When Throne of Eldraine arrives this fall, Magic: The Gathering's Standard format will have a rotation so Magic Arena will be introducing a new non-rotating format called Historic.
Standard rotation on Magic Arena will happen with the release of Throne of Eldraine on September 26, so that means cards from Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, and Core Set 2019 will no longer be legal in Standard format but that doesn't mean you can't use those cards in Arena again.
As part of today's Magic Arena: State of the Beta announcement, Wizards of the Coast has announced that Historic format will launch in Magic Arena this November, and the developers will add new cards to Magic Arena from across MTG's history for play in Historic formats or events. Wizards of the Coast plans to do this regularly, starting with approximately 15-20 cards in November, with reoccuring goal of adding more new cards every quarter after that, and these cards will mostly be released independent of Standard sets. According to Wizards, they might eventually add full non-Standard sets, but they rather focus on adding meaningful cards for the new Historic format.
Historic Events
Wizards of the Coast will also add a new Historic ranked queue for Best-of-Three play in December, and it will contribute ot the same Constructed rank as Standard but Historic decks will only be matched against other Historic decks. The Historic ranked queue will only be available for around 4 weeks.
They're also planning to add at least one Historic event per month starting in November, and players will be able to acquire new cards in these events. There will be an entry fee for the November event but participants will also receive copies of the new cards.
Wildcards
The November update will also change the way players can craft a Historic card. You will need to redeem two Wildcards of the appropriate rarity instead of one.
Wizards went on to explain how Wildcards are redeemed if there are Historic versions of cards currently in a Standard set:
"If a Historic card also appears in a current Standard set, players will be able to redeem one Wildcard for one copy of the Standard version, however, the Historic version will still require two. For example, you can play Luminous Bonds in Historic whether it's the Rivals of Ixalan version or the Guilds of Ravnica version, but starting in November the Rivals of Ixalanversion will cost two common Wildcards, while the Guilds of Ravnicaversion will cost one common Wildcard. Both versions will be playable in both Historic and Standard."
I'm sure a lot of fans would hate requiring two Wildcards just to acquire one Historic card, and I hope Wizards will change that by the time Historic launches in Arena this November. However, I'm excited to play the new format and to see what new cards from older sets they will be adding.
Are you excited to play Historic in Magic Arena this November? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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