'MTG Arena' War of Spark Release: Patch Notes, Redemption Codes, Free Twitch Deck and More

The War of Spark expansion is coming to MTG Arena today. Find out everything you need to know about the new expansion, including free booster pack codes, patch notes, event information and more, here.

Magic: The Gathering is bringing a close to a story they've been feeding fans for over ten years now. As the final battle of Ravnica prepares to unfold in the latest MTG: War of Spark expansion, MTG Arena players are getting a chance to try out the new expansion themselves — two days ahead of the physical pre-release on April 27 and 28. The official release is May 3.

Fans who play both the physical and digital game are getting special consideration with this new expansion in that any physical Planeswalker and Pre-Release packs purchased will also be redeemable in the Arean. This feature allows players to use the same pre-constructed decks they use in physical matches in their online games as well.

The War of Spark expansion features 36 planeswalkers including the brand new Teyo Verada. If you're looking forward to jumping into the new MTG Spark of War expansion, we've put together a complete guide with release time, draft battle info, cards and more.

What Time does War of Spark Release in MTG Arena?

UPDATE 12:15 p.m. - The War of Spark expansion is now available.

The release is scheduled for April 25 after the maintenance period. According to the MTG Arena status page, maintenance kicked off at 11 a.m. ET and will last about 2 hours. If all goes well, players can expect to see Spark of War appear in the arena around 1 p.m. ET.

While no downtime is expected, the update will be a required one. Players who are logged in prior to the start of maintenance will be required to restart their client to download the patch.

MTG Arena Updating Error: What To Do If The Update Isn't Working

A number of players have reported issues with the update, receiving messages that say, "Error Updating Data: Please check your connection and try again." If you are running into this problem, keep pressing the Retry button. You may run into the error message repeatedly, but eventually, you will get in.

UPDATE: The official MTG Arena Twitter account has confirmed the Error Updating Data. They are currently investigating.

MTG Arena 'War of Spark' Redeem Code: How To Get Free Booster Packs

In a Twitter announcement, MTG Arena devs have given players a one-time redeem code that will grant you three free War of Spark Booster packs. Simply enter "PlayWarSpark" in the game to grab your free packs. Some players have reported issues with the cards not showing up after using the redeem code. To prevent problems, make sure you have updated to the latest 0.14.00.00 game version before attempting to redeem. In some cases, the cards may take a few minutes to appear in your inventory. If you continue to have problems, players are encouraged to contact MTG Arena's support team, here

MTG Arena 'War of Spark' Twitch Pack: How to Get Your Free Boros Deck

Beginning on April 25, 2019 at 1 p.m. ET, Twitch Prime users can redeem a code for one 60-card Boros Legion deck in MTG Arena. The code will likely become available on your Prime Loot page once the promotion is live. We'll provide updated information as we learn more.

MTG Arena 'War of Spark' Events: Sealed, Ranked and Traditional Drafts

Once the expansion releases a new Sealed Draft option utilizing the War of Spark expansion will become available. The Sealed Draft will run between April 25-30 and will cost player 5,000 gems to participate. During the Sealed Draft, players will be given six booster packs from which to build a deck of 40 or more cards. Players will use their decks to compete for in-game goodies like gems and cards. Once the Sealed Draft ends, players will keep all cards earned for their own personal collection.

Following the War of Spark Pre-Release, MTG Arena will also host a set of Ranked and Traditional drafts kicking off April 29 and May 10 respectively.

During these drafts, players will gain access to 42 cards from three booster packs. Players win by claiming victory in a best-out-of-three format. Participating in Traditional drafts will cost 1,500 gems, while Ranked matches are priced at 740 gems or 5,000 gold.

MTG Arena Patch Notes: Everything New and Changed in the 'War of Spark' Update

War of Spark

• All 264 cards from War of the Spark are now available in Magic: The Gathering Arena. This includes the buy-a-box promo as well as cards in the Jace and Gideon planeswalker decks.
• New War of the Spark themed battlefield, located on the top of Bolas's Citadel.
• New VFX have been added for each Mythic card in War of the Spark.
• New VFX for new mechanics Amass and Proliferate.
• For more information, please refer to our War of the Spark MTG Arena Release Notes.

Gameplay

Planeswalkers

• When selecting "Attack with All" with an opposing planeswalker on the field, you will now be prompted to select a target for all of the attackers rather than implicitly declaring them all as attacking the opponent.
• Planeswalkers now indicate whether they have an activation left for the turn.
• When selecting whether to attack a player or planeswalker, you can also select additional attackers to declare all of their attacks in a batch.
• When a Planeswalker has used all of their ability activations for the turn, their loyalty box will now grey out.
• Planeswalkers that become creatures (or other permanent types) will visually retain their loyalty counters. These are shown in the normal counter location and using the normal loyalty frame.

Auto-tap

• Auto-Tap should now be smarter when dealing with sources that can tap for colorless and have another mana ability
• AutoTap should now be smarter when calculating what actions it should leave mana available for (e.g. Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin)
• AutoTap should now be smarter when tapping sources that produce mana with a spending restriction (e.g. Unclaimed Territory, Interplanar Beacon)
• We've added a new, fully optional way for AutoTap to help you pay for spells and abilities. Any time that you need to pay mana and AutoTap isn't handling it automatically (Convoking, sacrificing a treasure token, because you have AutoTap turned off, etc), there is now a new button for you to tell AutoTap to pay the cost for you.
  • Hovering over this button will show what AutoTap will use, including any creatures tapped, treasure sacrificed, etc. Clicking the button will pay the cost, including doing things like sacrificing treasure (that AutoTap won't usually do)

User Ibterface

• Cards that can't be countered are now shown with a flowing, red border while on the stack.
• When prompting for an optional action, the prompt will now be phrased as a question (e.g. "Discard a card?")
• When a card or effect allows 0 or more targets/selections, the "Submit" button is now blue when less than the maximum number of have been made, changing to orange when the max have been targeted/selected.
  • Note: This doesn't change when you can legally submit, but should hopefully clarify when there are targets/selections left to make.
• When there is an effect on the stack that needs targets or selections, and there are valid selections beneath the stack, the stack now auto-collapses so players can clearly see all targets/selections.
  • Note: You can still use the collapse/show button for the stack as normal to show and re-hide it.
• When players or planeswalkers are affected by damage prevention effects they now show this similarly to creatures; players have a glow around their life total, while planeswalkers have the glow around their loyalty counter.
• Cards affected by "can't activate" or "can't be activated" effects have a hanger indicating the effect and the source.
• Cards display a new badge for cards that care about the count or number of various objects that shows the appropriate count.
  • For something like Dreadhorde Butcher ("When Dreadhorde Butcher dies, it deals damage equal to its power to any target.") the on-death trigger has a badge showing the Butcher's power when it dies.
  • If a card that cares about instants or sorceries in your graveyard it shows the count of those.
  • When there is a stack of creatures assigned as blockers and you are trying to target one of them, you can hover over the stack to fan it out, making it much easier to target the specific blocker you want in the stack. (With a stack of blockers, damage is dealt top-to-bottom.)
  • When removing counters from a permanent (such as through Soul Diviner or Price of Betrayal), we show a new browser allowing the player to select the counter(s) they wish to remove.
    • Click on a counter on the list to select it for removal.
    • If the effect allows removing multiple counters, the counters that will be removed are move off to the left.
    • If you change your mind, you can click on a counter on the left to cancel removing that one
  • Cards that can't be played (due to effects like Experimental Frenzy or similar) now have a hanger in mouse-over that indicates that they can't be cast and lists the source.
  • We've changed the way we represent cards that "can be targeted as if they don't have hexproof"; now those cards will simply not show the hexproof VFX (though they will still show the Hexproof hanger on mouse over).
  • When activating Blast Zone, we show the number of counters it had on it on the stack as well, so players know what CMC of permanents will be destroyed.
  • When a permanent is copying another, we now show the original permanent as well in mouse-over, similar to how both sides are shown for a double-faced card.
  • When you have exiled a card that you would normally be able to cast but can't due to its type (for example, you had to select a land with Thief of Sanity), it will no longer show up in your near-hand castables for you. (Your opponent will still see a cardback representing the possible cast, since they don't know what card you exiled.)

EVENTS

• Special events (Momir, Pauper, Singleton, etc.) will now use matchmaking rating in addition to Win/Loss record.
  • Win/Loss record is still the primary matchmaking criteria.
• The following cards are now banned in Ravnica Constructed:
  • Gates Ablaze
• The following cards are now banned in Cascade Constructed:
  • Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
  • Nexus of Fate
  • Teferi, Time Raveler
• Various updates to draft bots

Cosmetics

Card Styles

The following card styles are now available for direct purchase:

• Shivan Fire - DOM
• Memorial to Genius -DOM
• Nexus of Fate - M19
• Exclusion Mage -M19
• Surge Mare - M19
• Diamond Mare - M19
• Root Snare - M19
• Moment of Craving - RIX
• Kaya's Wrath - RNA
• Wilderness Reclamation - RNA
• Hero of Precinct One - RNA
• Drill Bit - RNA
• Benthic Biomancer - RNA
• Essence Capture - RNA
• Cindervines - RNA
• Dragonskull Summit - XLN
• Sorcerous Spyglass - XLN
• Kumena's Speaker - XLN

Practice Matches

• Sparky will now comment on the board state and reply to player emotes

Miscellaneous

• Updated the icon used for the MTGA Installer.

Bug Fixes

• Hitting the "Escape" key now properly closes the Options menu.
• Card styles should no longer "jitter" when progressing through turn phases.
• Card sleeves should now correct display when you reconnect to a match.
• Players will no longer need to scroll to see the "Custom" option under Graphic → Quality Level.
• Simultaneously conceding a best-of-three match as you took lethal damage should no longer result in multiple game losses.
• Fixed some improper targeting that could occur when multiple permanents entered the battlefield simultaneously and one of them was an aura or a creature who enters as a copy.
• Fixed a rare bug that could cause the client to misrepresent the revealed cards in the opponent's hand, potentially hiding other, non-revealed cards
• Fixed a bug that could cause Ghalta to not properly update its casting cost when an opponent's copy is exiled face down and castable.

What do you think of the new War of Spark expansion? Which cards are you hoping to earn? Share in the comments below.