Game Update Highlights
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is now available!
- Player Draft is here! Draft with your fellow players – and your first draft is on us!
- Godzilla Series Monsters – for a limited time, add these alternate art card styles to your collection!
- Stay at Home, Play at Home – More Friday Night Magic challenges are coming every week, no entry fee for April's Brawlers’ Guildhall, and continuing earning quest progress in Direct Challenges!
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- There’s always a bigger monster. . . see the full card gallery, this way!
- Be your store’s champion – players who pre-order Ikoria: lair of Behemoths will receive a bonus code for items on MTG Arena from participating retailers. More details are right over here!
- Introduces a whole new card set to MTG Arena – which includes Godzilla, King of Monsters.
- Are you friend or food? Your mastery of the new abilities here may make the difference.
- New Mechanics: Mutate and Companion – Mutate lets you combine creatures in a new way to build better monsters, Companion enforces unique deck building challenges that allow you to cast your companion creature once from outside the game.
- Returning Mechanic: Cycling – trade a card in hand for a new card.
- Introducing: Keyword Counters – Give your permanent the keyword listed on the ability (Menace, First Strike, Hexproof, Lifelink, Reach, Flying, Trample, Deathtouch, Flying, Vigilance).
Godzilla Monster Series Card Style
- Godzilla Monster Series Card Styles Promotion - Until May 21, 2020 get bonus Godzilla Series Monster card styles with IKO pack bundles or on entry into any Ikoria Draft or Sealed event.
- A full breakdown of how you can collect the styles is just a click away.
- Duplicate protection applies - you will not receive the same card style more than once!
- This is a limited time bonus promotion for the 18 Godzilla Monster Series card styles. Once you have collected all 18, that it's it!
- IMPORTANT NOTE: When searching for the card style, you must search for the original card name!
Player Drafting
- No bots allowed! Draft with 7 other players in two of our draft options: Premier and Traditional
- Note: You’ll still be able to draft against bots in our third draft option: Quick Draft. More details below!
- Queue up to form a group of eight players to start a draft.
- Each pick is timed to keep the packs moving and the event fun for everyone.
- Select a card to set it as your "Pick". Double-click, drag, or click the "Confirm Pick" button to confirm your selection and add the card to your deck pool.
- If you don't pick a card in time, the system will auto-pick a card!
- We will let you know in the last 5 seconds which one the game is going to pick for you!
- Players that disconnect will receive a small amount of time to return to the game before their cards are all auto-picked. Remember that other players are waiting on you!
- Players can go to the "Table View" and see the current pack position and also see who is in the draft with you.
- Once drafting is complete, you will be paired against the larger pool of drafters in the event (not necessarily against the players who were in your draft pod).
- Players will only be paired against fellow player drafters. You won't be paired against opponents who drafted against bots.
- The new headers and the pick confirm system have been integrated into bot draft as well. No more accidental mis-drafts!
Draft Event Name Changes
- With the addition of player draft options, we've updated our draft event names:
- Premier Draft: Ranked best-of-one draft with other players (New)
- Traditional Draft: Unranked best-of-three draft with other players (Updated)
- Quick Draft: Ranked best-of-one draft with bots (Previously known as "Ranked Draft")
Stay at Home, Play at Home
FNM Home
- Introducing the MTG Arena Promo Pack!
- The Brawlers’ Guildhall will continue to have no entry fee in support of our Stay at Home, Play at Home initiative.
- This months reward is Firesong and Sunspeaker, which will now be legal as a Brawl commander!
- Each will contain two cosmetic items for MTG Arena.
- These cosmetic items have duplicate protection – you won't receive something you already have in your Collection!
- Rewards include – all 36* Sleeves featuring the Japanese Planeswalker alternate art, new Guild-themed sleeves, Ikoria card styles, the Tamiyo player avatar, and more!
- Contact your participating WPN store for information on your can participate and receive your code!
*The Ajani sleeve will be temporarily unavailable as this sleeve was recently featured as a separate FNM Home reward.
FNM Home Event Schedule
- April 17: Play MTG Arena any way you want (Hint: Such as a drafting Ikoria with that Player Draft Entry Token!)
- April 24: Singleton
- May 1: Artisan
- May 8: Pauper
- May 15: Histroic Brawl
Brawlers’ Guildhall
- The Brawlers’ Guildhall will continue to have no entry fee in support of our Stay at Home, Play at Home initiative.
- This months reward is Firesong and Sunspeaker, which will now be legal as a Brawl commander!
Direct Challenge – Quest Progression
- Players will also continue to earn quest progress when direct challenging other players, as part of our Stay at Home, Play at Home initiative.
General
Advanced Filters
- Completely reworked the Advanced Filters interface
- New filters for number of copies in your collection
- You can now change your deck format within Advanced Filters.
- Filters are reactive to what format you have chosen (e.g. selecting Pauper as you deck format will automatically filter your collection to show common cards only)
- This has always been the case, but now we show you what filters are disabled.
- Format groups (Standard and Historic) can be turned on or off in a single click!
Companion in Deck Builder
- Lots of help in deck builder for making a Companion work in your deck.
- New filtering option when deckbuilding to match your Companion restrictions:
- This can be turned on and off
- Cards in your deck (and deck size) are highlighted if they do not match your Companion restrictions.
- Companions can be imported into your Decks by using the header "Companion" before the line with the card.
Gameplay
- We now show a hanger when the costs of activated abilities have been modified.
- No more wondering if Biomancer's Familiar is working!
- Autotap is now slightly smarter about leaving open mana that can pay for more cards.
- Cards with an X cost you cannot possibly afford no longer hold priority.
- When assigning damage as though it had not been blocked, we now highlight the source of the damage.
- We now play VFX upon removal of the last counter of a type
- Players can now create "Limited" format decks with the following rules: minimum 40 cards in main deck, no maximum in sideboard, no maximum copies of any single card, no ban list.
Card UI Improvements
- Power and toughness have been moved to the lower right (just like the real world!)
- We’ve slimmed down the number of keyword icons to remove excess “noise”,
- Also helps to ensure the other icons displayed on cards are the most relevant and useful
- For example, if a card has more than 3 referenced keywords, we deprioritize Evergreen keyword references on the card (you will see a “. . .” instead)
- Icons should also be much more consistent in size and placement
Quantity dependent effects (e.g. Devotion, Adapt, etc.) |
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Keyworded abilities (e.g. Flying, Deathtouch, etc.) |
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"Read More" (e.g. Card specific text, triggered abilities, more than three keywords, etc.) |
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Gained abilities |
Card-Specific
- Torgaar, Famine Incarnate: You can now sacrifice creatures as part of the additional cost of Torgaar in order to get creatures into the graveyard to pay for the escape cost with Underworld Breach.
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Zilortha, Strength Incarnate (a.k.a. Godzilla, King of Monsters) is. . . complicated.
- Decreasing a creature's power below 0 doesn't necessarily destroy them, because the rule is about damage; a creature with 0 power isn’t destroyed unless it has at least 1 damage marked on it.
- Just because the wall can't fight back, Zilortha still has to smash it.
- Decreasing a creature's power below 0 doesn't necessarily destroy them, because the rule is about damage; a creature with 0 power isn’t destroyed unless it has at least 1 damage marked on it.
- Cards like Covetous Urge now allow you to view your opponent's hand even when there are no valid cards in hand to select.
Ranked Play
Rank Adjustments – Effect with the May 2020 Season
- In Gold, you will now move +2 for each win instead of +1 (or +4 for each match win in best-of-three)
- Losses remain -1 for each loss (or -2 for each match loss in best-of-three)
- This mirrors rank advancement in Silver
- Applies to both Constructed and Limited ranks
Events
Premier Draft
- New event structure using player draft
- Best-of-one matches, lasts until 7 wins or 3 losses
- Ranked
- Matchmaking based on a combination of your current record in that draft and your Limited Rank
Traditional Draft Changes
- Now uses exclusively player draft instead of bot draft
- Now lasts 3 fixed rounds regardless of record instead of until 3 wins or 2 losses
- Rewards have changed as a result of the new structure:
- 3 Wins: 3000 Gems, 6 Packs
- 2 Wins: 1000 Gems, 4 Packs
- 0–1 Win: 1 Pack
Draft Entry Token
- The Traditional Draft Entry token is now renamed the Player Draft Entry Token
- It can be used for either Premier or Traditional Draft events
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Players will receive a complimentary Player Draft Entry Token the first time they log in between April 16, 2020 (8 a.m. PT/15:00 UTC) and April 30, 2020 (8 a.m. PT/15:00 UTC)
- Player Draft Entry Tokens do not expire.
Quick Draft Schedule
- Ending April 17: Theros Beyond Death
- April 17—May 1: Core Set 2020
- May 1—May 15: Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- May 15—May 29: War of the Spark
Workshops
- Continue weekly, Mondays and Tuesdays
- Log each week to check out and play that week's Workshop preconstructed deck format!
Additional Events
- April 25—27: Standard Metagame Challenge
- May 2—4: Ikoria Constructed
Store
Now Available
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Ikoria: Lair of Behemoth packs are now in the store!
- Bonus Godzilla Series Monster Card Styles are on the 6 Pack, 15 Pack, 45 Pack, and 90 Pack bundles for Ikoria only. Available until May 21, 2020.
- Godzilla, King of Monsters is the Buy-a-Box card with the 45 and 90 Ikoira Pack. This card will be available after May 21, 2020.
Daily Deals
- You'll see some new types of offers showing up in Daily Deals!
- Booster deals? Booster deals (and some other surprises too. . . ).
Bundles
Triome Showcase Style Bundle
Contains: Ketria Triome Showcase Style, Raugrin Triome Showcase Style, Indatha Triome Showcase Style, Zagoth Triome Showcase Style, Savai Triome Showcase Style.
Costs: 2,000 Gems or 10,000 Gold.
Psst! Other Showcase Card styles will be available in early May! Stay tuned for more details!
Card Styles
Now available for purchase (through the Deckbuilder):
- Staggering Insight
- Hero of the Nyxborn
- Acolyte of Affliction
- Devourer of Memory
- Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
- Eutropia the Twice-Favored
- Tymaret, Chosen from Death
- Mischievous Chimera
- Anax, Hardened in the Forge
- Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea
- Renata, Called to the Hunt
- Rise to Glory
- Siona, Captain of the Pyleas
- Slaughter-Priest of Mogis
- Warden of the Chained
- Purphoros's Intervention
- Erebos's Intervention
- Thassa's Intervention
- Heliod's Intervention
- Nylea's Intervention
- Shatter the Sky
- Storm's Wrath
- Ashiok's Erasure
- Eat to Extinction
- Mantle of the Wolf
- Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
- Heliod, Sun-Crowned
- Nylea, Keen-Eyed
- Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded
- Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
- Omen of the Forge
- Omen of the Sea
- Omen of the Dead
- Omen of the Hunt
- Omen of the Sun
- Iroas's Blessing
- Mire's Grasp
- Thirst for Meaning
- Dreadful Apathy
- Warbriar Blessing
- Daybreak Chimera
- Voracious Typhon
- Witness of Tomorrows
- Arena Trickster
- Venomous Hierophant
- Klothys, God of Destiny
- Anax, Hardened in the Forge
- Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded
- Setessan Petitioner
- Renata, Called to the Hunt
- Nylea, Keen-Eyed
- Drag to the Underworld
- Tymaret, Chosen from Death
- Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
- Reverent Hoplite
- Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
- Heliod, Sun-Crowned
- Threnody Singer
- Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea
- Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
- Aphemia, the Cacophony
- Gravebreaker Lamia
- Mire Triton
- Tymaret Calls the Dead
- Dream Trawler
- Wavebreak Hippocamp
- Glimpse of Freedom
- Nadir Kraken
- Taranika, Akroan Veteran
- Wolfwillow Haven
Leaving Soon:
- Azizi Pet
- Unsanctioned Basic Land Bundle
- Hidden Squirrel Land Bundle
- Nyx Basic Land Bundles
- Triome Showcase Style Bundle
Bug Fixes
- Previously, if both players had seen the top card of a library using different methods, it wouldn't show the owner the "this has been revealed" eye. Now it does!
- Modified UX logic for Agonizing Remorse so that it shows the opponent's hand even if there a no valid targets in it
- Previously revealed cards placed facedown by Atris are now facedown in the resulting pile instead of being revealed.
- Added blue text to the stack versions of certain cards with conditional effects based on the type of mana spent.
- Cleaned up the behavior for the Akroan War Chapter 2 mini-card
- Significant updates were made to autotap to support Jegantha, the Wellspring
- Fixed a bug with certain cards (e.g. Run Away Together) where if their type changes before the spell resolves, the spell no longer completes.
- NPE deck unlock quests should now unlock properly and show the correct time until the next unlock.
- Damage on non-creature permanents should no longer be marked.
- Using a minus ability on a Planeswalker will no longer cause them to respond with their "damage" VO.
- Auras should no longer visually detach before going to the graveyard when the card they were attached to is removed
- "Name a Card" browsers can now correctly search for cards with hyphens in them.