Update (3/22/18): Check out the newest version of the MTG Arena economy.
Two months after starting closed Beta testing, Wizards of the Coast has finally revealed how the Magic: the Gathering Arena economy will work.
Currencies: Gold and Gems
The first of the two currencies in MTG Arena’s Beta is Gold, the free-to-play currency that will be earned just by playing the game. You’ll receive Gold for winning matches, completing quests, and winning events. Gems, MTG Arena’s other currency, can be purchased with real-world money. Both Gold and Gems can be used to buy packs and enter events, and Wizards stated in their Twitch livestream that Gold can be used for all gameplay content except for cosmetics, which will likely require Gems to obtain.
Card Acquisition
Cards, on the other hand, can be earned from in six different ways: booster packs, draft packs, daily match wins, weekly match wins, Wildcards, and the Vault.
Cards can be opened in both booster packs and draft packs. Normal booster packs will contain eight cards: five commons, two uncommon, and one rare or mythic. Draft packs will be have 14 cards and will be the same as physical packs, just without a land.
Individual cards can also be obtained through winning matches on a daily and weekly basis. Every day you’ll get a random card for each match win, up to a limit of 30, with an increasing chance of receiving a rare the more wins you have. Every week you’ll be able to earn up to three Wildcards: a common for two match wins, an uncommon for five match wins, and a rare or mythic Wildcard after your tenth win of the week.
Wildcards
But what are Wildcards? Well, Wildcards are earned by winning two, five, or 10 matches in a week, and can also randomly replace any card in a booster pack, appearing at the same rarity of the card it replaces: mythic, rare, uncommon, or common. A player can use a Wildcard to choose any specific card that matches the rarity of the Wildcard, so if you receive or open an uncommon Wildcard, you’ll be able to turn it into any uncommon card you’d like. Wildcards cannot be purchased with either Gold or Gems and do not have be used immediately, meaning you can save them to use later.
The Vault
Finally, the Vault is a progression system for acquiring individual cards. You can progress your Vault in two ways: by opening your fifth copy of a card, which will add to your Vault’s progress meter rather than going to your collection, or by just opening packs. Once you fill up the meter you can open your Vault and receive a reward. For now, Wizards will be testing rewarding Wildcards and other unspecified items for completing a Vault. Like Wildcards, Vaults cannot be bought or advanced with Gold or Gems and do not have to be used immediately.
No Crafting
To the dismay of many Magic fans, there will not be a crafting system like in Hearthstone. Wizards stated that they didn’t want players to feel like they had to destroy their collection for a chance to obtain a card they needed. Instead, Wizards wants MTG Arena to be extremely generous with its card rewards, allowing most players to get the cards they want fairly quickly. This generous, but random, process will be augmented by weekly Wildcard rewards and Vaults, which will be the main way for players to obtain specific cards.
These new economy features will be available in the MTG Arena Beta starting on Thursday, January 18th with the deployment of the Rivals of Ixalan patch. Along with the economy, the patch will bring Rivals of Ixalan to the game, as well as things like turn timers and some quality of life updates. Unfortunately, MTG Arena’s Beta is still covered by a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so we’ll still have to wait before we can share our impressions of the game’s economy.