MTG Arena 2021.7.0 Forgotten Realms patch: Full notes and updates

Dragons and dungeons took over MTG Arena with Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, the last Standard-legal set prior to fall rotation. 

Patch 2021.7.0 launched the newest Standard-legal set, Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms via MTG Arena on July 8, containing a total of 281 cards. Limited Draft and Sealed went live as well, along with new card styles and gameplay improvements. Players can also test out post-rotation builds within Standard 2022 queues in Play and Ranked. 

Here are the full MTG Arena Patch 2021.7.0 patch notes from WotC. 

Deckbuilder improvements

The horizontal deck builder, first mentioned in the July State of the Game is now supported across all mobile devices. Improvements to mobile and cross-platform were also included across all platforms.

Mobile

• On some tablet devices the deck builder will function almost the same as PC (4:3 devices only).
• On phone devices the deck builder is not editable in the half view, but will function almost the same as PC in the full view (tap to switch to full view).
• In a difference from PC, removing a card from the sideboard in the mobile full screen horizontal deck builder will move it back to the deck. Players can then remove the card entirely by removing it from the deck.
• In order to support the horizontal view while drafting, dragging to select your draft pick in 4:3 has been disabled

Cross-Platform Improvements

• In horizontal deck builder mode, single click/tap on a card to bring up a +/- UI for easier adding and removing of cards. This UI will always show on basic lands, and in most formats where more than onee card is legal to add.
• Once you have more than four copies of a card, you can tap and hold to add four copies at a time. At any point you can tap once to add and remove single copies.
• Changed functionality in the column view deck builder so that dragging a card from the deck to the collection will remove all copies of it from the deck instead of a single copy. Works on column/horizontal deck builder (4:3 and PC) and vertical view (PC only).
• On PC players can now click anywhere in the tray and drag to scroll the view.
• The column view deck builder button was moved to the left of “settings” and “learn more” for more consistency. The toggle art was updated to better indicate the mode the user will switch to.

General gameplay improvements

Players can now enjoy flavor text on cards that had no rule text, with the AFR Arena July update. Hanger displays for the new cards were touched up and the cards in hand on mobile were increased in size. 

• Improved hanger display for tokens, dungeons, and other related cards
• When cards have more than one token, dungeon, or other similar cards to show in a hanger you can now easily see all of them.
• On PC you can right-click the card to cycle through, and on mobile, you see them all in a draggable list (similar to how Mutate stacks are displayed).
• This is primarily to give you time to read through a dungeon without the card just cycling away.
• Cards that have no rule text now display their flavor text, if any.
• High-end mobile devices will now have shadows in the duel scene.
• Increased size of cards in hand for mobile devices.
• Cards in the 4:3 draft were made larger.
• Added a Wildcard information pop-up to PC and Mac clients (the same thing you get on mobile when clicking on the Wildcard icon in the main navigation bar).
• Added the ability to zoom in/out (change the number of rows shown in the collection) while in the Vertical deck builder.
• There’s now a cancel blocks button, for when you’ve assigned some blocks, and then want to start over.
• MTG Arena tweaked the highlights on permanents with mana abilities to make it more clear when they have non-mana abilities available.
• Updated smart pass rules in cases where all creatures attacking and blocking creatures have First Strike. 
• Mana from Treasure is now indicated in the mana pool and will not stack with “normal” mana.
• The quantity indicator on card stacks now shows at four, instead of five, across all platforms. This should make it much easier to tell if players have three, four, or five lands in that stack.
• Adjusted the highlighting of mana in your pool, to make it more obvious when it’s been highlighted by Autotap.

Mobile-only gameplay notes

Mobile Arena continues to grow, receiving UI improvements and a full control option. 

• The handheld battlefield no longer adjusts itself each time the stack is up. Instead, to target permanents behind the stack, users need to move the card out of the way. 
• Clearer UI was added to mobile for instances where multiple targets are available to attack.
• MTG Arena made the mobile version more aggressive about stacking identical attackers and blockers.
• Touching and holding the phase ladder above the main buttons and around the player avatar will now trigger the full control option on mobile.
• Players can now touch and hold revealed cards of their opponent’s to enlarge them, just like cards in your hand.
• Mobile stack quantity indicators now format similar to PC.
• Card stacking was polished on mobile so that stacks dynamically space instead of having fixed spacing. Card stacks will now look closer to PC.

Card styles and cosmetics

The AFR patch 2021.7.0 contained a host of cosmetics that included pets, unique D&D card styles, and extended art. 

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms sticker bundle

The sticker bundle contains three emotes, priced at 1,000 gems or 5,000  gold. 

• Beholder sticker emote
• Ellywick sticker emote
• Mindflayer sticker emote

Beholder bundle

Purchase a Beholder pet and a Xanathar, Guild Kingpin card sleeve for 3,000gems or 15,000 gold.

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms borderless planeswalkers bundle

The borderless planeswalker bundle contains a total of five different card styles for 1,600 gems or 8,000 gold. 

• Lolth, Spider Queen 
• Ellywick Tumblestrum 
• Zariel, Archduke of Avernus 
• Mordenkainen 
• Grand Master of Flowers 

Borderless Dragons bundle

All 12 AFR dragons have a borderless card style, available for 2,000 gems or 10,000 gold. 

• Ebondeath, Dracolich 
• Old Gnawbone 
• Inferno of the Star Mounts 
• Iymrith, Desert Doom 
• Icingdeath, Frost Tyrant 
• Black Dragon 
• Green Dragon 
• Red Dragon
• Blue Dragon 
• White Dragon 
• Adult Gold Dragon
• Tiamat

Abyssal Assault bundle

The Abyssal Assault bundle in MTG Arena contains six card styles for 1,300 gems or 6,500 gold. 

• Drizzt Do’Urden 
• Shessra, Death’s Whisper 
• Kalain, Reclusive Painter 
• Lurking Roper 
• Mind Flayer 
• Baleful Beholder 

Epic Adventures bundle

The Epic Adventures bundle contains six Arena card styles for 1,100 gems or 5,500 gold. 

• Bruenor Battlehammer 
• Farideh, Devil’s Chosen 
• Trelasarra, Moon Dancer 
• Iron Golem 
• Purple Worm
• Djinni Windseer 

Adventurer’s League bundle

The Adventurer’s League bundle contains six card styles for 1,500 gems or 7,500 gold. 

• Minsc, Beloved Ranger Card Style
• Delina, Wild Mage Card Style
• Oswald Fiddlebender Card Style
• Owlbear Card Style
• Dragon Turtle Card Style
• Gnoll Hunter Card Style

Monster Research bundle

The Monster Research bundle contains a total of six card styles for 1,200 gems or 6,000 gold. 

• Volo, Guide to Monsters Card Style
• Krydle of Baldur’s Gate Card Style
• Gretchen Titchwillow Card Style
• Minion of the Mighty Card Style
• Pixie Guide Card Style
• Celestial Unicorn Card Style

Module Lands bundle

The Module lands bundle in AFR contains eight cards, priced at 1,800 gems or 9,000 gold. 

• Cave of the Frost Dragon Card Style
• Den of the Bugbear Card Style
• Hall of Storm Giants Card Style
• Hive of the Eye Tyrant Card Style
• Lair of the Hydra Card Style
• Temple of the Dragon Queen Card Style
• Dungeon Descent Card Style
• Evolving Wilds Card Style

Notable bug fixes

• Back faces of MDFCs no longer contribute to party count
• MTG Arena fixed an issue on mobile platforms where the final option of a modal choice could be hard/impossible to choose

Arena bug fixes

• Fixed Social Notification Bubbles so they appear again when playing on desktop.
• In Japanese, searching by card name and deck importing now work without using workarounds to account for furigana.
• Multiple bug fixes in mobile sideboarding scenes.
• Fixed a bug where hovering over a Double-Faced card with depth art would cause minor issues with other depth art.
• Fixed a bug that caused the losing player’s avatar to disappear on mobile during the post-match sequence.
• Fixed a bug on mobile that sometimes caused the deck box to layer in front of the wildcard screen.
• Fixed a bug with scrolling on the pet selection screen not always being responsive.
• Fixed color issues on view challenge and friend invite buttons.
• Fixed some rare bugs found in direct/friend challenge where the improper deck would appear selected or challenges would not be canceled properly.
• Fixed data updates not completing properly in some rare cases.

• Fixed an issue on mobile platforms where the final option of a modal choice could be hard/impossible to choose.
• Modal abilities and spells with only one legal target no longer automatically submit, allowing players to instead go back and choose a different play mode.
• You can now cast zero mana spells using Bolas’s Citadel while Yasharn is in play. This rule was only recently clarified, so we’ve updated the game to match the ruling.
• Predictive Autotap was ignoring Boreal Outrider when determining if foretold creatures could be played. 
• Fixed an issue where Atarka’s Command and Roiling Vortex did not create a mini-CDC to indicated players could not gain life.
• Cleaned up some rules around time extensions, and receiving additional time-outs.
• Scry VFX was playing when Poison the Cup was played, even if it wasn’t foretold. There are no longer misleading Scry VFX.
• Fanatical Firebrand wasn’t triggering Verity Circle. 
• Fixed an issue where Reckless Crew would allow you to select equipped equipment to move multiple times. It didn’t do anything, but it would visually move it around, which is technically wrong.
• Witherbloom Command would show up as castable even when your opponent had Hexproof and none of the other modes had targets. 
• Fixed a bug with Magecraft where copies of a spell didn’t count if the original spell was countered. Now copies correctly trigger Magecraft.
• Fixed a bug that caused exiled cards on mobile to not stack closest to the card that was exiled in cases where auras or equipment was attached.
• Copies of Monstrous Onslaught cast by the other player now correctly use the X value from the original spell as it was cast by the original caster.
• Fixed an issue where STA cards would sometimes have a blank card back after being Scryed to the bottom of the Library.
• Equipping more than 3 runes to an artifact, then attaching to a creature will no longer produce a weird spacing between cards.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused artifacts and enchantments to space far apart on mobile.
• Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge’s discount was displaying (but not active) for opponents. 
• Fixed an issue where cracking a Chromatic Sphere with an Omniscience emblem active caused an exception. 
• Fixed an issue where creatures with Menace, when equipped by Wolfrider’s Saddle, could be blocked by two creatures.