It’s no secret that Magic: The Gathering is an expensive game to play. Competitive decks in Standard can easily cost a few hundred dollars, with the best going for $700+ right now. While budget formats and archetypes do mercifully exist, even Commander has some ridiculously expensive staples.
Thankfully, MTG Arena can be a saving grace for budget-conscious players, although you’re then often paying with time, not money. Mercifully, being free-to-play on MTG Arena isn’t a total grind, and things do occasionally get better with updates and improvements. On top of this, there’s also the daily deals and occasional sales to look forward to.
Now that we’re firmly in August, MTG players have been expecting Arena’s summer sale to kick off any minute. As each new MTG Arena Announcements post has come and gone, however, concerns have started to creep in. Sadly, it seems these concerns weren’t unfounded, as Wizards has come forward and officially cancelled the MTG summer sale.
No Fun in the Sun
Tucked away in the latest MTG Arena Announcements post, Wizards provided a long-awaited “Update on the Summer Sale.” Unfortunately, this update wasn’t the news players were hoping for, as the sale has been outright cancelled. To say this is a disappointment would be an understatement, as not only does this sale bring back old bundles, but it also offers them for cheap.
Technically, while the sale has been officially cancelled, it doesn’t seem like everything has been scrapped and discarded. Instead, Wizards states they’re keeping everything from the sale “on ice” and it’ll be available in the future. Supposedly, when this mysterious future point rolls around, the sales will be even better.
Notably, in their update, Wizards claims the sale was scrapped since the improvements to make sales better weren’t ready yet. Potentially, this is actually good news, as it sounds like the sales system on MTG Arena is being overhauled. After all, since sales have happened in the past and daily deals happen all the time, it shouldn’t be easy to implement a regular summer sale.
Sadly, while this does sound promising, there’s no telling what Wizards is actually planning here. We can only hope that whatever sale was planned happens sooner rather than later. In theory, Wizards could just create a seasonal sale whenever the update is ready, so hopefully we’re not stuck waiting until 2026.
The Disgruntled Masses
Unsurprisingly, MTG players weren’t happy about this change. While it sounds positive, no one was really asking for a major overhaul of the sales system. Even if it does end up being better, it really stings that we had to lose out now for it to happen. Right now, it seems like there’s little reason Wizards couldn’t release a regular summer sale before improving things in the future.
“Why not just… not make the sales better and just do a regular ass sale?”
OptionalBagel
As if the cancellation of the sale itself wasn’t bad enough, many MTG players weren’t happy about how this sale was cancelled. While the update was provided within the latest MTG Arena Announcements post, it was somewhat buried. Unlike the other sections on Alchemy: Edge of Eternities, the Qualifier Weekend, and future events, there wasn’t any hyperlinked subheading.
While it’s not surprising that Wizards wouldn’t want to shout about a cancellation from the rooftops, this is definitely frustrating. As much as communication is nice, constant weekly announcements can often be rather hard to keep up with. Having information like this effectively buried within posts definitely isn’t good news for more casual players.
“I wish these weren’t every week. They are massive, and no one has time to read each one each week.”
Parker4815
On top of this grievance, some MTG players suspected this cancellation wasn’t entirely due to unfinished updates. Following Final Fantasy, Magic: The Gathering, and MTG Arena are making money hand over fist. Due to this, running a sale that cuts prices and presumably revenue seems like a foolish idea.
“We’re making more money than ever before, screw you, you’re not getting any deals.”
FelizNavinut
A Glimmer of Hope
Ultimately, while MTG players do love a good sale, and they have become expected after years of precedent, we’re not owed them. If Wizards decides to never do a summer sale again, that’s entirely within their right. Admittedly, this would be hugely disappointing for a lot of players, but Magic and MTG Arena are a business at the end of the day.
Looking ahead, we can only hope that the improvements that were alluded to get implemented sooner rather than later. Not only would this allow the cancelled summer sale to actually happen, but things should obviously get better too. If this benefits free-to-play players in a major way, it’d be hard to say this wait wasn’t worth it.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!