What in the World Are Golden Packs on MTG Arena?

Last updated on May 14, 2024

Bound in Gold | Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez

If you're struggling to fill your Standard collection in MTG Arena, Golden Packs just might save the day. Wizards of the Coast added this pack to give players a little boost in building the constructed decks they want (while helping to line Hasbro’s pockets, of course).

While they may help you get more cards, are Golden Packs more than a modest milestone reward that entices you to play more games and spend more bucks?

What Is A Golden Pack in MTGA?

Treasure token | Illustration by Olena Richards

Golden Packs are special packs in MTG Arena that are full of rares and designed to help you buff your collection.

Golden Packs will be available to free-to-play players and in-game spenders alike as a milestone reward for buying packs. Like wildcards, you can earn a Golden Pack for every 10 booster packs you purchase, whether that's with gold or gems.

What Comes in a Golden Pack?

The MTG Arena Golden Packs contain six Standard-legal rare or mythic rare cards. Every pack is guaranteed to have one mythic rare card, and the rest of the cards have a 1-in-8 chance of being mythic rare. Otherwise, the rest are rares.

Most players know the struggle of wanting to build a specific Standard deck and not having the wildcards, rares, or mythics that they need, so this gives them a few more options in constructing better decks.

Two cards in each pack always come from the current Standard legal set.

What Are the Chances of a Mythic in a Golden Pack?

You’re guaranteed to get at least one mythic rare card in a Golden Pack. There are six cards total in each pack, and the odds of getting another mythic rare is 1 in 8. Consider getting two mythic rare cards in a pack as a huge bonus. Otherwise, you’ll mostly get one mythic and five rares.

Where Do You Get Golden Packs?

The only way to get Golden Packs is by purchasing booster packs in the Arena store. There is a meter counting the number of packs you've purchased. Once it fills to 10, you get a Golden Pack.

You can buy the booster packs with gold you've earned in game or with gems you've purchased in the shop. If you're a free-to-play player, the answer here is pretty obvious. If you're the type of player who doesn't mind breaking out the credit card once in a while, your pack or pack bundle purchases will count toward a Golden Pack.

One important thing to note is that if you buy a bundle that will put you over the 10th slot in the meter, the extra packs will carry over toward the progress of a new Golden Pack. If you have five meter slots filled and you buy a 10-pack of booster packs, you'll get a Golden Pack and your slot fills up with the remaining five packs that count toward your progress.

Golden Packs vs. Mythic Packs vs. Regular Packs

Regular packs give you common, uncommon, rare, and mythic cards. The drop rate for these cards pretty much corresponds with their rarity types. In fact, I can't remember the last time I got a mythic rare card in a pack.

Mythic packs give you a much greater chance at one mythic card unless it’s replaced by a rare wildcard. The rest are a mix of rares, uncommons, and commons.

Golden Packs have one mythic card and five rare cards. The rare cards have a 1-in-8 chance to be upgraded into a mythic rare.

Are Golden Packs Duplicate Protected?

Yes! No need to worry about getting duds or redundant cards that net you no rewards! Golden Packs will have duplicate protection. Once you have four copies of a mythic rare or rare card from a specific Standard set, you'll get mythics or rares from another Standard-legal set (e.g. if you have four copies of a specific card in The Brothers' War, you'll instead get a mythic or rare from Dominaria United).

If you've invested time and/or money into the game and have four copies of a specific rarity in every Standard-legal set in the game, those cards you would get will be replaced by 20 gems for rares, or 40 gems for mythic rares.

Do Golden Packs Advance Your Wildcard Progression Wheel?

Yes! When it comes to getting the exact card you want, there's nothing better than a wildcard for that rarity in the game. Golden Packs will count towards progressing your wildcard wheel, so it's just one bonus on top of another.

Why Do Golden Packs Exist?

Cynicism aside for the moment, Golden Packs exist to help players fill out their Standard decks with the rares and mythic rares they need. While it's fun to make budget-friendly decks and see how far your skill can take those cards, there's no denying that an opponent with four copies of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is going to be a nightmare to deal with.

Golden Packs also give players more incentive to grind the game and rack up the gold to buy more packs. The more packs you buy, the more Golden Packs you'll earn.

Golden packs are a huge addition to MTGA, because the only realistic way for a free-to-player to build a large collection before this was through drafting on MTGA. This is an alternative path.

Lastly, if not most obviously, these are a guaranteed money-maker for WotC when more well-heeled players buy pack bundles to earn the Golden Packs.

Are Golden Packs Worth Buying?

That depends mostly on the style of player you are. For those who spend gold or gems to buy packs in the game, everyone tends to fall into two camps: open enough packs to get wildcards for the exact cards you want or use gold to hop into Quick Draft and pull all the mythics and rares you can without any care about losing the games.

Golden Packs sit in this weird in-between place where you're buying packs for a guarantee of containing mythics and rares, but they may not be the ones you want. In paper Magic, it's advisable to buy singles rather than open packs in hopes of getting the card you want.

If the Golden Packs end up a regular staple in the shop, you're guaranteed at least some solid cards in terms of rarity. You’ll still want to use wildcards to get the exact cards you want instead of betting on packs.

Alternatives to Golden Packs

As great as the Golden Packs sound, there are some alternatives you should consider when trying to fill out your MTGA card collection.

Buy Codes at MTGA Codes

Buying bundles and other items at MTGACodes.com is undoubtedly one of the best bang-for-your-buck investments you can make in the game. You can get packs, bundles, sleeves, and other items from MGTA Codes at more than half the price they'd cost you in the game, and then redeem those Arena codes in the in-game store.

Before buying anything from the app itself, check out online shops for MTGA Arena codes.

Buy Regular Packs

You might be asking, “Well, isn't this the way to get Golden Packs in the first place?” Yes, but here's the thing: you might have a better chance of getting the rares of a certain set by buying packs from that set than by relying on Golden Packs.

Remember, the Golden Packs will have at least two cards from the most current set, so there are only four other cards giving you a chance at a card you might want. If there's a rare or mythic from another Standard set that you're really after, you may have better luck buying that set's packs. The good news is that buying these packs still advances you to your Golden Pack.

Grind More MTGA Draft

Doing Draft has plenty of upsides outside of developing your skills as a Limited player. Just like paper Magic, you get to keep all the cards that you draft. Each pack that you open in Draft has at least one rare card in it.

In Draft, you'll get to pick and keep way more cards for your collection than a single Golden Pack. If you want to use Draft as a way of grabbing all the mythics, rares, and uncommons that you can, it's a viable strategy to fill out your collection. Plenty of players see this as an efficient way of getting rare cards without caring too much about winning the draft.

Wrap Up

Revel In Riches | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

The bottom line on Golden Packs is that you're getting mythics and rares every time you open one. They’re an excellent way of filling out that piece of your collection at a rate that's slightly better than before. The fact that they can be acquired just by grinding for gold and using that gold to buy packs is great.

I look forward to cracking open Golden Packs as a reward for the hours I put into earning gold! It's not the best system for getting the exact cards I want, it's a good balance for WotC to sprinkle in bonus rewards without crushing its bottom line by giving the players too much.

By the way, if you're an MTGA player, you absolute need to check out Draftsim's free MTGA tracker, Arena Tutor. It's an incredible tool that will give you stats and insights on your matches and even tells you what cards to draft!