Historic Anthology 3 and Cube drafts with real players are coming soon to MTG Arena (Arena). Blake Rasmussen and Steve Sunu were joined by Andy Clautice, an events designer for Arena, for Thursday’s Weekly MTG where they previewed the new Arena set and much more.
Historic Anthology 3 will be released on May 21, bringing 27 cards to the Historic format, including Phyrexian Obliterator and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. The cost will be the same as the previous Anthology: 4,000 gems or 25,000 gold to unlock four copies of each card.
And for the first time, Historic Anthology 3 will have its own special preview day. On May 8, all cards from the set will be previewed just like with a new set, having previews spread out on social media through out the day.
On top of the Historic Anthology 3 announcement, the show also went over some of the features coming with the May update. First up, Cube drafts. These drafts will be player drafts with an updated pool of cards based off the previous Sealed Cube format. All players will get a free entry, similar to when player drafts debuted with Ikoria, and all drafts will be phantom drafts. An entry fee hasn’t been announced yet, but more news will come with the State of the Game update on May 19.
Other tidbits of information on what’s coming down the line for MTG Arena were mentions of Amonkhet Masters and Pioneer Masters. While the time frame for Pioneer on Arena is still unknown, a masters style set for the format will be needed and welcomed. After the May update, the Ranked Historic queues will return and no longer rotate, leaving another permanent play option on Arena. Jumpstart, a standalone product associated with the next Core Set, will also be legal in Historic when it hits Arena.
Clautice also filled everyone in on the upcoming special Ikoria events. Up first is Mountains of Mana on May 9-11.
This format will be similar to previous events, where players bring a Standard constructed deck and get a free Treasure token every turn to let them power out crazy spells of any color earlier than expected.
The second event is Battle Royale on May 16-18.
Battle Royale is an Omniscience-style event where the decks will be provided to the players and all spells will be free, mostly focusing on giant monsters with a focus on Ikoria.
The third event is Clever Reflection on May 22-25.
Clever Reflections will come to Arena after the release of Historic Anthology 3 and be a Historic, artisan-style event (meaning constructed with only commons and uncommons). All three events will cost 500 gems or 2,500 gold and will award showcase style alternate art Ikoria cards as prizes.