Wizards of the Coast Defends Cuts to Magic: The Gathering Arena's Ikoria Mastery Pass

Some Magic: The Gathering Arena players have expressed their disappointment when details about the upcoming set's Mastery Pass were revealed and showed a decrease in value, and Wizards of the Coast is defending this decision, saying that previous sets were "unintentionally more generous"

Over on Reddit, someone shared a full analysis of the MTG Arena Mastery Pass for Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, and it reveals that, on average, a 20% reduction in length corresponds to a 15% reduction in cards packs and 39% reduction in gem rewards.

Here are the full conclusions, according to the analysis:

> IKO pass is a much worse value when compared to the THB pass, and is still a significantly worse value when compared to ELD.

> Specifically, even when taking pass duration into account and converting rewards into gems, IKO is still a 12% reduction in gem rewards and a 13% reduction in free pass rewards.

> Keep in mind that the mastery pass still costs 3400 gems. This reduction in rewards would be much more palatable if the pass was also reduced in price based on the duration of the pass (2125 gems)

The game company was quick to respond: "[The reduction] is intentional, due to the set duration being a lot shorter," WotC said. "Theros was unintentionally more generous (we meant to give players a Ranked Draft token, instead they received a Traditional Draft, and we rolled with it). Regardless, we intend to keep the average rewards per day in Mastery Pass comparable to Eldraine and Core Set."

Some fans responded negatively to Wizards' statement, complaining that the price of the Mastery Pass remains unchanged. One fan even shared this clever spoiler meme:

[IKO] Heartless Act - Alternate art.

from

r/MagicArena

However, it turns out that there was a typo in the information about the Ikoria Mastery Pass, according to Wizards. Players will receive 30 packs instead of 25.

Card

Related: New MTG Legendary Creatures From Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Revealed

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is set to launch on Magic: The Gathering Arena on April 16, for tabletop play in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong on April 17, and for tabletop play everywhere else on May 15.

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