There has been a lot of talk by streamers and on Reddit about the Magic Arena economy. Have played in the Closed Beta from the beginning and seeing how the payout system works, and some of the more annoying aspects of it, these are the top three changes I would suggest be made (in order of priority) to make the game a success:

Allow trade-up of wildcards for higher rarity.

Before the March 22 wipe, I had collected all of the commons and uncommons I wanted for the decks I was playing, but still had not collected even the fist copy of some of the rares (let alone mythics) that would make those decks really shine. I had a substantial pile of common and uncommon wildcards sitting in my collection, and it was vexing that I couldn’t do anything with them. I would suggest a trade-up value that mimics real-world rarity distribution, specifically a 4-to-1 trade-up from common to uncommon and from uncommon to rare, and a 7-to-1 trade-up from rare to mythic. This would still give mythics a high “chase” factor, but would put crafting specific rares much more easily in reach.

Pay out a pack for the first win of the day.

This would all but guarantee daily players 7 packs per week, enough to make real and steady progress and keep players coming back, but not so generous as to keep the most dedicated Standard players from buying gems in order to speed up competitive deck building.

Pay out “real” packs.

By this I mean forget the 8-card pack nonsense and give us at least 12 cards per pack (if not the full 14 or 15), including 1 rare and 3 uncommons. It seems like a small change, and it really is, but it’s the kind of real-life feel that will make paper Magic players feel more comfortable putting time and/or money into the game.

Joseph Eddy is a Father, Husband, Son, Brother, Software Developer, and Gamer. Magic is his favorite hobby, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all on Arena. He streams Magic Arena on a weekly basis (or more), but currently is unable to keep to a set schedule.