Note: There will be a lot of jargon that non-Magic players may not be familiar with. Have Wizards of the Coast succeeded in their top-to-bottom renovation? Magic: FREE-TO-PLAY! Changing MTGO to a free-to-play system would take a complete overhaul of everything.Īnd that’s the story of Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTGA), which users can now download and play for free. In fact it was as expensive as the physical product. Their Magic: The Gathering Online (MTGO) program had been successful for years, but it wasn’t free-to-play. Wizards of the Coast was not going to take this lying down. With little chance of survival, Magic’s competitors turned to digital, giving rise to the likes of Hearthstone, GWENT: The Witcher Card Game, and a hidden gem called Faeria. Countless other card games rose and fell, but Magic stayed strong. Its longevity and devoted player base have kept it going strong for decades. Magic: The Gathering is one of the biggest cultural icons of our hobby and will never be replaced, even when much better games* have been inspired by its design. But is playing Arena worth the time and effort if you can only play Standard Magic? Magic Arena is Wizard of the Coast’s attempt to enter into the free-to-play electronic card games market, and they've done a really good job of it.

Magic arena free to play guide