Briefly on top questions

• • Through the introduction Arena grants you 5 simple mono-colored decks. Then “Color Challenges” open, where you unlock a few cards for these decks, more game options, wildcards, and cosmetics. Color Challenges can be skipped via Options → Account (and replayed later if needed).

  • This opens a series of daily quests that provide you 10 more starter decks (one for every color pair) over a week. {1.3.}

  • Enter codes for 3 free packs from every Standard set. {1.6.}

  • At the start, it’s reasonable to stick to the “Play” queue as it considers “deck weight” in the matchmaking. {2.2.}

  • Try Ranked though, at least for a seasonal reward. In Bronze you don’t lose progress, in Silver and Gold progress is doubled. {2.5.}

  • Also check the event schedule. Sometimes there are free-to-enter events with small prizes.

  • Once you’re acquainted with basics, switch Arena Play Modes to All Play Modes in the top right of the home screen. If you’re an experienced Magic player, you also likely want to uncheck some automation in Options → Gameplay. {1.5.}

Main ways of randomly getting cards are: opening packs {4.1.}; playing Draft, Sealed and Jumpstart {4.2.}; and getting ICR — individual card rewards for daily wins and events. {4.3.}

The way to get specific cards is to spend wildcards on them. Wildcards are scarce, especially Rare and Mythic, be prudent. Note that not all cards can be found in packs, some can only be crafted. You can craft a card even if you have no copies of it. {4.6.}

As a new player, you get Gold for daily quests and daily wins. {5.3.} Gold can be spent on packs, drafts, some cosmetics and daily deals. Gems can generally buy the same things as Gold, and more; Gems are bought with money or earned in drafts. One can try to win more Gold in events, but that usually requires a good deck. {2.3.}

You get some Gold and packs for participation in Ranked, for both ladders separately. Play at least one ranked draft game (Quick or Premier) a season (= a month) to get the ladder reward. {2.5.} You get wildcards for opening packs: some at random, some at a guaranteed pace via wildcard tracks. The only other way wildcard source is the Vault, but it’s far away for a new player (explained below). {4.4.}

This is hard to answer in a vacuum, as it depends on the everchanging meta. Top-tier, competitive decks usually use a lot of Rare and Mythic cards. Getting to one of these in the free-to-play mode will take about 2 months. Yes, playing Arena and Magic in general is a longterm project. {5.4.}

A decent budget deck will take about a month, and speaking of Arena Ranked ladder, it’s possible to compete there without investments even in the first month, but it takes time and skill. Welcome bundle is a nice jump-start. $100 will get you close to some top-tier decks right away. {5.3.}

This is somewhat subjective, but the general line seems to be:

• • • Determine a deck you want to build.

    • Buy packs, as it brings the most wildcards, till you have that deck. Try to choose a set that has various rares and uncommons from the deck.

    • If you have a deck you’re fine playing, you may opt for spending Gold on drafts instead of packs.

Why draft? Playing a lot of drafts on a set (think 30) and picking rares is a way to maximize your collection as a free-to-play player. Raredrafting is more risky in Premier and Traditional drafts though; on the other hand, playing those well speeds up the process thanks to pack rewards. {5.5.} If you don’t like Limited, you can enhance your collection via Constructed events, but that’s less reliable and more time-consuming.

Why not draft at the start? Because we have no control over draft sets offered, and you are likely to need cards from various sets, i.e. you need wildcards. There can be exceptions: if you can draft Ikoria and you want to build a cycling deck — sure, draft your constructed deck.

If you buy Gems, aim for bigger bundles (higher discount). Spending Gems on packs is fine if you have a supply, but price ratios are such that it’s better to buy packs with Gold and play drafts with Gems.

Mastery pass is great value for both paying and non-paying new players, see the next question. For cosmetics, please decide yourself if it’s “worth”.

Rule of thumb: you buy if you can reach the middle of the track by the next set release, and you skip if you can’t.

Note that you can’t infinitely grind experience. Summing all the regular sources, you may get up to 9000 XP per week, 9 levels. If you only do daily quests and 15 wins a week, you get at least 7625. If you don’t play regularly enough, the pass is not for you (honestly, in this case Arena might not be for you). If you only play Limited, the pass might not be for you. If you have completed most previous sets, the pass might not be for you.

If you don’t spend money, it’s still generally a good idea to earn Gems from drafts to buy the pass. You get some of the invested Gems back (helping to buy the next one), Gold, a draft entry ticket, several packs, some random cards, and more, depending on the set. {4.5.}

Remember that mastery track rewards are retroactive: you get all the stuff for past levels whenever you purchase the pass. So you can wait and see. The pass lasts till the release of the next Standard set, i.e. 3 months on average. As of now, the next release on Arena is scheduled to 15.04.2021 (?).

Rares and Mythics:

• • • In store packs, you don’t get 5th copies. If you have all the Rares that can be found in boosters, you get 20 Gems. For Mythics, 40 gems.

    • In Limited and as ICR you can roll 5th copies, and you get 20/40 Gems to compensate.

Commons and Uncommons from either source contribute to the Vault, 1 and 3 points respectively. Spending 1000 points, you get 1 Mythic wildcard, 2 Rare wildcards, and 3 Uncommon wildcards. Note that the Vault is not visible in the game if your progress is under 1000 points (100%).

This page on the Wizards website has this and a lot of other useful info.

You should’ve been given cards to build new, Standard-legal starter decks, at least mono-colored ones, even if you don’t see the decks themselves. Check your collection; lists to see and import are here (you’ll have to delete extra line breaks), unless updated without mention. For dual-colored starters things may not work smoothly could be different. You might need to do contact support to earn them; some players reported cards/decks appearing later by themselves.

Note that if you completed your New Player Experience before, you still can go through Color Challenges for fun, but won’t get any rewards.

With that base, you just go on like a new player would, probably having more stored resources/wildcards, and maybe some older cards still legal in Standard. You also can just play Historic. Entering the Play queue, you will be matched with Historic decks if you queued with one, and with Standard decks if you used a Standard deck.

Magic is played in a variety of formats that differ by the pool of allowed cards. Standard includer 5 to 8 latest regular sets, with 4 more released each year. (Not all released cards are intended for Standard, but Standard sets release roughly once in three months.) When another set joins Standard in September-October, 4 oldest sets leave, or rotate from Standard. This website usually has a good and precise summary of Standard. {App.A.c.}

Historic is Arena-specific non-rotating format. Any card obtainable on Arena can be played in Historic: Standard sets, ones that left Standard, and some other additions that make Historic special. Getting into Historic as a new player might be harder: more cards to learn, more cards to get.

Both Standard and Historic (and Pioneer, and more) are Constructed formats. This means that to play, you need to prepare a deck beforehand. Limited formats imply that you get the cards after joining an event, and build your deck on the spot from the limited pool you got. {2.1.}

Brawl is a special Constructed format, where you can use at most 1 copy of a card in a deck, aside from basic lands, but choose a Legendary creature or Planeswalker as a Commander, being able to cast it from a special Command Zone, without the need to draw it from your deck. Read on Brawl.