Everyone who has been on Arena for some time will eventually have a friend ask them how to get into the game, or might even have the friend that says, "I wanted to download that, but I don't want to have to buy all of the cards." It's a very reasonable objection, as this game that we play isn't known for having a cheap price of admission. Right now, we are at a point where people can get a ton of free stuff just for downloading the game - and if they are willing to spend forty to fifty dollars, they can put together a deck and start farming very quickly. If they want to do a free to play option, they certainly could, it would just take longer. There are a few general rules of thumb to follow to avoid spending more money than one needs to in order to amass a decent wild card collection, and work towards some good vault progress. Today, I will go over a method that doesn't require people to draft if they don't want to, and allows them to start playing constructed for less than what it would cost them to do if they were to build that same deck in paper to just start out. If you've never played before and are looking to get started, you've come to the right place. You've seen your friends play it, you've seen the ads, you've maybe been thinking about downloading for a long time, and I'm here to take away all reservations that one may have and help you get started towards having boatloads of digital fun by following a few early rules.
Get Your FREE Packs!
There are a few different websites that have free packs to start the game. Even if you don't plan to use cards from a given set in your first deck, it is still important to open as many free packs as you can, as this will allow you to accrue wildcards which can later be used to craft ANY card on the game. This is the real key where Arena can be valuable. Some rares or mythic in paper cost hundreds of dollars. On Arena, they all have the same value as long as you craft them with a wildcard. There are positives and negatives to this, but for a new player, it is easy to convert that into a valuable positive. If you are wondering what website to use for it, there are plenty of them - and if you do a simple Google Search of "free MTG Arena Packs" you will have a ton of options. You can then enter the codes for these respective packs into Arena and either open up some awesome stuff, or just start getting wildcards! It is definitely worth noting that not every card that you open will be playable, or "good" but what is important is that you open as many packs as you can because every SIX packs that are opened gets you a rare wildcard.
Note that Arena also allows you to purchase wildcards, and if you have the money to do so initially, I recommend that you buy the four rare and four mythic rare wildcards just to ensure that you have enough. It is not something that has to be done, as I said, it is possible to do this in a free to play method, but it definitely speeds up your process to being able to build the decks that you want.
Once you've opened your free packs, you may also see that you already have some decks that the game already gave you. It isn't a terrible idea to simply upgrade the preconstructed decks that have been given to you, but this method from today should also allow you to craft a competitive Standard deck and hit the ladder running.
Pick ONE Deck and Roll With It
It can be overwhelming when we first get on Arena and see all of the different cards and archetypes that are available. The best thing a new player can do when they don't want to spend a ton of money is to pick one deck and use that for at least one full season to get as many in-game rewards from playing it as possible. The deck that I'll attach to this work today is a popularly-played Mono Red Deck for Standard that only requires ten rare wildcards to craft. You made need to get some uncommon wildcards too, but the free packs should give you a good bit of those.
The red deck here is absolutely fine to start out with. It does not require many rare wildcards and it is an easy color to start on when learning how to play the game. The aggressive nature of the deck allows the game to remain relatively simple for a new player, and can teach them basic interactions very quickly. Since other people might not be using this approach, it is also likely that you may not have the most powerful opponents or decks when playing at the bronze and silver levels on the ladder, and you will be able to climb pretty quickly with a list this efficient and aggressive. The only thing I would change about that deck is that I would add a few copies of Mishra's Foundry, but other than that it is ready to go for any beginner to start farming after they open their free packs.
Don't Skimp Out on the Lands!
Alright, so maybe after a few weeks you will find the mono red deck to be monotonous, and you want to try something else out - because there has to be more to magic than just aggro, right? Well then we can start to work on adding in other colors. But now what you will need to do is establish a proper mana base for these decks. There are some lands that come into the battlefield tapped and don't give you any value for doing so, and there are some that enter tapped or untapped with conditions. I encourage you to first use your wildcards toward crafting the "good" lands before crafting the spells of a new color for a deck you want to build. This will be important because generally speaking, lands never end up being bad, but spells can get better or worse given what the meta is at a certain time. There are a multitude of resources out there for different decks that are doing well, and decks that are just flat-out fun to play. Feel free to stay tuned to this website, as there are a ton of creators who are dropping absolute heat on a weekly basis!
We hope that you have a great time starting out on Arena, and that ultimately you have a good time, cause that's what it's all about!