In a video announcement posted this afternoon, Wizards of the Coast revealed that Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, best-of-three matches, a new singleton format, plus economy and matchmaking changes will be coming to MTG Arena in the June 7th, 2018 update.
Kaladesh and Aether Revolt: Full Standard in MTG Arena (Finally!)
MTG Arena has slowly added sets with each major update since launched its Closed Beta last November with just Ixalan. The June 7th update will complete the process of backfilling all of the sets in Standard with the addition of Kaladesh and Aether Revolt to MTG Arena. This means that the Standard banlist will be implemented in MTG Arena and that players will finally be able to build and play with full Standard-legal decks.
To help players start playing with the cards from Kaladesh and Aether Revolt as soon as possible, each player will receive one of each rare and mythic rare and two of each common and uncommon from both sets, as well as four of each of the cards in the image below: Aether Hub, Aethersphere Harvester, Bomat Courier, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Disallow, Fatal Push, Fumigate, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Heart of Kiran, Pia Nalaar, Scrapheap Scrounger, Spire of Industry, Torrential Gearhulk, Unlicensed Disintegration, and Walking Ballista.
Best-of-Three Matches
Currently, MTG Arena matches only comprise of a single game. But the June 7th update will introduce best-of-three matches to MTG Arena in the form of competitive Constructed and Draft Events. These events are intended to cater towards more competitive players and will feature higher entry fees, better rewards, and the ability to sideboard between games.
Draft Events Are Now Available 24/7
Many players were disappointed when MTG Arena introduced Draft Events but restricted their availability to weekends. That all changes with the update on June 7th, after which Draft Events will be available 24/7, just like Constructed Events. Unfortunately, Draft Events will still only feature a single draft format on a weekly, rotating schedule.
A New Singleton Format, Special to MTG Arena
In an interesting twist, Wizards also announced that the June 7th update will bring a new singleton format to MTG Arena…but we confirmed with Wizards that it won’t be Brawl. The format will have its own special banlist but, other than that, no other details were provided about what the format might look like.
Economy and Matchmaking Updates
The MTG Arena economy updates coming in the June 7th update mainly focus on adjusting the daily win rewards. Previously, most of the daily win rewards were front-loaded into your first four wins of the day. But Wizards says that many players just wanted to keep playing Magic and getting rewarded for winning, so the update will increase the daily win rewards through your 15th win of the day, and will include rewards of both gold and individual cards.
Another small economy change is the introduction of a starter bundle for new players. The starter bundle will cost around $5 and will include “a bunch of packs and a whole bunch of gems.”
As for matchmaking, Wizards says that an updated matchmaking algorithm is coming with the June 7th update. The new system will reset every player’s matchmaking rank and will now take into account your current ladder rank when matching you with an opponent.