Gavin Verhey talked about the history of digital-only cards in Magic and the new ones coming to MTG Arena through Jumpstart: Historic Horizons on today’s episode of Good Morning Magic.
Digital-only cards have a long history of Magic with the first 12 showing up on Shandalar, a 90s video game version of Magic where players adventure along a map and dungeons battling AI opponents while building the strongest deck they can. Cards like Necropolis of Azar and Pandora’s Box are some examples of the first digital-only Magic cards.
In 2001, a new Magic: the Gathering video game for the Dreamcast released only in Japan introduced more new digital-only cards. The 10 cards are only in Japanese, but translations can be found. These cards all do something random with numbers.
More than 20 years after the Dreamcast game, new digital-only cards are coming to MTG Arena though Jumpstart: Historic Horizons. There will be 31 new cards featuring digital-only design, using abilities like conjure, perpetually, and seek.
Check out all the new digital-only cards coming to MTG Arena here.