How to Prepare for the Upcoming Renewal on MTGA
danccm | 2022-08-09 00:00:00
Standard rotation for 2022 is coming up very soon with the release of Dominaria United. MTG Arena brings thousands of new players into the game of Magic each year, so many of you may not know the best way to get ready for rotation and its associated "Renewal" on MTGA.
I'm the creator of the MTG Arena app Arena Tutor, so I constantly see new users and Magic players making mistakes when it comes to managing their collection.
Yes, you kind of need a Phd in economics to keep track of all this stuff.
Pay Attention to the Metagame
If you're bored, you might want to try out new decks in Standard and Alchemy, but I'd strongly advise you not to do this. In a month or so, the metagame is going to be completely different.
At least look at the top decks in the meta to see which ones are primarily made of cards that will still be legal in September. This will make sure you...
Don't Waste Wildcards
Now is not the time to go around crafting new rares and mythics willy-nilly. If something is part of a shell that will be successful in 3 months, sure. Or if you're missing badly-needed dual lands that are still going to be around after rotation.
If you craft cards that are going to rotate out right away, you are not getting much value out of those cards at all. And wildcards are essentially equivalent to money in MTGA's economy, so you're basically flushing money down the drain. Unless...
Find Other Uses (Formats) for Your Beloved Cards
If you're really addicted to a particular card or tribe that's popular in Standard or Alchemy right now, all is not lost. You could always play one of MTGA's more eternal formats like Historic, Historic Brawl, or Explorer in order to keep playing with your favorites.
However, the power level of these formats is quite a bit higher than Standard. So don't expect to be winning a lot with your pet cards. After all, they are made up of many, many more sets than Standard. The power level of the decks tends to concentrate the most powerful cards an interactions together.
But this is at least an option to make some use out of your cards since MTGA does not, unfortunately, have a dusting system like Hearthstone.
Hope this brief list of tips helps you out if you haven't been through Standard rotation before. It's exciting to get new cards and sets each year, but WotC knows what they're doing -- they want you to spend more to keep playing!
Thanks for reading and good luck.