Historic (format)

Historic is a constructed non-rotating format for Magic: The Gathering Arena that was officially announced by Wizards of the Coast on June 27, 2019.

Description
Historic was implemented in November 2019, as a format that allows Arena players to make use of cards that are no longer legal in Standard after rotation. The format is exclusive to Arena, and is intended "to be a fun and casual way [that players] can continue to play with all the cards in [their] collection". On the other hand, paper Magic and Magic Online use the Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage non-rotating formats. Unusually, Historic has some quirks that prevent it from being a subset of larger formats, such as Jumpstart, Historic Anthology and the Arena New Player Experience cards. Historic-legal sets are those from Ixalan onward. Cards from earlier sets are added at Wizard of the Coast's discretion.

Before R&D settled on Historic the name used for the rumored format was "Standard Plus". The format includes a Historic Play queue (both best-of-one and best-of-three), Direct Challenge, practice matches with Sparky, as well as some rotating events that are not beholden to Standard (such as Pauper, Singleton, etc.).

The introduction of Historic coincided with the first rotation for MTG Arena, and the release of the fall set of that year, Throne of Eldraine. The format was inducted as tournament-sanctioned in Mythic Invitational 2020, and Historic replaced Draft as the second format for major competitive events for 2020-2021.

Set Legality
The following paper releases were captured in Arena and are hence legal in Historic. Further supplemental sets are listed below. • Kaladesh Remastered

• Amonkhet Remastered

• Ixalan

• Rivals of Ixalan

• Dominaria

• Core Set 2019

• Guilds of Ravnica

• Ravnica Allegiance

• War of the Spark

• Core Set 2020

• Throne of Eldraine

• Theros Beyond Death

• Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

• Core Set 2021

• Jumpstart

• Zendikar Rising

• Kaldheim

• Strixhaven: School of Mages

• Mystical Archive

Historic Anthologies
Historic Anthologies are added to the game to supplement the Historic format. Wizards added "new" old cards to MTG Arena "from across Magic's history" for use in the format. 15-20 new cards were added in November for the beginning of the new format ("Historic Anthology 1"), with the goal of adding more cards every quarter of the year.

Upon announcement of the format, both the "new" cards and the cards rotating out of Standard (thus becoming Historic cards themselves) were announced to require two Wildcards each to craft—rather than the usual one. After feedback from the player's base, the decision to change Wildcard redemption rates for rotated cards was revoked. It was decided that redemption for all rotated cards would remain 1:1.

Mystical Archive
While not categorized as an Anthology, the Mystical Archive resembles one, as it brings in reprints of famous instants and sorceries from across time and the history of Magic. These cards range from common reprints from this year to cards restricted in Vintage. It was released on April 23, 2021. Seven cards from this set were preemptively banned.

Remastered sets
In 2020, Wizards of the Coast plan to begin adding "remastered" versions of older sets to Magic: The Gathering Arena. The MTG Arena team, in conjunction with Magic R&D, will be looking at multiple sets and condensing them into a single larger set that only includes the most relevant cards and adding that to the game. This will allow them to focus on what made these sets fun and exciting for players while delivering the content much more quickly.

This is a long-term commitment that will eventually lead to additional format support beyond Standard and Historic working towards Pioneer.

Amonkhet Remastered
Contains cards from Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation, alongside some extra Rares and Mythics to shape Historic. It was released on 13th August 2020, putting into the format for Mythic Invitational 2020.

Kaladesh Remastered
Contains cards from Kaladesh and Aether Revolt. It was released on November 12th, 2020.

Historic Brawl
Historic Brawl is a variant of Brawl format that is played with a deck of 60 cards. Basically, Historic Brawl is just what you would expect; the Brawl format (which otherwise uses only Standard-legal sets) with the added Historic card pool. It was introduced on MTG Arena in December 2020.

100-card Historic Brawl
100-card Historic Brawl was introduced in June, 2021. This is the closest to the Commander format that can be played on MTG Arena.

Suspensions
To support the Historic format, Wizards introduced suspensions to control the balance that works well with Magic's history of using bans and restrictions while allowing more flexibility to adjust as Historic changes. For gameplay purposes, a suspension works like a ban, in that the card will not be legal to use in the format while it is suspended. But unlike how banning cards are handled, R&D plans to use the flexibility that the digital format provides to move cards onto and off of the suspension list more commonly. Suspension isn't a final verdict, it's an indication that R&D thinks a card may be causing issues and likes to see what the meta looks like without that influence.

Suspension is also a temporary measure. All the cards that are suspended will be removed from the suspension list by or before the next event. Some may be returned to the playable pool (likely because R&D believes the new environment provides the appropriate answers or countermeasures), and the rest will move to be fully banned.

Suspended cards
Currently none

Banned list
As of June 9, 2021, the following cards are banned in Historic. • Agent of Treachery

• Channel

• Counterspell

• Dark Ritual

• Demonic Tutor

• Field of the Dead

• Fires of Invention

• Lightning Bolt

• Natural Order</c>

• Nexus of Fate</c>

• Oko, Thief of Crowns</c>

• Omnath, Locus of Creation</c>

• Once Upon a Time</c>

• Swords to Plowshares</c>

• Teferi, Time Raveler</c>

• Thassa's Oracle</c>

• Time Warp</c>

• Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath</c>

• Veil of Summer</c>

• Wilderness Reclamation</c>

• Winota, Joiner of Forces</c>

Historic Brawl
As of June 16, 2021, the following cards are banned in Historic Brawl. • Channel</c>

• Drannith Magistrate</c>

• Demonic Tutor</c>

• <c>Gideon's Intervention</c>

• <c>Meddling Mage</c>

• <c>Natural Order</c>

• <c>Nexus of Fate</c>

• <c>Oko, Thief of Crowns</c>

• <c>Omnath, Locus of Creation</c>

• <c>Runed Halo</c>

• <c>Sorcerous Spyglass</c>

• <c>Tainted Pact</c>

• <c>Teferi, Time Raveler</c>

Historic Brawl
The following is a list of cards that have been banned at one point during their stay in the Historic Brawl environment. • <c>Golos, Tireless Pilgrim</c>

• <c>Winota, Joiner of Forces</c>d.

Historic Shakeup
Historic Shakeup is an MTG Arena event with a changing banned card list, you'll have to stay on your toes and think fast to find the right deck each week. Week 1 of Historic Shakeup started March 19, 2021.

Mirror, Mirror
Mirror, Mirror is a short MTG Arena event in July, 2021 featuring rebalanced versions of some of Historic's iconic banned cards.