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Back when I was in San Jose for college, I was first introduced to Magic: The Gathering. The trading card game had been around for a while, but I never got around to trying it, and I didn’t know much about it. I fell in love with it, but once I moved back home, I never picked it back up. Then, I started SteamDeckHQ, and I was even more sure I wouldn’t be able to play it again. Then, Summer Game Fest came around, and I was invited to check out the newest collaboration for the game, and it turns out that all it took was Final Fantasy to pull me back in.
While at the event, I had a chance to check out the new cards and play around with the two new starter packs, which revolve around Cloud and Sephiroth. I had the chance to both play around with the cards and see their physical artwork, then head over and play with the decks in the Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTG: Arena) video game. Ultimately, the video game is what brought me back into the world of Magic, but before going into why, I want to talk about those fantastic cards.
The artwork on them is just impeccable, and it’s so cool seeing iconic characters and settings reimagined for the trading card game. The Magic team was able to utilize all the Final Fantasy games for these, and seeing them made me want to collect them all, and it was great to check them out as a huge fan of the series. I was lucky to walk away from the appointment with the two starter packs, so I can gaze at them as much as I want. They also have some more stylized cards, which I was also excited to see. In the end, it made me want to start collecting the physical cards, which is not something I normally have the desire to do.
However, the Arena video game is where it hit me just how much I was going to dive into the game. My time with it at Summer Game Fest was short, consisting of one guided match against someone else where I used the Cloud deck, but the bulk of my experience took place after I had left. I was so excited that I downloaded the game on my Steam Deck, Desktop PC, and iPhone, and now it has become my go-to game. I play it intermittently on my phone while I am working, even while I am writing this article, and I love it.
The best part is I was able to get the Final Fantasy starter decks in the video game as well with no extra charge! The physical starter pack for the Final Fantasy decks comes with a code in it that unlocks both decks in the game for free, so as soon as I got through all the tutorials, I was able to start using and building out the Deck I wanted with the base I wanted to start with. I am using the Cloud starter as my base currently and have been taking out and adding in cards intermittently.
I really like the MTG: Arena game for a few reasons, and it makes it hard to put down. Matches can be relatively quick with all the information and processes automated, losses don't penalize you, and you can earn a good chunk of currency to buy new packs without having to invest any real-world money. I do wish there wasn't a cap on currency, and friend battles could earn as well, but I still have so much fun playing.
It also runs like a charm on the Steam Deck. At 90 FPS, it will hit around 12W - 13W of battery drain at default settings, but going down to 60 FPS kept the smoothness and brought battery drain to around 10W. I do recommend changing the resolution to 1280x720, since some of the cards will be cut off when examining them, but it runs great otherwise.
The biggest problem will be controlling. There's no gamepad support, so you will have to use the trackpad or touchscreen to interact with your cards and play them. It's not the end of the world, and it's very playable regardless, but still worth mentioning. The color also pops on the Steam Deck OLED's screen, so pairing that with the smoothness of the card playing and animations makes this my favorite way to play the game on the go.
In the end, all it took was the Final Fantasy collaboration to bring me back into Magic: The Gathering. While the physical cards are gorgeous and it's so cool to have them in hand, I fell in love with the Arena game and have been playing it consistently. Not only is it hard to put down, it's a blast to enjoy on the Steam Deck, and while I wish we had full controller support, I didn't feel like it was impossible to enjoy either. Either way, if you are even remotely interested in TCGs or need a reason to dive back into the game, now's the perfect time to do it!
Magic: The Gathering Arena can be downloaded on Steam for free!
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