If you’re a Magic: The Gathering Arena player and plan to get up nice and early to rank up on ladder today, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer to get your grind on. That’s because Arena has come out with a large emergency patch aimed at fixing a game breaking bug discovered by players over the past couple of days. The bug makes players’ cards in hand and other menus like scries completely black and almost impossible to tell apart.
The platform’s Twitter account released a statement earlier today saying they had “to address an issue with players missing assets (‘black cards’), all players will need to download approx. 3.5 gb the next time MTG Arena is launched.”
To address an issue with players missing assets (“black cards”), all players will need to download approx. 3.5 gb the next time MTG Arena is launched. We apologize for the inconvenience, but this will fix the issue for impacted players & prevent it for all players going forward.
— MTG Arena (@MTG_Arena) May 15, 2020
The bug started getting a lot of attention after Mythic Championship Top 8 competitor Austin Bursavitch posted screenshots of his blacked-out cards on Twitter. He shared several photos, each showing a different way the bug made it impossible for him to play properly.
@MagicEsports @Wizards_Help @MTG_Arena any idea what’s causing this? Every opening hand decision my cards look like this, and then things are normal except cards in popped out GY’s also look like this.
MCQW in 40 hours, Arena RPT in 5 weeks help plz! https://t.co/6hWTHnwxAv
— Percsalert (@mtghofbot) May 14, 2020
Aside from his opening hand, the bug also obscured his cards in Graveyard, inside his deck, and his scry decisions. Fortunately, he noted that the cards in his hand returned to normal once he chose whether to keep or mulligan.
It’s crucial that the Magic: The Gathering Arena devs were able to release a fix for this bug last night, as two important competitive events are scheduled to take place on Magic‘s premier digital platform this weekend. First, the top 1,200 players from last season’s Limited and Constructed ranked ladders will battle in the latest Mythic Qualifier. And secondly, the first of 16 Red Bull Untapped tournament series qualifiers is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 16th.
