Explore the Realm of Magic: The Gathering - Articles and Insights

The economy on MTG Arena has always been a pain point, and a grand debate over how far a digital version of a card game should go to ensure players feel as if they are getting proper value for their time. Wizards has two different versions of its beloved game on the internet, and they both seem to have their benefits and drawbacks. On February 11, Arena launched the Achievement System to reward players for hitting milestones in-game, and completing specific tasks. While it is always fun to do these kinds of things in each game, something that gamers always do is assess whether the reward for doing so in-game is worth putting forth the extra effort for the task. While there are some things in the achievement tab that I believe to be kind of fun, and certain things that I know people will want, I view the entire thing as largely a waste of time. Today we will look at why the new feature on Arena simply isn't enough for what the game should have, and what it could be. The Good and The Bad There are plenty of things that we love about Arena, with how it is the easiest way to play our favorite decks from Standard, and not spend thousands of dollars in doing so. It is probably the most efficient way to try out decks. We also love the wildcard system. Although it is not the easiest to obtain them, it is great that a rare/mythic wildcard could buy a rare/mythic card that is of any value and it still just costs one wildcard. This was especially helpful in getting a play set of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. I still don't have a play set in paper simply because I don't want to spend that much money on it, but on Arena it was easy. I had the wildcards to do what I needed. The only part where this may be lacking is the economy itself. What if we could earn wildcards for hitting certain achievements (I.E. the achievement tab giving us wildcards instead of sleeves, etc.)? I believe that the rewards from this new feature being solely cosmetic underscores the ongoing issue of the economy on Arena simply not being enough for us. 

2024 was a huge year for MTG. It was a lot of things. Controversial, exciting, frustrating, promising, and refreshed. We saw some formats get ruined, then fixed, then ruined again. We saw some great changes to Standard that not everyone was fans of at first, but they seemed to quickly warm up to them. We saw Wizards effectively abandon a format in favor of propelling Standard into a more prominent position. We saw some great cards printed for Standard, and some promising things to come in the next year that were announced. Along with that, a fair amount of people were still bothered by the new trajectory of the format. Some are calling into question the longevity of MTG now with the heavy lean into Universes Beyond. A little bit of everything happened this year in the MTG world, and it was interesting if nothing else. On a personal level, it was also a hell of a year for me, as I took down two different events and grew a lot as a player. We are going to look at The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from this year! The Good I have to admit, I'm pretty excited that we have an infinite gain and drain combo in Standard right now. With Enduring Tenacity and Bloodthirsty Conqueror having made a lot of my dreams come true in my favorite format. Although the deck isn't the most viable in the format, it is incredibly fun to play, and I'm just happy that we had such exciting cards printed in the format. It leads to good card design going forward, and gives us promise for what's to come in the next year. 

In recent years, magic has undergone profound changes that have inevitably had an effect on card prices. Even a format like Standard is now accessible to very few people because of crazy and increasingly high prices. Approaching paper magic becomes very difficult for many people who might want to give it a try. There is however a very high barrier to entry as spending several hundred euros for one of the best decks of the format is not something affordable for everyone.  That’s why I wanted to focus on the cards currently in the format, giving my perspective on possible deals to buy  before it is too late.  

Although we are still getting used to the new cards brought to us by Foundations, we have begun to get announcements about the next Standard-legal set, Aetherdrift. Aetherdrift will be the first set to come out in 2025, and it will also be the first Universes Beyond Standard-legal set. For those who aren't familiar, Universes Beyond sets are the ones that do not exclusively involve the traditional MTG characters and planes, although they can still be incorporated. What they do for the characters in the Universes Beyond sets is to have somewhat of a crossover between MTG and another universe in popular culture. We have seen them do Lord of the Rings, Assassin's Creed, etc. What is unique about the Universes Beyond sets going forward is that they will now be Standard-legal - something that has not been the case up until now. In fact, almost all of the Universes Beyond sets were strictly Commander, Legacy, and Vintage-legal up until now, with the exception of Lord of the Rings also being legal in Modern. That is a change that we did know about , however, but the latest updates follow up on the new changes that we will see starting next year.  Changes to Play Booster Boxes So what is this big change? How will it affect MTG? 

We still have a lot of ambiguity on what all next month's Foundation Set release will entail. Will we have a bunch of staple cards? Will we have the staple cards and some new prints that breathe life into the format? It kind of remains to be seen, and as we approach the spoiler portion of the release, we are simply left to speculate. Some things we are starting to see, however, are the multiple different product offerings from Wizards for this release. The overall intention of the set is to allow for new players to buy as little as one product, and be able to start playing Magic. We have seen starter and challenger decks before, but Foundations appears to be not only doubling down on that option, but taking it a step further. We will look at the different products that will be coming out, for whom they are designed, and I will give my own opinion if they are worth buying, or maybe what type of Magic player might enjoy said product. I have to start by saying that I appreciate the way this is being done. They are making it incredibly easy for a new player to get into the game. Other TCGs are doing this as well, as they are all trying to get new players these days. I like that there is a clear and simplified way for a new player to learn, and that they are able to start with some basic principles before diving into the complex game that we know. New Products Hitting the Shelves The first Foundations product that is worth noting is something that will truly be for beginners. It is the Beginner Box. It appears to be going for around $30-$35 USD and is designed for someone who has never played MTG before. It is intended that you can pick up that box, learn from the beginner guide, rulebook, and the two 20 -card starter decks, and play with a friend right out of the box. It comes with playmats, life counters, and everything else needed to play Magic. Once you feel that you have an idea of how to play, they also have some Jumpstart decks - Eight of them to be exact. They are similar to the theme packs that you could purchase previously, and if you put two of them together, it could make a deck. Since they are preconstructed, I believe that the cards likely won't differ, but it should still give some exciting gameplay. While clearly intended for beginners, it could also be nice for the more seasoned player who is trying to teach someone else how to play, but may not have incredibly simplified decks like some of these are. The mechanics these days can be overwhelming, so starting with a more vanilla deck can be helpful when learning. I'm already thinking of getting this for friends of mine who want to learn how to play. 

Normally I don't play in store championships, but this time I had to make an exception. Everyone was going on and on how valuable the full art Urza's Saga was, and I had to get in on this. I admittedly didn't have any intention of keeping the card, but I knew that I could get some great trade value for it, or at least be able to sell it for a decent amount of money When the first weekend of store championships took place, this card was selling for $350 USD. It has since gone down to about $270 USD, but it still makes it worth it - especially when the entry for the event was $20, and I already had it covered for free with store credit that I had built up. I waited for the event at my LGS, and I brought my trusty mono-black discard deck, and gave it a shot. There were four rounds in total, and it took a deal at the end to get it done, but I was able to get through the day undefeated and secure the saga. I'll go over how my matchups were, and of course some key elements of the deck that I played. I believe it is very similar to a deck in one of my previous articles, so I won't dwell on the list itself too much. We will mainly just go over the key cards that make everything work, and some of the cards from today that stood out in each matchup. First, let's take a look at the deck! This deck is aptly named Standard 8-Rack. It models itself after a similar archetype in modern that punishes the opponent for having one or fewer cards in hand. Ideally, we have the deck set up where after the opponent has their upkeep and draw step each turn, they are losing four life. You can also double down on that with the fact that one of the effects dealing the damage is a creature that is difficult to block, and that can also accelerate the clock. Key Cards for the Rack

With a new set and Standard rotation comes the conundrum about where to spend our limited in-game resources in Arena to maximize the return on our digital investments. As always, I recommend having a deck in mind before crafting anything, but if you can target specific cards in your builds that provide flexibility and could work in other archetypes, well, you might save yourself a few dollars down the line. Let's look at the top ten cards from Bloomburrow that I believe are worth spending wildcards on if you plan to build decks in Standard. We aren't looking at any of the Special Guests as they aren't Standard legal, and I won't include any commons or uncommons as those wildcards aren't quite as precious as our mythics and rares. Whenever looking through content like this, make sure you check how much value you'll get from the specific card. Let's get into it. 10) Fabled Passage

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.