MTG: Arena - A Guide on How to Maximize your Gold and Gems

[@FilthyRobot]

I'm embarrassed to say there are some math issues with this video. Most of the conclusions are still good. Free to play is Quests+Constructed for Gold then convert Gold->Gems via Quick Draft. However, if you are a newer player the competition is going to be easier in Quick Draft AND the pay offs are more consistent in quick draft. A 1-3 deck still gets you some resources back. In Competitive draft the rewards don't start at all until 2 wins, which means doing poorly in Competitive is more expensive that doing poorly in Quick Draft. I recommend quick draft for new players wanting to both play limited and play as much as they can for free. I'll be uploading a few more new player guides addressing this and other issues soon (tm). Much

[@azthecx]

Is this up to date with the open beta? Some values changed right?

[@pedromagalhaes3821]

Hey, Filthy. Since you've adressed that here , I'm going to ask for an advice... Maybe other people are in the same situation as me. I am a returning player. I've played magic before as a child, and I've played a lot of strategic and card games - so I'm no beginner. I've been back to Magic since Dominaria, and I've already played maybe about 50 quick drafts. I managed to get 7 wins a lot of times (my 3 last runs were 7-1, 6-3, 7-2), and i study the sets and can get those results that consistently, in my opinion. But, although I understand sideboarding reasonably, I have never ventured myself into competitive draft. I got really interested now that you said it is easier to go infinite, but you've kinda taken that back in this commentary. I am only interested in playing limited until now. What do you think I should do? Do you consider that competitive draft is still worth it for "infinite" plays? And do you think I'm ready to competitive draft?

[@santiproductions9318]

Well, I’m not filthy but I’d be happy to give my opinion (whatever it’s worth). Competitive draft tbh is not that different from normal draft. In fact, the hardest part about it is understanding the matchup you’re up against and sideboarding a few cards to better compete against it. However, since you said you study the sets (which I love doing as well), this should be no problem. For example, in Dominaria you should know that Krosan Druid is a great card to side in against Afro matchups because it is an early blocker that late game provides you with a ton of life gain. Against control, however, that is a card that you want to sideboard out since life gain isn’t valuable against them. As long as you understand your matchup and it’s weaknesses, it’s rather easy to continue going “infinite”.

[@ArmoredNeko]

If you can do consistently well in quick drafts, sure. He is talking about those players who doesn't draft very well. Just keep in mind you will spend some picks draft sideboard cards and swap them when needed. Sometimes you want to swap for a lower/higher curve to fight against a certain opponent but that's not too hard either.

[@santiproductions9318]

Sure, but he said he’s more experienced so I assumed he knew all this.

[@plaveccz3180]

Hey, I did some math myself and I have to say: If you are interested only in constructed, you should just buy the packs. Im counting with 50% winrate (when your mmr settles, you will be around 50%) which means you go in Quick draft 3-3 and 3-2 in competitive (50% wr based on overall match score and yes, you can go 2-2 or 4-2 and still be at 50% wr) Your way nets you (after the whole cycle, that ends with competitive draft) 26 packs + 800 gems (which means half of another competitive constructed) for 25000g. However 19 of these packs are draft packs which mean you dont get any wildcards, nor progress towards another wild cards. Only 7 packs can give you any WCs, which means you lost 18 packs worth of wildcards (compared to 25packs if you just bought packs). That means you lost 3 rare WCs ad 3/5 mythic WC (from WC progress), plus any random wildcards you might get from packs themselfs. So in conclusion: If you collect cards through draft, you get a more cards than if you would buy packs but if you are building towards specific deck, you need specific cards, not as much as you can get. But otherwise, nice video, it made me actualy do the math myself to find out what I want to do after final wipe.

[@matt-stam]

So just buy them with gold for 1000g a pack? Also, how does the MMR system in this game work?

[@plaveccz3180]

If you want to build specific deck as fast as possible, buy pack, if you want to as much cards as possible then use method destcribed in this video. As for MMR. In closed beta it wasnt really working. You had one MMR for all constructed queues and one MMR for all draft queue. Only extra thing is that quick play took into consideration cards in your deck.

[@matt-stam]

What's the difference between buying 1000g packs vs. just gaining cards? Isn't it all up to RNG anyway? Thanks

[@joaksannan551]

Cards are cards, but wildcards are redeemable for whatever rare you want, not just simply the rares in the packs during the drafing process. Meaning the packs would much faster result in you finishing a single spesific deck as it helps you progress towards those spesific rares by giving you wildcards, which the drafting process does not. I hope that clearifies a bit Stamden :)

[@Tyrranid]

Would it then be a good idea to play draft while building a basic collection and when you have enough cards to pick a deck which you have about halfway collected switch to just packs

[@olivierswiffer5424]

OMG ! I'm so hyped that you went into MTG Arena right when I did. I looooooved your videos on Darkest Dungeon so much !

[@timseddon1757]

Thanks you so much Filthy. Been playing for months and I've felt like I've been running up against a brick wall when it comes to generating enough gold/gems to play drafts (which i absolutely agree is the funnest part of the game). I've squandered quite a few rares to make some half-assed decks....but, i can certainly see now that I was trying to put the cart before the horse. Thanks to your video, I feel i now have a good game plan. I love all your play through videos, but its information like you've provided here that are the real gems.

[@FilthyRobot]

Glad to hear mate!

[@ShaneLang]

I was checking out the formula and I found if you pay via gems you get a better deal. (If you have the wallet for it). I also found that the Sealed Guilds of Ravnica event that you get 150% value back on 0 losses. So it's actually better to use your gems to play that than to buy decks with gems. For the cost of 2000 gems, you get back 3000 gems worth of packs/gems and more if you win 1 or more games. But your way is great for a pure free to play. I didn't realize there was a way to get games for free. Also with your quick draft, it's half price if you use gems. Again, only for those with fat wallets. Love your video and it really makes people think about how much they really trying to force you to pay. Also the extra cards that go into the vault isn't really worth it. I think I calculated about 31 cards is needed to convert it into 1 card. I might be wrong with that though.

[@pimptastic4206]

Thank you! I was playing quick drafts exclusively. Good to know I should be playing the other one!!

[@jamesputzulu8513]

just started playing and was hoping for a video like this. thank you

[@graog123]

Fucking fantastic video dude. Thank you for doing the math for those of us who did not want to do it ourselves, but value the results This is very helpful given the recent wipe

[@QuentinFlores]

Thank you for posting this! Seriously help!

[@philipgwyn8091]

You are assuming that a win in a BO1 match is the same as a win in a BO3 match. I feel this is a mistake, not least because a B03 match takes on average 2.5 times longer then a B01. You also ignore a 3rd form of currency: wildcards. As far as I know the 3 packs you open during drafting don't count towards you wildcard counter. To my mind, the goal is to open packs to get the rare and mythic wildcards to redeem for the deck one wants to play.

[@FilthyRobot]

The packs you open in draft 100% count toward your wildcard counter.

[@philipgwyn8091]

OK. I was wrong. Now how can I edit my comment to biff that part out?

[@wrydrune]

There are no wildcards in the draft packs. However if you have more than 4 of a card and you draft a 5th copy, that copy goes into the vault. When the vault is filled you get a bunch of wildcards. The reward packs have wildcards as well.

[@joaksannan551]

Are we now referring to the regular counter (as in the one you can see displayed when you open packs) or progress towards the vault? Because that difference is massive and plays a rather large part in figuring out which solution suits someone better. On average, would you agree that mathematicly given the wildcards showing up in packs occasionally that buying packs is better if you are building one spesific deck rather than growing a wide collection, or am I missing something?

[@MacFrazier]

FilthyRobot There are two kinds of packs draft packs contain 14 cards plus a land, and no wild cards. Prize packs contain 8 cards, with a chance that some of those cards are wildcards. In addition, opening prize packs progresses the wildcard counter, but opening draft packs does NOT. In addition to the wildcard counter there is ALSO the “vault” counter which will eventually get you wildcards as well. However, opening packs (of any kind) is not how that counter is advanced. Rather, the vault counter moves forward (a tiny amount) every time you open a fifth copy of a card (regardless of what kind of pack it came from). This means that for someone focused on playing as much Competitive Draft as possible your system makes total sense. However, for someone who prefers constructed over limited play and is focused on building competitive decks in top tier of the constructed metagame, buying and opening packs may get you to a specific deck faster because of the difference in wildcard generation.

[@sprintca1983]

Hey, @FilthyRobot in your video line 21 on the spreadsheet for quick draft for 4 wins is 12/30 instead of % just thought you might want to know.

[@FilthyRobot]

Fixed (but not in video, thanks!)

[@Amia_Lily]

youre not really considering the fact that the 3 packs you open in the draft cannot have wildcards in them and they also dont give you any progress toward the next wildcard on the meter

[@trancer03]

All this relies on being above average at the game, as a really new player your better off buying packs with 1000 gold

[@royce9018]

ForTheLoveOfMusicAndPeople after several games you should be about 50% if the ranking system does its job properly.

[@nuke2099]

It doesn't do it's job properly. :D

[@smooth122]

@@Marco..1 ooh nice but buying packs will lead to wild cards. Will draft still be better?

[@Arvensa]

You do not get a wild card for picking your 5th copy of a card in draft. That was an old system that no longer exists (I was in the closed Alpha). Importantly, if your goal is to *play magic*, then drafting lets you do that while also acquiring cards.

[@joaksannan551]

This in incorrect, you are referring to the old vault system. The new system will reward you valt points, 1 for common, 2 for uncommon, 5 for rares and 10 for mythics, Same reward structure as packs currently have. Though given the new system your points regarding ammount of commons gets you points faster, but packs in draft cannot contain fully flegded wildcards. Thus the reward systems differ vastly, if you are looking to get as vast a span of cards as possible to brew and experiment, draft is superior by far. If however you are looking to build a spesific deck, packs will win out for you as wildcards are simply more valuable to you than random rares would be.

[@CalimeroDu64]

Hi Filthy, awesome video. Just one small point, you also get to keep the cards you draft in "Quick draft". At 04:30, you make it sound like you only get to keep the drafted cards in competitive drafts.

[@KorboQ]

He does mention that at about 3:00 :)

[@mightyry6739]

Really helpful and well structured guide! Thanks!

[@gediminaskulakauskas8799]

So the main idea would be to farm up until you get a tier 1 deck that will consistantly give you almost infinite gold return on those constructed modes. But which constructed mode is better in your opinion with best deck? Because some formats are better for certain decks like bo1, and some are better on bo3.

[@imsteen]

Thanks for this video, i'm totally new to the game and this helped a lot

[@thomasbelcher6921]

In the eldraine standard the best deck is probably Golgari adventure. Most cards are commons or uncommons, and almost all the cards are from eldraine so easier to draft.

[@l3wdlemon708]

Dont we get a new set in a few weeks? Might be better to just stack currency

[@jonathanb8627]

This is the first time I play MGT and thanks alot for the guide !

[@davemartin8409]

I was fortunate, got a gift card for volunteering over the summer. I Used the gift card to fund my Arena addiction. Purchased the intro package which is 2000 gems I think, and 5 Core Boosters. A great way to build a mono deck with wild cards.

[@shatteredknight1129]

This isn't the best idea. Competitive Draft, you have to win 3 just to break even (1500 gems) + get 4 packs. If you only win two, you'll walk away with 1400 gems worth of gems/packs, plus the 45 cards from the three draft packs. Thus, your essentially paying 100 gems for those 45 cards which is completely not worth it. The 45 cards offers the possibility of 3 rares or mythicals. But zero cloner Wild Cards, and no progress towards your next Wild Cards. Competitive Draft overall is stacked against you. You need to win three just to walk away with a minimum value of what you put it. Which as stated earlier, you get your 1,500 gems back plus you'll get 4 packs on top of that. This sounds very nice at first glance. However, the problem is that you only need to lose two to get knocked out. Which is completely unfair. It should require three losses to be an even competition. Especially when the random cards you'll be getting could potentially be duds. I don't think it's really worth it for 1500 gems when the odds are this stacked against you. In mine, all three packs I opened were pretty bad. I paid 1,500 gems only to win one and lose two. One of my opponents had both a Tajic and a Swiftblade. I wouldn't have minded seeing those in my draft picks. Especially since I needed one more Swiftblade for my main deck. Fortunately, the actual Competitive Constructed, I did come out on top. It actually seems more fair as well. You only need two wins to at least break even. Plus you get a rare and 2 common cards. The reward when breaking even isn't the greatest. But at least the odds are even. You need to win two to break even or lose two to get knocked out. And if you win a third, you get an additional $500. Not to mention, you're using your actual constructed deck that you put together, and tested out on competitive ladder. Thus, you pay $1000. You have a better chance of breaking even. Then just play again. And if you win one extra game twice, you have $2,000. Which is enough to get a pack, and repeat the process.

[@Tespri]

This was guide for beginner. You know... The people who don't have cards to compete in competitive construct. Also you keep ignoring the obvious benefit of Draft... you can keep your cards. Hence you are more likely to draw a card that you want than in other formats.

[@DanijelCesar]

@@Tespri I started to play a week ago. Seems a lot has changed since this video was uploaded. For example, in a 1000g Constructed I don't see how you can brake even. Since you get 3u cards for 2 wins and not 2u and 1r. Also I see only 3 quest circles on my screen not 4 - not sure how to optimize my income for grinding cards to be honest...

[@Gennosuke1983]

While I agree with most of your points, I do have some comments: 1. In competitive you can only afford to lose 2 times, until you're out. So yeah, the rate of return is higher, but it's more risky to get there. I had a few Quick Drafts where I started 0-2 due to some mana screw but still ended up going 6-2 or 7-2 and into profit. 2. We also need to consider that competitive takes longer, since you can play 3 games and Limited usually has very long games due to the crowded board and stalemates with no removal answer. Also, it's harder for new players, since they might not know how to sideboard, while the other player might take advantage of this 3. And finally, if you're not sure if you want to go for a Quick Draft or Competitive Draft, I always check what Packs they are running. Some packs give you better value cards and also some packs might give you the cards you need for your Consructed Deck. So, if Quick Draft is M19 but I don't need most of M19 rares for my deck, I will go into Competitive Draft for that week

[@AGVenge]

I cant even find quick draft... why ? :( only have "traditional draft ravnica allegience" and "ranked draft ravnica allegience"

[@jeremiahlynds3465]

because this video is several months outdated and the MTGA has gone from closed beta to open beta

[@AGVenge]

​@@jeremiahlynds3465 so what kind of draft should I be playing as a new player that wants to play "free to play" ?

[@jeremiahlynds3465]

@@AGVenge There's only one that I know of. In draft you hand-pick 45 cards (3 packs worth) as you compete against a computer for your picks. I THINK that you both have 3 packs, so you're effectively taking your pick out of 6 packs so long as you know what you're looking for, making it rather more focused. So with the fact that you get a booster even if you have 0 wins, Draft offers 4 packs for the price of 5 where gold is concerned (with 3 packs worth being chosen by YOU) while paying with gems means you get 4 packs for 1 and a quarter. Hope that helps.

[@FilthyRobot]

"Ranked Draft" is quick draft. They renamed it. Traditional draft is the best of 3 draft with the better ROI on gems

[@AGVenge]

@@FilthyRobot Thank you both for replying! Do you know what plans they have for MTG Arena in regards to what card sets are involved? I looked up Magic Online, and I see why that is "not so popular". The new MTG Arena is vastly more polished, but I used to play MTG back in the mid 90s and I would really, really enjoy playing some of the older cards as well. Again, thanks for some great content @FilthyRobot :)

[@BreinGames]

Can you do an updated video? I’m finding a lot of this is outdated

[@royce9018]

the_brein the video isn’t even two months old, what would you say is outdated?

[@taylorwarren804]

@@royce9018 the new set Guilds of Ravnica just dropped and the game just entered open beta. A lot of the game entry fees have changed and gone up as well as the cost/amount of gems you can buy. So a lot of information posted here has been changed.

[@ArmoredNeko]

I'm still seeing 750gems/5000gold for quick draft, 1500 gems for comp draft, what changed?

[@AbusiveCactus]

@ArmoredNeko same here

[@xisdezinhu]

Regardless of the release of Guilds of Ravnica, everything he said in the video is still perfectly serviceable. There's nothing outdated here, all the fees and breakpoints are still the same.

[@joshrawlins9085]

Hi thanks for the advice. I've been lucky enough to open 3 nullhide ferox's and am thus well on my way to making a standard mono green stompy. As a result I feel as though it would be quicker for me to go straight to competitive constructed. Currently I'm about 8 rares off of a completed list - I have one rare wildcard left and 6/8 of the rare copies I need are from Guilds of Ravnica. Given this information what would your advice be?

[@Switzerland1291]

thank you very much, great helpful video

[@tsibosp]

Silly me , I just spent 3k gold and bought 3 Core 2019 packs :D Well, thanks for this I had completely forgot that you get to keep the cards you open from the packs in the draft. Thanks mate!

[@fleesch]

great video! how up to date is this?

[@Dracobyte]

Thanks for the video! Greetings from Mexico.

[@RichiePark]

My questions is what do we do with all the gems that we've farmed up?

[@androkguz]

Keep drafting

[@forshort6769]

Why do i only have 1 draft and 1 constructed event to choose from? i dont even have the option to play any of the ones he's got

[@paradoarify]

So i have to crack packs in order to get a card that i want then get copies of it with wildcards?

[@zane631]

@FilthyRobot, I got 50k gold around 25th of April when war of the spark hits the shelves. Should I buy 50 packs or play quickdraft 50 times?

[@FilthyRobot]

Draft!

[@АлександрКоролев-ъ6ж]

Hi? Answer how you got the number? (Return by Game Win) and, Why (Game Win) not 100% for five wins? Similarly with (Match Win).

[@fo0liner1985]

Superb analysis! I salute you, sir.

[@bieffoo]

on mtggoldfish, do you need to watch to the decks in arena standard or in standard

[@radiantrealms]

A few things you didn't take into consideration: 1. Quality of competition in competitive draft is higher than quick draft. 2. Quick draft, is, well, -quick-, so in addition to softer competition, you're getting games faster so a lower rate of return (assuming it's positive in both scenarios) is offset by the fact that you can do more of them. 3. If you actually just enjoy playing draft, which format lets you play more for your gold/gems? My hunch is quick draft, unless maybe you are very very good.

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

Is all of this still relevant in 2020? Any changes to this strategy to recommend?

[@lymn2002]

What happens to the mass amount of gems in the end? Competitive draft?

[@HighlightRiehl]

Thank you for the video! This answered everything I need to know

[@Knort181]

Awesome guide, very appreciated!

[@jondoh2226]

This has been one of the best genuinely useful videos I have found as a new player. How does "Sealed Guilds of Ravnica" fit into all this?

[@FilthyRobot]

I'm going to do an updated version of this and some other newby-oriented guides soon (tm).

[@AlDaimee]

@@FilthyRobot There is a sealed event soon. Hoping to hear your advice on whether it is better to do sealed for 2K gems vs. sticking to drafts at 5K gold from a library building standpoint. Sitting at 5K gold for draft #2 as a new player, but now wondering if I should hold off for next week's sealed event instead.

[@FilthyRobot]

@@AlDaimee I think Sealed is a pretty good way to convert gems into packs and still get some limited play out of the experience. Long run - it's much harder to go infinite in sealed than in competitive draft, but it's also a lot more packs.

[@islandgogrl1319]

what about,,, the new quick constructed event. The constructed event that is not competitive, ITs 500 gold. max price 1000 gold ? Should we now be doing this if we have a deck decent enough?

[@pnx1412]

this video was awesome and very helpful thank you :) but i think you will have to rethink your math a bit. the thing is, when you calculate the win percentage, you don't take into account that you have to get all your wins before the last loss. and even though quick draft gives you less rewards relative to win percentage, it allows 3 losses in total while competitve constructed and competitve draft only allow 2. so when you're winning 61% of all your games overall it's still more likely that a streak of bad luck will kick you out before you reach that percentage in those formats than it is in quick draft. not sure yet about how to take this into account when calculating though, maybe with binomial distribution... i will think about it

[@FilthyRobot]

See pinned comment ;p

[@jasongambit1]

Nice Vid... are you drafting this Thursday again?

[@hunternewberry5860]

You cant ever go infinite in competitive draft unless you maintain 3 wins/2 loss ratio average right?

[@erickendoka2953]

Great video mate! Thanks!

[@asambi69]

What if i suck at draft?.

[@Coeurebene1]

My only concern with that approach is that the players you face in competitive draft are not necessarily the same than in quick draft. Wouldn't they be more confident in their skill and therefore lower your win rate?

[@dehydrogenaza0]

From my experience competitive draft and competitive constructed aren't really that much different from their quick counterparts in terms of player skill - you meet players who are obviously good as well as those who are obviously new or... struggling... in both. In draft it's really the same. Maybe in constructed there's a higher % of meta decks which are theoretically harder to beat (although it's sometimes more difficult to defeat an unexpected jank deck you see for the first time, if it's not total garbage), but still it's been a reliable source of gold for me. My win ratio is not as high as Filthy's, but I probably average 1500 gold with a 1000 gold investment, and considering that Bo3 formats are simply much more fun than Bo1s because of sideboarding, I can definitely get behind Filthy's recommendations.

[@Coeurebene1]

thanks for your feedback, I'll give competitive drafts a go then

[@gagagagga6356]

Przemysław Szymański whats bo3 bo1

[@dehydrogenaza0]

Best of three, best of one.

[@thefakeJordan]

Is their an update on this? Or is this still applicable.

[@gioibanes129]

In a best of 3 match, 1 win in reward its 2-0 or 2-1? or it's 1-2 it means you lose the match best of 3, but you get 1 win and there for 1 win in reward?

[@ArmoredNeko]

2-0 or 2-1 counts as a win. 1-2 or 0-2 does not. Otherwise you only have to lose to one opponent and you lose your entire draft.

[@smooth122]

Basically first to 2 wins ya?

[@ArmoredNeko]

Well that's the very definition of best of 3 so I guess you are absolutely right.

[@adganbbq5846]

Great video, was alot of help

[@robheller9139]

Damn I did the first time buyers for 2.5k gems and blew it on packs. Wish I just did quick drafts all day. I did pull 3 experimental fenzys tho an working on a mono red deck. I kinda like all the control you get from black tho so waiting to see what other cards I can pull b4 I commit my wild cards.

[@robheller9139]

I actaully started a second account because I made a mono green stompy deck. But if your opening hand is not perfect it is to hard to come back from a bad hand. Won 2 out of 6 contructed events with it. B4 I realised merfolk and goblin decks are so cheap and powerfull.

[@Sheikah_Architect]

Does this video still apply? Are gems more difficult to get?

[@FilthyRobot]

The specifics have changed, but yes, Gems are still the currency of MTG:A

[@jaxo6226]

hey i started yesterday and i have 12 wins and i have 2 mythics i have a Galgari deck that i made i always use it

[@kerraii2008]

Question is...if you are storing gems, what are you spending them on?

[@FilthyRobot]

Drafts of course

[@xspireddreams]

is this still up to date? just downloaded the game today

[@FilthyRobot]

Not all the numbers, but the basic pattern of collecting, yes

[@xspireddreams]

@@FilthyRobot Appreciate your video fella, already managed to start farming packs from drafts thanks to your simple explanation. I'm a decent irl draft player so I've been able to break even or better on every gem draft so far - only 24hours into the grind

[@ufiCz]

Dont listen to this guy, best way to earn cards is build basic t1 red or blue deck and play constructive event for 500g. Keep 1000g on 2 buyin into constructed event, rest invest into buyin pack ( i recomend newly edition ravnica and m19 ). DRAFT isnt for new players and there isn't upside to play it. You will not get wildcards and you want those wild cards to be able to get better decks. Anyway you will get better cards a more cards thru constructed event and buying packs ........ with red or blue agro you will have no problem to get your 5/7 wins. I was new player few months ago ( never played magic before )didn't invest single $ to it and i have most of competetive t1 decks a plenty of wild cards. If you are starting to build decks you don't need gems, but wild cards. Every 7 packs ( 7000 gold ) you will get 1 rare wild card ..........In draft you will get for 5000 few packs without any chance to wild card and really random chance to win those 7 games. One more thing, every day you have quest for gold, there is quest that can be changed it is for 500g or 750g, everytime you get 500g quest change it because it could spawn quest for 750g so you will earn cca 1500g that day if you do that quest a win those 15 games. If you have only 500g you will get cca 1250g.

[@Cryptic_Escape]

Unfortunatley packs you open during draft don't count towards the myhthic, rare, uncommon, and commen tokens.

[@FilthyRobot]

The reward packs do.

[@Denethill]

Please mate update this guide. I found your video most informative and I've chcecked a few.

[@Sheikah_Architect]

For this video still apply now?

[@lukasskeren2725]

What if I am really bad in draft

[@hazamax2139]

You keep all the cards you get on draft?

[@FilthyRobot]

Yep!

[@АлександрКоролев-ъ6ж]

Thanks, for this guide? i's asome. Greetings from Russia.

[@DankestPepe]

The actual editing :O

[@Kevfactor]

What best option if you suck?

[@nnnnghhh7837]

Nice guide man thx

[@Borjigin.]

Nice editing.

[@lenajohnson6179]

You HAVE to be good at drafting for this to work. If you don't know the game well, if you DO know the game well but don't naturally connect strategies and mana curves off walls of random cards, and YES if you're one of those terminally unlucky individuals who tend to wind up mana screwed up or down more often than is ordinary than drafting is a HORRID environment for beefing up your collection. I know players who make great constructed decks who simply cannot draft to save their lives. There's a HUGE difference between methodically piecing the puzzle of a deck together out of everything you own vs trying to ad hoc a strategy together picking one card from a wall of randoms at a time. Drafting is a little better than outright gambling if you know what you're doing, but if you don't its actually the very worst thing you can do because the return rate on no wins or one win are abysmal, and if you don't know what you're doing you are going to regularly find yourself in this win range. You can't count on winning 50% of your matches risking all your hard earned gems against seasoned 'infinite' players who are drafting strategies the way theoretical physicists math out the universe. You aren't going to win ANY of those matches except the ones where your opponents get mana screwed. Only do it this way if you absolutely know what you're doing. Study up on drafting habits. Find out if you're any good at it. If you're BRAND NEW at the game, buy packs outright and play the game until you understand the ins and outs because there's an above average chance that drafting is going to be an enormous resource sink with horrific turn arounds for you specifically.

[@marekjurcik]

Perfect, thanks!

[@samshady207]

Great video man ty

[@cavemantero]

Problem with drafts is the mana flood problem this game has. If you're not playing surveil your chances of getting land fucked one way or the other is huge...not good with gems at stake.

[@beastmode3776]

or play thaumatic compass in every deck lmao

[@Pwassoncru]

"5000 gold, every 3/4 days." If you do the constructed event, it is really easy to get 6 wins, which means you can win 300 to 500, completing your daily quests. You can easily get 5000 gold every two days, just by winning events.

[@lenajohnson6179]

It is NOT very easy for the average player to get six wins in anything. For every win someone loses, if somebody is winning six times on the block consistantly it means six other people are losing consistantly. I find it strange how experienced players who win a lot don't grasp this concept and try to provide their advanced methodology to beginners as though that's just going to work the same. If you win most of your games it means the people you're talking to probably DON'T. MTG isn't a game where you win 50% of the time 'cause luck'. MTG is a game where luck will only get you 20% of the way there.

[@817Dream]

Wow. Awesome job. Thx.

[@CreamyCoopie]

jesus is there anyone not running a burn deck in constructed? Waste of time unless i build one too

[@gurrekurre1726]

It’s hard that you need gold for a good deck and a good deck for gold....

[@arthur1338]

But what if u hate draft?

[@thekriptonith355]

Just do daily missions and buy packs for the decks you want to make. Thats what i have been doing. It's slow but steady.

[@ChrisTomatoPie]

i just started competetive draft as a newbie and have no fkn clue what im doing :D

[@julianwildauer]

This is great thx!

[@jamesleveldown2433]

Kriparrian? is that you ?

[@enlightenedlotus336]

Ha ive been watching your civ videos for about 3 years now and all the while ive been an active magic player and now your releasing magic content. I dont know if you remember i used to play the odd match with you now and again on nq a few years ago .

[@tehf00n]

I hate the fact that its 4 wins to get entry gold back. Over time, unless you have some secret exploit deck, you can barely break even.

[@FilthyRobot]

It's 3 to break even in competitive.

[@dehydrogenaza0]

Wait... is this video... edited? On this channel?!? Very good video Filthy! My only suggestion is to maybe change the title, as "Playing Magic for Free!" doesn't even sound like a guide, more like an ad for something that's certainly not free. I'd guess that something like "Optimal gold/gem/wildcard farming strategy in MTG:A" would be more likely to catch my attention if I wasn't already a subscriber.

[@christophercarty2118]

Thank You!

[@AlgoritmoTercero]

I think this is wrong. It is not taking into account the actual cards you get through drafting or the cards you win with quick constructed. Good video regardless

[@Badbentham]

Yeah; presumably you are right. I suppose you get more cards with quick drafting for your money, but less gems. So, if you are confident in your skills to build a deck from these cards for Constructed quickly (earning you gold for more Quick Drafts...) then this looks like an alternative route. But, if you want a safer route, and prefer drafts over constructed anyways, then Competitive has the higher return of investment. - With close to unlimited gems, or gold, quick drafting again, and quite obviously, clearly beats Competitive.

[@ВладимирКоролёв-х1м]

Wrong calculations. Quick draft is much better than competitive.

[@Samuel-zo2rc]

Feel like providing some evidence to back that claim?

[@ВладимирКоролёв-х1м]

@@Samuel-zo2rc Well, it actually depends on how do we value packs from draft. And your winrate. The higher the bigger the difference. Here I assume 1 "normal" pack = 1 draft pack. On average in quick draft gets about 1.09 packs + 3 from drafting + 347 gems (on average) and pays 750 gems. His profit is 53%. In competitive draft average player gets about 2.86 packs + 3 from drafting + 708 gems (on average) and pays 1500 gems. His profit is 25%. But assuming you always win all games. Then for 2 quicks you'll get 4+6 packs and 1900 gems vs 6+3 packs and 2100 gems for 1 competitive. So the value is the same if only you don't rate draft packs lower.

[@ВладимирКоролёв-х1м]

​@@Samuel-zo2rc Actually if your winrate is high competitive pays off better in gems, so it's easier to play it again. But for average player it doesn't matter.

[@Raindown15]

OR, do what i did, sell some shit laying around the house for 300 dollars or so and then spend it all on the game and now i have everything XD. my friend ubered for 4 days and payed for it all haha XD. This is a great guide for those who dont have alternate ways of making quick money. if i was in middle or highschool this would be perfect! Thanks for the guide!

[@KnightofAges]

Everything for 300 bucks? O.o wow! Magic used to be a LOT more expensive. Some top tier decks cost over 1000 dollars to get. If the Arena digital version lets you have everything for 300 dollars, it's a great deal!

[@MonkeyFromTheMoon]

Well since the cards are just based on their "rarity" like rare/uncommen etc. and not on market values or whatever it just means every mythic rare is worth exactly the same to the game and thus makes it easy to get every good card

[@JamieClark]

You can’t have *everything* for that price... you have full playsets of every card in standard? Unlikely. I didn’t do the math, so please correct me if I’m wrong! I’d love to build all the tier 1 decks for $300 total and have 6 decks to show for it!

[@Portubed]

They wiped a lot of sets OUT since open beta. There are very few sets in the game: Core; Ixalan; Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria; Guilds of Ravnica. That's it.

[@moiseman]

People who are proud to spend 300$ on a virtual card game truly are a special

[@metalheadrobredbar6899]

I'm new as fuck to magic... I'mma just spend my 4k gold on packs for some new cards cuz atm I dunno wtf I'm doing

[@jackbeechey2636]

Quick draft lets you keep your cards as well

[@xShivvy]

Did they remove quick draft? For whatever reason it doesn't pop up on the right-side menu when I'm looking for it

[@jackbeechey2636]

@@xShivvy it's now called ranked draft

[@GadgetGuru-r4w]

Filthy!? You play MtG too? Dude, where do you live? We should be friends!

[@ChristopherPisz]

I always love how TCG players all talk about going infinite, yet going infinite requires 50% or more of them to lose.

[@royce9018]

Christopher Pisz well infinite is a good goal if you want to play all the time and not go broke.

[@ChristopherPisz]

So is winning a million dollars with every trip to Vegas, except it doesn't realistically happen for the majority of people.

[@FilthyRobot]

Strange comment. It's a skill based game (granted, with lots of variance) and it's quite complicated. That means there's a lot of room for people to outplay other people, which means that better players ought to be doing better. Yes, there's no way EVERYONE can go infinite, but no one is suggesting that at all.

[@ChristopherPisz]

It's just math and logic. For every winner there is a loser. Yet everyone thinks they are going to go infinite. Bases on the current reward structure, less than 20% of people can go infinite and less than that can maintain it over time.

[@DisheveledHuman]

4 days of farming to play the arguably most fun game mode assuming you are farming optimally too bad games like hearthstone and magic don't have a draft only you can one time buy as a stand alone game but I guess the draft model is just too lucrative to give up for essentially free.

[@gagagagga6356]

draft mode is the only reason i like ccg.... i wish that was true

[@saintnick604]

Step 1 grind gold. Step 2 jump right into the hostile DRAFT environment. Idk about all that

[@matd2892]

Think of it this way. It's untimed, so a no pressure pick environment. You keep all 42 cards you draft(minus copies but we assume new players). The 42 cards you draft overall will be aimed towards making a semi competitive deck, so it will be the shell of a deck to take into ranked normal mode. Also, and maybe less forward, deck building is highly important in magic, it is a part of the skill in the game. Drafting a deck from packs is also like custom picking the 3 packs. Sometimes you even get a 4th rare in a draft. Even when getting less than 5 wins you still get 3 custom picked packs, a bit of deck building experience, a start for a ranked deck idea and an additional pack as a prize making you "lose" less than 1000 gold. Also a cheap trick I do is play on Sunday mornings at like 8am(Est), less strong opponents play at that time I normally get a 7 win at least once a Sunday. I used to do this in Hearthstone as well. If this is you very first card game ever, than maybe don't draft, but buying packs for 1000 vs draft for 5000, I haven't bought packs yet. Probably never will.

[@ToraACR]

If you could make an update :)

[@Joeyratatouille]

Oh well oops, I’ve been spending thousands on packs

[@jakea3950]

Packs are better if you want to create your own decks, drafts better for collecting cards in bulk

[@overshare7]

Gj u just got a sub

[@JackDodgers]

goodinfo, tks

[@Liqweed1337]

magic arena is pay 2 win in my eyes. started a fresh account, played 10 hours straight till level 20, yet i cant get out of bronze t2. i play a red-green gruul mixed deck. zero gems, and only ~3k coins

[@kentverbeet5704]

If mtg was pay to win the most expensive decks would win, and the best decks etc like mono red or gruul are pretty cheap. You cant expect to get all the cards you need day one if your not gonna pay cash

[@kentverbeet5704]

If you could get out of bronze with basic cards on day 1 there would be 0 point in paying

[@jakea3950]

No compared to hearth and other cards it's reasonable. Yes it's p2w but all card games are that are free to play so not sure what you expect? In terms of reasonable, you can just quest and open boosters. You save your wildcards up and create one strong deck then go to rank and I bet you'll get out of bronze. If you wanna make multiple jank decks that's fine but don't expect to climb fast. Finally, do your dailies (they stack upto 3 days) and your can reroll one per day for 750 gold instead of 500 gold quest- which you just play the free mode. If you get one time to play you can freely win upto 15 games and get rewards and even winning I think 5 should net you over 500 gold on-top of daily winnings. The gold adds up you just gotta play the game

[@nferreira385]

Thanks

[@mikesnow285]

It's horribly expensive for a video game. Someone worked on one "set" for example let's just say Ixalan it will cost over £1000 to get all the cards just for that set. Pretty much a gambling machine, except you don't get real money back. One of the game modes cost £10 for one set of 7 games. It's genuinely one of the worst video games out there for microtransactions but everyone defends it. It's not worth doing events, pretty much after your 15 dailys there's no point playing.

[@robertwhittick6427]

You get wildcards so you just use them to fill out ur deck that you want, ur not meant to get every card

[@nonewmsgs]

So in casual draft you dont keep cards

[@justharry2190]

you do get to keep them