Last updated on October 6, 2023
Conspiracy Theorist Illustration by Svetlin Velinov
Have you been playing MTG Arena recently? If not, you should! If you have, then you might have wondered what the cards that you get when you win games or events are. Are you curious why WotC included these card rewards? Are you curious about the rarity rates?
Well, recently I got a bunch of rares and mythics from these card rewards. I was probably really lucky, to be fair. I completed some of my unfinished builds thanks to these rewards, so thanks for this system WotC.
If you’re curious about the chances of getting each card rarity and how to obtain more ICRs, look no further!
What Are ICRs?
Inquisition of Kozilek | Illustration by Matthew G. Lewis
ICRs are individual cards that you earn from daily win rewards, the Mastery Pass, or from certain events. Normally the cards you get are uncommon but there’s always a chance that it’ll be upgraded to a rare or mythic. Sounds exciting, right?
I’ve won a lot of rares and mythics from ICRs throughout my journey on MTG Arena. ICRs are one of the perks of continuing to play the game on a daily basis and encourage us to play to win.
What’s the Purpose of ICRs?
If you don’t want to spend your wildcards, then ICRs will help you get the cards that you want. We all know that sometimes it’s really hard to get the cards that you want without wildcards.
When Do You Get ICRs?
Daily Win Rewards
The most common way to get ICRs is through your daily wins. You can get a total of six ICRs every day just through your dailies! How awesome is that? They’re rewarded on the fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, and fifteenth wins of the day.
Constructed Events
Besides the daily wins, you can also get ICRs from Constructed events. There are Standard/Historic BO1 plus traditional Constructed events. Sometimes there are also special events where you can also win ICRs; there's Brawl, singleton, Pauper, Cube Draft, and more!
Mastery Pass
Finally, you can earn ICRs on the Mastery track if you’ve purchased the Mastery Pass. You’ll specifically get ICRs from the current set, and these are specifically mythic rare ICRs. If you manage to max out at the highest level, every additional 1,000 XP will net you an uncommon ICR with a 1:20 upgrade rate.
How Are ICRs Determined/Calculated? What Are the Drop Rates?
Daily Wins
When it comes to daily wins, there's a 7% chance of upgrading to a rare card and a 4% chance that you'll get a mythic rare instead.
BO1 Constructed Events
Here are the upgrade rates for a rare or mythic rare ICR upgrade with Standard Constructed events:
| # of Wins | Card 1 Upgrade % | Card 2 Upgrade % | Card 3 Upgrade % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 5% | 1% | 1% |
| 1 | 5% | 1% | 1% |
| 2 | 5% | 1% | 1% |
| 3 | 5% | 1% | 1% |
| 4 | 5% | 1% | 1% |
| 5 | 100% | 5% | 1% |
| 6 | 100% | 100% | 5% |
| 7 | 100% | 100% | 5% |
Traditional Constructed Events
The table below shows the upgrade rates for each win in traditional Constructed events:
| # of Wins | Card 1 Upgrade % | Card 2 Upgrade % | Card 3 Upgrade % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 5% | 5% | 5% |
| 1 | 15% | 5% | 5% |
| 2 | 15% | 5% | 5% |
| 3 | 100% | 15% | 5% |
| 4 | 100% | 15% | 5% |
| 5 | 100% | 100% | 15% |
Specialty Constructed Events
| # of Wins | Card 1 Upgrade % | Card 2 Upgrade % |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 15% | 1% |
| 1 | 20% | 5% |
| 2 | 25% | 10% |
| 3 | 35% | 15% |
| 4 | 100% | 15% |
| 5 | 100% | 15% |
Which Sets Can ICRs Come From?
Daily wins will get you ICRs from the current Standard-legal sets. For the Constructed events, Standard events will reward you with Standard-legal ICRs while the Historic events will reward you with ICRs that are legal in Historic.
Can You Get Duplicate ICRs? Are You Protected?
What happens if you get an extra copy of a card that you already have a playset of? Well, luckily Arena has a solution for this.
Basically, when you get a common or uncommon card that you already have four of, it’ll be converted into Vault progress. If you get an extra rare or mythic rare card, it’s converted to either 20 or 40 gems, respectively. This is called duplicate protection, and it’s pretty sweet.
How Much Gold Are ICRs Worth?
Treasure Cove | Illustration by Cliff Childs
So you can’t buy gold in Arena, but you can buy gems to join events, buy packs, or any number of other things from the MTGA Store. You might be curious what the expected value of ICRs are in terms of gold.
As I searched for answers, I managed to find this Google Doc from October 2018 where the author determined the value of ICRs in gold, along with a bunch of other stuff. By using their basis of $4.99 per 750 gold, here’s the assumed gold value for each ICR rarity:
| Rarity | Gold Value |
|---|---|
| Common | 75.15 gold |
| Uncommon | 81.16 gold |
| Rare | 178.86 gold |
| Mythic Rare | 805.61 gold |
Why Am I Not Getting ICRs? Were They Removed?
If you run into a problem where you don’t get an ICR after a daily win, when you’ve completed an event, or at a specific level of the Mastery Pass, there might be some sort of bug. I’d encourage you to report it to WotC's customer service to get it sorted out and receive your reward.
Wrap Up
Paradoxical Outcome | Illustration by Nils Hamm
Well, that’s it for ICRs today. I hope you learned something new from me today. My general take on ICRs is that they’re an awesome reward system by Wizards designed to keep us engaged in the game.
What about you? Were you surprised by the cards you received from ICRs in the past? Let us know in the comment section below, or over in our Discord if that’s more your thing.
As always, if you’re looking for more content from us be sure to check out the blog for tons of MTG stuff. And if you’re grinding on the MTGA ladder, don’t forget to grab Arena Tutor to help track your matches and assist you with your draft picks.
Stay safe everyone, and I’ll see you again next time!
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2 Comments
ICR’s are not duplicate protected, so if you don’t get an ICR your vault progress will have increased to compensate.
Hey, MrBadDragon. I think I see what you’re pointing out. However, you wouldn’t be able to have conventional duplicate protection with ICRs, since you could theoretically just get nothing (if you owned every single possible reward). I think that gem replacement / vault progress falls within the definition of duplicate protection enough here. Most people are probably just hoping that they won’t be totally left out to dry in the case the game rewards them with cards they already have. Thanks for reading!
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