MTG Arena hands out gems and hides country flag card sleeves

Wizards of the Coast announces that MTG Arena will restrict the use of card sleeves showing various national flags as of December 13

On December 5, MTG Arena publisher Wizards of the Coast announced plans to restrict several country-specific card sleeves. The sleeves were part of an older, limited-time promotion, and they depicted the national flags of various countries. According to the official MTG blog post, the restriction is because Wizards feels the sleeves’ inclusion on Arena “has impacted some players’ ability to enjoy the game”.

The restriction means a few things for any Arena player who owns the country-specific sleeves. You’ll still be able to see them in your collection and apply them to MTG Arena decks, but your opponent will see default card sleeves when they play a match against you. Wizards also says you’ll get 300 gems per flag card sleeve in your collection shortly after the change goes live on December 13.

According to the MTG Arena archives of blogger Joe’s Trading Post, ten country flags were introduced to the digital trading card gameas sleeves in 2019. These were for Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

“We currently have no plans to make these sleeves available again in-game or through regional promotions”, Wizards adds in the MTG blog post.

MTG Arena country flag sleeves restricted - image of ten flag sleeves from MTG Arena store

For more digital Magic, here’s our complete guide to MTG Arena codes. We can also help fans of the TCG keep up-to-date with the MTG 2023 release schedule.