Magic: The Gathering Arena Updates: Duplicate Protection, Ranked Best-of-3 Constructed & More

Wizards of the Coast

Big changes are coming to Magic: The Gathering Arena early this year, and today, Wizards of the Coast and Magic Arena director Chris Clay have shared the details of the upcoming January update for the popular digital trading card game, and they promise that they will fix the "5th card problem" and add a best-of-three ranked Constructed events.

The most exciting part of the update is Duplicate Protection. Fifth copies of rares and mythic rares will be converted to other cards of the same rarity first, then, if you have the complete set, they convert to 20 gems for rares and 40 gems for mythic rares. Commons and uncommon cards will still go towards The Vault. The fifth copies of cards in Magic Arena are pretty much useless right now so this will be a great solution to help fix that problem.

Duplication protection is not applied when you open your packs in a Limited Event so you will still be able to pick any rare or mythic rare card, even if you already have four copies of it in your in-game collection. Once you have completed your Draft picks or opened your Sealed packs, the system will convert any extra copies you may have received. Rares and mythic rares will be converted to gems, and uncommons/ commons will go towards The Vault.

You can watch Magic Arena director Chris Clay explain how Duplicate Protection works below:

In addition to Duplicate Protection, Magic Arena will add best-of-three Constructed events starting on January 31. They went on to say that they will adjust matchmaking algorithms (specifically for Ranked Draft), as well as updates to the progression system for advancing Ranks.

Finally, the announcement also reminded us that Ravnica Allegiance will be available on Magic Arena on January 17. Traditional Draft will switch to Ravnica Allegiance on January 18, and there will be a special Constructed Event on January 25 where players can only use cards from Guilds of Ravnica and Ravnica Allegiance.

Are you excited for these new updates for Magic Arena?

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Related: MTG Senior Design Director on Whether Best-of-1 Matches is Considered For Competitive Tabletop Events