At long last, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths and human drafting has arrived to MTG Arena! Check out the full patch notes below to get a run down on all the changes in this patch, which also include UI changes, event schedule, bug fixes, new cosmetics, and more. As another reminder, you can use the code PlayIkoria in the in-game store to redeem 3 free Ikoria packs!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
“Read More” (e.g. Card specific text, triggered abilities, more than three keywords, etc.)
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.
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.
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
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
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. . . ).
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
