In a recent State of the Beta news post, Wizards of the Coast have announced a couple of big changes coming to Magic: The Gathering Arena. These updates include a practice match mode, player progression changes, and new cosmetics!
Practice Matches
One of the biggest highlights of this news update is the addition of practice matches against Sparky, the little sprite that guides you through the tutorial when you start MTG Arena. In these practice matches, you’ll be able to play a normal game of Magic against an AI. This can be used to test out new deck ideas, new cards, and now new cosmetics.
Player Progression Update
In an effort to help newer players learn the ins and outs of Magic: The Gathering, the MTG Arena team has added a new Mastery Tree to track player progression. While new players strive to meet the achievements of this Mastery Tree, they will gain rewards such as gold, deck upgrades, etc.
For players who have already unlocked all the deck rewards and who have already done what this progression system would encourage you to do, don’t worry! You’ll be retroactively rewarded for any achievements that you’ve already accomplished. However, the announcement says we should be checking our emails when the update goes live so there may be further instructions to get those rewards. It should be noted that anyone can opt to skip the Mastery Tree and still claim the rewards.
Cosmetics
This new update will also bring with it multiple new cosmetic items: card sleeves, card styles, and new avatars!
- Card Sleeves – This is a new way to customize your decks by changing what the back of your cards look like, similar to Hearthstone’s card backs. You can select a different sleeve for every deck if you wish.
- Card Styles – In paper Magic, or on Magic: The Gathering Online, there are special shiny, foil cards. Now, MTG Arena has a similar concept in Card Styles. Card Styles can be obtained through purchasing, seasonal rewards, play rewards, or special bundles. These styles need only be acquired once, and then they can be applied to any card with the same artwork. Cards with a Style equipped will appear to be full art, with a slightly moving image.
- New Avatars- In addition to the new card customization options, new avatars will be added to the game as well.
These changes will be coming March 27th, the day before the first ever Mythic Championship takes place. Be sure to watch this huge competition on the MTG Twitch channel March 28-31 for huge War of the Spark spoilers!
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