The Past, Present and Future of Competitive Magic The Gathering
I play a fair bit of Magic, primarily at work. For years, I&#x27;ve used Magic Online for cheaply testing decks before deciding which cards to buy in paper.<p>I was very excited by Arena. It looks modern, feels a lot less clunky and allows one to just play a few games with very little hassle. It&#x27;s all the good parts of the Hearthstone or Elder Scrolls Legends clients, but it&#x27;s a fully-fledged Magic implementation!<p>However, I&#x27;ve found myself barely playing any Magic Arena.<p>- As mentioned in the article, as much as I love paper Magic, it&#x27;s not the best computer game. If I&#x27;m by a PC, there are other things I usually want to play.<p>-It&#x27;s been great to test ideas for some Standard decks, but I usually prefer Modern.<p>-It&#x27;s free, but I don&#x27;t spend too much on Magic, anyway.<p>-It&#x27;s quick, but it lacks all the interpersonal communication<p>That last point is probably one of the biggest things, for me. I love reading opponents, playing the mind games and chatting a bit while playing. You can&#x27;t see each other and you don&#x27;t even have a chat in Arena.<p>There&#x27;s also the physical collectible aspect of it. I love picking up my folders with cards and flipping through them. Scrolling through them on a screen doesn&#x27;t feel as satisfying.