MTG Arena Announcements - May 8, 2023 • MTG Arena Zone

The weekly MTG Arena Announcement post has been published by Wizards of the Coast! Here’s the roundup of everything that is happening and upcoming on MTG Arena! Important update for this week is that March of the Machine: Aftermath will be released on May 11, not May 9 as previously scheduled. Check out the original source post here or the transcript below. On a related note, you can now check out our newly updated set release and event schedule (specifically for MTG Arena).

Magic: The Gathering Arena Set Release and Event Schedule

In this edition:

Join the Historic Brawl Festival May 6–10 and Earn Team-Up Card Styles
Thursday, March of the Machine: The Aftermath Arrives on MTG Arena!
May Qualifier Weekend Kicks Off Friday
Lots of News Out of MagicCon Minneapolis!
MTG Arena Coming to Steam May 23
Standard and Alchemy Are Changing
Pictures from MagicCon Minneapolis
Arena Championship 3, May 27–28
Event Schedule

Join the Historic Brawl Festival May 6–10 and Earn Team-Up Card Styles

The second March of the Machine festival is happening now through May 10, and you can score five legendary team-up card styles for wins! Play Historic Brawl using a 100-card Historic Brawl deck led by your favorite legendary creature or planeswalker and rack up wins to add these card styles to your collection:

Historic Brawl Festival Event Guide and Best Decklists

Thursday, March of the Machine: The Aftermath Arrives on MTG Arena!

March of the Machine: The Aftermath – Card Spoilers, Set Information, Release Date, and More

March of the Machine: The Aftermath is a set of 50 new Standard-legal cards that focuses on the story, the characters, and what comes next in a Multiverse forever changed by the Phyrexian invasion. Players will be able to collect March of the Machine: The Aftermath cards on MTG Arena by opening packs, playing in March of the Machine: The Aftermath Limited events, or crafting them using wildcards of the appropriate rarity.

March of the Machine: The Aftermath packs on MTG Arena, showing 1 pack for 200 gems or 1,000 gold, and 10 packs for 2,000 gems or 10,000 gold

A Note on Golden Packs

Purchasing March of the Machine or March of the Machine: The Aftermath packs will contribute to Golden Pack progress. Golden Packs have been updated to include cards from March of the Machine: The Aftermath and will be considered part of the latest set when opening Golden Packs.

Drafting March of the Machine: The Aftermath on MTG Arena

March of the Machine: The Aftermath Premier Draft event screen with wins progress bar and event description

You’ll also be able to draft March of the Machine: The Aftermath on MTG Arena! Each March of the Machine: The Aftermath Limited pack will contain both a card from the Multiverse Legends bonus sheet and a card from March of the Machine: The Aftermath! Keep reading for more information on our upcoming event schedule!

May Qualifier Weekend Kicks Off Friday

Qualifier Weekend begins Friday, May 12, with Qualifier Play-In Best-of-Three and then the Qualifier Weekend event on Saturday and Sunday, May 13–14

This weekend is May’s epic competitive play pairing of events that can launch you into the top levels of MTG Arena Premier Play—and these are the first that can put you on the path to Arena Championship 4!

Last weekend was May’s Best-of-One Qualifier Play-In, but if you missed it, don’t worry! You have another shot at earning an invitation to the Qualifier Weekend event this Friday, May 12, in the Best-of-Three Qualifier Play-In. It begins at 6 a.m. PT (13:00 UTC) on Friday, and the format is March of the Machine Limited. It closes on Saturday at 3 a.m. PT (10:00 UTC).

After you have your invitation in hand, the May Qualifier Weekend event begins at 6 a.m. on Saturday, May 6! You’ll face other qualifying players in March of the Machine Limited matches to determine who will ultimately earn an invitation to Arena Championship 4 and the Pro Tour 3!

Lots of News Out of MagicCon Minneapolis!

MagicCon Minneapolis is over, and it was chock full of fun, events, and announcements.

MTG Arena Coming to Steam May 23

Soon you’ll have another way to play MTG Arena. On May 23, MTG Arena launches on Steam on your PC! Jump onto Steam and add MTG Arena to your Wishlist!

Standard and Alchemy Are Changing

Another announcement out of MagicCon Minneapolis this week are changes to revitalize tabletop Standard. How will this affect MTG Arena? Check out the article covering changes to Standard and Alchemy in MTG Arena for complete details.

Standard and Alchemy Rotation Schedule Update

Pictures from MagicCon Minneapolis

MagicCon Minneapolis was amazing, and we have the pictures to prove it! Here’s a look back at a great event.

The MTG Arena display and play area at MagicCon Minneapolis — We had room for everyone! You could take pictures with cosplayers, get signatures with creators, and play *MTG Arena* against your friends.

MagicCon stations where attendees could play MTG Arena — Our fully-loaded accounts, stocked up with cards, wildcards, and gems, so you could play *Magic* in any way wanted!

MagicCon Minneapolis attendees playing MTG Arena — We had laptops for matches that showed on the big screens. MagicCon Minneapolis had plenty of room to play *Magic*.

Magic influencers with their MTG Arena branded pillows — A few of our incredible content creators who stopped by, challenged our community to one-on-one matches, took pictures, gave autographs—you name it!

Arena Championship 3, May 27–28

The top of the MTG Arena Premier Play mountain is in sight: Arena Championship 3 is just a few weeks away! The top players who have qualified will face off in March of the Machine Draft and Standard matches to determine who’s the best of the best, who takes a piece of a $200,000 prize pool, and who gets invited to the Magic World Championship!

Stay tuned for more details and how you can watch the event!

EVENT SCHEDULE

Events open on the starting date at 8 a.m. PT (excluding Midweek Magic) and close to entries at 8 a.m. PT (UTC-07:00) on the ending date shown unless otherwise noted. 

Midweek Magic

Midweek Magic events open on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. PT and close to new entries on Thursdays at 2 p.m. PT (UTC-07:00).

May 9–11: Explorer
May 16–18: On the Edge
May 23–25: Singleton
May 30–June 1: Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Phantom Sealed

QUICK DRAFT

April 28–May 12: March of the Machine
May 12–26: Dominaria United
May 26–June 6: March of the Machine

OTHER EVENTS

May 6–11: Historic Brawl Festival
May 26–29: Historic Metagame Challenge
May 26–June 3: Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Premier Draft
June 2–5: Treasured Festival: Historic Singleton
June 3–11: Innistrad: Crimson Vow Premier Draft

PREMIER PLAY SCHEDULE

All times listed are Pacific time (UTC-07:00).

QUALIFIER EVENTS

Qualifier Play-In events are single-day tournaments in which players compete to earn invitations to that month’s Qualifier Weekend events.

Qualifier Weekend events are two-day events in which eligible players compete for invitations to upcoming Arena Championship events.

Qualifier tokens are delivered in your MTG Arena inbox. Remember to claim them before the event starts!

May

Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-Three)
May 12, 6 a.m. PT–May 13, 3 a.m. PT
- Format: March of the Machine Limited
Qualifier Weekend
May 13, 6 a.m. PT–May 14, 4 p.m. PT
- Format: March of the Machine Limited (Best-of-Three)

June

Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-One)
June 3, 6 a.m. PT
- Format: Historic
Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-Three)
June 9, 6 a.m. PT–June 10, 3 a.m. PT
- Format: Historic
Qualifier Weekend
June 10, 6 a.m. PT–June 11, 4 p.m. PT
- Format: Historic (Best-of-Three)

Arena Open

The Arena Open Day One entry window begins at 6 a.m. PT and closes to new entries the following day at 3 a.m. PT (UTC-07:00). The Day Two entry window is 2 hours only, from 6 a.m. PT until 8 a.m. PT (UTC-07:00).

Arena Open: March of the Machine
May 20–21
- May 20: Day One, March of the Machine Sealed (Best-of-One and Best-of-Three)
- May 21: Day Two, March of the Machine Player Draft (Best-of-Three)
  There are two Player Draft events on Day Two.

Arena Championship 3

The Arena Championship is an invitation-only, two-day virtual event for players who earn invitations through Qualifier Weekend events. 

Arena Championship 3
May 27–28
- Format: March of the Machine Draft, Standard

May 2023 Ranked Season

The May 2023 Ranked Season begins April 30 at 12:05 p.m. PT and ends on May 31 at 12 p.m. PT (UTC-07:00)

Bronze Reward: 1 March of the Machinepack
Silver Reward: 1 March of the Machinepack + 500 gold
Gold Reward: 2 March of the Machine packs + 1,000 gold + Change the Equation card style
Platinum Reward: 3 March of the Machine packs + 1,000 gold + Change the Equation card style + Nahiri's Warcrafting card style
Diamond Reward: 4 March of the Machine packs + 1,000 gold + Change the Equation card style card style + Nahiri's Warcrafting card style
Mythic Reward: 5 March of the Machine packs + 1,000 gold + Change the Equation card style + Nahiri's Warcrafting card style