Ahead of the Weekly MTG show this afternoon, Wizards of the Coast published a new video to Youtube outlining a few big changes coming to MTG Arena in the near future. Community Manager Megan O’Malley and Game Director Jay Parker teamed up to outline the news in the Dev Update video. The State of the Beta update followed shortly on Daily MTG.
The big announcement for Magic players was the announcement of Historic, a new non-rotating format exclusive to MTG Arena beginning with Ixalan. There is a complete guide to rotation available on the MTG Arena forum but here are some high-level answers:
- Rotation will happen when the Fall expansion, code-named “Archery,” releases
- Amonkhet and Kaladesh are not coming back at this time
- Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, and Core Set 2019 will no longer be Standard-legal
- Historic play will be available in its own play queue as well as in some events (e.g. Pauper, Singleton, etc)
UPDATE:Â Historic is coming to MTG Arena in November 2019 along with some “new” old cards from Magic’s history.
The last Standard rotation took place when Guilds of Ravnica was released in the Fall of 2018. At that time everyone’s MTG Arena accounts were wiped, and Amonkhet and Kaladesh blocks were removed from the game. No such account wipe or product removal is going to take place this time around. Jay Parker also expressed in the Dev Update that they are continuing to look for ways to bring these expansions back to MTG Arena, but now is not the right time.
