It’s Wednesday, so that means it’s time once again to review the latest MTG Arena announcements bulletin from Wizards of the Coast. This time around, Wizards has provided more details on the August ranked season, which will be split into two while the Arena team updates backend processes for MTG Arena.
The backend changes for Arena were first announced through the State of the Game article posted on July 29, but now we’ve got a more specific timeline on when exactly the changes will be taking place. The downtime for Arena will begin and end on August 10. No new games will be able to begin after 5:30 am Pacific Time. Purchases will be disabled at 6:30 am, and then all players will be removed from the servers at 7:00 and will be unable to log in again until “around 11:00” am PT.
After the changes have been completed, the second August ranked season will begin. As previously reported, the ranks will do a partial reset this time rather than the usual full reset. Players in Mythic will be reset back to Diamond Tier 1, and all other ranks will remain the same- although Wizards says you may lose the pips that you’ve earned in your tier.
At the end of the early August season, players who are ranked 500 Mythic or higher will qualify for the Qualifier Weekend. For the late August season, we will return to the usual system where the top 1200 ranked players qualify.
In addition to the ranked season and backend changes for Arena, players will also receive ten updated multicolor starter decks following the downtime, all of which will be legal for play in Standard 2022. Two days after the downtime, on August 12, the new content added by the updates will be unlocked- for more details on that, see our set guide concerning the upcoming set Jumpstart: Historic Horizons.
Other than the hype around Jumpstart and the ranked season changes, the rest of the bulletin from Wizards is mostly reminders about other events that have already been announced. The Yawning Portal event is a twist on the singleton format where only one copy of any nonbasic land card may be played. The event continues through August 10; find more info on that here.
Meanwhile, the format for this week’s Midweek Magic event is regular singleton running through Thursday at 8:00 am PT. We’ve got a full guide for the singleton format as well, so be sure to check it out if you’re not sure what to play.
The full text of Wizard’s announcement can be found below, along with an updated event schedule and details on the reward structure for both ranked seasons in August.
There’s a lot of buzz around the new Jumpstart: Historic Horizons product coming to MTG Arena. We’ve been previewing over the past week and a half the packet lists and how they work in this digital release.
We’ll be making a backend change requiring a few hours of downtime on August 10. This downtime will follow this schedule (all times are approximate):
5:30 a.m. PT — No more games can begin
6:30 a.m. PT — Real money purchases disabled in the store
7:00 a.m. PT — Players will be removed from the system and cannot log in
Around 11:00 a.m. PT — System back online, players can log in again
This will affect the August 2021 Ranked Season, splitting it into two for this month, one before the update and a second after. Both seasons will grant rewards (rewards for the early one will be available following the downtime).
The early season will quantify the top 500 Mythic Tier players for a Qualifier Weekend; the late season will quantify the usual top 1,200. After the early season, players in tiers up to Diamond won’t reset but will remain at the same rank and tier (though may lose pips at that tier). Mythic players will reset to Diamond Tier 1.
Following the downtime, players will receive ten new multicolored decks legal in Standard 2022, which includes any cards not in their collection needed to complete and play those decks!
Draft Challenge Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Competitive Draft lovers, you won’t want to miss this chance to hone your drafting skills on the latest Magic set!
Format: Traditional Draft (Best-of-Three) with Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Entry: 3,000 gems or 20,000 gold
Event record: Play until 6 wins or 2 match losses
Rewards:
Wins
Rewards
6 wins
4 Player Draft tokens + 20 packs
5 wins
3 Player Draft tokens + 15 packs
4 wins
3 Player Draft tokens + 10 packs
3 wins
2 Player Draft tokens + 6 packs
2 wins
1 Player Draft token + 3 packs
1 win
1 Player Draft token
0 wins
No rewards
Welcome to the Yawning Portal
Visit the Yawning Portal tavern from July 30 through August 10 and explore the dungeon of Undermountain to earn rulebook card styles from Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms!
This Standard Singleton event features the On a Quest! emblem with the text: “Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, venture into the dungeon.” You can enter this event as many times as you like, with each run awarding new styles until you’ve earned them all!
Note: We are aware of a bug that sometimes causes players to receive fewer styles than they should. This bug will be fixed with a deployment on Thursday, August 5 (no client update needed). If you’ve already been impacted by the bug, please contact Customer Service for assistance.
Now in Midweek Magic: Singleton!
Midweek Magic‘s format this week is Singleton. Singleton uses 60-card decks built from your collection, but with a catch: you may include no more than one copy of any card in your deck (excluding basic lands).
Midweek Magic events run weekly from Tuesday at 8 a.m. PT through Thursday at 8 a.m. PT with a different format each week. There is no entry fee, and you can earn two rare individual card rewards—just like FNM at Home.
The late August Ranked Season begins on August 10 following the downtime, approximately 11 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC). It will run until August 31 at 12:00 p.m. PT (19:00 UTC).
Bronze reward: 1 Adventures in the Forgotten Realms pack
Silver reward: 1 Adventures in the Forgotten Realms pack + 500 gold
Gold reward: 2 Adventures of the Forgotten Realms packs + 1000 gold + Chaos Channeler Card Style
