The weekly Midweek Magic event gives players a chance to play a fun and unique format as part of Magic: The Gathering Arena’s rotating event schedule. The Phantom Bot Draft is a special event that allows players a way to draft a random set against seven computer-controlled players. Players won’t keep the cards they draft in this draft, the phantom element means that the cards go away after the event, but the rewards players earn are permanent.
Midweek Magic events give players the opportunity to gain two Rare Individual Card Rewards (ICR) as well as a random Mystery Cosmetic pack. These Mystery Cosmetic packs can include any number of items including card styles, sleeves, avatars, and pets. The odds of opening a card style are far greater than other rewards, but there’s always a chance for something rarer.
Looking for more value from your Arena drafts? Check out our drafting guide here!
The Phantom Bot Draft starts on Tuesday at 8 a.m. PT and runs for two days, wrapping up on Thursday at 8 a.m. PT. Two days is plenty of time for players to earn their three wins to collect all their rewards, as well as some extra time to get some games in for fun. Like all Midweek Magic events, the Phantom Bot Draft is free to participate in.
This event is different from other Midweek Magic events, where you are locked into one deck for the course of the event. Like other draft formats, you can modify your draft deck with other cards you picked during the event. However, the Phantom Bot Draft only allows for one draft per account so you cannot exit the event to try and draft a new deck.
Phantom Bot Draft All-Access Rules
Similar to other quick draft formats on Magic: The Gathering Arena, the Phantom Bot Draft has players draft fourteen card packs to build a 40-card minimum deck to play against real players. Additional cards drafted during the event are automatically added to your sideboard and can be added or swapped out with cards from your main deck between matches, so long as your deck meets the required minimum 40-card count.
Players are presented with all fourteen cards in the pack laid out to pick from. Players must choose one card from that pack to add to their card pool and, once confirming they do want the card, they are passed a new pack from the player (or bot in this case) on their right. Since this is a bot draft there’s no timer pressuring you to make a choice, giving you plenty of time to think over the optimal card choices for your potential deck.
Unlike a traditional constructed deck, your draft deck can include more than four copies of a single card. As for basic lands, they are added to your deck for free so there’s no need to draft them while picking your cards.
Kaldheim Limited
This week the format will be Kaldheim Limited. While this might seem like a strange pick, this will also be the format for the upcoming Arena Open. Kaldheim is also somewhat relevant to the ongoing Phyrexia: All Will be One storyline.
Ryan Hay (he/him) has been writing about Magic: The Gathering and video games for years, and loves absolutely terrible games. Send him your bad game takes over on Twitter where he won’t stop talking about Lord of the Rings.