MTG Arena: State of the Game – Alchemy: Dominaria
Alchemy: Dominaria
Alchemy: Dominaria—where past, present, and power combine in 30 new digital-only cards arriving this week on MTG Arena.
For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the previews, you can expect more of what you love about Dominaria United and Alchemy, including new cards to kick, more cards to conjure, primeval Dragons, and perpetual gains. Our upcoming event schedule also features plenty of opportunities to play with these cards, including Premier Draft, Metagame Challenge, and Midweek Magic.
Check out all the cards in the Alchemy: Dominaria Card Image Gallery.
Store Offerings
(Editor's Note: A previous version of this article listed Throne of Eldraine Mythic Boosters arriving with the game update. A late-breaking issue has caused them to be delayed, and they will be available at a later date.)
In addition to Alchemy: Dominaria boosters, Mythic Boosters for Core Set 2021, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, and Theros Beyond Death will now be available for purchase. And if you're looking to add a little "un" to your fun, Un- themed avatars, card sleeves, space-ic lands, and more will be available in a so-sci style from the MTG Arena Store.
Historic Rebalance Changes
As part of the Alchemy: Dominaria game update, the original tabletop versions of these cards will be returned to Historic:
Alright, let's start off with answering some questions that we know you're going to ask.
First, why we're reverting these changes: When we look to rebalance cards, our standard is
Now that these cards have rotated out of Alchemy, we go from having them legal in two formats to one and can balance around that. While many of these cards were powerful to the point of banning in Standard, Historic has a larger card pool and therefore more ways to interact or respond to powerful cards. As such, some of these rebalances were no longer necessary to maintain a healthy meta.
It's important to note that this reversion is not comprehensive; not every card that was rebalanced to lower its power level is being reverted to the original version now that it's only playable in Historic (looking at you, Alrund's Epiphany). Similarly, while it's unlikely we'll "unbuff" cards that received balance adjustments to improve playability (and currently have no plans to do so), only a certain type of dark-empowered entity deals in absolutes, and we're not them. As we said earlier, once a rebalanced card is only playable in Historic, we can balance solely around that.
Next, why we're reverting these changes now: Ideally, reversion of balance adjustments due to format legality would happen at the same time as the format legality of these cards changes—i.e., rotation. Time constraints combined with necessary technical work prevented us from making the deadline for the release of Dominaria United, however, players should expect any similar "unrebalancing" of cards to happen alongside each year's Standard rotation.
Lastly, as with all other rebalances, players will not be receiving wildcard reimbursement for these changes.
You can get complete details on all changes in the article, Alchemy Rebalancing for October 6, 2022.
What's Next for Explorer
And in case you missed yesterday's 30th anniversary kickoff stream, we're happy to repeat what Explorer players can look forward to in the months ahead. Explorer Anthology 2 will be arriving by the end of 2022, and players should expect Shadows over Innistrad Remastered by mid-2023. You can expect more info as we get closer to those timeframes.
One Last Time to Unite
Alchemy: Dominaria will be available on MTG Arena this Thursday, October 6. Keep an eye on our status page for the latest information and updates on maintenance times, and tune in to our weekly MTG Arena Announcements blog for the latest updates on in-game events and offerings.