Magic: The Gathering Arena

 PC
User Score
2.9

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 209 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 45 out of 209
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 209
  3. Negative: 147 out of 209

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  1. Skarr89
    Jan 30, 2021
    0
    The game shuffle is rigged, the game many times "decide" u have to lose. You pay to play this game and you mull to 4 each time no lands or only lands, you keep a good hand never see land again, this game is so rigged played alot and I stop playing it cause even if u are a good player u will lose or if the "machine" decides u have to lose. Try wasting money and play and win some drafts andThe game shuffle is rigged, the game many times "decide" u have to lose. You pay to play this game and you mull to 4 each time no lands or only lands, you keep a good hand never see land again, this game is so rigged played alot and I stop playing it cause even if u are a good player u will lose or if the "machine" decides u have to lose. Try wasting money and play and win some drafts and u will the game saying in your face "not so fast man u wining to much" mulling after mulling no lands or only lands for 14 turn (yeh that happens). Playing game cards like magic only in paper, these type of game just wants to suck your money , if u keep wining u get gems and if u get gems u can draft again, so a player that wins dont need to waste money on gems, so the players need to lose get it?… Expand
  2. scotyM
    Feb 21, 2021
    0
    vc deve conhecer games pay to win, mas não viu o magic, ele elevou um novo nível onde o jogo passa a ilusão de ser totalmente gratuito porem se alguém encher o rabo de cash vc vai tomar uma surra atrás da outra o jogo não tem balance entre player vc vai jogar contra um cara com cartas fodonas e vc com baralho inicial se quer jogar o magic prepare-se pra ser sofrer derrotas consecutivas evc deve conhecer games pay to win, mas não viu o magic, ele elevou um novo nível onde o jogo passa a ilusão de ser totalmente gratuito porem se alguém encher o rabo de cash vc vai tomar uma surra atrás da outra o jogo não tem balance entre player vc vai jogar contra um cara com cartas fodonas e vc com baralho inicial se quer jogar o magic prepare-se pra ser sofrer derrotas consecutivas e ser saco de pancada pra quem paga… Expand
  3. TheNihilist
    Mar 6, 2021
    0
    Very slow and incompetent development. Terrible interface. The matchmaking and shuffler of the game is rigged. Non-existent quality of life improvements over the years

    For a company that makes millions of dollars by exploiting their customers, they have very little regard for the quality of life the game offers its players. For example. Many players have been requesting an in-game    Very slow and incompetent development. Terrible interface. The matchmaking and shuffler of the game is rigged. Non-existent quality of life improvements over the years

    For a company that makes millions of dollars by exploiting their customers, they have very little regard for the quality of life the game offers its players. For example. Many players have been requesting an in-game REPORT BUTTON but they have not implemented one until now. How do you then report players that use Asian characters in their usernames?

    They game's idle timers are constantly being abused by rage idlers. 1 out of 2 games you have to wait several minutes for the game to end while your opponent idles. It gives your opponent 2 extra idle counters after it's used up the accumulated ones. The game has been out for many years and the developers refuse to address this problem. The netcode doesn't allow the server to detect if someone is idling or got disconnected so that's just a clear example of how INCOMPETENT the developers are. Instead of hiring more people to improve development, they focus all their efforts on money-making features. Wizards of the Coast = pure greed.

    When you buy packs with gold there's no option to buy more than 1 pack and you have to click 3 times to buy 1 pack. You can imagine how tedious it is if you're buying 100 packs .

    The user score here also shows why they refuse to launch on Steam. They know they're going to get mostly negative reviews. Wizards of the Coast are cowards who refuse to make needed improvements.    … Expand
  4. gudura24
    Mar 29, 2021
    0
    Rigged garbage,the same decks that are played in silver are played in the top rank because there is a forced 50 percent winrate,the mechanics itself are so repetitive that it becomes a chore not something you are supposed to enjoy.You can play banned cards in the historic format so whats the point of banning them?When i started playing i reached diamond now i cant get out of silver becauseRigged garbage,the same decks that are played in silver are played in the top rank because there is a forced 50 percent winrate,the mechanics itself are so repetitive that it becomes a chore not something you are supposed to enjoy.You can play banned cards in the historic format so whats the point of banning them?When i started playing i reached diamond now i cant get out of silver because when the game wants you to loose you are gonna loose.I suggested one of my friends to play it but he coudnt pass the tutorial since there is a specific glitch in one of the matches that makes the tutorial unpassable,do yourself a favor and stay away from this… Expand
  5. huh7600
    Jun 5, 2021
    0
    This game is really fun until the game decides you need to spend money. Then it very quickly becomes "Lose Repeatedly Simulator". After my third game of 1 land in hand after 3 mulligans (24 lands in a 60 card deck), I got the message, Wizards. Uninstalled.
  6. TooLateBlue
    Jun 8, 2021
    0
    Magic itself is a wonderful card game. The Arena UI is honestly pretty great all things considered. That said, the game is 100% rigged and Wizards of the Coast should be formally investigated by the FTC for stealing people's money under the guise of a fair gameplay experience.

    The matchmaker is rigged. The shuffler is rigged. Drafts are rigged. Bo1/Bo3; doesn't matter. AI is in control    Magic itself is a wonderful card game. The Arena UI is honestly pretty great all things considered. That said, the game is 100% rigged and Wizards of the Coast should be formally investigated by the FTC for stealing people's money under the guise of a fair gameplay experience.

    The matchmaker is rigged. The shuffler is rigged. Drafts are rigged. Bo1/Bo3; doesn't matter. AI is in control of your every move no matter what deck you decide to play. Occasionally it feels like the game lets up and you get a few "natural" back-and-forth games in, but it's not worth wading through the sea of fecal matter that makes up the MTG Arena experience. God draws, elongated win/loss streaks, land floods, constant opportunistic matchmaking... it's almost like some deity told Wizards to "make the most miserable game you possibly can". They succeeded.

    After nearly three years of playing this game almost every day I've had enough. The gameplay experience is never, ever going to get better, Wizards is never going to become an honest or transparent company right down to the sycophants that defend them at all costs on their official forums, and it's not worth the rage-inducing strife to get an occasional good game.

    Do yourself a favor and skip this one. It's a waste of time and, god-forbid you're crazy enough to open your wallet to these crooks, money.    … Expand
  7. AWShaki
    Jun 17, 2021
    0
    Total waste of Time if you ever played real Magic. Either you pay thousands of dollars to unlock the meta decks, or get wrecked. Even if you get the cards for the meta Decks it's limited fun, because everyone plays the same boring Decks over and over. And if you try to play a semi-strong Deck that's not the top meta, you get screwed by the shuffle algorithm or the Matchmaking. Today iTotal waste of Time if you ever played real Magic. Either you pay thousands of dollars to unlock the meta decks, or get wrecked. Even if you get the cards for the meta Decks it's limited fun, because everyone plays the same boring Decks over and over. And if you try to play a semi-strong Deck that's not the top meta, you get screwed by the shuffle algorithm or the Matchmaking. Today i again wasted 1h "playing" this game. 100% on the draw of course. And 11 of those matches were perfect counter-decks against mine. I don't get why wotc is not able to implement a normal way of matchmaking or shuffling. Shuffle is random and not "shuffle n times and pick the best hand (by another stupid algorithm) to present it to the player"... so many times the Deck is shuffled in a way, that you draw always the same cards that are in your starting hand. I am happy to stepped away from standard a long time ago to play commander (which is of course not supported in MTGA!).… Expand
  8. Disinflicted
    Jun 23, 2021
    0
    Long story short: MTGA matches you accordng to a hidden Match making rating. If you're ever good with a deck in any game mode you build a high MMR and you're doomed to lose with all weaker decks, even on the lowest rank possible.
    ----------------------
    I made an account just to warn people about this game, please heed my warning. I absolute LOVE Paper Magic, I can't get enough of it,    Long story short: MTGA matches you accordng to a hidden Match making rating. If you're ever good with a deck in any game mode you build a high MMR and you're doomed to lose with all weaker decks, even on the lowest rank possible.
    ----------------------
    I made an account just to warn people about this game, please heed my warning.
    I absolute LOVE Paper Magic, I can't get enough of it, but this game is absolutely broken.
    Somehow they thought it was a good idea to match people based on their MMR instead of their rank.
    After building a 'Brawl' deck I played it for weeks, grinding my quests out every day, perfecting the deck more and more and honing my skills with it. Slowly but surely I got matched against better and better players which was enjoyable at the time.
    Then I decided to make a new deck because the old one got boring and I started playing 'Standard Ranked' instead of 'Brawl', starting with the lowest rank: 'Bronze 4'. Now it turns out, MTGA matches you according to your MMR, not your rank. So now my fresh, semi-decent home brew standard deck got matched against people with decks and skills on the level of my previous 'Brawl' matches. People who played their meta-tuned decks extremely well. Safe to say I lost with my imperfect deck - which is not a problem to me - though what was a problem was the amount of losses. My first day of 'Standard Ranked' I went 15 losses to 2 wins.
    Some might be salty but I figured it must be my ignorance of the meta, matchups and of course my home-brewed deck. So I went on, tried to get better, crafted cards and tried to stick it thru. Only to get destroyed again and again and again. Until today I did not manage to make it out of the Bronze rank, I don't have the wildcards to improve my deck and I can't motivate myself to spend my free time losing often enough to slowly lower my MMR.

    I can't stress enough how badly designed the matchmaking in this game is. if I could I would give it a negative score.    … Expand
  9. theasic
    Sep 30, 2021
    0
    The most dishonest card game I've ever played in a digital format. Designed to specifically to extract the maximum amount of capital out of you, this game has some of the most dastardly and crooked algorithms baked into the core of it's gameplay. If you want to play magic, do yourself an immense favor and find somewhere local to play in person, or go back and play one of their digitalThe most dishonest card game I've ever played in a digital format. Designed to specifically to extract the maximum amount of capital out of you, this game has some of the most dastardly and crooked algorithms baked into the core of it's gameplay. If you want to play magic, do yourself an immense favor and find somewhere local to play in person, or go back and play one of their digital single player implementations. Papa Hasbro only cares about the dollars and does not have a single iota of regard for fair gameplay.… Expand
  10. RGB2
    Jul 13, 2021
    0
    Magic the gathering is fun but with unbearable bad optimization and algorithm rigged shuffler its not worth your time.
  11. Saromon
    Aug 5, 2021
    0
    I played 5+ yrs of paper mtg got out due to cost this is a horrific replacement. I don't claim to understand all the coding but never have I played in this without constant mana flood or nothing almost no in-between. I tried prebuilt, homebrew, and meta no change. Spent $100 in it and regret every cent and every hour of my 50-70hrs play time.
    Anyway point is this isn't a decent or even    I played 5+ yrs of paper mtg got out due to cost this is a horrific replacement. I don't claim to understand all the coding but never have I played in this without constant mana flood or nothing almost no in-between. I tried prebuilt, homebrew, and meta no change. Spent $100 in it and regret every cent and every hour of my 50-70hrs play time.
    Anyway point is this isn't a decent or even tolerable substitute for paper mtg since its pay-to-win anyway almost matching real costs if not for fusing but $100 only got me 3-4 decks (viable decks). I'd literally rather flip paper cards than do this bs anymore. Also community is time stalling trash 50-70% of the time.    … Expand
  12. Swaid
    Aug 27, 2021
    0
    Do you want to play Magic the Gathering with most of the best parts about the game stripped away and barely able to function? Then boy how do I have the game for you! Magic the Gathering: Arena! All your Magic the Gathering needs in one inconvenient place! Enjoy games that crash a lot or just don't let you play it at all? I can't even log in as i write this review and play the game itself!Do you want to play Magic the Gathering with most of the best parts about the game stripped away and barely able to function? Then boy how do I have the game for you! Magic the Gathering: Arena! All your Magic the Gathering needs in one inconvenient place! Enjoy games that crash a lot or just don't let you play it at all? I can't even log in as i write this review and play the game itself! What a feature! I can't wait to see what Blunders of the Cost come up with next.… Expand
  13. encarvlucas
    Jun 22, 2022
    0
    Unplayable mess stuffed with predatory monetization and bad consumer practices. Bugs are rampant, server issues and constant crashes.
  14. pftbfkfvnu
    Oct 25, 2021
    0
    Such **** that I want to puke. The only thing that is interesting in this game is to collect a collection and **** off from the greed of developers. You would at least improve the service, and not introduce another donation.
  15. JarlOfJarylton
    Sep 15, 2022
    0
    This game is the fattest, peanut riddled, frothy, piece of **** I've ever played in my life and I've played nearly any game you could think to name that is an RPG, RTS, MOBA, MMORPG, Isometric, ARPG.

    I have never. In my life — felt more raped after investing in a game, in my life. I mean that. DO NOT DO IT! Play the original!! HERE I'll give you the link    This game is the fattest, peanut riddled, frothy, piece of **** I've ever played in my life and I've played nearly any game you could think to name that is an RPG, RTS, MOBA, MMORPG, Isometric, ARPG.

    I have never. In my life — felt more raped after investing in a game, in my life. I mean that. DO NOT DO IT! Play the original!! HERE I'll give you the link https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgo OR GO FIND IT ON YOUR OWN IDC BUT TRUST ME YOU ARE MAKING A HUGE MISTAKE!!

    The so called, "Random Number Generator" Algorithm, that WOC uses is festered with intentional loss stratagems built into the code. Which can make you lose 20 times in a row with an AAA deck. You can be matched against counter decks, given 3 of the same creature in your opening hand along with 1 land and 3, 5-drops in 9/10 games in a row or a mixture of this all because WOC decides you have "won/played enough for today". Basically telling you to go f^(& yourself. I have never in 20 years of MTG competitively or for fun — seen this type of "randomness" and that says a lot. I have been witness to every type of Korean RNG algorithm you can imagine (BDO, BnS, TERA,, etc) and have never experienced treachery to this extent.

    No game should EVER, EVER intentionally, force a player to lose for ANY reason. Let the RNG system do it's FU$*#* job!!! SCUM!!    … Expand
  16. Ph4Ek4Tt
    Dec 5, 2021
    0
    Completely predatory game model. Don't start playing this game unless you want your wallet raped by greedy corporate scum.
  17. LaGuerra
    Dec 10, 2021
    0
    After 3 years WOTC decided ruin every ethernal formats in arena with forcing players to stupid Alchemy cards
  18. infantryman9244
    May 18, 2022
    0
    This game caters to whales really hard. the shuffler algo is broken and will not be fixed even tho they have been told too many times. the "support" team is a joke only copy/paste responses. game is full of cheaters as well and yes you can cheat the game. i love the real card game but this shell of a game is a joke even the mechanics are broken! stay away from this game!!
  19. V01DRenegade
    Jan 30, 2022
    0
    The game is absolutely rigged. Situations that should happen once in a hundred games happens almost every other games. You or your opponent will routinely draw all copies of a single card within 10 turns. I played my fair share of MTG irl and let me tell you drawing 3 or 4 copies of a card almost never happens unless the game draws out to 20+ turns. The game will mess with you every way itThe game is absolutely rigged. Situations that should happen once in a hundred games happens almost every other games. You or your opponent will routinely draw all copies of a single card within 10 turns. I played my fair share of MTG irl and let me tell you drawing 3 or 4 copies of a card almost never happens unless the game draws out to 20+ turns. The game will mess with you every way it can. It will give you too little mana or too much. Your opponent will routinely and conveniently draw the single card that can clutch save him and screw your game plan over. I'm not saying these situations should never happen but I know enough about probabilities to understand **** when I see it, and this game is full of it. Oh and you can't even challenge your friends outside the 60 cards best of one format. Wanna brawl against a friend? Good luck that won't happen.

    Even though MTG had glaring shortcomings from the get go, Pay to Win anyone?, it was still fun to play IRL with your friends (which, again, is almost impossible in MTGA). This iteration of Magic the Gathering brought the game itself to a new low in my eyes. I wish I could lower my score even more.    … Expand
  20. UnblessedBe
    Sep 17, 2022
    0
    Wizards of the Coast took the best part of MTG out of the game....being able to communicate with your opponents. MTG is a social game yet this is a shell of what it is meant to be.

    A absolute joke of a game. Shame on Wizards of the Coast for this buggy garbage with zero chat functionality. Slow paced, buggy, trash. it's also so much fun playing against players who run down the clock on    Wizards of the Coast took the best part of MTG out of the game....being able to communicate with your opponents. MTG is a social game yet this is a shell of what it is meant to be.

    A absolute joke of a game. Shame on Wizards of the Coast for this buggy garbage with zero chat functionality. Slow paced, buggy, trash. it's also so much fun playing against players who run down the clock on you just out of spite wasting your time.    … Expand
  21. back1
    Jul 3, 2022
    0
    Pay to win game. It algorith will asure you won't open meta high used rares and mythic cards, and will get unfavorable matchups and draws unless you spend big bucks within the game. Extremely frustrating.
  22. juanparranda
    Nov 18, 2022
    0
    cada vez se hace un juego mas pay to win, con el tiempo quienes no son capacez de costear las cartas de nuevas ediciones evidentemente sufren de malos pairing, robos para nada aleatorio, donde claramente es un exceso de tierras o una completa nulidad de esta, nisiquiera el mulligan permite a los jugadores acomodar las manos, 5 de cada 6 partidas en mis manos aparecen dos tierras paracada vez se hace un juego mas pay to win, con el tiempo quienes no son capacez de costear las cartas de nuevas ediciones evidentemente sufren de malos pairing, robos para nada aleatorio, donde claramente es un exceso de tierras o una completa nulidad de esta, nisiquiera el mulligan permite a los jugadores acomodar las manos, 5 de cada 6 partidas en mis manos aparecen dos tierras para despues no volvera a salirme tierras, es mas que nada frustrante querer jugar un juego competitivo no para ser el mejor, si no para ir subiendo escalones acorde a los mazos pero que se encargue de hacer pasar malos ratos, estoy casi seguro que si alguien capaz de entrar a los datos del juego revisa el randomizador de los mazos esta manipulado, deprimente que solo piensen en el dinero y que reciban siempre top decks quienes tienen todos los comodines gastados en las nuevas ediciones… Expand
  23. perp
    Dec 13, 2022
    0
    Do not play this trash game! Do not give wizards your money! Force them to fix it! The match making is garbage. The economy is garbage. The interactions do not work how they should. It is pay to win not only because you need to build a collection, but it's pretty blatantly obvious that if you pay more money the game favors you. As far as cash grabs go, it's 100% that. Do not waste yourDo not play this trash game! Do not give wizards your money! Force them to fix it! The match making is garbage. The economy is garbage. The interactions do not work how they should. It is pay to win not only because you need to build a collection, but it's pretty blatantly obvious that if you pay more money the game favors you. As far as cash grabs go, it's 100% that. Do not waste your time and spend your money on the physical game or if you need to play mtg online, play the online variant and not this dumpsterfire.… Expand
  24. Bethrezzzen
    Dec 21, 2022
    0
    Absolutely random donation dump. Artificially complicated and incredibly boring. Waste of time and money
  25. aburb
    Jan 4, 2023
    0
    The game gives an idea that it could be fun when you start but it is just very harsh and not enjoyable when you really get into it.
  26. dorble
    Jan 5, 2023
    0
    This game is really bad. I could give you an explanation of how and why but I don't need to. When you start this game it tricks you into thinking it is fun and cool with an intro that is NOT AT ALL what the actual game is like. Then you get into it. And the real game is awful. You'll feel it. Go ahead. Go suffer
  27. Sephrix
    Jan 11, 2023
    0
    First things first, I love magic. I've been playing almost every week for years with my friends at my local game store. I still love the game.

    Magic arena has almost destroyed my enjoyment of the game entirely since its release. If you are a new player, avoid this game entirely and instead talk to friends that play the game and see about getting into it that way. Trust me, it'll be more    First things first, I love magic. I've been playing almost every week for years with my friends at my local game store. I still love the game.

    Magic arena has almost destroyed my enjoyment of the game entirely since its release. If you are a new player, avoid this game entirely and instead talk to friends that play the game and see about getting into it that way. Trust me, it'll be more enjoyable.

    At first I thought this would be a wonderful practice tool as I was working towards more competitive play at the time but the more I played the more I realised this was going to be the worst thing to happen to magic ever.

    The meta has become a stagnant pool of the same cards put into the same 3/4 decks over and over. I played 20 games yesterday and 18 of them were against the same deck which is the defacto #1 deck in the meta with a 60%+ win rate. The meta was solved the day the sets became available online. It used to be a process of people finding fun jank to play with and sometimes things would stick but now it's a case of 99% of players online copy/pasting the exact same mythic deck that someone posted on untapped or whatever other tool people use to netdeck these days.

    I used to at least enjoy the games but with the cards wizards have printed lately there's no diversity in any of the metagames. It's the same cards over and over and over from standard through to historic because they were printed to be busted and sell packs and guess what, the cards are totally busted.

    I find myself constantly disappointed with arena despite being someone who has given it chance after chance to be redeemed.    … Expand
  28. Martin_D
    May 26, 2023
    0
    Yeah, this game blows big time.
    25 lands in Your deck? - no lands drawn in 4 to 5 turns.
    19 lands in Your deck? - get flooded for 4 to 5 turns.
    Toxic community, shady business practices from WOTC and don't expect to have fun playing the game.
    But please, don' forget spend some money in the shop on Your way out!
  29. HappyGilmore
    May 27, 2023
    0
    I hope You know by now that You shouldn't believe any of these shill critics and fake reviews that actually endorse this game. If You've ever played paper Magic and have decided to play this trash game a few very important things will become evident quite fast. Arena is laughably and obviously rigged. The shuffler, the matchmaking, the cards in the booster packs and the games themselves.I hope You know by now that You shouldn't believe any of these shill critics and fake reviews that actually endorse this game. If You've ever played paper Magic and have decided to play this trash game a few very important things will become evident quite fast. Arena is laughably and obviously rigged. The shuffler, the matchmaking, the cards in the booster packs and the games themselves. Do Yourself a massive favor and never play this garbage. It might actually kill Your affection for the IRL version… Expand
  30. ChickensBrother
    May 31, 2023
    0
    Your interaction with this "game" will look like this on most days:

    1. Launch game 2. Jump into standard match to get some daily wins 3. Concede the mach before even looking at Your hand because the first 2-3 games of the day are rigged to be forced losses 4. Repeat steps #2 and #3 2-3 times 5. Get a forced win 6. Repeat whole process until satisfied with number of daily wins 7.    Your interaction with this "game" will look like this on most days:

    1. Launch game
    2. Jump into standard match to get some daily wins
    3. Concede the mach before even looking at Your hand because the first 2-3 games of the day are rigged to be forced losses
    4. Repeat steps #2 and #3 2-3 times
    5. Get a forced win
    6. Repeat whole process until satisfied with number of daily wins
    7. Alt+F4 game during Your last mach to rope someone, come back tomorrow

    Sounds like fun to You?    … Expand
Page:

Awards & Rankings

28
#28 Best PC Game of 2018
27
#27 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 28, 2020
    100
    An excellent and faithful conversion of the iconic card game into a very welcoming computer free-to-play form. This is a hit. [Issue#300]
  2. Vandal
    Dec 18, 2019
    90
    This is the definitive Magic experience on PC. It’s free-to-play, but it’s incredibly well balanced and lets us enjoy it without hassle. If you enjoy card-based games, give it a try.
    Read full review
  3. GameSpace
    Dec 6, 2019
    80
    Magic: The Gathering Arena is an excellent entry point into the twenty-six-year-old franchise for new players and lovable for veteran players as well. While it’s generally a very fun experience, it’s not without technical issues.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »