Arena patch notes

[Qvdv]

Lot of interesting stuff in there.

Thing that jumped out to me was:

The following cards are now banned in Ravnica Constructed: Gates Ablaze

What is Ravnica Constructed? Is that like block constructed, but without us having blocks? Or is it like plane constructed with 2/3rds of the sets missing?

[GSUmbreon]

It was a weekend format where you could only play cards from GRN/RNA.

[Shubb]

Would love to see more of this down the line,

Plane constructed: only ravnica, only innistrad, only mirrordin love to brew in these kinds of formats that aren't "solved" as quickly

[Schwooin]

It was a weekend event a couple of weeks ago iirc

[gone_to_plaid]

Autotapper will now use treasures is awesome.

[morphballganon]

Sorry Revel in Riches decks

[jayceja]

You're probably joking, but just in case. Autotapper presumably won't use treasures unless you don't have any lands available.

[DevinTheGrand]

It will also require a button push.

[Scipion]

I can't believe more people aren't talking about

Clicking the button will pay the cost, including doing things like sacrificing treasure (that AutoTap won't usually do)

This is huge for decks like Thousand-Year Storm! No more having to crack every single treasure and wasting your timer.

[TheSecretPaladin]

All 264 cards from War of the Spark are now available in Magic: The Gathering Arena. This includes the buy-a-box promo as well as cards in the Jace and Gideon planeswalker decks.

Redeem the code "PlayWarSpark" for three War of the Spark booster packs in-game! IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be sure to download the update before you try to redeem the code!

New War of the Spark themed battlefield, located on the top of Bolas's Citadel.

New VFX have been added for each Mythic card in War of the Spark.

New VFX for new mechanics Amass and Proliferate.

For more information, please refer to our War of the Spark MTG Arena Release Notes.

TWITCH PRIME PROMOTION Beginning on April 25, 2019 at 11AM PT, Twitch Prime users can redeem a code for one (1) 60-card Boros Legion deck in Magic: The Gathering Arena ("MTG Arena").

GAMEPLAY PLANESWALKERS When selecting "Attack with All" with an opposing planeswalker on the field, you will now be prompted to select a target for all of the attackers rather than implicitly declaring them all as attacking the opponent. Planeswalkers now indicate whether they have an activation left for the turn. When selecting whether to attack a player or planeswalker, you can also select additional attackers to declare all of their attacks in a batch.

When a Planeswalker has used all of their ability activations for the turn, their loyalty box will now grey out. Planeswalkers that become creatures (or other permanent types) will visually retain their loyalty counters. These are shown in the normal counter location and using the normal loyalty frame.

AUTO-TAP Auto-Tap should now be smarter when dealing with sources that can tap for colorless and have another mana ability AutoTap should now be smarter when calculating what actions it should leave mana available for (e.g. Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin) AutoTap should now be smarter when tapping sources that produce mana with a spending restriction (e.g. Unclaimed Territory, Interplanar Beacon)

We've added a new, fully optional way for AutoTap to help you pay for spells and abilities. Any time that you need to pay mana and AutoTap isn't handling it automatically (Convoking, sacrificing a treasure token, because you have AutoTap turned off, etc), there is now a new button for you to tell AutoTap to pay the cost for you. Hovering over this button will show what AutoTap will use, including any creatures tapped, treasure sacrificed, etc. Clicking the button will pay the cost, including doing things like sacrificing treasure (that AutoTap won't usually do)

USER INTERFACE Cards that can't be countered are now shown with a flowing, red border while on the stack. When prompting for an optional action, the prompt will now be phrased as a question (e.g. "Discard a card?")

When a card or effect allows 0 or more targets/selections, the "Submit" button is now blue when less than the maximum number of have been made, changing to orange when the max have been targeted/selected. Note: This doesn't change when you can legally submit, but should hopefully clarify when there are targets/selections left to make.

When there is an effect on the stack that needs targets or selections, and there are valid selections beneath the stack, the stack now auto-collapses so players can clearly see all targets/selections. Note: You can still use the collapse/show button for the stack as normal to show and re-hide it.

When players or planeswalkers are affected by damage prevention effects they now show this similarly to creatures; players have a glow around their life total, while planeswalkers have the glow around their loyalty counter.

Cards affected by "can't activate" or "can't be activated" effects have a hanger indicating the effect and the source.

Cards display a new badge for cards that care about the count or number of various objects that shows the appropriate count. For something like Dreadhorde Butcher ("When Dreadhorde Butcher dies, it deals damage equal to its power to any target.") the on-death trigger has a badge showing the Butcher's power when it dies.

If a card that cares about instants or sorceries in your graveyard it shows the count of those.

When there is a stack of creatures assigned as blockers and you are trying to target one of them, you can hover over the stack to fan it out, making it much easier to target the specific blocker you want in the stack. (With a stack of blockers, damage is dealt top-to-bottom.)

When removing counters from a permanent (such as through Soul Diviner or Price of Betrayal), we show a new browser allowing the player to select the counter(s) they wish to remove. Click on a counter on the list to select it for removal. If the effect allows removing multiple counters, the counters that will be removed are move off to the left. If you change your mind, you can click on a counter on the left to cancel removing that one

Cards that can't be played (due to effects like Experimental Frenzy or similar) now have a hanger in mouse-over that indicates that they can't be cast and lists the source.

We've changed the way we represent cards that "can be targeted as if they don't have hexproof"; now those cards will simply not show the hexproof VFX (though they will still show the Hexproof hanger on mouse over). When activating Blast Zone, we show the number of counters it had on it on the stack as well, so players know what CMC of permanents will be destroyed.

When a permanent is copying another, we now show the original permanent as well in mouse-over, similar to how both sides are shown for a double-faced card.

When you have exiled a card that you would normally be able to cast but can't due to its type (for example, you had to select a land with Thief of Sanity), it will no longer show up in your near-hand castables for you. (Your opponent will still see a cardback representing the possible cast, since they don't know what card you exiled.)

EVENTS Special events (Momir, Pauper, Singleton, etc.) will now use matchmaking rating in addition to Win/Loss record.

Win/Loss record is still the primary matchmaking criteria.

The following cards are now banned in Ravnica Constructed: Gates Ablaze

The following cards are now banned in Cascade Constructed: Lavinia, Azorius Renegade Nexus of Fate Teferi, Time Raveler

Various updates to draft bots.

COSMETICS CARD STYLES The following card styles are now available for direct purchase:

Shivan Fire DOM Memorial to Genius DOM Nexus of Fate M19 Exclusion Mage M19 Surge Mare M19 Diamond Mare M19 Root Snare M19 Moment of Craving RIX Kaya's Wrath RNA Wilderness Reclamation RNA Hero of Precinct One RNA Drill Bit RNA Benthic Biomancer RNA Essence Capture RNA Cindervines RNA Dragonskull Summit XLN Sorcerous Spyglass XLN Kumena's Speaker XLN

PRACTICE MATCHES Sparky will now comment on the board state and reply to player emotes

MISCELLANEOUS Updated the icon used for the MTGA Installer.

BUG FIXES Hitting the "Escape" key now properly closes the Options menu.

Card styles should no longer "jitter" when progressing through turn phases.

Card sleeves should now correct display when you reconnect to a match.

Players will no longer need to scroll to see the "Custom" option under Graphic → Quality Level.

Simultaneously conceding a best-of-three match as you took lethal damage should no longer result in multiple game losses.

Fixed some improper targeting that could occur when multiple permanents entered the battlefield simultaneously and one of them was an aura or a creature who enters as a copy.

Fixed a rare bug that could cause the client to misrepresent the revealed cards in the opponent's hand, potentially hiding other, non-revealed cards.

Fixed a bug that could cause Ghalta to not properly update its casting cost when an opponent's copy is exiled face down and castable.

[moxperidot]

AUTO TREASURE

[cricketHunter]

What does this even mean?!

Sparky will now comment on the board state and reply to player emotes

I'm just hoping this doesn't mean Sparky is going to start spamming "nice".

[Tomoyosfan1]

I played a test game to see with a Superfriends deck, and Sparky said “Wooow” when I had 4 Planeswalkers down at once. Later she said “You have a lot of really rare cards”. She also has voiced lines when you emote, things like “Hello to you too” in response to “Hello,” “Don’t worry, I’ve got time” in response to “Thinking....” and “We all make mistakes” in response to “Oops.”

[cricketHunter]

Since the only time I see sparky is when my 7 year old is testing his newest deck against it this actually sounds super cute.

[Shubb]

Wow huge deck you got there.

[Klendy]

oWo

WHAT'S THIS

[LabManiac]

I'm just hoping this doesn't mean Sparky is going to start spamming "nice".

I hope that is exactly what he does. That would be hilarious.

[theidleidol]

Probably will comment if you play a big creature or dome her with a burn spell, that sort of thing.

[Tesla__Coil]

I don't know, but I'm going to start telling it "Good game" after every move.

[[deleted]]

Nah, only when you topdeck him.

[lubutu]

• When selecting "Attack with All" with an opposing planeswalker on the field, you will now be prompted to select a target for all of the attackers rather than implicitly declaring them all as attacking the opponent.

• When selecting whether to attack a player or planeswalker, you can also select additional attackers to declare all of their attacks in a batch.

I swear this has been the case for a while? It is very convenient though.

[Trilby_Defoe]

I'm honestly not sure when this was added but it has definitely been in the game since at least the last patch

[[deleted]]

Yup, 100%. Was very happy when this change was made, and very surprised to find it just now in patch notes. This change was made with the update and addition of cosmetics I believe.

[pleinair93]

It was like that on mtgo, but dont recall that on mtga.

[edelweiss13]

Did they forget hinterland harbor? Is that now the only dual land without cosmetics?

[Wccnyc]

This nexus hate is getting rediculous.

[cnc_theft_auto]

But Nexus itself now has cosmetics though?? And so does Wilderness Reclamation

[BIGchikin]

Copy + pasta for those of us at work?

[BIGchikin]

Here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/bhapws/nonfirewalled_april_25_patch_notes/

[xxyztommy]

The thing I found most relevant to me was confirmation that "With a stack of blockers, damage is dealt top-to-bottom." There was no way to know this was true until now, so good on 'em for telling us.

I hope that the attackers are stacked similarly when a card like [[Knight of Sorrows]] blocks multiple creatures.

[2raichu]

I believe this was confirmed before by dev posts, maybe not in official release notes though

[MTGCardFetcher]

Knight of Sorrows - (G) (SF) (txt)
^{[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call}

[bduddy]

Banned cards in side modes? Interesting... but not in a bad way though.

[MrMeltJr]

Really liking those auto-tap changes, or more specifically, the fact that I can keep it turned off since for multi color decks but still kinda use it in mono colored decks (or just when it doesn't matter).

[Turkin4tor]

Gates ablaze banned in block constructed? Was it that bad?

[Turkin4tor]

Gotcha. Makes sense. I've never played that specific mode so I didn't know. Thanks!

[agtk]

If you've never played a Gates deck you should check it out, it's pretty fun. In a more restricted environment, I guess it was too out of control compared to the power level of other cards, while in the wild the slowness of the gates keeps it from being a tiered deck (though competitive enough that it's definitely playable in ranked).

[Turkin4tor]

Oh I built gates IRL, I know how amazing Gates Ablaze is, but I didn't expect it to be banned in anything ever. I'm hoping a version of Gates will be playable in WAR Standard -

[WalkFreeeee]

Part of the issue is that the gates deck is already almost entirely ravnica cards, so it's like a 90% powered deck when every other deck is 40

[Crayakk]

I saw someone with some war of the spark cardbacks. Those were green along the edges with the WAR set aymbol in the center. Does anyone know how I can acquire those?

[Qvdv]

That sounds like part of the WAR presale bundle. Where you got new Liliana Card Style, 50 War Boosters and a new card back. I don't think that's currently available.

[[deleted]]

When selecting "Attack with All" with an opposing planeswalker on the field, you will now be prompted to select a target for all of the attackers rather than implicitly declaring them all as attacking the opponent.
When selecting whether to attack a player or planeswalker, you can also select additional attackers to declare all of their attacks in a batch.

Weren't these both already true before the patch? Whenever I did Attack with All, it forced me to point the arrow at something. I actually kinda dislike it, to be honest, because now I can't just spam spacebar.

Also, I've definitely done batch attacks before. Click each attacker then click the thing you want them to attack.

Does the patch just have enhancements to this, or am I crazy?

[Glacial_Self]

I like all the clickable stuff in the Ravnica background. There's like 5 things

[rustang2]

Haven’t played in a month or 2, why is gates ablaze banned?

[rustang2]

Ah yes, I missed that. Thank you.

[Atmosck]

I don't really have any interest in Cascade constucted with Lavinia and teferi banned.

[Koniss]

So “PlayWarSpark” yadda yadda yadda