How to Direct Challenge with a Limited Deck in MTGA

Last updated on June 9, 2021

There are many reasons you might want to play with 40 cards instead of 60 utilizing the direct challenge feature on MTGA.

Perhaps you’ve done a draft on a draft simulator, like Draftsim, and now you actually want to play with the deck. Or maybe you’ve read our guide on doing a solo draft in order to play with your friends.

Finally, you might have manually saved one of your draft or sealed decks in MTGA or exported it from Arena Tutor.

Regardless, we’ll assume you’ve already got a deck in hand and you’ve imported it into MTG Arena.

You’re already almost there.

Steps to Direct Challenge in Limited

1. On the home screen, click on the crossed swords to open the direct challenge dialog

2. The direct challenge bar opens, and you can see that the default is “Challenge Match.” You do not want this.

3. Click the right arrow until “Limited Tournament Match” is showing

Now you can choose a deck with fewer than 60 cards!

4. Click “Select Deck” and pick your draft deck from your list of added decks

5. Enter your opponent’s name in the “Opponent” box and hit “Play.” You’re good to go!

Of course if you’re looking someone to play with, you can also utilize MTGA’s friends list feature.

So there you are, it’s very simple. I know it can be hard to find things in MTG Arena’s UI at times, so it’s easy to miss this one.

If you’re looking for more MTGA tips, check out our big guide to MTG Arena and be sure to download our tracker program, Arena Tutor. It will completely revolutionize how you play MTGA.

See you next time!