MTG Arena Welcome Bundle: Is It Worth It?

Last updated on March 5, 2026

Explosive Welcome | Illustration by Mathias Kollros

There are lots of things for you to look at, think about, and experience when you’re new to MTG. Thankfully there’s a lot of help for new players in Arena. From the entire new player experience offering a simple tutorial and plenty of cards, to the Starter Deck Duel event, to store items tailored specifically to helping new players get a bit ahead, you’re definitely not alone.

Now, if you’re reading this, I imagine you’re a new player or maybe you’re an experienced player who just never got the welcome bundle and is thinking “what the heck, should I?” Whatever the case, you’re surely here to figure out if it’s worth shelling out five bucks for.

Let’s get into that, shall we?

What Comes In the Welcome Bundle?

If you buy the welcome bundle, you’ll get a cool 2,500 gems and five current packs. Not that bad for a new player, to be honest.

How do you buy it?

Well, you buy it from Arena’s store in the Featured or Bundles sections and it costs $4.99. It’s also a one-time purchase, meaning once you get it, you can’t buy it a second time.

But, is it actually advantageous to buy the bundle instead of just grabbing the gems from the store?

Is the Welcome Bundle Worth It?

The welcome bundle is worth it as long as you're willing to add a payment method. Even if you have gems coming out of the wazoo, the bundle is a great deal.

It’s important to know how good a deal the bundle is, at least if you're considering it. Let’s do the math, shall we?

What Do You Get Out of the Welcome Bundle?

Unwelcome Sprite | Illustration by Iris Compiet

With the Welcome Bundle you get more than 3x the amount of gems you'd normally get for $5, plus five Arena packs. So I say the welcome bundle is worth it.

That's not much reasoning for you, though, which is fair, so let’s take a peek at the broader community’s opinion.

The general consensus is that the bundle is a good first buy, along with the Mastery Pass. You get a bunch of premium currency to get you started—the best thing to spend it on is events, IMO— more than enough for a premier, a Quick Draft in Arena, and five current packs. Nothing crazy, but a good start as a new player.

The welcome bundle is a great example of going optimal with your time, money, and what you get out of the game. It is cheaper to buy the bundle than to buy the gems, and not only that, you save the time that it would take to farm the gems and packs if you went full free-to-play.

Breakdown of the Numbers

OK, now let’s get technical. Don’t worry, I’ll do all the heavy lifting for you so that you don’t have to spend a bunch of time or thought on it.

So. The bundle is $4.99 and you get 2,500 gems and five packs. Let’s break that down into what it would cost you if you bought the gems and then used them to get packs, while still having at least 2,500 gems left.

We’re gonna have to approximate a few numbers a bit and do some assuming since there’s no option to buy exactly 2,500 gems or five packs in the store, which I’m pretty sure is a very intentional thing on Wizards’ part. First, let’s take a look at the reality of the situation with what’s actually possible to get from Arena’s store.

First, we’ll look at packs, since we need to know how many gems it takes to get five packs to know how many gems we need to get in total. Don’t forget, we need to have 2,500 gems in our account after we buy the five packs.

There’s no discount if you buy the six-pack bundle or two three-pack bundles, so each pack is worth 200 gems, and 200 x 5 = 1,000 gems.

For gems, you would need 3,500 but we can’t buy exactly that, you now run into a problem because there’s no gem bundle for either of those numbers.

So, the reality? You’d get 3,400 gems for $19.99 and 750 gems for $4.99 to end up with 650 extra gems.

So to match the welcome bundle, you’d need to spend more than $20? Insane.

What if you’re just looking to get the most bang for your buck and don’t care how much more you have to spend to do so? Now it’s time for the dumb math.

In the Arena Economy

We know packs are worth 200 gems, but how much IRL money are gems worth? This is a bit more complicated than the packs ‘cause you actually get a discount the more gems you buy. Let’s look at the cost for gems at the lowest tier and the highest, and then we’ll average out for a happy middle, shall we?

The 750-gem pack costs you $4.99, same as the welcome bundle, I could pause there and ask “Is 2,500 gems better than 750 gems?”

To calculate it out, the smallest pack of gems makes each gem worth $0.0066533333. The biggest pack, 40,000 gems for $199.99, values the gems you buy at a slightly-rounded-up value of $0.005 (it’s actually $0.00499975, if you wanna follow along with our math for some reason). Not a huge difference, sure, but if we took the lowest bundle’s cost and added it up to 40,000 gems, it’d cost you about $266.13. Yikes.

Averaging the two gem-value numbers out gives us a cost of $0.00582654165 per gem, or almost $6 per 1000 gems.

Five packs at 200 gems per pack is 1,000 gems, plus the 2,500 gems included in the bundle give us a grand total of 3,500 gems worth of stuff in the welcome bundle. With our averaged value, that makes the bundle worth about $20.39. Even with the cheapest gem price, the bundle would be worth $17.50, so no matter how you look at it, you get a really good deal.

Isn't MTGA Free to Play?

Pursuit of Knowledge | Illustration by DiTerlizzi

Yes MTG Arena is basically free-to-play (F2P) not pay-to-play (P2P). You do not have to spend money to play the game. Arena is a free platform to download and play, so the game itself is F2P, even if it's possible to spend money in the game's store. But is it pay-to-win? That’s where they usually get’cha.

You absolutely do not need to spend money to be competitive in Arena. It’s 100% possible to grind your way into the cards and decks that will give you a chance to be competitive in any format or put yourself on the map in competitive MTGA.

Why Is It a One-Time Purchase?

The welcome bundle is a one-time purchase because the rate it offers is not sustainable in its economy. The Arena store offers deals every day, sometimes your decision is as easy as “spend 50 gold to get 550 gold,” you'd do that every time right?

Should I Buy the Welcome Bundle Now or Wait?

Whether you buy the bundle now or later depends on if you like the cards in the 5 packs. The gems and the price of gems have been consistent for years now in Magic Arena. The five packs used to rotate with Standard, but now come from the most recent Core set, Foundations. If you do not need the gems, and you're not a particular fan of Foundations, you could wait until 2029 or whenever Foundations rotates out. The value stays basically the same after rotation, so it's hardly a reason to not take advantage of the bundle.

You're Welcome Bundle

Argivian Welcome | Illustration by Paolo Parente

All right, I’ve done my math and now I’m tired, so we’re gonna wrap this up so we can all go on our way. Hope you learned something, we appreciate your support, leave a comment, check out our Patreon.

Oh! If you’re a new player looking to get as much as you can out of your time in Arena, whether you’re a casual player who just wants to brag about how awesome they are or if you’re looking to punch your way up the ladder to Mythic, get Arena Tutor. It’ll help you learn the ropes by tracking your games and teaching you how to draft—one of the best ways to build your collection and get the cards you need to upgrade your starter decks, TBH.

All snark aside, we legitimately appreciate your support. If this really is a welcome to MTG Arena, be sure you read through our guide to Arena, find Draftsim on Discord, untap a video on The Daily Upkeep and comment if you feel called to!