MTG Arena vs Online – what’s the best way to play Magic?

When it comes to Magic: The Gathering games, there are two official ways to play. One is Magic: The Gathering: Arena and the other is Magic: Online. While both let you play Magic without the need to ever own a paper deck, they are both drastically different despite both playing the same game. This guide will go over the differences between both programs to determine which client is right for you (or if both are right for you). There are pros and cons to both Arena and Online, from the formats available to how the card economy works. This is Magic: The Gathering Arena vs Magic: Online.

MTG Arena vs Online

MTG Arena	MTG Online
Pro: Free to Play	Pro: Every official paper format on the client
Pro: Cheapest way to play Standard	Pro: As close to real life play as possible
Pro: Ranked Ladder	Pro: Services to make it easy to play any format
Con: No chat feature	Con: Requires money to play
Con: Few formats with paper versions	Con: UI is outdated
Con: Requires lots of grinding to be fully free to play	Con: No tutorial

Magic: The Gathering: Arena

Magic: The Gathering: Arena is a free-to-play version of Magic. You can earn gold to purchase in-game packs to unlock cards in the game. The primary way to acquire cards is with a currency referred to as Wildcards. Wildcards can be used to redeem a card of that specific rarity. For example, a rare wildcard can be exchanged for one copy of a rare card such as Sacred Foundry. 

Wildcards can be obtained in one of two ways. For every pack you open, you earn progress towards Wildcards, and after a certain number of packs open you gain a Wildcard. In addition, Wildcards can take the place of a card in a pack that is opened. The other way to get a Wildcard is through a card getting banned. If a card gets banned in a format, you get all copies refunded in Wildcards of that same rarity while keeping the cards (as they can often be used in other formats). 

While Magic: The Gathering: Arena can be played without spending real money, there are still ways to use money to get more cards. Money can be used to buy Gems which are considered a “premium currency” that can purchase the Mastery Pass which gives you bonus rewards as you earn XP. You can also purchase Wildcards directly which can be used to get any cards you want. You can only buy rare and mythic Wildcards, but after a while, you will have an abundance of common and uncommon Wildcards you don’t have to worry ever running out of them. 

There are both ranked and non-ranked ladders for every format on Arena. For Ranked formats, your rank earns you rewards at the end of each season (which lasts one month). The higher the rank, the more rewards you get. 

As for formats, Magic: The Gathering: Arena has fewer than the amount available on Magic: Online, but some exclusive ones to the client. Here are the following formats on Arena: 

Non-exclusive:

• Standard (Only cards from the latest sets are legal on a three-year rotation)
• Explorer (Explorer is currently exclusive to Arena, but is meant to turn into Pioneer once all the proper cards have been added and adheres to the same banlist as Pioneer.)
• Draft (players open a pack and take one card and pass it to the next. Repeat until three packs have been gone through)
• Sealed (given six booster packs and make a deck only out of those cards)

Exclusive:

• Alchemy (format that uses digital-only cards in addition to Standard sets and straight-to-Alchemy sets. On a two-year rotation so only the latest releases are legal)
• Historic (Non-rotating format where all cards released on Arena are legal excluding banned cards. May nerf or buff cards).
• Timeless (All cards on Arena are legal. No bans, only card restrictions to one copy per deck)
• Brawl (one-on-one format using a Commander with 25 starting life. Commanders can be a legendary creature or a planeswalker). 

Magic: Online

The biggest thing to know about Magic: Online is that you have to pay to use it. While free accounts can be used, the features are minimal. To properly play, you will have to upgrade your account for $9.99, a one-time payment to permanently get all features. However, to obtain cards, you will have to purchase them.

You can buy booster packs and other products in the game to get cards, but many services let you buy cards from them as you would with paper decks. Loaner services also exist to let you pay a monthly fee to borrow cards from them for as long as you want. You can also trade with other users. Essentially, obtaining cards is just like how you would obtain them in real life, only done digitally through Magic: Online. There are also occasions where Magic: Online offers temporary access to all cards, sometimes for free or sometimes for a flat price. This frequently happens at the start of new set releases with the Brewer’s Pass which gives you access to all cards (including the new ones) to try out various decks before committing to buying the cards. 

✓ Johnny’s Annotation: 

Specialty Formats:

Magic: Online has a few specialty formats that are exclusive to Magic: Online. However, these are not very active and most players favour formats that are playable on paper as well.

Magic: Online hosts many events for multiple formats, but they all require you to pay to enter, just like you would at an event in real life. You do get prizes for doing well, and top performers get enough in-game currency referred to as Play Points to enter the event again and some extra if they do especially well. To enter, event tickets are required which can be purchased from the store for $1 each. Play Points can also be used to enter events but can only be earned through events. 

Magic: Online tends to host special events such as Cube drafts which offer a special curated draft experience or Jumpstart where you are given two packs and mash them together to form a deck with the two themes. 

Magic: Online boasts all the formats that are playable in paper, and certain formats like Vintage are much cheaper to play compared to their paper counterparts. Here are all of the formats available on Magic: Online:

• Standard (only the latest sets are allowed, on a three-year rotation)
• Pioneer (all Standard sets from Return to Ravnica onward are legal. No bonus sheet cards are legal)
• Modern (all Standard sets from Eighth Edition onward are legal as well as straight-to-modern products such as Modern Horizons)
• Legacy (all sets and products are legal so long as they aren’t banned in the format)
• Vintage (all sets and products are legal, no bans, only restrictions meaning only one copy can be played in the whole deck)
• Pauper (all sets and products are legal, but only cards that were ever printed at the common rarity can be played)
• Commander (four-player format where everyone controls a Commander that determines what their 99-card deck can play)
• Draft (players are given a booster pack and open it and pick one card and passes it down. Repeat until all contents of the pack are empty and then do the process again two more times)
• Sealed (given six booster packs and make a deck using only cards from those packs)

Frequently Asked Questions

Is MTG Arena replacing Magic Online?

Effectively, yes. MTG Arena has completely replaced MTG Online. It’s Free to Play model really benefits it as you can just jump into games so easily.

Are people still playing MTG Online?

MTGO still has a fairly consistent player-base. While it’s not active as you would consider MTGA, there’s still a healthy amount of players.