Arena has completely changed my mind about Magic: The Gathering Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Arena has completely changed my mind about Magic: The Gathering Cardly believe it. Feature by Robert Purchese Senior Staff Writer Updated on 30 Jul 2020 21 comments I'm really excited about Magic: The Gathering and I never thought I would be, never ever. When a friend once snootily told me HearthStone was a simplified version of Magic and eww how could I play it, I thought it was all I ever needed to know about it. Did I want to play a complicated game with snooty people? No I did not. But now I'm hooked. I play Magic pretty much every day, even when I'm supposed to be working, and it's all because of Arena. Arena is the quite-new free-to-play online game which came out properly in 2019. OK so what? But what's special about this online card game is the role it plays alongside an existing physical card game. One isn't out to cannibalise another because obviously that would be stupid. Instead, they serve each other. Arena plays a crucial role for someone like me still learning the game (and it has played a crucial role for everyone stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic unable to get out and play Magic face-to-face). It plays the role of an expert sitting with me telling me what I can and can't do, someone who highlights my options while also keeping track of all the dizzying numbers and buffs and abilities in play. It means I never have to refer to the manual, as it were. All I have to think about is strategy. This is Jumpstart. A few clicks and you have a new deck. Strengthening this bond is the ability to import decks from real-life into Arena, meaning you have an incentive to physically own them. Pre-built decks come with a code you redeem in Arena's store and it's very satisfying seeing the cards woosh into the game as if pulled in from real-life. Arena also breathes life into them with animations and sound effects, and the more you come across certain cards in Arena, the more you'll build up a sort of relationship with them, so that when you look through your physical deck again, you'll know the cards within in a different way. Think about this a bit. Think about the cards you use all the time in HearthStone or another game: you must have your favourites or those you hate. Imagine having the opportunity to own them in real-life: would you want to? I bet you would and that's what's going on here: you can touch and feel them, you can take them with you, you can own them. It's a remarkable dual-existence I don't think any other card game has, with both elements mutually benefitting the other. But it's this notion of decks that Arena has really surprised me with. My understanding before Magic, based on playing other card games like Gwent and HearthStone, was decks are the things you have to spend time - quite a lot of time - building. I don't think I have ever typically had more than a few because of the time-investment required. It puts me off. But Magic does things a bit differently. Yes you have the ability to build your own decks exactly how you like them but Arena also just gives you them, and rather a lot of them too. Right now I have 19 and I've only been playing for a month. Watch on YouTube Here's me playing Jumpstart. The sound effects and music in Arena are lovely. These aren't just half-built or quickly rushed decks, they're well thought out collections built around a few key ideas with lots of combination potential. And Magic just gave them to me. I was given decks for completing tutorials, one for each colour, which are Magic's different themes for playing the game, and I am rewarded with them every so often for levelling up (the game has a battle pass and it seems to work really well). The decks that really stood out, though, were given while playing the timed Jumpstart and Flash Forward events. In Jumpstart's case, you pay a small in-game fee (which you will have more than enough free money for) to play. The game then asks you a couple of questions about the kind of deck you'd like before building it on the spot for you. You then play with it for as long as you like, earning rewards the more wins you can string together with it, before opting to "resign" and do it all over again with a new deck. The decks you really like you can one-click save to your collection too. My favourite was the Tree-Hugging Hippies deck it built for me, based around green cards and blue. The decks in Flash Forward are even more exciting, except you can't save them because they're a glimpse at future cards coming to the game. Look at all those lovely decks. What I love about all of this is there's no downtime to trying a radically different build to one you're familiar with. You simply select another deck that looks or sounds cool and then set about figuring out how to use it. It's like picking another puzzle to figure out each time. It's a masterstroke because not only does it make the hidden complexities of Magic accessible, it showcases them, and it allows you to drink in all the decades of thought and design that have gone into this game and actually enjoy them. I've seen combos, heck I've created combos, that have made my brain melt. Sometimes I very nearly look like someone who knows what they're doing. That snootiness I thought I heard way back when I was playing HearthStone: not only does it not exist in my experience of Magic so far, it feels like the opposite. Far from holding its cards close to its chest, Arena can't seem to stop chucking them at me, like it's more concerned with showing off to newcomers than keeping its secrets hidden from them. And I'm OK with that. In fact, I'm delighted by it. I literally cannot wait to figure a scrumptious new deck of cards out, which is why I'm going to end there so I can. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. 11 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 34 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Preview Football Manager's new Console edition is the best you'll get without a PC Getting Touch-right. Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 59 Modder dives into Demon's Souls files following PS5 jailbreak, discovers fabled Ring of the Chieftain Who knows what's nexus? 3 Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store