The MTG Arena Announcements Return

Today’s Announcements blog from Wizards of the Coast is the first since the series went on a holiday hiatus back on December 22. There are a couple of highly anticipated topics that are touched on in today’s post, so let’s get straight to it!

Alchemy Rebalancing?

Last week, Wizards made the controversial announcement that they would be waiting to make any changes to Alchemy until after two upcoming tournaments featuring the format had completed: the Arena Open and the January Qualifier Weekend.

We know people are eager for new Alchemy balance changes. Although to give players time to prepare, we'll be waiting until after the next Arena Open and Qualifier Weekend before sharing any new changes.

More details will be provided on January 12th with our upcoming weekly blog.

— MTG Arena (@MTG_Arena) January 6, 2022

The revelation that balancing changes would be waiting until the end of the month drew the ire of many players who feel that the format is already largely solved, and that it would make for better competition at those tournaments if the balancing happened first.

Wizards also said in the Twitter announcement that “More details will be provided on January 12th with our upcoming weekly blog.” However, that blog post is here, and while there is a section that addresses Alchemy rebalancing, it’s pretty light on the details.

In the post, Wizards mostly just reiterates that the rebalancing will not take place until after the two Arena tournaments. They confirm that after the Qualifier Weekend, changes will be made to some cards on Alchemy, but that’s about it.

The only new information regarding the rebalancing comes from this statement: “There will be boosts to some fun cards that aren’t getting much love right now, as well as adjustments for some current strategies.”

It’s a bit of a non-answer, and so it seems we’ll all have to wait until after the Arena tournaments wrap up to learn anything else about the future of Magic’s newest format.

The January Arena Open

Speaking of the Arena Open, Wizards also provided us with the full details on this month’s iteration of the continuing tournament series, which takes place over January 15-16 and has a maximum cash prize of $2,500 US.

The January Open will be based on the Alchemy format, and follows roughly the same outline as the previous Arena Open events. Players can enter Day 1 of the event, which will feature both best-of-one and best-of-three play options, as many times as they like (the entry fee must be paid each time) in an attempt to qualify for Bo3-only Day 2 competition.

For those interested in learning more about the Arena Open, you can find the full details over on the official event page that was published alongside today’s announcements.

The Ongoing Arena Cube

As many already know, Wizards reminds us that the Arena Cube event is ongoing on the client, featuring powerful cards from Magic’s historic in a chaotic draft environment for both best-of-one and best-of-three. The event will be ongoing until January 20. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our excellent guide to the Cube by DoggertQBones:

A Comprehensive Guide to Arena Cube – January 2022

Mad Science Event Starts January 21

Meanwhile, a new event, Mad Science, will be coming to the Arena client starting January 21 and running through February 1. The event is based on best-of-one Alchemy, but players will have the “Zombies!” emblem that reads “Whenever you cast an instant of [sic] sorcery spell, amass X, where X is that spell’s mana value.”

Mad Science will cost 2,000 gold or 400 gems for each entry, and will reward Eternal Night card style prizes in addition to the usual gold rewards. The reward structure is as follows:

Wins	Rewards
4 wins	2,500 gold + 3 card styles
3 wins	1,500 gold + 3 card styles
2 wins	1,000 gold + 2 card styles
1 win	500 gold + 2 card styles
0 win	1 card style

You can find more details about Mad Science over at Wizard’s official event page.

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That’s just about everything from today’s announcements! The weekly posting will presumably be continuing next Wednesday and beyond, so we’ll keep you posted on all of the latest. You can also find a fully updated schedule of events on MTG Arena included with the full text of Wizard’s original post, which is embedded below.