MTG Arena Zone Premium
Join our Premium community, remove all advertisements, get access to exclusive content!
MTG Arena Zone Premium
Join our Premium community, remove all advertisements, get access to exclusive content!
Witness-of-Tomorrows-Theros-Beyond-Death-Art

Ranked Draft Theros Beyond Death Now Live – But Only for Two Weeks?

The long awaited Ranked Draft event for Theros Beyond Death went live today on MTG Arena at 8 AM PST, where players can use Gold as the entry fee and help with collecting the set and climb the ladder at the same time.

This is an alternative to using Gems to enter the currently available Sealed and Traditional Draft events for Theros Beyond Death. Currently, we have the full draft guide coming up later tonight and in the meantime you can use our Theros Beyond Death Limited Overview guide and Limited Tier List to help with your Ranked Draft session.

Update: Draft guide is now up!

Event Information

Duration: January 31, 2020 to February 14, 2020
Format: Ranked Draft Theros Beyond Death
Cost: 5000 Gold or 750 Gems
Match Structure: Single matches (BO1)
Rewards: Depending on amount of wins (up to 7) before 3 losses:

WinsRewardReward 2
050 Gems1 Theros Beyond Death Pack
20% chance of bonus pack
1100 Gems1 Theros Beyond Death Pack
22% chance of bonus pack
2200 Gems1 Theros Beyond Death Pack
24% chance of bonus pack
3300 Gems1 Theros Beyond Death Pack
26 chance of bonus pack
4450 Gems1 Theros Beyond Death Pack
30% chance of bonus pack
5650 Gems1 Theros Beyond Death Pack
35% chance of bonus pack
6850 Gems1 Theros Beyond Death Pack
40% chance of bonus pack
7950 Gems2 Theros Beyond Death Packs

Note on Event Duration

Usually, Ranked Draft for a new set arrives two weeks after its initial release date and lasts until after the release of the next set (which is Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths), with another one running concurrently rotating every two weeks, from a different set. This pattern held true until Throne of Eldraine.

However, you may have raised your eyebrows at the event duration listed above, in that Ranked Draft Theros Beyond Death actually ends in two weeks time on February 14. This was communicated in the 1.04.00 Patch Notes on January 16:

The official MTG Arena event calendar:

Until now, players may have thought that this was an oversight since official information regarding MTG Arena can be often incorrect and outdated. As an example, the recently finished January 2020 Ranked Season information had been skipped, and lists the wrong seasonal card style rewards for February.

The final nail in the coffin for this was that after questioning by the community, the information was confirmed intentional by WotC_Lexie, the official MTG Arena Forums Community Manager:

What’s Next?

This month’s State of the Game update is due to be released next week, and with that we should find out why the Ranked Draft for the latest set will cycle out after just two weeks:

  • Worst case scenario: They are trying to make collecting cards from the latest set more difficult with Gold via “rare drafting” and instead have players purchase packs or play Traditional Draft for Gems. There could still be two rotating drafts from different sets.
  • Unlikely but hopeful scenario: The date coincides with the upcoming World Championship, and the format was announced to be Draft and Standard – on MTG Arena. Could they be testing the new pod drafting system against other players in this tournament and bringing out the feature with the February game update?

Whatever comes next, it does not look to be a promising one. MTG Arena has gone through a few unwelcome changes to its monetization strategy in 2019, despite overall being a relatively generous economy:

  • 2:1 Historic Wildcard redemption announcement, which was eventually overturned.
  • They held their ground firm for the Brawlidays and Brawlers’ Guildhall events that players pay a whopping 10000 Gold just for the privilege to play the Brawl format other than just Wednesdays.

What do you think will happen? Leave your thoughts below in the comments!

Premium >

Enjoy our content? Wish to support our work? Join our Premium community, get access to exclusive content, remove all advertisements, and more!

  • No ads: Browse the entire website ad-free, both display and video.
  • Exclusive Content: Instant access to all exclusive articles only for Premium members, at your fingertips.
  • Support: All your contributions get directly reinvested into the website to increase your viewing experience!
  • Discord: Join our Discord server, claim your Premium role and gain access to exclusive channels where you can learn in real time!
  • Special offerFor a limited time, use coupon code L95WR9JOWV to get 50% off the Annual plan!
MTG Arena Zone Premium
MTG Arena Zone
MTG Arena Zone

MTG Arena Zone is Your best Magic: The Gathering Arena information site, featuring guides, news, tier lists, decks, and more.

Articles: 13101