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You can buy packs of a set of your choice on the Store tab. One pack cost 1000 Gold or 200 Gems (3 packs for 600 Gems is the minimum though). Store packs contain 1 Rare or Mythic Rare card, 2 Uncommons, and 5 Commons. Mythic Rares appear at varying rates, depending on the set (an “approximately 1:8” rate is likely 15/121, as on paper printing sheets). A wildcard of the same rarity may be randomly present instead, no more than one of each rarity in a pack. Every pack opened also increments both wildcard wheels by one segment (see below).
“Duplicate protection” for Rares and Mythics in store packs means you can’t get a 5th copy. If you don’t have all the Rares in a given set, you are guaranteed a new Rare, same for Mythics (but no upgrade/downgrade). If you collected all of them, you get 20/40 Gems respectively. A somewhat underwhelming version of duplicate protection is applied to Rare and Mythic reprints with the same art: if you have a total of of 4 copies of such a card, you will only open more in packs if you collected all the other Rares from that set. This only applies to opening packs and doesn’t affect ICR at all.
Advanced info: Arena store packs only contain cards from the main set (with the Collectors Number within the set card count), see {4.6}. Arena store packs also have no slot for a common land, regardless of whether a set includes them. Basic lands are always available in Arena, but other common lands like Ravnican Gates must be obtained in Limited or crafted (unless provided to your account from the very start).
All the cards opened in Sealed, Jumpstart, or picked in Draft, except for Cube events, are added to your collection immediately/after drafting ends.
Limited boosters resemble paper Draft boosters: they contain 1 Rare or Mythic Rare card, 3 Uncommons, 10 Commons, and a land — if there are nonbasic lands in the common slot for the set. There are no foils or tokens and no cards outside of the main set. Limited boosters never contain wildcards and do not increment wildcard wheels.
Limited packs only have duplicate protection in the form of gems: you can open a 5th copy of a Rare or a Mythic that turn into 20/40 Gems.
ICRs are randomly chosen cards given out as rewards for playing, in events and in the mastery pass. The rarity and pool vary, but unless stated otherwise, these are Uncommons uniformly chosen from Standard sets, with a chance to be upgraded to a Rare; Rares have a chance to be upgraded to a Mythic. ICRs only have duplicate protection in the form of gems: you will get 20/40 Gems for 5th copies of Rares and Mythics.
The most common source of ICRs is daily wins: every other from 5th to 15th. Constructed events and sometimes special events also award ICRs.
You can turn wildcards into cards of the same rarity 1:1. Wildcards are obtained in three ways:
Randomly from packs. On average, you need 3 packs to open a Common wildcard, 5 packs for an Uncommon, 30 for a Rare and a Mythic.
From two wildcard wheels present in the top right of the Packs tab. Every six opened packs you get a guaranteed Uncommon wildcard, and every six opened packs (shifted by 3) you get a guaranteed Rare wildcard, except that every 30th pack it’s a Mythic one.
From the Vault. The Vault compensates players for 5th copies of Commons and Uncommons. It fills for 0.1% per extra Common and for 0.3% per extra Uncommon. The Vault becomes visible at 100% as a chest icon next to the currencies at the top. Clicking the chest subtracts 100% from the Vault progress and provides you with 1 Mythic, 2 Rare, and 3 Uncommon wildcards.
It confuses some new players but you can craft a card you have no copies of. Just turn on “Not Collected” filter in the Collection, for example.
Also known as “battle pass” in some games. While not a separate way to expand your collection, it’s a combination of other things. Based on the four first set masteries, the following can be expected:
You advance in the set mastery by gaining experience from daily quests (500 XP), daily wins (25 per win for 10 wins a day) and weekly wins (250 per win for 15 wins a week). The latter reset on Sundays (9:00 UTC). That makes at most 9000 XP per week. One level is 1000 XP.
There are two “tracks” in which you advance simultaneously.
The free track provides rewards for everyone: a pack of the set every second level (normally to the count of 3 packs per week of the set “lifetime”), and 5 Orbs to insert into the Set Mastery Tree.
The paid track, the actual mastery pass, provides a lot of value, breaking even somewhat ahead of the middle of the track. You get packs, Mythic Rare ICRs, Gold, and some Gems back (see below).
There are two price options for paid track: 3400 Gems and 5400 Gems. The latter advances you 10 levels immediately. You also can buy individual levels for 250 Gems. If you’re not interested in cosmetics, you never need anything but the 3400 Gems option.
The maximum mastery level depends on the period between sets. Beyond that point paid track levels award Uncommon ICRs (upgradable, 5%).
WotC seemingly settled on the key rewards for the Mastery pass, but some details vary, check before buying. For Adventures in Forgotten Realsm it’s the following:
20 packs of Standard sets (same total as before, 4 AFR packs);
1200 Gems (=M21, ZNR, KHM and STX, ↑400 to IKO, ↓600 to THB, ↓800 to ELD and M20);
4000 Gold (same since THB, down 6000 compared to ELD and M20);
10 Mythic ICRs (same since ELD, but like in ZNR, KHM and STX, only AFR Mythics);
Player draft entry token (same since as THB, none before that);
Cosmetics (more or less the same as before, with some set specifics, e.g. ZNR had emotes, STX had avatars in the Mastery Tree, AFR has a set of sleeves).
Even though Gems are a premium currency, 3400 Gems could be obtained via drafting. Unless drafting makes you nauseous, it may be worth doing. However for purely Limited players the pass provides fairly little value.
Set mastery closes/changes on the next set release. Orbs are set-specific and no XP towards previous set masteries can be gained. If you don’t expect to get over level 35–40 (roughly, depends on max level) of the mastery in time, do not buy the pass, wait for the next set.
On top of regular XP sources, there could be events or codes providing XP. Some are expected towards the end of a set as a way to “catch up”. Besides, with a set release patch all the regular sources are refreshed: 3 new quests are given, weekly and daily win counts are reset.
Cards from Planeswalker decks or from supplemental products like Throne of Eldraine’s Brawl decks, buy-a-box promos, and other promotional cards are accessible on Arena if they are legal in one of the Arena formats, but they do not appear in store packs nor Limited boosters.
These cards can’t be ICRs, and “duplicate protection” doesn’t help to get them either, as it only applies to Rares and Mythics coming from packs. The only way to obtain cards from outside the main set is to craft them with wildcards or via special events. The way to tell whether the card is from the main set is to see its Collector Number below the text box. Cards in the main set will have it within the set card count, e.g. 087/254.
Unfortunately, Arena doesn’t display that. Use -?booster query in the Collection search bar (along with other wanted filters) to see cards unobtainable from packs. On the web, this example query finds such cards from Core Set 2021. Fortunately, most of them are unfit or underpowered for Standard: of the out-of-booster cards available on Arena only three have seen competitive play so far (two buy-a-box promos and a Brawl deck commander).