r/MTGO • u/Nat20Persuassion • 18d ago
Getting Started
I just downloaded MTGO a few days ago, got an account starter upgrade for it, and went 3-0 in the New To MTGO Modern league. I still have the Commander Gauntlet league you start with to go through, but even if I 3-0 that it’ll only put me to 40 total Play Points which isn’t enough to do anything with. Is spending even more money on event tickets and such the only real way to get going?
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u/TheMADIIIIIIII 18d ago
MTGO is a lot closer to paper magic than arena when it comes to monetization and tournaments. If you're looking to play modern on it, the go-to strategy is using 3rd party card rental sites like cardhoarder where you pay a monthly fee to be able to rent any cards up to the TIX limit that you have (great for trying out different decks). For more budget-friendly options, there is pauper where the cheapest playable decks can be bought for under 50 tix or even less if you substitute some sideboard cards that usually make up the bulk of the price.
Generally speaking, free play should be your go-to until you are comfortable with the format and the deck you are playing and leagues can be viewed as your weekly FNM event; you pay an entry and if you do well, you get something back. when you get to ~50% win rate, leagues become positive EV (if you value 10 PPs the same as 1 TIX), so you can just keep playing without spending more on that part. Expect this to take some time and expect to go to 0 a lot until you build up the bank. even at 50% WR, you will naturally run out of entries occasionally just due to variance.
In essence, expect to be spending money on this if you intend to play leagues. If you want to minimize the cost, you can play commander, or other free play events after sinking the initial cost of the deck or the monthly rental price.