Magic Online Weekly Announcements, May 7, 2024

Posted on May 07, 2024

THE LEAD

Vintage Cube Returns Tomorrow

It’s time once again to set up the Vintage Cube to support the next MOCS Showcase event in mid-May. Cube curators Chris Wolf and Ryan Spain present the changes to the card list in this article – or you can just view the current card list on this page.

[Insert Image = Vintage Cube Booster]

As usual, we will be offering a Swiss Draft League and a Single-Elimination Queue starting tomorrow, May 8^th at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) – enter either one for 10 Event Tickets or 100 Play Points. Normal prizing applies – visit this page for details or click View Prizes once the events are live in-game.

This Cube run lasts two weeks until May 22^nd at 10 a.m. PT. Then we’ll do a polish pass on it based on play data and community feedback, and then the Cube returns May 29^th until the start of Modern Horizons 3 Leagues on June 11.

MTGO BROADCASTS 

MTGO Masters – Top 8 Tomorrow at 1 p.m. & 5 p.m. PT

Our newest streaming series – MTGO Masters – is entering the home stretch of this season's competition!

Sixteen top Magic celebrities have squared off in a 12-week tournament to determine who’s best at solving the Modern metagame. Returning to host are Anuraag Das and Will Hall with added commentary from the players themselves throughout the broadcast.

The field has been whittled down to the Top 8. Over the next two weeks, one of these competitors will earn the title of MTGO Masters Champion:

• Jake Beardsley
• Carmen Klomparens
• Arya Karamchandani
• Brian Braun-Duin
• Nikachu
• Brad Nelson
• Eduardo Sajgalik
• Reid Duke

Tomorrow will feature the four quarterfinal duels, then next week’s show will finish off the season with the semifinal and championship rounds.

Catch all the action Wednesday at 1 p.m. PT (20:00 UTC) on twitch.tv/magiconline or twitch.tv/anzidmtg. There is also a re-broadcast in prime time in the Americas that begins immediately following the live stream (usually about 5-6 p.m. PT). There are giveaways every week during the live stream, so be sure to join us!

The Magic Discovery Zone –Thursdays at 5 p.m. PT

Looking for a fun way to introduce your friends to some of Magic Online’s competitive formats? Gather around your favorite screen of choice for our new series, The Magic Discovery Zone!

Host NileJoanRivers gets coached by an MTG celebrity on the ins and outs of a featured deck in each episode. Then Nile dives into a MTGO League to practice, ask questions, and get a better understanding of the deck’s game plan. The mood here is all about fun and learning!

Season Two will highlight our suite of New Player Decks. Episode 4 features reigning Player of the Year Simon Nielsen as the mentor to guide Nile through the mono-white Pioneer Humans deck. The live stream starts Thursday night at 5 p.m. PT (midnight Friday UTC) at twitch.tv/magiconline.

If you missed last week’s episode featuring Anuraag Das and Legacy Burn, catch a replay of that show plus all other VODs of this series on our YouTube channel now!

PREMIER PLAY

It's Showcase Challenge Weekend 

The current MOCS season rolls on, so it’s time to get another batch of players for the next round of Showcase Qualifiers in July.  
 

[Insert Image – Showcase Challenge]  
 

It takes 40 Season 2 Qualifier Points to enter a Showcase Challenge. The Top 8 finishers in each event earn a Championship Entry Token for the event’s format plus earn Leaderboard Points toward an At-Large berth in the next Showcase! 

Here are the dates and times for this weekend’s events:  
 

For more information on these events, click the Premier Play Information link at the top of the Blog. 

ALTERNATE PLAY

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Modern Horizons 3. Except for Best-of-One, all of these offerings are Phantom; cards won’t be added to players’ collections in Phantom events. All transitions take place at 10:00 a.m. PT unless otherwise noted.

• May 8-22 – Vintage Cube returns to support the next MOCS Showcase on May 18.
• May 22-29 – As a prelude to the next big thing in Modern, we’re running back Modern Horizons 2 Flashback (Phantom only)
• May 29-June 11 – The Polish Pass of Vintage Cube will add some tweaks to improve the experience.

When Is Vintage Cube Back?

A new regular feature of the Blog, this item will mention when the next scheduled run of our most popular event will take place:

• MOCS Support Round: May 8-22
• Polish Pass: May 29-June 11
• Summer Refresh: Late June TBD

EVENT UPDATES 

Commander Leagues are Live!

Leagues for all types of Commander players are back on the menu! There are two Leagues for Constructed and one for Limited:

• Competitive Commander: a 4-Player pod with winner-take-all prize
• Friendly Commander: a 4-Player pod with prizes awarded by votes
• Commander Masters Phantom Draft: 4-Player Draft & 4-Player Matches, winner-take-all prize

Full details can be found in the OTJ Set Article linked at the top of the Blog. These Leagues run until the launch of Modern Horizons 3 in June.

Magic Online Judge Open Returns in July

As a token of esteem to the large group of Magic community members around the world who keep tabletop tournaments fun and fair, we’re getting our MOJO back!

The Magic Online Judge Open returns as a five-day League event starting Tuesday, July 16. It’s open to all certified Judges, scorekeepers, and staff who are affiliated with a national or international Judge organization. For more details, contact the Judge program in your area.

Weekend Challenge Updates

Thanks to consistent attendance from our community, we are promoting four Challenge events from the 32-player level to the 64-player level. That is – the minimum number of players to fire will be 64, but prizes will also pay out to the Top 64!

The time slots being changed starting this week, unless otherwise listed, are:

• Pioneer - Thursdays at 2 p.m. PT (21:00 UTC)
• Pioneer - Sundays at 1 p.m. PT (20:00 UTC – starts May 19 due to Showcase Challenge on 5/12)
• Pioneer - Mondays at 4 p.m. PT (23:00 UTC)
• Modern - Tuesdays at 1 p.m. PT (20:00 UTC – starts May 14)

As usual, we will attach Second Chance events to these starting a half-hour later. Note that Second Chance events are not meant to be on the schedule forever – in fact, we are removing the Second Chance events for Pauper and Modern on Sundays.

PRODUCT NEWS

New Player Kits Updated

Big news (and be sure to tell your buddies): The items that new accounts receive on sign up and after upgrading have changed. Check out this article as Creative Director Ryan Spain shares the thought process behind the changes intended to make playing games right away a frictionless experience!

UPDATE: Collection Upgrade Kit Available with MH3

We have heard a lot of community feedback regarding the rollout of these New Player product changes. Ryan Spain discusses the topic in this section of the article. We will be offering a new product starting June 5 that provides all cards in the Account Upgrade Kit plus the five Starter Decks that can be purchased by pre-existing accounts. The Collection Upgrade Kit will go on sale on June 5 following downtime for USD 4.99.

Commander Workshop Now Available

Calling all Commander Players: Kick-start your Collection with 2,000 cards from across MTGO’s history curated for the 100-card format – all for just $39 USD! To learn more about this new evergreen product that goes on-sale after tomorrow’s downtime, check out Product Manager Tony Mayer’s article found here.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is Available Now!

Breaking News! It’s time to gather your motley crew of outlaws for a Crime Spree to collect a Big Score! Outlaws of Thunder Junction is available now for purchase. But you can read all about all of this now in our :

• Play Boosters – including the Special Guests and The Big Score on The List, plus a Breaking News bonus sheet – and Commander Decks
• Art Bundles and two new Premium Effects – Gilded and Rain
• The return of Commander Leagues
• The usual slate of updates (MOPR, CMDR Backlog, Prestige Avatars, etc.)

WEEKLY UPDATES 

Redemption Corner

We’ve updated our Redemption page with new quantity percentages.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction will go on sale early – regular and premium Tokens go into the Store starting tomorrow, May 8 at 10 a.m. PT.

• Murders at Karlov Manor Redemption Tokens (both regular and premium) are running low.
• We expect to have one last group of WOE and LCI tokens available later this week.

Magic Online Format Challenges Every Weekend

Format Challenges are the first step toward qualifying for Premier Play through your favorite Magic formats and provide excellent prizes for those looking to test their mettle in their favorite formats. Learn more about Premier Play qualification to get started today.

Magic Online's Format Challenges run as shown on the schedule on .

PATCH NOTES – May 8, 2024

• Calamity, Galloping Inferno will no longer create a token copy of a creature that left the battlefield that saddled it.
• When multiple creatures die at the same time, the game will correctly highlight each creature affected by Vraska, the Silencer.
• Jeska, Thrice Reborn and The Swarmlord will correctly count only the number of times you have cast a commander when figuring counters

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – June 5, 2024 

The next scheduled maintenance will take place on Wednesday, June 5 between 9 a.m. and 12 noon Pacific time (16:00-19:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Modern Horizons 3.