GAME UPDATE HIGHLIGHTS

• Historic Anthology 2 is now available!
• Direct Messaging – Chat with your friends!
• Updated New Player Experience
• Quality of Life Improvements
  • Updated Card Sleeve UX
  • New Emotes? Thanks!
  • Deck Sorting Improvements
• Puppet Jace

HISTORIC ANTHOLOGY 2

• You may purchase playsets (four copies) of every card in the Historic Anthology 2 bundle for either 25,000 gold or 4,000 gems
  • You can also craft individual cards by redeeming Wildcards of the appropriate rarity (1:1).
• Historic Anthology 2 cards are legal in Historic formats, Bot Match, and Direct Challenge.
• Historic Play will allow players to earn quest progress as well as daily/weekly win rewards until the April game update.
• Secret Lair: Thalia: Beyond the Helvault is available for a limited time only!
  • Visit: SecretLair.Wizards.com for more info!

SOCIAL

DIRECT MESSAGING

• Players can now send direct messages to their Friends in MTG Arena!
• To celebrate, until the April game updates players will be able to earn quest progress when playing against their Friends in Direct Challenge matches.
  • This does not include daily/weekly win rewards.
• . New hot keys are available for Direct Messaging:
  • TAB to cycle between messages
  • ESC to close the chat window.

ONLINE PRESENCE

• Players can now set their online status to “Busy” and “Offline”.
  • Busy: Disables notifications; you will still appear online and will receive any in-coming messages or friend requests, but you will not receive any pop-up notifications.
  • Offline: Signs you out of MTG Arena’s social features (you do not appear online, cannot receive messages, and will be unable to see any online friends).

HISTORIC

HISTORIC BANNED AND SUSPENDED CARDS

• Oko, Thief of Crowns; Once Upon a Time; and Veil of Summer have moved from being suspended to banned in Historic.
  • Players will receive a wildcard of the appropriate rarity for each card in their collection if they have not already received wildcards for these cards from the earlier Standard ban.
  • These cards may still be used in Bot Match and non-tournament Direct Challenge matches.
• Field of the Dead is no longer suspended, and is now legal to play in Historic.

Developer Notes:

• As we discussed back in December, before Historic Ranked returns in March we wanted to act on all the cards previously suspended, either unsuspending them or banning them fully in Historic. Going forward, the specific decisions there will be announced as part of the normal Banned & Restricted announcements.
• With bans now hitting across multiple formats, we need to slightly update our approach to Wildcard refunds for banned cards. The basic rule is that players will get Wildcard refunds whenever a card is banned in either Standard or Historic, but you won’t receive multiple refunds for the same individual card.
  • For example, let’s say you owned 3 copies of Oko, Thief of Crowns when it was banned in Standard. As normal, you received 3 wildcards of the appropriate rarity as reimbursement. You’re still playing actively with Oko, Thief of Crowns in Historic, though, so you craft another copy to finish out your playset. Now, Oko, Thief of Crown is banned in Historic as well. With this game update, you’ll receive 1 additional Wildcard as reimbursement. (You’ve already gotten reimbursed for 3 of your copies for the Standard ban, but the copy you crafted after that is reimbursed normally.)

HISTORIC RANKED SEASON

• Historic Ranked will be available beginning with this release until the April game update.
• Both best-of-one and best-of-three (Traditional) queues will be available.

INTRODUCING: COLOR CHALLENGES

• The new player experience has been updated, and now features Color Challenges
• Each Color Challenge will cover the basics of the five colors of Magic through a series of matches
• New players will unlock additional rewards (dual colored decks, wildcards, etc.) by completing the color challenges.

BRAWL

BRAWL BANNED AND RESTRICTED CARDS

• Golos, Tireless Pilgrim is now banned in Brawl
  • Players will not be receiving wildcard grants as a part of this ban.
• As a general reminder, Brawl maintains a separate banned list from Standard

BRAWLER’S GUILDHALL

• Brawler’s Guildhall returns from March 19 through April 16.
• The reward is the new-to-MTG Arena Bladewing the Risen, which will be legal in Historic and Brawl.

GENERAL

UPDATED CARD SLEEVE UX

• Card sleeves in your collection now appear as a full page with vertical scrolling.
• Players can now select a “default” card sleeve which will automatically apply to any new decks
  • Note: Selecting a new default card sleeve will also retroactively apply it to any current deck in your collection that was using the previous default sleeve.

DECK SORTING

• Favorite and last-played decks are now stored server-side; they’ll be consistent no matter what machine you play on.
• Deck displays are now split between valid and invalid decks so that users can more easily see which decks are valid for the selected event.
  • This should help players find the correct decks for special events faster!

GAMEPLAY

• We have added the option to enable/disable gameplay warnings.
  • You can consume food, deal damage to your own creatures, and play duplicate Legendaries with nothing to slow you down!
• Select deck screen is broken up into two groups – formats that match the event and formats that do not match the event.

CARDS

• Cards that deal damage based on their Toughness now use the term “Backbone” in ability hangers.
• Cards that can assign damage as if they had not been blocked now use the term “Unstoppable” in their ability hangers.
• Even more cards now use a “soft confirm” (click on the card, “Activate Ability” button appears)
  • Developer’s Note: While this does make some of these activation quicker, this method does not provide an opportunity to cancel if you accidentally click “Activate Ability”. We’ll be keeping an eye out for any feedback, as well as situations where this updated UX causes more harm than good.
• More cards (Underworld Breach, Skizzik, Curious Obsession, etc.) now identify if they will be destroyed/exiled at the end of turn.

EVENTS

FESTIVAL OF THE GODS

Festival of the Gods concludes with:

• Erebos’s Memoir of Death (March 13-17): Historic Brawl
• Thassa’s Briny Bounty (March 21-24): Mono-Blue Singleton Preconstructed Deck

WORKSHOP SERIES

Rewards

• The first win of each workshop will now award a Haversack of Favor!
• Haversack of Favor will contain one of the following (each are equally likely):
  • 500 XP
  • 500 Gold
  • Standard rare/mythic rare individual card reward (ICR)
• Workshops will continue every Monday, 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC) through Wednesday, 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC)

RANKED DRAFT SCHEDULE

• March 13 – 27: Ravnica Allegiance
• March 27 – April 3: Core Set 2019
  • Note: This is a non-Standard set!
• April 4 – 17: Theros Beyond Death

HISTORIC PAUPER

• Dates: March 28 – April 4
• Format: Historic Pauper (best-of-one)

HISTORIC CHALLENGE

• Dates: April 11 – April 13
• Format: Traditional Historic (best-of-three)

ARENA CUBE SEALED

• Dates: April 4 – April 16
• Stay tuned for more details!

STORE

NOW AVAILABLE

Historic Anthology 2 Bundle

• This bundle contains 4x copies of the following cards:
  • Platinum Angel
  • Maelstrom Pulse
  • Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
  • Pack Rat
  • Meddling Mage
  • Waste Not
  • Terravore
  • Dragonmaster Outcast
  • Ancestral Mask
  • Nyx-Fleece Ram
  • Brain Maggot
  • Barren Moor
  • Forgotten Cave
  • Lonely Sandbar
  • Secluded Steppe
  • Tranquil Thicket
  • Inexorable Tide
  • Sigil of the Empty Throne
  • Virulent Plague
  • Bojuka Bog
  • Ghost Quarter
  • Knight of the Reliquary
  • Goblin Ruinblaster
  • Merrow Reejerey
  • Ranger of Eos
• Costs: 4,000 Gems or 25,000 Gold

Puppet Jace

Fresh from the Rakdos toybox, the Cult Guildmages have decided to let others play with their favorite… toy. The Puppet Jace pet is now available for 20,000 Gold or 3,000 Gems

Other Bundles

Historic Anthology 1 – Gold Option

Gold Historic Anthology 1 can now be purchased for 20,000 Gold in addition to the existing 3,400 Gem price.

Thalia Style Bundle

Contains:

• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Helvault Style
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Lunarch Style
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Chapel Style
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Eldrazi Style
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben Sleeve

Costs: 2,000 Gems
Note: Players will not receive any physical products as a part of the purchase.

Turn Two Bundle

Contains Card Styles:

• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• Meddling Mage
• Nyx-Fleece Ram
• Pack Rat
• Brain Maggot

Cost: 900 Gems or 4,500

Gold Recycled Resources Bundle

Contains Card Styles:

• Secluded Steppe
• Lonely Sandbar
• Barren Moor
• Forgotten Cave
• Tranquil Thicket

Cost: 450 Gems or 2,250

Gold Elder Enchantment Bundle

Contains Card Styles:

• Ancestral Mask
• Sigil of the Empty Throne
• Waste Not
• Inexorable Tide
• Virulent Plague

Cost: 900 Gems or 4,500 Gold

Land Lovers Bundle

Contains Card Styles:

• Terravore
• Dragonmaster Outcast
• Ghost Quarter
• Knight of the Reliquary
• Bojuka Bog

Cost: 900 Gems or 4,500 Gold

Tricks and Tools Bundle

Contains Card Styles:

• Platinum Angel
• Maelstrom Pulse,
• Merrow Reejerey
• Ranger of Eos

Cost: 800 Gems or 4,000 Gold

Unsanctioned Basic Lands

Contains:

• Plains
• Island
• Swamp
• Mountain
• Forest

Cost: 2,500 Gems

Hidden Squirrel Lands

Contains:

• Plains
• Island
• Swamp
• Mountain
• Forest

Cost: 700 Gems or 3,500 Gold

CARD STYLES

Now available for purchase (through the Deckbuilder):

• Stonecoil Serpent
• Epic Downfall
• Lucky Clover
• Edgewall Innkeeper
• Mysterious Pathlighter
• Animating Faerie
• All That Glitters
• Dance of the Manse
• Emry, Lurker of the Loch
• Mirrormade
• Acclaimed Contender
• Tournament Grounds
• Blacklance Paragon
• The Circle of Loyalty
• Soul Warden
• Elvish Visionary
• Kinsbaile Cavalier
• Captain Sisay
• Imperious Perfect
• Tendrils of Corruption
• Kiln Fiend
• Phyrexian Arena
• Hidetsugu's Second Rite
• Burning-Tree Emissary
• Distant Melody
• Mind Stone
• Cryptbreaker
• Darksteel Reactor
• Ornithopter
• Treasure Hunt
• Goblin Matron
• Hypnotic Specter
• Fauna Shaman
• Serra Ascendant
• Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
• Cling to Dust
• Woe Strider
• Fruit of Tizerus
• Bronzehide Lion
• Setessan Champion
• Archon of Sun's Grace
• Alseid of Life's Bounty
• Aphemia, the Cacophony
• Gravebreaker Lamia
• Mire Triton
• Tymaret Calls the Dead
• Dream Trawler
• Wavebreak Hippocamp
• Glimpse of Freedom
• Nadir Kraken

LEAVING SOON:

• Drawn to Power Bundle
• Beyond the Grave Bundle
• Historic Anthology 1

BUG FIXES

• Dragging a card to your deck from the sideboard no longer results in deck details becoming inaccessible. Adding a card via clicking also now functions normally.
• Ashiok's Erasure no longer prevents players from casting cards, even if those card were not actually exiled.
• The discounted cost correctly displays when choosing to cast a Planeswalker with an alternate cost (e.g. Fires of Invention).
• Styles purchased through the deckbuilder now properly show the sale price for any items that are on sale in Daily Deals
• Stacked tokens now correctly show their power/toughness indicator.
• Creatures that die immediately upon switching ownership now show as changing ownership, then dying.
• Pass Turn no longer remains toggled on through sideboarding in Traditional (best-of-three) matches. z
• The removed ability hanger was inaccurate when an added ability was later removed has been fixed.
• Spark Double copies of some cards (e.g. The Royal Scions) now have the correct card name.
• Targeting the 4th or greater attachment on a creature now shows the correct intention lines.
• Casting a second Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea while one is in play no longer causes spells played on the stack to cost more than 1 extra before the Legendary rule resolves.
• Enemy of Enlightenment now displays as a valid target for Triumphant Surge if you have two cards in hand.
• Simultaneously returning Kunoros and another creature from the graveyard resulting in Kunoros coming back first, and blocking the other creature from returning has been fixed.
• Cards with a dash in their name are no longer missing from pre-populated lists.
• Dawn Evangel now triggers once for any number of auras.
• Kaya’s Ghostform is once again returning exiled permanents correctly.

Source: MAR 12 – 1.06.00.00 Game Update