Magic: The Gathering Arena is a much better digital game than previous releases

Despite pioneering the trading card game on paper, Wizards of the Coast has had a rough go of it in the digital space. Magic: The Gathering Online hasn’t had wild success mainly because of stability issues and accessibility. Magic Duels was better but it didn’t seem to take full advantage of the medium or capture the exact feel of the game.

Magic: The Gathering Arena is Wizards of the Coast latest attempt at creating a digital counterpart of its popular card game. This time, the publisher’s in-house team was made up of developers from Blizzard, Bioware and other triple-A studios. It has taken a cue from Hearthstone and streamlined the gameplay to make it fast-paced and fun.

The result is an accessible version of the game, one that will be familiar to fans and approachable to newcomers. Personally, I always had trouble with Magic. The rules for phases and upkeep were onerous.

After reading the tiny instruction booklet, I was confused about when to tap and untap lands and how minions attacked and defeated each other, but the way Arena takes players through turns and teaches them the game, Magic suddenly becomes understandable.

Then again, perhaps my experience playing Hearthstone makes Wizards of the Coasts’ classic card game easier to play. It’s likely a little bit of both. The design of Arena smoothes out some of the cumbersome aspects of Magic.

First off, the lands tap and untap by themselves, giving players one less complication to worry about. The order of actions in a turn are laid out in front of players’ avatars with the idea of playing one land, throwing down minions and attacking opponents seamlessly ingrained in the turn. It flows nicely.