Magic: Arena adds a Black Lotus pet

And streamlined Menace

Magic: The Gathering Arena just hosted its new Zendikar Rising set alongside of the paper version of Magic, and things are going…better now, following a huge set of bans.

Yes, much to the chagrin of players everywhere Wizards only banned one powerful card (Uro) weeks ago near the beginning of the set and decided to “monitor” the rest of the landscape. That landscape ended up being absolutely dominated by one card (Omnath, one of the characters on many key art pieces of the set): so Wizards nuked it from existence as well as the next powerful archetype that would rise in its place.

For many reasons it’s a wild time to be playing Magic, but for the most part, the meta has settled and there are a number of viable decks out there. I’m currently climbing Diamond now with Mono-Red: and not having all of my creatures double-stomped by a Lucky Clover setup is great, let me tell you.

But in-between sets Arena is still getting updated, like this new one that just dropped this week. It fixes a few bugs like infinite (or near infinite) loops and makes it easier to block Menace creatures (cards that must be blocked by two or more creatures). It also adds the (actually) iconic Black Lotus to the game as a pet, which will run you 3,000 gems or 20,000 gold to buy outright; lest you pick up the limited-time bundle that is packaged with the lotus card back.

A bunch of events are also coming to Magic: Arena, which you can view below: those are starting now with quick draft and will run through November 12. Oh, and a bunch of old school lands are available on the store now as skins for your existing lands. It’s a modest little patch!

Game Update Highlights [Wizards of the Coast]

QUICK DRAFT SCHEDULE

• October 16 – October 30: Theros Beyond Death
• October 30 – November 13: Zendikar Rising
• November 13 – November 27: Throne of Eldraine

PREMIER DRAFT SCHEDULE

• September 17 – Winter 2020: Zendikar Rising
• October 23 – October 30: Throne of Eldraine
• October 30 – November 6: Theros Beyond Death
• November 6 – November 12: Ikoira: Lair of Behemoths

FNM HOME SCHEDULE

Note: FNM Home begins the Thursday before at 4:00pm Pacific (23:00 UTC)

• October 16: Historic Brawl
• October 23: Momir
• October 30: Super Standard
• November 5: Brawl

FESTIVAL OF ADVENTURE

• October 17 – October 20: Zendikar World Tour
• October 24 – October 26: Cascade Singleton
• November 1 – November 4: Mastermind
• November 7 – November 12: Mini