MTG Arena maintenance shuts down gameplay during July 7 update

A scheduled Magic: The Gathering Arena update for the release of Alchemy Horizons: Baldur’s Gate has resulted in a temporary shut down of the digital card game. 

The Alchemy Horizons: Baldur’s Gate July 7 update began around 10am CT and was expected to run for around three hours with no downtime, according to Twitter. Around one hour into the scheduled maintenance, everything within MTG Arena became unavailable, listed as “under maintenance” via the server status page. Some players have reported being unable to log in while others got into the system but are still unable to unlock Alchemy Horizons: Baldur’s Gate pre-orders or booster packs received via codes from the tabletop Draft events. 

No official response from Wizards of the Coast has been made at time of writing. There have been MTG Arena updates in the past that were also scheduled for no downtime, which temporarily shut the digital card down for an hour or two—with the release of Streets of New Capenna being the most recent. 

The July 7 MTG Arena update contains over 250 cards for the Historic and Alchemy formats via the Alchemy Horizons: Baldur’s Gate expansion. Upon completion, players can immediately start competing in the expansion Sealed events or prepare for the Alchemy Metagame Challenge that is slated to run from July 8 to 11.

Players can also begin crafting with over two dozen MTG Arena cards that were rebalanced for the July 7 update. Nerfs and buffs were applied to cards like Ochre Jelly and Sigardian Paladin. Winota, Joiner of Forces was unbanned in the Historic format while Grinning Ignus was banned in Alchemy. 

The scheduled July 7 MTG Arena maintenance should wrap around 1pm CT. We will report any new updates to the server status if necessary.