MTG Formats
The Timeless Format, Explained
Arena's answer to eternal Magic: nothing rotates, nothing is banned, and no card has been rewritten. The few cards strong enough to break it are restricted to one copy instead.
What Timeless is
Timeless is MTG Arena's non-rotating, unbanned format. Nearly every card on the client is legal, in the wording it was printed with, and the format has no banned list at all. Construction is standard: 60-card minimum, four copies, fifteen-card sideboard, 20 life.
It launched at the end of 2023 to give Arena something the client had never had: a format that does not manage its own power level. Where Historic answers a problem card by rebalancing or banning it, Timeless answers it by restricting it, and otherwise leaves the format alone.
A format where the most powerful cards are all legal, one copy at a time, is more stable than it sounds. You cannot build a deck around drawing a card you own exactly one of, so the broken cards become bonuses rather than plans.
the design bet Timeless makes
The restricted list
Timeless was the first Arena format to use restriction rather than banning. A restricted card may be included only once, counting your deck and sideboard together.
Comprehensive Rules · How restriction works
A banned card cannot be played at all. A restricted card can, but only one copy, across the main deck and sideboard combined. The card stays in the format and stops being something a deck can rely on drawing.
As of August 2026, the list is four cards long. Each is on it for a different reason, and together they are a decent map of what breaks an unbanned format.
Demonic Tutor ↗
Two mana, search your library for any card. In a format with no bans, the card that finds the best card in your deck is the one that most needs limiting.
Necropotence ↗
Pay life, draw cards, indefinitely. Restricted in February 2026 after it proved it could still bury a format thirty years on.
Channel ↗
Turn life into colourless mana at one for one. The classic enabler for casting something enormous several turns before anyone can answer it.
Tibalt's Trickery ↗
Counter a spell and replace it with a random card from the caster's library. Restricted because a deck built to counter its own one-mana spell can produce an unbeatable turn one.
That list moves. Wizards of the Coast reviews it alongside the other formats, and the most recent reviews have left it alone on the grounds that the top decks were in balance. Treat the four cards above as the state on the day this was written and check the official list before a tournament.
Original card versions
Arena rebalances cards for Alchemy, and Historic inherits those changes. Timeless does not. Every card here is the version that was printed, which is the other half of what makes it the strongest format on the client.
This has a practical consequence when you are copying a decklist: the same card can be a different card in two Arena formats. A card nerfed for Alchemy is still at full strength here, and a deck that was made unplayable in Historic by a rebalance may be perfectly good in Timeless.
It also means Timeless is the closest Arena gets to paper Magic's card text, though not to its card pool: the format can only contain what Arena has added, so the eternal staples that were never digitised are not options. Comparisons to paper Legacy break down there rather than on power level.
Building a Timeless deck
Have a plan for turn two. Timeless decks deploy fast and interact for free. A deck whose first meaningful play is on turn four is not a slow deck here, it is a spectator.
Treat restricted cards as bonuses. You will draw your one copy in maybe a third of games. Build a deck that functions without it, then let the single copy be a windfall when it appears. Card selection that digs several cards deep is how the good decks square that circle.
Interaction has to be cheap. One and two-mana answers, plus anything that costs no mana at all. Removal that costs four is a card you will cast after the game has been decided.
Sideboard against combos, not against colours. The format's fastest decks assemble a specific interaction rather than attacking, so graveyard hate and cheap disruption do more work than another removal spell.
Who Timeless is for
Players who want the most powerful Magic available on Arena, and players who have accumulated a deep collection and want somewhere every card of it remains legal. It is not a good first format: the games are fast, the decks are precise, and the punishment for an unfamiliar matchup is severe.
If that sounds like more than you want, Historic is the same non-rotating idea with the edges filed off, and Standard on Arena is where the cheapest, most supported games are. The format comparison covers all of them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Timeless format?
MTG Arena's most powerful constructed format. It uses nearly every card on Arena in its original printed wording, never rotates, and has no banned list at all. Standard construction rules otherwise: 60-card minimum, four copies, fifteen-card sideboard, 20 life.
What is restricted in Timeless?
Timeless is the first Arena format with a restricted list rather than a banned one: a restricted card may appear only once across your deck and sideboard combined. As of August 2026 the list is short, and Channel, Demonic Tutor, Necropotence and Tibalt's Trickery are on it. Check the official banned and restricted list before an event, since it changes.
What is the difference between Timeless and Historic?
Timeless uses each card's original printed version, while Historic uses Arena's rebalanced version wherever one exists. Timeless also has no bans, handling outliers by restricting them to a single copy, where Historic bans outright. In practice Timeless is the stronger format and Historic the more managed one.
Is Timeless like Legacy or Vintage?
In philosophy, closest to Vintage: a huge pool, almost nothing banned, and a short restricted list to hold the worst offenders to one copy. In card pool it is neither, because it can only contain what Arena has, so the paper eternal staples that were never added to the client are simply not options.
Is Timeless expensive to build in?
In wildcards, yes. Timeless decks reach across Arena's whole history, so they ask for rare and mythic wildcards you cannot open in current packs. Restricted cards are cheap in one sense, since you only ever need one copy, and expensive in another, because they tend to be the exact cards a deck is built to find.
Powerful decks deserve real records.
TurnZero HQ tracks win rates per deck and per version, so you can tell which build of the deck was actually better.
Create Free Account