Starting Thursday, we will be launching a significant update in the Magic: The Gathering Arena Closed Beta, as well as lifting the nondisclosure agreement (NDA), allowing and encouraging players to stream and share MTG Arena content and gameplay.

With this new phase of the Closed Beta come a number of new functionalities, updates, changes, and tests, including:

More Invites – Inviting 100,000 more players into the game in the next few weeks and giving out more Closed Beta access codes.

– Inviting 100,000 more players into the game in the next few weeks and giving out more Closed Beta access codes. New Starting Collections – To test new starting collections, including 10 preconstructed decks, we'll be instituting an account wipe.

– To test new starting collections, including 10 preconstructed decks, we'll be instituting an account wipe. Amonkhet Block – The addition of Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation cards to the game.

This is a new step in testing for us, so let's look a bit closer at what we'll be testing after this update.

More Invites

If you haven't already signed up for the Closed Beta, now is the best time since sign-ups began.

We're ready to push for more feedback, more people playing, more stress tests, and more gaming. In the next few weeks, we will invite 100,000 more players into the game as part of a stress test.

Continue to sign up for Closed Beta on the MTG Arena page, because we'll be inviting more players every day at a much faster rate. You should also watch for people streaming the game on Twitch or talking about it on social channels, as we'll start distributing access codes to Magic fans to invite people who don't yet have access.

New Starting Collections

As part of this update, we are wiping all current player accounts in order to test the effects of new starting collections.

What this means is that any cards, gold, or packs earned in current player accounts will be removed. But that doesn't mean everyone will be starting with nothing. Here is what we'll be testing in starting collections:

Ten preconstructed decks, with more than 300 unique Magic cards.

Three packs each of Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, Ixalan, and Rivals of Ixalan.

One rare Wildcard, two uncommon Wildcards, and four common Wildcards.

Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation

We’ll be adding more content in this update! All of Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation will be added and available on MTG Arena. Some Amonkhet block cards will be included in your starting collection, and you can always get them through packs or by redeeming Wildcards. We've given the same visual and effects polish to these sets as we did for Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan, so get ready to utterly dominate battlefields with The Scarab God or, my personal favorite, Glorybringer.

Lifting the Veil

This new phase is an exciting time for us. As we're still in Closed Beta, we're still testing many aspects of the game, looking for feedback, and learning a lot along the way. That means there are plenty of areas we want to add more polish and finish to, plus additional functionality and content to be implemented. But we're very excited to see what discussions and feedback arise out of this new testing period.

So stream, share, discuss, and play as much as you like. We'll see you in the forums—and many, many other places. Thank you for joining us on our quest to bring you the best Magic digital experience we can.