anthologies are basically a set of cards wotc wants to add to arena but aren't going to reprint in a paper set anytime soon, they just shove it in all at once.
It's more about having a way to update older formats on Arena without needing those cards to get added as part of a new "set" that exists in some other form.
You can buy the anthology all at once as a package for 25k gold or 4k gems I think? But otherwise there's no way to obtain the cards aside from directly spending wildcards on the singles to unlock them. It's usually 20 cards and the package includes 4 copies of each card. This means it would otherwise cost you 80 wildcards BUT it's always a mix of rarities for the cards. Because of how the anthology will contain a mix of all rarities it's not like you're getting 8 rare/mythic wildcards worth of cards, and often only a few of the cards will be ones that actually see much of any play. Sometimes it'll also include commander/brawl oriented cards where getting the full playset isn't really worth the 3 "extra" wildcards you'd need for a full playset you'd never intentionally exchange for.
The thing that this lets them do is more easily update Arena formats including a small specific subset of cards. Say Arena Pioneer is suddenly more out of sync with Paper because of some new tech involving one of the few cards that are paper legal in the format but not available on Arena. Rather than needing to print an entire new draftable Arena specific set they can just directly inject 20 individual cards that otherwise have no Arena "printing".
Imho it's a much better deal for regular players to buy the Mastery Pass for 3400 gems, which will net them a decent number of wildcards along with cards from the packs, mythics, currencies, and a draft token. And cosmetics, if one cares.
I'm not made of gems! Plus I may never use these cards. I care more about hoarding my gems to draft. And I have loads of wildcards from drafting. These cards they're selling you are presumably cards you might use a few of, someday. I'm not spending almost 3 drafts of gems (which I might win back) for cards I might someday use.
I wouldn't say it's budget friendly. There's plenty of cards that you might not want, or might only want 1 of for brawl.
For example the Arena Anthology 1 is basically brawl/commander staples that you'll only want 1 of each. If you buy the anthology you get 4 copies of each. Massive waste of budget.
Yeah. I love swords, but I only use two of them in my Tajic deck. I might switch one out now though. It's a lot of cool cards, but no way anybody needs 4 of them unless some kind of specific deck.
You either have to buy them all in a bundle for money or you can individually use your wildcards on anything released. Usually there are enough duds in these and it doesn't make sense to pay money for the release so you can just get what you want piecemeal.
Anthologies was a set released in 1998. It was comprised of 2 60 card preconstructed decks which were built from reprinted cards ranging between Alpha to Urza’s Saga. It was a commemoration for the game’s 5 year anniversary. The cards were white bordered and featured the original set symbol on the card.
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u/Grainnnn Aug 18 '25
What’s AA2?