Here are the Sept. 4 MTG Arena patch note highlights

New events, rewards, interface enhancements, and bug fixes.
Throne of Eldraine
Image via Wizards of the Coast Magic: The Gathering

Wizards of the Coast began the Throne of Eldraine (ELD) spoiler season with a bang, including a major patch note update to MTG Arena.

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In conjunction with the launch of the Eldraine Courtside Brawl event on MTGA, WotC introduced a host of updates included in the Sept. 4 MTG Arena update (0.18). From seasonal rewards to a new interface for the mechanic Food, here is a quick rundown of every bug patch and update. 

Eldraine Courtside Brawl

Standard took a back seat on MTG Arena to the highly anticipated Brawl format yesterday with the launch of the Eldraine Courtside Brawl event running from Sept. 4 to Sept. 9.  A full rundown of the MTGA Brawl event can be found here

  • MTGA Brawl is 1V1, not multiplayer like tabletop
  • There’s no entry fee
  • Six rewards that include ELD cards and XP
  • Four preconstructed Brawl decks (the same that can be purchased in card form on Oct. 4)
  • The event runs from Sept. 4 to Sept. 9

Renewal season and rewards

WotC revealed last week players would receive rewards for creating an account and logging into MTG Arena prior to the Sept. 26 update. Upon logging in, players will receive a renewal icon that will become available following the ELD update. Here are the rewards offered to all MTGA players who receive a renewal icon:

  • 10 Rare or Mythic Rare Individual Card Rewards (ICRs)
  • 14 Throne of Eldraine booster packs
  • Four Standard booster packs from either GRN, RNA, WAR, or M20
  • 10 Uncommon ICR cards
  • Two Mastery orbs for the ELD Mastery Tree

September MTGA events

Following the run of the Eldraine Courtside Brawl event on MTG Arena, will be a Standard 2020 Construction tournament. This event is free and will only allow players to construct decks using cards available in Standard 2020 (this includes any ELD card rewards gained from the Eldraine Courtside Brawl event). 

Two wins in a row during the Standard Construction event will earn players 200 XP. 

MTGA enhancements and updates

Several enhancements and changes were made to improve the players’ gameplay experience. Here are the highlights:

  • New interface for Food mechanic (appears when sacrificing Food)
  • Available browser when four or more cards are in the stack
  • The browser opens automatically when a player needs to target a card on the stack
  • The browser indicates who controls spells or effects in the stack by nudging the cards up or down
  • Placing the mouse over an item on the stack shows any related objects that have left the battlefield 
  • When an “undo” is available during gameplay, a new “Undo” hotkey will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen
  • During sideboarding in best-of-three matches, players can examine the final battlefield state
  • Hovering the mouse over any of the zones will now bring up a new element that displays all the zone counts
  • If a player would receive priority in response to a spell or ability, MTGA will now hold priority for players to perform multiple actions (as opposed to auto-passing after the first response action).
  • Blockers will now stack left to right when blocking
  • If the top card of the library is revealed, but uncastable, clicking on that card will now open the library browser 
  • When the top card of the library is playable, it’s location will be offset slightly from the rest of the library
  • Gameplay logs have been updated and changed
  • New player decks have been updated (only players who received new player decks prior to the M20 release will get updated versions after the release of ELD).
  • Players who are awarded new player decks after the Sept. 4 update will receive updated preconstructed decks. 

MTGA bug fixes

WotC is still asking for player input regarding bugs within the game. Here is highlighted list of the bug fixes from the Sept. 4 MTGA update:

  • Improvements made to disconnection issue
  • Rank icons visual bug fixed
  • Jaya, Venerated Firemage no longer has Chandra voice dub
  • Blockers should no longer become unresponsive 
  • The “Prevent Damage” visual effect is no longer removed
  • Cards returning to the battlefield from another zone will now display their enter-the-battlefield animation.
  • Issue resolved that had prevented players from resigning from the Constructed Event.

Related: MTG Arena has a launch date and here’s everything you need to know about it

The next update scheduled for MTG Arena will take place on Sept. 26. This upcoming patch will include rotation and the release of Throne of Eldraine


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Danny Forster
Lead Magic: The Gathering/Teamfight Tactics scribe and staff writer for Dot Esports. Danny is a gamer beach bum residing in Spacecoast Florida and has been a journalist for seven years, of which five have been at Dot Esports. Prior media outllets Danny wrote for were Screen Rant and TheGamer. You can typically catch Danny playing TCGs and a variety of strategic games. He also hangs out on Twitter @Dannyspacecoast.