



Tomorrow, MTGA’s Preseason ends and I guess, Season 1 begins. Last December 12th, I began playing MTGA mainly due to WotC’s announcement that they will eventually provide a path to Mythic Championships through the platform. Before this, I have been playing MTGO exclusively for the past 2 years (having been unable to access LGSs within my area and being busy with work and schoolwork). In this article, I summarize my almost 50-day experience playing MTGA in both financial and enjoyment aspects, mainly with the purpose of providing information that other MTGO/paper players may find useful in shaping their decision on whether or not to buy-into Arena.

MTG Arena play details

Since December 12, I have been playing MTGA for an average of 2 hours daily. I bought the welcome bundle and grinded constructed free play until I had enough wild cards to craft Mono Blue Tempo, which I think I correctly deduced as the cheapest way to grind constructed events (only needed 5 rare wildcards). I did ranked until I got to platinum then stopped since 1.) Mono Blue is not good enough to get higher ranks at an acceptable speed and 2.) The rewards of doing so just weren’t worth it. When BO1 GRN draft was available, I drafted a few times to turn gold into gems. From here, I grinded constructed events. Each day, I stopped playing as soon as I completed the 10th daily win reward which typically took two constructed event runs.

Financial Aspect

In total, I generated 60,600 gold and 1800 gems (excluding what I got from the welcome bundle). Based on an exchange rate of 20,000 gems/$100 and 5 gold/1 gem, this translates to generated value of 1450 gold per day (725 gold/hour) which is about 200 gold more per day than what one can get from just finishing the daily quest and 15-win rewards which I think is above average. However, if we look at how much value this is in $, it amounts to $1.45 which equates to less than $0.73 per hour. By comparison, a constructed (standard/modern) event takes about 3 hours to complete and, if I peg my average results at 3 treasure chests per event and value the chests at $2 a piece, I get $2 per hour. Just based on these numbers, it makes better sense to grind games in MTGO instead of Arena, then just liquidate winnings from the former to fund gems for the latter if one so chooses.

However, my computation does not include the value of single card rewards. Frank Karsten valued a random rare/mythic at 412 gold and a rare/mythic wildcard at 2472 gold. If we consider just the wildcards, I have 7 rare and 4 mythic rare ones at the moment and adding these and the 5 rare wild cards I used to craft Mono Blue to the equation changes the numbers from $0.73 per hour to $1.32 per hour. If we add the value of random rares and mythics, of which I accumulated 82 total, it becomes $1.67 per hour. This last adjustment is not as reasonable as the previous ones since the random rares and mythics only matter if 1.) they are rares/mythics that you will actually play or 2.) they count towards the completion of a set you will actually complete. Thus, even accounting for the card rewards, one is better off playing MTGO to grind if one can manage average winnings of at least 3 treasure chests per event.

Interface and Overall Enjoyment

Some aspects of the Arena interface took some getting used to but it is certainly a huge improvement cosmetic-wise to MTGO. In terms of overall enjoyment, I found BO1 and the considerably reduced pressure to win matches (both because they were easier and because I wasn’t actually losing anything but time when I lost) quite refreshing.

On the other hand, having not actually spent any money on MTGA meant I could not craft any other deck than the first I did, which is very different from MTGO where I could build whatever standard deck I wanted. This was not much of a problem since the rest of the day when I had time for magic, I would just enter constructed leagues on MTGO. However, I would be lying if I said I still enjoyed MTGO more. The improved interface and faster matches has certainly gotten me hooked to sticking to my 2-hour MTGA schedule. Since I started MTGA, there were several days when I would not have time to play MTGO, whereas previously I would do at least 1 constructed league a day. Limited is a different story. MTGA’s limited costs is still very prohibitive for me whereas I essentially play limited for free on MTGO.

Main Takeaways

If you are a competent MTGO player looking to buy into MTGA or considerably shift your attention to it, I’d say that now is not yet the time. Maintaining what I said in a previous article , shifting from MTGO to MTGA is still a value-negative proposition. This can all change after WotC makes the path to mythic championships in MTGA explicitly clear. Just from my experience, tryi ng to enter the pro tour through MTGO is both very difficult and costly. Once it is clear that it is going to be easier or less expensive to shoot for this in MTGA, then it would be time to set the gates ablaze and rally to battle.