MTG Arena Announcements – February 9, 2026

In this edition:

• Arena Powered Cube Returns
• Alchemy Rebalances and More
• Lorwyn Eclipsed Sealed Arena Direct
• Event Schedule

Arena Powered Cube Returns

The prodigal polygon is back! From February 10–March 2, a new iteration of Arena Powered Cube will beckon you to the battlefield with the lure of a supercharged deck! For insights into this edition of Arena Powered Cube, as well as an exploration of the design and thought processes behind it, the intrepid Zach Barash wrote up a stellar article that was published this morning. 

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Alchemy Rebalances and Changes to Alchemy, Historic, and Timeless

We also published a new banned and restricted announcement detailing changes to Alchemy, Historic, and Timeless. For a comprehensive list of the changes, as well as the rationale behind them, check out the article here.

We're also rebalancing several cards for our digital-only formats. Some of these changes are aimed at weakening problematic decks in Alchemy and Historic, and others are meant to revitalize strategies that are popular but not equally effective. Here are the changes:

Kona has consistently risen in presence in Best-of-One Alchemy since the release of Alchemy: Edge of Eternities, and it boasts by far the highest win rate of the ten most popular archetypes in that queue. Though the typical combo requires three pieces—Kona, a Planet, and Omniscience—the deck has unparalleled consistency thanks to Brood Astronomer providing extra Planets and Formidable Speaker tutoring up Kona. Thanks to this, Kona effectively places a turn-four deadline on the format, forcing players to hold up removal or risk dying from hand. The acceleration offered by Fountainport Charmer and Brood Astronomer means that turn four sometimes becomes turn three, which is certainly faster than we want for a deck this popular and effective.

Increasing Kona's cost limits the speed of the combo, removing the most polar turn-three kills and widening the window for interaction against the deck. Players will have more time to find removal and targeted discard, or to assemble a lethal attack, and can feel more comfortable playing to the board in a format where that is a lot of the appeal.

Val, Marooned Surveyor
• Cost: (was )
• "Val deals 2 damage to each opponent and you gain 2 life" (was "Val deals 1 damage to each opponent and you gain 1 life")

Val Combo is the most popular and effective creature combo deck in Historic. It uses Break Out, Green Sun's Zenith, and Birthing Ritual to swiftly assemble the combination of Trelasarra, Moon Dancer and Val, Marooned Surveyor, ending the game with a trigger from Prosperous Innkeeper or Guide of Souls. This deck is surprisingly resilient on top of being fast, and as the list has been iterated on and optimized, it has emerged as a clear power outlier in the format. We considered a smaller change to Val but believe it will be healthier for Historic if Val is at a cost where she is no longer a consideration for optimized strategies.

Although this rebalance is targeted primarily toward Historic, we also wish to redefine the card's role in Brawl. Ideally, with the increased damage per trigger, Val will be more appealing to build around for repeatedly triggering off scrying, surveilling, and seeking rather than solely used for its main combo with Trelasarra.

Though Lizards had a stint of popularity in Standard, they never took off in Alchemy, in large part due to the safer rates on these two cards. Both Dazzling Flameweaver and Marshland Hordemaster have plenty of room for additional power, so we're increasing the efficiency on both to give Lizards the additional content they deserve in the format.

With the arrival of Alchemy: Lorwyn, we added several cards that sow the seeds of a Storm deck. We're excited about the potential to distinguish Alchemy and other digital formats from Standard with a fresh, somewhat transgressive archetype, and are reducing the cost of these little-played support cards as part of that. Both Charged Conjuration and Tempest Trapper offer needed mana generation for a Storm deck in addition to a payoff, and at three mana, they may now be worthy considerations to play alongside cards like Limitless Rekindling.

Ever since the arrival of Golden Sidekick to Alchemy, White-Black Bats has been the most popular deck across all levels of the ladder. Despite the deck's consistently high presence, it has never been among the strongest archetypes in the format. We're giving a little resilience to this fun, uniquely digital piece of the Bat deck to support players who love gaining life.

We were cautious with Polterheist's power level at the time it was designed due to the popularity and polarity of the Heist deck in Alchemy. We didn't want to risk adding yet another piece to a strategy that had been established as strong and sometimes frustrating. Now that the Heist deck has been gone for a while, we believe it's safe to have one or two cards in the format that utilize the mechanic and are playable rather than weak. These buffs will allow the Polterheist to stick around longer while getting in attacks.

While the nerf to Recruit Instructor last year was necessary, it has pushed Mice down further than we expected in ladder presence. A resilience buff to a different, more expensive piece of the deck may help put it back on the radar, as the bones of the deck should still be quite effective.

Poor Ethrimik has had the reputation of being the weakest mythic rare Alchemy card. It clearly has some room for additional strength, so we're reducing the cost to three to put it in line with traditional anthems.

Internally, we were concerned about a permanent toughness boost on a repeatedly triggering permanent and shipped Network Marauder with only a power-granting effect. The card hasn't been able to find a home in its current state. We want to support new and narrow build-arounds to be sufficiently aspirational, so we're trying a large buff here by giving you an additional toughness on each trigger. Though this change is almost strictly a buff, it should be noted that the Marauder can now die to a two-damage effect with its trigger on the stack.

Despite its popularity, Prototype X-8 is one of the lowest win rate commanders in Brawl. This change makes it easier to achieve and maintain its floor of a casting cost, even with commander tax, on top of lowering the deck-building cost. Hopefully the increased efficiency will also give the card more legs in Alchemy Constructed.

Sliver Weftwinder is another popular commander that has even seen play in Historic Slivers decks. Adding to its similarities with Prototype X-8, it also boasts a comparably tepid win rate. We are likely to ship a larger buff to this card in the future, but for now, we're adding a power and a toughness, on the house.

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Arena Direct: Lorwyn Eclipsed Sealed
(February 13–15)

The second Lorwyn Eclipsed Arena Direct is this weekend! Players will try to rack up wins in Best-of-One matches of Sealed play using Lorwyn Eclipsed packs. The spoils of victory range from MTG Arena packs and gems up to Lorwyn Eclipsed Play Booster boxes while supplies last!

More details can be found here. Full terms and conditions are available here.

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Arena Championship 11
(February 21–22)

Arena Championship 11 is coming up soon! Arena Championships are the pinnacle of competitive MTG Arena events. Elite players will battle it out for a piece of the $250,000 prize pool, and you can watch all the action from wherever you are on twitch.tv/magic.

Complete event details, including the lineup of competitors, their decklists, and a viewer's guide, will be shared soon!

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Event Schedule

Events open at 8 a.m. PT on their starting dates (excluding Midweek Magic) and close to entries at 8 a.m. PT (UTC-08:00; UTC-07:00 after March 8) on the end date shown unless otherwise noted.

Midweek Magic

Midweek Magic events open on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. PT and close to new entries on Thursdays at 2 p.m. PT (UTC-08:00; UTC-07:00 after March 8).

• February 3–5: Historic Pauper
• February 10–12: Lorwyn Eclipsed Brawl Builder Challenge
• February 17–19: Phantom Golden Pack Sealed
• February 24–26: Lorwyn Eclipsed Phantom Sealed
• March 3–5: Jump In

Quick Draft

• February 9–22: Through the Omenpaths
• February 23–March 11: Lorwyn Eclipsed

Flashback Draft

• February 10–16: Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™
• February 17–23: Tarkir: Dragonstorm
• February 24–March 2: Magic: The Gathering® | Avatar: The Last Airbender™

Other Events

• February 3–16: Alchemy: Lorwyn Draft
• February 10–March 2: Arena Powered Cube
• February 13–15: Lorwyn Eclipsed Sealed Arena Direct

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Competitive Play Schedule

All times listed are Pacific time (UTC-08:00; UTC-07:00 after March 8).

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!

March Qualifier Format: Magic: The Gathering® | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sealed

• March 21: Best-of-One Qualifier Play-In
• March 27: Best-of-Three Qualifier Play-In
• March 28–29: Qualifier Weekend

February Season Rewards

Players will receive their rewards for the February 2026 season at the start of the March 2026 ranked season (12:05 p.m. PT on February 28).

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

• Bronze Reward: 1 Lorwyn Eclipsed pack
• Silver Reward: 1 Lorwyn Eclipsed pack + 500 gold
• Gold Reward: 2 Lorwyn Eclipsed packs + 1,000 gold + Spell Snare card style
• Platinum Reward: 3 Lorwyn Eclipsed packs + 1,000 gold + Spell Snare and Figure of Fable card styles
• Diamond Reward: 4 Lorwyn Eclipsed packs + 1,000 gold + Spell Snare and Figure of Fable card styles
• Mythic Reward: 5 Lorwyn Eclipsed packs + 1,000 gold + Spell Snare and Figure of Fable card styles

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