Wizards of the Coast is in the festive mood this fall season as the latest long-term event series for the digital card game version of Magic: The Gathering is about to start soon. The MTG Arena Festival of the Fae event series is kicking off this weekend and we have everything you need to know about it.

What Is the MTG Arena Festival of the Fae?

To start things off, the MTG Arena Festival of the Fae event itself is a new event series that is following in the footsteps of long-term events that took place over the summer and in the spring during the last two expansions. Like those events, it features several weeks of different competitions for players to compete in.

Each week of the event will feature a different match format for players to use in battles, some of which are brand new and we have never seen them before. In addition to this, there will be new rewards with each of the following event weeks for players to collect.

This festival is all about the showcase cards that are being added with this event to the game. The showcase cards in the latest expansion Throne of Eldraine are all about the new Adventure cards that are in the set. There are a handful of these Adventure cards that are getting special showcase versions.

These gorgeous renditions of the normal showcase cards will be earnable during the various events of the MTG Arena Festival of the Fae. As such, this is an important event that players will want to certainly check out, especially if they have some favorite Adventure cards.

MTG Arena Festival of the Fae Start Date

There are three weeks in total that the event will be offering, taking place over the course of the month of November. The event will kick off this weekend on Sunday, November 3, 2019. Wizards of the Coast is continuing their strange way of doing limited time events during the festival.

Each week, the new event for that week will start on Sunday of that week and only last for a few days before concluding on the following Wednesday. In the case of the first event, it will end on Wednesday, November 6. This is contrary to having the event last for an entire week or so.

Then the next Sunday that rolls around will begin the second part of the festival where it will end on the following Wednesday. It is a strange way of doing it, mainly because there are only a few days to participate in the event and they aren’t centered around the weekend where many players will have more free time.

The final event will conclude on November 20, ending the festival and making the various rewards from wins obsolete until they are, potentially, sold in the in-game store. As such, you are going to want to take full advantage of the limited time that you have each week.

Festival of the Fae Chapter 1 The Artisan Market Details

It all starts this Sunday on November 1 with the first chapter of the MTG Arena Festival of the Fae event. Dubbed The Artisan Market, this first event week will feature the Artisan match format. Wizards of the Coast describes the first chapter as having a bustling market happening in a plaza.

There is mostly junk for sale in the market but among the clutter there might be some real hidden gems. This description plays right into the match format Artisan that players will be using during the event. Players will need to build a full 60-card Standard constructed deck to participate.

There are some key limitations in Artisan, though, like the fact that players will have to build their decks using only common and uncommon cards. No mythic rare or rare cards will be allowed in this event mode. In addition, there are some banned cards that players should know about so you don’t try to plan a deck around them.

The four cards are Cauldron Familiar, Cavalcade of Calamity, Gates Ablaze, and Persistent Petitioners. The first is understandable because it is not only able to damage the enemy each time you add it to the field but it is basically immortal so long as you have a steady food source.

As for Cavalcade of Calamity, it is a bit overpowered for this mode in its own in a similar way to Cauldron Familiar. Whenever a creature you control that has a power of one or less attacks, this enchantment card will deal one damage to that player or planeswalker.

Then there are Gates Ablaze and Persistent Petitioners, both of which are problematic cards for limited time modes like Artisan that are typically banned from the start. There really is no surprise that these are banned but it is worth mentioning nonetheless.

What is unfortunate about this limited time event is that, unfortunately, there are entry fees for all three weeks of play. This is contrary to the other long-term events that were held earlier this year where it was free to join. The entry fee for the first week is 2500 gold or 500 gems.

Festival Chapter 1 Rewards

Festival of the Fae Chapter 2 Oko’s Madness Details

Following up on the first week of the festival, the second week will kick off with chapter two known as Oko’s Madness. Named after the star of the current expansion, this new match format is a twist on the beloved Momir’s Madness mode from past events.

Chapter two of the festival will begin on November 10 and come to an end on November 13. It will have the same entry fee as the first chapter at 2500 gold or 500 gems, depending on which currency you wish to use. This is a strange and truly randomized mode that will challenge players.

No matter how good you are or how large your deck collection is, the Oko’s Madness match format will be difficult because a lot of it is just so random. Every single player starts out on the same foot with a 60-card deck that is solely containing basic land cards.

But players also have the Oko’s Whims emblem on the field that has two main effects that will drastically determine how the match goes for you. The first is that creatures you control will have the base stats of three and three, and be elks in addition to their other types.

This is reminiscent of one of the abilities that Oko has with his own card. The second ability of the emblem is that you can pay one mana and discard a card to create a token that is a copy of a random creature with converted mana cost of eight or less.

As such, the match format will revolve around creating tokens to use on the field against your enemy but it is all so random that you could end up with some great matches and some poor ones. Thankfully, losses will not count in this event.

There are some noteworthy cards that will be available for appearing when you create a token. Those cards are:

• Baleful Force
• Bedlam Reveler
• Borborygmos Enraged
• Crash of Rhinos
• Gigantomancer
• Griselbrand
• Hoverguard Sweepers
• Magmatic Force
• Scaled Wurm
• Tidespout Tyrant
• Wolf Pack

Festival Chapter 2 Rewards

Festival of the Fae Chapter 3 Cascading Finale

The MTG Arena Festival of the Fae event will conclude with the final week of the event called the Cascading Finale. The entire festival will go out with an epic bang as spells are going to be flying in this particular event. It will feature the match format called Cascade.

Cascade is all about spells and players will start the match with the Maelstrom Nexus emblem on the field. It has the ability that has to do with the first spell you cast each turn. When you do this, it will have you exile cards from the top of your deck until you exile a nonland card that costs less than the one you just cast.

You are able to case that particular card without paying its mana cost. Then you will put the exiled cards that weren’t cast on the bottom of your deck in a random order. It is a strange match format that certainly rewards players for stacking their deck with awesome spell cards of varying mana costs.

The entry fee for this event is the same as the others at 2500 gold or 500 gems to get in. As with the first event, this match format will have quite a few banned cards that aren’t allowed. Those banned cards are:

• Deafening Silence
• Fae of Wishes
• Field of the Dead
• Flaxen Intruder
• Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
• Lucky Clover
• Rule of Law
• Teferi, Time Traveler

Most of these cards are not available because they allow the player to essentially break the game mode and/or gank the system.

Festival Chapter 3 Rewards