I've been playing some Magic Arena

Dec 9, 2018

Obviously, Magic: The Gathering Arena is Wizards of the Coast’s attempt at reclaiming what was taken by Blizzard when they built Hearthstone, and while the “trading” part of Magic is currently still missing, they’ve completely captured the feel of Magic’s tabletop gameplay, and built a system around card collection that more or less means you can have a good time playing MTG Arena without spending a penny.

What’s especially great about Arena is that it’s essentially a full clone of M:tG, so everything we talk about happening in Arena can translate into the tabletop game seamlessly. The “Standard” format is what’s implemented in Arena, so it’s a little limiting (not that you notice), but for my experience, all I’ve ever wanted to play is standard, so I’m satisfied.

The experience, game-to-game is the easiest time I’ve ever had starting up a game of Magic. You simply click “Play”, select your deck, and you’re in the queue to play against someone whose similarly experienced as you. There’s a rating system even for the unrated queue (I haven’t yet gone into ranked play), but the rating doesn’t weigh on you or show up anywhere except at the end of the game in the form of an animation you can skip.

The games themselves can be repetitive, as almost everyone is playing the intro decks you get when you first start playing (and as you play, once every few days you can earn an entire new deck by playing a game), and maybe I’m terrible, but these intro decks make anything you come up with seem pretty bad. The limited cards you start out with, combined with the good coordination the intro decks have set a high bar for coming up with a way of consistently beating these intro decks.

I opted to spend some money and grow my collection enough to let me build a deck that wasn’t one of the intro decks, however the first deck I came up with had trouble getting off the ground, and even when it did, the default decks were still coming out ahead more often than felt reasonable.

Here’s my first decklist (also available on mtgarena.pro):

Big Creatures

2 Broken Bond
2 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
3 Drover of the Mighty
4 Gigantosaurus
3 Rabid Bite
4 Aggressive Mammoth
23 Forest
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Elvish Rejuvenator
2 Pelakka Wurm
2 Suspicious Bookcase
2 Talons of Wildwood
2 Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
4 Titanic Growth

This deck has a number of problems, but most of all, the “payoff” for getting everything out and rolling was fairly limited. You’d get out Ghalta, Primal Hunger on turn 4 after playing Gigantosaurus turn 3 (and acing the curve by getting Llanowar Elves turn 1 and maybe Drover of the Mighty turn 2), but then two removes later, you’re sitting with no creatures and probably ~10ish life. There were some fun games, but against the default decks, this one wasn’t consistent enough. Current standard is apparently too clever to beat with just big creatures.

So I went searching. I was opposed to playing the default starting decks, but I wasn’t above looking for an on-meta deck that had good play in an IRL tournament. I wanted a deck that may not always win, but had answers to the combos and synergy of the default decks I was seeing all the time.

This is the deck I found, a 2nd place finishing deck at SCG Classic Las Vegas (also available on mtgarena.pro):

Izzet Drakes

6 Island
4 Crackling Drake
2 Beacon Bolt
4 Izzet Guildgate
4 Steam Vents
4 Shock
4 Lava Coil
4 Chart a Course
6 Mountain
4 Opt
4 Arclight Phoenix
3 Goblin Electromancer
1 Murmuring Mystic
4 Radical Idea
1 The Mirari Conjecture
1 Blink of an Eye
4 Tormenting Voice

With this deck, I’m having a lot more fun. It’s the kind of deck where you need to pay attention to when you have priority, which means you need to learn when and how to get the Arena client’s attention to make your instant casts. At first, I had decent trouble figuring out the Arena client, but after losing a few games to misclicks/not casting at the right time, I’m getting the hang of it. Hitting control to put the client into “manual mode” helps substantially.

I’ve also done a few Core Set 2019 drafts. Those are probably the most fun “thing” to do in Arena, but drafts cost either gold (a resource you can win by doing the various tasks set out on the landing page of the app) or gems (purchasable with real money in the store), so it feels more like spending money when you do one, which has made me only try a few times. I’ve heard it’s the “most efficient” way of buying packs, but I’m not sure I understand how yet. Maybe once I figure it out I’ll do more.

I am enjoying Magic: The Gathering Arena in a way that I never could enjoy Hearthstone, and the reward system keeps me coming back. I just hope I can figure out a way to play my own decks that doesn’t end with me being crushed by the default decks!