All 15 Settings in MTG Arena Explained, Plus FAQ

Last updated on April 13, 2024

Aether Vial | Illustration by Raoul Vitale

As with any video game, MTG Arena has a handful of settings and options that allow you to tailor your experience to your liking.

So let’s dig into how to adjust every MTG Arena setting – from where to change your personalization options like your Avatar and cards sleeves, to skipping the Arena tutorial, to more obscure matters like how to toggle between tapping your lands automatically or manually. Many of these are features that MTGO players dream of, so enjoy this about MTGA.

Let’s get into it!

How Do You Change Your Settings in MTGA?

Adjusting your settings in MTGA is pretty straightforward. There are two menus:

The “Profile” menu, in the upper-left corner, lets you choose most of your profile personalization options like your Avatar, pet, card sleeves, etc.

The “Adjust Options” menu, in the upper-right corner (the one that looks like a cog wheel), adjusts your gameplay, audio, and graphics settings, accesses your account settings, and contacts Support.

Settings on Desktop

To change your MTGA settings on desktop, click on the “Adjust Options” icon (which looks like a cog wheel, found in the upper-right corner), and you'll get a menu like this:

We'll dig into it in more detail later, but at a glance:

Gameplay options are probably the settings you'll change the most often. Here, you'll find how to tailor how games flow and how much of the in-game actions you want MTGA to take care of for you. Like whether you want MTGA to auto-tap lands for mana, for example.

Graphics allow you to choose MTGA's visual Quality Level and choose to run in Full Screen or Windowed mode. How smooth do you want it to look, balanced with what your system can handle.

Audio is where you find all the volume sliders for MTGA's music and sound effects.

Exit Game and Log Out are how you, well, exit the game or log out!

Account lets you manage some of your account options. For some weird reason, it’s where the “Skip Tutorial” button is hidden. If you have a new MTG Arena account and want to jump into the deep end of the pool, this is where you need to go.

Report a Bug lets you open a Support Ticket. It's the way in which you can open a Ticket for anything that you need to get in touch with Support, not just bugs.

Settings on Mobile

On mobile, it's very similar: just click the icon that looks like a cog wheel on the upper right, and you'll access the Options screen:

Settings in MTGA

As noted, there are two menus for accessing your MTGA settings: the “Profile” menu, for customizing and personalizing your profile (where you can choose your Avatar, card sleeves, your pet, etc.), and the “Adjust Options” menu to adjust your gameplay settings.

Profile Customization: Avatar, Card Sleeves, Pet, and Emotes

Your Profile screen lets you see your ranks for Constructed and Limited, shows your collection progress for the current set, and lets you choose your preferred personalization options from among the MTGA cosmetics you currently own:

You may also see a Renewal Egg, which is only in MTGA when rotation approaches and shows the date for when said rotation takes place.

Choosing your favorite emote stickers, pets, card sleeves, and Avatars is pretty straightforward: just click on each, and choose your preferred Avatar…

… or favorite card sleeve, cutest pet, and preferred stickers.

You can set any of these options as the default for all your decks. In the case of your card sleeves, avatar, and pet (but not emote stickers) you can also select a specific option for each of your decks.

To do that, go to the Decks menu, and click on the icon that looks like a deck box in the upper left corner of the screen.

Then, click on the deck you want to personalize, and when editing that deck, click on “More Details”, to the right:

Notice that sometimes you may mis-click on “Sideboard” (which is right above “More Options”), but what you’re looking for is the screen shown below:

In the Deck Details menu, you can choose specific cosmetics for the respective deck. If you want, you can use Avatar #1 for Deck A, and a different Avatar #2 for Deck B, and have a different Avatar for each one of your decks. And the same for card sleeves and pets.

Something to note: there are many ways to acquire cosmetics in MTGA, and a huge number of them are available just for a limited time (either tied to a specific expansion, or a limited-time deal, etc.). If you bump into a player using a terrific card sleeve that you can’t find in the store, it's probably a cosmetic that’s no longer available (sometimes it may show up again on the store, but only Wizards knows when that may happen).

On your Profile menu, you can also customize your emote stickers and active emotes:

Note that while you can choose a specific (and different) Avatar, card sleeve, and pet for each one of your decks, your active emotes are account-wide and the same for all your decks.

Like other cosmetics, you need to acquire stickers from the shop, as rewards on the Mastery Pass, etc., and they tend to be limited-time offers.

Adjust Options Menu

On the upper right corner, you'll find the Adjust Options screen. The available options vary slightly depending on your device (for example, you won't find a Graphics option on most mobile devices).

Adjust Gameplay Options

As noted above, you'll find your Gameplay options in the “Adjust Options” menu (the cog wheel icon in the top-right corner”. These options let you customize how your games flow and how cards on the battlefield look:

Some of these gameplay options are a bit unclear, so let's dissect them one by one.

Auto Tap: You can only toggle this setting while a match is ongoing. When “On”, MTGA taps lands for you (to generate mana) whenever you cast a spell or trigger an ability that requires mana. If this setting is “Off”, you have to tap your lands manually every time.

Even if Auto Tap is set to “On”, you can override it at any time in the game by entering Full Control (which you do by pressing “Ctrl” on desktop, or on mobile by tapping and holding your player avatar to enable or disable full control).

My recommendation: if you come from other digital CCGs and are new to MTG Arena, leave the Auto Tap option “On” and just let MTGA solve things. The autotapper isn’t perfect, though, and once in a while it messes up, but while you’re still learning the game the auto-tapper makes things faster and easier. Once you start pulling off more complex plays, you may want to turn it off entirely or override it in some specific spots by entering Full Control, whenever you want to make sure things go exactly as you want.

Auto Order Trigger Abilities: If “On”, whenever there are simultaneous triggers MTGA automatically arranges how they enter the stack; if “Off”, you'll have to arrange said triggers manually. If “On”, you can still override it at any time by entering Full Control.

If you have control over trigger abilities, and there are simultaneous triggers during a game, you'll see a screen like this:

In the case above, I've just attacked with multiple units (during a Lord of the Rings Draft game). One of my attackers is Éomer of the Riddermark, who spawns a 1/1 token when it attacks; another of my attackers is a Ring-bearer, who triggers the Ring.

Since both Éomer and the Ring-bearer trigger their abilities at the exact same time (namely, when I commit the attack), MTGA asks me which one I want to put on the stack first. If Auto Order Trigger Abilities had been on, MTGA would have automatically decided this for me; since I toggled Auto Order off, I can decide myself.

My recommendation: unless you're playing a very complex combo deck, just leave Auto Order on.

Auto Choose Replacement Effect and Auto Assign Combat Damage work similarly to Auto Ordering; leave any of them “On” if you'd like MTGA to order/assign them automatically or leave them “Off” (or, alternatively, enter Full Control) if you want to do the heavy-lifting and make sure everything happens exactly as you want. A screen similar to the one above pops up to let you handle things.

In particular, I'd recommend leaving Combat Damage “Off”: when there are multiple blockers, and your attacker can't kill them all, you usually want to make sure you’re killing the highest-value target.

Hide Alternate Art and Auto Apply Card Styles: Auto Apply Card Styles is a cosmetic option that automatically updates your decks to include the art styles you collect. Hide Alternate Art allows you to force the game to show all cards with their basic art – which comes in handy when you don't want to spend time, brain power, and/or eyesight recognizing cards your opponent may play.

By the way: if you do want to change specific card styles, you can do so in any deck-building screen (it can be the main Decks menu, or while building your deck during a Limited or Draft run).

For example, in the deckbuilding area Bubble Smuggler has the card styles expanded to show my two visual options, I can heart the one I prefer, then collapse the arrows and the setting is retained when I use that card. Some cards have a borderless style (and they’re animated, but you can't capture that in a screenshot).

Now, onto the remaining Gameplay settings! Here are all those settings again, as a refresher, so you don't have to scroll upwards:

Show Phases: If “On”, the game shows a small icon on the bottom-right corner during games, showing you the phase of either your or your foe's turn.

Evergreen Keyword Reminders: These are just a bit of floating text that will appear whenever you hover over a card, which reminds you what the keywords do – probably doesn't hurt to leave it always on, unless you know MTG inside and out.

For example, if I don't remember what the “heck “Vigilance” or “Disguise” do, the game kindly reminds me whenever I hover over a card with that keyword.

Enable Gameplay Warnings: If “On”, MTGA issues a warning whenever you're trying to do something that may not make much tactical sense.

For example, if I target my own Phyrexian Missionary with Deadly Derision…

… MTGA asks, “Hey, dude, are you, like, totally sure you wanna do that!?”

Probably not a bad idea to leave this option “On” if you're new to MTGA (or playing while tired/bottle-feeding/otherwise distracted), but a lot of times what you’re trying to do does make a lot of sense, so turn it off if you find Arena second-guessing you too much.

Disable Emotes: Arguably the most important Gameplay setting for those among you that, like yours truly, get tilted to hell and back whenever your foe says “Good Game” before they kill you!

I’d advise you to have emotes always disabled, to preserve your peace of mind, but to each their own.

Adjust Graphic Options

If you go to “Adjust Options”, and you’re running Magic Arena on desktop, you'll see the option to change your Graphics settings:

For some reason, the menu to change language is also there:

The Resolution should match that of your monitor (and in general MTGA has this one set up for you). The more powerful your rig, the higher Quality Level you can use.

I personally run MTGA on “Low”, and it looks nice enough while not even requiring my laptop to turn on its fan most of the time. The custom settings you can toggle up if your system can handle them. Your system may be set for VSync which is good in general, but if you notice stuttering, try another setting. Anti-Aliasing matters if you notice pixilated edges on images, your options are only Low or High. The shadows, bloom, motion blur, and ambient occlusion each make playing cards more fancy, toggle them on if you enjoy watching your beautiful cards.

Adjust Sound Options

If you go to “Adjust Options”, you can adjust your Audio settings:

This menu is pretty self-explanatory:

… adjust each slider to your ear's liking. SFX stands for sound effects, and I generally like the background music, but keep it a bit lower.

Account Options

At the bottom of the Adjust Options screen, you'll find your Account options.

If you've already completed the tutorials, you'll see a screen like this one (if you've just created your Magic: Arena account, you’ll also see the option to “Skip the Tutorial” at the top):

Most of the options in this menu take you to Wizards of the Coast's webpage – in particular, your Account Preferences take you to WotC's site, which probably asks you to log in (with the same email and password that you log into the game)…

… and then takes you to the screen shown below, where you can edit a couple of profile details:

For security reasons, you cannot change your Display Name or Email on this screen – you need to contact Customer Support by opening a Support Ticket and ask them to change it for you.

And, just to save you time, WotC has stated that they’re unlikely to change your Display Name:

How Do You Make MTG Arena Run Better?

As a rule of thumb, the lower the graphic quality, the smoother the game should run – lowering the Quality Level of the Graphics settings can significantly improve performance. You can access this setting by clicking on the gear icon in the top-right corner of the main screen, then selecting “Graphics”, and changing the Quality Level.

As for the Resolution, it's generally recommended to use a resolution that matches your monitor's native resolution for the best visual clarity. However, if you're experiencing performance issues, you can try lowering the resolution to see if it improves gameplay.

Playing in Full Screen mode can generally provide better performance compared to windowed modes.

Last but not least, here are some recommendations taken from Wizards of the Coast's official Support Page on how to optimize MTGA's performance:

• Make sure that your system meets Magic Arena's minimum requirements. Poor performance is a common symptom of running a machine below the recommended specifications.
• Try shutting down other programs while playing the game – particularly ones that use the internet or take up significant system memory. Software like video streaming services can impair performance due bandwidth consumption or memory utilization.
• Try using a wired network if you're having problems on wireless. This can work around any wireless network quality issues you're having.
• Make sure Windows and graphics card drivers are up to date, as updates may contain performance improvements or related bug fixes.

What Resolution Should You Use for MTG Arena?

It's generally recommended to use a resolution that matches your monitor's native resolution for the best visual clarity (and MTGA should detect this resolution automatically). However, if you're experiencing performance issues, you can try lowering the resolution to see if it improves gameplay.

Can You Play MTG Arena in Fullscreen Mode?

Yes, you can. Just go to the “Adjust Options” menu (located on the upper right – it looks like a cog wheel), click on “Graphics”, and you'll see a Full Screen checkbox.

How Do You Change Your Account Details for MTG Arena?

To change details like your Display Name or your email address, you’ll need to contact Customer Support, open a Support Ticket, and follow their instructions.

You can open a support ticket with this link (which takes you to MTGA Support's web page), or from the “Adjust Settings” menu (upper right, looks like a gear), and then “Submit a Bug Report” at the bottom.

You’ll see the screen shown below – even if it's labeled “Report a Bug”, and it will take you to MTGA Support's web page where you can open a Support ticket for any topic.

When clicking on “Contact Support”, a new window or browser tab opens, directing you to the Wizards of the Coast's support website. If prompted, log in with your Wizards of the Coast account credentials (the email and password with which you log into Magic Arena). If you don't have an account, you may need to create one to proceed.

Be advised that Wizards of the Coast has stated that they don't normally change your display name.

How Do You Enable or Disable Emotes?

Go to “Adjust Options” (the cog wheel icon on the top-right corner), click on the Gameplay menu, and you'll find the Disable Emotes checkbox.

Is There a Setting for Detailed Gameplay Statistics?

No – MTGA shares exactly zero statistics with you.

To check your detailed gameplay stats (like your win rate, individual match history, or other gameplay statistics), you'll need to either track them manually yourself or use a third-party app, like our very own Arena Tutor.

Arena Tutor has a suite of amazing tools, from deck tracking to a Draft Assistant, and of course personal stats galore.

Arena Tutor tracks every Arena gameplay stat that matters: full Match History to check your results by format and deck, post-game stats to review your game, deckbuilding suggestions when you are rounding up a Limited deck, and more!

How Do I Disable the Tutorial?

Go to the “Adjust Options” menu (on the top right – it looks like a cog wheel), then go to the Account menu at the bottom.

In the Account menu, you'll see a “Skip Tutorial” button at the top:

You can later replay the Tutorial if you want (and skip it again if you change your mind!).

Wrap Up

Coralhelm Guide | Illustration by Viktor Titov

And that's about it! That's all the different settings and options for Magic: The Gathering Arena currently available.

I hope you've found this article useful, and if you have any questions or doubts feel free to ask us on the official Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, stay safe, and stay healthy!