My understanding before Magic, based on playing other card games like Gwent and HearthStone, was decks are the things you have to spend time - quite a lot of time - building.

It's a remarkable dual-existence I don't think any other card game has, with both elements mutually benefitting the other.īut it's this notion of decks that Arena has really surprised me with. Imagine having the opportunity to own them in real-life: would you want to? I bet you would and that's what's going on here: you can touch and feel them, you can take them with you, you can own them. Think about the cards you use all the time in HearthStone or another game: you must have your favourites or those you hate. Arena also breathes life into them with animations and sound effects, and the more you come across certain cards in Arena, the more you'll build up a sort of relationship with them, so that when you look through your physical deck again, you'll know the cards within in a different way. Pre-built decks come with a code you redeem in Arena's store and it's very satisfying seeing the cards woosh into the game as if pulled in from real-life. Strengthening this bond is the ability to import decks from real-life into Arena, meaning you have an incentive to physically own them. It means I never have to refer to the manual, as it were. It plays the role of an expert sitting with me telling me what I can and can't do, someone who highlights my options while also keeping track of all the dizzying numbers and buffs and abilities in play. Instead, they serve each other.Īrena plays a crucial role for someone like me still learning the game (and it has played a crucial role for everyone stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic unable to get out and play Magic face-to-face).

One isn't out to cannibalise another because obviously that would be stupid. OK so what? But what's special about this online card game is the role it plays alongside an existing physical card game. I play Magic pretty much every day, even when I'm supposed to be working, and it's all because of Arena.Īrena is the quite-new free-to-play online game which came out properly in 2019. Did I want to play a complicated game with snooty people? No I did not. When a friend once snootily told me HearthStone was a simplified version of Magic and eww how could I play it, I thought it was all I ever needed to know about it. I'm really excited about Magic: The Gathering and I never thought I would be, never ever.

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