MTG Arena: State of the Game May 2020

There are both new game modes and updates coming this May. Let us quickly go through the modes if you missed them.

HISTORIC ANTHOLOGY III

If you happened to miss both our announcement stream as well as the card previews, here's a quick summary of everything you need to know about the latest Historic anthology coming to MTG Arena later this week: Historic Anthology III introduces 27 new cards to both MTG Arena and Historic play. It's got Shrines! It's got Flashback! It's got creatures you control have flying, first strike, vigilance, trample, haste, and protection from red and black (yes, all your creatures all those things).

Purchasing the Historic Anthology III bundle will add playsets of all 27 cards to your collection and will be available for 4,000 gems or 25,000 gold. You'll also have the option to craft individual cards using Wildcards of the appropriate rarity (1:1).

HISTORIC RANKED

With May we get back a really popular game mode that we got to try out earlier this year, and this time it is permanent! Starting with the May Game Update both Historic Ranked and Historic Traditional Ranked queues will be available on MTG Arena!

CUBE DRAFT

The cube consists of 555 cards pulled from everything that's available in MTG Arena—including both Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths and Historic Anthology III cards. You'll open three "booster packs" that contain 15 cards and draft them against your fellow players. Each pack may contain multiple exciting rares and mythic rares, so don't let the card on the top left distract you from the rest of the pack! It's also important to note that like Cube Sealed, Cube Draft will be a "phantom" event, which means the cards will not be added to your collection.

There are some exciting strategies and synergies we built into this cube, and drafting against players should help ensure that each draft is a fun and unique experience. Our first event is arriving on June 12 and, as we did with Ikoria, we'll be letting you get a taste of this format—on us! Your first Cube Draft will have no entry fee, and both the complimentary entry and the event itself will be available until the release of Core Set 2021.

INTRODUCING: THE ARENA OPEN

Entry Fee: 20,000 Gold or 4,000 Gems

DAY 1
Start: May 30, 2020 at 8 a.m. PT
Sign-Ups End: May 31, 2020 at 4 a.m. PT—you'll still have a few hours to complete your current run, but you won't be able to join after this deadline.
Event End: May 31, 7 a.m. PT

Day 1 will be Best-of-One Standard Constructed matches. You will play until seven wins or three losses (whichever comes first), with seven wins earning you qualification for Day 2. You'll be able to enter Day 1 multiple times, which means you'll have more than one opportunity to qualify for Day 2.

Format: Best-of-One Standard Constructed
Event Record: 7 wins or 3 Losses (whichever comes first)

• 7 Wins: 2,000 Gems, Qualification for Day 2
• 6 Wins: 1,600 Gems
• 5 Wins: 1,200 Gems
• 4 Wins: 800 Gems
• 3 Wins: 400 Gems
• 0–2 Wins: No Reward

DAY 2
Start: May 31, 2020 at 8 a.m. PT
Sign-Ups End: May 31, 2020 at 10 a.m. PT—you'll have until the event ends to complete your matches, but you must join during this two-hour window.
Event End: May 31, 6 p.m. PT

Day 2 will consist of Best-of-Three Standard Constructed matches. Again, you'll play until seven wins or two losses (whichever comes first), but unlike Day 1, you'll only have one opportunity to compete. Once you complete your Day 2 matches—that's it! You'll receive rewards based on your event record, culminating with $2,000 USD if you manage to earn seven wins.

Format: Best-of-Three Standard Constructed
Event Record: 7 wins or 2 Losses (whichever comes first)

• 7 Wins: $2,000 USD
• 6 Wins: $1,000 USD
• 5 Wins: 20,000 Gems
• 4 Wins: 10,000 Gems
• 3 Wins: 6,000 Gems
• 2 Wins: 4,000 Gems
• 1 Win: 2,000 Gems
• 0 Wins: No Reward
  
  

New 64-bit client soon

The May game update marks the swan song for the 32-bit client, as it will be upgraded to a 64-bit client in June with the release of Core Set 2021. This is a necessary step as we look to improve both game and client performance, as well as expand our supported platforms. This should impact less than 1% of players, but if you're not sure which version of Windows you're currently running

Output Logs

Wizards will be changing some naming of log files in their game so an update for MTGA Assistant (v.1.5.0) will be required after the new update comes out. What is more is that they are also updating the log output to support Human drafts! Meaning we will support this as soon as we get our hands on the new update and can code in the necessary things.

Misc. updates

And of course, you can expect a slew of bug fixes alongside some quality-of-life improvements as well. Deck icons will provide more context for why a deck is invalid (such as showing both the type and number of Wildcards needed to finish crafting the saved decklist). You'll also have the option to "View Battlefield" after a match to see the end-of-game board state. Tournament Historic (Best-of-Three, timers, match clock, enforced ban list) will be supported in Direct Challenge matches, and we've added the hotkey option to "float all" mana for those of you who wish to live dangerously and tap out while your opponent has one card in hand and an open blue mana source . . .