MTG: The February Arena Open Is Here, And It’s Sealed
WotC has announced the first Arena Open of 2021, and it’s going to be a Sealed event. Get ready to see who the best Planeswalkers in Kaldheim are.
Grab your boosters and get ready, the first Arena Open of 2021 is here–and for the first time ever, it’s a Limited event. Shying away from the Historic and Standard Constructed Arena Opens of the past, the February 2021 Arena Open will feature the Kaldheim Sealed format.
That means you’ll have six boosters to try and put something playable together, and you’ll have the whole of Kaldheim to pick from. Here are the details, courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.
via WotC
The biggest hurdle with doing player drafts for competitive events on MTG Arena is that an in-game draft table requires exactly eight participants: no more, no less. Given the large-scale, open nature of the Arena Open (see, it’s even in the name), we can’t guarantee the number of interested participants is going to be divisible by eight. While we are exploring potential solutions to this problem, there are technical, logistical, and philosophical hurdles we need to overcome first.
While we consider solutions to some of these issues, we do have a Limited format that scales to any number of players over an event period: Sealed.
We hope the introduction of this format gives our Limited fans a new opportunity to show their stuff and our competitive Constructed players a new challenge to overcome. And for those of you who have been keeping an eye on the MTG Arena event calendar—we will be offering Best-of-Three Sealed for the first time ever, both leading up to the Arena Open, as well as for the Arena Open itself.
Additionally, this Arena Open will qualify eligible players who finish Day 2 with five or more wins to the March Strixhaven Qualifier Weekend, which will feature the Kaldheim Phantom Sealed format. More details will be available on the Qualifier Weekend Information page on Magic.gg.
The schedule is as follows:
Day One
Format: Best-of-One or Best-of-Three Kaldheim Sealed
Deck Building: Open
- Players do not have to register and submit one specific deck for the whole event. They only need a deck with at least 40 cards (including basic lands) for participating in each match.
- Players will be able to make changes to their deck in between matches using cards opened in their sealed pool.
- Reminder that only the snow lands opened in your pool will be available for deck building.
Start: February 20, 2021 at 6 a.m. PT
Signups End: February 21, 2021 at 3 a.m. PT—you’ll still have a few hours to complete your current run, but you won’t be able to join after this deadline.
Event End: February 21, 2021 at 6 a.m. PT
Entry Fee: 22,500 Gold or 4,500 Gems (both Best-of-One and Best-of-Three)
- Cards from the sealed pool will be added to the player’s respective collection.
- Players receive a new sealed pool with each entry.
Entry Reward: Phyrexian Vorniclex, Monstrous Raider card style
Day Two
Format: Best-of-Three Kaldheim Sealed
- Players will receive a new sealed card pool for Day 2.
- Cards from the sealed pool will be added to the player’s respective collection.
Deck Building: Open
- Players do not have to register and submit one specific deck for the whole event. They only need a deck with at least 40 cards (including basic lands) for participating in each match.
- Players will be able to make changes to their deck in between matches using cards opened in their sealed pool.
- Reminder that only the snow lands opened in your pool will be available for deck building.
Event Record: 7 wins or 2 losses
- 7 Wins: $2,000 USD, invitation to March Strixhaven Qualifier Weekend if eligible to participate
- 6 Wins: $1,000 USD, invitation to March Strixhaven Qualifier Weekend if eligible to participate
- 5 Wins: 20,000 Gems, invitation to March Strixhaven Qualifier Weekend if eligible to participate
- 4 Wins: 10,000 Gems
- 3 Wins: 6,000 Gems
- 2 Wins: 4,000 Gems
- 1 Win: 2,000 Gems
- 0 Wins: No Reward
Entry Fee: None—previous qualification from Day 1 required.
Good luck and remember there’s always drafting
