The Ultimate Guide to Midweek Magic on MTG Arena

Momir Vig, Simic Visionary | Illustration by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Manic Monday, Taco Tuesday, Thirsty Thursday, Friday Night Magic. We sure love our days of the week, don’t we? Midweek Magic might be a little more vague (what, pray tell, is midweek?), but it still kinda rolls off the tongue, right?

If you’re an MTG Arena player and you haven’t been engaging with Midweek Magic, you’ve been missing out on #freestuff. And as a strong proponent of #freestuff, I’m going to do my best to get you interested in this free, variety-hour offering on the platform.

What Is Midweek Magic?

Simon, Wild Magic Sorcerer | Illustration by Shuangcheng Leng

Midweek Magic is a weekly offering on Magic Arena wherein you can play a free event, usually with a unique format that’s not typically available on the MTGA client. This ranges from Constructed events with special emblems to whacky just-for-fun formats like Momir (highly recommend) and Omniscience Drafting.

They’re mostly playground formats that aren’t meant to be taken too seriously, especially given that they’re typically free and offer only a few basic prizes for match wins. You’ll notice I said “free” and “prizes” in the same sentence there, so there’s not a lot of reason not to participate in Midweek Magic when it’s available.

Momir Basic

Momir is a bit of a nonsense format where players convert mana into random creatures with the same mana value as the amount of mana spent. There’s some very minor strategy to it, but for the most part it’s all about paying 8 mana on turn 8 and seeing whether you get gifted a Zetalpa, Primal Dawn or Yavimaya Sojourner. Not for the Spikes out there; this one’s mostly for the laughs.

Historic Artisan

For the Constructed fanatics, Historic Artisan is a great way to flex your deckbuilding chops without dipping into your wildcard reserves. The format requires a 60-card deck using nothing but commons and uncommons, which leads to a ton of different options. It’s a great place to try out that Shrine deck or Nazgûl brew, and it’s much more friendly towards new players than most Constructed events. Fair warning, this format does allow Alchemy cards, which tend to be format-breaking if you ask me, but I see enough diversity from my opponents whenever this format rolls around.

Where to Find Midweek Magic

Midweek Magic is typically available on Arena from 2:00 pm PT on Tuesdays until 2:00 pm PT on Thursdays. You know, midweek. In my experience, it’s always prominently displayed as one of the available game modes on the main hub when Arena first opens.

If for some reason it’s not immediately visible, you can find it under the Event Tabs on the play blade using the “All” category.

If you’re curious about upcoming Midweek Magic events, you can find announcements on Draftsim’s Calendar of Events page, or stay tuned to the weekly Arena announcements on Wizards of the Coast’s website.

Is Midweek Magic Free?

Midweek Magic is indeed free, so there’s not a lot at stake when entering an event. You can drop or stop playing at any time without repercussion, and there are a few prizes to gather with each new event.

Note that all Limited events that may show up in Midweek Magic are considered “phantom events,” which means the cards you draft or open won’t be added to your collection.

Are Midweek Magic Events All-Access?

Yes and no. An all-access event is one where you’re given unrestricted access to the cards you’re using in the event regardless of whether they’re actually in your collection or not.

Some events require you to bring your own deck to participate with, which requires you to own whichever cards you intend to play. However, there have been true all-access events in the past that let you play with cards that aren’t in your collection, though only for that specific Midweek Magic event.

Further still, some events have pre-built decks for you to play, which means no deck construction or card acquisition on your behalf.

Do Midweek Magic Events Have Entry Fees?

No entry fees here! Again, these are free events with prizes. Marginal prizes, but prizes nonetheless. It’s worth noting that some events require you to submit your own personal deck, so you’ll often have to build a compatible deck for these events. But I wouldn’t go splurging wildcards on Midweek Magic. That’s more of a Splurgy Saturday thing. Get creative and have fun with it!

Midweek Magic Rewards

Midweek Magic events follow the same basic prize structure: three different rewards at one, two, and three wins respectively. Since you’re allowed to play as much as you’d like during the event’s duration, you can basically always guarantee winning all three prizes every time, with enough patience.

The first two prizes are always a rare or mythic rare card reward. These are not duplicate protected, so if you randomly win a card that you already own four of in your collection, you’ll instead receive gems, 20 for a rare, 40 for a mythic (Arena won’t actually show you what the card was supposed to be in this case).

The third prize is always a random cosmetic from the entire Arena cosmetic card pool. This can be anything from a card sleeve to an avatar, though it’s usually a card style for something like Crushing Canopy. Yay! It’s actually pretty exciting to get a cool reward from these events; I once opened the Flensing Raptor pet for one of my 3-win prizes!

Same Time Next Week?

Magic Missile | Illustration by PINDURSKI

Not too much else to say about Midweek Magic. It’s a fun playground for new formats and serves as a testing ground for Wizards to try out new things. It’s 100% free to participate, and there are prizes involved, however small those might be, so it’s worth the hour’s investment each week to try out a new deck or format and walk away with a few extra random things for your collection.

Are there any Midweek Magic events that you gravitate towards? Phantom Sealed or Cascade events perhaps? Are you a Momir Stan like me? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

Thank you for making Draftsim your #1 stop for all things Magic!