MTG Arena is an incredibly popular platform. It provides an easy way for players to scratch the itch they have to jam a few Magic games at their leisure. That being said, one of the most criticized aspects of MTG Arena over the years has been its economy.
The Wildcard system is far from perfect. Crafting new decks that require lots of rare and mythic rare Wildcards can take a lot of time or money. Players often have an overabundance of common and uncommon Wildcards compared to rare and mythic rare Wildcard, which only exacerbates this issue.
On top of that, some cards like Special Guests in various sets require you to spend mythic rare Wildcards, even if the original rarity of the card in paper was lower. Players have been complaining for a while about this. Luckily, it looks like this area of frustration is being addressed with the release of MTG Foundations at least.
Time for a Change
In yesterday’s MTG Arena announcements, Wizards of the Coast announced a pretty significant change regarding Special Guests and crafting the cards individually. Prior to the release of MTG Foundations, all Special Guest cards required mythic rare Wildcards to create on Arena. All Special Guests have always featured the mythic rare color symbol, and the Wildcards needed to craft them simply followed suit.
For MTG Foundations, however, Wizards of the Coast made it a point to adjust the rarity of each Special Guest card to match the latest printing. This is a big deal for low-rarity cards that were previously not on MTG Arena. For instance, rather than having to spend a mythic rare Wildcard to craft Goblin Bushwhacker, players will now just need a common Wildcard.
Obviously, this is a big step in the right direction. Chances are that future sets will follow a similar model. That being said, many players are frustrated that there aren’t more adjustments being made.
No Retroactive Downgrades
According to a Wizards of the Coast employee in a discord group, there will be no retroactive changes to past Special Guest releases. As such, cards like Noxious Revival from the Duskmourn Special Guest release will still require mythic rare Wildcards to craft.
Players are generally disappointed that this change won’t affect previously released Special Guests. On top of that, cards with inflated rarities outside of the Special Guest collection, such as the Strixhaven Mystical Archive Lightning Bolt, will still take rare Wildcards to create on Arena.
This, of course, still has players quite annoyed. Nonetheless, the change to Special Guest rarities in MTG Foundations should be a positive signal for similar supplemental card group releases in the future. Anything to help reduce rare and mythic rare Wildcard spending on Arena is good in my book.
