While tabletop Magic: The Gathering continues to suffer in the US due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, Wizards of the Coast is doing what it can to provide all players of the collectable card game the means to engage in competitive play while staying safe at the same time. Indeed, the company confirmed last week it had taken the decision to suspend all in-store Magic play until September at the absolute earliest, at the same time highlighting that both digital versions, Arena and Online, would operate as normal.
In this case, it’s the former serving as the staging ground for a new Open tournament due to kick off next month. Wizards says it’ll have more details to share in July’s State of the Game post but for now, we know that the championship’s format will be Historic and is due to follow a similar structure to that of Arena‘s first Open held earlier this year.
Check out the gallery below for a refresher on some of the cards exclusive to the format:
Spread across two days, all participants (the only barrier to entry is a one-time Gem or Gold payment) will have the chance to compete over a two-day period for a cash prize of $2,000. If you think you’ve got what it takes to go all the way, do note that rushing to build the perfect deck to prepare ahead of time is, as of writing, futile. In addition to the latest banned and restricted announcement due to arrive later today, July 16th marks the launch of new set Jumpstart, which brings with it more than 500 cards, most of which (there are some exceptions) will be playable in Historic.
Magic: The Gathering Arena‘s next Open tournament begins August 1st at 8 am PT. Stay tuned for more details.
