Game Review

Every longtime Magic: the Gathering player will have to agree - Magic: Arena is one of the best things that ever happened to the game. Quite honestly, having the chance to play any card game without having dozens of boxes laying around in the house is by itself a very amazing thing. No more classifying your cards, no more wondering where the hell you’ll have to store that next box of commons and uncommons. You focus on the important things: building decks and playing.

 

GENEROUS AND FREE

I’ve played a lot of games over the last few years which claimed to be free-to-play that were anything but free. Progress would be quick in the early stages of the game, but you would eventually hit a wall where any future progress was sure to be slow and painful unless you were willing to spend. It is not the case with Magic: Arena. The game is generous with players and you will be able to progress at a steady pace just by doing dailies and/or ranking well in drafts and events. Of course you can spend some bucks to speed it up, but patience and steady gaming will take you where you need to go.

 

 

A LOT OF GAME MODES TO CHOOSE FROM

 

I have to give it to the game designers, they did an amazing job when it comes to implementing the various game modes that exist in Magic. You can build decks and play casually in non-competitive matches, you can also test your skill in ranked bouts. The game offers sealed and drafts events which rotate through the different sets, allowing players to quickly grab rare and legendary cards. There are special events that come up once in a while and you never know what the game designers will have in store for you this time around (I’ve had a lot of fun playing those). And for the players who like to play Commander, they came up with a format called Brawl that’s pretty similar. All in all, I believe that there is something for everyone.

 

 

A DECK BUILDER THAT’S USER FRIENDLY

Putting a deck together has never been easier than with the deck builder from Magic: Arena. The builder keeps track of your collection and you can sort your cards by color, rarity or sets. You’ll be able to find all the cards you need using the advanced search - just enter the ability or the wording of the cards you’re looking for in the search engine. The builder also keeps track of your mana curve, one of the key aspects of building a deck in Magic. And again, absolutely no maintenance, just pure deck building fun! You’ll be playing games and casting spells at your opponents in no time.

 

 

PLAY ALL THE CARDS YOU WANT

 

I was mentioning that the game is generous and that it’s fairly easy to progress at a steady pace. You’ll be able to play all the cards you want within a reasonable amount of time if you play your dailies and if you enter sealed and draft events. Not only will the game reward you with free packs and ample coins (which you use to buy even more packs), but you will also earn wild cards (of every rarity, but at different rates) just by opening packs. It’s simple, the more you play, the more you get rewarded.

 

And the Arena is not greedy: if you get 4 copies of a card, every other copy you get will become a wild card that you can use in the crafting system. Crafting is easy - you use a wild card to craft any card of the same rarity. Within weeks (or a few months at most) you are sure to have a very competitive deck or the ONE deck that you always wanted to play.

 

 

ENTER THE ARENA AND TEST YOUR SKILL

 

Your deck is all pimped-out and ready to go? It’s time to enter the Arena and test your skill! What strategy will you use this time around? Will you play aggro and try to overrun your opponents or will you wait for the right opportunities and play control? Which combination of colors will you go for? Will you play mono color, go for a Ravnica-type guild or splash that third color that often makes the difference? Experience deep strategic gameplay as you take on other players from all over the world.