In this edition:

Magic: The Gathering Foundations logo

Preorders End Tomorrow for Magic: The Gathering Foundations!

Magic: The Gathering Foundations arrives tomorrow, November 12, and you have less than a day to get in your preorders!

There are a lot of cards in this set, and you can see each of them and how to get them in MTG Arena by visiting the Magic: The Gathering Foundations Card Image Gallery. For a look at mechanics in the set—including changes to damage assignment order when blocking—visit the Magic: The Gathering Foundations Mechanics article.

Here's quick video of how the new damage assignment looks in MTG Arena.

In this example, let's say you attack with your 4/4 creature, and your opponent blocks it with two creatures: a 2/3 and a 5/3. They then slip in a Fanatical Strength buff for their 5/3 creature, giving it +3/+3 and bringing it up to 8/6.

Here's where blocking changes: You now get to assign your 4/4 creature's damage between your opponents two blockers as you see fit. In this case, you divide it into 3 damage against your opponent's 2/3—which defeats that blocker—and the remaining 1 damage you assign the buffed 8/6, leaving it hurt but alive to fight another day.

Magic: The Gathering Foundations Upcoming Events

Foundations Events, Sealed, Draft, Premier Draft, and Foundations Jumpstart! A humanoid owl creates green magical swirls in the sky before an impressed audience, card art for Genesis Wave, art by Arif Wijaya

We have new events featuring Foundations arriving with the new set on November 12, including Best-of-One and Traditional Sealed and Draft events, as well as a Magic: The Gathering Foundations Premier Draft.

These will give you some practice with the new set and get you ready for competitive events over the coming weeks, like the bonus Qualifier Play-In on Sunday, November 17, the next Arena Open on November 30, and a popular event returning on November 22 that we'll have more details on soon.

Plus, you don't want to miss the Foundations Jumpstart event next week, beginning November 19 and continuing until December 3. Play to add cards from the Foundations Jumpstart set to your collection and save some wildcards!

Collecting Foundations on MTG Arena with a gesticulating researcher shouting, his hair white and wild about his head

Magic: The Gathering Foundations is a big set. In addition to the main set and Foundations Jumpstart, on the tabletop side there is also the Starter Collection and Beginner Box. You can read more about these products in our article on collecting Foundations, but they're both designed to help players new to Magic learn how to play and build their initial card collections.

Since MTG Arena is a digital game, we have different tools to help players get that initial collection: we just give players decks. With the launch of Magic: The Gathering Foundations tomorrow (November 12), you'll find ten new decks in your inbox. These are the "preview versions" of our new, Foundations-based decks for new players. They still need a bit of balance and refinement before they're ready for their role in our new player experience (and you might even help out there in an upcoming Midweek Magic), but we wanted everyone to get these decks early, so you'd have access to all their cards as you begin collecting Magic: The Gathering Foundations.

As MTG Arena's substitute for both the Beginner Box and Starter Collection, these decks have over 400 cards from Magic: The Gathering Foundations from both the main set and Starter Collection, including over 50 rare and mythic rare cards. We hope that this will give every player a great starting point with this fun, new set and give you many new cards to brew with and build around.

You can then continue collecting Magic: The Gathering Foundations through Store packs, Limited events, Jump In! (with new packets for the set), Foundations Jumpstart (starting in one week), and using wildcards to target the last few cards you need.

Alchemy and Historic Banned and Restricted Update

We have two bans to announce for MTG Arena.

Effective Date: November 12, 2024

  • Monstrous Rage is banned in Alchemy. In general, we want to avoid banning cards in Alchemy, but Monstrous Rage is a very tight design. It is challenging to adjust Monstrous Rage without making too small a change or rendering the card unplayable. We do not want the card to see play in Alchemy (and recognize there are less aggressive replacement combat tricks) but are happy with it continuing to be played in nonrotating formats like Historic and Brawl. So, we are deciding to take the unusual step of banning it outright in Alchemy.
  • Temporal Manipulation is banned in Historic. Time Warp is already banned in the format, as we believe Historic is not the place to force multiple turns in a row.

Alchemy Rebalances

We also have several card rebalances to announce.

Leyline of Resonance rebalanced Alchemy card
A-Leyline of Resonance
Changed: Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets only a single creature you control, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.

To: Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets only a single creature you control, you may pay . If you do, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.

Aggressive red decks based around cheap combat tricks were already a concern before Duskmourn: House of Horror made them even stronger. We have already taken action against Leyline of Resonance in Best-of-One Standard and suspended it in Alchemy, leading into this rebalance. Ideally, the rebalanced Leyline of Resonance will remain an exciting, open-ended card but will lose much of its explosive utility for aggro.

Heartfire Hero rebalanced Alchemy card
A-Heartfire Hero
  • 0/1 (was 1/1)

Red aggro has performed so well that it merits further action. Heartfire Hero is the most powerful one-drop creature in Standard. This little mouse easily attacks for 3+ damage starting on turn two, making it a must-answer card from the very beginning of the game, and it can end games out of nowhere thanks to cards like Callous Sell-Sword. Our goal is not to render Heartfire Hero unplayable, but to reduce its fastest starts and make it more dependent on triggering multiple times to perform well, rather than it being a strong one drop after a single valiant trigger.

Grenzo, Crooked Jailer rebalanced Alchemy card
Grenzo, Crooked Jailer
Changed: Once each turn, you may pay rather than pay the mana cost for a spell you cast that you don't own.

To: Once each turn, you may pay rather than pay the mana cost for a spell you cast that you don't own with mana value 3 or less.

While Heist has not been an overperforming deck in Alchemy, Grenzo has become one of the more powerful commanders in Brawl. Grenzo's massive mana discount overly punishes opponents for playing with fun, expensive spells and undermines the core tension of heist, where you need to wait a turn to cast a stolen expensive spell. We are adjusting Grenzo's power level to make a dent in its Brawl and Alchemy play patterns, while aiming to preserve the majority of its power.

Nadu, Winged Wisdom rebalanced Alchemy card
A-Nadu, Winged Wisdom
Changed: Creatures you control have "Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand. This ability triggers only twice each turn."

To: Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand. This ability triggers only twice each turn.

Nadu, Winged Wisdom is a known power level outlier, becoming one of the most powerful Brawl commanders on the back of its combo potential and repetitive play patterns. We hope to keep the card strong while reducing its power level ceiling and the amount of game time it can monopolize.

As a consequence of the power level adjustments to Grenzo and Nadu, we have also revised their Brawl matchmaking.

We hope that these four adjustments will help create a healthier Alchemy metagame and gently improve the Brawl experience. In addition to these reductions in power, we are increasing the power level of several cards from the last year's Alchemy sets to provide players new options and more powerful tools.

Stalwart Speartail rebalanced Alchemy card
Stalwart Speartail
Changed: Whenever Stalwart Speartail attacks, you may pay . When you do, Stalwart Speartail deals 1 damage to each creature and each planeswalker.

To: Whenever Stalwart Speartail attacks, Stalwart Speartail deals 1 damage to each creature and each planeswalker.

Dinosaurs is close to being a top-tier deck in Alchemy with cards like Wingbane Vantasaur, and we want to give it a small boost to get the rest of the way there. Go Timmys!

Hymn to the Ages rebalanced Alchemy card
Hymn to the Ages
  • Cost: (was )
  • Starting intensity 1 (was 3)
Ribald Shanty rebalanced Alchemy card
Ribald Shanty
  • Cost: (was )

Chorus cards came in weaker than we'd have liked. The deck needs to be three or more colors, wants to be spell-heavy, and doesn't ramp quickly enough. We hope to create a blue-red Chorus shell that can branch out into a third color for more Chorus interactions, or to be part of a stronger blue-red spells deck.

Tome of Gadwick rebalanced Alchemy card
Tome of Gadwick
  • Gains: Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and has ward 1.
Changed: Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player...

To: Whenever equipped creature attacks...

This is our second part of a gentle push to support some more casual blue-red spell strategies and mono-blue decks that want a Curiosity variant.

Nashi, Illusion Gadgeteer rebalanced Alchemy card
Nashi, Illusion Gadgeteer
  • Gains: flash
Talion's Throneguard rebalanced Alchemy card
Talion's Throneguard
  • 4/2 (was 2/1)

We believe both of these card had room for improvement and are making both into four mana flash threats.

Fountainport Charmer rebalanced Alchemy card
Fountainport Charmer
  • Cost: (was )
  • 2/3 (was 3/3)

Alchemy Frogs have benefitted from Leaf-Leap Guide and we hope to give them a slight power increase.

This Weekend: A Double Shot of Best-of-One Qualifier Play-Ins

Bo1 Standard Saturday Nov 16, FDN Limited Sunday Nov 17

This weekend will host two Best-of-One Qualifier Play-In events that can get you into the next Qualifier Weekend event. The first is on Saturday, November 16, with competition in the Standard format.

Then, on Sunday, November 17, we'll have a bonus Best-of-One Qualifier Play-In event featuring Limited competition with the newly released set, Magic: The Gathering Foundations!

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) 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).

  • November 12–14: Magic: The Gathering Foundations Constructed
  • November 19–21: Foundations Jumpstart
  • November 26–28: Standard Deck Duel
  • December 3–5: Magic: The Gathering Foundations Brawl Builder Challenge

Quick Draft

  • November 12–22: Murder at Karlov Manor
  • November 22–December 3: Magic: The Gathering Foundations

Other Events

  • November 5–12: Streets of New Capenna Premier Draft
  • December 6–8: Timeless Metagame Challenge

November Qualifier Events – Standard

  • November 16: Best-of-One Play-In
  • November 17: BONUS Best-of-One Play-In Magic: The Gathering Foundations Limited
  • November 22: Best-of-Three Play-In
  • November 23–24: Qualifier Weekend

Competitive Play Schedule

All times listed are Pacific time (UTC-08:00).

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!

November

  • Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-One)
    November 16, 6 a.m. PT–October 17, 3 a.m. PT
    • Format: Standard
  • BONUS Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-One)
    November 17, 6 a.m. PT–November 18, 3 a.m. PT
    • Format: Magic: The Gathering Foundations Limited
  • Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-Three)
    November 22, 6 a.m. PT–November 23, 3 a.m. PT
    • Format: Standard
  • Qualifier Weekend
    November 23, 6 a.m. PT–November 24, 4 p.m. PT
    • Format: Standard

November 2024 Ranked Season

The November 2024 Ranked Season begins October 31 at 12:05 p.m. PT (UTC-07:00) and ends November 30 at 12 p.m. PT (UTC-08:00).

  • Bronze Reward: 1 Magic: The Gathering Foundations pack
  • Silver Reward: 1 Magic: The Gathering Foundations pack + 500 gold
  • Gold Reward: Magic: The Gathering Foundations packs + 1,000 gold + Vengeful Bloodwitch card style
  • Platinum Reward: 3 Magic: The Gathering Foundations packs + 1,000 gold + Vengeful Bloodwitch card style + Exemplar of Light card style
  • Diamond Reward: 4 Magic: The Gathering Foundations packs + 1,000 gold + Vengeful Bloodwitch card style + Exemplar of Light card style
  • Mythic Reward: 5 Magic: The Gathering Foundations packs + 1,000 gold + Vengeful Bloodwitch card style + Exemplar of Light card style
Vengeful Bloodwitch card style reward for November Ranked Season
Exemplar of Light Ranked Season Magic: The Gathering Foundatins card style reward

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