MTG Arena Announcements – April 20, 2026

In this edition:

• Secrets of Strixhaven Release
• Historic Pre-Bans
• Buy-a-Box Promotions Return on MTG Arena
• Event Schedule

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Secrets of Strixhaven Release

It's time to go back to school, and we couldn't be more delighted. Secrets of Strixhaven comes to MTG Arena tomorrow, April 21!

To celebrate our return to Strixhaven's hallowed halls, the academic calendar is full of fun events. New Secrets of Strixhaven Limited events will begin tomorrow, including Premier Draft, Traditional Draft, and Pick-Two Draft. Tomorrow will also see two Secrets of Strixhaven Sealed events begin: Best-of-Three Sealed and the return of Factionalized Sealed in a Best-of-One event.

There's a lot more in store as the academic term goes on, so be sure to peruse the Secrets of Strixhaven event schedule for the whole picture.

Arena Direct: Secrets of Strixhaven Sealed
(May 1–3)

The first Secrets of Strixhaven Arena Direct is coming soon! From May 1–3, competitors will square off in matches of Best-of-One Secrets of Strixhaven Sealed. Players will have the chance to win gems, MTG Arena packs, and even Secrets of Strixhaven Collector Booster boxes, while supplies last!

Event details are available here, and the full Arena Direct terms and conditions can be found here.

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Historic Pre-Bans

By Daniel Xu

As part of the release of Secrets of Strixhaven, we're pre-banning five cards in Historic. Keep reading for a list of the cards and a bit of insight regarding why they're being banned in Historic.

• Armageddon
• Daze
• Force of Will
• Vampiric Tutor
• Library of Alexandria

We were excited to see the variety of decks from the Historic Qualifier earlier this month and are looking forward to featuring the format at Arena Championship 12 on May 23–24. Izzet Phoenix and Golgari Yawgmoth were two of the surprise performers from the Historic Qualifier event, while the pre-event favorites, Jund and Dimir, fell behind on Day Two. We will continue to monitor ladder and event data to ensure that there are no egregious power outliers ahead of the Arena Championship, but for now the format appears to be in a healthy spot. To maintain that, we are pre-banning several of the most powerful Mystical Archive cards that have been added to MTG Arena with Secrets of Strixhaven.

• Armageddon is a transgressive, swingy spell that violates our format heuristics on land destruction. It's possible that it is at an acceptable power level for our most competitive players, but it's not an effect we want available in our Historic queues and at less-competitive levels.


• Daze is a free counterspell that is widely applicable to blue decks in formats with condensed games. On top of violating our heuristics on free spells, we believe that the combination of Daze with threats such as Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student and Psychic Frog is too much for the Historic format as a whole.


• Force of Will is perhaps the most powerful counterspell ever printed, allowing any deck with blue cards to answer threats at any time. Although Historic may be a high-power format, we aspire to keep it slow enough that Force of Will is not necessary to keep proactive strategies in check.


• Vampiric Tutor is a quintessential combo enabler, allowing players to find their missing combo piece at the cost of one mana. Its speed and efficiency for decks such as Reanimator or Aquatic Subtlety Combo is unmatched. We are willing to try it in Timeless but suspect it may even need to be restricted there.


• Library of Alexandria offers the rare effect of one-mana card advantage from the land row, provided your deck is built to meet its requirements. Drawing even one card off of Library is powerful, and in a format with efficient spells like Historic, many different strategies are poised to take advantage of it. As an overall power outlier, Library of Alexandria is pre-banned.

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Buy-a-Box Promotions Return on MTG Arena

We heard your feedback, and we're happy to announce the return of Buy-a-Box promotions on MTG Arena! Beginning with Secrets of Strixhaven, purchases of the 45-pack offering will come with one rare card from the set, and the 90-pack offering will come with two rare cards from the set. We appreciate the response from the MTG Arena community and hope this change will bring back the excitement that comes from opening a box of Magic cards.

Secrets of Strixhaven Preorders

Secrets of Strixhaven's Pack and Play preorder bundles are still available in the MTG Arena Store for a short while longer! The bundles come packed with special items and are great ways to beef up your Secrets of Strixhaven collection or top off your supply of tokens for competitive play events.

Secrets of Strixhaven Story

One of the coolest parts of a new Magic set is getting to see the narrative underpinning play out with Magic's gifted, thoughtful storytellers. As one would reasonably expect from a set concerning the Multiverse's most storied bastion of higher education, Secrets of Strixhaven is no exception! Over six main story episodes and five side stories, K. Arsenault Rivera and a coterie of Magic's narrative scholars have told the stories of Magic's return to Strixhaven, and they are the epitome of recommended reading.

All episodes can be read on DailyMTG or listened to on The Magic Story Podcast.

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Event Schedule

The full Secrets of Strixhaven event schedule begins tomorrow, April 21, and can be found here.

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Competitive Play Schedule

All times listed are Pacific time (UTC-07:00; UTC-08:00 after November 1).

Premier Play

Qualifier Play-In events are single-day tournaments in which players compete to earn invitations to that month's Qualifier Weekend events.

Qualifier Weekend events are two-day events in which eligible players compete for invitations to upcoming Arena Championship events.

Qualifier tokens earned through Seasonal Rewards are delivered to your MTG Arena inbox. Remember to claim them before the event starts!

May Qualifier Set and Format: Secrets of Strixhaven Sealed

• May 9: Best-of-One Qualifier Play-In
• May 15: Best-of-Three Qualifier Play-In
• May 16–17: Qualifier Weekend

April Season Rewards

Players will receive their rewards for the April 2026 season at the start of the May 2026 ranked season (12:05 p.m. PT on April 30).

You must have played at least one ranked game in the respective format to receive seasonal rewards.

• Bronze Reward: 1 Secrets of Strixhaven pack
• Silver Reward: 1 Secrets of Strixhaven pack + 500 gold
• Gold Reward: 2 Secrets of Strixhaven packs + 1,000 gold + Lumaret's Favor card style
• Platinum Reward: 3 Secrets of Strixhaven packs + 1,000 gold + Lumaret's Favor and Pox Plague card styles
• Diamond Reward: 4 Secrets of Strixhaven packs + 1,000 gold + Lumaret's Favor and Pox Plague card styles
• Mythic Reward: 5 Secrets of Strixhaven packs + 1,000 gold + Lumaret's Favor and Pox Plague card styles

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