Category Archives: MtG Arena

MtG Arena App Update

apps, iOS, magic, MtG, MtG Arena

Thought I’d give a little update on the iOS version of Arena.

I raised a support call with WotC over redeeming the codes I had. Which they did respond to. You need to either use the PC/Mac version, or go to your account settings and https://myaccounts.wizards.com/code. Now this bit must be new (as in the last year) as I don’t remember WotC allowing codes to be redeemed via the web before.

Completed Colour Challenges!

So now I have some free packs and decks. Not many but some. It’s a start.

However having ground out the Colour (I refuse to use the American spelling here) Challenge unlocked the rewards as I progressed through each, and unlocked the other game formats. What it does not do is give me the free deck for having completed it, or acknowledge that I’ve completed it!

But Colour Challenge Not Complete!

The WotC twitter support did reply to my query about this with…

WotC Twitter Support Reply

So I visited the link, and created a feedback (that’s all it allows you to do) with the above screen shots attached.

In the meantime, I entered promo codes (happy I can do that now), ate, slept and other stuff.

With time to kill this morning I decided I’d check to see if I had a reply.

I want to say to my surprise there was no reply or even acknowledgement that my “bug” had been seen. But I was disappointed that there had not even been any form of acknowledgement. Which is the minimum you expect, even if it’s automated.

Naturally I voiced that disappointment via social media with the WotC Help account in a fairly civil manor.

I know the cards in this red/green deck aren’t going to be great. But they are cards none the less. Plus the challenge needs to be acknowledged as being completed so it can give me another to attempt (possibly). These challenges are one of the ways to grind out gems/coins and boosters for free. If the aim is to spend as little as possible (my total outlay so far has been a fiver on the intro booster offer) then this needs to be working.

MtG Arena hits iOS

apps, iOS, magic, MtG, MtG Arena, news, online play

Today Magic the Gathering Arena hit the iOS App Store.

Finally! It’s long over due on the platform. It came out on Android as an early access at the end of January.

Mini rant…

In my opinion Arena should have been on mobile from launch, or failing that within the first 6 months of launching. I really do think WotC fumbled the ball on this. By taking so long to reach other platforms other than PC, WotC really failed to make a significant dent into rival games such as Hearthstone. And that’s despite throwing lots of money at advertising, and “buying” streamers.

Initial impressions…

So this morning after downloading Arena onto my iPad, it had to then download even more data before I could do anything but play the tutorial. Then before the majority of game modes are made available I had to complete the Colour Challenge to unlock them. Which is basically play a mono coloured deck against an “AI” opponent playing one of the remaining colours, then the final game would be against a random real opponent. And you have to do that for each colour type, before you can play Standard or Historic for example.

The “AI” opponents are more logic puzzles than playing against an AI, as the cards drawn are the same each time. So it’s basically about playing the cards in the right order.

The real player opponent was fun. However there were some uneven matchups with obviously more powerful decks, they were not mono colour for starters. I think this for a complete novice to the game could be very off putting.

Being a paper player I have collected more than a handful of Arena codes over the last couple of years. These codes unlock decks, boosters, etc within Arena. You have to enter the code within the in app store to unlock them. However it appears that in the version of Arena released today there is no way to redeem those codes. So if like me you don’t have a PC/Mac you can’t use them, hopefully they won’t expire before WotC sort this out. Which would not be cool.

I knew I’d like playing MtG using Arena. It’s MtG with a slick “modern” UI. What’s not to like?

Another rant…

However it’s all the crap around playing the game that WotC have with their nickel and diming players for every penny they can screw out of them I don’t like.

I’ve seen comparisons online, and WotC are one of the meanest, less generous companies for this type of game. The in game economy is very much weighted in their favour.

Which means building up a collection and being able to build decks requires you to spend a lot of time grinding away, or spending lots of money. Neither is ideal.

Will I continue to play Arena? Possibly. Redeeming these codes is a biggie for me. Maybe a deal breaker.