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Magic the Gathering Arena Drag Card to Change Art

Last updated on April 12, 2022

Knowledge and Power - Illustration by Jung Park

Knowledge and Power | Illustration past Jung Park

We've already covered the basics of getting MTG Arena started here. Peradventure you're a new player to Magic who's making the big bound from paper to digital, played newspaper and Magic Online (differences hither), or (similar me) you're an established Arena role player and feel like there should be some easier means to utilise the program to its fullest.

At present that you have the game going, how does this conglomeration of 0s and 1s let yous play the game? No, I won't be going into the lawmaking and boring everyone out of wanting to read some other word.

There are some counter-intuitive gameplay tricks that aren't technically needed to play the game only make the play experience much meliorate on both sides of the table. They tin all be plant if you lot dig into the settings, but knowing how they all actually work is a different discussion. Here are some shortcuts and other tips and tricks to help you to go an MTG Loonshit ability user!

MTG Arena Keyboard Shortcuts and Hotkeys

Power Play MTG card art by Matt Stewart

Ability Play | Analogy by Matt Stewart

Here's a list of some little-known keyboard shortcuts in MTG Arena:

Ctrl: Temporarily enable full control

MTGA 'Ctrl' temporary

The simplest explanation is that this will hold your priority until yous manually give it up.  Yous may accept noticed the game automatically tapping mana, giving your opponent priority every bit soon as you play a spell, or continuing to the next phase on your turn if you take no cards in hand or don't have enough mana to play anything in your hand. Basically, it'south telling your opponent that you have cipher to practice. This is benign when yous desire to bluff having something in hand and tin wreck their plans.  Shock or Negate, for example. This stops that for the turn you activate it on.

Ctrl + Shift: Permanently enable total control

MTGA 'Ctrl + Shift' permanent control

The same as but manifestly sometime Ctrl, except it turns full control on for the whole game (or until you plough it off once again).

Z: Undo

Works for any actions you tin abolish out of, only also for mana abilities like untapping a land you lot manually tapped. Sadly, different in newspaper, you don't have the ability to undo much and the chances you have disappear later on you lose priority. No takesies backsies!

Enter: Laissez passer the turn

This does what it says on the tin can. Basically, it lets the game know you forfeit your priority on the plow in the current game state. You'll get priority dorsum if your opponent plays something before your plow is done and changes the game state, however.

Shift + Enter: Pass the turn unconditionally

MTGA Shift+Enter pass unconditionally

Unlike the previous shortcut, this ane will forfeit your priority no affair what happens the rest of the turn. I'd suggest only using this if you aren't planning on playing annihilation else your turn no matter what or are playing against someone who is philharmonic-ing off and y'all can't or won't respond. I will not eat the oven-ed cat in a box, with a play a joke on, etc.

This is the equivalent of pressing F6 in Magic Online.

Space: Pass priority

Basically the same as clicking "Next." It doesn't piece of work when priority isn't in the equation though, like with un-counter-able actions. This is pretty underused but information technology tin can actually relieve time over the course of a match.

50: Display the turn phases

MTG Arena turn phases icons

This is technically on by default, so this allows yous to plough the little phase icons on and off.

Q,Q: Float all

MTG Arena float all shortcut

Information technology's odd to write this shortcut out. You lot hit Q twice quickly. This is a shortcut that you may have seen in the gameplay settings and didn't actually know what it was all about. And no, information technology does not mean that Arena tin be used equally a floatation device in the issue of a h2o landing. It means to tap all your land. It comes from the game lore concept that the mana you activate is floating in your mana puddle prior to use. This is extremely helpful in times when you lot are maxing an Ten cost spell as much every bit you tin or playing Wilderness Reclamation in a Temur Rec deck.  It saves both your and your opponent'south sanity.

Hold Q: Float stack

This is a new one brought to united states of america from Reddit:

Thanks for authoring! An extension of the QQ command was simply added (perhaps barely after your article was finalized) whereby you can concord Q for a second or so then starting time clicking stacks of like mana sources. They'll all be auto-used when yous let go of the key (why this single Q predates the double Q, I don't know but I guess it therefore must've been planned in advance).

u/freestorageaccount

Right click: Zoom in on a card

The game will automatically zoom into a card on well-nigh occasions when information technology's on the stack or on the battlefield. However, in that location are other areas (hand, graveyard, library, exile) where zooming tin exist useful. Correct-clicking on the card volition do this for you in those other areas.

Shift + . (period): FPS Counter

I feel similar this is self-explanatory, simply if yous're troubleshooting other things, displaying your FPS can help. For more troubleshooting, we've got a handy guide for y'all over here.

Ctrl + . (period): Motion FPS Counter

Another update from Reddit:

ctrl + .(menstruation) moves around the fps counter to dissimilar positions on the screen if you don't desire it in the bottom right

u/Steal_Your_Waifu

Tab: Cycle conversation

This will bring upward your current friend chats. Repeated presses cycle through all of the chats you have and then close them once yous reach the end of the listing.

MTGA Gameplay Settings

MTG Arena gameplay settings

Auto tap

You may take seen this in the gameplay settings and be curious as to what information technology is. "Doesn't MTG Arena already auto-tap? Why is that a setting?" Well, this allows you to plow information technology off. Yes, OFF. Separate from full control. Information technology'south only editable in a match, merely if you're running a deck where specific lands demand to be tapped to allow for a philharmonic to work, turning it off tin assistance if y'all don't want to activate full control.

Auto order triggered abilities

Another of import gameplay setting you can toggle. If y'all want the freedom of deciding the society that your abilities will enter the stack, you can turn this off and the game will ask yous select the order y'all want them to announced. Information technology can ho-hum the game down a fleck, merely when the gild matters it's particularly important. I'm looking at you, mutate!

For case:

MTGA trigger order example

In this scenario, you'll want triggers to be ordered so that Gemrazer's power targeting Kaya'southward Ghostform resolves before Dirge Bat's ability targeting Titanoth Rex resolves, so information technology stays in the graveyard.

Auto utilize card styles and hide alternate art styles

MTGA card style settings

This one is small-scale but can be a flake of an annoyance. While I generally like the look of the bill of fare styles and beloved the wait of the Godzilla special art in Ikoria (is liking/antisocial those still controversial?), they can exist a large annoyance in drafting.

Even though I have them all memorized, it withal takes me a second to effigy out what the bodily card is. A second that can cause bug in a Premier Draft. If you want, you tin can plough them off here and new card styles won't be automatically applied to your cards. Likewise, if you prefer to not play with carte du jour styles, you tin completely hide them from your collection with the second option.

Separate creatures from non-creatures in the deck builder

When you're deckbuilding, yous may go annoyed trying to search through and see how many creatures vs non-creatures you have in your deck. Thanks to the wonders of Twitter, nosotros know in that location's a solution for that! Only blazon "t: creature" in the Search bar and the builder will visually separate the creatures in your deck from the non-brute spells.

MTG Arena sort deck builder creatures vs noncreatures

Hither'southward what information technology looks like when you separate creatures from non-creature spells in a draft deck.

MTG Arena In Game Tips and Tricks

Quick Multi-cake and Multi-attack

MTG Arena quick-block and quick-attack

While the game offers you lot the ability to "Attack with all" during your set on stage, what if yous desire to attack with just all of your Pteramanders? Or, if you're defending and you want to take all those Pteramanders block that 2/ii and knock it out?

While there isn't a button for this, y'all tin select a stack of cards past shift-clicking and the game will go on track of what you have selected. In terms of attacking, this is only useful if there are multiple targets (i.east., a planeswalker to attack), but it tin can relieve a few clicks for blocking.

Reddit gave us some other mode to practice this, also:

You tin can block or attack with a staple of creatures past clicking on the elevation right number of the staple. If you block an attacking staple, each fauna in your staple will get one blocker from the opponent staple.

u/Kellerhefe

Phases

You lot can interact with the phase icons.

MTG Arena interacting with turn phases icons

If you hover over the stage icons, they'll light upwards and yous can also click on any of them to place a "Terminate" on information technology. In club words, the game will hold your priority in that turn phase (whether it be your turn or your opponent's).

This can be helpful if there is a card with flash that yous desire to play after your opponent completes their second main phase, for example. If y'all determine y'all don't want the Stop anymore, you tin click the icon again to deactivate it.

Bluffing: You lot're Revealing More than Information Than Yous Retrieve

Different paper Magic or Magic Online, MTGA actively wants to move the game forth quickly. In order to practice this, it has a lot of automation congenital in, such as the autotapper, auto assign, and auto club functions. Considering of this, it makes it exceedingly difficult to non give your opponent clues about what you may or may not take in your mitt at whatever given time, at least if you don't accommodate whatever settings.

For case, let us say you're playing Dimir command and your opponent is playing Blood-red Deck Wins. It's their plough. Here are the lath states:

MTG Arena opponent board state example

Opponent has 12 life, 2 cards in-paw, and seven untapped Mountains plus Fervent Champion, Scorch Spitter, and Torbran, Thane of Redfell on the battleground

MTG Arena your board state example

You have 16 life, 2 Islands and Lochmere Ophidian in-hand, and 2 untapped Islands plus 1 untapped Swamp and Narset, Parter of Veils plus Ashiok, Nightmare Muse on the battlefield

The whole friction match so far you've been blocking them from playing their cardinal win conditions with control spells, but they seem to have gotten some heavy hitters downward similar Torbran. There's a good likelihood that an Embercleave is coming but, given what you've been doing, your opponent might be hesitant to play it as it could very well just hit the graveyard instead. If they attack with everything in our example moment, you'll survive with ii life.

The manner the game is prepare to work out of the box, it'll expedite priority based on the board state. You but take three mana untapped while Lochmere Serpent needs half dozen. When your opponent completes their main stage, it'll automatically forfeit your priority to them to go along to the assail phase. This pretty much gives them the green light to pull any other damaging shenanigans they may have in-mitt to deal more than impairment and end the lucifer.

Withal, if you use full command or at the very least put a Stop on their first primary phase, yous can bluff that yous take a control card in hand since the game won't automatically give abroad your priority.

For more in-depth discussion and data on this topic, I highly propose watching this video by Matt Sperling:

Wrap Up

Lochmere Serpent MTG card art by Sam Burley

Lochmere Serpent | Illustration past Sam Burley

Of course, if y'all want to become a true MTGA power user, I propose checking out our Arena Tutor. It automatically does stuff for yous that Arena doesn't, like keeping track of the cards you and your opponent has played, and even calculating your deck and format performance. What's more than, if you like what you run into hither and would like to help support our power to bring you more corking content, delight consider condign a Patron. Your support means the globe to us.

I always advise playing the game as you experience the most comfortable (some Magic is better than no Magic, after all), simply these settings, hotkeys, and tips permit you lot to replicate paper Magic every bit much equally possible in this digital format. I'm sure more discoveries and developments will come as the game changes and adapts.

Have you spotted something our list is missing? Do yous have a question about how to meliorate use these tips? Feel free to get out a comment below, or bring together us on our Discord server!

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Source: https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-tips-and-tricks/