Thoughts Online vs Arena for New Player?
Thoughts Online vs Arena for New Player?
My wife and I just recently got into MTG and decided we want our focus to be paper, but we also like the idea of digital as we learn since it forces us to play by the rules and we can use it to test out things we're unsure about. We also like the idea of digital for times when we can't be bothered to break out decks and such. So while we'll primarily focus on paper we will invest some into digital.
We're still deciding on which digital platform to really invest our resources into, though. I like MTGO for its "close to paper as possible" philosophy, but I get the impression Arena is golden child of Wizards and likely to have more staying power long term. The ability to play Arena pretty much anywhere, including mobile, is a big benefit as well.
So for the more seasoned players out there that may have focused on one or the other, or even both, what's your experience been? Why did you lean into one versus the other?
I play both. I have much more money invested in Arena, but on MTGO I play Penny Dreadful which has been amazing fun and the absolute cheapest format I've ever played. There's literally nothing to lose investment wise for PD.
Personally I'm a bigger fan of Arena. It's not super new player friendly, but of the two, it's definitely friendly-er, imo, and you can play completely for free. Also, I'm a big fan of the Best-of-1 format being a thing on Arena. Makes playing much less of a time commitment, which is really nice.
The only thing about Arena that bugs me right now is Alchemy, which isn't something that's necessarily a problem with everybody, but is pretty hard to get away from, unfortunately.
I've played on both at different times. Currently I'm on Arena doing the F2P thing. But the reason I'm not on MTGO is primarily because of tech issues on my end, not any objections to the platform.
I'll agree with everything that's been said so far in this thread. I'd also add that Arena is a more user-friendly experience overall. It has nicer graphics, fewer bugged cards, and it handles a lot of the fiddly decisions for you automatically, like the way it chooses which lands to tap. Veteran or high-level players may chafe at the lack of control or the shallower card pool, but it sounds like that's not where you are in your Magic career right now.
But one of the big drawbacks to Arena is that it doesn't support having more than two players in a game. If Commander is your format of choice then that might be a reason to explore MTGO.
Whichever you choose, having software that enforces the rules automatically is a great way to learn Magic and develop good play habits.
Thanks for the info! I've seen the lack of multiplayer formats as a recurring negative for Arena, but thankfully it's just my wife and I with no real interest (yet) in going beyond that.
I think we'll keep an eye on MTGO, though, because eventually we'll probably want to try something like Commander out. Since we're social distancing enthusiasts it's unlikely we'll look for a local group to play with (nobody in our circle of friends plays MTG) so having a digital option for that will be awesome.
As a fellow social distancing enthusiast, I can certainly appreciate that.
The social angle brings up another important difference: MTGO has chat functionality and Arena doesn't (actually I think Arena does have chat but only with people who are on your friends list, or something). But I'm the kind of person who sees Arena's lack of chat as a positive. I've heard from enough salty opponents to last me a lifetime.