Anthology Economy Review and Comparison: Are They Worth Buying?

Historic Anthology 6 and Explorer Anthology 1 are the latest MTG Arena Anthology sets to be released on July 28, 2022 with 20 new cards in each set. Like its predecessors, it will be available as a bundle for a limited time from the in-game store for 4,000 Gems or 25,000 Gold until October 5, 2022.

Upon purchase, you will receive a playset (four copies) of each card added to your collection. You can also craft them individually using your accumulated Wildcards. Usually, looking at just the raw value the bundles are a big enough discount in terms of the amount and rarity of the cards you receive.

Please see the comparison table below from all the past Anthology sets, side by side. You can click on each one on the header to see all the cards from each set.

The MTG Arena economy is quite a complex machine, and every player has different valuations for Gold, Gems, and Wildcards depending on their playing skill, how much they play, resources they currently have, decks they want to play, and so on – so we won’t try to crunch exact numbers here. However, as an example, even at the most basic level a rare can be worth 1,000 gold (one per pack), or at the extreme, a rare Wildcard is obtained every 6 packs so it could be worth 6,000 gold to another player. Considering that players receive a playset of every card, you could say that the Anthology sets are usually “worth it” in terms of value. There are many other factors to consider, but broadly speaking you will be obtaining these cards using the three currencies.

• Gold: The free-to-play option; on average, this amount will take 23 days to collect.
• Gems: The “paid” option, amounting to about $25. Reachable with draft winnings and such too.
• Wildcards: The most expensive way if you’re making use of a lot of the cards; we wouldn’t recommend this unless you only want to play a few of the cards, or you just have a huge supply of Wildcards (from drafting, for instance).

Furthermore, the major difference between purchasing the Anthology bundles and booster packs is that you know exactly what you are getting and not random. This means that the value can be subjective and varies a lot depending on whether you will be making use of the cards themselves or not, which we cover in our card reviews. Some example scenarios to consider:

• If you don’t need the whole playset. For example, using only 1 copy of each card for Historic Brawl and only getting what you need as you go.
• You would prefer to craft only one or two cards that are in decks that you want to play over a longer period time.
• You prefer to wait as long as possible to see if they make an impact on the metagame.
• You don’t think you will play Explorer or Historic ever (then pass, obviously).
• Another interesting thing to consider with Explorer Anthology 1 is that they are also legal for Historic and some cards there look to make a bigger impact than Historic Anthology 6 itself.

To answer the question in broad terms, yes, the Anthology bundles are worth it in terms of value if you plan to play the formats they are intended for – even with only a handful of playable cards out of the 20. However, we reiterate that you must decide based on your playstyle and personal circumstances. To help make your decision, we’ll be posting our reviews of all the cards later today – so keep an eye out! In the meantime, feel free to discuss in the comments below or in our community Discord.