MTG Arena Shortcuts and hidden hotkeys

We have already covered how to start off as a beginner and also the Hidden MTG Arena Deck builder options. Now it is time to talk about shortcuts in both the game and menus. There are a lot of tricks you can use to make your digital MTG experience easier so let us start with keyboard shortcuts available during a match and go over what each of them does.

Z: Undo

Cancel an action if possible, like untapping a land you tapped for mana. A lot of actions are not possible to cancel and if priority is passed you lose the ability to undo your action.

Ctrl: Enable full control

This will hold your priority until you pass it on, very useful if you want to play two spells in a row before the opponent gets their priority or you want to stop MTGA from automatically running through phases without giving you priority. Be careful with this as it only lasts until you get priority and then turns off. This hotkey is also very useful if you want to bluff having something in your hand like a counter or removal spell since your opponent usually only expects the client to stop if you have an available action. 

Ctrl + Shift: Enable full control permanently

This will permanently enable full control as explained above until you disable it with the same hotkey stroke. Some people prefer to play with this always-on, to not give away information. If you decide to do so you should know of the other hotkeys to speed things up unless you like to point and click an unnecessary amount of times.

Space: Pass Priority

This does the same as clicking the "Next" button, saves a lot of time compared to having to click the button all the time so make sure to get used to this one.

Enter: Pass the turn

Skips the turn and only stops if your opponent plays something before the turn is over.

Shift + Enter: Pass the turn unconditionally

Be careful with this one as this will pass the current turn no matter what your opponent does. Only use this if you are absolutely sure that you are not going to perform any action whatsoever in the current turn.

Q,Q: Tap all your lands for mana

Pressing Q two times will tap all your lands for mana, floating it in your mana pool, very useful if you need all available mana as it is way easier to count. Remember that creatures, artifacts, and enchantments will not tap automatically so you need to ensure that those are tapped as well.

Hold Q and clicking on lands: Tap group of lands

Holding Q and clicking your lands will mark them and as soon as you release Q it will tap all of them for mana.

Shift + . (period): Display FPS Counter

This will display an FPS Counter in the bottom right corner. Ctrl + . (period) will move the counter around to different positions.

Other Useful tips & tricks

Setting stops

Settings a stop during your own or the opponent's turn is done by clicking the icons beside your avatar or above the buttons in the lower right corner. Very useful if you need to do something at the beginning of your own or the opponent's turn.

Group Attacks / Blocks

if you have a group of similar creatures you can have several options for mass attacking and blocking. You can click multiple creatures to create a group of creatures and assign a target to attack/block. If you have a lot of similar creatures a count label will appear as in the below screenshot, if you click this number it will automatically select all of the creatures and you can assign them as attackers or blockers for a creature. If your opponent also has a group of creatures they are attacking with you can click your creature group by clicking on the number label and mass-block by clicking on their number label.

Right-click: Zoom in on a zone or card

You can zoom in on Graveyards, exile zones, etc. by right-clicking on them. If you need to read cards in more detail you can also right-click them instead of hovering.

Expand your MTG Arena Experience with a Deck Tracker

We have built our own extension called MTGA Assistant, which will help you with deck-tracking, give you useful draft tips, summarize your collection, advise you of the current metagame, and which decks you can build with your current collection. MTGA Assistant is the most feature-complete extension on the market, check it out here: