MTG Arena Announcements – October 27, 2025

In this edition:

• Magic: The Gathering® | Avatar: The Last Airbender™ Preorders
• Arena Powered Cube
• Upcoming Alchemy Rebalances
• Arena Direct
• Event Schedule

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to include the section "A Quick Guide to Smart Priority for Powered Cube."

Magic: The Gathering | Avatar: The Last Airbender Preorders Start Tomorrow

Starting tomorrow, October 28, you can preorder three Magic: The Gathering | Avatar: The Last Airbender bundles! You can check out the contents of each bundle below.

Stay tuned, as we'll be sharing Set Mastery details and card-collecting information tomorrow, and the set's complete card image gallery will be live on November 7!

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Arena Powered Cube Begins!

Last week, we unveiled an exciting new event and cube: Arena Powered Cube. This supercharged cube introduces an array of Magic's spiciest and most powerful cards to MTG Arena for the first time. It was a massive, long-brewing undertaking by many teams here at Wizards, and we've loved seeing your reactions to the slate of articles and videos that followed to dive further into Powered Cube.

If you need to catch up, here are the articles we've published so far:

• Announcing Arena Powered Cube
• Arena Powered Cube Design and Card List
• Dev Diary: Creating Arena Powered Cube

Additionally, thanks to Luis Scott-Vargas (for TCGplayer) and Paul Cheon, you can watch two veteran Magic players take Powered Cube for a spin here and here.

As much fun as it's been rolling out this announcement, it all leads up to you being able to play Powered Cube, and you can do exactly that starting tomorrow, October 28!

A Quick Guide to Smart Priority for Powered Cube

First, what is smart priority? Well, MTG Arena has a basic set of rules as to when a player does and does not get priority. Typically, a player does not get priority in their own upkeep or their own end step. Additionally, a player usually does not get priority in response to a triggered ability they control.

Smart priority refers to a set of exceptions to those rules. This happens at times when you, as an experienced MTG Arena player, think "Oh, I'd better go into full control or set a stop on a phase where I don't normally get a stop." Except you don't, because smart priority does it for you.

This is a topic that even MTG Arena veterans can find confusing, so we figured we'd tell you which cards are affected by smart priority and which aren't. This includes some cards that are new to MTG Arena from Powered Cube.

Cards That Do Have Smart Priority

Urza's Saga
You will get priority to make a Construct or tap the Saga for mana with the third chapter trigger on the stack. Although, if you want to untap it with Candelabra of Tawnos and make two Constructs, then you will need to go into full control.

Solitude, Subtlety, Grief, Fury, and Endurance
You will get priority with the evoke sacrifice trigger on the stack if you want to use one of these creatures to crew a Smuggler's Copter, target it with Ephemerate, or pull off other shenanigans.

Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Similarly, you will get priority so that you can crew a Vehicle with one of these creatures, sacrifice it, and return it to your hand with Karakas, etc.

Flickerwisp and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd
When a permanent with an activated ability, such as The Wandering Emperor, returns to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of your end step after being blinked, you will get priority to activate that ability. If it taps for mana, you will get priority to use that mana.

Wilderness Reclamation and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
When a triggered ability would untap lands at the beginning of your end step, you will get priority to tap those lands to float mana in response. If you have floating mana in your end step, you will get priority to use that mana.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
When your opponent controls Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, you will get priority in your upkeep to remove it.

Lutri, the Spellchaser
If you cast an instant or sorcery spell while you have Lutri in your hand, you will get priority to cast Lutri and copy that spell.

Goblin Rabblemaster
If your opponent controls Goblin Rabblemaster during their first main phase, you will get priority to remove it before they go to combat.

Any Creature Flashed In During Your End Step
If your opponent flashes in a permanent during your end step, you will get priority so you can target it with a removal spell before they untap.

Cards That Do Not Have Smart Priority

Lion's Eye Diamond
Any time you want to do anything fancy with Lion's Eye Diamond, such as activating it in response to Timetwister or Yawgmoth's Will, you will need to go into full control.

Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor
If you want to cast one of these in upkeep, you will need to set a stop.

So Many Others …

Magic is a game about exploration! If you're going to make a fancy play not mentioned above, set a stop or go into full control. It's better to be safe than sorry.

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Upcoming Alchemy Rebalances

We're making a few rebalances (and reverting some changes) for Alchemy. These changes will be coming to MTG Arena tomorrow, October 28. Here are those changes and our reasoning:

Waystone's Guidance is perhaps the strongest and most polarizing card in Alchemy. It's present in almost every aggressive white deck. In addition to setting up a two-card combo with Thunderbond Vanguard, it makes all of your creatures following it must-answer threats, condensing games into removal-check situations. Pulling back on the rate here will open up the design space of Alchemy and make more cards and strategies viable.

In general, we overshot on the mobilize numbers in Alchemy: Tarkir. Mardu Thunderkite is strong on its own, but it is especially brutal when cast off of Three Tree Battalion. This Dragon can turn games around even if Waystone's Guidance is answered. This has made Mardu Mobilize a dominant deck on multiple axes of the game. By slightly curbing the Thunderkite's mobilize ability, we hope to reduce how swingy the deck is while keeping its core playable.

For the low cost of one red mana, Swiftspear's Teachings sets up explosive lines of play directly from hand while maintaining card parity. When paired with Vivi Ornitier in Blue-Red Prowess strategies, it can lead to wins in a single turn. This is a play pattern we would prefer to keep out of Alchemy, so we considered larger adjustments here but felt that we could preserve a role for the card in the format while addressing other play-pattern issues with its partner Vivi Ornitier.

While Vivi Ornitier misses the persistent value of Agatha's Soul Cauldron in Alchemy, the power of Swiftspear's Teachings and Illuminating Lash have made up for that and propelled him to a mainstay of the format. We have several goals in this adjustment. One of those is to distinguish Alchemy from Standard by toning down the presence of Blue-Red Prowess, which has been a top deck in both formats. A second is to reallocate format-wide power away from single-turn plays that dictate the course of the game. By adding to this card's mana ability, a Vivi Ornitier backed by a Swiftspear boon can no longer deal massive damage from hand without additional help. A shift to requiring multiple cards of setup rather than a single efficient one should ease some of the frustrations when playing against decks that rely on mobilize and prowess.

We've enjoyed the incentives of the buffed Fountainport Charmer to put more expensive cards in your deck, but with the changes to components of other top decks, we felt it was time to take the Charmer back down a notch. Without the curve of Llanowar Elves into Offspringed Charmer, this card should be less ubiquitous in green-based decks while its maintaining strength as a two-mana play in Starfield Vocalist and Dragon decks.

We're buffing some Alchemy: Edge of Eternities build-around cards that have some room to grow. Network Marauder has big dreams, but it was a little too fragile to realize them. A little resilience may help it trigger more reliably.

The Star-Captain is a neat value creature, but its ability lacked impact. We're strengthening its stationing power to help get your Spacecraft going even faster.

It can be a chore to station a cheap Spacecraft like Candela all the way. With an additional power in the air, the reward of reaching eight charge counters may be more worth it. 

Asking players to spend additional mana after reaching max speed was too much on the Skytech. Perhaps it'll find more of a niche in this sleeker shape.

Lurker in the Deep is a unique build-around for Seek decks that have been too slow for the metagame. Having it come online a turn faster will help justify its low tempo as a four-mana play.

Xho Cai does a lot of things, but it does none of them especially well. We want to put some more emphasis on the long-term value of the flurry ability by increasing Xho Cai's resilience, putting the card closer in line with Mardu Thunderkite. With this, could Jeskai Prowess have some legs (or wings) over the traditional Blue-Red Prowess build?

We've started looking into cards that were adjusted for reasons that are no longer relevant and reverting them to match their tabletop counterparts. The Meathook Massacre and Fires of Invention were cards that were too impactful for past versions of Historic, but the current format can support them. These changes will also impact Brawl.

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Arena Direct: Outlaws of Thunder Junction Sealed

Sharpen your spurs and practice your steeliest gaze, because the next Arena Direct is days away! Arena Directs are events that allow MTG Arena players to compete to win physical Magic: The Gathering cards. From October 31–November 2, competitors will play Outlaws of Thunder Junction Sealed. In addition to MTG Arena gems and packs, players can win Outlaws of Thunder Junction Play Booster boxes!

For complete event details, please visit the Arena Direct page here.

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MTG Arena Is Now Available on Steam for MacOS

In case you missed it in all the commotion last week, we wanted to highlight that there's officially a new way to play MTG Arena, as it's now available to download and play via Steam for MacOS! Steam users can add it to their library, log into their MTG Arena account, and dive right in.

System requirements and other information are available on MTG Arena's Steam Store page. Playing MTG Arena through Steam requires a Steam account and an MTG Arena account. If you're not already a Steam user, creating an account is free, and you can find more information here.

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Upcoming Qualifier Events

There's still one Qualifier Play-In event remaining for the November 2025 ranked season. The Best-of-Three Play-In is taking place on October 31, followed by the Qualifier Weekend from November 1–2. The format for November Qualifier is Historic Constructed.

Qualifier Play-In winners will earn an invitation to that month's Qualifier Weekend. Top Finishers from the Qualifier Weekend will win invitations to compete in the next Arena Championship, currently scheduled for Spring 2026!

Complete Qualifier Play-In and Qualifier Weekend details can be found here.

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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-07:00; UTC-08:00 after November 2) 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-07:00; UTC-08:00 after November 2).

• October 28–30: Through the Omenpaths Omniscience Draft
• November 4–6: Artisan Brawl
• November 11–13: Through the Omenpaths Phantom Bot Draft
• November 14–16: Pioneer Metagame Challenge

Quick Draft

• October 28–November 11: Through the Omenpaths
• November 12–27: Tarkir: Dragonstorm
• November 27–December 9: Magic: The Gathering | Avatar: The Last Airbender

Flashback Draft

• October 28–November 4: Outlaws of Thunder Junction
• November 4–11: Magic: The Gathering Foundations
• November 11–17: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

Competitive Play Schedule

All times listed are Pacific time (UTC-07:00; UTC-08:00 after November 2).

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!

November Qualifier Format: Historic

• October 25: Best-of-One Qualifier Play-In
• October 31: Best-of-Three Qualifier Play-In
• November 1–2: Qualifier Weekend

Season Rewards

Players will receive their rewards for the October 2025 season at the start of the November 2025 ranked season (12:05 p.m. PT on October 31).

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

• Bronze Reward: 1 Through the Omenpaths pack
• Silver Reward: 1 Through the Omenpaths pack + 500 gold
• Gold Reward: 2 Through the Omenpaths packs + 1,000 gold + Rhino's Rampage card style
• Platinum Reward: 3 Through the Omenpaths packs + 1,000 gold + Rhino's Rampage card style + Multiversal Passage card style
• Diamond Reward: 4 Through the Omenpaths packs + 1,000 gold + Rhino's Rampage card style + Multiversal Passage card style
• Mythic Reward: 5 Through the Omenpaths packs + 1,000 gold + Rhino's Rampage card style + Multiversal Passage card style

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