Originally scheduled for August 12th, MTG’s Jumpstart: Historic Horizons has been delayed. In a recent “State of the Game” article by Wizards, the devs pointed out that there were some major changes coming to the backend systems, and unfortunately, this means they need more time. That means Historic Horizons, likely the reason MTG Arena needs to make these changes have ultimately been delayed. This just means things are being pushed back two weeks, and that’s not the worst thing to happen.

In that same State of the Game article, it was revealed that the August 2021 Ranked Season would be split into two. That means for you, the ranked grinder, you get an extra two weeks to get to a point where you’re happy! The August 2021 season lasts until August 24th, and the September 2021 season will run from Aug. 24th until September 30th. That is more than enough time. What about rewards though?

“Since we initially planned and announced this as two August seasons with two sets of rewards, we’re instead combining the pack, card style, and gold rewards from both seasons into the new August 2021 Ranked Season so players can still earn everything we had previously promised—it will be an excellent time to finish with a Mythic ranking!”

One thing that isn’t changing is the October 9-10 Qualifier Weekend. The first 500 players that hit Mythic by 7 am on August 10 will still receive invitations to participate. On August 24th, we get more than just the Historic Horizons update for MTG. Two days later, on August 26th, the 100-card Historic Brawl queue will go live! The Historic Horizons event will be extended until October 14th, so we’re glad it won’t just be cut short. 

Though it’s an interesting decision to have the Mythic Qualifier, there are some positives for the majority of players. A series of Historic Drafts are coming to MTG Arena until the launch of Jumpstart: Historic Horizons. The best part is, each of these is free for the first run for everyone! The following dates are scheduled:

• Amonkhet Remastered: August 10-15
• Kaladesh Remastered: August 15-20
• Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths: August 20-26

Sadly, all of this meant the new Historic Brawl queue had to be pushed back, there will be a Historic Brawl event (that has no entry fee) on August 12th, that will run until the appropriate queue is available. Brawl is pretty popular, so hopefully, this fills up with people trying to play! There’s no “official” explanation on what delayed MTG Historic Horizons, other than “backend work”. Two weeks really isn’t too long of a delay though, but it’s going to crash right into the Innistrad: Midnight Hunt launch.