Deciding what to play may be tricky

The formats in Magic Arena open beta can be divided into two main groups – constructed and limited.

Constructed formats allow you to come up with a 60 card deck you build in advance. Limited formats are usually focused around building a 40 card deck from the card pool you select. There are five permanent constructed formats in Magic Arena at the moment and around six types of events that were held in closed beta.

It’s always best to check the event calendar that Wizards of the Coast publishes on the beta forums and twitter to make sure when certain events begin and end. Alternatively look here and select Magic Arena Events from the drop-down menu on the left.

Matchmaking Ranking (MMR) discussion is covered in the WOTC info in the hyperlinks above.

Competitive Metagame Challenge (#6), Singleton (#7), Pauper (#8), Momir (#9), Streamer Constructed Events (#10), Sealed (#13), and Streamer Draft Events (#14) are rotating formats, meaning they may not always be available. Other formats have also been present such as holiday events and flash events. We don’t have an indication if they’re ever to return and how they will change.

Constructed Event (#3) and Draft (#10) are the events with the best Expected Value (EV) that you should aim to compete in. If you have a constant winrate of 60-80% making you one of the top players in MTG you may like the high-risk high reward formats such as Traditional Constructed, Traditional Draft and Competitive Metagame Challenge.

Constructed Event should still be a safe bet for now as long as you have at least one grinding deck for this format. You need to win at least 5 games in Constructed Event with the new changes to play this format indefinitely and get the biggest bang for your buck.

One thing of note regarding formats is that another permanent format had been confirmed by the developers as being in the works is the loosely named “Arena Modern” that will feature all the cards that will rotate out of Standard so you will always be able to play your cards even if they’re not standard legal. There’s little information about it and it will likely not make an appearance before the rotation in October 2019.

Permanent Constructed Formats

For new free to play players the best and easiest way to build their collection is to focus on completing their quests for gold and sticking to Constructed Events. We’ll be discussing how to farm gold in detail in the next section.

Once you click the play button on the bottom right you’ll be granted a few options (it shows only a few modes by default):

The first format a new player encounters is the best of one (bo1) Play which might be the easiest way to start playing. It doesn’t have an entry fee and has no rewards except for completing your daily quests. Be aware though, that it uses a deck strength matching algorithm and as such you should avoid some common pitfalls such as including cards you had received from boosters to the starter decks. Furthermore, it uses matchmaking ranking so the more you play the mode the harder matchups you have, so it’s not a safe option for long.

More on this in the farming section.

Ranked is another bo1 mode of playing. You get seasonal rewards that are rather mediocre for the amount of time and effort you spend right now. However, getting to gold rank should not be a problem for casual players in its current state. We expect the ranked rewards to get a makeover as the open beta progresses.

Constructed Event requires 500 gold or 95 gems to participate in, but may have a good expected value compared to the ladder and unranked play. The main reason is due to its reward structure. You may win a maximum of 7 games and lose up to 3 games until the event ends, winning some gold and random Individual Card Rewards (ICR) to boot. More on this in the farming gold section.

Once you have followed the farming section instructions and built up at least a somewhat playable deck, you’ll likely need to switch from Play and Ranked to Constructed Event.

Traditional play is not visible by default. You need to toggle Arena Play Modes on the top right for it to show up:

It’s a best of three (bo3) format with 15 card sideboards. From January 17th 2019 it will be included in the ranked reward structure. If it will spawn a new mode called traditional ranked play, the guide will be updated accordingly.

Traditional Constructed is also only visible with the toggle. It’s a BO3 mode. The event ends with either 5 wins or two losses. If you’re a new player, avoid Traditional Constructed – it’s designed with more risk in mind as you can lose a lot of your investment by entering the format. You may potentially earn a lot if you have the best deck and are generally a top player with a high win rate in this mode.

Rotating Constructed Formats

In rotating formats there have been multiple events announced in the schedule of open beta.

In the Singleton event you construct a 60 card deck with no more than one copy of a single card except for basic lands (exceptions are sneaky rats and advisors). It’s likely to return at a different time.

Other events that had happened in closed beta had included the Pauper event. Pauper means you may only play cards of common rarity with the card pool available in Magic Arena.

There was also the Momir event which is a peculiar format that likely needs a separate guide on its own. There are some quick tips here.

We’ve had numerous Streamer constructed events. However, it’s difficult to categorize them easily as they are quite different and are likely to change considerably as the open beta progresses.

Competitive metagame challenge is a high-risk high-reward mode. You only get one shot, as the game ends if you lose even once. Entry price is 2000 gold or 400 gems. It's bo3 and if you go undefeated 7 times your prize may be an astonishing 5000 gold and 30 boosters. If you need to win at least 3 games for it to be worth it.

In closed beta Flash Events had also occurred. These had an entry fee at the same price as a booster and the possibility of getting more than one as a reward based on how well you did in the event. They had all but disappeared by the end of closed beta so we shall see if they ever make a return.

Constructed games in MTGA are held in what’s called Standard environment. Cards from Ixalan onwards will be standard legal until Q4 2019 so it’s safe to craft most cards before then. If you’d like to know more about Standard and when cards rotate, the easiest way is to visit this site that has all the relevant explanations. Once cards rotate out of Standard there will be a permanent play mode where you can play the cards you had acquired or played previously.

Alternatively, you might want to jump into limited formats.

Permanent Limited Formats

Permanent limited formats include keeper Draft. It’s a BO1 exercise where you choose cards from the available packs and build a 40 card deck. Drafting is a good way to build your collection, but requires you to understand how to draft and getting enough wins to get more draft games. You pick a card and pass the pack along against bots with different personalities. This means you can close the game at any time during the pick phase and start from where you had left off when you return.

There is a guide on limited in the Improving your Limited (Drafting) skills section. Note that you will get unlimited basic lands to choose from in all limited modes so don't pick them from boosters.

The drafts alternate between the sets. So do check out the events calendar for Magic Arena to make sure it’s a set you want to draft. Strength-wise RNA/GRN > DOM > M19 > XLN should be the order of priority for drafting. However, you may prefer some of those formats more than the others and this is only a general suggestion.

Traditional Draft is bo3 and just like Traditional Constructed it’s a high risk - high reward affair. Your entry price is at serious risk if you are not experienced and don’t have a good win rate, thus it’s not recommended for new players, but should definitely be played if you have an excellent win rate and are looking for a challenge.

Rotating Limited Formats

Sealed is a format where you open 6 packs and build a 40 card deck with. It’s currently best of one. You get rewards up to 7 victories and may lose up to 3 games until the event finishes. It’s only available with gems and the Expected Value is not as high as in most other limited formats. Unlike drafts you don’t pick which cards you get to construct your deck with. It’s dependent on what you open in the packs. Furthermore, those 6 packs don’t advance your wildcard wheels.

That being said, it's one of the friendly formats in MTG and many new players enjoy it. So if you're not risk averse and have gems to spare or simply want to feel like you're at the pre-release, this may be a format you want to play.

We’ve also had Streamer draft events with special conditions, for example each player receiving a treasure token each turn, or the cards not costing any mana. They had retained the bo1 draft entry and reward structure.

As a free to play new player you want to start with the Play format and focus on either the Constructed Event, drafting best of one or both interchangeably.

Finally, there’s a separate mode of playing called direct challenges where you can play against your friends. In this mode there are no timers and you’re free to play any type of game you want and test your decks at leisure!

To have success in any of the formats you need to know how the Magic Arena economy functions