Hi,
I've played actively when Ravnica was in Standard. I quit same time when Time Spiral phased out. Now I'm thinking about starting again. I played the paper version not MTGO. But now there's a lot more different versions. It gets me quite confused. What's the thing with MTGO and Arena? Arena is just a "free" new version of online play? It really tempts me as playing in stores is quite limited and unsure atm. But does Arena have everything or is it somehow limited with cards, different cards etc.
Hi,
I've played actively when Ravnica was in Standard. I quit same time when Time Spiral phased out. Now I'm thinking about starting again. I played the paper version not MTGO. But now there's a lot more different versions. It gets me quite confused. What's the thing with MTGO and Arena? Arena is just a "free" new version of online play? It really tempts me as playing in stores is quite limited and unsure atm. But does Arena have everything or is it somehow limited with cards, different cards etc.
I will let others go into greater detail. Here is the basic answer.
Arena only supports a select few formats, Standard and Historic namely. And it has a limited card pool as well that you cannot directly purchase cards like on MTGO. Arena also now has a format (Alchemy) that has alternate versions of certain cards that play differently than the original versions and extra cards that are not found in paper or on MTGO. Arena is free for a reason, its a facsimile of Magic the Gathering. Its popular but shallow in my humble opinion. MTGO has most all formats available and is as close to paper Magic as you can get. Hope that helps and again I will let others go into greater detail.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
The constructed formats in Arena are Standard, Alchemy, Historic, and Brawl. It's possible to draft the newest set, or draft a set in Standard, the later changes every two weeks. The cards range from Ixalan to the present with Khaldesh Remastered and Amonkhet Remastered added to the mix. Plus a few digital only cards, that are legal only in Alchemy and Historic. Some cards will be rebalanced every month for Alchemy, and those rebalanced versions will also be the versions played in Historic.
Biggest problem is aquiring a collection, at least if you don't want to spend real cash and instead play for free. There are rewards for the first 15 victories each day, a total of 750 gold and 6 random uncommon (sometimes rare) cards in Standard. You also get a daily quest for usually 500 gold and 500 experience. In about 1/3 of cases you get a 750 gold and 500 exp quest instead. You can gamble on getting one of those by rerolling (possible once per day). The quests are simple things like playing a number of spells of certain colors, playing a number of lands, attacking with a number of creatures, or destroying a number of opposing creatures. They tick up according to your games until they are finished, they are not limited to one game. You can have three active quests at the same time, so you don't have to complete them on that day. Experience gives you progress on the set mastery, which gives you boosters and, if you have the mastery pass, a number of other stuff, like more boosters, gems, cosmetics, etc. There is also the weekly quest in addition, which is just getting 15 victories during the week, each victory gives you 250 exp.
If you want to get specific cards, you have to cash in wildcards. Those you get in boosters, and for every 6 boosters you open you get an uncommon wildcard and a rare wildcard (shifted by 3 boosters, so every 3 boosters opended gets you a wildcard). Every fourth (I think) rare wildcard is a mythic wildcard. You can also get a bunch of wildcards by filling up the vault, which gives you 3 uncommon, 2 rare, and a mythic wildcard. But that is going to be veeeery slow going in the beginning, because the vault fills by only 0.3% for any uncommon you get if you already have 4 of that, and 0.1% for every common you have a set of already. Reaching 100% takes time.
Considering that you get a total of 1250 gold max each day (plus maybe 500 gold if you clear a bigger quest) and a booster costs 1000 gold, you will have to play a lot to get a collection going. But you can take advantage of everything Arena offers, like the quest reroll, the daily store offers, playing on the ladder (play even a single game on the constructed ladder each month, win or lose, and you get a free booster at the end of the month, rank up higher and you get more stuff). Play a Draft each month to get on the Limited ladder as well. Play the free Midweek Magic event each week, to get more random rares (if you manage to win some games). It features a wider variety of formats, like Pauper, or gives you prebuilt decks to play with against other such decks, etc. The Jump-In event gives you twice the value of a booster for the same price, with more control over what you are getting. So you don't have to build your deck, and you get to play much more evenly matched games. Plus you can leave and restart the event as many times as you want and can afford.
The big problem I have with Arena, though, is that people are copying decks from the mythic rank and video content creators like crazy, and then field those juggernauts in the Casual queue. Creative but whacky decks hardly stand a chance. If cutthroat competition is not your thing, Arena may not be the platform for you.
MTGO has a nominal fee, but they give you some free cards and some free draft tickets if I recall correctly. You can start with commander or casual and can build a budget deck for a few dollars.
I recommend getting cards from mtgotraders who ive used in the past
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pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
The split nature of Digital and Paper when it comes to Magic: The Gathering is ALWAYS going to be a really big unavoidable issue with the game in general. Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro are releasing new MTG products in a way that's pressuring players where they spend their money whether it be in Paper that actually provides an In-Person Social Experience at least under normal circumstances or the accessible but remote Digital experience with Arena / MTGO. Obviously Paper wins because that's how you get "The Gathering" from Magic: The Gathering.
Bottom line is that Arena sucks for players who also play Paper Magic, no one should have to pay Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro double or triple for the amount of cards they purchase whether If it's Paper or Digital. There's absolutely no reason why buying a Paper release of a product can't translate to Virtual products on Arena or even on MTGO. For one it would help keep Paper Magic and Local Game Stores (LGSs) going aside from EDH / Commander playgroups which is at risk post-pandemic while also bringing more players in the Arena ecosystem.
MTG players shouldn't have to be obligated to choose between Paper or Digital Magic. You're much better off with your physical cards because at the end of the day you don't really own anything on Arena or MTGO. Say you're someone that Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro deems toxic to the MTG community for whatever reason then you can forget about getting any refunds for what you purchased online since you're banned. The problem with Arena right now is that Standard isn't fun because it's too much of a grindfest kinda like with JRPG's and RPG's in general.
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America Bless Christ Jesus
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Arena is the newer online client. You can play standard and historic on Arena. Standard works the same as it did when you would have played, rotates in the fall with 2 years worth of cards in its full form. Historic is Arena's "eternal"/non rotating format. Basically the way it works, due to Arena being a pretty new client and not having much of a card pool, it consists of the standard sets that have existed since it was released, as well as a few "Jumpstart" sets, a few anthologies and a few remastered versions of old sets. The anthologies are where they handpicked a small set of cards each time and put them in arena, I believe there are 5? now. Jumpstart sets are larger and are sets you can draft. I believe the only remastered sets right now are Kaladesh remastered and Amonkhet remastered, where they condensed those blocks into 1 set.
MTGO is mainly played for modern right now, which is 8th edition forward. Pioneer is another non rotating format, Return to Ravnica forward. Pioneer is a relatively new format, introduced not long before the pandemic. It was pretty dead for a while due to the pandemic and the way WotC handled the ban lists but it's picking up again. There are also rental services you can use but modern decks post MH2 are pretty expensive.
For paper, commander/edh is a pretty popular format that is mostly casual but can be fun depending if you can find a group that matches the power level you wanna play at. Depending on current covid restrictions in your area, many places are back to running fnm, which can pretty much be of any format now. There are also products that can help you get started with however you choose to play
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I've played actively when Ravnica was in Standard. I quit same time when Time Spiral phased out. Now I'm thinking about starting again. I played the paper version not MTGO. But now there's a lot more different versions. It gets me quite confused. What's the thing with MTGO and Arena? Arena is just a "free" new version of online play? It really tempts me as playing in stores is quite limited and unsure atm. But does Arena have everything or is it somehow limited with cards, different cards etc.
I will let others go into greater detail. Here is the basic answer.
Arena only supports a select few formats, Standard and Historic namely. And it has a limited card pool as well that you cannot directly purchase cards like on MTGO. Arena also now has a format (Alchemy) that has alternate versions of certain cards that play differently than the original versions and extra cards that are not found in paper or on MTGO. Arena is free for a reason, its a facsimile of Magic the Gathering. Its popular but shallow in my humble opinion. MTGO has most all formats available and is as close to paper Magic as you can get. Hope that helps and again I will let others go into greater detail.
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Biggest problem is aquiring a collection, at least if you don't want to spend real cash and instead play for free. There are rewards for the first 15 victories each day, a total of 750 gold and 6 random uncommon (sometimes rare) cards in Standard. You also get a daily quest for usually 500 gold and 500 experience. In about 1/3 of cases you get a 750 gold and 500 exp quest instead. You can gamble on getting one of those by rerolling (possible once per day). The quests are simple things like playing a number of spells of certain colors, playing a number of lands, attacking with a number of creatures, or destroying a number of opposing creatures. They tick up according to your games until they are finished, they are not limited to one game. You can have three active quests at the same time, so you don't have to complete them on that day. Experience gives you progress on the set mastery, which gives you boosters and, if you have the mastery pass, a number of other stuff, like more boosters, gems, cosmetics, etc. There is also the weekly quest in addition, which is just getting 15 victories during the week, each victory gives you 250 exp.
If you want to get specific cards, you have to cash in wildcards. Those you get in boosters, and for every 6 boosters you open you get an uncommon wildcard and a rare wildcard (shifted by 3 boosters, so every 3 boosters opended gets you a wildcard). Every fourth (I think) rare wildcard is a mythic wildcard. You can also get a bunch of wildcards by filling up the vault, which gives you 3 uncommon, 2 rare, and a mythic wildcard. But that is going to be veeeery slow going in the beginning, because the vault fills by only 0.3% for any uncommon you get if you already have 4 of that, and 0.1% for every common you have a set of already. Reaching 100% takes time.
Considering that you get a total of 1250 gold max each day (plus maybe 500 gold if you clear a bigger quest) and a booster costs 1000 gold, you will have to play a lot to get a collection going. But you can take advantage of everything Arena offers, like the quest reroll, the daily store offers, playing on the ladder (play even a single game on the constructed ladder each month, win or lose, and you get a free booster at the end of the month, rank up higher and you get more stuff). Play a Draft each month to get on the Limited ladder as well. Play the free Midweek Magic event each week, to get more random rares (if you manage to win some games). It features a wider variety of formats, like Pauper, or gives you prebuilt decks to play with against other such decks, etc. The Jump-In event gives you twice the value of a booster for the same price, with more control over what you are getting. So you don't have to build your deck, and you get to play much more evenly matched games. Plus you can leave and restart the event as many times as you want and can afford.
The big problem I have with Arena, though, is that people are copying decks from the mythic rank and video content creators like crazy, and then field those juggernauts in the Casual queue. Creative but whacky decks hardly stand a chance. If cutthroat competition is not your thing, Arena may not be the platform for you.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
It seems that MTGA is not what I'm looking for. So I have to choose between MTGO and traditional cards.
I recommend getting cards from mtgotraders who ive used in the past
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
Bottom line is that Arena sucks for players who also play Paper Magic, no one should have to pay Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro double or triple for the amount of cards they purchase whether If it's Paper or Digital. There's absolutely no reason why buying a Paper release of a product can't translate to Virtual products on Arena or even on MTGO. For one it would help keep Paper Magic and Local Game Stores (LGSs) going aside from EDH / Commander playgroups which is at risk post-pandemic while also bringing more players in the Arena ecosystem.
MTG players shouldn't have to be obligated to choose between Paper or Digital Magic. You're much better off with your physical cards because at the end of the day you don't really own anything on Arena or MTGO. Say you're someone that Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro deems toxic to the MTG community for whatever reason then you can forget about getting any refunds for what you purchased online since you're banned. The problem with Arena right now is that Standard isn't fun because it's too much of a grindfest kinda like with JRPG's and RPG's in general.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
MTGO is mainly played for modern right now, which is 8th edition forward. Pioneer is another non rotating format, Return to Ravnica forward. Pioneer is a relatively new format, introduced not long before the pandemic. It was pretty dead for a while due to the pandemic and the way WotC handled the ban lists but it's picking up again. There are also rental services you can use but modern decks post MH2 are pretty expensive.
For paper, commander/edh is a pretty popular format that is mostly casual but can be fun depending if you can find a group that matches the power level you wanna play at. Depending on current covid restrictions in your area, many places are back to running fnm, which can pretty much be of any format now. There are also products that can help you get started with however you choose to play