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13, Apr, 21

Wizards Seem To Be Removing Early Access Events In MTG Arena

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Article at a Glance

It’s been a busy few weeks in the world of MTG thanks to Strixhaven spoilers, Commander 21 previews, and plenty of news too.

Strixhaven seems to be something of a turning point for the game as well, with things like the sideboard changes seemingly indicating not just an important turning point thanks to the set itself, but maybe a little glimpse into what we can expect going forwards.

Well, one other thing is changing with Strixhaven, and it’s something that is going to get a mixed response from a lot of people.

Read More: The best Strixhaven cards for Modern

Wizards seem to be ending the Early Access events for creators

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A key part of the hype for every set, at least in recent memory, has been watching your favorite creators, streamers, and even outlets, take part in the Early Access streaming events.

These had players given basically unlimited access to everything on MTG Arena to allow them to make decks showing off the new cards and how they’d perform in Standard, Draft, and basically everything else. Having that access often showed off some of the cool new synergies players could look for, and with the lack of general pre-releases in the last year, served as a nice reminder of the community of MTG.

Well, according to @coL_noxious on Twitter, that’s being scrapped, at least as a part of the MTG Arena Creator Program. They tweeted out a screenshot of an email that reads, “Thank you for being an integral part of our Magic community and for your previous participation in MTG Arena Creator Program and Early Access events. As we continue to build our community program to support creators across multiple platforms, Wizards has made the difficult decision to discontinue the Early Access program going forward.”

It also mentioned the creator program Discord remaining active, but that’s seemingly not much of a win.

Read More: The 10 Most Exciting Cards In Commander 21

What does this mean?

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As it stands, this basically means that there will be less showcasing of the sets before launch. Given that the email states that they want to build the community program to support creators, cutting this off seems like an odd move.

It could well be that something else is going to replace this, whether that be creator accounts of some kind, or perhaps some other way to enter Early Access if it comes back in some way.

The simplest part of what it means is just that we won’t be watching anyone in the Early Access event, which is kind of a shame given how much fun the events were.

Read More: More MTG delays are coming

Would you pay for Early Access?

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With that gone, the MTG Arena Creators Program still remains, but the benefits of it feel a little low given that the aim of it is to help people promote the game.

We’re going to keep our eyes peeled for any more changes to the program, hopefully something else pops up to make up for this loss, but as it stands, those making content might feel a little left out to dry.

One thing that has been commented is that this could be a move to bring in more revenue by selling Early Access. Presumably this wouldn’t give full access in the same way that the creator version did, but it’s worth considering.

If something like this did happen, would you pay to get access a bit early? Or is that something that simply doesn’t interest you?

Read More: Our picks for the best Mono-Red Commanders

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