After playing around with cards and mechanics specific to Magic: The Gathering Arena, Wizards of the Coast is expanding to support a new digital-only format called Alchemy. This new format and everything that comes with it will launch on December 9.
Alchemy is built on the Standard format and annual rotation of the ministry. That means that when the time comes for cards with a year’s value to be dropped from the Standard, they will also lose their legitimacy in Alchemy. However, a new batch of Arena-exclusive cards will be added a few weeks after each Standard-Legal set launches, meaning we should see new batches of digital tokens every few months. Players will find these through Alchemy booster packs or by cashing out wildcards like any other card in Arena. Our first Alchemy infusion will feature the most recent pairing of Ministry of Innistrad and it’s called Alchemy: Innistrad, injects 63 tokens into the client. Most if not all cards will have rules and mechanics that take place at home in a virtual card game rather than at the kitchen table.
Warm-up: Historical Horizon introduced Arena players to mechanics like Perpetual, Seek, and non-token spells out of thin air; the rules make permanent changes to cards, find cards in your library without having to shuffle afterwards, or consider the game’s deck building. Alchemy will be played in this space again. You’ll see creatures that will affect cards drawn during the turn to reduce or increase the cost of a spell, or creatures that might care about who took the first turn in the game. A new rule text word called “draft” will act like Hearthstone’s Discovery, allowing players the choice of adding one of three cards (randomly selected from a larger pool) to their hand.
The second major change to Alchemy is the addition of cards that rebalance with text or power charges that are different from the original printed Standard cards. The concept was tested in a Mirror event, Mirror very quickly over the summer. For example, the green artifact Esika’s Chariot, which has been a strong force in the Standard for months, will now cost a lower Crew but will enter the battlefield generating a 2/2 cat token instead of two. Because Wizards now have the option to rebalance issue cards, there is technically no ban in the Alchemy format. Instead, the cards will be fine-tuned to the appropriate wattage. Omnath, Locus of Creation is now one mana more expensive to use and its ability has been slightly reduced.
Balanced cards will exist separate from the original prints and will have Arena “A” at the bottom of the card and next to the spell’s name at the top. The power transformation of the cards will not only be a tool to give powerful effects, but will also be used to make the cards better. Cosmos Elixer, seen below, now adds the Scry 1 effect to its life-boosting trigger.
The cards introduced through Alchemy and the re-balanced card will advance the legitimacy of Historical and Historical Struggle, making these formats still the place to play all your digital collection. during the past few years. New Alternative Alchemy, Standard, and Alchemy: Innistrad will launch MTG Arena on December 9.
