Wizards responds to controversial MTG Arena Golden packs and players still aren’t happy

An official change has been made by Wizards of the Coast to Magic: The Gathering Arena Golden packs, and players aren’t happy about the adjustments, according to a Sept. 5 Reddit thread.  

Golden packs were first introduced to MTG Arena with the launch of The Brothers’ War as an incentive to Standard players, offering players one free booster pack for every 10 booster packs purchased. Cracking a Golden booster pack allowed players to collect up to three Rare or Mythic Rare cards for free, which was considered a big step toward improving the MTG Arena monetary system. 

The digital launch of Wilds of Eldraine (WOE), which took place on Sept. 5, revealed that a bug was affecting Golden packs or that changes had been made since players were discovering The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth cards in cracked packs. WotC confirmed this was an update to Golden packs and not a bug later that same day, revealing that some Golden packs contained LTR cards that are only available to play in the MTG Arena Alchemy format. 

“The one exception to this is that Golden Packs will still contain standalone Alchemy sets (such as The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth), though to a lesser degree when they are not the most recent set,” said WotC. 

Here are the new specs for Golden packs during the WOE set, according to WotC. 

• Two Rares and/or mythic rares from Wilds of Eldraine
• One Mythic rare from Dominaria United, The Brothers’ War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine, March of the Machine: The Aftermath, or Wilds of Eldraine
• One Rare or mythic rare from Dominaria United, The Brothers’ War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine, March of the Machine: The Aftermath, or Wilds of Eldraine
• Two Rares and/or mythic rares from Dominaria United, The Brothers’ War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine, March of the Machine: The Aftermath, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, or Wilds of Eldraine

Alchemy is allegedly one of the least-played formats on MTG Arena as it is a mix of tabletop and digital-only cards. The format also includes Universes Beyond cards like Lord of the Rings. Alchemy has its own meta and even has a different rotation than Standard at the moment. 

Cracking a Rare or Mythic Rare LTR card for Alchemy when players are trying to collect cards for Standard isn’t sitting well with the MTG community. For many, this is a step backward in making the MTG Arena monetization system better. 

“Omg, I was saving my golden packs specifically to get MID and VOW cards since those are the only standard sets I haven’t completed,” said a Reddit user. “I thought there would be another year to pick up cards in draft and ICRs and now have the rug pulled from under me. This sudden change in the plan is complete bs.”

Less Rare and Mythic Rare Standard-legal pulls in Golden packs mean less of a chance of getting that specific card needed to build a deck, which will likely result in players purchasing additional booster packs or Wildcards directly from the shop. 

The digital launch of Wilds of Eldrane took place on Sept. 5 and all Golden packs for the remainder of the set will contain a small number of The Lord of the Rings cards. WotC has not commented at the time of writing if this change will continue for future Standard releases on MTG Arena.