MTG Arena - Now Play on iOS!

Play MTG Arena on iOS

This guide will instruct you how to play Magic: The Gathering Arena on an iOS device, using Steam Link.

Since "Magic: The Gathering Arena" (MTG Arena) came out, we have been begging for a mobile version. After all, Hearthstone is on both iOS and Android and works very well. I’m sure it will come to mobile eventually. It is still in “open beta” at this time, so the MTG Arena developers are still working on perfecting the game.

Recently, Valve released Steam Link for iOS, which will allow us to play MTG Arena on our iOS devices. What this means is finally we get a full touch screen experience on our iPads and iPhones.

What is Steam Link?

Steam Link is a utility developed by Valve Software, who developed Steam as well as notable titles such as "Half-Life," "Portal" and "Left 4 Dead."

In 2015, Valve released a device called a Steam Link. This was a small box that connected to your living room TV. You could connect game controllers, mice and keyboards to it. Then, over your home network, it would access your entire Steam Library from your gaming PC.

How it worked was, it streamed all of the video and audio content from your PC to your living room. It then sent the input devices, such as a gamepad, or a mouse and keyboard, back to your PC. What you experienced was full PC game play, in your living room, with no lag, and no need to hook your PC up to your TV.

A couple years later, Valve decided to discontinue the Steam Link devices in favor of developing the Steam Link software to run on mobile devices, Raspberry Pi, certain smart TV’s and even low-end computers. Unfortunately those using iOS were left out in the cold.

It wasn’t until May of 2019 that Valve finally release Steam Link on iOS and AppleTV.

Installing Steam on PC

You will first need to install Steam on your PC.

While I will not go into detail on how to install Steam, you may find plenty of How To guides and help directly from Steam’s website. Steam is available for Mac as well, but since MTG Arena only runs on Windows at this time, then you will need to make sure to install Steam on a Windows PC.

You will also need to sign up for a free Steam account to use their service.

You can find the download link to their software here: https://store.steampowered.com/about/

Many gamers already use Steam, so the focus on this guide will be how to get MTG Arena working using Steam and the Steam Link app.

Adding MTG Arena to Steam

Since MTG Arena is not a title available from Steam, you will need to manually add it to your Steam Library.

I will assume you already have MTG Arena installed, and have been playing it. If you have not, go ahead and install MTG Arena, log in, and make sure it’s fully updated.

I will also assume, at this point, that you have installed Steam on your PC, signed up for an account, and are able to see the main library screen now. For those of you that already use Steam, just navigate to the library screen.

1 - Navigate to the Steam Library 

2 - Click on the "Add a Game" button in the bottom left corner of the main library window.

3 - Next it should scan your PC for a list of everything installed. Once it’s finished, scroll through the list and look for “MtgaLauncher.”

 

 4 - Select "MtgaLauncher" and click the “Add Selected Programs” button.

Note: If you don't see MtgaLauncher listed in your scanned software, note MTG Arena's file location in the above screenshot, click Browse, navigate to this folder and select the MtgaLauncher.exe file manually.

You should now see MtgaLauncher in Steam as one of the games you may play.

Go ahead and click on the Play button to test it out and make sure it’s ready to play when launched via Steam. Exit MTG Arena once you see that it works.

Install Steam Link on iOS

I will be walking you through installing Steam Link on iOS using my iPad Mini 4.

 

1 - Go to the App Store and search for “Steam Link.”

 

2 - Install Steam Link.

Once the install is completed, we will need to link Steam Link on your device with Steam on your PC.

  
Linking Steam Link with Steam on PC

Important Note: In order to use Steam Link, you must have both the Host PC (your Windows PC with Steam) and the Client Device (your iOS device or other) on the same network. This means both of them need to be using your network within your home or office. This will not link outside of the location of where your PC lives. You may have your PC wired into your home router, and your iOS device may be on wireless, so long as they are the same network within your home. Having your PC wired to your network will give the best performance.

1 - Looking at Steam on your Windows PC, in the upper left corner, click on the menu called "Steam," then select "Settings."

If you do not see Settings, you may have Family Sharing turned on and will need to disable this before you can change Steam’s Settings. Search Google for how to disable Family Sharing.

2 - Select "In-Home Streaming" from the menu.

3 - Make sure "Enable Streaming" is checked.

4 - Click "OK" and go back to the main Steam library. 

Now, switch back over to your iOS device.

 5 - On your iOS Device, launch the Steam Link app.

6 -  Tap the big "Get Started" button on the welcome screen.

 7 - Tap "Use Touch Control" on the "Pair Controller" screen.

8 - Next, it will run a test to make sure your network is fast enough for the best experience.

Make sure your device is on your home WiFi, and not still connected to your cellular service for it's internet access.

9 -  Once the network test has completed, it will notify you of your speed and if it is in an acceptable range or not. Tap "OK."

10 -  Next it will attempt to look for your Windows PC with Steam running on it.

 11 - Once it finds the PC, it will display it on the screen. Select the PC name.

12 - Once you are back on the main home screen, tap the Start Playing button.

 13 - You will be presented with a list of touch controls, just click "Continue."

 

Watch your PC’s screen. It should launch the Steam big picture mode. Both your PC and device screen should look identical.

14 - On your device, select "Library."

 15 - Select "Installed" from the menu on the left.

You should see "MTGALAUNCHER" listed here. If not, try to resolve the issue on your Windows PC. It will be a lot easier than trying to deal with it via the touch screen on your device.

16 - Tap "MTGALAUNCHER."

17 - Tap "Play." The game should launch.

• If it launches with a gamepad overlay on top of your game
• Tap the mouse icon in the top left of the screen and "Change Mode."
• Select "Mouse."
• Tap the mouse icon in the top left of the screen and select "Layout Controls."
• Tap "Edit Layout."
• Drag the overlay buttons you don’t want to the upper left corner where the mouse icon was, it will change to a garbage can. Drop the overlay buttons on top.

Now, your finger should act as a mouse pointer, allowing you to “click” around anywhere on the MTG Arena screen. Try tapping on the various menus and selecting the play button to make sure it all works as it should.

If the Play button doesn't work correctly, look on your PC, and click the play button with your mouse to help it out. This happened to me once, and after I helped it a little from my PC, it didn’t have any issues after that and worked perfectly.

Now, here is the wonky part. Since this system is not made for a touch screen through Steam Link, it may not work perfectly. If it doesn't work right away, be patient until you figure out what you’re doing wrong.

Touching the cards on the screen works for the most part, but selecting them to read what is on them doesn’t work that well since part of your finger covers up the card text. If you know your cards well, this won’t be an issue.

This will happen even more if you are playing on a smartphone, as your fingers will be covering up even more of the card from the smaller screen.

I played one game with it against Sparky, and it worked pretty well. I think this would come alive on a larger tablet than the one I have. The 8 inch screen is just barely large enough. I don’t think I would enjoy playing this on my smaller phone screen.

I would really like to try this on a cheap Windows 10 tablet for a full Windows touch experience, but this works for now, and it’s satisfying enough to use.

Please leave a comment if this article helped you or if you would like to clarify anything further. 

Thanks!
Joe