Last updated on July 22, 2022
Today is a really exciting day. For years, Draftsim has been known for its awesome draft simulator. You may know and love the site for its lightning-speed set updates and its in-depth draft data analysis articles.
More recently, we've been publishing a bunch of really helpful guides for MTGA, which have brought many new Draftsim fans into the fold.
But now it's time to take things to the next level. Today we're officially launching our first desktop application — a free tracker for MTG Arena.
World, meet Arena Tutor.
You might be one of the thousands of beta testers who's already had a chance to use the app. And if you are, thank you! You've helped so much to refine the app and making it ready for prime time.
It wouldn't be what it is now without your feedback.
Whether you're a brand new user or have been running AT for a while, I think you'll love some of the amazing new features I'm going to tell you about.
What is an MTGA Tracker?
To put it simply, a tracker is an application that you run alongside MTG Arena to enhance your play experience. You can use one to track your stats, track your collection, or give you help during a game or draft.
Arena Tutor does all of this and more.
Our application runs as an overlay while the game is running, and it has three main parts:
- A lobby that tracks your match history, win/loss record, decks, personal profile and ranks, and generates sample hands
- A draft companion that gives you pick recommendations, deck building recommendations, and lets you know which cards you need for your collection
- A deck tracker that tracks the cards left in your deck and the cards your opponent has played
And best part is, all this completely free.
How Arena Tutor Will Help You Win More
Magic is a very complicated game. One that requires constant attention and mental focus.
You need to make the optimal decision every time you can, at every step of the game.
By using Arena Tutor, you'll be able to lessen the amount of variables you have to track throughout your match. That way you can spend your mental energy making the difficult decisions, not just tracking numbers.
Here are some examples to give you an idea of what I mean.
Calculate Your Outs
A very common question that you might have while playing is “what are my chances to draw card x.” Or “how likely am I to draw a land?”
Arena Tutor constantly tallies the cards that you draw to give you show you the percentage chance of drawing a card on-the-fly.
So now you can know how many “outs” you have when you're in a dire situation, or just how unlucky you were to draw those 3 lands in a row…
The Arena Tutor deck tracker shows you the % chance you have to draw any card in your deck at a given time
Sideboard Better
Arena Tutor keeps track of what your opponent played so you don't have to
I particularly love this feature. In big tournaments in real life, I'm always scribbling down notes about what my opponent played so I remember how to sideboard. Not necessary for MTGA, especially when I use Arena Tutor.
This is particularly useful in Traditional (BO3) limited because you need to sideboard and change your deck configuration to beat your opponent's known deck after games one and two. I can guarantee you this will help you offload some of that mental effort so you can focus on beating your opponent, not on trying to remember what they played the previous game.
I think it could also be helpful in Standard to check your work and confirm what version of a deck your opponent is playing. You'll be able to note if they had any unusual cards or unconventional mana choices that might point toward potentially unexpected sideboard cards.
Draft Better
It can be overwhelming to learn a new set at first. The latest set, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is very complex and there are many crazy things going on. To wrap your head around how to approach your draft you need a baseline.
The good news is, you can now get Draftsim's patented card ratings inside all your drafts. Yes, this means during live, player/human drafts as well as during quick drafts with bots!
This will give you a baseline feel for how good any particular card is and relieve a lot of the stress and nervousness that comes with drafting a set the first few times.
We also update the ratings periodically, so as the draft metagame and our understanding of the card evaluations shift, so do the recommendations in the draft companion.
But there's even another level beyond that — the ratings update pick-by-pick based on what you've already taken in the draft.
So the recommendations you get are dynamic, not static and based solely on a pick order. The system will have you speculate on impactful cards, give weighting to a color if you have very strong cards in it, and lock you in to a color pair when you get later in the draft.
It's like having Draftsim's AI over your shoulder while you draft.
Of course, you're not obligated to follow the recommendations. And if you're a pro-level player, you'll have some differences of opinion. But this is a great way to check your work and make sure you didn't miss any important cards in the pack.
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the results.
Check Your Draft Picks Against Your Collection
And, as a bonus while you're drafting, Arena Tutor will also tell you how many copies of a card you already have so you know whether or not you need to rare draft it!
We got your back.
Build Your Draft and Sealed Decks Automatically
That's right, Arena Tutor can even build your decks for you. Well, a first pass, at least.
Whenever you complete a draft (or go in to edit your draft deck later, even), a helpful window will pop up with Draftsim's recommended build.
This uses the same “autobuild” logic that you might be familiar with over on the draft/sealed simulator.
Our engine has looked at the cards in your draft/sealed pool and determined the strongest cards in your two main colors.
This is a great way to make sure you're playing all your best cards. And if you're trying to decide on which card is your 24th that you should cut from your deck, this is a good tiebreaker.
See How Your Deck Is Really Doing
I use a Google Doc to track the results of every tournament I play in. Yes, I manually track all my matches in a spreadsheet…
Well, thank goodness, Excel I need you no more.
Arena Tutor automatically tracks the performance of all your decks, whether you're completing a draft run, grinding the Standard ladder, or just playing a few games of Brawl.
You can also track your performance across decks for a particular season, and compare your ranking to your best all time.
Another really nice thing you can do with Arena Tutor is compare each version of a deck you make. Did you add or remove a few cards? Now you can track the win rate of that version independently to see if it really changed how well the deck was performing.
You might have to come to some harsh realizations regarding how your jank brews do, but I can't help you with that.
Playtest Your Deck With Sample Hands
Why MTGA doesn't let you do this, I don't know. But Arena Tutor does!
After you build your deck — limited or constructed — take it for a quick spin and see how it looks. Just click that button that looks like a hand of Magic cards in the upper right.
You start with a hand of seven cards, but you're free to click the refresh button to simulate mulliganing. You can click on a card to remove it from your hand (as if you were mulliganing or playing it) and you can draw more cards by clicking on the “Draw a card” button.
I can't stress enough how much trying sample hands helps you get your head around how your deck plays out. And if you try a lot of sample hands, you can even get a feel for whether you need to make tweaks to the mana base.
So be sure to give this a try for a new deck before you put your precious gold or gems on the line in a real match.
And So Much More…
I wish I had time to show you all the great stuff you can do with the app. Sharing decks with your friends, analyzing your top limited and contructed cards, a visual view of all your decks by win rate, etc, etc.
But I've got to get back to making even more awesome features!
We're planning on adding a lot more awesomeness to the app, so make sure to download it and it will automatically get even better as time goes by.
Next Steps
If you've made it this far, congratulations! It's time to give the app a try. Head over to our partner Overwolf's site and download it now!
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13 Comments
You all did an amazing job on this App!
Thank you, that means so much to us. And I’m really glad you enjoy it!
Glad to see you have gone live!
The draft helper does not seem to be working for the “Premier Draft Ikoria…”. I enter the draft and the window with the card ratings never appears. Also, when constructing the deck in the same tournament, the window with the deck suggestions does not appear. I have to reload close and reload the Draftsim AI, then it appears. This was never an issue pre-update and in other tournaments. Note: I have only tried 2 tournaments in Premier.
Hey John – as the article states, the draft helper is only available for Quick Draft right now. We’re working on alternatives to this technical limitation that has been imposed by Wizards of the Coast. You can also find more info on the help page.
The article says *all* drafts, with all in bold. Guessing the technical limitation imposed by WotC has been circumvented?
Yep, download the app and give it a try.
Does it work for Mac?
No Mac support, for now unfortunately. If Overwolf supports Mac, then we will. Otherwise this is probably a little further down the road.
This app is fantastic. I downloaded it only recently, and so have only played 2 drafts with it, but the decks I made with its guidance got me 7 wins for both drafts.
Keep it up the good work.
Thank you, it makes me SO happy to hear this!
it says it was last updated a year ago and there is obviously new sets out. will it be updated any time soon or work with the recent new sets?
Yes, Arena Tutor works great with all sets on Arena. 😀 I’m not sure if your question means you’re having problems getting it to work, but we have some resources here. You can also jump on our Discord or subreddit if you need more help.
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