The 7 Best Ways to Get Cards in MTG Arena

Last updated on December 7, 2023

Animate Library | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

As soon as you play MTG Arena for a little while, you inevitably start noticing its economy at some point. That includes both how complicated and how expensive it is to master. One element of this is discovering all the different ways to get your hands on things like products, gems, gold, packs, and cards.

There are many different ways to get your hands on cards in MTGA. Finding the best way to get them for you can be a bit confusing, though. That’s why I’m gonna give you the lowdown on all your options to get cards in MTGA, right here, right now! I’ll also give you the pros and cons of each method. And all of it for free! Kind of like winning the lottery, really. Remember one of the alternatives to MTGA is Magic Online where you'll be buying cards, but that comparison is its own discussion.

All right, let’s get crackin’!

How to Get Free Cards

Of all the ways to get your hands on cards in MTGA, getting them for free is definitely the most enticing. If there’s a way to get your hands on some free cards, you’d want to know about it, right? Right!

Color Challenge

Tricks of the Trade | Illustration by Steven Belledin

If you’re a new player starting out on MTGA, you have to go through something called the “Color Challenge.” Essentially, this is a fun way to wrap your head around the game. In the challenges, you battle your way through games against each of the five colors of MTG. As you get further into the color-web, more decks and more cards will become available to you. All of them for free!

In total, you can get 10 dual-colored decks and five mono-colored decks. Check out our article on the starter decks in MTG Arena for further info.

MTGA Codes

With each set released for Standard, Wizards used to release a promo code to give you a taste of that set on MTGA. You'd get three free packs to crack and give you a sense of the cards in the set. If you didn’t already follow the spoilers, that is. It’s a great way to get some free loot!

They have converted this “free code” system to an automatic in-game bonus now. You just have to check your player inbox inside MTG Arena after the set comes out.

There are codes in various real-life MTG products as well. You can redeem them in Arena to get the paper deck you bought in digital form. The products supplied with codes are related to the formats available on Arena, which isn’t surprising. If you buy the Planeswalker or Starter Decks, you’ll get a free copy for your Arena account. Likewise with Secret Lairs.

Finally, you can also just straight up buy codes from MTGAcodes.com — but more on that later.

Which Is the Best Way to Get Free Cards?

Definitely redeeming free codes inside MTGA. It’s easier and gives you less hassle. No winning or hoops required. The only problem is that you’ll run out of codes very quickly. Every new set gives you a new code, though, so you just need to be patient and you’ll get more things.

Opening Packs

Double Dip | Illustration by D. Alexander Gregory

Time to spend a little money or collect gold to expand your collection. How, you ask? By opening packs, of course!

How to Get Packs

You can get packs in the MTGA store in exchange for gems or gold. You can buy gems in Arena’s store for actual cash (or cash alternatives), earn them by being good at draft, or occasionally through events. Gold can be earned solely through completing challenges and events. When you’re ready, head on over to the store and score some packs. If you’re wondering which packs to buy, we’ve got you covered.

When you’re competing in events and completing challenges, you also get various packs as rewards. If you combine this with the Mastery Pass, you’ll get even more packs when you’re battling through those challenges and events. The pass is a great buy if you’re an MTGA grinder.

When to Open Packs

When you open your packs depends on what you’re trying to do:

Do you want to just have fun and enjoy yourself?

Open the packs right as you get them.

Are you dead set on collecting an entire set?

Save your packs. Do as many drafts as you can afford first, pick all the rares and mythic rares you come across, and then open your packs. MTG Arena’s duplicate protection will keep you from getting any rares or mythic rares you’ve already collected four of, giving you a better chance of filling out the set’s missing cards. This way you get more value out of your packs.

Pros and Cons

The obvious pro to buying packs rather than using codes is that you can get as many as your wallet (or schedule) allows. The con is that you have to spend your hard-earned money/time.

The choice you have to make is whether you think it’s worth it, how much time you spend on MTGA, and to what purpose.

Are you a pro? Do you want to become one? If you said yes to either question, then investing is probably something worth doing.

Are you a casual player in it for the fun? If this is the case for you, then buying a ton of packs is probably not the way.

Crafting

Paper Tiger | Illustration by Heather Hudson

I've discussed crafting before, so I’m going to assume you’re up to snuff on how to get and use wildcards. This is another great way to get cards in MTGA.

If you want to build a particular deck, all you have to do is upload the decklist into the deck builder or put the deck together yourself. Once you’re done, Arena will show you which cards you’re missing, if any. All you have to do is click ”Craft” and all the missing cards will be added to your collection in exchange for the associated wildcards.

There’s no hassle in opening packs and hoping for that one card you’re gunning for. It’s fast and easy. All you need to do is have the required wildcards in the appropriate rarities.

Pros and Cons

The big pro is that you get to pick which cards you want instead of rolling the dice. You can technically do this without spending any money/gold/gems and just open packs you get for free while playing the game. This does limit the number of wildcards you get, but it can be done if you’re on a budget.

The biggest con is that you need to open packs to collect wildcards for use in crafting. This keeps you from using them indefinitely, so make sure you’re certain about the deck and cards you want before spending wildcards. You can’t undo crafting once you’ve pushed that “Okay” button. Oh and while this is the easiest way to get cards you want, it is expensive because you have to open (read: buy) all those packs.

Drafting

Bureaucracy | Illustration by Mark Zug

I lightly touched on this already, but drafting is another great way to get cards in Arena. If you’re not in the market for collecting entire sets, then you can just pick the cards you like or want and build a fun deck at the same time.

If you’re an accomplished drafter, or wanting to get better at it, you can use the drafts to win more packs, gold, or gems.

Both methods are great and, above all, fun. Pick your poison, as they say.

Pros and Cons

The pros to drafting are pretty straightforward. You get a bunch of new cards to add to your collection and, as you win more games, the rewards grow as well. Plus it's very fun. Check out your collection on your profile tab.

The con is that you have to like drafting and there’s definitely some skill involved in getting the most out of your drafts. If this is new to you, get ready for a learning curve. Thankfully Draftsim has a ton of resources to help you.

Individual Card Rewards

ICRs, or individual card rewards, are the rewards you reap from daily rewards, events, and the Mastery Pass. I’ve already mentioned ICRs as secondary perks for some other card-earning methods, but it’s a definite path on its own, too.

Pros and Cons

If you enter a lot of events and complete your daily bonuses, your amount of free loot will soar for sure. There’s a high upside in participating in the different events Arena has to offer.

The downside is that these events aren’t (always) free. You usually have to fork over some gold or gems to enter, so you have to have some coin/shiny before you can earn participate a lot of the time.

The Vault

Mine, Mine, Mine! | Illustration by Heather Hudson

It’s a bit fringe, but once you’ve collected the right amount of duplicate commons and uncommons, your vault will activate, and if opened, can reward you with six wildcards: one mythic rare, two rares, and three uncommons.

These allow you to craft more cards you might desire, thus converting into more cards for your collection. Best of all, it’s completely free! Just a small gift from the people behind MTGA.

Pros and Cons

The best perk is that this is absolutely free and all you have to do is play. Duplicates automatically go towards your vault and it keeps track when it’s full to burst and shower you in wildcard goodness.

The con is that six wildcards is a pretty small number and can only help you get just a few cards for your deck. Plus it takes a long time for the vault to open unless you are buying packs like crazy.

Can't I Just Buy Cards Directly?

The short answer to this question is no. But we've come up with a very interesting workaround for you. You can directly buy codes that will net you cards in MTGA. Immediately.

So this means, to some extent, you can buy:

• Packs
• Preoconstructed Decks

The way to do this is through MTGACodes.com. You just go to the store, add a bunch of packs to your cart, click purchase, and you get codes you can type into MTGA and redeem immediately for more cards. Note that you can only buy one of each max:

Packs for sales on MTGACodes.com – about a buck per pack.

It's a similar process for decks:

The best thing about these is that you can browse the decklists on the site to see exactly what you're getting.

If for some reason you can't find what you need on MTGACodes, Gray Viking Games is another option to check out. We've also written up a pretty comprehensive review for GVG, which I highly recommend you take a look at.

If you have more money than time, or just some budget allocated for MTGA, this route might be the best bang for your buck.

So What's the Best Way to Get Cards?

The best way is just to craft the cards directly with wildcards. But that can get really expensive really fast.

It all comes down to you and what you’re looking to get out of playing on MTGA. Is it fun? Experience? A lot of loot? A way of spending excess cash? All these variables influence which method is best. So, instead, I’ll give you the best way to go based on your goal:

• For fun: The free methods are your friend, my friend.
• For experience: Combine drafting and crafting to get your desired cards.
• For loot: Board the ICR train to loot station, my friend.
• For spending cash: Run to the MTGA store or Gray Viking Games and spend, spend, spend to your heart’s content.

Win More

Many of these techniques, like getting extra packs and wildcards, is strongly correlated with winning more matches. And if you want to do that, I recommend you use an MTG Arena deck tracker like Arena Tutor.

The app is free, and it helps you track your matches, learn about new winning meta decks, and even gives you advice during your drafts. Check it out!

Wrap Up

With that, we’ve come to the end of another chat! As always, feel free to head on over to our blog if you want to read more awesome articles. If you like our content and want to show your support, you can follow us on X. We greatly appreciate your support!

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