Tips & Tricks to Playing Magic the Gathering: Arena
Feeling more confident to play Magic: The Gathering Arena? Before you go on your journey to be the best player in the game, we’re here to offer a few more tips and tricks that should help players succeed early on. The game offers so many ways that the player can compete at a high level, even if they don’t spend as much money or have the same hours played as most players. All you need to do is know how you can achieve this and you can start dominating from the get-go.
We’ve already provided all the different guides that you’ll need to play the game better. From our Deckbuilding Guide to our Advanced Strategies Guide, you should be all set to play the game competitively from here on. What this guide aims to give you is to help introduce some features that will help you maximize the way you earn resources in the game or at least, get used to how the game is played. Here are some of the best tips and tricks that will help you on your way to be a master-class player!
Finish Daily Missions
Daily missions are probably the most important thing to keep in mind when playing Magic: The Gathering Arena. Completing a daily mission will give you coins, which are necessary for purchasing booster packs that’s used to get cards that you’ll need to build your deck. Even if you’ve already completed your deck, it’s a good idea to open packs since you can get wildcards that you’ll use on a future set or build up a decent card pool in case your current deck gets outdated or banned out.
Daily missions usually require the player to do a specific set of tasks. The biggest problem that beginners face is if their daily mission involves doing tasks using a specific deck color that they don’t have. Don’t worry, you can always play the pre-built decks that the game provides every season to play unrated PvP games just for the sake of completing your quests. Unless you’re confident about the deck you’re playing, we don’t recommend playing ranked games using beginner decks.
Open Boosters from the Current Set
If you have enough coins to open boosters and have no idea which packs to open, you might as well go for the latest one that was released. In fact, we highly recommend only opening packs from the current set because it allows you to start building a card pool that will last longer during the time that you started. Unless you’re planning to play historic formats, which is extremely difficult to do if you’re not willing to spend real money as a beginner, it’s better to stay away from older sets.
Even if you have cards that you need in older sets, it’s not worth opening them since Magic: The Gathering Arena expansion packs are simply too large to ensure that you’ll get even one copy after 10 boosters. It’s a lot easier to simply save up your wildcards by opening the current booster set and reviewing what pieces you have available so that you can craft cards from the older sets. As much as possible, you want to get newer cards by opening them from the latest booster set.
Mind the Rotation
It’s important to familiarize yourself with the rotation system in Magic: The Gathering Arena if you’re looking to play competitively in the standard format. The rotation refers to how cards become illegal for play after a certain number of sets have been released with only the more recent ones being allowed for use. This means that some cards that you’ve invested in or want to buy may not become available anymore once the deadline for the rotation has been met. It’s a good idea to research online when the next rotation is scheduled to come.
Aside from the rotation, it’s also important to take a look at the ban list and restrictions. Banlists and restriction lists are fairly common in most TCGs and CCGs as a way to balance out the meta by removing problematic cards that make the rest of the competitive scene extremely unfair. It’s a good idea to read up on threads and discussions in online forums that talk about the state of the meta. This will allow you to predict if your deck may get hit with the restriction list or ban hammer before you totally invest in it.
Abuse the Beginner Decks
If you’re a beginner, you don’t really have much of a choice when it comes to what deck you’re going to use and trying to build a deck from scratch with very few pieces is a risky endeavor that has a very low chance of success. However, MTG Arena has given players a way to be able to compete without the need to have a complete card pool at the beginning and that is through the use of the pre-built beginner decks that they offer every season to new players who start out in the game.
While the pre-built beginner decks aren’t that powerful, they should at least help you climb up to the Gold rank if you’re relying solely on your skills as a player. Otherwise, you might have to settle with the silver rank. The main purpose you want to abuse the beginner decks is because they are useful at giving your rewards, primarily the daily quests that need you to complete certain tasks. You can also modify those beginner decks as you get more pieces to make your deck more competitive.
Read the Meta
If you’re serious about being a competitive player in Magic: The Gathering Arena, it’s probably time to read the meta. Many players think that it’s enough to be number one simply by having a deck you’re comfortable playing, but the sad reality is that most top 1 players most likely abuse the meta and use the best decks in the format every single season. There’s no shame in doing that since the game is designed in a way that rewards players who are willing to do what it takes to win.
You can read up on the meta by following online tier lists that show which decks are performing really well. Those with the highest win rates are the ones you should most likely be playing. You don’t necessarily have to choose the top 1 deck since there are many top decks that can beat each other. However, take note that using a meta deck can result in it being banned in the next few decks if it’s deemed too strong.
