MTG Arena freezes during matchmaking and fails to display an already-started match

Platform: Windows 11
CPU: Intel Core i7-10750H
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti

I am experiencing severe performance and client freezing issues in MTG Arena.

Symptoms

• MTG Arena frequently becomes temporarily unresponsive and Windows displays “Not Responding.”
• This happens even when most other applications are closed.
• CPU, memory, and disk usage on the PC do not appear to be saturated when the freezes occur.

• When starting a match, MTGA generates unusually high network traffic.

  • Around 15 Mbps after selecting “Play.”
  • Around 20–21 Mbps after selecting Brawl / entering matchmaking.
  • Network traffic then remained around 6–9 Mbps for several minutes while the screen was still stuck on “Starting Match.”

• The client remained on the “Starting Match” screen for approximately three minutes.

• However, I could hear the sound effects of the actual battlefield/match in the background.

• The match had apparently already started on the server, but the client never displayed the battlefield.

• Eventually, I received a loss due to inactivity/time-out without ever being able to see or interact with the match.

• MTGA also intermittently became “Not Responding” during this period.

Repair Game Files issue

Before reproducing the matchmaking problem, I attempted to use Repair Game Files.

The repair process became stuck with approximately 30 MB remaining.

I waited for nearly one hour, but:

• The remaining amount did not change.
• MTGA repeatedly became unresponsive.
• Clicking the client no longer produced any response.

I eventually had to close MTGA and restart the PC.

After restarting, MTGA launched normally and went directly to the Home screen instead of resuming the repair/download.

The original freezing and matchmaking problems remained.

Reproduction

1. Launch MTG Arena.
2. Go to the Home screen.
3. Select a game mode such as Brawl.
4. Click Play / start matchmaking.
5. Observe intermittent client freezes and “Not Responding.”
6. The client may remain on “Starting Match” even though the match has already begun.
7. Battlefield sound effects can be heard while the screen remains unchanged.
8. Eventually the match ends in a timeout/inactivity loss.

I have captured the MTGA log from the session in which this occurred.

Please investigate whether this may be related to asset loading/downloading, game-file verification, or the client failing to transition from matchmaking into the battlefield.

After the timeout loss, I clicked Play again. The UI failed to transition correctly and multiple interface layers appeared simultaneously. The Home screen, Store promotional panel, and Play/Event menu were visibly overlapping, as shown in the attached screenshot.