Live in Arena today, paper cards are out next week
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As is customary withMagic: The Gatheringas of late, the War of the Spark set’s release is going to be staggered now thatArenais in the picture. ThePlaneswalker-heavy setis actually live today, with pre-release events (more on those in a moment) happening throughout the weekend, and paper cards going on sale next Friday, May 3.
War of the Spark is out inArenatoday
So in case you haven’t been following along, War of the Spark is kind of a big deal. It involves a showdown with Nicol Bolas, the current biggest-bad of theMagicuniverse. He’s been slowly accruing legendary artifacts for the past several years (real life time) and now he has set his plan in motion to lure all of the Planeswalkers to Ravnica and eradicate them.This clipkind of sums up what’s happening at the start of the Spark storyline. It’s all-out war, exemplified with the fact that there are36 Planeswalker cardsin this set.
That’s a pretty insane number and showcases how impactful Spark will be. As a reminder many sets will cycle out of standard play later this year (Ixalan, Rivals, Dominaria, Core 2019), but the last two Ravnica sets and War of the Spark will remain standard legal until near the end of 2020. These cards are here to stay for the foreseeable future, especially as far asArenais concerned with its current standard-only focus.
So yeah,Arenawelcomes War of the Spark today, alongside ofa Twitch Prime promotion. If you bought the pre-order packs for $49.99, you can unlock them today and collect your copy (and alt-style) forLiliana, Dreadhorde General. You can always check the status of an impending or current maintenance timeherebut the update is live now.
Also don’t forget to use the codePlayWarSparkfor three free packs.
Pre-release tabletop play will be held all weekend
It’s extremely fun and one of the best formats available at the start of an expansion, so I highly recommend it. The idea is that you’re basically jumping headfirst into a new set with an uncertain meta and untested combos: once the floodgates are open for an individual expansion (usually after singles are on sale and players test their decks) you’ll never be able to have an experience this fresh again.
Physical cards (singles and boxes/boosters) go on sale on May 3
This is when the bulk of people will be playing War of the Spark.
May 3 is when all of those boxes (with 36 booster packs each) ship out and folks start buying singles to fine-tune their decks. For all intents and purposes this is the main release date for the set, but you can give it a go earlier with the above two methods. Have fun!
