It feels like Wizards of the Coast releases a new magic game every six months that are very hit or miss. Some of the mobile games had me hooked for a while but all I really wanted was an MTG experience like the physical card game. They have had Magic The Gathering Online for a while but to say it's outdated is an understatement. There have also been some "Magic Light" games that come out but they really don't let you take over a deck like you could in real life. Now comes Magic the Gathering Arena by Wizards of the Coast and this might just be what I have been waiting for.
Real Deck Building!!
With a million TCGs (trading card games) out now a clean deck building system has become very important. MTG Arena did a pretty great job with this. The interface is simple, there are several filters, and you can check your balance of how mana heavy your decks are. While the deck builder recommends you keep it to 60, you can go over and under making the deck you want.
Card collecting has improved. You will still have to buy booster packs to increase your collection but the game starts you out with 5 prebuilt decks. You can buy boosters from an in-game currency you get from playing the game and sometimes you are just rewarded boosters in several ways. One of the coolest new features is the wildcard. This card is a blank card you get from packs that can be morphed into any card of their rarity equivalence simply by adding the card to your deck. This means if there is a rare you want, and you have a wildcard, you can actually get that rare without having to open 1000 packs. To me, this is brilliant and is something I have already taken advantage of.
A complaint I have is that it does not support widescreen but it is in beta. It made it hard for me to get decent screenshots, which is disappointing because they have added some great animation for the cards. The graphics for some of the more rare creatures looks pretty cool and really add to the feeling of their importance. The UI is simple and really helps guide you through each turn. It will still take time to fully understand what is going on if you are new but as a seasoned player, it helped streamline the experience.
Premium currency exists and has an exchange rate of about $1.50 for a booster, which only contain 8 cards. The cards guarantees 1 rare and 2 uncommon cards. Of course the more you spend the better the exchange for premium. With games like Hearthstone expanding there decks so fast its extremely expensive to keep up, the price puts MTG in a fairly comfortable competative spot. Though, I am not sure how vital it will be to constantly buying decks as the weekly and daily prizes are pretty well gifted. It's just a matter of how many cards you want to own right away especially when they release a new set.
There are also deck building competitions and "win till you lose three" competitions that you have to buy into. Some use in game currency but the building decks require premium currency. These deck building comps cost about $5 worth of premium currency but you get 40 cards, with potential for more boosters and premium currency if you win. You also get to keep the cards you get. This is awesome because it reminds me of what my friends and I use to do with booster packs. This seems like the best deal but the events also are limited in time.
While MTG might be rough for those new to the game because of the deep rule pool its definitely one of the better TGCs out there. This version of it is new and refreshing and had me wanting to come back and play more. I had planned on a couple of other games the last few days but it has been hard to close out. There is just so much variety and personality in the decks you can build in this game, the debth is incredible. This depth is well refleced in Arena and I think Wizards of the Coast might have found something here. If you are an MTG or TCG fan this is well worth the look.The only thing I hope is if this game takes off they add in some retro decks. Wouldn't mind collecting and play some old school builds.
TL;DR:
Magic the Gathering Arena appears to be the next MTG online and it has a good chance to be. It's what you would hope for from an online MTG experience.
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