MTG Arena prepares for Zendikar Rising with September State of the Game

Launching via MTG Arena on Sept. 17, Zendikar Rising will bring about Standard rotation, new events, and an upgrade to cosmetics. 

A total of 280 cards from ZNR will arrive in MTG Arena on Sept. 17, not including Expeditions and cards from “The List.” Players can bling out their builds with ZNR full-art basic lands that are available upon purchasing six boosters packs or competing in a Zendikar Rising Draft or Sealed event. Pre-ordering the Jace booster pack bundle counts towards getting full art basic lands as well. 

Players can also scoop up on the ZNR Mastery Pass upon launch, containing a number of new emotes and sticker customizations. Editing emotes and stickers can be accomplished through the Profile page in MTG Arena. Selecting all of them allows players to use arrow buttons in a match to select a specific emote. 

The launch of ZNR will also introduce new and returning mechanics to the Standard format. These include Party, Landfall, Kicker, and Modal Double-Faced cards (Modal DFC). Players can test out these mechanics in Constructed in Standard or Historic, and during events that will take place throughout the course of September and October. 

• Sept. 17 to winter 2020: Premier Draft
• Sept. 17 to winter 2020: Traditional Draft
• Sept. 17 to Oct. 2: Sealed 
• Sept. 26 to 29: Standard Metagame Challenge
• Oct. 2 to 16: Quick Draft
• Oct. 3 to 6: ZNR Constructed

Players can also earn a Renewal Gift at the launch of ZNR by simply logging into MTG Arena on or before the patch on Sept. 17. Additional rewards will also get offered through the ZNR Set Mastery. 

As with every new set added to MTG Arena, an Early Access streamer event will take place all day on Sept. 16. Hundreds of content creators from around the globe will have access to God accounts from Sept. 16 at 10am CT to Sept. 17 at 8am CT, allowing them to play anything from Standard Constructed to Draft and Sealed events. 

WotC recently announced the roadmap for sets that are dropping post-ZNR. The State of the Game today also revealed that Kaladesh Remasterd is in development (for Historic), as is mobile for MTG Arena—although the mobile launch still doesn’t have a date as of yet. Pioneer Masters has been pushed to 2021 but is still in concept, along with Historic Anthology 4, play blade rework, and deck sharing. 

Standard rotation and the new ZNR set go live via MTG Arena on Sept. 17. Players can get a first look at the set and all the cards in action on Sept. 16 through the Zendikar Rising Early Access streamer event.