Wizards is doing a stream later today about monetization in their new digital platform, but some details are getting out early and they don't look good for us.

I know they talked this thing up for Standard from the very beginning, but I held out hope that we might one day see The Best Format™ in what looks to be a very nice video game. My hopes are dashed today.

In one paragraph towards the end, they confirm that - for now - there is no trading. But a few paragraphs above is something more damning.

The Vault is a special mechanic that rewards players for opening boosters, as well as an interesting way to deal with duplicate cards. Every time the player opens a booster pack or collects what would be the fifth copy of a card in their collection, it feeds a Vault meter. Once full, players will be able to open the Vault for a reward—currently Wildcards. It’s a simple way of avoiding the dusting and crafting system seen in similar digital card games.

Core to the game is a feature that makes it impossible to own more than a playset of a card. This makes it highly unlikely that trading can ever be implemented, even if they change their minds down the road.

Which means that formats relying on older cards will be an essentially impossible grind. Hell, high level standard might be a pretty nasty grind.

It also means we probably won't ever see another [[Relentless Rats]] or [[Shadowborn Apostle]] in Standard products. If it's impossible to introduce it to their flagship digital product, they're not going to print it.

We should continue to keep our eyes out for mechanics that are impossible to reconcile with Arena's implementation.

edit: I somehow said "magnetization" instead of "monetization". I'm not even on a phone, so that's one hell of an "auto-correct" typo. O.O