constructed or limited. Play outside of events is free of charge, with the exception of the cost of purchasing cards.
Is MTGO only for Windows?
Magic Online is a popular game that allows players to play Magic on their home computers, ensuring they have enough RAM to run it proficiently. The game has helped satisfy the cravings for battles, and the biggest benefit of playing Magic Online is simply getting better at the game. Players often ask the author what they should do to improve, and the author’s number one answer is to start playing Magic Online. Playing more Magic is the most important part of getting better at Magic, as it takes a long time to learn all the decks and interactions.
Magic Online not only improved technical play skills like tapping mana, attacking, and blocking correctly but also greatly improved understanding of the rules. The user interface forced players to follow every tiny rule, increasing their understanding tremendously. Being more knowledgeable about the rules led to quicker notice of violations, reducing the need to call the judge and settling disputes with opponents easier. Overall, Magic Online is a great way to satisfy your gaming cravings and improve your Magic skills.
Is MTG online on mobile?
MTG Arena is a free online game that follows the same rules as tabletop card games. Players use decks of cards that generate five colors of mana and play cards that consume mana to call for creatures, cast defensive and offensive spells, and activate effects or unique abilities. This dynamic format is perfect for new players, as it allows them to build decks and play using cards from recently released Magic sets.
Can I play MTG A offline?
It should be noted that the game is a live service, and therefore not available for offline use. In the event that Arena is discontinued, it will cease to exist, as Arena represents a substantial source of revenue for WotC. This is a disappointing outcome, particularly given the popularity of the Magic Duels series.
Does MTG online have all cards?
Magic Online features all cards from core sets after Seventh Edition and expansions after Alliances, including those in the Reserved List. Some cards from before that and special sets after Magic Online’s launch, like Conspiracy, are featured in exclusive sets or Treasure Chests. Core sets and expansions are sold until they are rotated out from Standard within the game. Other sets are sold on a selected time basis, including as a provided product via limited events. Recent sets are usually released a week after the paper version’s release, with Amonkhet being released a week before the official release date.
Does it cost money to play MTG online?
Magic Online (MTGO) is not a fixed subscription, but rather a subscription model where users pay at their own rate after paying the initial $5 for access to the full game. Magic Online occasionally releases an All-Access Pass, allowing players to play with every card and join events for a set time. However, using a service like Cardhoarder allows users to virtually play any constructed card. MTGO’s cost depends on the player’s skill level and the game format they play.
📹 How To Play Magic: The Gathering | Magic: The Gathering Online
Magic: the Gathering Online is the original way to play Magic digitally dating back to 2002, looking to dive in? You’ve come to the …
As a Brazilian living in a 5 to 1 real economy, the free to play aspect of arena covers 99% of my magic needs. On Magic online I played just with penny cards, maybe just a few cards with price range 3-5 dollars (remember it’s 15 to 25 of our money)… that’s why is a relieve being able to exchange a bit of time in exchange of being able to play a standard cycle without spending lots of money in exchange of 4 bombs. I understand the economy side as a US dollar spender
I discovered arena during the pandemic, and being able to play magic again after 20 years, getting to open packs and even build a collection for free is just insane. You just have to play and win. I would have NEVER been able to afford this in paper or MTGO. F2P is just too big of an advantage when you don’t have the money. On the other hand, if you can or like to spend $$$ on this game, i get why you would prefer MTGO, it’s way more diverse and interactive. But damn that UI needs a redo.
I recently made the switch from Arena to MTGO and so far I haven’t looked back. I genuinely feel that the weird bugs and clunky outdated UI are a small sacrifice in order to have access to a wider variety of formats, the ability to simply build the decks I want instead of grinding and praying for good packs, and an affordable economy that has a least a partial cash out option.
As primarily a limited player, Arena has been a game changer for me. With a decent winrate I am able to stretch my gems/gold really far. I am very thankful for that aspect of the client. I feel for my constricted brethren who do not have a dusting system, which I still think is a borderline criminal enterprise on the hands of WOTC 🙁
I like arena for standardizing the price of cards with equal rarity. Makes each deck cost about the same when you just want copies of top tier decks to play with. Being able to craft so many competitive decks is a great learning tool. Pretty unfortunate that modern/legacy are left out, but still fun.
Arena is WotC’s way of adapting to the gatcha game era, just make a whole new game with a monetary model that all the modern F2P games have. It’s like continuously putting quarters in a machine to get what you want and that’s how it works. Versus MTGO where it’s just like a digital card shop. Even the best trader bot in the game is owned by an LGS, so they cut out the middle man too.
I Agree with everything, UI aside, the only good thing about arena is that you can play the game without investing any money at all, myself for example had tons of decks and wildcards and I didn’t waste 1 cent I just drafted and did really well. But then I stopped playing because I got tired of only 2 game modes lol😂
I think Arena has two major advantages over Online that you didn’t mention. The first is that Arena is free to play. This makes it really accessible to new players, and although it takes some time to build a competitive deck, being able to run around in Bronze and Silver tiers with starter decks and whatever half-decent jank you have while you assemble a meta deck is something I feel like you can’t really do on Online, at least not without spending money. The second advantage is somewhat related, but it’s the tutorial and the starter decks. The fact that Arena teaches you the basics, then slowly hands you decks that teach you various new and relevant mechanics is really helpful for just learning the game. And again, you can durdle around in low ladder with these decks as you get used to the game and the cards before you fully enter the competitive nature of the format. Thus, I feel like a natural progression for someone new to Magic would be to start in Arena where they can learn the game, get used to the mechanics and all that, and start playing competitive decks. Then once they get tired of the lack of optimization in Arena, love the game enough to not care much about the graphics, and are willing to spend money on the game, they can switch to Online where you can simply play more varied Magic.
The economy knife does cut both ways though. I can use my mythic wilds to make Craterhoof Behemoths and Allosaurus Shepherds just as easily as I can make something as bad as Archangels light. The frustrating thing is when you could drop ten bucks to buy a couple rare lands to finish your deck, but you instead have to grind for a week for wilds
I will say this about Magic Online. The chat system has only been a delight for me in all the years I have played. I fairness I have only played pauper leagues and a tiny amount of modern, but people have friendly and I have quite enjoyed the chat – if for no other reason then because people could explain all the new bugs I as I was experiencing them:) (Remember when clicking “undo” or Ctrl+Z after sacrifing a permanent would start the entire match over? that was weird)
I think the thing I like about mtg arena is I can play completely for free. Coins can be earned to enter in events, cards and decks can be won and you can usually get 3 free packs of any new set that drops on arena. For players that want to play magic but dont want to spend a bunch of money its great.
I like the economy of arena for what it is. I have been able to draft, play ranked games, and enjoy many matches without needing to invest heavily. I don’t feel pressured to spend $$$ and I can still make the decks I want to via drafting and saving my resources. I have played magic for many years, but I would never consider myself anything more than a casual player. For those of us who don’t want to spend much money but want to be able to play a few games every day, I like the way arena is set up.
At the end of the day, I have spent zero dollars on Magic Arena and I get to draft as much as I want and I can make whatever decks I want. It doesn’t matter what percentage of my “investment” I can cash out because it didn’t cost me any money to begin with. The economy is actually the best thing about Arena over Magic Online, in my view.
I’m actually kind of excited to see the kinds of Shandalar cards they’ll release only on Arena that have random or permanent effects. I use MTGO for everything I do that’s not paper Magic, but youtube content produced on Arena is just as good a lot of the time. And youtube is also how I enjoy Hearthstone; third person gaming. I don’t need to ever touch the game.
I agree with the point made by the end of #2 – Arena actively punishes players for not grinding every day and every event, yet with very little reward. As a free-to-play player the major driving force behind Arena is mostly FOMO. But when the metagame is revolved around winning and there is very little room for casual play. You’re almost forced into crafting a netdeck so you know you have a chance to compete on the ladder – you cannot test out any deck ideas without commiting wildcards. All you get is a stale meta with repeating matchups over and over again. Then with how the economy works having a Tier 2 deck means less rewards and less rewards means less success in getting more rewards. So you have to compensate by spending more time, time you’re not having FUN, because you’re up against the same decks that are often more powerful compared to your’s. This is amplified with the powercreep of recent years – it leaves very little room for error as there are no ballancing tools to stabilise you in case you fall behind during the short time that the hyperefficient threats can deal with you. I stopped playing about a month into Strixhaven and I’ve uninstall the client not seeing myself coming back until there is a rework of the inner mechanisms of Arena.
I agree wholeheartedly with #3 and have said this many times to others around me. While you can have people who cause grief in chat on MTGO, I want to stress that you can also have really positive connections with strangers (let alone your friends), and this has often made my time on MTGO far superior to my time on Arena. As you said, Arena offers other ways to antagonize your opponents through emote spamming, or even annoying things such as timing out. And honestly the lack of a chat option often gives me this disconnect when playing the game against other people, and my enjoyment drops significantly because of it. It leads to faster burn out when you’re grinding game after game without talking to anyone, and every other person is timing out or spamming emotes imo. And plus, losing is a lot more fun when you’re having a pleasant conversation with the other person!
Nothing can beat the fact that I put £5 into Arena right at the start for the starter deal and I’ve done at least 4 sealed events of every set since Dominaria onwards, plus around 100 drafts total. No more money spent. I did use to grind my quests every day but I stopped that a long time ago and still have plenty of gold and gems left.
Fun fact: about half of MTGO’s advantages can be directly applied to Cockatrice, an open source MTG-playing application. It doesn’t support every format yet, but many formats can be essentially emulated, and while it doesn’t have easy click-to-perform-action-on-the-card, it supports homebrew cards with no strings attached. Just thought I’d bring it up 🙂
The Deck Builder interface on Magic the Gathering Arena is an ABSOLUTE Nightmare. On mobile it’s possible to accidentally tap a card while scrolling through your list, which will delete it. So either you have to exit the deck and discard all changes you made and start over. Or remember precisely what card was sitting somewhere around your 3 colorless and 1 white 3 colorless and is now gone forever. The wildcard system is also a mess I accidentally crafted 4 copies of a legendary card today while trying to experiment with a deck list. I would have been much better off with 1 or 2 copies of the legendary and using my mythic wildcards on other high rarity choices in the deck which I was trying to do.
I agree with a lot of this as an arena player. I played paper magic growing up and the ease of being able to log into my phone and play a quick game is what drew me back. I feel like if the online system could be implemented into a mobile form it would dominate arena entirely and make the game more enjoyable and true to its roots.
All extremely valid points for experienced players who are coming in from the card format. However, I was able to start playing with budget (but competitive) decks on Arena as free to play, which, even with the free card bots, I could not do in Magic online. Plus, online seems great but is so overwhelming as a new player, you cannot discount the interface as just fluff – card games are also about the appeal and art and design. If a new set came out with no artwork and just words, but it was a fantastic balanced set with exciting new mechanics, it would still not be good sadly.
I’ve been playing Arena since its inception without any prior experience with Magic Online, and I was very happy with it…until Modern Horizons 2 came out and got me excited for the Modern format and I realized the only way for me to play and draft it was by downloading Magic Online. It bums me out that I have to invest time and money into an older game in order to keep up with all of the latest cards in MtG, and now that I’ve been messing around with Magic Online, it’s clear to me that it has way more advantages over Arena. It’s really disheartening to realize that not only does Arena lacks so much, but WotC doesn’t seem to have many plans to bring it up to Magic Online’s level.
I’ve been playing magic for the last eight years and I’ve probably all together put an hour into arena but it doesn’t feel quite right to me but I just recently decided to give MTGO a try and Holy crap I really love it. I can buy singles and then set up my commander decks how I want and then go, it’s awesome. It makes for not having a game night with the boys as doable if I miss a night. I fricken love it.
I will never forget my first time trying Magic Online. I wanted a way to play Commander games and with no LGS near me at the time MtGO seemed ideal. After building a budget Saffi deck built around bees and fight mechanics with one infinite loop I had my loop on the board going through the motions and was greeted with the line from another player that killed the whole game for me. “He’s going to time out and lose. This isn’t paper Magic.” Instantly lost all interest and stopped playing the game. Years later and now Spelltable is a thing so I prefer to play paper on there but I’ve never gone back to MtGO even once. It’s just not the same game.
Yeah, on Arena I seldomly have the feeling of playing against other persons. I mean, I know it’s other players, but during game their names are just as meaningless and forgettable to me as anything. In that sense the “gathering” aspect is totally lost in the anonymity of MTGA game play. Sorry, but to me it doesn’t matter who I play against. It’s just a name I want to win against, not a feeling, living individual. Perhaps indeed chat would change that. I doubt it would, though.
I agree with all the points you’ve made. I just never got into MTGO because of the monthly subscription fee. I ultimately prefer paper play and that’s where I choose to spend my money. As for magic arena, I’ve spent $0.00 on it and I can play it on my phone while still feeling like I’m playing magic.
I would love to do arena, but the two ‘sets’ and decks that had me even looking at MtG again and a friend of mine gifted me the precons in paper, from my research online are never coming to arena. 40K and Fallout in paper renewed my interest, but since I can’t play with those in arena, since they’re Commander and arena doesn’t do that, they’re not going to show up. TBH the horrendous UI design and the focus on trading with MTGO turned me off of that too. I don’t want to dump that amount of price in a digital format on one deck.
Thank you for making this article. I have long since stopped playing Arena because of these 10 reasons and a few more, but I do have to say that Arena does one thing better than MODO and that’s to: Welcome and Teach New Players How To Play MtG. I recommend that players start with Arena, then after a couple weeks, they can graduate to Paper and or MODO.
I’ve spent so much money to play standard on MTGO with so little return. You mentioned you can get even 60% of your value back, but honestly, I’ve never hit that amount. I was usually lucky to get 40 or 30% once rotation comes around. Compared to playing standard on Arena, I’ve payed literally nothing, therefore getting 100% of my value back! Yes, when you create your account, you start with the basics. To that I equate it to starting a physical collection as a kid, with limited money. Eventually I built up enough of a collection, and get enough Gems to keep playing standard as new sets progress, all without paying any money. This is the reason I stopped doing standard on MTGO or on paper. Its not perfect, but it is free. And that means something
I never comment but I feel this must be said: Online > Arena by miles! You can search cards by keywords and by partial phrases on online, I do it all the time. As well as you can also auto tap mana as well by pressing/holding the “M” button while you click your lands. It’ll force them to produce their original color. My biggest gripe is that MTGO needs a major update because it takes 10 seconds for each action and that time is given back to you in game, but in real life it can take two hours to play a simple game that should have been 30-45 minutes. Also, I have to agree MTGO is amazing for tuning your decks, getting reps in and such. I play weekly with some friends IRL but I play test many many times through out the week on MTGO testing small changes and swaps to see how cards really play out and if they are a fit.
I think one of the topics that most stands out to me that wasn’t covered is Arena’s damaging push towards the “Best of 1” style of gameplay. This, along with the ranked ladder system on Arena in general, does far more harm to the integrity of our beloved game than we acknowledge. Sure, you can set up matches on MTGO that play out as Bo1. After all certain formats such as Commander are much more inclined towards that sort of system. But the fact still remains that when talking about applicable, competitive matches such as with Leagues, Events, etc., Online provides a system that almost perfectly mirrors the structure of sanctioned competitive events for Magic: the Gatheting. I could probably ramble on for far too long with this, diving into every aspect of this subject, but sufficed to say, the Best of 1 gameplay system does not encourage good, thoughtful deckbuilding, or in fact even good, constructive meta developments and Arena’s strong push towards such a system irrevocably warps the mindset of it’s players in such a way that loses sight of the core philosophies of Magic: the Gathering as a whole. MTGO might not be perfect, it might not be flashy, but it stands as the unsung champion of what the best that Magic has to offer can look like.
I was so sad to see that the general chat rooms in MTGO disappeared. Back when I was playing regularly in like 2010, it felt like a thriving community, like WoW, to hop in and see all the discussions going on. Now the only chatting going on would be if you already have friends on MTGO, or during games.
1. I’ve been saying for a while MTGO is my preference, and you hit many of the nails on the head. 2. However, you implied that set redemption could become a thing for Arena. The only way that could possibly happen is if they charge an insane surcharge for sets because of the F2P model. At least $200 a set, or they risk annihilating the secondary market. 3. That said, I do wish they would charge full price and make sets like Modern Horizons II and Commander Legends redeemable for even a short amount of time.
IMO the only thing I dislike about Arena’s economy is that the battle pass doesn’t go infinite. As in, even if you max it out each season you still have to buy more gems (or do well in draft) to buy the next one I’d say on average it costs me about $10 every 3 months, which is 1000% better than how much it costs to play paper magic, so I really don’t mind.
On MTGA I can draft for free basically as much as I want. Which in turn lets me build more than enough constructed decks in both Standard and Historic. There are certainly problems to be pointed out with Arena, and I guess if you’re just into constructed AND want to have access to a big variety of decks it may be more expensive, but I think the criticism of MTGA often fails to weigh properly the HUGE advantage of being able to play Magic at exactly zero cost, which was never a possibility. I’m not a grinder either, I don’t play for hours every day, I’m not especially good at the game, I don’t see how my approach to the game wouldn’t be replicable by basically anyone who wants to go the free to play route. Sure, playing legacy would be cool, but come on, free drafts, like, are you kidding me? I still can’t believe I’m getting away with it.
tix rental programs is a great answer to the problem of mtgo singles costing like 100 tix each. It’s a great way to experiment with a lot of different brews and builds for relatively cheap. I think being able to participate in a modern league without needing to drop the cash for a modern deck is a great thing
MTGO always had that sense of seriousness to the game, chess like-thing and that’s what I loved for the years I played. MTG Arena is full of animations that add little to nothing, and getting the cards you need sometimes demands a lot of time. Since time equals money, I think in the end MTGO ends up being cheaper, especially with services that allow to rent cards
Arena being ftp is an advantage. Mostly lag free is an advantage. The ease of getting into and out of play is an advantage. The fact that at a given rarity all cards are equivalently priced is an advantage. The graphical system is an obvious advantage but just how big an advantage it is is hard to get across. MTGO looks like it was made on DOS or maybe Windows 98. Everything looks clunky and low quality. The movement of everything feels jerky and lag-y. It has a bunch of little boxes that can be pulled around which just isn’t necessary and looks bad. At best you could call it utilitarian but honestly it just looks bad compared to modern games in a way that is hard to get past particularly when it comes to adding new players. A ladder system is more intuitive and natural for new players who have lots of experience with that system. That said I think MTGO has some great qualities but even being an established MTG player I have zero interest in playing MTGO and still log in to Arena 2-5 times a week to clear the dailies for gold which usually gets me at least 50 packs per set free.
i hear you prof, but as a returning magic player, that last played about 8 years ago, im enjoying MTGA, i havent spent a cent on MTGA, and am happy with my progress and my experiences thus far. i saved enough gems and play enough drafts to have enough gems to open up the master class, sure the old good cards arent available, but slowly we getting them back, with some of the events and drafts. there is alot not right with MTGA, but it suits me, as i dont have the cash to start all over again and try keep up with the (what seems bi weekly )releases, Casual MTG player4life
Initially, I was a fan of arena because you “could” play completely free with the prospect of using time instead of money to unlock cards. That prospect, however, is just an illusion. You can’t unlock all the cards on the pure free to play model and trying to do so turns the game into a chore where you log on each day just to finish quests, earn wins, and jump through hoops for that ever elusive promise of free cards. Instead of playing for fun using cards and styles you find the most entertaining, you end up optimizing for coin efficiency and praying to the RNG gods that you’ll randomly get the cards you want to try out a fun deck before the next set releases and you have to spend all your saved up resources building the next deck that’s been optimized for coin grinding.
For me, it really comes down to the cost of the games. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve spent about $100 on Arena, but I’ve gotten hundreds, if not thousands, of cards from Ixalan all the way to the newest set. In Arena I can get a hundred or more cards from a new set without paying a penny, easy. MTGO doesn’t compare in terms of value per dollar for me. I like experimenting with shitty decks, which would cost me a pretty penny to do in either paper or MTGO.
I really agree with the prof, but one thing that I think Magic Arena simply destroys Magic online is in the free to play part . Of course you’ll spend a little time but it’s possible to easily be a free play in Magic arena something that is simply impossible in Magic online as the cards we get ”for free” don’t allow us to build a deck for any of the formats, you will need the paid version for trades and to earn tickets that you can exchange for cards on specialized sites you will need to spend money. I would really like them to improve Magic Online and support it a lot more.
3 is a huge part of what killed Arena for me beyond the predatory economy. I know people will abuse and be dicks in online chats, but I’ve had some reasonably fun interactions via emotes on arena and then… No way to further talk to that person, become actual friends, discuss what we like about each others decks. We’re just limited to going ‘Nice!’ every time one of did something neat.
I’m kinda starting out again after I played a little bit in my Uni time. I got recommendation to play Arena by my local card dealer. But I do get the feeling that people just play the same decks over and over…and I really miss talking to my playmates. Also it feels like the shuffle of the decks isn’t very good?
As a casual player, MTGA is perfect. I get to play around with the new sets without having to spend any money, and the feedback it gives from just playing regularly is easily enough to supply me with the cards I need. I’ve got paper magic to spend money on when I want to, digital will never be the same and I’d never want to spend the same level of money on it. Are there things I wish were different/more convenient? Yes, but if those are the ways Wizards gets others with more money than sense to spend enormous amounts of money on things that really aren’t worth it, and subsidize my perfect f2p experience, I’ll take it.
As others have said, being able to pay magic for free on arena and participate in a couple of drafts a week is fantastic. I love arena, and while I get that it isn’t as great for people who want to buy a deck and start playing constructed, it’s phenomenal for limited. Additionally, the ranking system makes it so that you don’t have to have a very good deck to start playing and have fun, even in constructed. I would love for some of the good stuff from online to be brought over to arena, but even if online got a full graphics update, I don’t know if I would switch over. Arena’s economy may seem predatory to you when you compare it to online, but it’s about a million times more free-to-play friendly than most free-to-play article games.
All 9 points were right one. But the Professor didn’t mention the most important difference: Arena can be 100% free to play! I’ve been on it about a year and I’ve only spent the $4.99 for the intro package deal but I didn’t even need to do that. You can lose 2 of 3 of the games you play and still earn free good daily and slowly build decks. The mythics and rares I have would cost $100s in paper and I didn’t spend a dime. Now you CAN spend hundreds a month but you can do that on any app style game. That’s the design. Be smarter and cheaper!
I like how Pokemon TCG has a built in economy that was never intended from the start. PTCG has two types of boosters, a locked booster you only got from the in game currency, and an unlocked booster you got from winning tournaments or redeeming the codes from actually booster packs. The only difference between the two was that you were unable to trade the cards you got from a locked booster. What PTCGO originally wanted you to do was trade cards from player to player. But you were able to trade boosters as well. So what people did was just use booster packs as a currency similar to how MTGO uses the tickets as currency. So new booster packs are worth more than booster packs from older sets. Because of this, the codes you got from Paper Boosters started to become worth money. The most ironic thing about PTCGO is that it has no microtransactions built in the game. Because of this, the game is pretty bare ones. So a basic program to play PTCG has a better economy than Arena that is filled with microtransactions.
Prof, for the first time I have to share my thoughts under one of your articles. I treat Arena as a free to play game, and currently I could build almost every deck in Historic. I don’t think I could do the same on MTGO with Legacy or Vintage lists. By me, that’s a huge point in favor of Arena. About WotC giving full paper sets to people who complete collections on Arena, a lot of people go infinite drafting and can complete all sets without spending a dime on the game. Why should WotC give them real, (sometimes) valuable cards literally for free? Anyways, thanks for the content! Always a fan!
I like Arena better for two simple reasons. 1 – The touch screen interface is perfect for just casually playing a pick up game. I can pick my tablet up off the coffee table and just play. 2 – Free to Play. Even as a free to play player, the game is complete. No, you’re not going to be netdecking, but that actually makes it fall into the spirit of the game as originally designed. When I first started this game you bought a starter deck and maybe a couple of boosters and you played with what you had. Over time your collection expanded and your decks while never competitive, got better, and having limited resources actually makes brewing decks more fun. Games with slapdash decks are varied and interesting.
Please help us very new players. Currently my adult attorney son is a very good mtg player although he insists he is average. But he admits he is possibly one of the best in our county. He is trying to teach me both using Arena and I’ve been going to Friday night draft. BUT I can sense his patience is running thin. As you’ve said, this is a COMPLEX game. Therefore, is there any ANY (don’t care if it costs $$ or not) training or tutor? Specifically, I’m looking for an application that would give me direct feedback on (for example) if the card I chose during a draft turn is crap or not, why, what are the better cards, and why. Also when I play, what mistakes I make, why, what would have been the better move and why. My son wants me to just jump in and I have. I understand I cannot learn it by studying it. BUT unless I get feedback on my playing, I’m just losing games and not learning anything. FWIW, I don’t think I’m a complete idiot as I’m a somewhat respected aerospace engineer for NASA. Just super want a tutor who I can practice with and that will give real time feedback so I can LEARN. Thanks ever! And BTW, I love your tutorials!
I have no problem creating decks in arena…i think that point is entirely a subjectivity/opinion thing. (for the record, i play magic on paper since 97, and i use the “not hearthstone mode in arena”…the one with the deck on the bottom) The replay thing is a need, i agree there…i want at least a text transcription.
New to the game and area being completely free seemed nice. It is also just what I came across on my Mobile phone. I always thought the game was pay to win even before mobile phones could handle more than snake; maybe not true, just an impression. at this point, arena is fun… and I think your two year old review could use a re-do. Yes, I could do the research myself, but I don’t think that I’d be able to parse one verse the other.
While I have many problems with a lot of ways Arena works, I think for someone who has never used either system, arena is much easier to get in to. Perhaps not in the economy sense of acquiring game pieces via wildcards (as opposed to being able to pay money for single cards you want), but as far as the UI and tutorialization of the game, Arena is much easier to use. Buying cards through bots on MTGO is still something I don’t really understand how to do and loading into the client, I am never sure how I even play a game or which lobby to be in. I know for people familiar with the interface, its not an issue, but as someone who has tried and failed to get into MTGO on multiple occassions I do appreciate the more pick up and play nature of arena’s UI. All that being said, I think its undeniable that MTGO is far and away the superior platform in regard to features. Thanks for making great articles prof!
So glad you talked about the economy in Arena. I hate hate hate it. Some people argue with me the F2P model is superior…I work over 40 hours a week, and don’t have time to grind like that, so in order for me to play competitive level decks that I’d be interested in I’d have to drop at least $500 per set and amass a collection of cards I straight up don’t want in order to play, which is absurd. At that point I might as well just spend `1/3rd of that on a deck in MTGO, in a better format no less. And since a lot of that cost is certain widely played staples and land cards, each deck after that becomes considerably cheaper.
You technically can exceed the 75 deck limit on arena but only if you allready have the full 75 decks in your account, when standard rotation happens your account will be injected with 15 or so new new player experience decks and in my case it didn’t care that i already had 75 decks still gave me the NPE decks my deck folder now showing 90/75 at the top of the screen, you can then go into the edit the NPE decks how ever you want, i think it’s a bug/exploit but hey it works
I think there should be a “chat?” emote and if both players click it it should allow chat for the next 10 seconds. This will help if they get all salty but if its pleasant a second use of the emote should open up chat for the remainder of the game. I miss talking to people at this rate its like we’re all playing against AI
Inspired by this article, I decided to log into my mtgo account for the first time in 4+ years, instead of drafting on arena. Well, I went to trade rares for tix to enter a draft and I wasn’t allowed to because my account is “restricted”. So, that was a bummer. Have a ticket in to support. Hopefully resolves itself soon.
For someone playing mostly MTGO for my magic needs, I’m in phase with what you told here. Some things I’d love to see on mtgo tough – Better commander card economy. Stop putting them in treasure chest only so that good commander card don’t cost 30+ tix. Release commander deck so we can buy it. – Implement the rest of the cards that aren’t into magic yet. Old set (few cards missing) and missing commander card (mairsil please) – Better interface, and mostly better memory handling for long game would be a good improvement. If two player are playing token, you know the game will crash at a moment – Better handling of toxic behavior / rule 0 talk. Right now people are leaving table at the first counter in commander, or asking for low tier deck while playing tergrid themselve. The block list is a good addition, but it don’t stop bad behavior And most and foremost… Implement cube building. Let people create their cube and launch a 8 player lobby for cube playing. The weekly cube event are great, and seeing some comunauty cube is excellent, but as a deckbuilder lover I’d love to share my cubes and play them online. That in itself would exceed any graphic improvement
In my opinion the best benefit of MTG Arena is, that it is available on all Plattforms (Android, IPhone, IPad, Windows, Mac, etc etc.) and this means no matter which device my Friends have, we can play together. And also can you take your PC with you to an Airport Trainstation or wherever else? Definitive not as easy as your phone which you carry around all day. Also you can chat with your friends via the Friendslist. Or just use a discord server or any similar system to talk with each other. And if MTG Arena will get some updates regarding the Functions such as Multiplayer etc. It’s far more advanced and can have a far higher player base. But also due to this Availability I guess it’s harder to make those updates. You always have to code it for multiple different systems and not just one like MTG online. I do agree with Some functions, which are missing like trading etc. We can just hope they implement the online version into Arena. So be Patient and one day MTG Arena may surpass MTG Online. And then If you already have the cards in MTG Arena is better than online. I do hope, that somehow I can buy my paper cards and then transfer them into MTG ARENA, that way it be perfect.
Arena is good if you aren’t planning on spending money on the game(except to draft) but the problem is if you do want to spend money on the game in order to build a deck, you have to buy packs and rely on randomness to get the cards you want because you can’t buy singles. However, MTG online I’m pretty sure you can buy singles which makes deck building a lot better
As a free to play arena player i like the way i can buy cards with wild cards. It motivates me much more that i can also play the strongest cards without a high payin. But this is only true, as long as i see the game as a free 2 play player. When i actually want to spend money i get shocked. The gem prices are so fucked up. I love magic and i would spend money on a digital game, but not when the prices are so fucked up for digital stuff. Its so expensive i rather buy real magic cards. And this is wrong for a digital game
On your TOP 3 I don’t agree with 2 point : – The conection with other people : That a point that I don’t really care online I’m the kind of people that juste will play game fore pure gameplay and be particulary asocial – The economie : I have alway prefer that aspect on article game TCG, I’m not fan of trading so the gestion of collection acquisition in MTGA is something I like (that simplify my player live compare to trading). And I don’t know the prise to play MTG Online but if online card may be trade for paper’s one that should cost to play as that cost to play on table. (corect me if I’m wrong) The combinaison of that to factor make me think a adventage of MTGA is to NOT be like MTG tabletop. That change (or denaturating) the experiance mainly, so after that have can’t match with the will of everyone. A point that I’m agree with and think that should be in the top3 is formats and multiplay (for some format) and for me that one of the main probleme to play MTGA, that major lost for the gameplay.
The 1 thing that keeps me on Arena over Online is the dailys, the ability to earn gems and coins in-game. I used to spend the 10$ a week every week to draft and I did not play anything else. I know 10$ a week might not seem like much but after a month you have basically spent as much as a AAA game. Now i just play a few games everyday to grind my dailys and can then play my drafts when I have enough coins. So it’s basically free to play. I think I would swap to Online in an instance though if they were to implement a way to earn tickets through, just by playing games .
The reason I don’t think they would allow the feature to swap cards is because they’d have to have a way to avoid players like me, who play exclusively for free on arena, from effectively getting free card sets which I don’t mind. Notably that’s the reason I do play arena regularly, I can play for free daily on the way to work during lunch etc. Still prefer paper of course but I’m OK with arena
I buy paper product in addition to the electronic product, so that I can participate in the Arena and electronic LGS FNM events etc. One of the plus one stats for arena is that when you buy a pre-release, it translates to six packs on mtga, even if it is just 6x 8card packs. That is value added. If i never spent a cent on gems, keeping up with pre-release, and playing smart in ranked can mean a decent collection of cards in arena. I must confess however, that value is only added if you are already playing paper. Arena is cool about rares as well. As soon as I have 4x of a rare or mythic, i can use it as a playset accross all 75 decks (lol) in arena. If I had to craft 8x baleful mastery to play rakdos and mono-black, Id be pissed, but then again, my arena collection isnt worth squat, no matter how complete. Ive already said it below, and Ill say it again here: Arena and MTGO should have always been the same product. Now we have a rift of the paper players coming back, split between the standard/arena/brawl players and the MTGO players which have been exposed to pretty much all organized form of the game they are interested in. Is there some buzzword gotya coming where I get some black border tron lands with my oculus rift, and MH3 spongebob: squidward’s revenge is QR code only, forcing me to scan in each card from set collector triple vip boosters. Professor. I am upset and I apologize for the disruption, and I will report to set booster detention. Please dont call the dean.
Playing Multiplayer magic on the PS3 was, quite possibly, the most fun I’ve ever had playing magic. Met a bunch of good people through that. I was never a huge fan of multiplayer magic but that was realy fun! The client had several qualities too, it was surprisingly well balanced, had a respectable variety of cards and a surprisingly good deck builder. In my opinion that is what Arena should have been and I guarantee I would be playing on there still if that was the case. As it stands, I can’t do it. In fact, I hate it and most everything about it. As The Professor said, and i couldn’t have put it better, Arena is “Aggressively annoying”.
I love the fact that it’s possible to play arena as a 100% F2P player. It does take a lot of grinding, but it is doable. If they made Arena cards redeemable for paper, they would probably end the F2P aspects of Arena at the same time. That said, they could easily let you loan cards to friends, or even trade them for gold, while still keeping the F2P elements.
It would be clear that you’re an academic even if you didn’t call yourself “The Professor”. Your articles are clearly written in a way that resembles an essay. There’s always an intro that hooks the watcher’s attention which is followed by a thesis statement. Then there are clear body sections and a conclusion at the end. I dig it.
Arena for some reason sends emails like bank statements telling you how much gold you earned, how many packs you opened, etc. Aside from binging on days off, i would just login and smash out a few wins or do a quest and it told me i still engaged more than like 80% of players. Arena exploded and brought millions of people into it but its not retaining them.
I’ll have to give this point for Arena in that if I want to play I can for a 0.00 investment, as I have. I have played arena without spending any money on it and had the experience of playing top-tier standard decks. I know I had to grind out some coins and wildcards, but the option of playing for free defiantly wins some points from me. Though I do understand the gotcha game mechanics and shortcomings of the economy of the game.
I used to actively play casual formats on MTGO, one of my favorites being 2HG (it was so much fun!). Until WotC removed it saying they didn’t want to spend money and time maintaining “rarely-played” casual formats (which didn’t produce $$ of course), but instead they will focus their resources on improving the more competitive and popular formats (the ones that bring $$). It killed all my desires to play MTGO again. I still play Commander very rarely to scratch that MTG itch, but I no longer play with the same motivation until those formats are back (if ever).
lots of people have said it already: a client with the best of both worlds would be so amazing, and it’s mind boggling why WotC doesn’t appear to be trying to bring them together. MTGO with a robust visual client would make so much money, I’m certain they’d get a great return on their investment to build such a thing.
The fact that you cant buy cards or wildcards with gold coins, or recycle the cards you dont want is a bit rude. But honestly, as someone who got into Magic because of Arena, I have to say it is great for beginners. It explained me everything with ease and gave me enough tutorials and explanations, that after a day of fighting the AI I was ready. I have now been playing Arena for a week and I have done nothing but playing my Dinosaur Deck to stomp over my opponents and find new ways to improve my Deck
I’ve tried to play magic online a few times and just lose over and over to not understanding the interface or the system of controls and passing priority and such. Maybe I’m an idiot but it feels unplayable to me… I agree with the premise but arena is just such a massive upgrade of playability that I don’t see a point to try and put the time in to master magic online. Definitely wish there were cube drafts though!
1. Arena is FREE… for me i know this isnt true for everyone but dam its fucking rad being able to just draft whenever i want for FREE!!! (i do well in draft and make more gems and gold than i can use.) 2. Arena can be taliored to fit my needs. As in i can play a medium length brawl game or draft and play limited for hours or play a quick match on my phone on the bus…..let me say that again i can play mtg on the bus. Yes im a mtg addict and im not ashamed. 3. Arena is very accesible to new players. I can give mates a couple of free paper starter decks, teach thm the basics and then say “hey you should get Arena it will help you learn more.” All the free boosters make a deece collection for newbies.(if you dont know about the Arena codes for free boosties then your welcome.) 4. It looks SEXY.
Ngl, this is a pretty strong case on why Online is better in many ways to Arena, but there are 2 main reasons (in addition to user interface and cross platform play) why I play Arena and have never even touched Online: 1) Arena is available on mobile. Undoubtedly related to cross platform play, this really is a separate point going in Arena’s favor. Even if you couldn’t play with people on PC while you are on mobile, the fact that you’re able to play on mobile at all is a huge deal imo. I can get a quick game in while on the train, or just lounging around in my apartment. I don’t need to be at my desk to play on my PC, or even worry about WiFi connections while on my laptop at Starbucks (thanks T-Mobile). I waited so long to be able to play Magic on my iPhone. I was tempted so many times to play these other TCGs that constantly threw ads in my face, but every time I tried it out, I just wish I was playing Magic instead and deleted the app shortly thereafter. Playing Arena on mobile, while not the best way to play Magic overall, really is the only way to play Magic on the go. 2) Arena’s intuitive user experience and tutorial. Probably the biggest reason why I haven’t touched Online is because it’s the client in general is so archaic and unintuitive, that I find trying to get into it pretty intimidating. This point might be a little too closely related to UI, but honestly, whenever I see screenshots of Online, I have no idea what I’m looking at half the time. Setting up Arena was so easy, and if you never played before, it even had a tutorial system (and while not the best in the world, it’s certainly better than nothing).
THANK YOU for making this article (even though I just noticed it now and it doesn’t look like wotc/hasboro has done much to address things since then). I think this is one of the most important articles you’ve ever done during your tenure here TCC..er YouTube. I’m not going to really add anything to what you said in this article, although I could probably vent for hours on this particular subject… What you said, while not an exhaustive (by any means) list of pros/cons between the 2 platforms, is enough for anyone who may not have been aware of the differences (or even aware of MTGO at all). It SHOULD be enough to get the attention of Hasboro/Wotc, but unfortunately I have little hope for that anymore. My faith in wotc, while once great long ago, has now all but disappeared. The way they have been treating the paper game, as well as how they’re running Arena and trying to push for everything to be all about Arena, almost makes me legitimately feel this is some sort of “exit strategy” (in terms of the paper game) in order to just cash out as fast as they can before they give it the axe. Sad times.
I actually can not play MTGO due to no internet at my house (yes very rural). I can only play Arena through its Beta phone app. I would love to try MTGO because the problems you address with Arena, I couldn’t agree more. A chat option would be so beneficial and add so much to the game. Though the beta app and actual PC gaming is a totally different discussion.
Arena is like a Lamborghini. It’s fast sleek, pretty, and expensive. MTGO is like a used Winnebago. It has everything you need, kinda slow, people yell at you to get out of the way, and it doesn’t fit in some parking spots (mobile app). I was an Arena hater. It just takes my money faster, to play drafts faster, so I can go broke faster, and rage quit faster
as someone who invested a lot in MTGO drafts and modern, i think arena does have for it the ability to be completely F2P. but i miss being able to actually do something with all the cards i draft on arena. i just draft, i dont play standard or historic, so i have tons of wild cards and no reason to do anything with them.
“Arena only allows for 75 decks” Holy shit. Master Duel only allows 20, Hearthstone only allowed 9 for the first few years and then only doubled it (don’t know where it’s at now). In YGO Link Evolution I’ve always complained that 32 decks wasn’t enough, but I’ve seen so many people say “there’s only ever a few meta decks at a time, why do you care?”
For me the big draw of arena is its free. In the hypothetical example of the $100 card that I sell later for $60…yes that’s nice to recoup some money but I still spend $40. I’ve never spent any money on arena and the daily quests get me plenty of WC to play most of the decks I like. It’s not perfect but (for me) arena is a fun free way to play magic that doesn’t come with the baggage of having real value and cost the way paper and MTGO does. I don’t want to set up rental fees or try to invest enough to “go infinite”, I just want to play a few games a day and slowly acquire cards I like. I don’t need to cash out because I’ve only put time in and that time is usually (though not always) fun and well-spent. Not saying wotc isn’t stingy with arena, just that I like the FTP model more than directly analogous paper model.
I once got a huge collection on mtgo but need to sell it at one point. First thought about selling it by my self, but its almost impossible. Unless you got realy high value cards and you and the buyer Split the share bots will take as a middleman. And thats what i think sucks the most, there are so many bots, yes even the once who give you free stuff, where you even can find good pauper cards, but the most bots just rip you off. And when you like to sell ur complete collection there are only a handfull of onlineshops where you can do so. Its a pain in the ass. But still i totally agree its still a head to arena. Now i returned to mtg ones again i dont got the time to play in real life right now, and i realy chose arena this time. Smaller card pool, im not a vintage player anyway, i would like to play modern but ok its not there right now. And the fact that i could go infinite on arena in limited is a huge plus. The players on mtgo are way tougher . And you need to do drafting and 3 rounds of best of 3 in one sitting is a minus for me today. So i draft maybe build the deck an comeback after dinner play the first match, and when i lose one unlucky?i i just can take a brake and cool down. Its not all that bad on arena
I think that Arena and Online are designed to cater to different Magic players. Arena to players who don’t want to invest a lot of money and want more of a casual experience. Online to people who want more out of Magic and are willing to invest more. Personally, I enjoyed my time with Arena more. I couldn’t get used to the Online interface and didn’t want to sit for hours in front of a screen to play one event.
While it’s one of the most painful experiences I’ve ever been through, I sold all my expensive MTGO cards after the death of a loved one. Unfortunately, many of those cards were gifts from the deceased. (They did tell me to sell them if I ran out of money, and they knew things were tight, so it may have been intentional). That all said, I quite literally paid my car loan for 5 months and my rent for 7 months after unemployment ran out, all from the cash I got from MTGO. I took a bit of time selling the cards at their prevailing market rate, but otherwise it was pretty quick liquidation. I doubt many Arena players can say they put in $750 and took out $7500. I did (this was 8+ years ago, before or just after redemption changes were in effect, so cards were worth a bit more I think). Great article! I met my special someone on MTGO, which led to this sad/happy yet poignant story. MTGA could never deliver the ups and downs of a story like this. It’s too caught up in your wallet to capture the heart and mind. MTGO does that, just like tabletop did. I live in a small town and MTGO was the first time I truly got to experience real magic with real people (MODO beta was the true first time, but I didn’t return until much later). Thanks again my friend. Mem’ries. Time to sell some stock and buy some cards instead.
I’m a paper-only player but I love to watch Reid Duke’s MTGO gameplay. As a spectator, it’s so much easier for me to see what’s going on with MTGO than it is with MTGA, so much so that I will not watch MTGA gameplay. Maybe it’s because I don’t actually play it myself, but I have no idea why MTGO’s graphics and interface are considered bad.
The main reason I’m playing Arena and not Online is because Arena lets me play without having to spend real life money on it. I haven’t yet, but I will admit that I probably would spend real life money on it if it were some sort of unholy Arena/Online hybrid. But being able to play for free and able to earn cards simply by playing without having to pump real world money into it is very important to me.
No amount of shiny interface can make up for the hollow experience Arena’s given me before I uninstalled it. My entry into Magic was the good ‘ole ‘everything goes’ with a bunch of friends. There are no stores in my area. No events I can go to. Standard is something other people play. So obviously I ended up a Commander player. I only care about the social multiplayer game experience. Arena has nothing to offer me, and a year ago that made me mildly frustrated. Now I don’t really care because Wizards has zero desire to sell Arena to me.