Magic: The Gathering Arena officially released in 2019, helping the 28-year-old card game reach a huge new audience. Arena is the most accessible digital iteration of Magic: The Gathering to date, adopting many of the free-to-play conventions used in card games like Hearthstone, Gwent, and Legends of Runeterra. Despite its innovations, Magic: The Gathering Arena still lacks a fully realized mobile client. Hopefully, that will change this year.
Wizards of the Coast launched an Early Access version of a mobile client for Magic: The Gathering Arena on the Google Play Store in January, and plans to bring the title to a wider range of devices later this year. WotC hasn’t given much detail yet about how long the Early Access period will last, but more information will be available following the April release of Magic: The Gathering‘s next expansion, Strixhaven.
As of right now, the mobile version of Magic: The Gathering Arena only works on certain Android devices. Phones need to have at least 4 GB of RAM, and will need to have either a Kirin 970, Snapdragon 845, or Exynos 9810 chipset. The game won’t run on devices with a 4:3 aspect ratio, either, ruling out most tablets.
Wizards of the Coast plans to make the title available on iOS, tablets, and lower-end Android devices later this year. Magic: The Gathering Arena can be played cross-platform, so players are able to access the same collection regardless of which device they’re playing on. Impatient Arena fans hoping to play on mobile can build up their collections on the Mac and PC versions while they wait.
So far, the response among players has been positive. The game runs smoothly and does an impressive job of emulating the gameplay and visuals available on PC. The mobile UI is almost indistinguishable from the original, though a few concessions have been made in order to fit the game onto smaller screens.
One potential criticism is that the mobile port almost seems too faithful to the PC version. Cards and buttons don’t seem to be appropriately scaled to a mobile screen, leaving a surprising amount of space unused. While the interface is certain navigable, it might be more user-friendly if selectable assets were made a bit bigger. For example, a significant portion of the battlefield is taken up by players’ customizable pets. While these cosmetics are an important part of Magic: The Gathering Arena, the space might be better used if the mobile version of the game either scaled them down or gave the option to remove them.
Another concern is how well the game will handle some of Magic: The Gathering‘s more obnoxious card combinations. It’s entirely possible for a player to spawn hundreds of creature tokens over the course of a match, or to draw half of their deck in a single turn. The PC version of Magic: The Gathering Arena already struggles to handle these situations, and trying to cram all of those creatures onto a smaller screen certainly doesn’t help. Hearthstone manages to avoid these problems by limiting players to seven creatures at a time. By contrast, MTGA‘s upper limit is 250 creatures per player, making it nearly impossible to assign blockers against large-scale attacks before the turn timer runs out.
MTGA‘s mobile client is surprisingly robust for an Early Access release, but there’s still a few features that players won’t be able to access from their phones. The mobile version is still unable to support social features like the Friends List and in-game messaging. Players aren’t able to use the app to redeem Magic Arena promo codes, either. Finally, players aren’t able to sideboard cards while drafting during draft events. They can still create a sideboard once the drafting phase is complete, but players who like to begin the deckbuilding process during the draft will need to wait until afterwards.
Overall, the mobile port of Magic: The Gathering Arena performs surprisingly well for being in Early Access. With Magic: Legends entering its open beta next week, 2021 could be a strong year for digital adaptations of Magic: The Gathering.
Magic: The Gathering Arena is available now on Android, Mac, and PC.
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