[Top 5] MTG Arena Best Decks to Farm Gold

Updated:

27 Nov 2020

Just like typical paper MTG, Arena is also highly pay-to-win. The game gives you the chance to get cards through the reward system, allowing you to trade-in wildcards for specific cards, however, most parts rely on microtransactions for you to be able to build a decent deck. If you want to play competitively, you will surely need to spend a lot. Thankfully, if you are a free-to-play user like me, you can still build a great deck by grinding and farming for gold.

Playing often will help you get the amount of gems and gold you need to buy plenty of booster packs. As we already know, booster packs provide the majority of the cards that we can use, as well as the wildcards we can swap for coveted cards. Playing many games, however, wouldn’t matter much if you keep on losing, right? Nothing to worry about, though, since this list can help you craft decks that will guarantee you get a lot of games in, as well as guarantee you a decent amount of wins.

5. Boros Winota

What once was a meta-shifting deck, Winota is back to farm gold in the Arena.

Why is this deck good for farming gold?

Assuming that you are a regular player of MTGA, then you probably already have most, if not all, of the components of this deck.
- Boros decks (Winota, in particular) was a big trend before and it is still powerful today. If you are one of the people that jumped on the Winota bandwagon, then you already have this deck sitting around your collection waiting to be unleashed again.

How to play this deck effectively

Ensuring that you do not miss your first four land drops is essential for this deck. You have plenty of early game threats but establishing your mana base is more important since this deck is very heavy on the mid- to late-game.
- Once you are able to ensure that you can drop Winota on curve, you are already halfway into the victory.
- The cheaper cards are there to either protect or enable Winota. This means that playing them in the later stages, when WInota is on the board, will be more efficient.
If you want a deck that is more aggressive, you can swap two copies of Lurrus to two copies of Stonecoil Serpent
- Stonecoil Serpent is a very versatile card since it can be played in the early game but it can also be a mana sink in the late game.
- Swapping in a Lurrus, however, will help you protect Winota better since you can retrieve and replay Selfless Savior multiple times.

Decklist

4 Winota, Joiner of Forces
4 Selfless Savior
3 Seasoned Hallowblade
4 Basri’s Lieutenant
4 Stonecoil Serpent
3 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Akoum Hellhound
2 Kenrith, the Returned King
3 Kargan Intimidator
4 Skyclave Cleric
3 Embercleave
2 Spikefield Hazard
1 Shatterskull Smashing
2 Temple of Triumph
2 Castle Embereth
4 Needleverge Pathway
5 Mountain
6 Plains

4. Kroxa Aggro

You just can't keep this Titan down. It will always come back and wreak havoc on the ladder.

Why is this deck good for farming gold?

Just like the majority of the decks featured in this article, Kroxa Aggro also boasts a decklist with very few expensive cards, both in terms of rarity and mana cost.
- Since we want to maximize our resources, it is always crucial that we get the right blend of price and performance. This deck checks both boxes, allowing us to farm gold more efficiently.
It is also good at countering most decks whether aggressive or midrange.
- This deck has the right balance of aggro and control in it that it can easily dish out Ls to your opponents no matter what deck they are using. This is a solid choice if you also want to play in the competitive ranks.

How to play this deck effectively

Opening with a Thoughtseize can help you assess what deck your opponent is playing. Based on their opening hand, you can already tell if you can bring in the heat, or wait for the later stages of the game.
- Getting in an early Stitcher’s Supplier and Mire Triton plays well in both aggro and late-game strategies as they add pressure to the board, as well as fill up your graveyard for future Kroxa and Lurrus.
- Young Pyromancer is great for the later stages of the game since your instants and sorceries rely on you having cards in your graveyard.
You can place Lurrus as your companion by swapping the other Lurrus with a copy of Archfiend Vessel.
- The advantage of not placing Lurrus as your companion is that you can have multiple copies of it. Since Lurrus is easily killable, having another copy to play can help you re-establish your board after removals.

Decklist

4 Thoughtseize
4 Stitcher’s Supplier
4 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
4 Mire Triton
2 Archfiend’s Vessel
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Dreadhorde Arcanist
2 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
4 Village Rites
2 Claim the Firstborn
2 Collateral Damage
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blood Crypt
3 Canyon Slough
4 Fabled Passage
2 Castle Locthwain
3 Swamp
4 Mountain

3. Mono-red Aggro

What Torbran lacks in height, he compensates for in power.

Why is this deck good for farming gold?

Mono-red is the way to go if you want to play many games
- The speed of this deck will allow you to win (or lose) games very quickly.
- Though this is not as fast as previous versions of mono-red, it is still very aggressive but with a more balanced approach.

How to play this deck effectively

Since this deck only has a few removals, the main focus is to go all-out on your attacks.
- Overwhelm the opponent with your creatures even before they establish the board
- Majority of your creatures can be played before your third land drop so make sure that you have at least three guaranteed land drops.
- You can use Shatterskull Smashing in the early game to get rid of multiple threats on your opponent’s side. Alternatively, you can use it in the late game to deal with a larger threat
Getting Torbran on the board early on will definitely help swing the tide of the game to your favor.
- With the additional 2 damage per source, you can easily close out the game before Turn 5, making this deck great for farming gold (and wins!)

Decklist

3 Akoum Hellhound
3 Anax, Hardened in the Forge
4 Bonecrusher Giant
1 Ox of Agonas
4 Fervent Champion
2 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
4 Robber of the Rich
3 Phoenix of Ash
4 Rimrock Knight
2 Embereth Shieldbreaker
2 Roil Eruption
2 Shatterskull Smashing
1 Roiling Vertex
3 Embercleave
4 Castle Embereth
16 Mountain

2. Cycling

Unlike Tour de France, this cycling deck does not take weeks to earn you a lot of gold.

Why is this deck good for farming gold?

Ultra cheap deck
- You only need a bunch of commons and uncommons to play this deck, allowing you the most bang for your buck
Very versatile
- You can play this as a Zenith Flare deck or as a Thassa’s Oracle Deck. The Zenith Flare deck is more common but the Thassa’s Oracle deck is faster and cheaper.

How to play this deck effectively

There are a lot of graveyard hate cards in the current meta but those cards are mostly castable in the later stages of the game. The key to using this deck is to finish the game as quickly as possible.
- Make sure that you have any of the four key cards to help you fend off early attacks or deal early damage to your opponent. The other pieces will fall into place since you have a lot of card draw per turn.
- The prioritization of the three cards, from highest to lowest is as follows: Fox, Stinger, Rescuer, then Healer. As long as you have any of these on the board, you can easily start your cycling engine.

Decklist

4 Flourishing Fox
4 Dranith Stinger
4 Dranith Healer
4 Valiant Rescuer
4 Boon of the Wish-Giver
4 Footfall Crater
4 Frostveil Ambush
4 Startling Development
2 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
4 Go for Blood
4 Zenith Flair
4 Raugrin Triome
5 Mountain
9 Plains

1. Dimir Rogues

'When there's a single thief, it's robbery. When there's a thousand, it's taxation.' - Vanya Cohen

Why is this deck good for farming gold?

This deck is a meta-deck which means it is tuned to fight against other meta-decks
Budget-friendly but still packs a hard punch
- As you can see in the decklist, this version of Dimir Rogues mostly runs uncommons, other than the Thieves’ Guild Enforcer
- Most of the rares that you can find in this deck are the lands, you can easily sub them out with cheaper alternatives and the deck can still function properly

How to play this deck effectively

Just like a typical aggressive deck, you can pressure your opponent and deal early damage with your cheap creatures.
- You can easily get away with playing a lot of threats in the early game since removal and counterspells play well to your advantage as it helps you fill up your graveyard. Both will be very helpful to Lurrus and Agadeem’s Awakening.
- Since this deck is synergistic, you want to put as many Rogues as you can in the early stage as your cards will benefit with having a lot of rogues on the battlefield
Make sure that you have at least a Ruin Crab and a Thieves’ Guild Enforcer on your starting hand.
- These two cards are the most important part of your early game, missing one can easily derail your early aggression
Use your card draw efficiently
- One of the main problems of this deck is its card draw engine. Having limited card draw means that you need to pick the right time to use them. I would recommend using both Merfolk Windrobber and Into the Story at the later stages of the game since you don’t need much resources in the early game.

Decklist

Lurrus of the Dream-Den - Companion