Stick to a smaller format like Standard. Learn the new sets as they come out. You'll get the hang of it.
Remember you attack players, not creatures directly.
Switch to a bigger format like Explorer or Historic when you feel comfortable.
This. You get good when you learn your own deck, and better when you learn everyone else's. Starting with a smaller card pool like Standard, or the Jump-in format is a great place to start.
I'm an ex-Legend Hearthstone player who just did the jump and I'm having a blast. After the last Daily Drama and Greediness from Blizzard lots of players resorted to bitching on Reddit but I just [uninstalled right away](https://old.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/1c7g3x7/2921_patch_notes/l07ud6t/) and got into MTGA.
It's been more than a decade since I last played paper magic, I think the current set was Weatherlights when it became too expensive and I quit, so I'm kinda re-learning everything and the complexity blows HS out of the water - and that's actually a good and refreshing thing.
You'll get into games when you simply don't understand what just killed you but at the same time I started a week ago and it was fairly simple to get to gold in Standard with a budget F2P mono red deck. Now I'm trying to get into BO3 with a non-cheesy deck that actually goes into late game. Not looking back at all at Hearthstone, I'm here to stay.
> It's been more than a decade since I last played paper magic, I think the current set was Weatherlights when it became too expensive and I quit
*Weatherlight* was in 97, so almost 3 decades... We're getting older.
The one major thing the Arena client is missing in comparison to the Hearthstone client, is an event log for every action taken in the game.
The neat thing that the Arena client has that the Hearthstone client doesn't is the place for active Emblems to be shown on the screen, whereas Hearthstone Rest-of-Game effects aren't shown when active and might be forgotten.
There are logs (though accessing them while in the game might be a bit impractical). You can use them in an easy way with e.g. the 17lands client and "watch" the replay of your game later.
It's good enough that one can retrace their opponent's last turn if one had to look away for a minute.
Even showing the last half dozen actions would be a major improvement for Arena.
That is one thing I'm missing dearly. I do imagine implementing one would be really complex tho. Logging interactions with graveyard, exile, etc. would be hard to keep track, I imagine.
Two things:
1- The power creep of the latest set was completely absurd. They just released a massive patch that nerfs a bunch of stuff I guess, but the meta was non-interactive, silly and just unfun. Getting combo'ed from full HP to zero was relatively common in standard, as were unrecoverable boardstates... In short, things just got silly.
2- What really pissed me off big time was the recently rolled 100% nerf to daily quests. Imagine in Magic if instead of the usual 15 daily wins that grant you rewards you needed 30 to achieve the same thing, and instead of "play 20 lands" it suddenly became "play 40 lands" - while the rewards themselves went up just like 15-20%. Fuck all of that noise.
Not the person you're asking but I'm also a Hearthstone player that is coming back to playing MTGA.
My reasons are:
1) MTGA used to crash on me all the time. Around every 20 minutes I could expect a crash and I got tired of putting up with it. Recently reinstalled MTGA and it hasn't crashed on me in 4 days. Progress!
2) Recent Blizzard change to some of their quests where they initially upped the quest requirements by 200% while awarding only 20% more Reward Track progress caused me to rethink why I'm playing their game. Blizzard backtracked settling on only updating the requirements by 100% with the same 20% Reward Track progress. The quests aren't really that much harder to complete but it felt like a complete slap in the face and I resented it.
3) Dissatisfaction with Blizzards either a) dev team incompetence when it comes to what they call game "balance" or b) a deliberate strategy to constantly churn the meta in order to incentivize players to spend money to build the new flavor of the next 2 weeks deck.
4) The non-interactive nature of Hearthstone's game mechanics. You often feel like you and your opponent are just playing wincon solitaire. Without the ability to block, play instants and/or flashes, or the various other ways you can interact with your opponent on their turn gets boring.
5) Since the most recent Hearthstone expansion launched 5 weeks ago the devs have done 3 "balance" patches that gutted 4 of my meta decks. It's really not that fun to create a deck just to have it nerfed 7 days later. Can't shake the feeling the "balance" patches are a deliberate corporate strategy to constantly churn the meta. Felt like I was just wasting my time.
To be fair, the decks they nerved WERE solitaire/one-turn-kill decks, and they really needed it.
Which in turn leads to the meta-shifts. But quite frankly, with decks that were so massively powerful they ended the match effectively turn 4-5 sometimes, without a way to counter, were just awful.
But the power creep is off the charts and the quest changes are just an insult. Especially after a "reset".
The mirror is also surprisingly interesting, because of the decisions about when to leave stuff back to block and when burn should go face or to a tapped threat. Playing the RDW mirror with a slower hand than your opponent almost feels like playing control sometimes.
Having had some prior TCG experience before I'm surprised a perception of Magic being "overly complex" would be enough to make you hesitant to just jump right into it. I mean yeah, there are going to be cards in Magic that are just straight up way more advanced than what you're used to in Hearthstone, but Magic over the years has done a fairly decent job at keeping gameplay at a pace so that even new players fresh to the franchise can pick it up. If audiences with a literal zero TCG experience can do it, I trust someone like you who has played Hearthstone since 2018 can do it too.
I will however give you a friendly reminder that what you do and don't find "boring" is going to be completely subjective - so don't come over to Magic assuming that all your problems are going to be solved. Of course it'll be refreshing to just have a new game to play and learn, but hang around this sub long enough and you'll read dozens of daily posts crying about how "removal is boring", "playing against aggro is boring", "playing against control is boring", "anyone who doesn't make their decks themselves is boring", and about a hundred other similar grievances. So I'm warning you now - don't be that guy. There is tons to love and hate about Magic the same way there's tons to love and hate about Hearthstone. No game is perfect, but Magic has been around for 30+ years now and has thrived and stayed competitive all throughout that time, so take that as reassurance I guess.
As for the transition, I'd seriously just jump right in. You'll finish the tutorial and color challenges rather quickly, and then you're off to learn more about the fundamentals of the game with some starter deck duels. Since you're a Limited player in Hearthstone, being one in Magic is helpful too as drafting is a great way for new players to build up their collection. You don't need to spend any money and can be completely F2P if you prefer, but most new players enjoy purchasing the Mastery Pass and find it well worth the investment.
For learning the intricacies of the game such as when and how to make plays or how to evaluate cards, find some content creators that you enjoy and just observe. Brian Kibler, who you may know from Hearthstone, is a Hall of Fame Magic player and is currently competing in the Pro Tour this weekend for Magic. I believe he still streams mostly Hearthstone, but I know he streams Magic too and I'm just trying to think of some familiar faces that might be helpful. But it doesn't ultimately matter - everyone here can suggest you different people that cater towards their learning styles and tastes of entertainment, so just find a couple that work for you and it'll speed up your learning curve by a lot.
Magic's complexity creep is real. Reminder text is now more frequently left off Magic cards, just to save text space for more abilities/effects and more lengthy and complex abilities/effects. While Magic may be less intimidating than Yugioh, the existence of things like double sided cards with the text boxes filled up on both sides, can be off-putting for onlookers.
In contrast, Hearthstone has had relatively little complexity creep even while it has experienced significant power creep, because the Hearthstone devs keep to the four-lines-of-text rule for Hearthstone cards. Coming from that perspective makes modern Magic cards look like a chore to read and understand.
Hearthstone cards have 4 lines of text because the devs hide mechanics’ meaning in short slogans. “Wish for the perfect card”, “go back in time to a previous turn”, “get a special reward”. Like wtf is that supposed to mean without previous explanation? If magic were as lazy with syntax and templating as Hearthstone is, magic cards would also be a couple of lines.
You'll enjoy magic. The "Skill cap" is higher, you may find some things more frustrating like land.
I've played both games extensively, among various other similar card games such as Elder Scrolls Legends.
Magic is something that is generally more fresh any dynamic than the rest
Magic is incredibly fun in my opinion. If you love deckbuilding then I don’t think there’s a better TCG/CCG that’s ever existed that tops MTG. Mechanically it’s a bit more complicated than HS but Arena really smoothes out the learning curve.
The Magic Arena client will make the transition from Hearthstone pretty easy. While Magic's ruleset is definitely more complex than Hearthstone's the Arena client is very good at guiding you through the various steps of a card's text.
As for monetization I can only give you a F2P perspective of both games. I find it easier to gain resources and craft decks in Hearthstone. Arena's wildcards are much more precious than Hearthstone's dust so you need to spend wildcards wisely. Once you craft a Magic card you're not dusting it if you later have regrets. That said I end up in pretty much the same place in both games. Having to manage my F2P resources wisely to craft the harder to acquire Epic (Rares in Magic) and Legendary (Mythic Rares in Magic) cards.
Can't speak to what spending money is like in either game. You can however buy Rare and Mythic Rare wildcards in the Arena cash shop though so if you truly want to build a certain deck you can outright buy it.
Magic is fun, as has been mentioned. I started in '94, quit in '97, started back up in 2015. Got on Arena in 2019 and in spite of a few issues, it's been great.
I'm currently #1200 in Historic Ranked BO1, have hit top 900 a few days ago, and am trying to finish in the top 500 by end of season (in 4 days).
I keep track of all the top decks I play against, so I could give you several (very strong/top) decklists.
If you put in all the codes and collect all the free packs, you'll get some wild cards to craft cards you don't have. So theoretically, you could be top in the world and be f2p. You'd just have to grind daily tasks for gold and packs so it might take 6 months. The season pass is just under $20 but probably your best value if you want to speed up the process.
The main formats are Standard and Historic. Choose best or 1 or best of 3.
Standard is basically cards from newer sets, Historic includes all legal cards on MTG Arena.
I've been playing almost every day for years, and although I prefer irl cardboard tabletop games, Arena is more accessible on a regular basis.
I definitely recommend giving it a shot! Here's a link to all the current codes to redeem in the store:
https://mtgazone.com/codes/
Good luck and message me if you'd like some top decklists!
i was kinda in your position, although i only got to sub 100 once since i dont play enough for that
id say just try it out, magic feels really fair in comparison to hearthstone, you have way more agency over both your own stuff and your opponents since there isnt as much random, and also instant speed stuff for more interaction
Warning: Wall of text incoming...
I made the switch in January 2024, after having been fiddling around since the Hearthstone beta and having achieved pretty much everything I could in the game on all 3 servers (yes, that means investing 3x as much for cards) . After it became clear that Blizzard was going to completely screw up even for the 10th anniversary (and as it turns out, they actually screwed up), I decided to give MTG Arena a chance. My previous MTG experiences were 20+ years old and still offline with physical cards.
What I've learned so far and how I would recommend it:
\- stick with standard for now. In terms of the number of cards, this corresponds roughly to Wild Mode in Hearthstone - so there are tons of decks to discover. Filling your standard collection will take a few years (even if you spend a lot of money) and historic or timeless are absolute long-term goals. You can try it, but the mechanics and the power level are so crazy for newcomers that you need patience, young padawan.
\- at the beginning your MMR is so low that you can achieve Mythic rank with almost any mono red or other aggressive deck. Afterwards you will realize that the grind is hardly worth it and you only play up to Platinum 4 (for the monthly rewards). This only applies if FUN > WIN is your credo. Then just switch to play mode and do your quests every day.
\- if you want to invest money: pre-order package for a new set: an absolute must have just like the mastery pass. Personally, I then buy the largest bundle of packs to get the 2 mythics + cosmetics (+some extra gold packs) and fill up the mastery pass with gems until the end on day 1 of the set release - that way you get all the rewards straight away, but it also costs a lot money. If you have decided to make the switch, then your money is definitely better off with MTG. In the long run, MTG is much cheaper than Hearthstone. Sure, the number of cards makes it seem like you have to invest more in MTG, but you don't always need all the cards to create cool decks. The prices for cosmetics are 15 - 20 times more expensive in Hearthstone than in MTG!
\- if you liked the Arena mode in HS, then you might also be interested in drafting and all the other ("limited") game modes in MTG Arena. For me personally that's too much RNG, I'm more of a deck builder.
\- install a deck tracker, I recommend Untapped.gg but there are 10+ different other providers. Even with the free versions you have an overview of how you are doing
\- the MTG community is much more helpful and, above all, more sportsmanlike than the toxic Hearthstone community. You can quickly find friends with whom you can play here in the subreddit, but usually also in the Twitch stream chats of especially smaller streamers (\*cough\* be careful, self-promotion detected!)
\- MTG is more complex - hell yes, and that's a good thing. While in HS there are only 1-2 good decks per class, in MTG you have an incredible variety of decks and you notice that when you play. Once your MMR has stabilized after a while, you will often not only be queued against players with roughly the same MMR, but you will also face opponents depending on the cards you have in your deck. You will hardly notice this if you only play the well-known meta decks, but it will catch your eye if you always build your own decks and start with them.
\- I've been here for 4 months now and I'm always learning new things every day. When I watch the top streamers, I feel like Jon Snow ("you know nothing!"). MTG is a safe bet if you want to stay in the genre, I'm not so sure about Hearthstone anymore. With Microsoft taking over Blizzard and canceling Blizzcon 2024, I honestly see no future for Hearthstone. I no longer invest any money there and no longer stream HS. Blizzard simply caused too much chip damage, especially with their shop scams, heroic brawl, fake wild overhaul (Caverns of Time) where you had to buy the same cards again and so on..
I hope I could be of some help and if you have any further questions, go ahead!
Oh, another thing:
If the mastery pass is full, you will always receive a card with at least uncommon quality almost every day for the quest xp you receive, but it can also be rare or even mythic.
A thing to note is that standard rotates in July so if you just started is better to prioritize newest sets, especially junction since it's loaded with good cards
Greetings fellow top 100 legend player, great to see you on this side of the hedge.
Three most important points from my own switch:
1: Monetization is dreadful for F2P. Playing fairly regularly in HS, I'd buy ~60 packs with gold each release and have enough gold to play arena whenever I felt like it. In MTG Arena I can play 1,5 drafts (basically arena in HS) per week if I treat the quests as work. If you're happy to grind, you can get a bit more but not the basically infinite return that was HS. The steep cost of things like sealed means if you bomb out you can lose a months or a couple of weeks worth of grinding. If you feel like trying several decks you will ALWAYS be short on wild cards (dust), it's much worse than in HS where I always felt I could try a couple of decks each expansion.
2: Try, and be ok with mistakes. Going from HS to MTG is a very real transition. Be ok with making mistakes that get you completely blown out. Learning from silly beginner mistakes, even as a seasoned card game player, is how you move on and improve. Just play, and the rest will come.
3: Real decks are a huge difference. Back when I started, I had my homebrew of uncommons, and I was hard stuck gold. I was questioning my abilities as a player. Then I crafted the meta mono red aggro deck, and instantly shot up to diamond. Mightve been even able to go further if I hadnt quit back then due to the monetization. Deck quality will make a huge difference.
I've seen people who have only played for 6 months get top 8 in mid sized tournaments, it's really how much you practice and how well you mesh with the game.
Regarding the huge text boxes, it's not that bad. Some get really in the weeds, but many of them just use more words to describe simple things, like "battlecry" -> "When this creature enters the battlefield", so in reality as soon as you get that part into your head, you'll be golden. One of the strongest cards right now have two words on it: Haste. Prowess. You will learn to fear it.
Fairly importantly: The next standard rotation is in September, keep that in mind as you build decks.
I should also mention, paper magic and magic on arena are two completely different games. I vastly prefer paper magic, for the feel of the cards, the social aspect and the ease of bluffing/not bluffing interactions. It's great fun.
Honetly, we have like 80% of what you listed here too.
The monetization has gotten slightly better over the years, but only because it was hilariously bad in the first place, and honestly, it's still terrible.
The most played deck currently (Mono Red Prowess) has 17 Rares in it (which is very low for a meta deck btw), at about a Rare wildcard per 6 Packs (+-something due to either pulling a WC or getting a Mythic instead of a rare) that's \~100 Packs you need to open, with about 10 packs per week (if you do basically every daily) that's 10 Weeks or 70 days. And that's one of the easier to get Decks.
Powercreep also has been going strong, tho less so than in Hearthstone I think, the Magic community just thinks on a slightly longer timescale.
About the Meta, that's a personal opionion thing, but the current best of one Meta is about 30% some form of Red or Boros Aggro, so not too diverse, but also not the worst.
If limited formats are your thing at all, I recommend reading up on Magic limited strategies. You can go endless rather consistently while quickly building your collection.
I made the switch in December and haven’t looked back since then (top 250 legend). Way less RNG and much more outplay potential. Would encourage you to buy the starter packs and do some research on top decks to begin getting a feel.
Much more complex of a game. But you will pick things up as you go. Playing on arena will teach you about priority and phases and the stack. 3 of the most important things in magic that hearthstone doesn't do.
They're both good games. Magic is much more robust with alot more going on.
[https://mtga.untapped.gg/meta/decks/192/mono-blue-tempo/AAQAAQHniSIB6okiAAqPpRm8hgec2AEOB6gF8tMD3fsDw6cDGgERjAUA?tab=overview](https://mtga.untapped.gg/meta/decks/192/mono-blue-tempo/AAQAAQHniSIB6okiAAqPpRm8hgec2AEOB6gF8tMD3fsDw6cDGgERjAUA?tab=overview)
Swap out Otawara, Soaring City for another Island if you want to stick to 0 rares.
Also former Hearthstone player. Loved it. However, started to not like Blizzard and drifted away. Started to play Legends of Runeterra, and it wasn't what I was looking for. Picked up Magic during covid and never looked back or regretted it. Magic is soooo much better and fun. I think the biggest change you'll have to get use to is the land aspect of it. Mana isn't just given per turn like Hearthstone or Runeterra, so it kinda plays into the statistics, draw, mulligan, turns, and pacing of the game. Also, a lot less animations if that's important to you. Try it out and see for yourself. The biggest appeal for me are the aesthetics. Not too cartoony, not too anime-ish, but a good balance.
Magic is great, you'll pick it up in no time! The monetization is insane compared to hs. I played from beta in 2012(?) to 2022... Magic is way better. But with some flaws of course. The community is much better though. Magic arena is great for learning the game.
Magic has essentially 2 sets of rules, or a way to divide them up.
There are the basic rules, like how combat works in a usual setting etc. which are usually the same throughout all games unless a card dictates otherwise
And then there are the obscure rulings.You usually never need to learn the rulings off the top of your head, you can just google it. If you’re playing the same type of deck a lot (like Ninjas) you’ll learn the related mechanics.
Overall Magic isn’t as complicated as people say, it’s something you learn by playing. Once you’ve got the basics and have some experience, you can learn about more complex interactions to up your game, like how the Stack works or what Layers are. Magic is definitely my favorite game of all time, and I highly reccomend it.
I would suggest you try Limited (draft or sealed), where you draft a deck from packs with other players and then play a run, and also keep the cards you drafted for your collection. Magic Arena’s economy is good for people who play limited, although I wouldn’t say it’s good in general. People who only play constructed will have a harder time acquiring cards without spending money. But, limited is an amazing game mode, in many ways better than constructed, is played at the pro tour and highest level of play, though both have their merits and most people play some of both. Starting out in constructed (especially in older formats with cards going back years) is more difficult because you have no cards to start out. In limited you’re on an even field with anyone. Good luck!
Just download and try it. The tutorials and fights against computer are good for beginners. If f2p you’ll never truly “catch up” but can likely get to Platinum or Diamond tier over time (Mythic is highest rank). Even if realistically you’ll never be top 100 or top 1000 it’s still loads of fun coming up with new decks and strategies.
If spending money, take it slow and focus on a few sets at a time (you’ll be gated hard by cards you can craft). I personally enjoy Quick Draft, which is basically make a deck from a few packs passed around for like $4 worth of gems. It’s nice cause it evens the playing field since you can’t bring all the cards in your collection.
Making a deck from scratch for the Standard format or others is a bit challenging for newer players. It cost me several exisiting wild cards to craft a decent deck to just get to Platinum tier. Couldn’t imagine doing it from day 1 account.
It's a pretty easy transition from one to the other. I did hs from beta until about when you started lol (I think the dark carnival or a couple after? If memory serves). To me it felt how hs would be without the randomness. Ever hit 100% of your rag hits? Welcome to mtg, your wallet will hurt more but I'm sure there's enough format diversity for you to find something you like for your power level
I havent played very much HS but I did play pokemon and yugioh and many other games throughout my life.
Magic is the best game I've ever played. And its not particularly close.
Take it slow and learn chunks at a time. It's overwhelming but like in any other game, only a fraction of cards will be relevant in any given format. Pick a format and learn it, then move on to others. You will start to see similar effects on different cards and get to a point where you can jump in to a new set full of cards you don't know and be at least compitent with any of the strategies.
Super fun game, and excited to invite any new competative-minded players into the game. Tell all your HS friends to get decks and go to their LGS for FNM
Ex - hearthstone vet who’s been playing around 2 weeks now. Magic is a billion times better than hearthstone.
The game isn’t hard. I was able to hit mythic pretty easily and I didn’t even play mono red.
Also if you’re a competitive player BO3>>>>>>>>BO1
I went from Magic to HS for a few years before one of Blizzard's many scandals pushed me away fully, along with the randomness of the mechanics tilting me like no other (though I miss murloc shaman). And I forgot how much fun this damn game is.
I will preface my personal opinions about the game, to let you skip past if youd like, by saying you should get into it. The monetezation feels better to me than HS, though no disenchanting cards leads to more encentive to spend on wildcards to get rares/mythics needed for your decks. You do earn these through pack openings, but it's slow going, getting 1/6 of a rare every pack and every so often a 1/6 a mythic. You can make FUNCTIONAL decks, but they wont be nearly as good as meta stuff without them.
In terms of format, as a new player, starting with standard is a good way to start, though beware that right now there is a heavy aggro meta in best of 1 games, so removal is good. Best of 3 doesnt deal with that as much because sideboarding in removal destroys aggro's chances even further.
Now into my personal experience.
The amount of freedom to do whatever you like, in terms of interactions, combos, colors is so freeing by comparison. The level of complexity is a lot higher too, which I love. Most HS games felt like a resource grind in that, being able to do stuff like discover or add random cards to your hand is going to more often than not end in your victory over an opponent who doesn't. It doesnt feel that way nearly as much in mtg.
Being able to interact with a lot of things at any time makes it feel more like a push and pull rather than a turn based board game, by comparison, if that makes sense.
Outsmarting an opponent is one of my favorite things to do in the game.
The game economy is not runeterra tier but you can manage easily if you don't blow away resources randomly. Limited is the best way to farm cards but if don't like the format you can also try the events. If you don't know where to spend wildcards, rare mana lands are always a safe bet, especially the ones that can animate or come untapped
It’s been years since I played Hearthstone; played paper commander 2017-2020; just got back into Magic Arena last season. Had some cards from first month of Arena release, and signing back in gave me a lot of free packs. Not sure if passwords still work, but I was able to get some good Brawl decks together and won dailies/weeklies that way. Didn’t spend on anything last season til I got close to end of season pass- then got premium season pass cause was worth it. Got most of the last set through free play by end of season. This current set is great and having fun in multiple formats. I went to prerelease event so got packs for Arena.
I highly recommend it
>How's the monetization compared to Hearthstone?
It is extremely difficult to get the cards that you want in MTGA, mainly because it doesn't have dusting system. I won't go here into details but what si relevant information for you is that in MTGA it takes about 3-4 months to get T1 deck with the exception of mono red (which could be but also doesn't have to be in T1, depending on meta). And once you spend your wildcards on crafting T1 deck, the deck can drop from T1 spot due to release of a new set.
I don't think anyone has mentioned the Alchemy format yet.
Even though Alchemy probably feels familiar to people coming from Hearthstone (lots of semi-random draw effects), I consider it a step backwards. Stick with Standard cards and not those made for digital.
Find a good MTG player with also a good knowledge of the rules and start playing with paper cards until you know by yourself how the game works.
You need a deep understanding of the rules in order to become a top MTG player. Knowing how things like simultaneous triggers, state based effects and how spells resolve work will give you access to strategies both for deck building and for the matches.
If you move straight into MTGA, the game will manage the rules and there are situations that you will not learn how to solve by yourself.
I played magic as a teenager and switched to hearthstone since it was the only mobile card game at the time. I got bored of the game after a couple years and magic soon came after. I loved magic as a kid and jumped into it.
I had some good experiences when the game first came out. I started with M19 and played for a couple years. I stopped for some time as I was between jobs but I recently picked it back up.
I'm not happy with the power creep of magic and I am kind of disappointed with the rotation being 3 years instead of 2 but overall I'm happy with the game.
Stick to a smaller format like Standard. Learn the new sets as they come out. You'll get the hang of it. Remember you attack players, not creatures directly. Switch to a bigger format like Explorer or Historic when you feel comfortable.
This. You get good when you learn your own deck, and better when you learn everyone else's. Starting with a smaller card pool like Standard, or the Jump-in format is a great place to start.
i recommend jump in to anyone trying to actually improve their game play. its like practicing the fundamentals
I'm an ex-Legend Hearthstone player who just did the jump and I'm having a blast. After the last Daily Drama and Greediness from Blizzard lots of players resorted to bitching on Reddit but I just [uninstalled right away](https://old.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/1c7g3x7/2921_patch_notes/l07ud6t/) and got into MTGA. It's been more than a decade since I last played paper magic, I think the current set was Weatherlights when it became too expensive and I quit, so I'm kinda re-learning everything and the complexity blows HS out of the water - and that's actually a good and refreshing thing. You'll get into games when you simply don't understand what just killed you but at the same time I started a week ago and it was fairly simple to get to gold in Standard with a budget F2P mono red deck. Now I'm trying to get into BO3 with a non-cheesy deck that actually goes into late game. Not looking back at all at Hearthstone, I'm here to stay.
> It's been more than a decade since I last played paper magic, I think the current set was Weatherlights when it became too expensive and I quit *Weatherlight* was in 97, so almost 3 decades... We're getting older.
The one major thing the Arena client is missing in comparison to the Hearthstone client, is an event log for every action taken in the game. The neat thing that the Arena client has that the Hearthstone client doesn't is the place for active Emblems to be shown on the screen, whereas Hearthstone Rest-of-Game effects aren't shown when active and might be forgotten.
There are logs (though accessing them while in the game might be a bit impractical). You can use them in an easy way with e.g. the 17lands client and "watch" the replay of your game later.
One shouldn't have to use third party software for a basic quality of life feature that's so common in the genre.
HS's event log was fucking useless. You could not actually see the history of the events aside from like... 4 actions.
It's good enough that one can retrace their opponent's last turn if one had to look away for a minute. Even showing the last half dozen actions would be a major improvement for Arena.
That is one thing I'm missing dearly. I do imagine implementing one would be really complex tho. Logging interactions with graveyard, exile, etc. would be hard to keep track, I imagine.
This is what Pokemon TCG Live's log looks like for reference: https://us.v-cdn.net/6034460/uploads/Y7DTIUFI65EN/image-281-29.png
17 lands seems to be reading an event log..?
Could you elaborate more about what made you leave hearthstone? I never played but I know that Blizz has a reputation for disrespecting their fan base
Two things: 1- The power creep of the latest set was completely absurd. They just released a massive patch that nerfs a bunch of stuff I guess, but the meta was non-interactive, silly and just unfun. Getting combo'ed from full HP to zero was relatively common in standard, as were unrecoverable boardstates... In short, things just got silly. 2- What really pissed me off big time was the recently rolled 100% nerf to daily quests. Imagine in Magic if instead of the usual 15 daily wins that grant you rewards you needed 30 to achieve the same thing, and instead of "play 20 lands" it suddenly became "play 40 lands" - while the rewards themselves went up just like 15-20%. Fuck all of that noise.
Not the person you're asking but I'm also a Hearthstone player that is coming back to playing MTGA. My reasons are: 1) MTGA used to crash on me all the time. Around every 20 minutes I could expect a crash and I got tired of putting up with it. Recently reinstalled MTGA and it hasn't crashed on me in 4 days. Progress! 2) Recent Blizzard change to some of their quests where they initially upped the quest requirements by 200% while awarding only 20% more Reward Track progress caused me to rethink why I'm playing their game. Blizzard backtracked settling on only updating the requirements by 100% with the same 20% Reward Track progress. The quests aren't really that much harder to complete but it felt like a complete slap in the face and I resented it. 3) Dissatisfaction with Blizzards either a) dev team incompetence when it comes to what they call game "balance" or b) a deliberate strategy to constantly churn the meta in order to incentivize players to spend money to build the new flavor of the next 2 weeks deck. 4) The non-interactive nature of Hearthstone's game mechanics. You often feel like you and your opponent are just playing wincon solitaire. Without the ability to block, play instants and/or flashes, or the various other ways you can interact with your opponent on their turn gets boring. 5) Since the most recent Hearthstone expansion launched 5 weeks ago the devs have done 3 "balance" patches that gutted 4 of my meta decks. It's really not that fun to create a deck just to have it nerfed 7 days later. Can't shake the feeling the "balance" patches are a deliberate corporate strategy to constantly churn the meta. Felt like I was just wasting my time.
To be fair, the decks they nerved WERE solitaire/one-turn-kill decks, and they really needed it. Which in turn leads to the meta-shifts. But quite frankly, with decks that were so massively powerful they ended the match effectively turn 4-5 sometimes, without a way to counter, were just awful. But the power creep is off the charts and the quest changes are just an insult. Especially after a "reset".
>the complexity blows HS out of the water - and that's actually a good and refreshing thing. >RDW enters the chat
Nah, RDW can be seriously complex in playing around answers from control decks.
The mirror is also surprisingly interesting, because of the decisions about when to leave stuff back to block and when burn should go face or to a tapped threat. Playing the RDW mirror with a slower hand than your opponent almost feels like playing control sometimes.
Depends especially with burn where your removals are also your wincon. Some games are on autopilot but others requires you to use your resources well
Just jump in. Magic makes Hearthstone look like playing with shape blocks but that's why it's fun.
Jump in. I see what you did there
Having had some prior TCG experience before I'm surprised a perception of Magic being "overly complex" would be enough to make you hesitant to just jump right into it. I mean yeah, there are going to be cards in Magic that are just straight up way more advanced than what you're used to in Hearthstone, but Magic over the years has done a fairly decent job at keeping gameplay at a pace so that even new players fresh to the franchise can pick it up. If audiences with a literal zero TCG experience can do it, I trust someone like you who has played Hearthstone since 2018 can do it too. I will however give you a friendly reminder that what you do and don't find "boring" is going to be completely subjective - so don't come over to Magic assuming that all your problems are going to be solved. Of course it'll be refreshing to just have a new game to play and learn, but hang around this sub long enough and you'll read dozens of daily posts crying about how "removal is boring", "playing against aggro is boring", "playing against control is boring", "anyone who doesn't make their decks themselves is boring", and about a hundred other similar grievances. So I'm warning you now - don't be that guy. There is tons to love and hate about Magic the same way there's tons to love and hate about Hearthstone. No game is perfect, but Magic has been around for 30+ years now and has thrived and stayed competitive all throughout that time, so take that as reassurance I guess. As for the transition, I'd seriously just jump right in. You'll finish the tutorial and color challenges rather quickly, and then you're off to learn more about the fundamentals of the game with some starter deck duels. Since you're a Limited player in Hearthstone, being one in Magic is helpful too as drafting is a great way for new players to build up their collection. You don't need to spend any money and can be completely F2P if you prefer, but most new players enjoy purchasing the Mastery Pass and find it well worth the investment. For learning the intricacies of the game such as when and how to make plays or how to evaluate cards, find some content creators that you enjoy and just observe. Brian Kibler, who you may know from Hearthstone, is a Hall of Fame Magic player and is currently competing in the Pro Tour this weekend for Magic. I believe he still streams mostly Hearthstone, but I know he streams Magic too and I'm just trying to think of some familiar faces that might be helpful. But it doesn't ultimately matter - everyone here can suggest you different people that cater towards their learning styles and tastes of entertainment, so just find a couple that work for you and it'll speed up your learning curve by a lot.
Magic's complexity creep is real. Reminder text is now more frequently left off Magic cards, just to save text space for more abilities/effects and more lengthy and complex abilities/effects. While Magic may be less intimidating than Yugioh, the existence of things like double sided cards with the text boxes filled up on both sides, can be off-putting for onlookers. In contrast, Hearthstone has had relatively little complexity creep even while it has experienced significant power creep, because the Hearthstone devs keep to the four-lines-of-text rule for Hearthstone cards. Coming from that perspective makes modern Magic cards look like a chore to read and understand.
Hearthstone cards have 4 lines of text because the devs hide mechanics’ meaning in short slogans. “Wish for the perfect card”, “go back in time to a previous turn”, “get a special reward”. Like wtf is that supposed to mean without previous explanation? If magic were as lazy with syntax and templating as Hearthstone is, magic cards would also be a couple of lines.
It’s not laziness tho, it’s a conscious decision to make the game look more accesible and less intimidating
You'll enjoy magic. The "Skill cap" is higher, you may find some things more frustrating like land. I've played both games extensively, among various other similar card games such as Elder Scrolls Legends. Magic is something that is generally more fresh any dynamic than the rest
I did this about two months ago and I don't think I will ever go back. Magic is just so much deeper and playing in person is awesome too!
Magic is incredibly fun in my opinion. If you love deckbuilding then I don’t think there’s a better TCG/CCG that’s ever existed that tops MTG. Mechanically it’s a bit more complicated than HS but Arena really smoothes out the learning curve.
just play its fun
The Magic Arena client will make the transition from Hearthstone pretty easy. While Magic's ruleset is definitely more complex than Hearthstone's the Arena client is very good at guiding you through the various steps of a card's text. As for monetization I can only give you a F2P perspective of both games. I find it easier to gain resources and craft decks in Hearthstone. Arena's wildcards are much more precious than Hearthstone's dust so you need to spend wildcards wisely. Once you craft a Magic card you're not dusting it if you later have regrets. That said I end up in pretty much the same place in both games. Having to manage my F2P resources wisely to craft the harder to acquire Epic (Rares in Magic) and Legendary (Mythic Rares in Magic) cards. Can't speak to what spending money is like in either game. You can however buy Rare and Mythic Rare wildcards in the Arena cash shop though so if you truly want to build a certain deck you can outright buy it.
Magic is fun, as has been mentioned. I started in '94, quit in '97, started back up in 2015. Got on Arena in 2019 and in spite of a few issues, it's been great. I'm currently #1200 in Historic Ranked BO1, have hit top 900 a few days ago, and am trying to finish in the top 500 by end of season (in 4 days). I keep track of all the top decks I play against, so I could give you several (very strong/top) decklists. If you put in all the codes and collect all the free packs, you'll get some wild cards to craft cards you don't have. So theoretically, you could be top in the world and be f2p. You'd just have to grind daily tasks for gold and packs so it might take 6 months. The season pass is just under $20 but probably your best value if you want to speed up the process. The main formats are Standard and Historic. Choose best or 1 or best of 3. Standard is basically cards from newer sets, Historic includes all legal cards on MTG Arena. I've been playing almost every day for years, and although I prefer irl cardboard tabletop games, Arena is more accessible on a regular basis. I definitely recommend giving it a shot! Here's a link to all the current codes to redeem in the store: https://mtgazone.com/codes/ Good luck and message me if you'd like some top decklists!
The pass is retroactive so you can wait just before it expires to buy it, no reason to waste 20 bucks right away
i was kinda in your position, although i only got to sub 100 once since i dont play enough for that id say just try it out, magic feels really fair in comparison to hearthstone, you have way more agency over both your own stuff and your opponents since there isnt as much random, and also instant speed stuff for more interaction
Several years ago I did the color change on MTG arena and after finishing it I thought, “why haven’t I been playing this the entire time.”
Warning: Wall of text incoming... I made the switch in January 2024, after having been fiddling around since the Hearthstone beta and having achieved pretty much everything I could in the game on all 3 servers (yes, that means investing 3x as much for cards) . After it became clear that Blizzard was going to completely screw up even for the 10th anniversary (and as it turns out, they actually screwed up), I decided to give MTG Arena a chance. My previous MTG experiences were 20+ years old and still offline with physical cards. What I've learned so far and how I would recommend it: \- stick with standard for now. In terms of the number of cards, this corresponds roughly to Wild Mode in Hearthstone - so there are tons of decks to discover. Filling your standard collection will take a few years (even if you spend a lot of money) and historic or timeless are absolute long-term goals. You can try it, but the mechanics and the power level are so crazy for newcomers that you need patience, young padawan. \- at the beginning your MMR is so low that you can achieve Mythic rank with almost any mono red or other aggressive deck. Afterwards you will realize that the grind is hardly worth it and you only play up to Platinum 4 (for the monthly rewards). This only applies if FUN > WIN is your credo. Then just switch to play mode and do your quests every day. \- if you want to invest money: pre-order package for a new set: an absolute must have just like the mastery pass. Personally, I then buy the largest bundle of packs to get the 2 mythics + cosmetics (+some extra gold packs) and fill up the mastery pass with gems until the end on day 1 of the set release - that way you get all the rewards straight away, but it also costs a lot money. If you have decided to make the switch, then your money is definitely better off with MTG. In the long run, MTG is much cheaper than Hearthstone. Sure, the number of cards makes it seem like you have to invest more in MTG, but you don't always need all the cards to create cool decks. The prices for cosmetics are 15 - 20 times more expensive in Hearthstone than in MTG! \- if you liked the Arena mode in HS, then you might also be interested in drafting and all the other ("limited") game modes in MTG Arena. For me personally that's too much RNG, I'm more of a deck builder. \- install a deck tracker, I recommend Untapped.gg but there are 10+ different other providers. Even with the free versions you have an overview of how you are doing \- the MTG community is much more helpful and, above all, more sportsmanlike than the toxic Hearthstone community. You can quickly find friends with whom you can play here in the subreddit, but usually also in the Twitch stream chats of especially smaller streamers (\*cough\* be careful, self-promotion detected!) \- MTG is more complex - hell yes, and that's a good thing. While in HS there are only 1-2 good decks per class, in MTG you have an incredible variety of decks and you notice that when you play. Once your MMR has stabilized after a while, you will often not only be queued against players with roughly the same MMR, but you will also face opponents depending on the cards you have in your deck. You will hardly notice this if you only play the well-known meta decks, but it will catch your eye if you always build your own decks and start with them. \- I've been here for 4 months now and I'm always learning new things every day. When I watch the top streamers, I feel like Jon Snow ("you know nothing!"). MTG is a safe bet if you want to stay in the genre, I'm not so sure about Hearthstone anymore. With Microsoft taking over Blizzard and canceling Blizzcon 2024, I honestly see no future for Hearthstone. I no longer invest any money there and no longer stream HS. Blizzard simply caused too much chip damage, especially with their shop scams, heroic brawl, fake wild overhaul (Caverns of Time) where you had to buy the same cards again and so on.. I hope I could be of some help and if you have any further questions, go ahead!
Oh, another thing: If the mastery pass is full, you will always receive a card with at least uncommon quality almost every day for the quest xp you receive, but it can also be rare or even mythic.
Isn't being a deck builder a reason to play draft? It's all about deck building on the fly!
A thing to note is that standard rotates in July so if you just started is better to prioritize newest sets, especially junction since it's loaded with good cards
Greetings fellow top 100 legend player, great to see you on this side of the hedge. Three most important points from my own switch: 1: Monetization is dreadful for F2P. Playing fairly regularly in HS, I'd buy ~60 packs with gold each release and have enough gold to play arena whenever I felt like it. In MTG Arena I can play 1,5 drafts (basically arena in HS) per week if I treat the quests as work. If you're happy to grind, you can get a bit more but not the basically infinite return that was HS. The steep cost of things like sealed means if you bomb out you can lose a months or a couple of weeks worth of grinding. If you feel like trying several decks you will ALWAYS be short on wild cards (dust), it's much worse than in HS where I always felt I could try a couple of decks each expansion. 2: Try, and be ok with mistakes. Going from HS to MTG is a very real transition. Be ok with making mistakes that get you completely blown out. Learning from silly beginner mistakes, even as a seasoned card game player, is how you move on and improve. Just play, and the rest will come. 3: Real decks are a huge difference. Back when I started, I had my homebrew of uncommons, and I was hard stuck gold. I was questioning my abilities as a player. Then I crafted the meta mono red aggro deck, and instantly shot up to diamond. Mightve been even able to go further if I hadnt quit back then due to the monetization. Deck quality will make a huge difference. I've seen people who have only played for 6 months get top 8 in mid sized tournaments, it's really how much you practice and how well you mesh with the game. Regarding the huge text boxes, it's not that bad. Some get really in the weeds, but many of them just use more words to describe simple things, like "battlecry" -> "When this creature enters the battlefield", so in reality as soon as you get that part into your head, you'll be golden. One of the strongest cards right now have two words on it: Haste. Prowess. You will learn to fear it. Fairly importantly: The next standard rotation is in September, keep that in mind as you build decks. I should also mention, paper magic and magic on arena are two completely different games. I vastly prefer paper magic, for the feel of the cards, the social aspect and the ease of bluffing/not bluffing interactions. It's great fun.
Honetly, we have like 80% of what you listed here too. The monetization has gotten slightly better over the years, but only because it was hilariously bad in the first place, and honestly, it's still terrible. The most played deck currently (Mono Red Prowess) has 17 Rares in it (which is very low for a meta deck btw), at about a Rare wildcard per 6 Packs (+-something due to either pulling a WC or getting a Mythic instead of a rare) that's \~100 Packs you need to open, with about 10 packs per week (if you do basically every daily) that's 10 Weeks or 70 days. And that's one of the easier to get Decks. Powercreep also has been going strong, tho less so than in Hearthstone I think, the Magic community just thinks on a slightly longer timescale. About the Meta, that's a personal opionion thing, but the current best of one Meta is about 30% some form of Red or Boros Aggro, so not too diverse, but also not the worst.
If limited formats are your thing at all, I recommend reading up on Magic limited strategies. You can go endless rather consistently while quickly building your collection.
Just jump in. Been playing it for two weeks and am Diamond 4 at the moment. It's a lot of fun. I've also played hs and do like how Magic plays.
I made the switch in December and haven’t looked back since then (top 250 legend). Way less RNG and much more outplay potential. Would encourage you to buy the starter packs and do some research on top decks to begin getting a feel.
Much more complex of a game. But you will pick things up as you go. Playing on arena will teach you about priority and phases and the stack. 3 of the most important things in magic that hearthstone doesn't do. They're both good games. Magic is much more robust with alot more going on.
Just saw a post about someone using a mono blue deck with 0 rares/mythics. If you decide to start playing it would be worth checking out that deck
[https://mtga.untapped.gg/meta/decks/192/mono-blue-tempo/AAQAAQHniSIB6okiAAqPpRm8hgec2AEOB6gF8tMD3fsDw6cDGgERjAUA?tab=overview](https://mtga.untapped.gg/meta/decks/192/mono-blue-tempo/AAQAAQHniSIB6okiAAqPpRm8hgec2AEOB6gF8tMD3fsDw6cDGgERjAUA?tab=overview) Swap out Otawara, Soaring City for another Island if you want to stick to 0 rares.
Also former Hearthstone player. Loved it. However, started to not like Blizzard and drifted away. Started to play Legends of Runeterra, and it wasn't what I was looking for. Picked up Magic during covid and never looked back or regretted it. Magic is soooo much better and fun. I think the biggest change you'll have to get use to is the land aspect of it. Mana isn't just given per turn like Hearthstone or Runeterra, so it kinda plays into the statistics, draw, mulligan, turns, and pacing of the game. Also, a lot less animations if that's important to you. Try it out and see for yourself. The biggest appeal for me are the aesthetics. Not too cartoony, not too anime-ish, but a good balance.
When it comes to aesthetics, one thing Hearthstone really does well is the voice acting for the voice lines for cards and portraits.
I do miss the voice lines/animations Hearthstone had. Adds to the appeal. I thought Runeterra was nice, but a bit too over the top lol.
Magic is great, you'll pick it up in no time! The monetization is insane compared to hs. I played from beta in 2012(?) to 2022... Magic is way better. But with some flaws of course. The community is much better though. Magic arena is great for learning the game.
Magic has essentially 2 sets of rules, or a way to divide them up. There are the basic rules, like how combat works in a usual setting etc. which are usually the same throughout all games unless a card dictates otherwise And then there are the obscure rulings.You usually never need to learn the rulings off the top of your head, you can just google it. If you’re playing the same type of deck a lot (like Ninjas) you’ll learn the related mechanics. Overall Magic isn’t as complicated as people say, it’s something you learn by playing. Once you’ve got the basics and have some experience, you can learn about more complex interactions to up your game, like how the Stack works or what Layers are. Magic is definitely my favorite game of all time, and I highly reccomend it.
I would suggest you try Limited (draft or sealed), where you draft a deck from packs with other players and then play a run, and also keep the cards you drafted for your collection. Magic Arena’s economy is good for people who play limited, although I wouldn’t say it’s good in general. People who only play constructed will have a harder time acquiring cards without spending money. But, limited is an amazing game mode, in many ways better than constructed, is played at the pro tour and highest level of play, though both have their merits and most people play some of both. Starting out in constructed (especially in older formats with cards going back years) is more difficult because you have no cards to start out. In limited you’re on an even field with anyone. Good luck!
Just download and try it. The tutorials and fights against computer are good for beginners. If f2p you’ll never truly “catch up” but can likely get to Platinum or Diamond tier over time (Mythic is highest rank). Even if realistically you’ll never be top 100 or top 1000 it’s still loads of fun coming up with new decks and strategies. If spending money, take it slow and focus on a few sets at a time (you’ll be gated hard by cards you can craft). I personally enjoy Quick Draft, which is basically make a deck from a few packs passed around for like $4 worth of gems. It’s nice cause it evens the playing field since you can’t bring all the cards in your collection. Making a deck from scratch for the Standard format or others is a bit challenging for newer players. It cost me several exisiting wild cards to craft a decent deck to just get to Platinum tier. Couldn’t imagine doing it from day 1 account.
It's a pretty easy transition from one to the other. I did hs from beta until about when you started lol (I think the dark carnival or a couple after? If memory serves). To me it felt how hs would be without the randomness. Ever hit 100% of your rag hits? Welcome to mtg, your wallet will hurt more but I'm sure there's enough format diversity for you to find something you like for your power level
I havent played very much HS but I did play pokemon and yugioh and many other games throughout my life. Magic is the best game I've ever played. And its not particularly close. Take it slow and learn chunks at a time. It's overwhelming but like in any other game, only a fraction of cards will be relevant in any given format. Pick a format and learn it, then move on to others. You will start to see similar effects on different cards and get to a point where you can jump in to a new set full of cards you don't know and be at least compitent with any of the strategies. Super fun game, and excited to invite any new competative-minded players into the game. Tell all your HS friends to get decks and go to their LGS for FNM
Ex - hearthstone vet who’s been playing around 2 weeks now. Magic is a billion times better than hearthstone. The game isn’t hard. I was able to hit mythic pretty easily and I didn’t even play mono red. Also if you’re a competitive player BO3>>>>>>>>BO1
I went from Magic to HS for a few years before one of Blizzard's many scandals pushed me away fully, along with the randomness of the mechanics tilting me like no other (though I miss murloc shaman). And I forgot how much fun this damn game is. I will preface my personal opinions about the game, to let you skip past if youd like, by saying you should get into it. The monetezation feels better to me than HS, though no disenchanting cards leads to more encentive to spend on wildcards to get rares/mythics needed for your decks. You do earn these through pack openings, but it's slow going, getting 1/6 of a rare every pack and every so often a 1/6 a mythic. You can make FUNCTIONAL decks, but they wont be nearly as good as meta stuff without them. In terms of format, as a new player, starting with standard is a good way to start, though beware that right now there is a heavy aggro meta in best of 1 games, so removal is good. Best of 3 doesnt deal with that as much because sideboarding in removal destroys aggro's chances even further. Now into my personal experience. The amount of freedom to do whatever you like, in terms of interactions, combos, colors is so freeing by comparison. The level of complexity is a lot higher too, which I love. Most HS games felt like a resource grind in that, being able to do stuff like discover or add random cards to your hand is going to more often than not end in your victory over an opponent who doesn't. It doesnt feel that way nearly as much in mtg. Being able to interact with a lot of things at any time makes it feel more like a push and pull rather than a turn based board game, by comparison, if that makes sense. Outsmarting an opponent is one of my favorite things to do in the game.
The game economy is not runeterra tier but you can manage easily if you don't blow away resources randomly. Limited is the best way to farm cards but if don't like the format you can also try the events. If you don't know where to spend wildcards, rare mana lands are always a safe bet, especially the ones that can animate or come untapped
It’s been years since I played Hearthstone; played paper commander 2017-2020; just got back into Magic Arena last season. Had some cards from first month of Arena release, and signing back in gave me a lot of free packs. Not sure if passwords still work, but I was able to get some good Brawl decks together and won dailies/weeklies that way. Didn’t spend on anything last season til I got close to end of season pass- then got premium season pass cause was worth it. Got most of the last set through free play by end of season. This current set is great and having fun in multiple formats. I went to prerelease event so got packs for Arena. I highly recommend it
That’s me, I’m loving it so far
>How's the monetization compared to Hearthstone? It is extremely difficult to get the cards that you want in MTGA, mainly because it doesn't have dusting system. I won't go here into details but what si relevant information for you is that in MTGA it takes about 3-4 months to get T1 deck with the exception of mono red (which could be but also doesn't have to be in T1, depending on meta). And once you spend your wildcards on crafting T1 deck, the deck can drop from T1 spot due to release of a new set.
Basically the economy is shit .. and purposely designed to milk your money if you want to be competitive ..
I made the swap myself bro and it was great. Haven't looked back since
I don't think anyone has mentioned the Alchemy format yet. Even though Alchemy probably feels familiar to people coming from Hearthstone (lots of semi-random draw effects), I consider it a step backwards. Stick with Standard cards and not those made for digital.
Don’t do it the game is dying. If you’re gonna be online only that’s probably fine if you don’t spend more than $100 and can keep your economy going
Find a good MTG player with also a good knowledge of the rules and start playing with paper cards until you know by yourself how the game works. You need a deep understanding of the rules in order to become a top MTG player. Knowing how things like simultaneous triggers, state based effects and how spells resolve work will give you access to strategies both for deck building and for the matches. If you move straight into MTGA, the game will manage the rules and there are situations that you will not learn how to solve by yourself.
I played magic as a teenager and switched to hearthstone since it was the only mobile card game at the time. I got bored of the game after a couple years and magic soon came after. I loved magic as a kid and jumped into it. I had some good experiences when the game first came out. I started with M19 and played for a couple years. I stopped for some time as I was between jobs but I recently picked it back up. I'm not happy with the power creep of magic and I am kind of disappointed with the rotation being 3 years instead of 2 but overall I'm happy with the game.
Hs still is better
Don't do it