Arena’s New Pick-Two Format Fumbles on Day 1

Last updated on September 25, 2025

Amazing Alliance | Illustration by Filipe Pagliuso

Through the Omenpaths debuted on Magic Arena this Tuesday, and with it came the introduction of the new Pick-Two Draft format. There was already quite a bit working against the set and format to begin with, namely the super janky way Through the Omenpaths reskinned the paper Marvel's Spider-Man set, but the execution didn't do it any favors. Day one of Pick-2 Drafts on Arena were messy, and people were not impressed with the new offering.

Pick-Two Fumbles

The Through the Omenpaths (OM1) rollout was less than elegant, one might say. The set launched with a Premier Queue that it wasn't supposed to have, which was quickly taken down after release. The Draft tokens people received from their OM1 preorders aren't applicable to the new Limited format. And the Traditional 8-player queues still use the Pick-Two structure… for some reason.

All of Tuesday's problems are compounded on top of the already bizarre solution to rework the entire Spider-Man set into a digital-only clone due to licensing issues. Though initial reception to the original preview of OM1 was mostly positive, things get a little chaotic when you actually start to look at these cards on Magic Arena (or Magic Online).

Anyone who attended a paper Prerelease this last weekend probably walked away from their first Pick-Two Draft with a headache, trying to match the alternate in-universe card arts to the paper versions they had already played with just a few days ago. It's easy to clue in on cards that kept their paper names, like City Pigeon or Unstable Experiment, but looking at a card like Generous Betty Wray makes you stop and think: “Wait, which card is that again?” Now multiply that by 14-15 cards in each pack.

Add to that the fact that Pick-Two Draft's just not all that interesting. Harsh opinion for a Day-1 format, sure, but drafts are over in about 4-5 minutes, and the set itself only has a handful of functional decks and archetypes. By the time you're five drafts into OM1, you've seen pretty much everything there is to see from the set. Web-slinging Enwebbing and mayheming spells is fun, but if that's all the format has to offer it's going to get pretty stale pretty fast.

This is further exacerbated by the fact that Traditional best-of-3 Draft just kind of lies to you right now. The description clearly says “Select one card at a time,” and yet it's still Pick-2. This will likely be changed soon, but that's a pretty big whiff for anyone flocking to Traditional specifically to avoid this new format.

Player Reception

The narrative coming out of Early Access last week was that Through the Omenpaths was pretty sub-par. Some players panned the presentation of the digital art, while others just pointed out how little meat there is on the format's bones.

Source: Twitter/X

Source: Reddit

@NumotTheNummy vaguely hinted at the complication with the digital reskins, and Reddit's being their usual grumpy self about the whole affair. General sentiment seems to be that the whole set is confusing while also not being particularly engaging after the first few drafts.

There was a nice silver lining though: The prize structure we ended up getting for regular best-of-1 drafts ended up being significantly better than what was originally advertised. The prize structure that shipped on Tuesday looks like this:

• 0 Wins = 50 Gems and 1 Booster Pack
• 1 Win = 150 Gems and 1 Booster Pack
• 2 Wins = 800 Gems and 1 Booster Pack (originally 250 gems)
• 3 Wins = 1,000 Gems and 2 Booster Packs
• 4 Wins = 1,300 Gems and 3 Booster Packs (originally 1,400 gems)

Essentially, they shaved 100 gems off the top end. Before the change, you would've been down a significant amount of gems for an even 2-2 record, but now it nearly makes back the 900 gem entry fee. Also, compared to Premier Drafts of other formats, it's cheaper to enter with gems than with gold. The entry fee is 7,500 gold compared to the usual 10,000, but only 900 gems compared to the usual 1,500.

There are also unwritten perks to Pick-Two Draft in general. It's easier on set completion, it's much quicker than any other draft offering except maybe Quick Draft, and the condensed Limited format of OM1 makes it very easy to realize the intended archetypes of the format. That list of pros might make up for the cons in some players' estimations, but the set's not really doing it for the dedicated Draft crowd.