Wizards of the Coast has been hard at work on the Magic: The Gathering Arena and their hard work is almost ready to pay off. From Nov. 3 to Nov 29, Wizards will be kicking things off with a system stress test to make sure the system the handle all the players playing. After that test, which the system hopfully passes, the closed beta will open with priorty access holders getting the first crack at invites.
Then, assuming all goes well on November 3, Wizards is planning a series of play days over the weeks that follow. Wizards will invite a few thousand fans also with priority access to help them further calibrate the game before opening the gates to a greater number of fans. During this time,they’ll focus on testing Constructed Magic. Every Ixalan card will be available to playtesters during these one-day sessions, and even provide free packs to test with!
Invited players will be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement ("NDA") and will be restricted from streaming and sharing screenshots of the game until Wizards has a more complete experience to show off.
If these play days go well and everything proceeds according to plan, Wizards aims to kick off the start of the Magic: The Gathering Arena Closed Beta as early as November 30!
They’ll start by inviting back players who participated in the stress test, the play days, or the Alpha. After that, they’ll send frequent invites to more players based on the server requirements and capabilities.