Wizards of the Coast is finally bringing some oft-requested features to MTG Arena, as well as dropping a ton of new info about two upcoming Arena-exclusive sets. There’s a ton of information to go over this week so let’s take a look at the first Arena sets to release, Alchemy: Phyrexia.
Alchemy: Phyrexia Highlights
30 brand new Arena-exclusive cards are dropping in this companion set to Phyrexia: All Will Be One. These cards are designed to work exclusively on Arena, with digital-only mechanics that only realistically work since on Arena, you can permanently modify cards or create cards without physically owning them. The full Image Gallery can be found here, with a few highlights from the mini-set.
Phyrexian Harvester
Is this the red equivalent of Phyrexian Obliterator? It certainly seems that way. Though it’s a bit of a bummer that physical Magic players won’t be able to utilize it, on Arena it provides a ton of temporary card advantage. Giving it menace feels a little counterintuitive since you want the Harvester to take damage to seek out those cards, a 5/5 for four red mana is still pretty darn good.
Phyrexian Scrapyard
While Phyrexian Scrapyard might be more at home in a Brawl deck, it does some very interesting things. It lets you discard cards to conjure new Phyrexian Scrapyards, and then you can sacrifice three of them to conjure a Soul of New Phyrexia onto the battlefield. Soul of New Phyrexia has not yet been released on Arena, so this is the only way to get the card in the game.
Shadow Over Innistrad Remastered Previews Coming Soon
MTG Arena is bringing another older set to the game, this time focusing on the 2016 set, Shadows Over Innistrad. While we don’t have much info to go on quite yet, Wizards of the Coast is planning on dropping the news soon.
Preferred Printing To Keep Your Favorite Variants
The long-awaited ability to choose a default version of a card is finally coming to Arena. You can now find your favorite printing of a card and set it to be the default when building your decks.
An easy way to see this in action is with your basic lands. While looking at your Collection screen you can go to the Advanced Filters to select only your Basic Lands. Normally you’d see all versions of all Basic Lands that are currently available to you on Arena. Now you’ll see just one of each type of Basic Land with a new double arrow icon on the top left corner of the card.
Clicking on this will bring up every version of that card. On the bottom right corner of the card there is a new heart icon. Clicking on the heart will set it to be your preferred printing, making it the default version to be used when you are browsing your collection or building a new deck.
Arena Open Phyrexia: All Will Be One Begins March 4
If you’re confident in your Phyrexia: All Will Be One limited skills, the Arena Open two-day event might just be for you. Players can earn Qualifier Weekend invitations and up to $2,000 in prizes if they do well in the event.
Day 1 of the event are Best-of-One and Best-of-Three Sealed Deck matches for Phyrexia: All Will Be One. If you do well enough in the Sealed event you will earn an invite to Day 2, with two Phyrexia: All Will Be One drafts and the big prizes await the top players. Check our our guide to Phyrexia: All Will Be One draft to prepare!
No matter how well you do, you can pick up an Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines Phyrexian-language card style just for participating.
Premiere Play March
Starting on March 3, a new round of Premier Play events are coming to Arena, starting with a Best-of-One Qualifier Play-In Standard event.
Then, on March 10, there is another Standard Qualifier Play-In event, but this time it is a Best-of-Three format. Once that event runs its course, the March Qualifier Weekend will kick off, taking place from March 11 to March 12. It is another Best-of-Three event, but now in a Traditional Standard format.
Other Events And More
Wrapping up the Announcements are a ton of upcoming dates and events.
Midweek Magic:
- February 28–March 2: Into the Future
- March 7–9: On the Edge
- March 14–16: Strixhaven: School of Mages Bot Draft
- March 21–23: Historic Pauper
Quick Draft
- February 17–March 2: Phyrexia: All Will Be One
- March 3–17: Innistrad: Crimson Vow
- March 17–31: Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Other Events
- February 28–March 10: Alchemy: Phyrexia Premier Draft
- March 10–21: Strixhaven: School of Mages Premier Draft
- March 17–20: Historic Metagame Challenge