Magic: The Gathering Arena Reveals First Historic Card Set

Magic: The Gathering Arena will debut the new Historic format as part of its upcoming November game update. Historic is an Arena-specific format. The format allows players to use any card in their collection, including those that rotated out of Standard with the release of Throne of Eldraine. In addition to those cards, the Arena team will add batches of cards from past Magic: The Gathering sets that aren't available on Arena to the game for use in the new format. These batches of cards will be referred to as "Historic Anthology" sets. Wizards of the Coast revealed the 20 cards available in "Historic Anthology 1," which will be added to Arena on November 21st.

According to the post on the Magic: The Gathering website, those responsible for choosing these additions to Historic looked for cards that would help differentiate Historic from the Standard, both before and after the release of Throne of Eldraine. They looked for cards that were staples of past Standard formats and cards that see some play in Modern, but they did not limit their selection to cards that are Modern or Pioneer legal since they want Historic to be a unique play experience.

Here are the 20 cards included in Historic Anthology 1:

• Serra Ascendant
• Soul Warden
• Kinsbaile Cavalier
• Treasure Hunt
• Distant Melody
• Cryptbreaker
• Hypnotic Specter
• Phyrexian Arena
• Tendrils of Corruption
• Kiln Fiend
• Goblin Matron
• Hidetsugu's Second Rite
• Elvish Visionary
• Fauna Shaman
• Imperious Perfect
• Burning-Tree Emissary
• Captain Sisay
• Ornithopter
• Mind Stone
• Darksteel Reactor

Players can craft these cards using Wild Cards, the same as any other card in Arena. Alternatively, they can pay 3,400 gems in the game's store to get full playsets of all 20 cards. Future Historic Anthology sets are planned for release on a quarterly basis.

Players can earn cosmetic styles for five of those cards by playing in the historic launch event. The Best-of-One event runs from November 21st through November 25th. Entry is 1000 gold or 200 gems and there's no limit to the number of games players can play. After that, players can take their Historic decks into the Best-of-Three Historic ranked queue that will run until January 15th, the day before the release of Theros: Beyond Death. Arena will hold the first major Historic tournament around that time. Playing in Historic ranked will affect a player's overall constructed rank for the season.

With the launch of Theros: Beyond Death, Historic will go into its "off-season" to put more focus on the new Standard. The Historic Ranked queue will return when the next Historic Anthology releases in March.

What do you think of Historic Anthology 1? Let us know in the comments. Historic comes to Magic: The Gathering Arena on November 21st.