Digital Magic: The Gathering players returned to Standard queues for the launch of Wilds of Eldraine through MTG Arena and Magic Online, with players finding Lord of the Rings cards slotted into Golden packs.
The Wilds of Eldraine (WOE) Standard-legal set is slated to officially drop into digital servers on Sept. 5. The set returns to the MTG plane of Eldraine, full of fairy tales incorporated into Limited Draft archetypes, along with Faerie and Dragon typal decks players can craft for best-of-one Standard. A possible bug reported on Reddit, though, has limited players to playable Standard cards, with reports of Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth (LTR) cards showing up in Golden packs.
Golden packs were introduced to MTG Arena as a reward to players who open at least 10 booster packs. For every 10 booster packs cracked, a free Golden pack is provided. With the release of WOE, many players were cracking 50-plus booster packs from the preorder bundle and from gold saved up as soon as the client allowed.
A Golden pack typically contains cards for the newest set, which would be WOE. But instead, up to three or more LTR cards are showing up in packs. This is a possible bug since Lord of the Rings was the last current set on MTG Arena, but it also might be an oversight since WotC made LTR legal to play in the Alchemy format.
Another possible bug on MTG Arena for the launch of WOE is through the Renewal Egg. All players who have played a game or logged in prior to the launch of WOE were given a Renewal Egg, containing cards for the upcoming Standard-legal set. But many players, like this Reddit user, aren’t getting anything but a blank screen upon cracking their egg.
The Standard format didn’t have a fall rotation this year, but the Alchemy format on MTG Arena did. It’s possible that WotC is continuing to push Alchemy play by offering LTR cards through Golden packs. Or it’s a bug that is showing up before the official download has completed. Either way, players may want to wait to crack their free packs until the issue is resolved.
Players can begin opening Wilds of Eldraine booster packs through MTG Arena starting on Sept. 5.
