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Magic: The Gathering Arena, also called MTG Arena, Magic Arena, and MTGA, is a digital Magic game, created under the umbrella of Magic Digital Next by the Digital Games Studio. Though it is stated that is it not considered to be the successor of Magic Duels,[1] it fills the same product space. The game exists independently from Magic Online. It is currently under open beta development. The closed beta kickoff happened on December 4, 2017.

History

Unlock booster codes

Guilds of Ravnica MTG Arena promotion

First mentioned on August 3, 2017,[2] its reveal was on September 7, 2017.[3] The sound effects, colors, and overall design of the battlefield are similar to the competing Hearthstone video game. MTG Arena would be available to download with no fee and is a free-to-play game. Players looking to enhance their game experience will have the opportunity to do so through play rewards and in-game purchases, but purchases are not required to access the full depth of authentic Magic gameplay.

Unlike Magic Online, MTG Arena will only focus on the newest cards and game modes. It will feature the full card sets in Standard, with around 1,000 new cards added every year. Wizards of the Coast is exploring opportunities to connect real-world in-store play with digital play—for instance, giving rewards in MTG Arena for attending a Prerelease.[4]

Changelog

Date Added sets Other notable changes
2017-09-07[5] Alpha version revealed.
2017-12-04[6][7] Start of Closed Beta.
2018-01-18 Economy changed and collections wiped.
2018-03-22 NDA lifted. Economy changed and collections wiped. New starter decks.
2018-04-26 Economy changed. Paid economy and Events added.
2018-06-07[8] Standard banlist introduced. Economy changed. More Events types added.
2018-07-12 Tutorial games added. Economy changed.
2018-09-27[9] Start of Open Beta. Collections wiped. Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, and Hour of Devastation removed.
2018-11-15[10] Implemented "Direct Challenge" feature in preparation for other social features (friendslist).
2018-12-13[11] New ranking system. Seasonal rewards for constructed and limited rank.

Play Modes

Free Play

Magic- The Gathering Arena icons

Battlefield Keyword icons

Play

Free-to-Play mode. Best-of-1 matches.

Players start at Beginner rank and advance from Bronze to Diamond (each containing four Tiers) and end at Mystic. Mulligans appear the same as usual, except "the system draws an opening hand from each of two separately randomized copies of the decks, and leans towards giving the player the hand with the mix of spells and lands (without regard for color) closest to average for that deck".[12]

Traditional Play

Free-to-Play mode. Best-of-3 matches with sideboarding.

Ranked

Constructed rank

Constructed Rank seasonal rewards

Free-to-Play mode. Best-of-1 matches.

Match results affect Constructed Rank.

Events

Events are competitive formats with an entry fee in Gold and some exclusives to Gems. These formats end after an amount of wins or losses with a reward based on results.

Constructed Event

Entry fee: 500 Gold or 95 Gems. Best-of-1 matches; run ends after seven wins or three losses. Match results affect Constructed Rank.

Rewards based on total wins are:

  • 0 wins — 100 Gold and 3 Uncommon+ cards
  • 1 win   — 200 Gold and 3 Uncommon+ cards
  • 2 wins — 300 Gold and 3 Uncommon+ cards
  • 3 wins — 400 Gold and 3 Uncommon+ cards
  • 4 wins — 500 Gold, 2 Uncommon+ and 1 Rare+ cards
  • 5 wins — 600 Gold, 2 Uncommon+ and 1 Rare+ cards
  • 6 wins — 800 Gold, 1 Uncommon+ and 2 Rare+ cards
  • 7 wins — 1,000 Gold, 1 Uncommon+ and 2 Rare+ cards

Traditional Constructed

Entry fee: 1,000 Gold or 190 Gems. Best-of-3 matches with sideboarding; run ends after five wins or two losses. Match results affect Constructed Rank.

Rewards based on total wins are:

  • 0 wins — 3 Uncommon+ cards
  • 1 win   — 500 Gold, 2 Uncommon+ and 1 Rare+ cards
  • 2 wins — 1,000 Gold, 2 Uncommon+ and 1 Rare+ cards
  • 3 wins — 1,500 Gold, 1 Uncommon+ and 2 Rare+ cards
  • 4 wins — 1,700 Gold, 1 Uncommon+ and 2 Rare+ cards
  • 5 wins — 2,100 Gold and 3 Rare+ cards

Draft

Limited rank

Limited Rank seasonal rewards

Entry fee: 5,000 Gold or 750 Gems. Best-of-1 matches; run ends after seven wins or three losses. Events sometimes rotate back to previous draft formats. Match results affect Limited Rank.

Players make a 40+ cards deck made with 3 Draft-Packs with 15 rounds of picking for each (15 choices to 1), all drafted cards are kept. Deck construction and drafting times aren't limited, and players draft vs. AI opponents with picks derived from MTGO data. When sign-up time is over, there's an additional 2 hours time to finish matches. After draft match window closes players get rewards according to their win record.[13] Draft has its own rank system. Match results affect Limited Rank.

Rewards based on total wins are:

  • 0 wins — 50 Gems and 1 Pack (20% chance of 2 instead)
  • 1 win   — 100 Gems and 1 Pack (22% chance of 2 instead)
  • 2 wins — 200 Gems and 1 Pack (24% chance of 2 instead)
  • 3 wins — 300 Gems and 1 Pack (26% chance of 2 instead)
  • 4 wins — 450 Gems and 1 Pack (30% chance of 2 instead)
  • 5 wins — 650 Gems and 1 Pack (35% chance of 2 instead)
  • 6 wins — 850 Gems and 1 Pack (40% chance of 2 instead)
  • 7 wins — 950 Gems and 2 Packs

A similar game mode in Magic Online is called Friendly Single-Game Draft League.

Traditional Draft

Entry fee: 1,500 Gems. Best-of-3 matches with sideboarding; run ends after five wins or two losses. Format changes less often than the Draft and is typically the most recent expansion on sale. Match results affect Limited Rank.

Rewards based on total wins are:

  • 0 wins — 1 Pack
  • 1 win   — 2 Packs
  • 2 wins — 800 Gems and 3 Packs
  • 3 wins — 1,500 Gems and 4 Packs
  • 4 wins — 1,800 Gems and 5 Packs
  • 5 wins — 2,100 Gems and 6 Packs

Limited-Time Events

Brewer's Delight

Entry fee: 250 Gold or 50 Gems. Best-of-3 matches. Rewards are cards selected by designers to help build some fun non-meta decks.

Singleton

Entry fee: 500 Gold or 95 Gems. Run ends after seven wins or three losses.

The deck can only contain up to one copy of any card, excluding the basic lands and cards like Rat Colony, which allow the player to include any number of copies.

Pauper

Free-to-Play mode: Best-of-1 matches; run ends after five wins or two losses. Constructed format limited to only Commons cards.

Sealed

Entry fee: 2,000 Gems. Best-of-1 matches; run ends after seven wins or three losses. Format changes often and is typically the most older expansion on sale. Players make a 40+ cards deck made with 6 Draft-Packs with 15 rounds of picking for each (15 choices to 1), all drafted cards are kept.

Rewards based on total wins are:

  • 0 wins — 200 Gems and 3 Packs
  • 1 win   — 400 Gems and 3 Packs
  • 2 wins — 600 Gems and 3 Packs
  • 3 wins — 1200 Gems and 3 Packs
  • 4 wins — 1400 Gems and 3 Packs
  • 5 wins — 1600 Gems and 3 Packs
  • 6 wins — 2000 Gems and 3 Packs
  • 7 wins — 2200 Gems and 3 Packs

Features

Standard format was added in June 2018,[14] Kaladesh block was included last, along with introduction of Standard and its bans. Future banned cards will be compensated with respective Wildcards (Rampaging Ferocidon and Ramunap Ruins not included[15]).

Starter Pack

Each player account starts out with three booster packs to open for each set available, as well as the five mono-colored preconstructed decks:

Preconstructed
deck name
Colors Included Iconic card
{W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
Tactical Assault W Serra's Guardian
Arcane Inventions U Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
Graveyard Bash B Open the Graves
Dragon's Fire R Lathliss, Dragon Queen
Forest's Might G Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Additional decks

Ten additional dual-colored decks can be unlocked by playing daily.

Preconstructed
deck name
Colors Included Iconic card
{W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
Auras of Majesty W G History of Benalia
Wrath of Mages U R Enigma Drake
Saproling Swarm B G Slimefoot, the Stowaway
Strength in Numbers W R Leonin Warleader
Walk the Plank U B Demonlord Belzenlok
Primal Fury R G Carnage Tyrant
Artifacts Attack W U Azor, the Lawbringer
Chaos and Mayhem B R Rekindling Phoenix
Jungle Secrets U G Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
Eternal Thirst W B Ajani's Pridemate

New Player Experience (NPE)

When you launch the game, you will automatically be taken to the first of a series of new tutorial games.[16] These short games will review the basics of playing Magic: The Gathering Arena as you battle against different computer-controlled opponents.

Exclusive cards

To facilitate the creation of the NPE and to transition players smoothly into the normal play experience the designers introduced some MTG Arena-exclusive cards (). This set also contains some "reprinted" cards from former sets. Some of the white cards are accessible to players, and Standard-legal for MTG Arena (marked with {Tick}).[16] The rest are tutorial-only (marked with {Cross}).

The following list does not contain a card that is already printed in paper Magic unless it's Standard-legal only for MTG Arena.

White
Blue
Black
Red
Green

Deck Builder

A player can build up to 30 decks (60 in the future[17]) with 60 to 250 cards, including the preconstructed decks (though those can be deleted), and choose one of them for Ranked or Quick Constructed modes. Filters allow searching by rarity, color, type, and ownership; it is also possible to sort by set using the search bar by typing "e:SET_ID", with the SET_IDs being the following: XLN for Ixalan, RIX for Rivals of Ixalan, DAR for Dominaria, M19 for Core Set 2019 and GRN for Guilds of Ravnica.[18] Specific basic lands can be found by writing the land name in the search box (e.g. "Island") and pressing Reset in Advanced Filters menu.

Currency

There are two in-game currencies forming the basis of the MTG Arena economy.[19]

  • Gold — by winning games (750 Gold total, after the 14th win of the day; alternates with card bonuses), completing daily quests with a reward of 500 or 750 Gold, and finishing events.
  • Gems — purchased for real money from the in-game store. VAT not included.[20]
    • 750 Gems — US$4.99
    • 1,600 Gems — US$9.99
    • 3,400 Gems — US$19.99
    • 9,200 Gems — US$49.99
    • 20,000 Gems — US$99.99

Typically either Gold or Gems can be used to unlock packs, events, and more in the future. However, there are some events and cosmetic items that can only be purchased with Gems.

Booster packs

Booster packs are eight-card boosters containing five commons, two uncommons, and one rare or mythic rare.[19] Single pack costs 1,000 Gold or 200 Gems through bundles. Packs can be purchased for Gems in bundles of three, six, 15, 45, and 90. Rare Wildcards are guaranteed every six packs and mythic Wildcards every 30 packs. 45 and 90 pack bundles of Dominaria also contain Firesong and Sunspeaker, similar to Buy-a-Box-only addition for paper release. Core Set 2019 includes the Nexus of Fate in the 45 and 90 pack bundles, one and two copies respectively. Guilds of Ravnica contain the Impervious Greatwurm in the 45 and 90 pack bundles, one and two copies respectively. Custom pack amount can't be bought. Purchasing via Gold requires no confirmation. Booster packs don't contain welcome deck cards.

Three packs per week (one for every five wins) are rewarded through a weekly quest. The weekly quest resets Sunday early morning. Those packs won't have banned cards inside.[21]

Draft Packs

Draft-Packs will contain 14 cards mirroring tabletop drafts (the basic land has been removed).[19] Drafting will also add cards to your collection, as any card you draft will be automatically added to your collection.

Individual Card Rewards

Individual cards (ICR) planned to be earnable through play.[19] Wizards of the Coast tested a system where for every match win, players will receive one card, up to 30 per day, but switched economy to higher daily Gold rewards. The newest system gives out up to six per day, alternating with Gold, after the fourth daily win.

Wildcards

Wildcard waste

Redeeming a mythic Wildcard

Wildcards are special cards that have a chance to appear in the place of each card at any rarity in every booster you open.[19] Wildcards have their own rarity of common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare. Wildcards can also be received through opening the Vault. You can redeem a Wildcard one-to-one for any card at that same rarity.

The Vault

When you would collect a fifth copy (or more) of a card, you earn Vault progress instead of adding that card to your collection. The current contents of the Vault are:

  • Three uncommon Wildcards
  • Two rare Wildcards
  • One mythic rare Wildcard

Beginning in April 2018, players earned 3.3% Vault progress for each eight-card booster pack they open. As of July 2018, you no longer earn Vault progress for opening packs.[22] Every time you get the fifth copy of a card will earn you progress towards your next vault opening:[20]

  • Mythic — 1.1%
  • Rare — 0.5%
  • Uncommon — 0.3%
  • Common — 0.1%

Opening the Vault requires getting duplicates through packs/drafting: 900 common, 300 uncommon, 180 rare, or 90 mythic rares duplicates. Duplicates progress define value of one mythic = two rare = 3.3 uncommon = ten common duplicate cards. Therefore, the value of a single Vault with one mythic, two rare, and three uncommon Wildcards is equal to three mythic Wildcards. That way a single Wildcard of any rarity equals 30 duplicates of the same rarity.

References

External links

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