Magic: The Gathering Arena has been in closed beta for the better part of a year, but it won’t be closed for much longer. The open beta is set to launch in just over a week, giving all players the opportunity to get in and play on September 27. There’ll be plenty of new features for those who got into the more limited tests, most notably the new Guilds of Ravnica card set.
The open beta will launch September 27 at “around” 13:00 PT / 16:00 ET / 21:00 BST. This will mark a fresh start, as closed beta participants will have their accounts wiped when those servers go down on September 24 – though they will be reimbursed for any in-game purchases made, and will get three new cards from Guilds of Ravnica when the servers relaunch.
That’s set to be the final wipe for Arena, so all the cards you collect and decks you build from here will continue carrying forward until the proper launch, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
Open beta will bring new music, art, and battlefields, and a new game mode with Sealed events, where once you’ve entered you’ll have six packs to open so you can build a deck to use against other players – like a traditional Prerelease event.
You can watch the announcement trailer below, which inexplicably features Danny Trejo and Day9.
Guilds of Ravnica will be fully playable when the beta launches, two days before it goes out in physical stores. With this launch, MTG Arena will feature Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, and Core Set 2019 in addition to the new expansion.
It’s a busy stretch for digital TCGs over the next few months, with this launch, the Artifact release date, and Gwent’s spin-off Thronebreaker campaign all coming within the next few months. Our list of the best PC card games is about to undergo some big shifts, if all goes well.