0.18.00.00 Patch Notes

As promised, the 0.18.00.00 game update is now here for MTG Arena, which also signals the start of the Throne of Eldraine spoiler season!

---

HIGHLIGHTS

• Courtside Brawl
• Renewal Season
• Throne of Eldraine Pre-order

COURTSIDE BRAWL

Event Start: September 4th, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. PT (16:30 UTC)
Entry Format: 1v1 Brawl, Pre-constructed Decks
Entry Cost: No entry fee! 
Rewards:

• 1 Win: 4x Heraldic Banner and 1,000 XP
• 2 WIns: 4x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 3 Wins: 4x Faerie Vandal
• 4 Wins: 4x Savvy Hunter
• 5 Wins: 4x Inspiring Veteran
• 6 Wins: 4x Order of Midnight

For more information, please refer to the Welcome to the Eldraine Courtside Brawl guide.

IMPORTANT NOTE

The event rewards will only be available through the Eldraine Courtside Brawl event until the sets official release! The reward cards can be played in Standard 2020 events, Direct Challenge match (except Tournament), and in Bot Matches up until Throne of Eldraine‘s release on September 26.Players will not be able to craft the event rewards until maintenance completes on September 26. Event decks (and their cards) will not be added to your collection.

NEW CONFIRMATION INTERFACE: FOOD

• Sacrificing Food now uses a new confirmation interface, where a small notification pops out of the card: clicking the notification or card itself confirms, clicking anywhere else dismisses.
• Let us know what you think, as we’re considering spreading this to more interactions!

RENEWAL SEASON

Earn special rewards and gifts as we prepare for the fall set rotation!

RENEWAL GIFT

All players who create an account prior to September 26 will receive the following when Throne of Eldraine releases on MTG Arena:

• x10 Rare or higher Individual Card Rewards (ICRs)
• Additional rewards for the first 25 levels of the Eldraine Set Mastery, for a total of:
  • 14 Throne of Eldraine Booster Packs
  • 2 Mastery Orbs
  • 4 Standard Booster Packs (GRN, RNA, WAR, M20)
  • 10 Uncommon ICRs

With the 0.18.00.00 game update, players who are eligible for the renewal gift and additional mastery rewards will see an icon on their profile page:

STANDARD 2020

Event Start: September 9, 2019 at 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC)
Format: Standard 2020 Constructed – Only cards from Guilds of Ravnica forward (Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, War of the Spark, Core Set 2020, and Throne of Eldraine) will be playable. This includes the event rewards from the Courtside Brawl! 
Entry Cost: No entry fee!
Rewards:

• 2 Consecutive Wins: 200 XP

GAMEPLAY

BRAWL

• Commanders have a hanger that indicates their current “commander tax” (the total cost to cast the commander the next time they are cast from the command zone)
  • While in the command zone, the total cost (including “commander tax”) is shown. You can hover the commander to view the original mana cost.
  • Commander Tax: Informal term for the additional cost to cast a commander based on the number of times a player has cast it previously this game. See rule 903.8.
• While in the command zone, commanders appear as near-hand castables (similar to cards you can cast from graveyard or exile).
• In Brawl formats, the name of each player’s commander is shown underneath their player name. Clicking this name at any time will bring up the card for the commander.

For more information, please refer to the Welcome to the Eldraine Courtside Brawl guide.

STACK

• We’ve updated and enhanced the stack browser significantly:
  • The browser is now available whenever there are 4 or more targets on the stack.

• It will also automatically open when you need to target something on the stack.

• The browser will also indicate the controller of spells or effects on the stack by nudging them up or down towards that player.
• Mousing over an item on the stack will now show any related objects that have left the battlefield (for example, if a Footlight Fiend dies, you can hover the on-death triggered ability on the stack to see if it had Deathtouch or the like)

GENERAL

• When there is a gameplay action you can undo, the game will display an “Undo” prompt with the corresponding hotkey.

• You can now examine the final battlefield state while sideboarding
• When the top card of the library is revealed, but uncastable, clicking on that card will now open the library browser (as clicking on the library normally would if there weren’t a revealed card on top)
• When the top card of the library is playable, it is now offset slightly from the rest of the library (this makes it easier to hover the library to see card count or click to browse the library to see known cards).
• We’ve adjusted the way we’re presenting zone counts (cards in graveyard, library, etc.).
  • Hovering any of the zones will now bring up a new UI element that shows all of the zone counts, so it’s easier to see what the counts are:
• We’ve improved how the system handles holding priority:
  • If you would receive priority in response to a spell or ability (i.e. your opponent flashes in a permanent), the game will now hold priority for you to perform multiple actions (rather than auto-passing after your first response action).
• The “Name a Creature” browser now better understands whether the effect you’re activating should use creatures you control or your opponent controls. It will pre-populate based on the effect (though you can still name any creature type if you want to).
  • For example, if you cast Icon of Ancestry it will pre-populate the list based only on the creature types you control.
• When blocking, blockers are now stacked left-to-right. This should make it consistent with the order in which combat damage is dealt.

NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE

NEW PLAYER DECKS

• We have made changes to many of the ten multicolor decks to better balance them against one another.
• If you created your account after the Core Set 2020 release, any decks you have already unlocked will stay as they are, and any decks you have yet to receive will be the new versions once you unlock them.
• If you created your account before the Core Set 2020 release, you’ll receive the new versions of the decks when Throne of Eldraine releases.

STORE

THRONE OF ELDRAINE PRE-ORDER

For a limited time, players who pre-order Throne of Eldraine packs on Magic: The Gathering Arena will receive a special offer:

• 50x Throne of Eldraine boosters packs in MTG Arena
• 1x Garruk, Cursed Huntsman card.
• Gingerbread exquisite card sleeve, available immediately.
• Garruk, Cursed Huntsman card style

Players can pre-order Throne of Eldraine through the in-game client or from our pre-order webpage. You will need to log into your Wizards Account before completing the purchase, and please ensure that pop-up blockers are disabled so you can properly navigate to the check-out screen!

Price: $49.99 USD/€49.99 Euro. Price does not include taxes unless required by law. May only be purchased once.

NOW AVAILABLE

Bundles

Life Land Bundle

• Bloodfell Caves
• Blossoming Sands
• Dismal Backwater
• Jungle Hollow
• Rugged Highlands
• Scoured Barrens
• Swiftwater Cliffs
• Thornwood Falls
• Tranquil Cove
• Wind-Scarred Crag

Golems Galore Bundle

• Masterful Replication
• Steel Overseer
• Master Splicer

Wolf Pack Bundle

• Nightpack Ambusher
• Howling Giant
• Wolfrider’s Saddle

Card Style Sales

• Golos, Tireless Pilgrim
• Lotus Field
• Voracious Hydra

Card Styles

Individual card styles, previously only available as part of a the following bundles: 

• Guild Bundles
• Gatewatch’s Triumph
• Draft Bundles

Sleeves

• 10x Guild Exquisite Sleeves (Sold Separately)

Avatars

• 10x Guild Leader Avatars (Sold Separately)

NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Bundles

• Chandra Bundle
• Elemental Bundle

Card Styles

• Card Style Sales
  • Leyline of Sanctity
  • Leyline of Anticipation
  • Leyline of the Void
  • Leyline of Abundance
  • Leyline of Combustion
  • Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
  • Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord
  • Ajani, Strength of the Pride

Sleeves

• Karn, Vivien, Nissa, and Angrath Japanese Card Sleeves

LEAVING SOON (9/26)

Bundles

• Mu Yanling Bundle
• Tools of the Tactics Bundle
• Life Land Bundle
• Battle for Zendikar Full-Art Land
• Core Set 2020 Land Styles
• War of the Spark Land Styles

Card Style Sales

• Golos, Tireless Pilgrim
• Lotus Field
• Voracious Hydra

Sleeves

• Serra Exquisite Sleeve
• Saheeli, Ugin, and Teferi Japanese Card Sleeves

Core Set 2020 Mastery Pass

• Players will have until 4 a.m. PT (11:00 UTC) on September 26 to complete their Core Set 2020 Mastery.

BUG FIXES

PERFORMANCE ISSUES

• Addressed an issue that could cause the mouse to “stutter” or “hitch” when mousing over a card.
• Improved overall game performance when playing for extended periods of time.

Developer Notes: While we are constantly working to address the various bugs that affect MTG Arena’s overall performance, we are also aware that the amount improvement players experience from these fixes may vary. If you consistently encounter performance issues, it is extremely important you submit a bug report or support ticket with your DxDiag results as well as any game log files so we can continue to troubleshoot any potential causes. The more information you can provide in your report either or through your logs, the better.

GENERAL

• Made various improvements to match connections to reduce disconnect issues when a match completes.
• The player’s avatar no longer blocks the navigational arrow when trying to scroll through lands currently on the battlefield (only visible if you are player a large number of unique lands)
• Fixed a visual bug where they wrong Rank icons would display on the current season reward page if you navigated there by clicking your Limited Rank (previously, it would show the Constructed Rank badges on the Limited seasonal rewards page).
• Jaya, Venerated Firemage has decided to be true to herself, and will no longer play Chandra voice over when activating her -2 ability.
• Blockers should no longer become unresponsive for a few seconds when an attack trigger (e.g. Scorch Spitter) damages the defending player
• The “Prevent Damage” visual effect is no longer removed if a the target also gains protection from a color.
• Cards returning to the battlefield from another zone will now properly display their enter-the-battlefield animation.
• The Exquisite Mu Yanling card sleeve should now properly display the visual effect.
• When completing a quest, a daily win or a weekly win, the quest bar will no longer show the animation for the progress a second time after dismissing the Reward overlay.
• Fixed an issue that could have prevented players from resigning from the Constructed Event.

STORE

PAYMENT

• Real-money transactions will now take place within the game client. Players will no longer be directed to a secure website browser to complete their purchase.
• Discover, American Express, Maestro and JCB are now supported payment options.
• For more information, please refer to our Upcoming Changes to MTG Arena’s Payment System.

BUG FIXES

• Nexus of Fate is no longer incorrectly banned in best-of-three Direct Challenge matches.
• Players may no longer sideboard down to a 40-card deck in best-of-three Direct Challenge matches.

KNOWN ISSUES

• If a player attempts to install the latest version of MTG Arena while the client is currently running, it may automatically restart their PC.
  • Workaround: Please close out of the client before attempting to update to the latest version of Magic: The Gathering Arena.
• When playing in a Plane-cation event, if a player is currently in-match when the event ends they will be disconnected.

Source: SEP 04 – 0.18.00.00 Game Update