MTG Arena Announcements – May 29, 2023

In this edition:

• Congratulations Benjamin Broadstone, the Arena Championship 3 Winner!
• Start Your Historic Journey to Arena Championship 4
• Ian Adams Talks about Battles in MTG Arena
• Banned and Restricted List Update
• New Alchemy Rebalances Tomorrow, May 30
• May 30: Preorder The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ on MTG Arena!
• Event Schedule

(Editor's Note: The June 2023 Ranked Season pack rewards were incorrectly listed as March of the Machine packs. In fact, the June 2023 Ranked Season pack rewards are The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth packs. This has been corrected below. If you wish to swap your rewarded packs to the previously mentioned March of the Machine packs, please reach out to Customer Support, and we will make this change to your rewards. We appreciate your understanding!)

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Congratulations to Benjamin Broadstone, the Arena Championship 3 Winner!

This past weekend featured the Arena Championship 3, the pinnacle of competitive achievement in MTG Arena, and Benjamin Broadstone walked away with the championship title, $30,000 in winnings, and an invitation to this year's Magic World Championship!

Check out the decklists from the tournament—including the Rakdos Breach deck used by Benjamin—and visit twitch.tv/Magic to see the broadcasts from Arena Championship 3.

Start Your Historic Journey to Arena Championship 4

Reaching the Arena Championship as a competitor is a challenge, but if you have the skills, we have the paths that will take you there—and your first step on one of those paths happens this weekend!

Then, with invitation in hand, you'll be ready for the Qualifier Weekend event, June 10–11. The format is Traditional Historic (Best-of-Three), so start planning and practicing now!

Ian Adams Talks about Battles in MTG Arena

Join Ian tomorrow for a Q&A session on the Magic Discord channel Tuesday, May 30, from 1 p.m to 2 p.m. PT!

Battles arrived with March of the Machine, introducing a new card type—and a new challenge for the developers behind MTG Arena. Ian Adams returns for a comprehensive look behind the scenes at what it was like to add battles to the game. Check out his article, We Put Battles on MTG Arena: What Was That Like?

Banned and Restricted List Update

The Banned and Restricted list in MTG Arena will be updated tomorrow, May 30. Read more about the changes and the philosophy behind the banned and restricted list with our update to Standard rotation in the May 29, 2023 Banned and Restricted Announcement.

New Alchemy Rebalances Tomorrow, May 30

We have a couple of rebalances coming Tuesday, May 30, to the Alchemy format.

Mono-Red Rebalances

Mono-red aggressive decks are among the top performing decks on the Alchemy ladder, especially in Best-of-One matches. Most cards in mono-red are replaceable with others, but Kumano Faces Kakkazan, Traumatic Prank, and burn spells such as Lightning Strike are unique effects that are played in almost every version of mono-red.

We are only rebalancing Kumano Faces Kakkazan and Traumatic Prank to directly target mono-red aggro and avoid weakening red's removal in other decks.

• Kumano Faces Kakkazan is the most efficient one-drop in mono-red that plays well with both creature-centric and spell-centric builds with its second chapter and by triggering prowess. Etching of Kumano loses haste.
  
  

  

  Turn Over
• Traumatic Prank efficiently answers large creatures that are otherwise supposed to be strong against red decks. The cost increases to 3R (from 2R).
  
  

May 30: Preorder The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth on MTG Arena!

Starting Tuesday, May 30, join the Fellowship! Choose your bundle for your epic adventure there and back again!

Log in to MTG Arena Tuesday, May 30, following the update to preorder The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth bundles!

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).

• May 30–June 1: Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Phantom Sealed
• June 6–8: Historic Pauper
• June 13–15: Momir
• June 20–22: Starter Deck Test Drive
• June 27–29: The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Phantom Sealed

QUICK DRAFT

• May 26–June 6: March of the Machine
• June 9–16: The Brothers' War
• June 16–29: Phyrexia: All Will Be One

OTHER EVENTS

• May 26–June 3: Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Premier Draft
• June 2–5: Treasured Festival: Historic Singleton
• June 3–11: Innistrad: Crimson Vow Premier Draft
• June 12–20: Chromatic 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 are delivered in your MTG Arena inbox. Remember to claim them before the event starts!

June

• Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-One)
  June 3, 6 a.m. PT
  • Format: Historic
• Qualifier Play-In (Best-of-Three)
  June 9, 6 a.m. PT–June 10, 3 a.m. PT
  • Format: Historic
• Qualifier Weekend
  June 10, 6 a.m. PT–June 11, 4 p.m. PT
  • Format: Historic (Best-of-Three)

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: The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Limited
  July 1–2
  • July 1: Day One, LTR Sealed (Best-of-One and Best-of-Three)
  • July 2: Day Two, LTR Player Draft (Best-of-Three)
    There are two Player Draft events on Day Two.

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Keep up with the latest MTG Arena news and announcements on:

• Twitter @MTG_Arena
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• Instagram @mtgarena
• TikTok @MTGArena
• MTG Arena YouTube channel
• Magic: The Gathering Discord channel

© 2023 Middle-earth Enterprises. The Lord of the Rings and Tales of Middle-earth are trademarks of Middle-earth Enterprises, LLC used under license by Wizards of the Coast LLC.