MTG Arena Announcements – March 3, 2025

In this edition:

• Alchemy: Aetherdrift Rolls into MTG Arena Tomorrow!
• The House Is Getting Drafty for the Next Arena Direct
• Celebrate Sparky's Birthday on March 6
• We Spring Ahead One Hour for Daylight Saving Time on March 9
• Find Fast and Furious Offerings in the MTG Arena Store
• Battle Your Buddies with New Brawl Decks
• Alchemy Rebalances for March 4, 2025
• Event Schedule

Alchemy: Aetherdrift Rolls into MTG Arena Tomorrow!

There are 30 new Alchemy cards coming to MTG Arena tomorrow, March 4, with the release of Alchemy: Aetherdrift! You can see all of the cards now in the completed Alchemy: Aetherdrift Card Image Gallery.

Among these new cards are two featuring spellbooks: Support Skyforge and Masterpiece Vault. Check these out and the cards in their spellbooks in the Alchemy: Aetherdrift Spellbooks article.

The House Is Getting Drafty for the Next Arena Direct

There's a cold wind blowing through Duskmourn, and, coming March 7–9 for the next Arena Direct event, there'll be a definite draft chilling its dark corridors. For the first time ever, Arena Direct will feature Best-of-One Draft matches! Play your way to six wins, and you'll score two physical Duskmourn: House of Horror Play Booster boxes delivered to you.

Want to train for Arena Direct? Put in some reps in the Duskmourn: House of Horror Premier Draft event March 4–9 to pump up your drafting skills with the set!

Celebrate Sparky's Birthday on March 6!

It's almost March 6, Sparky's birthday! You may ask yourself, "How does an artificial tutorial assistant in a digital card game have a birthday?" And we would say, "Because we said so!" Also, it's the day her code was committed, and that's basically a digital birthday.

And look! All of Sparky's Planeswalker friends are coming to throw her a party! We're hosting the Sparky Day event on March 6, where you can play with one of five preconstructed Brawl decks, each helmed by a planeswalker:

• Ajani, Strength of the Pride
• Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• Jace Reawakened
• Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator
• Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord

Get ready for a birthday Brawl to honor our planeswalking pal!

We Spring Ahead One Hour for Daylight Saving Time on March 9

As we prepare for our return to Tarkir, time is getting appropriately weird and wild. Starting on March 9, in accordance with daylight saving time, our MTG Arena Pacific Time Zone clocks spring forward one hour. There's truly nothing scarier than having to wake up early.

This applies to all scheduled MTG Arena events, so be aware that if you're playing in the Duskmourn: House of Horror Arena Direct event, it straddles the time change: it closes to new entries on March 10 at 8 a.m. PDT (15:00 UTC) and ends at 11 a.m. PDT (18:00 UTC).

Fast and Furious Offerings in the MTG Arena Store

We're opening up the garage for you to customize your decks with some special offers in the MTG Arena Store. Step into our showroom beginning March 4—we'll have something for everyone.

Historic Anthology 4 and Historic Anthology 5 are returning to the MTG Arena Store, each offering iconic cards from across the history of Magic. From Pouncers to Praetors, they're perfect for the enterprising deck builder.

Chill out and play with these retro frame snow lands! With artwork straight out of Ice Age, you can bring old-school Magic into the digital realm!

And there's much, much more! Check out all of these cards and cosmetics in the MTG Arena Store. We can't wait to see all your stylish and stunning builds out in the wild.

Battle Your Buddies with New Brawl Decks

We've got five new champion Brawl decks, each helmed by a powerful legendary creature that's ready to take on the metagame! As with past MTG Arena Store decks, the prices are prorated: you only pay for the cards you don't have in your collection!

Alchemy Rebalances for March 4, 2025

We have a few card rebalances to announce for Alchemy.

Golden Sidekick

• 1/3 (was 2/2)

Alchemy Bats have surged in popularity since the release of the little sidekick that could. We enjoy a good lifegain build-around as much as anyone, but the Sidekick is very capable of snowballing on its own, granting an amount of stats disproportionate to its cost just by attacking and blocking. By dinging the Sidekick's power, we hope to lessen its immediate board impact while improving its resilience and preserving its ceiling in dedicated lifegain shells.

Impetuous Lootmonger

Original: Whenever you cast a spell you don't own, create a Treasure token.

New: Whenever you cast a spell you don't own, create a tapped Treasure token.

While Heist has never had a problematically high winrate, its persistently high presence means that your own cards being used against you is a larger part of the Alchemy experience than we'd like. The Lootmonger has been on our radar for a while now as another two-mana play with a high floor that can dominate games when unanswered. We're aiming to cut into its ceiling, and hopefully some of the frustration of heist, by removing the pattern of chaining heisted plays in the middle game.

Buxton, Decorated Host

• Cost: (was )

Rabbits have the most imposing curve-out of all creature decks in Alchemy, with the combination of Hop to It and Buxton creating an insurmountable board presence as early as turn three. These draws are common enough that we want to create some counterplay for strategies without board wipes. By increasing Buxton's cost, decks utilizing him will be less explosive and give other creature decks more time to develop the board.

Ethrimik, Imagined Fiend

Original: When Ethrimik enters, if you control no other creatures, manifest dread.

New: When Ethrimik enters, manifest dread.

Ethrimik has stayed imagined since its release, being woefully hard to use and functioning mostly as an expensive anthem. We're upping its floor to make it a more real consideration for decks looking to go wide.

Wingbright Thief

• Cost: (was )
• 2/2 (was 2/3)

Awestruck Cygnet has plenty of potential but has so far lacked the support it needs to realize it. This adjustment to Wingbright Thief gives Birds a much-needed two-mana play to get the fliers rolling just a bit quicker.

Chittering Illuminator

• Cost: (was )
• 2/2 (was 3/3)

Chittering Illuminator fills a unique card advantage role for green creature decks but has struggled to make its intended impact at three mana. We're trying a sleeker shape to give those decks some staying power.

Dazzling Flameweaver

Original: Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, conjure a random card from Dazzling Flameweaver's spellbook into exile. You may play that card this turn.

New: Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, conjure a random card from Dazzling Flameweaver's spellbook into exile. You may play that card until the end of your next turn.

This is a quality-of-life change for Dazzling Flameweaver, allowing you to retain access to the conjured card when playing it on curve. This also lets the spectacle cost reduction matter just a bit more.

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, after March 9 UTC-07:00) on the ending 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, after March 9 UTC-07:00).

• March 4–6: Into the Future
• March 11–13: Slow Start
• March 18–20: Standard Cascade

Quick Draft

• February 25–March 6: Aetherdrift
• March 7–17: Magic: The Gathering Foundations
• March 18–31: Aetherdrift

Other Events

• March 4–9: Premier Draft Duskmourn: House of Horror
• March 4–17: Premier Draft Alchemy: Aetherdrift
• March 7–9: Standard Metagame Challenge

March Qualifier Events

• March 15: Best-of-One Play-In Standard
• March 16: BONUS Best-of-One Play-In Aetherdrift Sealed
• March 21: Best-of-Three Play-In Standard
• March 22–23: Qualifier Weekend Standard

Competitive Play Schedule

All times listed are Pacific time (UTC-08:00, after March 9 UTC-07:00).

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 (Qualifies for Arena Championship 9)

• Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-One)
  March 15, 6 a.m.–March 16, 3 a.m. PT
  • Format: Standard
• BONUS Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-One)
  March 16, 5 a.m.–March 17, 5 a.m. PT
  • Format: Aetherdrift Sealed
• Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-Three)
  March 21, 6 a.m. PT–March 22, 3 a.m. PT
  • Format: Standard
• Qualifier Weekend
  March 22, 6 a.m. PT–March 23, 4 p.m. PT
• Format: Standard

March 2025 Ranked Season

The March 2025 Ranked Season begins February 28, 2025, at 12:05 p.m. PT (UTC-08:00) and ends March 31, 2025, at 12 p.m. PT (UTC-08:00).

• Bronze Reward: 1 Aetherdrift pack
• Silver Reward: 1 Aetherdrift pack + 500 gold
• Gold Reward: 2 Aetherdrift packs + 1,000 gold + Locust Spray card style
• Platinum Reward: 3 Aetherdrift packs + 1,000 gold + Locust Spray card style + Skyseer's Chariot card style
• Diamond Reward: 4 Aetherdrift packs + 1,000 gold + Locust Spray card style + Skyseer's Chariot card style
• Mythic Reward: 5 Aetherdrift packs + 1,000 gold + Locust Spray card style + Skyseer's Chariot card style