[Top 10] MTG Arena Best Packs To Buy

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Updated:

21 Nov 2023

[Top 10] MTG Arena Best Packs To Buy

If you’re a free-to-play player like me and are looking to get the most out of your in-game gold as you build your card collection, then this list is for you. Currently, MTG Arena has 32 different sets to choose from and each of those sets contains somewhere between 200 and 300 cards on average. This means there are thousands of possible cards to draw from, so where should you spend your gold?

10. The Brother’s War

The Brothers War was released in November of 2022 and still has another two years in the Standard rotation. This set boasts some powerful cards found in Standard and very reliable lands used in many different formats.

The dual-colored lands in this set are great. Llanowar Wastes is used in the Golgari Midrange meta deck, one of the strongest decks around. Battlefield Forge is a great land for Boros themed decks that must play fast and can’t afford to wait a turn while a land untaps. Not a colored land, but Mishra’s Foundry can turn into a creature for only two mana and help close out games after a board wipe. Not to mention it’s a solid counter to when an opponent forces you to sacrifice a creature. Just activate Mishra’s Foundry and sacrifice it instead of your high value target the opponent was after.

The Brothers War uses three special keywords, Meld, Prototype, and Unearth. Phyrexian Fleshgorger uses the Prototype keyword, which allows the player to cast Phyrexian Fleshgorger for three mana as a 3/3 creature, or wait until seven mana to cast and have it be a 7/5 creature. Meld combines two cards into one powerful card, as found on Urza, Lord Protector. Lastly, Unearth lets a creature return from the graveyard with Haste for its Unearth cost and then Exile itself at the end of your turn, giving the creature one last hurrah!

Reasons to purchase this pack:

Pain Lands are very reliable and for one hit point ensure you always have the mana you need
Prototype cards are flexible, three mana creature early on or seven mana creature if drawn late
Blast Zone and Mishra’s Foundry are strong and useful lands that are worth adding to your collection
Several Standard playable rares other then the lands are available in this set, Phyrexian Fleshgorger, Feldon, Ronom Excavator, Brotherhood’s End, and Gix’s Command
The storyline in this set revisits one of the earliest, if not the earliest, conflicts found in Magic the Gathering

Cards to look for:

9. Streets of New Caperna

Released in April 2022, Streets of New Capenna has been around for around a year and a half, so it’s halfway through its Standard shelf life. The theme of New Capenna is one of demon-led crime families. Think Roaring Twenties, Al Capone, and The Great Gatsby all mixed into one and the characters are demons, angels, and all other manners of creatures. The theme is very unique and entertaining and worth picking up a few packs just to check out some of the art.

Some of the cards worth collecting here are Tenacious Underdog, Gala Greeters, and Topiary Stomper. Each of these creatures are strong in their respective decks and function as an engine of sorts for the decks they play in. Tenacious Underdog returns from the graveyard to keep attacking and draws you cards. Gala Greeters makes use of the Alliance keyword, gaining life, pumping itself up, or creating Treasure tokens. And Topiary Stomper ramps you, pulling a basic land out of your deck and into your hand.

This set also makes use of the tri-colored lands, specifically Esper, Grixis, Jund, Naya, and Bant themed lands. They have the bonus feature of offering a Cycle option if you draw the land later in the game and would rather discard to draw again.

Reasons to purchase this pack:

Early 1900’s gangster vibes, with demons
Tri-colored lands (with Cycle) to help you build three colored decks
Five color or family specific keywords in Connive, Shield Counters, Casualty, Blitz, and Alliance
Many strong cards to power your deckbuilding, like Raffine, Scheming Seer
Ob Nixilis, the Adversary, one of the coolest Planeswalkers around and a fun card to play with

Cards to look for:

8. Innistrad Crimson Vow

Innistrad Crimson Vow is nearing the end of its Standard life as it’s next up on the rotation block. Released in November 2021, this set has some powerful Standard cards that are staples in most current Standard decks.

Innistrad is one of the strongest planes that MTG travels to and its cards always make a splash in the format. This time it’s Wedding Announcement, a card that compliments go-wide strategies or can be built around in a token theme. It’s a four-of card in many decks that run White mana and the biggest reason you should buy these packs.

After Wedding Announcement, the deck has a slew of other good rare and mythic cards to pull. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a very powerful two mana creature that can alter the direction of a game, slowing down your opponent with First Strike or the mana tax she imposes on players. Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr and Hallowed Haunting are great to use in Spirit and/or Enchantment themed decks like you’ll find in the Selesnya Enchantments Standard deck.

This set has five rare, dual-colored lands as well. This set of lands enters the battlefield tapped unless you already have two other lands in play and they are Orzhov, Izzet, Boros, Golgari, and Simic colored lands. You’ll use dual-colored lands in every format found on MTG Arena, so purchasing extra packs of Innistrad Crimson Vow to try and land them is worth it. If this wasn’t enough reason to check out Innistrad Crimson Vow, the entire set utilizes themes of gothic horror, like vampires, werewolves, spirits and the undead.

Reasons to purchase this pack:

Gothic horror themes with classic monster movie monsters
Powerful format defining cards available
Excellent dual-colored lands to fill out your collection and use in all formats
Cleave mechanic cards are viable in multiple situations, paying more mana when needed
Werewolf tribal decks using the Transform mechanic

Cards to look for:

7. Phyrexia All Will Be One

Phyrexia All Will Be One released this year, February 2023. This set has some of the most powerful cards currently in Standard and great lands, making this an ideal set to spend gold on. The Phyrexians are winning and defeat/compleat several popular planeswalkers. I was quite shocked to see Jace, the Perfected Mind, my favorite planeswalker, Compleated and now a Phyrexian. Several other planeswalkers join Jace as Compleated, and their cards all give you the option to pay life instead of mana to cast them, allowing you to get them down a turn or two earlier than expected.

More dual-colored lands are available in this set. These “fast lands” come down untapped unless you have more than two lands in play, making them ideal for dual-colored aggro decks that want to come out swinging. In addition to the dual-lands, Mirrex is a token generating land that gives you a mana-sink at the end of your opponent's turn, letting you untap with a 1/1 infect token on the battlefield.

Another big card from this set is Atraxa, Grand Unifier. This card is played as the big payoff of Domain Ramp and it’s found in other decks around Standard and Historic. As it costs a ton of mana to cast, Atraxa, Grand Unifier is usually cheated out somehow by either ramping up quickly with extra lands or utilizing Breach the Multiverse.

Reasons to purchase this pack:

Fast lands come down untapped early and fix two-colored aggro deck mana problems
Awesome story cards throughout the set, witnessing the last stand and fall of many different planeswalkers
For Mirrodin! mechanic lets you play strong equipment cards and immediately generate a creature token and attach the equipment to them
Poison counters make a return in the form of Toxic, and receiving 10 poison counters will cost you the game

Cards to look for:

6. Kamigawa Neon Dynasty

I might be reaching a little bit here, but Kamigawa Neon Dynasty is fifth on this list. Released in February of 2022, it’s on the back end of its Standard life cycle but boasts some of the most used lands, if not the most used lands, in all of Magic the Gathering Arena. You’ll find these five mono-colored rare lands in most of the meta decks in Standard, Explorer, and Historic, making this set a good choice for packs.

On top of useful lands, this set has The Wandering Emperor, one of the most played cards in MTG. A Flash speed planeswalker that Exiles a tapped creature and then creates 2/2 Vigilance Samurai tokens, The Wandering Emperor is a card seeing play in nearly every White deck to some capacity.

The Ninjutsu mechanic returns from the previous trip to Kamigawa, allowing you to swap a creature that is attacking with another in your hand. Reconfigure is a mechanic that allows artifact creatures to attach themselves to other creatures like an Equipment card.

Reasons to purchase this pack:

The five mono-colored rare lands are all useful and used throughout the MTG Arena formats
The Wandering Emperor is a powerhouse card and spending gold trying to pull it with the added benefit of maybe getting a rare land instead is worth the gold
Fun and interesting keywords in this set, Ninjutsu, Reconfigure, and Modify
This set returns to Kamigawa, one of the most disappointing sets of all time its first go around, and gives it a Neon makeover with beautiful card art to add to the collection

Cards to look for:

5. Kaladesh Remastered

This set was exciting when it was released in November 2020 as it was the second MTG Arena specific Historic set released and brought a ton of great cards into the mix. This set combined both Kaladesh and Aether Revolt into one Remastered set, giving us the best of both sets.

The set played the “Energy” theme, a set specific keyword that many of the cards utilized to create powerful effects. Many cards throughout this set, from Common to Mythic Rare use Energy to devastating effect. Dynavolt Tower generates Energy from each Instant and Sorcery you play. Aetherflux Reservoir gains 1 life for each spell you’ve played this turn leading to some crazy deckbuilding to capitalize on it. The combination of Aetherworks Marvel and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger on an early turn more than likely wins the game on the spot and it’s so satisfying when you pull it off, which frankly is easier than it sounds.

Reasons to purchase this pack:

Fast lands are found here as well and help your Energy themed decks take off quickly.
Energy theme is fun to play with and very powerful
Turn three Aetherworks Marvel into Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, enough said
Strong Common and Uncommon cards like Attune with Aether and Rogue Refiner
So many different artifacts to play with and build a deck around

Cards to look for:

4. Amonkhet Remastered

The original MTG Arena specific Remaster, Amonkhet went live in August of 2020. Both Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation, along with a couple extra rares, were combined into one Remastered set to breathe life into the Historic format.

Amonkhet had a lot going on storywise with the newly formed Gatewatch getting crushed at the hands of Nicol Bolas and setting the stage for his big invasion of Ravnica. Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh is an awesome card to build around or cheat out early with an Aetherworks Marvel. One of my favorite combinations and a deck I played with years ago when it was Standard legal is Gideon of the Trials and Glorious End. With Gideon of the Trials emblem preventing you from losing, you could cast Glorious End prior to your opponents Draw step and skip over their turn. The Scarab God and The Locust God are two powerful cards worth building decks for as they can both function as a Dimir or Izzet themed midrange/control deck.

Dual-colored cycle lands are found in Amonkhet as well as some great Historic cards like Thoughtseize, which is found in every Black deck as four copies in the format. Rest in Peace and Wrath of God are also played regularly to deal with graveyards and wipe boards. Lastly, if you haven’t run into or played with Collected Company yet, do yourself a favor and get a couple copies of it. This Instant speed card lets you drop multiple creatures onto the battlefield and when combined with strong enter the battlefield effects, this card can win games on the spot.

Reasons to purchase this pack

Fill out your Historic card collection
Play with powerful cards and effects
Historic staples like Thoughtseize, Collected Company and Wrath of God

Cards to look for:

3. Dominaria United

This set boasts some very powerful and format defining cards, and was only released in January of this year. That means this set is a great choice to spend gold on as these cards will continue to power your Standard decks for a couple more years, not to mention many of these cards can be found in the Historic and Explorer formats as well.

The strongest Black cards in Standard and contenders for the title in Historic and Explorer, Liliana of the Veil and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse are both found in this set. These two alone make the set worth picking up. They’re found in every Black deck played on MTG Arena and they’re worth the wildcards if you have them.

On top of that, five more pain lands are available in Orzhov, Izzet, Rakdos, Simic, and Gruul colors. Plaza of Heroes strengthens your Legendary creatures and is utilized in the Esper Midrange and Legends decks in Standard. Lastly, many of the pieces to the Domain Ramp Standard deck are found in this set, and that deck is very powerful and worth playing if you can land a majority of the cards needed for it. Leyline Binding, Herd Migration, and Archangel of Wrath are key components of the deck and needed to run it effectively.

Domain is one of the keywords in this set and is used to perfection in the Domain Ramp deck. This keyword lets you reduce the mana cost by 1 for each basic land type among lands you control. The Kicker keyword returns as well, letting you spend additional mana when casting a spell to create a stronger version of the spell.

Reasons to purchase this pack:

The best Black mana cards in the game are found here
The ever reliable pain lands are available
Multiple components of the Domain Ramp deck are in Dominaria United, arguably the best deck currently in Standard

Cards to look for:

2. Wilds of Eldraine

Wilds of Eldraine came out September 2023 and added a number of powerful lands and spells to the Standard format. This is a great choice to spend gold for packs as this set will stick around for three more years.

Not only is this set newer, it's also powerful. The man-lands in particular have helped me win more games than I can count. Restless Cottage in particular is very strong in a Golgari deck when teamed up with Blossoming Tortoise, another Wilds of Eldraine card. Since it’s still a land, Restless Cottage is protected from cards that require a “nonland” target. It also must be dealt with at Instant speed as it’s usually used as an attacker.

Adventures make a return in this set, originally seen on the first trip to Eldraine several years ago. Mosswood Dreadknight, Questing Druid,and Bramble Familiar all use the Adventure mechanic and are found throughout Standard. Mosswood Dreadknight is the king of Adventure cards, being utilized as a four of in Golgari decks. Its ability to return from death and draw more cards before hitting the battlefield a second time feeds into the Golgari theme of recursion. Questing Druid is a key piece of the Naya Tokens deck, a deck I’m very excited about. This creature will pseudo-draw you cards at Instant speed and then hit the battlefield and grow into a large threat for each different colored spell you cast. Lastly, I’ll mention Twining Twins here because my gut is telling me this card is going to have a deck around it soon, so keep an eye on this card.

Reasons to purchase this pack:

Powerful man-lands not found anywhere else
Strong Golgari themed cards
Virtue themed cards seeing a lot of Standard use
Adventure cards give more bang for their buck, two powerful effects on one card
A new set that won’t rotate out of Standard any time soon, getting you a lot of mileage out of these cards

Cards to look for:

1. Lost Caverns of Ixalan

The newest set added to Magic: The Gathering, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan returns to the pirate and dinosaur themed plane of Ixalan. This new set has a lot of powerful dinosaur creatures and dinosaur tribal effects that are running rampant in Best of One games right now. This set has the added benefit of the Golden Pack. Whenever you purchase ten packs of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, you receive a Golden Pack. A Golden Pack contains six cards, all of which are rare or mythic rare from a Standard-legal set and have duplicate protection. This means once you’ve collected four of a rare or mythic-rare card, you won’t see that card in your Golden Pack, nor will you see a wildcard there. Buy ten packs, get a free eleventh pack filled with rares and mythic rares you haven’t fully collected. Perfect for the MTG Arena collector.

This set has only been out for under two weeks now and there is still a lot to be learned from these cards. For now though, the big dino-themed cards you’d be interested in collecting are The Skullspore Nexus, Hulking Raptor, and Bonehoard Dracosaur. Each of these three cards are incredibly powerful in their own right, but when put together they truly synergize. Hulking Raptor gives you an extra two green mana at your first main phase. Bonehoard Dracosaur gives you card advantage, additional threats, and it's a 5/5 Flying and First Strike dinosaur dragon! Lastly, The Skullspore Nexus helps you dodge board wipes by turning all your dead dinoasurs into a fungus dinosaur with a power and toughness equal to the combined power of all the dead creatures that turn. Oh, and for a couple mana you can double the power of a target creature.

As I’ve pointed out throughout this list, lands are great and you should collect them all. This set has the Restless Lands, five lands that turn into creatures like we had from Wilds of Eldraine. The color combinations we get in this set are blue-white Azorius Restless Anchorage, green-white Selesnya Restless Prairie, black-blue Dimir Restless Reef, green-red Gruul Restless Ridgeline, and black-red Rakdos Restless Vents.

Reasons to purchase this pack:

The newest set, packs purchased count toward the Golden Pack
Pirate cards and themes and synergies
Dinosaurs are here to stomp out the competition
Descend mechanic increases the strength of your creatures based on permanents entering the graveyard
Discover mechanic dives into your library to find the next nonland card of a mana value equal to or less than what you Discovered for

Cards to look for: