Still day-and-date with paper Magic
Onboarding people into Magic: The Gathering is one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. I always try to tell them that there’s caveats depending on the type of mode you play (some are super cheap, some are super…not), but as a general rule it’s very easy to teach people how to play Magic.
That’s something Arena, the Hearthstone-esque Magic client that’s currently in beta right now, needs to do better. While having a player at the ready to answer whatever burning questions you may have is an invaluable resource to push someone along when they hit snags, a card game without a tutorial is a little less forgiving. That’s where the new player experience comes in — a tutorial of sorts that’s currently set up by way of five quests, starting with mono-color decks and moving into dual-color. PayPal, Euros, and avatar selection are also in (the latter is probably my most-requested dumb feature).
Core 2019, the next block of Magic, is also coming on July 12. That’s day-and-date with the street release of Core 2019 paper, which again is an awesome incentive to play Arena — I love that I can screw around with cards I’ve unlocked for free before I try out decks in real life.
