Search for Azspecificard

Navigating the Arena client can be difficult at times. Especially in the current, and very incomplete deck builder scene. It can be hard to filter and find the cards you're looking for. So here's some tips and tricks. 

Let's start with some basics, and the "Collection" view in the deck building scene.

On the top left, we have a search box where you can enter card names, or rules text.

How the text is entered in this box is very sensitive to the actual text on the card. It cannot search for similar terms, or recognize possible misspellings. So if you're having trouble finding a card, a good first step is to double check your spelling. If you're missing a hyphen, the search will not return a name which contains a hyphen. One good tip is to search for partial names or words. For example, if you search for “kin”, and filter for only Red cards, it will return cards like Runaway Steam-Kin, and Rekindling Phoenix.

Next to the search box is a row of symbols. For starters, we have the five Mana symbols in their usually WUBRG order - White, Blue, Black, Red, Green.

“U”  is used for Blue, because B was taken for Black, and L was taken for Land, so the next letter in order was U. Checking these on will restrict your search to those cards containing the checked color(s) in their mana costs, and in their rules text box. 

After that, we have the diamond “Colorless” symbol. This was introduced a few years ago with the Battle for Zendikar block. Prior to that there was no specific colorless symbol, only the generic mana symbol. When you see this symbol on a card in the casting cost, or as part of the activation cost of an ability, it represents colorless mana specifically. If it's just a digit in a gray circle, that's a generic mana cost, and can be paid with colorless or with any color of mana. You'll also see it on artifacts and lands which don't produce colored mana. Lands are considered colorless cards, regardless of the mana they produce. 

Next is the Gold ring which denotes multi-colored cards.

This can include cards with multiple mana symbols, along with the hybrid mana symbol. Why a Gold ring? Because when multicolored cards were first produced in Legends, they wanted them to really be distinctive, so they gave them gold borders. When you hear players referring to “Gold” cards, they're referring to multicolored cards. 

After the Gold ring, is the Lotus icon.

This is for your Wildcards. Why a Lotus icon? Well, as some of you I'm sure can guess, it's because the most iconic card in the entire history of the game is the fabled Black Lotus. 

After the Lotus icon, is the button for “Advanced Filters”, which we will come back to in a moment. 

Below the icon bar, you'll find all the cards in your collection. Above each card, is four small diamonds. Each blue diamond indicates a copy of that card in your collection, up to a maximum of 4.

You cannot have more than 4 copies of any card in any deck, so in Arena you'll never have more than four copies in your collection. As of the writing of this post, whenever you acquire a copy of a card that you already own four of, it is converted into “Valut” progress. The Vault contains Wildcards - 3 Uncommon, 2 Rare, and 1 Mythic Rare. If you own no copies of a card, the default settings will make it not visible at all in your collection. You can change this in the Advanced Filters, which we'll look at next. 

When you click on the Advanced Filters button, a window opens with the various search options. 

Across the top of this window, we again have the Mana symbols, along with the Colorless, Gold, and Lotus symbols. 

Below that is a string of numbers. This selects for the “Converted Mana Cost”.

Calculating the CMC is very simple, it's just all of the Mana costs added together, regardless of color. So if a spell casts 2R, then the CMC is 3. If it costs 3UU, then the CMC is 5. The Converted Mana Cost is different from just the Mana costs, which looks at the colored mana. Any X variable in a Mana cost will be counted as 0 for search purposes. 

Below the Mana costs, we have the Rarity check boxes. You can check these on and off in multiples, so you can search for Rares and Mythic Rares, for example. 

Below the Rarity, we have the various card types.

Below that are two very important buttons - Collected and Not Collected.

If you are searching for a card, and do not have one in your collection, then the default settings will have it not showing at all in your collection. This is one of the most common reasons why searches will fail to show cards, so going in and checking this box on will help rectify that. 

When all else fails, just go into the Advanced Filters window and hit the “Reset” button to clear out any existing filters you might have on. From there, you can check the Not Collected if you need to. 

I hope folks found this guide helpful. If there’s anything I missed, feel free to let me know and I’ll add it in. If you have any questions, you can often find me hanging in the Magic Arena MTG, and MTG Arena Players groups on Facebook. I’m also doing some occasional streaming at twitch.tv/MagicChatDan.