Wizards of the Coast is removing its controversial Alchemy format from Magic: The Gathering Arena.
In the announcement, the format, which is a unique, digital-only spin on the otherwise physical tabletop collectible card game, will leave the online game in February of 2027 when Magic's Standard format is scheduled to rotate. Alchemy: Reality Fracture will be the last release for the format.
Alchemy, which debuted in December 2021, is a digital-only format that features online-only mechanics and rebalanced cards. It's this disconnect from the core paper, real-world gameplay experience that the format was considered by some players to be detrimental to the overall Magic experience.
"My biggest gripe isn't the existence of digital only cards, but that they messed with paper cards so the ones on arena functioned differently from the ones I physically own," comments Reddit user LostTheGame42.
Wizards' decision to remove the format, however, isn't based upon player feedback. Rather, the company says it's because the nature of the game on MTGA since Alchemy's debut has changed.
"We release more sets per year than in 2021, and our growing number of formats offers significant variety for Constructed players," says Wizards of the Coast's Dave Finseth. "With these problems no longer pressing, Alchemy's role has become less clear. So, we want to focus our attention on delivering new sets and our growing formats like Brawl."
The digital-only Alchemy cards aren't going away, however. The company plans to keep them around and allow them to be playable in MTGA's Historic, Timeless, Brawl, and Competitive Brawl formats. As for the real-life cards that received Alchemy rebalancing, they will be reverting back to their real-world counterparts. As such, the company will be proactively banning a handful of cards: Galvanic Discharge, Guide of Souls, Nadu, Winged Wisdom, Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, and The One Ring will all be banned in Historic. Likewise, Nadu will also be banned in Brawl.
"As the game has evolved, we have shifted resources to the parts of the game that resonate the most with our players," Finseth comments. "Sometimes this means we must make challenging decisions, like removing a format entirely. As stewards of Magic, these are decisions we don't take lightly."
It's a decision that MTGA players are lauding at large.
"I knew from the day one that Alchemy was never going to stick around," says Blusky user @tryllebanjo. "Never."
