Wizards of the Coast surprised fans of Magic: The Gathering today with the latest announcement for their online version of the card game, Magic: Arena.
Details were shared in a press release about the incoming update for Magic: Arena, Jumpstart: Historic Horizons. Releasing exclusively on the digital platform August 12, Jumpstart: Historic Horizons will introduce an absolute first for the popular card game: 31 all-new cards that will be exclusive to the digital card game.
The reason for this is that these new cards will contain three brand new mechanics that are only possible in an online game like Magic: Arena. Those new mechanics are:
* Seek: Powerful tutors pick a random card from your deck that matches a specific criteria. No shuffle, no time spent looking — grab a random card and keep moving. Obviously, this can be done by the game just adding the card to your hand, which mitigates any unintentional scrying.
* Perpetually: This permanently changes the stats of a card. Whether they are exiled, in the graveyard, or even returned to the player's library, these changes stick. Once again, this is thanks to Magic: Arena's ability to just permanently edit the text of a digital card.
* Conjure: This just creates additional digital cards on the board, all of which act like any other card in the game. Since they are created effectively from nothing, it can be a sly way to get around limited copies of cards or lead to even more elaborate combos in the game.
In addition to these brand new cards and unique mechanics, Jumpstart: Historic Horizons will include reprints of hundreds of cards new to Magic: Arena. The bulk of these will be cards from Modern Horizons and Modern Horizons 2, which should add even more robust depth to this digital alternative to this popular card game.
Magic: Arena is a free-to-play experience and it is available on the App Store, Android Marketplace, and PC.
