MTG Arena is growing at a constant rate and this month’s State of the Game may be the biggest one yet. Features are coming that I’ve personally been waiting for, as well as some performance fixes. Wizards of the Coast are aware of the various performance issues. The MTG Arena November update addresses some of these issues.

It’s my sincere hope that with this update, I’ll stop having crippling slowdowns every time I stream MTG Arena. It’s been one of my biggest complaints about a game I otherwise love. So, without further ado, let’s talk card games!

Socializing 1.0

One of the other things that frustrate me about MTG Arena is the lack of a friends list. Wizards, I imagine, wanted to focus on performance before this. A friends list, called “Social Features 1.0,” is just the beginning.

Other features we can look forward to in the MTG Arena November update are direct messaging and sharing decks when competing in Direct Challenge matches. Now that is awesome. Often, I’m playing with friends in casuals, and I’m curious about what makes their deck tick. This part of the MTG Arena update appeals to me greatly, if I can be honest.

I’d also like to see clans in the future. That’s less of an immediate desire. I would much rather see clans when there is multiplayer (2v2, 3v3). I don’t know if this game engine is built for that, though. I’ve seen a slowdown in streaming just one on one.

What Is MTG Arena Meant to Be?

When I last stopped playing MTG on tabletop, I was mostly playing Legacy Format. It’s an expensive format where matches last 0-2 turns on average, I’d say. In this month’s State of the Game, Wizards brought up a current discussion: What IS MTG Arena meant to be?

At first, it was only the current Standard Meta. When cards rotated out, they were “gone,” so you could not put them into your decks. However, we’re going to look beyond Standard. This discussion began when the “Historic” Format was announced.

Wizards gave us four points to be aware of, as to what MTG Arena is:

• A gateway to Magic: We want MTG Arena to be the definitive way for new and old players alike to jump into Magic: The Gathering whenever they want.
• Delving into Magic’s history: We plan to bring more of Magic’s history into MTG Arena through Historic and set remasters.
• A curated experience: MTG Arena should provide easy onboarding, great matchmaking, and varied experiences each day, week, and set.
• A digital frontier: MTG Arena is a new way to experiment with Magic and expand its possibilities, especially in the digital space.

Ideally, MTG Arena is a game you can play anytime. Whenever you log on, whenever you have the time, there’s an event going on. It is my favorite part about Magic the Gathering Arena. I keep weird hours, and I don’t have time to drive an hour to play quality MTG.

Now I don’t have to! I can play MTG Arena whenever I want, take part in events, and have challenging matches. With that in mind, they also revealed they are going to expand Direct Challenge options, and further social features to make this easier.

MTG Arena Adds Remastered Sets

It may be the most exciting part from a gameplay perspective, in the MTG Arena November update post. In 2020, MTG Arena is going to be adding remastered versions of older Magic the Gathering sets. The MTG Arena team will be working with Magic R&D and going over several sets.

This “Set Remaster” will combine several sets into one larger set that has the most relevant cards in one location. By focusing on fun and exciting gameplay, this should make the Historic format take off. Wizards also pointed out Pioneer as a format they want to add. Pioneer is new and still taking shape, so I wouldn’t expect that until probably the middle of next year at the earliest. That’s speculation, of course.

Here are a few sets that I would like to see come back in this Remastered Project:

• Alara Block
• Ice Age Block (Including Cold Snap)
• Llorwyn Block
• The Rathe Cycle
• Antiquities

Since I’m an old man and played a lot of Magic in its heyday, these are the sets that impacted me the most. That, and they have cards, I would give a great deal to see in the game.

Historic is a brand-new format for MTG Arena. It will let players with a bit more experience create more cunning designs in the deckbuilding scene. It will be a living format and will change. Does that mean they’ll add and ban cards with more frequency? Now that would be interesting to see.

The MTG Arena November update will add 20 new cards to MTG Arena for the Historic format. If that’s not enough, a Best-of-One Historic Launch Event will come with a Best-of-Three Ranked queue. Will there be Best-of-One Historic Ranked? That would be wild!

When can we expect some of this to come to life? The Friends List and Historic Anthology 1 update drops November 21st. That will also feature a variety of bug fixes and quality-of-life fixes to look forward to.