Alchemy is a digital form where the card’s’rebalanced’, rather than off-banished, are possible. If a card is causing problems, it can be patched and sent to all players, with much less fuss in theory than in case that a ban would cause it. It seems that this option’s useful compared to the Magic economy, especially when it comes to a game in Wildcards. What this means are the Characters of the Gathering Arena? Wildcards are a currency that can be used mainly by opening boosters and being used as a tool to craft cards. Each rarity has a speciality, so if you want to craft a rare or mythic rare, then you will need a rare or mythic rare wildcard. Wildcards can be obtained notoriously, but Wizards’ policy is to refund Wildcards spent to craft certain cards that are later banned in any of the Arena’s formats. With the introduction of Alchemy, Wizards decided not to compensation players who have to make their cards rebalanced, even if it doesn’t upend their entire deck. As noted PleasantKenobi, the Magic-based design of cards like The Magical Star have have changed a little on paper, but are not effective in the current, historical and Alchemy metagames. Without much means of getting Wildcards back from those changes, they are actually dead weights in a person’s collection. The result is that, with a lack of refunds and a constant onslaught of new set releases, and only exasperated further with Alchemy’s exclusive supplementary sets now adding even more cards to their own new release. The result is those who can’t afford to play magic arena like they used to. Many took Reddit and Youtube comments to decry the economy, feeling they won’t play formats they like because they have no wildcards to keep up with. As he spoke to TheGamer, PleasantKenobi said, “Wizard has literally acknowledged it owes us a stream or a statement about the ongoing problems with the Arena’s economy, and still we don’t see anything.” The most important of my concerns is that players and my viewers are being priced out in favour of becoming a gatcha game. With a four rare and mythic rare strands, it’s all considered necessary to be competitive in the History and Alchemy arena, but even having one. If you only get a single rare wildcard in every three packs, you’d need to open approximately 120 of them to craft a full playset of just one card and then they can get rebalanced at any moment without compensation for you. According to a follow-up video, PleasantKenobi described Arena’s economic situation as “piss-poor”, especially in contrast to other digital TCGs like Legends of Runeterra. He reaffirms the belief that the economy isn’t just a problem; it’s a problem that’s becoming more pressing and requires an intervention from the Coast Guard. The historic format is long-established, and PleasantKenobi even says the current situation of Arena’s economy makes him reconsider allowing him to support Arena as it’s “getting worse and worse”. While Wizards of the Coast had nothing to say about the Arena economy, communications director Blake Rasmussen said on the WeeklyMTG livestream he “personally owes that to play the Arena economy”. There was no date and no matter what that stream was in terms of topics.
