MTG Arena is free-to-play. That means, like all free-to-play games, it needs to have systems in place to allow players to acquire new cards just by playing the game—without paying anything. To that end, the MTG Arena Closed Beta economy is made up of six elements: gold, gems, individual cards, packs, Wildcards, and Vaults.
Check out our other MTG Arena Coverage:
- How To Play MTG Arena: Client Overview
- How To Play MTG Arena: The In-Match Screen
In-Game Currencies: Gold and Gems
MTG Arena currently has two in-game currencies: gold and gems.
Gold
Gold is the free-to-play currency that players earn just by playing MTG Arena. You can earn gold in two ways: by winning games and completing quests.
You will be awarded either 200 or 50 gold for your first four wins in a day:
- 1st win: 200 gold
- 2nd win: 50 gold
- 3rd win: 50 gold
- 4th win: 50 gold
Gold can also be earned by completing daily quests, which reward between 225 and 300 gold each. You only get one quest per day but you can save quests up to complete together on a single day.
The only use for gold at this time is buying packs from the store for 1,000 gold, though Wizards has stated that events are coming that players will be able to enter with their gold.
Gems
Gems are the pay-to-play currency in MTG Arena. They are not for sale yet and we don’t know how many gems a pack will cost or what else you will be able to buy with them.
Card-Based Rewards
There are four different kinds of card-based rewards: individual cards, packs, Wildcards, and Vaults.
Individual Cards
The most common card-based reward are individual cards, which can be earned after each of your first 30 wins, every day.
- 1st win: Individual Card Reward (common or better)
- 2nd win: Individual Card Reward (uncommon or better)
- 3rd win: Individual Card Reward (uncommon or better)
- 4th win: Individual Card Reward (rare or better)
- 5th-30th wins: Individual Card Reward (common or better)
As you can see, your second and third wins will award an uncommon, rare, or mythic, while your fourth win will award a rare or mythic. Beyond that, your first and fifth through 30th wins will randomly award commons, uncommons, rares, and mythics.
Individual cards are also awarded when you complete a Vault. (More on Vaults in a minute.) Every time you complete a Vault, you will get:
- One mythic rare Individual Card Reward
- One rare Individual Card Reward
- One uncommon Individual Card Reward
Packs
Packs are the weekly form of card-based rewards. Every week there will be a quest that awards a pack from the newest set (currently Rivals of Ixalan) after your fifth, 10th, and 15th wins of the week.
Wildcards
MTG Arena doesn’t have a true crafting system, where you can break down cards into a currency that can be used to craft into the card you want. Instead, it uses a system called Wildcards.
Wildcards are single cards that can be converted into any card you want. They come in common, uncommon, rare, and mythic varieties, so you can only craft a card you want from a Wildcard that matches the desired card’s rarity.
Wildcards can be acquired in two ways: they can randomly replace single cards when you open packs and are also awarded when you complete a Vault. (More on Vaults below.) Every time you complete a Vault, you will receive three Wildcards (one rare and two uncommons) in addition to the individual cards noted above.
Vaults
The final way to grow your collection is by completing Vaults. Vaults are a progression system that advances every time you open a pack or receive the fifth (or higher!) copy of a card.
For example, every time you open a pack, your Vault will progress by 4%. Every time you open your fifth-plus copy of a common, your Vault will progress by 0.1%, whereas every time you open our fifth-plus copy of an uncommon, your Vault will progress by 0.3%. I have yet to see someone open their fifth copy of a rare or mythic, though, so I don’t know how much Vault progress those will give you.
Once your Vault progresses to 100%, you’ll be able to open it. (Or save it for later!) When a Vault is opened, it will award:
- One rare Wildcard
- Two uncommon Wildcards
- One mythic rare Individual Card Reward
- One rare Individual Card Reward
- One uncommon Individual Card Reward
Combine that with the daily gold and card rewards, plus the weekly pack rewards, and you should be able to expand your collection fairly quickly!
Economics in the Arena
Those are all six elements of MTG Arena’s economy, at least as of v0.04.02.00 of the Closed Beta. To recap:
Gold can be earned by winning and completing daily quests.
Gems can be used to buy things but aren’t available in game yet.
Individual cards can be earned by winning and opening packs and completed Vaults.
Packs can be earned by winning 5/10/15 matches every week and purchased in the store.
Wildcards can randomly replace individual cards when opening packs and are awarded in completed Vaults.
Vaults can be progressed by opening packs and the fifth-plus copies of cards, and reward individual cards and Wildcards when completed.
Check Out Our Other MTG Arena Articles
How To Play the MTG Arena Closed Beta: Client Overview
How To Play MTG Arena: The In-Match Screen