MTG Arena players will have 2 days to tweak decks following Alchemy rebalance update

Wizards of the Coast has scheduled a Magic: The Gathering Alchemy rebalance patch to go into effect two days prior to the April MTG Arena Qualifier Weekend.

Monthly Qualifier Weekends within MTG Arena provide “top eligible players” an invite to the upcoming Championship tournament, according to WotC, that in turn provides invites to the Magic: The Gathering World Championship. The final MTG Arena Qualifier for the Streets of New Capenna Championship is scheduled to take place from April 9 to 10, showcasing gameplay in the Alchemy format and containing players from the March Ranked season. 

WotC announced today that an Alchemy rebalance patch will go live two days prior to the April MTG Arena Qualifier on April 7. Details of the nerfs and buffs will get revealed prior to the update, although no specific date for those reveals has been announced by WotC at time of writing. 

Players who earn a spot to compete at the MTG Arena Qualifier via the Ranked ladder during the March Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty season will only have two days to test Alchemy decks prior to the event. Even if an announcement is made earlier in the week, players are unable to test the rebalance changes until the update goes live on April 7. All players who have qualified for the April MTG Arena Qualifier will get a qualifier badge on April 5. 

The last rebalance patch for Alchemy took place in February, nerfing and buffing a total of 17 MTG cards. These changes were applied in an appropriate amount of time prior to the Neon Dynasty Championship that showcased the Magic formats Alchemy and Historic. Without knowing the actual nerfs and buffs taking place during the April 7 rebalance patch, it’s too soon to say if the competitive integrity of the April Qualifier has been compromised. But the potential is there.

Any small nerf or buff applied to an MTG card can affect a deck, as was seen at the NEO Championship via the winning deck, Orzhov Venture, played by Eli Kassis. Two days is not considered a reasonable time frame to test decks prior to a major qualifier event. Players will also potentially have to purchase wildcards to build a new deck or a variant to their existing deck following the April rebalance update, which reinforces the Magic community’s negative opinion regarding the MTG Arena economy. 

All nerfs and buffs contained in the April Alchemy rebalance update will go live on April 7, according to WotC.