25 cards in all

Wizards of the Coast is expanding the Historic format (which uses older, non-standard cards) in Magic: Arena, and they're doing it in a way that involves multiple facets of Magic.

For starters, 25 new cards are coming to Arena's Historic mode on March 12. You can nab them for either 25,000 gold (in-game currency) or 4,000 gems (premium currency), or craft them for Wildcards. They'll be playable in the following formats: Traditional Ranked (best-of-three), Ranked (best-of-one) and "other special Historic events," like Historic Brawl.

The big draw here is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: a two-cost legendary creature (2/1) that has first strike and makes noncreature spells cost 1 more to cast. Thalia is also the herald of the aforementioned Secret Lair tie-in, which is a 24-hour product that will go live on March 12, 2020 at 9AM PT for $29.99. Magic artists Magali Villeneuve and Johannes Voss created new art for Thalia, and Wizards is packing in a code for four card styles (just styles) in accordance with that art. As a note, the Historic Ranked queue will return (as well as a best-of-one ranked queue), and you can buy both anthologies for gold or gems (3,400 gems or 20,000 gold for Historic Anthology 1; 4000 gems or 25,000 gold for Historic Anthology 2).

Wizards is teasing more Historic Anthology II info during their March 5 "State of the Game" blog series. You can get a look at the Thalia cards and Arena sleeves in the gallery, as well as a full list of the new Historic cards below.

The new cards being added to Magic: Arena's Historic mode on March 12, 2020 are:

1. Ancestral Mask

2. Barren Moor

3. Bojuka Bog

4. Brain Maggot

5. Dragonmaster Outcast

6. Forgotten Cave

7. Ghost Quarter

8. Goblin Ruinblaster

9. Inexorable Tide

10. Knight of the Reliquary

11. Lonely Sandbar

12. Maelstrom Pulse

13. Meddling Mage

14. Merrow Reejerey

15. Nyx-Fleece Ram

16. Pack Rat

17. Platinum Angel

18. Ranger of Eos

19. Secluded Steppe

20. Sigil of the Empty Throne

21. Terravore

22. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

23. Tranquil Thicket

24. Virulent Plague

25. Waste Not

Click to open photo gallery: