Setting Expectations: The First Few Weeks

Overview

This guide intends to help you figure out how to make the best of your MtGPQ experience. It aims to help you navigate the various pitfalls which a newer player will face and give you a better idea of what to expect for your time and effort.

Basic Routines & Good Habits

There are a few straightforward tasks which everyone should try to complete:

• Collect your Daily Rewards (scroll down on the main screen all the way to the bottom)
• Collect your Free Booster (refreshes every 6 hours and is found in the Vault)
• Win 4 games in each Training Grounds (TG) every day for 20  and some Runes (TG is found on the Events page)
• Play through Story mode to get a feel of the game and to earn some Crystals and Runes
• In particular, play through the Story Mode Training introducing new set mechanics to get the free cards from completing the training
• Try to participate in Events to the best of your abilities
• Do NOT join Trial of the Planes (until you are in the end game, or late game with the 30  discounted entry fee offer)
• Zendikar Expeditions, with its entry fee, nonetheless can reward more crystals in than it costs. The player can decide at what point or whether this is a better use of time than, or an addition to, the Training Grounds
• Other events cost no crystals and may likewise reward participation
• If events are proving worthy of your time, consider joining a Coalition or creating your own, if nothing else, then for the events that only Coalition members may enter
• Do not spend your Jewels (yet)
• Save your UID somewhere (this is the number at the bottom of the Settings page and is greatly important for recovering your account in case anything bad happens) or better yet, take a screenshot of the Settings page

The unfortunate fact is that MtGPQ has a few pitfalls which can drastically worsen a new player’s play experience. The ones to highlight are:

• Spending your in-game currency on obtaining the wrong cards
• Levelling your planeswalker too quickly or levelling the wrong planeswalker
• Moving up the Colour Mastery tiers too quickly
• Not levelling enough. For example, low level opponents with low HP will die quickly before objectives are completed.
• The ‘Wall’

Always bear in mind that your chances of victory will be influenced by a multitude of factors. These include your card collection, your planeswalker collection, your Colour Mastery tier, your opponents and RNGesus. The main factors you can control are your card and planeswalker collection, and your Colour Mastery tier.

With that in mind, we will first cover the significance of the distinction between Standard and Legacy, followed by suggestions how to spend your in-game currencies, an overview on Colour Mastery, and what the ‘Wall’ is. Hopefully after reading through the next few sections, you will understand why the aforementioned points are pitfalls and how to avoid them. That will then be followed by looking at the value of spending money in this game and some useful statistics on card drop rates to round off the general areas one should know about in MtGPQ.

Standard and Legacy

In MtGPQ, there are Standard and Legacy events. Standard events are restricted to cards from Origins and the sets from the two newest MtG years. The MtG year starts from the Fall release, so when the next Fall set is released, the oldest four sets will rotate out of Standard.

For example, the Fall sets of the current two years in Standard rotation are Ixalan and Guilds of Ravnica. When the Fall set of 2019 is released in MtGPQ, Ixalan and the other three sets in its year (Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, and Core Set 2019) will rotate altogether out of Standard.

When you tap the info button for each event, Standard events will have a display circling the sets which are valid. Legacy events will not. Also, Legacy events and card packs will have a blue banner on the top left. Note that all cards from Free Boosters will be from Standard sets.

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  Standard (Rising Tensions) vs Legacy (Trial of the Planes) events

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  Standard (Rivals of Ixalan) vs Legacy (Hour of Devastation) sets

In-Game Currency and What to Spend On

There are 4 primary currencies in MtGPQ.
Runes : These are used for levelling your planeswalkers. They are also used for unlocking an additional deck slot when your planeswalker is at level 60.
Crystals : This is your primary currency for obtaining new cards. Crystals are used for purchasing most card packs, for purchasing Planeswalkers and as the entry fee for Trial of the Planes and Rising Tensions. Deck slots can also be purchased with Crystals. Once in a blue moon there may be special offers which can be purchased using Crystals.
Jewels : This is the currency designated by the developers for end-game players to have an easier path to pursue the Mythics and Masterpieces available in-game. They are used mainly for purchasing packs from the Masterpiece Collection although there are occasionally special offers available for purchase by Jewels.
Orbs (shown on the Booster Crafting page): This is the currency that enables everyone to eventually work towards a complete collection. Whenever you open a duplicate card, they are automatically converted into Orbs and Runes.

What should I spend on?

Crystals

When players ask what they should be spending on, they are typically asking about what to spend their Crystals on. Whether to spend on cards or planeswalkers first, and which set to focus on getting cards from. There are varying opinions on what to spend on first, but I’ll set out my personal recommendations as follows:

1. If you don’t have a decent collection of cards to work with, having strong planeswalkers will not help you all that much. So at the very beginning, focus on procuring cards first. Also coalition events usually have secondary objectives which are better achieved by cards from the latest set. Coupled with the power creep in the game, it is typically better to be purchasing cards from the latest set (or two).
2. Most events have nodes which require planeswalkers of certain colours. If you don’t have a planeswalker of the required colour you can’t participate, depriving you of the chance to earn progression and ranking rewards. Although the Origins planeswalkers are rather weak overall, their 50  cost can be recouped rather quickly through the additional rewards you will earn from being able to participate more in events. The caveat is that you should at least have decent cards in the colour of the planeswalker which you are getting as planeswalkers can only use Colourless cards plus cards of their own colour(s).
3. Other mono-colour planeswalkers cost 295  whereas dual-colour planeswalkers cost 650  . Colourless and tri-colour planeswalkers cost 850 . Either of which will take a long time for a new player to accumulate and will still only allow you to participate in one node as you can’t assign a single planeswalker to multiple nodes. If however, you have plenty of Crystals (whether through hoarding or spending money) you can consider to skip straight to better planeswalkers depending on which of the better ones are available in the Vault. Not all 295  or 650  planeswalkers are worth spending on. Check Planeswalkers for more information.
4. When you have a decent card collection and planeswalkers to contest in all colours, then options start opening up for you. You may choose to get stronger planeswalkers, or cards from other sets which you have less of, or even choose to save up in preparation of upcoming planeswalkers or the next expansion.

Runes

Using Runes, you can level up your planeswalkers to unlock abilities and improve stats. The trade-off is that matchmaking for PvP is based on planeswalker level so you are likely to face more challenging opponents. There is no single best rule on how to level your planeswalkers, but the general consensus is that there is no rush to level them to the max level of 60.

Colour Mastery and Why It Matters

Colour Mastery is both a boon and a trap. Its intention was to differentiate players of different skill levels to allow players to compete with others of similar levels by splitting everyone into 4 tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. You earn Colour Mastery points by using a card repeatedly in your decks, with Common () / Uncommon () / Rare () / Mythic () / Masterpiece () giving 2 / 4 / 8 / 16 / 16 Mastery points when mastered to the colour(s) of the card (or half the points to all colours if Colourless) respectively. However, the implementation was not done in the best of ways.

Consequently, what happens is that players are lured by the prospect of greater rewards in higher tiers and some choose to intentionally master cards to reach a higher tier only to find that they cannot compete as their card collection is way weaker than what is needed to compete at that tier. And the biggest problem is that there is no way to drop back down to a lower tier, so these players are stuck having to fight against opponents with decks that outclass theirs completely. This can be the deathblow that kills any fun you might have in MtGPQ (at least for quite a long while) so avoid making this mistake.

Another consequence of this system is that it somewhat discourages experimentation with cards as mastering too many cards will push you more quickly towards a higher tier. This is unfortunate but the only option at the moment is to try to avoid mastering bad cards and to consciously only master the better cards you currently have, especially when your collection is small and you are still gaining new cards at a decent rate.

PW level and Objectives

MtGPQ is almost all about objectives. Every event, all of Story mode-the whole game has objectives and quests. Many tactics help with not killing the opponent before they are completed, but only one can be achieved before the game even begins: ensuring that the opponent has a lot of HP, by being high level, by being high level yourself.

In PvP, if no opponents your level can be found, you will be matched with more difficult, higher level ones. In PvE, opponent levels reach much higher than player ones; level 200 and higher in some cases. Try to find the "sweet spot" in each Planeswalker's stats per level. Nissa 1, though she is no one's choice of most powerful Planeswalker, gives a good example of a level rise with unusually high gains: as she nears maximum level, her mana bonuses and deck limits increase dramatically.

Whether or not you decide to stay low level "Smurfing"), then playing creatures sparingly or not at all until objectives cards have been gathered, creature removal (can sometimes be used to destroy your own creatures if casting creatures or having your creatures destroyed is the objective), Defenders (and ones that Can't Attack), and many other tactics can aid the strategy of slowing the game down.

The ‘Wall’

At some point (primarily if you are a Free-to-Play player) you will find that you are not getting that many new cards but your collection still isn’t good enough to compete for top ranking within your tier. This is in part due to MtGPQ not having a surge of packs for newer players like many of the other Gacha games do, and also in part due to the sheer number of cards that are available in the game (Standard stands at 1,123 cards as of the end of January 2019, Legacy has 2,353).

Don’t be too worried about this. At this point you would hopefully already be in a coalition with people whom you can identify with or share similar goals with. Take this time to better learn the intricacies of the game rather than feeling like you have to rush to process new cards all the time. At some point, you will break through the wall and maybe you will find that you are then ready to take on greater challenges in MtGPQ.

Also take heart that the introduction of Booster Crafting and Orbs means that your duplicate cards will now gradually contribute to you getting to open a new card for your collection. The in-depth details of the system and the conversion rates can be found here.

Do I need to spend money on this game?

Let’s work our way down from the extremes.

Is this game Pay-to-Win?

The short answer is no. The game gives a decent amount of rewards if you can complete the various events each day. Being in a coalition will also help you improve more quickly through the advice and the additional coalition rewards you receive. This will allow you to build up your collection to be able to perform better in future events.

Will you be able to be instantly or quickly competitive?

No. As previously mentioned, your card and planeswalker collection play important roles in determining how competitive you can be. Your desired planeswalker can take weeks to cycle into the Vault for purchase. You may not get a particular card you want from a set regardless of the number of packs you open from the set. Instead you may only be able to craft it with Orbs much further down the road. Even with Booster Crafting, there is still an element of luck involved if there are other cards in the crafting pool of the card which you want.

Luck is a factor which will persist throughout your time with the game. There will also be luck involved in the card draw, board generation and opponents faced for each match. This is an important aspect of MtGPQ that one has to be comfortable with.

Will spending money help you be competitive more quickly?

Yes of course. You need cards and planeswalkers to compete. Kickstarting your collection by being able to open more packs or having strong planeswalkers from the onset will help you to earn better rewards more quickly. This in turn will speed up your collection rate, which helps you build a better position.

Other useful information relating to spending money

MtGPQ sells bundles for both new planeswalkers and exclusive Mythics. The exclusive Mythics sold for cash will stay exclusive to paying players until the next set is released though these can vary drastically in usefulness. Some exclusive Mythics can be a must-buy whereas others can be total duds.

The new planeswalkers out for cash will only be released for Crystals in the Vault at least three weeks later, giving those who pay for the planeswalker an exclusive period to utilise a planeswalker whose abilities are typically built to synergise with the latest card set and help greatly in hitting the objectives in coalition events. However, remember that planeswalkers will eventually be available in the Vault for Crystals.

Card Drop Rates

Managing your expectations on card drops will greatly influence your enjoyment of this game. The drop rates for regular pack types, ie. those which come in the 5-card pack, Super Pack (5x3) and Premium Pack (5x5) configuration, are approximately 55% / 39% / 5% / 1.4% / 0.1% per card for Common () / Uncommon () / Rare () / Mythic () / Masterpiece (). Premium Packs are the best option of the three for procuring cards as they come with an additional guaranteed Rare.

There is currently no pity timer in the game. As such, it's important to understand that there will be times where one goes on a streak of good pulls with Rares, Mythics and even the occasional Masterpiece popping up but there will also be streaks where all you see is Common and Uncommon cards.

Here are some handy statistics:

1. You have a ~70% chance of getting 0 Mythics in a Premium Pack. That means only 3 in 10 Premium Packs will yield any Mythic(s) on average.
2. You have a ~28% chance of getting 0 Rares in a Premium Pack (not counting the guaranteed Rare). That means 1 in 4 Premium Packs will not yield any extra Rare card(s) on average.
3. If you have 24 out of 40 Rares in a set, that gives you a 60% chance for a duplicate when you get a Rare drop.
4. If you have 10 out of 40 Rares in a set, that is still a 25% chance for a duplicate when you get a Rare drop.

Use this information to help you decide whether to open another Premium Pack or to save up for an incoming planeswalker or even just to save for a rainy day. If you have a high percentage of the cards in a set, you are liable to getting mostly duplicates in your next Premium Pack. At the stage where you have all the Commons and Uncommons from a set with a notable number of Rares, a Premium Pack may only yield 0 or 1 new cards on average.

Although these duplicate cards still yield you Orbs , one should consider whether their collection is in a good enough position that they can start saving Crystals for the release of the next set. An additional advantage of saving for the next set is that any duplicate of the new set opened within the first month of its release are worth 50% more Orbs than usual.

Timetable

• New planeswalkers are added to the Vault on Thursdays at 08:00 UTC
• New Elite Packs are added to the Vault on Tuesdays at 08:00 UTC
• Both Training Grounds start/end each day at 11:00 UTC

(Check the MtGPQ Sneak Peek thread for this month in this forum for official information)

• Legacy: Rising Tensions used to be in a different format, which was available on Mondays to Saturday. 1 win would get a Guilds of Ravnica / Ravnica Allegiance booster pack and maximum progression, an exclusive Mythic. After a few weeks of this, the Mythic duplicates became a significant source of Orbs for Crafting. There is a 2021 counterpart to this process: the Duel Decks event. However, it is much less frequent.

What’s Next?

The advice in this guide should provide you with a strong foundation for MtGPQ. For more advanced discussions, I recommend to seek out an active coalition and/or the MtGPQ communities available (primarily the rest of this wiki, the official forums, Reddit, Discord and Slack).

I would like to add a caveat that this guide is for players who are still finding their footing in the game. Certainly, some points will remain valid while others will not as you progress on in the game. One example being that if you are in the end-game phase for MtGPQ, Trial of the Planes actually becomes your best option for spending Crystals on as opposed to being an absolutely terrible option for newer players. May you enjoy your time playing MtGPQ!