Does Magic The Gathering Arena Work On Steam Deck?

With how popular Magic The Gathering Arena is, and how much people love playing it worldwide with friends who they can't play it with locally, it's no wonder that people are wondering if you can play the popular online simulator using your Steam Deck. After all, the game isn't available on console platforms and is only available on mobile and PC, so can you play it on your Steam Deck?

Does Magic The Gathering Arena work on Steam Deck?

Magic The Gathering: Arena does work on Steam Deck! Since you can install it natively using the Steam Store, you don't have to mess around with any outside launchers such as the Epic Games Store, and all you really need to do is change the compatibility layer to Proton: GE. It is worth noting, though, that there are a couple of major things that you need to note if you choose to play the game this way. 

Firstly, the game has several inputs that must be entered using the in-game keyboard. Unlike other games available on the device, this means you'll need to mess around with an external keyboard rather than an internal keyboard and possibly also plug in a mouse to start the game.

Secondly, you do need to be online to play the game. Since this is a simulator that pits you against other players across the world and is constantly downloading database information on existing and new cards, you need to be constantly online, so you can't take this game on a train, for example. You can still play it in bed, though, so there's that!