Despite it being one of the major reasons why people play the physical Magic the Gathering card game, its online incarnation MTG: Arena unfortunately launched into Open Beta without the ability to play against your friends. Thankfully, this issue will soon be getting resolved as the upcoming November update will include the "Direct Challenge", which as you might imagine, gives you the ability to play against your friends in a best-of-one match.

This new mode will only have two limitations - you will need to have a deck that's at least 60 cards in size, and you will not be able to progress your daily quests while playing in it. Everything else is going to be up to you and the people you play with, meaning that you can play with singleton, standard, pauper or any other decks types you might be interested in. Naturally, all of it will be done under an 'honor' system, so do make sure to communicate with your opponent before you whip out any sort of wacky rules.

As for the future, the MTG: Arena developers are currently working on improving various social features, as well as solving the problems revolving around rank, matchmaking and seasonal play. They are also looking into the often complained about Vault and the incredibly low value of duplicate cards, but as of right now this is being put on the backburner in order to solve the actual gameplay problems.

Once more information arrives I'll make sure to let you know, but until then you should go and read the official blog post as it contains a few more tidbits I glossed over. Oh, and do make sure to check out the currently ongoing Dominaria Draft as it's one of the most balanced and interesting iterations of the game mode!