Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has released their State of the Game update for the launch of the upcoming set — Jumpstart: Historic Horizons.
Historic Brawl Returns
Citing a “small but dedicated audience” as their motivation, MTG Arena is adding a 100-card Historic Brawl queue. This queue will have a matchmaking system that “takes into account the power level of your commander to help ensure that matches are fairer and more fun for both players…” and will be available at least “until rotation this September.”
Additionally, two cards are being preemptively banned from this format: Davriel’s Withering and Davriel, Soul Broker.
These cards are being banned for the same reasons as Meddling Mage and Sorcerous Spyglass, in that they could shut down player’s commanders and basically make the game mode less enjoyable. The developers will also be watching the other new perpetual cards closely during the early stages of Jumpstart: Historic Horizons‘ inception.
Upcoming Downtime and Ranked Updates
In order to implement a series of long-term health updates for the platform, there will be downtime on August 10, from 7 AM to 11 AM PST. During this time and after completion, players will also be unable to redeem any Mastery Orbs for Strixhaven. The Mastery redemptions for Adventures in the Forgotten Realms will be unaffected.
The August ranked season will also be split into two parts: Early and Late. The early split will take place August 1-10, and will reset Mythic rank players back to Diamond 1. No other players will be reset at that time. Late season will run August 10-31. The early season will award entries to the Top 500 Mythic players, while the late season will award entries to the Top 1,200 players. The regular ranked rewards for the month of August will remain unchanged.
Read the original article from Wizards of the Coast.