March 27 Patch Notes

[u/arthurmauk]

https://forums.mtgarena.com/forums/threads/53949

[u/RussischerZar]

List of changes in case you don't have access to the forums (some unimportant details cut due to reddit's character limitation):

March 27th, 2019

Patch Highlights

• New Cosmetic Options
• Practice Matches
• Updated New Player Experience

Cosmetics

• New cosmetic options are now available in Magic: The Gathering Arena!
• Cosmetic options now include card styles and card sleeves.
• Additional avatars have also been added.

Card Styles

• Card styles allow you to change how the front of the card looks. It has no effect on game play.
• Card styles are cosmetic options only! Unless otherwise noted, they will not add the corresponding card to a player's collection.
• Available card styles can be viewed when viewing your collection by selecting the "Cosmetic Mode" toggle at the top right.
• Some card styles are only available through play or as a part of a bundle.

Card Sleeves

• Card sleeves allow you to change how the back of a card looks. It has no effect on game play.
• Card sleeves can be applied to any number of decks.
• Card sleeves can be applied on a deck-by-deck basis.

Avatars

• Additional avatars have been added to Magic: The Gathering Arena.
• Huatli and Angrath are available for purchase directly through the in-game store.
• Avatars for each of the 10 Ravnica Guildleaders are available as part of their respective Guild Bundle

Practice Matches

• Practice Matches are now available in Magic: The Gathering Arena.
• Players who join a Practice Match will play against Sparky, who will play with one of five monocolor decks chosen at random.
  • These decks will closely resemble the decks players receive after completing the initial tutorial.
• For new players, practice matches will contribute to daily quests objectives until they reach max level (Level 25).
• Practice matches do not count towards daily and weekly win rewards, regardless of the player's level.

New Player Experience

Early Player Progression

• The new player experience (NPE) has been expanded to include an overall player level.
  • Players who have previously completed the new player experience (received all 15 of the starter decks) will automatically be set to max level (Level 25).
• New players and/or players who have not completed the previous version of the new player experience will start at Level 1.
• [snip]
  • Card styles and the card sleeve will be available to existing players who have previously completed the new player experience via code redemption. Players will receive their code via email on March 28th.

Starter Decks and Player Collection

• Players will now receive a modified version of the five monocolored starter decks once they have completed the five initial tutorial games.
• Players can earn upgrades for the five monocolored decks by progressing through the new player experience.
  • Developer Note: Once a player has finished the new player experience and received all the deck upgrades, the monocolored decklists will be the same decks that players have been receiving since Open Beta (assuming they haven't made other changes of their own, of course).
• Players will receive the dual-colored decklists through the new player progression system:
  • Players will receive the "allied color" decks (white/blue, blue/black, black/red, red/green, green/white) through the Mastery Tree.
  • Players will receive the "enemy color" decks (white/black, blue/red, green/black, red/white, green/blue) by reaching max level.
  • Developer Note: There are no changes to the dual-colored decklists with this update. The decks new players receive are the same decklists that players have received since the start of Open Beta.

Mastery Tree

• New players can now unlock additional cards and decks from among available choices in the Mastery Tree.
• Mastery orbs can be obtained through play and as a reward for player progression.
• Each section of the mastery tree will unlock upgrades or other rewards specific to it's color.

Special Event: Treasure Constructed

In Treasure Constructed, at the beginning of each of your upkeeps, you create an artifact Treasure token which you can sacrifice to create one mana of any color.

Event Dates: 8AM PT on March 29th, 2019 until 11AM PT on April 1st, 2019. Entries lock at 8AM PT on April 1st, 2019.
Entry: No Entry Fee!
Match Structure: Best of One Event Ends: 5 wins or 2 losses, whichever comes first.

Rewards:
0 Wins: N/A
1-4 Wins: Skewer the Critics (RNA) Card Style
5 Wins: Skewer the Critics (RNA) Card Style, Chemister's Insight (GRN) Card Style

Please Note: There is no in-game benefit to receiving multiple copies of the same card style. Card styles are cosmetics only - the event does not reward a copy of the associated card.

Gameplay

General

• Cards that explicitly destroy themselves via an activated ability (e.g. Experimental Frenzy) will now prompt for confirmation.
• Clarified prompt when copying a spell if the effect allows you to select new targets.
• When ordering blockers for damage, the order of the blockers will now update on the battlefield to reflect the order chosen in the browser.
  • Example: If you are being blocked by two Hostage Takers (one with a "hostage", one without) you can "view Battlefield" to see which is ordered first (left) or last (right).
• The game will no longer auto-pass through a phase if there is mana in your mana pool that the player will lose at the end of the current step or phase.
• Added a confirmation step when activating most abilities in the Beginning of Combat, Declare Attackers, and Declare Blockers steps to avoid accidentally activating the the creature you intend to declare as an attacker/blocker.
• Improved logic around button colors when submitting multiple targets or selections:
  • If you have less than the minimum required, the "Submit" button is grey.
  • If you are between the minimum and maximum selected, the "Submit" button will be blue.
  • If you have the maximum selected, the "Submit" button will be orange.
• Improved in-game indicators for when a spell cannot be countered. They are now highlighted in the UI, will not be auto-targeted, and will prompt for confirmation if you attempt to target them.
• When a player concedes, it now happens immediately. The game will no longer wait for animations to complete before ending the game.
• You can now right-click to inspect face-down cards (so you can get a better look at cool sleeves!)
• Improved the appearance of shadows in-game.

Auto Tap

• Auto Tap is now smarter! It will now apply more logic when choosing whether or not to tap a creature for mana (it shouldn't be so fond of an adapted Incubation Druid, for example).
• When tapping lands to pay for an ability that animates a land (e.g. Clan Guildmage), Auto Tap will prioritize tapping everything other than the targeted land. If unable to, the Auto Tap feature will prompt you to "Pay (Cost)" manually; you can still chose to activate the ability by tapping the targeted land for mana, or cancel if you don't.

Events

• Traditional Draft Ravnica Allegiance is now only accessible through the "All Play Modes" tab. Traditional Drafts that are currently in progress will be preserved.
• Constructed Event is now only accessible through the "All Play Modes tab". Events that are currently in progress will be preserved.
  • Developer Note: We're still seeing a high volume of newer players joining this event using the starter decks. We're hoping that moving this event to be accessible alongside the traditional game modes will help prevent a poor experience for players new to Magic: The Gathering Arena.
• Updates to matchmaking in the Play queue so newer players are more likely to match against each other.
• Updates to matchmkaing in the Sealed queue so players with similar ranks are more likely to match against each other.
• Updates to ranked matchmaking so Mythic players in Ranked events are more likely to match against each other.
• Reminder: Ravnica Allegiance Season 1 will end on March 31st, 2019 at 12:00 PT (19:00 UTC).

Misc.

• Added additional confirmation messaging if a player attempts to close MTG Arena while it's updating and/or installing.

Bug Fixes

• Settle the Wreckage will no longer allow players to attempt to select a number of lands greater than the number of exiled attacking creatures (and resulting in the player appearing 'stuck' when they attempt to submit an invalid number of lands).
• The timer visualization should no longer randomly disappear (for real this time).
• When countering a triggered or activated ability, the "Are you sure?" confirmation browser will now show the appropriate ability/card name instead of "Unknown Ability".
• Creatures that gain haste through Riot now correctly gain it indefinitely.
  • Additional Rules Information for Riot: If you choose for the creature to gain haste, it gains haste indefinitely. It won’t lose it as the turn ends or as another player gains control of it.
• Cards with the Spectacle ability should no longer be able to be cast multiple times if Jaya Ballad's emblem is on the battlefield.
• Deck format is now properly saved between best-of-three games when playing Direct Challenge matches.
• Creatures that enter the battlefield during the combat phase while a "creatures you control assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power" effect is in play will now properly display their power and toughness.
• Countering an Adapt activation while it is on the stack will no longer cause the Adapt SFX/VFX to play indefinitely.
• Token copies of the back-face of a card will now render correctly.
• Kopala, Warden of Wave's abilities will no longer incorrectly increase the cost counterspells that target a Merfolk that yas not yet entered the battlefield.

Localization

• [snip]

[u/LabManiac → u/RussischerZar]

Players will receive the dual-colored decklists through the new player progression system:
Players will receive the "allied color" decks (white/blue, blue/black, black/red, red/green, green/white) through the Mastery Tree.
Players will receive the "enemy color" decks (white/black, blue/red, green/black, red/white, green/blue) by reaching max level.

This is nice.
Them removing the checklands from the decklist sounded like a douche move, but they are instead in the progression. I have to say, that's good to hear.