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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:
Wins | Reward | Reward 2 |
---|---|---|
0 | 50 Gems | 1 Theros Beyond Death Pack 20% chance of bonus pack |
1 | 100 Gems | 1 Theros Beyond Death Pack 22% chance of bonus pack |
2 | 200 Gems | 1 Theros Beyond Death Pack 24% chance of bonus pack |
3 | 300 Gems | 1 Theros Beyond Death Pack 26 chance of bonus pack |
4 | 450 Gems | 1 Theros Beyond Death Pack 30% chance of bonus pack |
5 | 650 Gems | 1 Theros Beyond Death Pack 35% chance of bonus pack |
6 | 850 Gems | 1 Theros Beyond Death Pack 40% chance of bonus pack |
7 | 950 Gems | 2 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may have thought that this was an oversight since official information regarding MTG Arena can be often incorrect and outdated.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!