MTG Formats
Standard with a patch cycle. Cards that could not exist on cardboard, mechanics that need a computer to adjudicate, and existing cards rewritten when they get out of hand.
Alchemy is MTG Arena's rotating digital format: the Standard card pool, plus a set of digital-only cards released alongside each Standard set, plus Arena's rebalanced versions of cards that needed adjusting.
It arrived in December 2021 with a clear pitch. A digital game is not bound by what a cardboard card can do or by the impossibility of un-printing a mistake, so Alchemy uses both freedoms: new cards with mechanics paper cannot support, and the ability to change a card after release rather than banning it.
Every other format asks what Magic can be with the cards that exist. Alchemy asks what Magic could be if the cards were software.
the thing Alchemy is actually for
Four Alchemy mechanics that explain what the format is doing. None of them could run at a paper table without slowing the game to a halt.
That last one matters for how the format feels. Because effects can be applied permanently to a card wherever it goes, Alchemy games accumulate state in a way Standard games do not, and a creature that has been buffed twice is a different card by turn six.
Wizards of the Coast can change a card's stats or text on Arena. The changed version is what Alchemy and Historic play with, and the client marks it so you can see the card has been altered.
Rebalancing goes both ways. Cards that dominate get weakened, and cards that support a strategy nobody can make work get improved. Batches of changes land periodically, often several cards at once, and the same announcement may adjust Historic and the Brawl modes that share the pool.
Rebalancing changes the card everywhere, including my paper copy.
It changes it on Arena, in the formats that use rebalanced versions. Paper printings are untouched, and Arena's own Timeless format deliberately uses the original wording of every card, so a nerfed card is still at full strength there.
The honest downside is that a card you spent wildcards on can be weakened after you crafted it. Wizards has refunded wildcards for significantly changed cards in the past, but the risk is real and it is the main reason some players stay in Standard.
They are close enough that a Standard deck is a legal Alchemy deck, which is the usual on-ramp: queue your existing list, lose to two digital cards you have never seen, and add the three Alchemy cards that were obviously better than what you were playing. Going the other way is not possible, since a deck containing Alchemy cards is not Standard-legal. Our Standard deckbuilding guide covers the shared half.
Start from a Standard shell. The great majority of an Alchemy deck is Standard cards. Build the Standard version first, then look for the Alchemy cards that upgrade individual slots instead of trying to build an all-digital deck from scratch.
Respect seek and conjure. Cards that manufacture new cards break the usual assumption that a deck runs out. Attrition plans that work in Standard can be flatly wrong here, because the opponent's library is not a fixed 60 cards.
Re-read your own cards after a balance update. This is the discipline the format asks for that no other constructed format does. Whatever you built may read differently next month.
Spend wildcards on the Standard half. Standard cards keep their text and stay legal in more places. If you have limited wildcards, put them where a rebalance cannot reach.
A digital-only constructed format on MTG Arena, introduced in December 2021. It is Standard's card pool plus Alchemy's own digital-only cards, plus Arena's rebalanced versions of existing cards. Sixty-card minimum, four copies, fifteen-card sideboard, 20 life, and it rotates when Standard does.
Wizards of the Coast can change a card's numbers or text on Arena without reprinting anything. A card that turns out to dominate gets weakened; a card that nobody plays can be improved. Rebalanced cards are marked in the client, and their changed versions are what Alchemy and Historic use. Paper printings and the Timeless format are unaffected.
No. Alchemy cards exist only on Arena and are legal in Alchemy, Historic, Timeless and the Brawl modes that use those pools. Standard on Arena is the same card pool as Standard in paper, which is deliberate: a player practising for a paper event needs the two to match.
Yes, alongside Standard. When a Standard set rotates out, the Alchemy set that accompanied it goes with it. The cards stay in your collection and stay legal in Historic and Timeless, which never rotate.
It depends on what you want from a format. If you like a metagame that moves, digital mechanics with no paper equivalent, and queues that fill instantly, it is the most novel thing on Arena. If you are practising for a paper event, or you want the card you crafted to still read the same in six months, play Standard instead.
TurnZero HQ keeps deck history and win rates by version, so a rebalance is a line in your data rather than a mystery.
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