MTG Arena Announcements – March 27, 2023

In this edition:

• March of the Machine Preorder Bundles on Sale Tomorrow!
• Changes to the New Player Experience
• Ride the Premier Play Wave to Arena Championship 3!
• Shadows of the Past This Week: Fatal Flashback!
• Emrakul's Journey to Shadow over Innistrad Remastered
• Acorns in April
• Event Schedule

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March of the Machine Preorder Bundles on Sale Tomorrow!

Preorder bundles for March of the Machine go on sale tomorrow, March 28. With three different bundles, you can find the one that fits the way you play—or the two, or all three!

 

Changes to the New Player Experience

We're making changes to help players new to Magic build their knowledge and skills more smoothly. The first steps include opening a new event called Starter Deck Duels and adding a new tier of ranked play called the Spark Rank that will help players master the basics of Magic before diving into ranked play.

If you know what you're doing, you can skip all the tutorial elements by selecting Adjust Options in the upper right and then Account. Select the Skip Tutorial option and confirm your choice, and you'll bypass the tutorial.

Ride the Premier Play Wave to Arena Championship 3!

A tide of Premier Play events is rolling in, starting this weekend, that could carry you all the way to Arena Championship 3. And lovers of the Explorer format, there are several chances here to show off your skill!

This Weekend

No April Fool's fooling around this weekend! We have two events happening that could earn you entry to April or May Qualifier Weekends:

• Qualifier Play-In, April 1
  Explorer format
  Top players earn an invitation to the April 8 Qualifier Weekend.
• Arena Open, April 1–2
  Shadows over Innistrad Remastered Limited formats with Fatal Flashback!
  Top players can earn up to $2,000 and an invitation to the May 13 Qualifier Weekend.

Next Weekend

The weekend following this coming one will feature two events, including the big April Qualifier Weekend—and your last chance to qualify for Arena Championship 3:

• Qualifier Play-In, April 7
  Explorer format
  Top players earn an invitation to the April 8 Qualifier Weekend.
• Qualifier Weekend, April 8–9
  Explorer format
  Top players earn an invitation to Arena Championship 3.

See you on the battlefield!

Shadows of the Past This Week: Fatal Flashback!

We're entering the second week of the Shadows of the Past card themes! March 28–April 4 it's Fatal Flashback!

We are rotating the Shadows of the Past cards that appear in Shadows over Innistrad Remastered Limited events each week, through April 18.

Fatal Flashback! cards will also be appearing in the Arena Open Shadows over Innistrad Remastered Limited event, April 1–2, and in Midweek Magic's Shadows over Innistrad Remastered Phantom Sealed event this week.

Get all the details on Shadows of the Past and the theme schedule.

Emrakul's Journey to Shadows over Innistrad Remastered

Emrakul, The Promised End is a powerful and fun card. It also posed serious challenges when bringing it over to MTG Arena—so much so that it almost didn't happen.

Read the whole story behind how MTG Arena's engineering team made it work in Ian Adam's article, "Why I Decided Not to Do Emrakul, and How We Shipped It Anyway."

Acorns in April

Check with your local game store for a pop-up event from March 31 to April 2 called Acorns in April. The event embraces the zany fun of the Unfinity and Unsanctioned sets.

Participants in the Acorns in April event who use the Magic: The Gathering Companion app to join (be sure to log into the app with the same Wizards account you use to log into MTG Arena) will receive the Space Beleren sleeve in their MTG Arena inboxes approximately a week after participating!

Event Schedule

Events open on the starting date at 8 a.m. PT (excluding Midweek Magic) and close to entries at 8 a.m. PT (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-07:00).

• March 28–30: Shadows over Innistrad Remastered Phantom Sealed
• April 4–6: Innistrad Constructed (MID, VOW, and SIR sets)
• April 11–13: Momir
• April 18–20: Jump In!

Quick Draft

• March 17–31: Phyrexia: All Will Be One
• March 31–April 14: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
• April 14–28: Phyrexia: All Will Be One
• April 28–May 12: March of the Machine

Other Events

• March 21–April 18: Shadows over Innistrad Remastered Premier Draft
  Shadows of the Past schedule:
  • Week 1: Creature Type Terror!
  • Week 2: Fatal Flashback!
  • Week 3: Morbid and Macabre!
  • Week 4: Abominable All Stars!
• March 24­–27: Explorer Metagame Challenge
• April 6–10: Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Premier Draft
• April 10–18: Tinkerer's Cube

Premier Play Schedule

All times listed are Pacific time (UTC-07:00).

Qualifier Events

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 will be delivered through the MTG Arena player inbox. Remember to claim them before the event starts!

April

• Qualifier Play-In – Best-of-One
  April 1, 6 a.m. PT–April 2, 6 a.m. PT
  • Format: Explorer
• Qualifier Play-In – Best-of-Three
  April 7, 6 a.m. PT–April 8, 3 a.m. PT
  • Format: Traditional Explorer
• Qualifier Weekend
  April 8, 6 a.m. PT–April 9, 4 p.m. PT
  • Format: Traditional Explorer
  • Last event to qualify for Arena Championship 3!

Arena Open

The Arena Open Day One entry window begins at 6 a.m. PT and closes to new entries the following day at 3 a.m. PT (UTC-07:00). The Day Two entry window is 2 hours only, from 6 a.m. PT until 8 a.m. PT (UTC-07:00).

• Arena Open April 1–2
  • Day One, April 1: Shadows over Innistrad Remastered Sealed (Best-of-One and Best-of-Three) + Fatal Flashback! Shadows of the Past
  • Day Two, April 2: Shadows over Innistrad Remastered Traditional Player Draft + Fatal Flashback! Shadows of the Past
    There are two Player Draft events on Day Two.

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