MTG Arena’s March 27 update will include brand new cosmetic items: custom cards sleeves and cards with special parallax art, as well as additional planeswalker avatars.
Custom Card Sleeves
MTG Arena’s new card sleeves will allow you to customize the way the back of your cards look in-game. They will be visible to you on cards in your library, while your opponent will see your sleeves instead of normal card backs in both your hand and library.
Some sleeves will only be able to be acquired by playing, like in a special event or as seasonal awards. Other sleeves will be directly purchasable from the store or will be included as part of a larger bundle. Sleeves will cost either 600 Gems for standard sleeves, or 1,200 Gems for exquisite sleeves, which will come with special animated effects. (That’s approximately $2.50 and $7.50, respectively, since 1,600 gems cost $9.99.)
Once you acquire a sleeve, either through a purchase or by playing, you’ll be able to use it with as many decks as you’d like. Sleeves are applied on a deck-by-deck basis via the Deck Builder by clicking the back of the card next to the deck box.
Premium Parallax Card Art
In addition to the already-existing alternate-art promos, MTG Arena will be adding new full-art card style that features a parallax effect as you move the card around. Unlike the alternate-art promos, though, the new card styles won’t add those cards to your collection—instead, they are more like a new skin for cards you already own. That means you’ll need to open or craft a card before you can use the new parallax art version of that card.
Similar to card sleeves, some new parallax card styles can be unlocked though play, like in special events, as seasonal rewards, or via player progression. Many other card styles will either be for purchase directly from the store or as part of a larger bundle. The cost of each new style will depend on the card’s rarity:
Commons: 400 Gems (approximately $2.50, since 1,600 gems cost $9.99)
Uncommons: 600 Gems (approximately $3.75)
Rares: 1000 Gems (approximately $6.25)
Mythic Rares: 1,200 Gems (approximately $7.50)
Importantly, each new card style is only applicable to cards with the same art as as the card style. That means you won’t be able to apply the new card style to every version of cards that have multiple different arts, like the guild gates from Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance. It does mean, however, that reprinted cards that don’t have new art will be able to use the same card styles as the original printing.
The new card styles will be available starting with cards from the next two upcoming sets, War of the Spark and Core Set 2020, but Wizards will be adding styles to cards from earlier sets as time goes on.
New Avatars
Finally, Wizards will also make new planeswalker avatars purchasable through the store’s new Avatars tab, either individually or as part of a bundle. Each avatar will cost either 500 Gems (a little over $3) or 3000 gold.