The Best Subreddits for MTG Arena

Last updated on May 2, 2024

Bloodcrazed Socialite | Illustration by Marta Nael

Reddit is useful for discussing all manner of topics on the internet, and it’s what countless forums from 10-20 years ago have evolved into. It goes without saying that there’s a lot of discourse about MTG happening on reddit, too, but there’s not just one subreddit for Magic on there!

There are many subreddits out there focusing on Magic and MTG Arena, some that are fairly generic, and others that are more specific. Today we’re taking a look at some of them, and what you can expect when you take a look there!

What Are Arena Subreddits in MTG?

Outlaws' Merriment | Illustration by Suzanne Helmigh

Reddit is a website made up of mini-sites called subreddits. Essentially, it’s a website where you can host something similar to an internet forum, where people can post discussion topics for others to comment on and discuss. From an MTG perspective, there are many subreddits that you may be interested in, from generic ones that cover any Magic format, to some that are specifically intended to discuss a particular format like Modern, Legacy, Pioneer, or Commander. Others discuss topics like the art of Magic, or something like that.

The biggest difference between Reddit and more traditional forums is that firstly, you can reply directly to other comments, which can help to make discussions a bit easier to follow. Also, you can vote other comments up or down, with the website showing the higher voted replies higher, making it easier to find the most relevant/helpful comments (although this isn’t completely fool proof, of course!).

Some subreddits are more popular than others, and today we’re ranking them by the number of subscribers that each one has. More subscribers doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a better subreddit, but it’s a pretty good indicator.

r/oldschoolmtg – 5.3k

r/oldschoolmtg is a subreddit focused on the early days of Magic. There’s certainly discussions of the old-school formats that only allow cards from the first few MTG sets, but it’s not exclusively for these formats, and people discuss collections, love of old cards, and memories of Magic from the ‘90’s. 

If you’re not the biggest fan of modern Magic design, or just prefer to remember a time when you could play without a sore back, this might be the subreddit for you!

r/mtglimited – 7.3k

There are a couple of subreddits focusing on the 40-card formats, and r/mtglimited won’t be the last time we look at a subreddit focused on Limited Magic. It’s not the biggest, but it’s still used a lot and can be a good place to get some feedback on your drafts, or a place to go to try and find that last cut from your deck. If you’re looking for somewhere to help improve your Limited gameplay or to discuss your favorite packs to include in a chaos draft, you won’t go wrong joining here!

r/mtgGore – 12.5k

No, r/mtgGore isn’t looking at that, although you’d be forgiven for thinking that. It’s all child-friendly, but it’s looking at examples of destroyed and/or mangled MTG products. Obviously, this is one of the subreddits that doesn’t directly apply to Arena, but it’s worth including, I think!

From the simple, like a box of cards that have spilt all over the floor, to the horrendous like a dual land that’s been through a washing machine, if you enjoy seeing people’s unfortunate cards, this is where you want to look. You weirdo.

r/CasualMTG – 13.9k

Are you just wanting to take things easy? After more of a laidback vibe? r/CasualMTG may just be for you! Looking more at the non-competitive side of Magic, you’ll obviously see lots of talk about Commander here, as well as other formats where people like to bring jank. It’s not all about gameplay, though. Topics include the likes of art, collections, and anything else that’s not directly connected to the competitive side of the game.

r/mtgvorthos – 20.5k

If you’re a bit of a nerd for the story elements and flavor of Magic (no shade here! Nerd and proud!), then you probably want to see what r/mtgvorthos has in store. The subreddit is named after the “player archetype” Vorthos, who’s known for enjoying the flavor of their cards rather than the mechanics directly.

Whether it’s the latest storylines or one of the Magic books, you’ll be welcomed with open arms if you want to dive in deep on a topic here.

r/lrcast – 26.7k

Fans of Limited Resources, in some regards the podcast to listen to if you’re at all interested in Draft and Sealed, can be found discussing all aspects of Limited MTG at r/lrcast. It’s not just about the show itself, although you can certainly find some topics on that there. You could post a draft log, or deck screenshot, for advice, ask about thoughts on a certain card, or the key cards in an archetype. While not the biggest subreddit on Magic on Reddit, it’s probably the biggest focusing on 40-card Magic.

r/mpcproxies – 27.8k

r/mpcproxies or Magic Playtest Community Proxies is a subreddit dedicated to sharing knowledge about the creation of proxy Magic cards. Note that these, obviously, aren’t tips for creating counterfeit cards, but rather more resources to easily print out multiple cards and/or good quality proxies quickly, easily and cheaply.

r/BadMtgCombos – 32.5k

What’s better than a good, efficient, combo in MTG? That’s right, a 5-card combo that has a chance to wiff! r/BadMtgCombos is a silly place for silly people. I can guarantee you, reader, will feel right at home! So do I, though, so don’t be offended! It’s a good place to find some inspiration to make your playgroup go “huh?” next time you sit down to a game, too!

r/PioneerMTG – 32.5k

The first of the real format-specific subreddits, r/PioneerMTG covers, you guessed it, the Pioneer format! Most things in this subreddit can immediately be ported over to the Arena format of Explorer, which is pretty much the same thing at this point.

Picking up some more traffic when Pioneer is the competitive format du jour, here you’ll find people looking at decklists, matchups, and more for the RTR-forward format. Whether it’s discussing the best thing to cheat in with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord or asking if Arclight Phoenix is the messiah or should be banned, you can probably find it here.

r/mtgporn – 60.4k

Again, this is not what you might first think when you first look at the name of the subreddit. r/mtgporn is focused on the appreciation of art from MTG. This goes for any art, whether old, new, Universes Beyond, or anything else. If you find yourself caring more about the pictures on your cardboard than the words surrounding it, you probably want to at least take a look here.

r/Magicdeckbuilding – 70.4k

Deckbuilding is a key part of many players’ enjoyment of Magic, and r/Magicdeckbuilding is just where you want to go if you want to dive deeper into that. Format doesn’t matter, although many people look towards Commander these days. It’s got a good number in its community, though, so you can be sure you’ll have plenty of different viewpoints of how to ensure that combo is nice and consistent.

r/custommagic – 71.8k

Have you had thoughts of designing your own Magic cards? Maybe even an entire set? If you have some thoughts on this or like to see other people’s goofy designs, r/custommagic is where you want to be! There’s plenty on offer here, even some ideas that would fall under Universes Beyond these days, or complete sets or cubes for the really dedicated. There’s also people on hand to give feedback on your designs, to get the flavor just right, or to make sure it works in the rules of Magic.

r/spikes – 97.4k

r/spikes is the home for dedicated competitive players of Magic. “Spike” is MTG lingo for “competitive-focused player”, and as the subreddit's name suggests, this is where the spikiest of players hang out. Around spoiler season you’ll find spirited debate about new cards, how strong/weak they are and where they’ll be best played. You’ll also find discussions of tournament results, the Organized Play system and much more. Discussion can get spicy at times, so be prepared to defend your hottest takes!

r/mtgfinance – 121k

Magic finance is often met with a bit of a mixed response, but r/mtgfinance is often more about finding the best time to grab cards for your collection than it is about speculating on cards and getting the scoop before everyone else. That’s still there, but even if you don’t want to play the Magic stocks game, there could be something else here for you. If you’re playing Magic on a budget, or actively sell MTG cards you no longer need, it could be just as much as home as someone who’s betting against an upcoming reprint!

Of course, card prices don’t affect Arena’s economy too much, but if you see a deck picking up steam in the queues, it might be a sign it’ll have cards going up in price in paper!

r/ModernMagic – 132k

Modern is still arguably the most popular 60-card format (at least in paper), which is why r/ModernMagic has a good following. With Modern Horizons 3 coming up soon, no doubt it’s going to get pretty active in the coming months, with plenty of speculation of how the next “Modern Rotation” is going to affect the top decks. 

Modern isn’t on Arena, but MH3 will be coming to the client, so it might be worth keeping an eye out here.

r/mtg – 163k

Simply named, r/mtg is a generic subreddit for all things Magic: The Gathering. Because it’s wide-ranging, it has quite a few subscribers, so there’s always something getting talked about. That said, it’s still quite far off being the biggest subreddit on our list, so it’s perhaps one you want to look at alongside the bigger ones.

r/edh – 261k

Commander is without a doubt the main way many players engage with Magic at the moment, despite not being on Arena (yet?), so it’s not surprising that r/EDH is one of the bigger subreddits out there. Anything relevant is up for discussion here, be it Commander precon upgrades, power level discussions (if you have to), or card evaluations. You might even be able to find somewhere to find a pod of players outside of your hometown if you’re looking for that.

r/magicTCG – 738k

The runaway biggest subreddit on this list has to be r/magicTCG. More than twice the number of subscribers as the next biggest on the list, everything is talked about here. If you’re wanting your post to get a lot of views, this is your best bet, although sometimes it can be difficult to get your posts seen! 

r/MagicArena – 300k

Okay, maybe it’s not quite the biggest subreddit out there for Magic, but this list is more focused on Arena, and if you’re looking for somewhere to discuss all things MTG Arena, there are far worse places to look than r/MagicArena. 300k subscribers puts it as easily one of the biggest Magic subreddits, and anything that might be relevant to play on the client is fair game (which means it has a lot of crossover with the paper game, too). All formats, all cards, how to farm gold efficiently, or how best to spend your wildcards and gems… basically anything about the client gets talked about, and if you’re looking for somewhere to discuss Magic on Arena, you basically have to look here.

Why Read Arena Subreddits?

Heading over to reddit and looking at what’s posted there for MTG has plenty of benefits. For starters, there’s a wealth of information there, often hot news that’s just coming out. It’s a bit like Magic Twitter but allows more discussion than you can get on there.

It also lets you connect with other Magic fans. Yes, some of the communities have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and you’re not likely to see people again and again there, but the smaller, more niche, ones have a bit of an advantage here. That’s where you can connect with people and be part of a real community.

Are Subreddits a Place to Find Good Standard Decks?

There’s a subreddit for Standard, but it’s not the biggest. You’re probably better off going to a subreddit like spikes to look up competitive Standard information. Reddit can be a good place to go for Standard decks, though, and as ever, the discussion you can have there is particularly good.

Wrap Up

Guild Summit | Illustration by Sidharth Chaturvedi

Reddit is the spiritual successor of forums on the internet (or maybe it killed them, let’s be honest), but if you’re looking for a discussion of your Magic topics, even if it’s super niche, it can be a good place to go to get that fix. Yes, you’re still discussing things on the internet, so you’re still liable to all the baggage that comes with any medium there. That said, the way reddit allows replies to comments and up/downvoting those comments are a pretty good way of managing those discussions.

Are you a regular on any Reddit communities? What’s your go to for a Magic subreddit? Or have I missed an obvious one in my list (no, I didn’t miss freemagic, I chose to omit that one for obvious reasons). Let me know down below in the comments, or come over to the Draftsim Discord.

Until next time… upvote my comments, please?