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MtG Arena Formats and Deck Building Resources


Rotating Formats aka The Daily Grind

Resources for the following rotating formats can most easily be found in my YouTube playlist on the subject.

Standard:

Remains the most played format in the world, though it is losing ground on Arena to the newcomer Alchemy!


Alchemy:

I'm not sure how long we can call this the New Kid on the Block, but it seems apt for now. As a digital only format, it isn't limited to paper, and cards are subject to periodic adjustments. Some get pushed, others nerfed, but one thing is sure...no card is guaranteed to stay as it is. It is also at least 30% of your starting resources on Arena, so you need to give it due consideration.


Eternal Formats

To assist the New, F2P, and Budget Players which make up a large portion of the Arena player base, I maintain an evolving collection of Eternal format decks, which are most often closely tied to Standard card pool over in a playlist on YouTube.

Historic:

This was the second format added to Arena, and was originally intended to address the fact that people want to continue getting value from their digital assets on Arena once they rotate out of Standard. Historic has since morphed into a Digital format with the release of Alchemy.

Historic deck lists which aren't defined by the current Standard card pool, but still often very budget minded, can be found here through Aetherhub.

Explorer:

While this is the Newest major format to be added on Arena, it has not faced the general stigma which Arena seems to face. This newness and the budget challenges of a deep card pool often defined by high rarity cards and cards which were never offered as draft, makes for a format which is still in development for the Budget Community.



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