Most broken game ever (mechanics). And when it is not broken it is most of the times toxic, even in play queue. I can't have fun even when it doesn't bother me to lose. Avoid it if you don't know where you are getting into. The game is a joke. And the people who play it the worst of the gamers. Though in the ranked mode you can't level down once you reach a rank (like in duels) people keep using the unranked mode with tier1 decks to do their daily quests at the expence of their opponent. The game is not "magic", it is attacking "magic users" and the most cancerous plan wins. And the game gets more broken with new sets added. This is both the designers fault and the players base fault, because if a broken combo exists players will use it to win rank and get rewards faster. I started playing in 2015 with duels. At first I was having fun and was happy if I won a match. Then I learned the cards and tried to play competitive, I couldn't climb beyond a point because that demanded either fast decks or decks full of removal and I didn't like this style, I wanted a board state. I also started to really hate the game when the sets were too many and the people started playing decks full of mythics, broken combos, and all the things that weren't suppossed to happen. People in the forums there said the game was unbalanced because of duels nature and missing cards so I bited it and was happy to move to Arena for the full experience. Well the game is broken even if you have the cards that are supposed to help you. Problematic cards happen all the time and banning them most of the times means they are played in Historic. As I said the problems get worse with every set and currently it is turn 3 wins with elves or goblins, 4 mana instant win by combining 2 cards, turn 4 Ugin, turn 5 win by self milling doing nothing, scute swarm that gets you tens of creatures and every way imaginable to play your library without paying mana like mutate or energy. I got to mythic and the climb wasn't worth it. Unless you are happy to see more broken things and playing against the same cards. The system is designed to make you play as much as possible, you can win 1.5 cards/day. With some weekly deals monthly offers and new set gifts lets say you can win 2rares/day. Lose a part of every day and get every day bad competitive vibes to get 2 cards. So besides the competitive side, lets say you lose at least 2 hours/day and win 2 rares/day, do the math and guess how much time you need to spend to have fun with one set when every set has more than 260 rares and more than 70 mythics. This is why people care only to win. And they add at least 3 sets/year. You want to pay? The deal is 15 euros for 24 random rare cards and 7 random mythic cards, and you might not even get these and get 20 gems instead. Even if you play everyday and buy smartly you will need huge amounts of time and you will spend coins elsewhere too. I am collecting Amonkhet for 6 months and I am still missing 200 rares/mythics. So if you want to join the dark side of life this game is perfect for you. The game has nothing to do with its fame which was made by people who had limited cards available and played with their friends and were making new friends. I was fan of TSR in the 90's and am still fan of cooperative storytelling RPGs but I don't know who are WotC. I certainly don't approve the turn from cooperative play to competitive fights and letting players play chaotic or evil. I don't know how much time I have on this game but I played since alpha and I had 2400 hours on duels 2015 till 2017 when that game stopped being supported. I hated duels and I hate Arena. It is like, lets create hundreds of problems and hundreds of solutions (like counter and destroy everything) and let the people try to figure it out like we know what we are doing. The only thing the designers are doing is releasing sets quicker than people with normal lives can get.

The games a complete mess. Standards been at its worst by a mile for years. Its just the same few decks played over and over again and thats it. Rewards are a complete joke and cause a lot of the problems. If you want to play fun decks of jank this is 100% not the game for you. SO many broken op cads that need to be banned as they ruin the game completely. Dont waste your time on this trash!

Okay, I've been a casual MTG player for more than 20 years. I've played the actual game and most of the digital versions. In terms of the mechanics and how the visual effects and iconography aid in quickly assessing the board (not to mention looking pretty cool) this is my favorite iteration. I like the feel of it and it plays well (for the most part but keep reading). A few issues though: firstly, why do my games against the AI require the server? This wouldn't be so bad except TWICE as I was closing in on a win I got network connection errors and the play ended. It wasn't my end because my browser was able to hit other sites fine and play video all the while so I only assume it was their servers. That really stinks. The other big letdown is (at least at the time of this review) it only supports 1v1, no two-headed giant mode which has always been my favorite. Other than those two things there have also been a few blocking UI issues (cards not going away from the screen after I won them) but that's (so far) been limited to the title menu screens. Overall there's a lot I really love about this incarnation and a lot I don't. Ultimately I'm somewhere in the middle; hoping it gets better with time.

I love playing Magic: The Gathering in paper, and I've player Draft, Modern, Legacy and even some Vintage for the past 10 years. I was really excited when this MTG: Arena came out, to finally have an opportunity to also play Magic from home from time to time. However, the platform is designed in such a way, that your winning chances in Best of One are restricted to your card draw. Most of the games you win or lose in this Game Design, with just 1 game to decide the outcome of a match are skewed towards who draws 4 lands and all the powerful cards. It seems the only other option is drawing no lands and lose, or 12 lands and lose. Playing this game is frustrating over time, because your player skill is almost worthless compared to the engine that runs the randomization behind the scenes. And of course, every single detail in that engine is designed for you to buy more packs, to be able to build a better deck. Ultimately, the best of one format, that is inherent for most of the games on the platform creates an unfair advantage for Wizards, and an unfair source of income. You just need to remember, that skill is absolutely irrelevant, and as long as you enjoy either one player playing the game while the other does mostly nothing, this is the platform for you to play this game.