Magic: The Gathering Arena Comes to iOS

Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast has at last brought Magic: The Gathering Arena, the esports version of the popular trading card game, to iOS players. Though I was involved in the open beta for the PC version of the game, I quickly found that I disliked the point-and-click gameplay—I lost some matches purely by failing to click the right thing within the available time window. For a long time now, I’ve wished I could use to play it on iPad, to replicate for my favorite trading card game the positive experience I’ve had running Pokémon TCG Online. Unfortunately, mobile options for Arena only became available this year, and initially only to Android users. Though we’re a full year into the COVID-19 pandemic at this point, the wait has been well worth it for iOS users.

Having now played Magic: The Gathering Arena a fair bit on both iPad and iPhone, I’m pleased—surprised, even—with how well the game’s design has transitioned to mobile devices. Playing Magic, or any esports card game, is so much more intuitive via touchscreen than on a point-and-click device, and I find that the game plays as fluidly as competing games like Hearthstone and Legends of Runeterra. More importantly, for a longtime fan of the paper version, Arena is every bit the game I know and love. As with all digital card games, players willing to spend money do have an advantage over us free players, but after a week of game time, I still eked out a fair share of wins in ranked matches. Even so, I consider myself a casual player, and having a fully tuned deck doesn’t interest me as much as having something that is truly my own, a creative invention that will both surprise and disgust my opponents.

Wizards of the Coast

This brings me to my first major criticism of Arena, which is that Commander, otherwise known as Elder Dragon Highlander and the game’s most popular casual format by a wide margin, is unavailable at this time. What the game does have is the Brawl format, which aims for a similar experience to Commander in a shorter play time. But the other thing missing is the ability to speak with and look at one’s opponents during play, which for me misses one of the most valuable things about paper Magic: the human element. Even if I could build and play my favorite Commander deck in Arena, what’s the point if I can’t see my opponent’s faces, or hear their laughter, when I do something amazing with it? It’s a suitable replacement for the game itself while we can’t meet up in person, but for fans who appreciate the social aspect of Magic as much as I do, if you can make it work, I recommend SpellTable—the fan-made platform for running the paper game online, which is now officially owned by Wizards of the Coast and was built from the ground up with Commander in mind.

My other critique of the game has to do with the cost of playing Sealed events, my favorite Magic format, surpassing even Commander. This is the format commonly played during prereleases of new Magic sets; you get six packs of cards that are yours to keep and that you use to craft a deck for the event, adding in basic lands as necessary. Arena has two forms of currency: gold, which you can earn in game and spend on everything from packs to avatars featuring the IP’s major characters, and gems, which you purchase with real-world currency. At this time, you can only play Sealed events using Gems, meaning they are strictly pay to play, while you can play everything else using gold (or gems if you prefer) as long as you have enough saved up. As much as I love Sealed, and anticipate the upcoming Strixhaven: School of Mages set being a blast to play in Sealed format, I can’t justify having to spend cash in order to participate. There’s just something that bothers me about paying for cards that don’t exist in the real world, and while that may be more about me than a flaw in the game’s payment system, it somewhat diminishes my love of the app overall.

Wizards of the Coast

These criticisms aside, though, Magic: The Gathering Arena is a free-to-play game for the most part, and if you’re an iOS user who’s been thirsting for more Magic while abiding by local restrictions—especially when you’re at work or on the go with some time to kill—it can’t hurt to give this game a shot.