While MTG Arena is without a doubt a great game, it does currently have a couple of really annoying issues. At the very top of this list is something that I was genuinely shocked to hear was missing, and that is the ability to challenge friends to a duel - the most common and enjoyable way of playing Magic: the Gathering. Thankfully, this will not be a problem for long as the developers have just announced that the Direct Challenge feature will be coming this November 15th!

The way it will all work is fairly simple, as you would expect. Both of you will need to have a deck that's at least 60 cards in size, after which you'll be able to battle it out to your heart's content. The only real limitation of the new Direct Challenge mode is that you will not be able to use it to progress your daily quests, for obvious reasons.

As for the future, MTG Arena developers have also announced that they are working on improving the various social features (including the upcoming friend list), as well as solving the current problems surrounding rank, matchmaking and seasonal play. They are also looking into fixing the often complained about Vault and the incredibly low value of duplicate cards, but right now those changes have been put to the side while some of the actual gameplay problems are being resolved.

Once the developers announce any more details I'll make sure to let you know, but until then I'd highly recommend you dive into the current Guilds of Ravnica Draft to build up your collection. Even if you lose every single match you'll still get a pretty good return on your gold investment, so if you're looking to create more varied decks to use against your friends, the Quick Draft mode is definitely a good idea. Have fun!