Quote (cyberbluntz @ 18 Oct 2018 14:45)
Arena is great for noobs, but if you want to emulate the actual card game go with mtgo.
Maybe you could do arena to learn the basics and play for free, but it doesn't hold a candle to the actual card game or mtgo.
MTG is normally 3 rounds with a 15 card sideboard, so you can bring in cards to deal with your opponents deck, on mtga you just play one game.
There is no chatting on mtga, there is no trading on mtga, and any money you spend on mtga is gone for good.
MTGO you can trade, chat, have a friends list, buy specific cards etc . . but it costs a lot more, but you can actually sell your tickets to a card site and get some money back if you ever wanted to. So mtgo is also an investment as well as a game.
MTGO has a market where prices of cards go up and down, like crypto's or the stock market, so that is another element to mtgo.
TLDR; for casual / budget players and noobs probably go mtga. If you want to play the more competitive scene go with mtgo.
You can play competitive bo3 with sideboard on mtga btw