MTG Arena Patch 1.09: Full notes and updates

The arrival of Core Set 2021 in MTG Arena means Standard rotation is just around the corner.

MTG Arena’s 1.09 update that dropped today contained the usual notes that include events for the next month, cosmetic changes, gameplay updates, and bug fixes. But the patch also features a rework on the deck builder UI, a reiteration of the new pack collation and reprint system, along with card-specific notes.

Here’s everything you need to know about the MTG Arena 1.09 update. 

M21 mechanics

There are no “new” mechanics contained within Core Set 2021. But there’s a new keyword action and creature type. The set also contains two returning mechanics: Phasing and Prowess. A full rundown of the mechanics, along with Mill and Dog, can be found here. 

M21 card notes

Several M21 cards have specific notes attached to them in the MTG Arena 1.09 patch: Teferi, Master of Time, Nine Lives, Frantic Inventory, Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest, and Sanctum of Calm Waters. 

Teferi, Master of Time

• When a creature is “Phased Out,” it never leaves the battlefield. Players can tell a creature is Phased Out as it will be surrounded by ripples of Teferi magic within MTG Arena. A player can also mouse over the creature to see the Phased Out hanger. 

Nine Lives

• If there are multiple Nine Lives on the battlefield, MTG Arena will automatically apply replacement effects to keep them all as far away from nine counters as possible, even when taking damage from multiple sources at the same time.

Frantic Inventory

• Frantic Inventory will have a count indicator for reference to determine how many copies are in a player’s graveyard. 

Sanctum cards

• Default triggers have been updated for Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest and Sanctum of Calm Waters. Players will draw cards from Sanctum of Calm Waters before Sanctum of Fruitful Harvest resolves and ask that plate what color of mana to add. 

Reprint policy

WotC has added a pack collation and reprint policy to Arena when dealing with Rare and Mythic Rare reprints that have the same name and art found in previous cards already in a player’s library. A full breakdown of the policy can be found here. 

Deck builder UI changes

An update was applied that added a tooltip to show every advanced search command that’s usable in the Arena deckbuilder search filter. 

• Improvements were also made for players who enjoy using the horizontal view. 
• The column view can now be expanded and retracted to take up most of the screen.
• Searching for cards in this expanded view splits piles into two horizontal rows, with the cards searched for in the top row and other cards in the bottom row.
• In Sealed and Draft events, when in the expanded horizontal view, there are filter buttons showing each color of mana that can be used to add all cards of that color to your deck from your sideboard.
• In Sealed and Draft events there are suggested cards that are highlighted in blue and can be removed with the filter buttons as well. They are finalized into the deck by saving or closing the expanded view.
• When importing decks, misspelled names are ignored if you have the set name and collector number on the line.

June and July events

A number of events are taking place in MTG Arena over the course of June and July. Some of these are regularly-scheduled events like Friday Night Magic Home and Quick Draft, while others like the Standard Metagame Challenge only show up when there’s a new set added to MTGA. 

Quick Draft schedule

• June 26 to July 10: Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
• July 10 to 24: Core Set 2021

FNM Home schedule

• June 26: Celebrate Core Set 2021 
• July 3: Singleton
• July 10: Artisan

Other events

• July 4 to 7: Standard Metagame Challenge
• July 11 to 14: Core Set Constructed

A full breakdown of events throughout June and July within MTG Arena can be found here. 

Cosmetics and bundles

There are a number of new cosmetic and bundle items that can be found in the MTG Arena store. For M21, there’s the Master Pass, booster packs, and showcase bundles. There are also five planeswalker showcase bundles. Each bundle features the planeswalker and their spells for 800 gems or 4,000 gold. 

Price adjustments are also being applied to bundles in the Arena store. A discount is applied to a bundle for each item individually owned by that player so they’re only purchasing content that’s not in their collection. 

A full rundown of every bundle and available card style in the MTG Arena store can be found here. 

Gameplay adjustments

Improvements and updates have been applied to the extra/consecutive turn indicator and for quick tapping mana. Brawl commanders have also been updated so that they do a zone transfer when they’re killed or exiled. All cards with the new keyword “mill” have the appropriate hangers and cards with badges will show a badge in all zones.

• WotC added a Quick Tap key: Hold down “Q” to tap multiple mana producing permanents, release to submit all of them at once. This is optimized for speed, so if you care about the color of mana a source produces, you should still tap that one normally.
• WotC updated the Extra/Consecutive turn indicator. You now see an indicator any time the upcoming turn order is out of the ordinary.
• WotC updated the behavior of Brawl Commanders such that they actually do zone transfer when they die or are exiled, and the player then has one chance at the next state-based action to transfer them to the Command Zone.
• WotC no longer automatically group replacement effects that appear to be identical if Auto Choose Replacement Effects is turned off.
• Mousing over an ability on the stack with an additional cost (say Witch’s Oven sacrificing a creature) now indicates the card used to pay that cost.
• Cards in paper that allowed you to search the graveyard or your library and then shuffle your Library only if it was searched now do the same on MTG Arena.
• Cards that use the new keyword Mill have appropriate hangers and interactions.
• Cards that have a badge for the number of instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard now show that badge in all zones.
• Cards that care about the count of cards of the same name in the graveyard (like Undead Servant)now show a count of those cards everywhere other than on the battlefield.

Bug fixes

• The Play Blade should no longer inappropriately revert to Bot Matches.
• Various fixes related to Companions and Sideboarding.
• Individual Card Rewards (ICRs) should no longer occasionally incorrectly tag a card as being “First!” in your collection.
• Lurrus of the Dream-Den has a hyphen in their name now.
• Having two Angels of Vitality in play caused no longer causes visual bugs in the damage VFX when your opponent was attacked.
• Spending mana from Domri, Chaos Bringer on a mutating spell no longer causes unbounded gaining of Riot.
• Guardian Project now interacts correctly with the triggering card being bounced or flickered before Guardian Project resolves.
• Emblems created by Planeswalkers that also create a token (but not with the Emblem) no longer display the token when moused over.
• The very top of the title of some full-card hangers (e.g. where it shows the backside of a double-faced card or a related token) on your opponent’s cards were being cut off. We’ve nudged that down a few pixels. Never be confused if it’s a token or a transformation again.
• Cards that were sent to the bottom of the Library would briefly visually appear to be on top. This has been fixed.
• Full art tokens that gain abilities also gain a text box to display them in.
• Tokens created by copies of creatures that had been mutated over a creature that creates tokens weren’t displaying art. They are now.
• Cards on the battlefield now only get “…” badges when they have abilities that don’t have an icon or would have four or more badges.
• Fixed multiple issues with cards not showing styles correctly when zone transferring or mutating.
• Fixed an issue where choosing a mutating spell as a source to prevent damage from does not result in preventing damage from the permanent it becomes.
• Now if you prevent damage from a Porcuparrot, and then they flash something over it, you’re still good.
• Fixed a missing string for paying mana in order to attack.
• Cards that say you “may mill” no longer let you do so if it would require you to mill more cards than you have remaining.
• Adventure cards that have been exiled but didn’t go on an adventure any longer show Adventure VFX.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed players to hold control without the timer counting down.
• We’ve updated Jenn Ravenna Tran’s artist credit in-game, in line with their preference.
• Fixed a bug that could cause badges to be inappropriately shown on cards in the deckbuilder and collection.
• When importing decks, misspelled names are ignored if you have the set name and collector number on the line.
• Editing a deck no longer removes favoriting.
• Deck format drop-down in the deck manager scene is now large enough to show all deck formats.
• Deck Manager format is saved when leaving and returning to the scene.