Magic Online Weekly Announcements, February 4, 2025
Posted on Feb 04, 2025
Treasure Chest Information Page - Change Next Week
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THE LEAD
Read All About It – Aetherdrift on MTGO Next Tuesday
The need for (max) speed and the thrill of the open (interplanar) road take center stage in the newest expansion to arrive on Magic Online! Aetherdrift debuts next Tuesday, February 11 at 10 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC). Check out this article now for details on this shiny new set:
- Draft Bundles join the MTGO Store for Standard-legal sets - $32 USD for 3 Draft Entry Tokens plus a Bundle-exclusive avatar!
- Tokens are for the regular Draft League and are good only for the first two weeks of DFT play
- The Golden Booster, with its GOLD First-Place Foils, awaits winners of Scheduled Events during DFT season plus it appears in 1 of 20 Treasure Chests.
- The 10-card Premium Booster returns with a tinge of GOLD – a First-Place Foil in every one – for only $6.99 USD.
- Beyond the Golden Booster, the Booster Fun in this set is stunning! Check out our favorites in the article.
Downtime Tomorrow – 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT
Magic Online will have scheduled maintenance tomorrow, February 5, from approximately 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (17:00-20:00 UTC). Be sure to follow our social media outlets (Discord, BlueSky and more) to keep real-time tabs on this release.
PREMIER PLAY & EVENT NEWS
Vintage Qualifier Saturday
Your next chance to reach the Regional Championship arrives this Saturday with our rotating MOCS format for Season 1. The Vintage Qualifier begins at 7 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC).
It takes 40 Season 1 Qualifier Points to enter a Qualifier. The Top 2 finishers earn an invitation to the April-May round of tabletop RCs, while prizes go to the Top 64!
For more information on these events, click the Premier Play Information link at the top of the Blog.
Standard Showcase Challenge This Sunday
A new MOCS season is underway, so it’s time to qualify the first players for the next round of Showcase Qualifiers in April.
We deeply apologize for the issues with the game that caused us to reschedule Showcase Challenges two weeks ago.
Here are the revised dates and times for this first round of events:
DATE |
TIME (PT) |
TIME (UTC) |
EVENT |
Saturday, February 1 |
10:00 a.m. |
18:00 |
Vintage Showcase Challenge |
Sunday, February 2 |
8:00 a.m. |
16:00 |
Legacy Showcase Challenge |
Sunday, February 9 |
6:00 a.m. |
14:00 |
Standard Showcase Challenge |
Saturday, February 15 |
8:00 a.m. |
16:00 |
Modern Showcase Challenge |
It takes 40 Season 1 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!
For more information on these events, click the Premier Play Information link at the top of the Blog.
ALTERNATE PLAY
Pioneer Chaos Draft Continues
We’ve gathering up Phantom boosters of every non-Core set in Pioneer (yes, Foundations, you’re in) and tossing them in the grab bag – chaos will ensue ...
Check out the Pioneer Chaos Draft League now until next Tuesday. We’re using the entry options of 8 Event Tickets or 80 Play Points, and here are the prizes (updated since last 8-ticket event):
- 3-0 – 120 Play Points, 3 Treasure Chests, 2 Qualifier Points
- 2-1 – 100 Play Points
- 1-2 – 40 Play Points
It’ll run for about two weeks until the start of Aetherdrift, so don’t miss out!
When Does Vintage Cube Return?
- March 12-April 2 – Spring Refresh
- May – exact dates TBD – Update to support MOCS
AROUND THE WEB
MTGO University – MTGO Fundamentals How-To Series Live
We’ve introduced a brand-new landing spot for everything related to getting your new-to-MTGO friends up to speed on playing our game – MTGO University! Whether you’re new to a specific format, new to Magic Online, or are just curious about what this version of MTG is all about, check out MTGO University.
New to MTGO University – the MTGO Fundamentals playlist: short-form videos showing off a bunch of tips and tricks. Check it out on YouTube today!
WEEKLY UPDATES
Innistrad Remastered Events End Next Week
The first Magic offering of 2025 is a return to one of the game’s most beloved planes – Innistrad! Think of Innistrad Remastered (set code INR) as a collectible version of Innistrad Cube – your Gothic and cosmic horror favorites all under one banner.
Magic Online is the exclusive digital home of Innistrad Remastered! The set is on sale now in the MTGO Store. Check out this Blog article for full details on Play Boosters, Premium Boosters, events, and more.
INR Events conclude with Aetherdrift’s release next Tuesday.
Foundations Events End Next Week
The turn of the page to Aetherdrift also spells the end of events for Foundations. We will not be offering a Swiss Draft queue for FDN as normal, so be sure to get your last games of Limited in with the set this week.
Redemption Corner
We’ve updated our Redemption page with new quantity percentages.
Bloomburrow & Duskmourn sets redeemed with regular digital cards are now out of stock. BLB and DSK sets redeemed with foil digital cards remain in stock in low quantities. As a reminder, we announced changes to the Redemption Program starting with Bloomburrow – read all about it in this article.
A limited number of Outlaws of Thunder Junction foil sets still remain available.
Finally, Magic: The Gathering Foundations is not a redeemable set – redemptions will resume with Aetherdrift.
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 this page.
TOMORROW’S PATCH NOTES – February 5, 2025
Bug Bash 2 – Electric Bugaloo
- Adeline, Resplendent Cathar will correctly require each Soldier token created to attach a different player.
- All Will Be One and other abilities that care about number of counters placed will display that number when choosing targets.
- Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos will correctly incubate when a Phyrexian enters the battlefield.
- Dredging instead of drawing with Compulsive Research will correctly require a discard.
- Consuming Tide will correctly return the chosen permanents to hand, not everything else.
- Dargo, the Shipwrecker will no longer cost less if its caster undoes one or more sacrifices.
- Diabolic Servitude will correctly trigger to return to hand when the reanimated creature dies.
- Dragon Breath will correctly trigger when it is milled by Oath of Druids and an eligible creature is put onto the battlefield.
- Fortified Beachhead will not enter untapped if only an opponent controls a Soldier.
- When Hushbringer dies at the same time as other creatures, it will correctly stop death triggers on those creatures.
- Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Brainstorm will work correctly with Hullbreacher when a player has one card in hand.
- Kharn the Betrayer will no longer cause multiplayer games to soft lock if the first player declaring blockers can’t do so.
- Lethal Scheme will have its soft ban from Commander and other formats removed.
- The Meathook Massacre II will correctly not require any creatures to be sacrificed when it enters from a graveyard (X=0).
- Obzedat, Ghost Council will return to the battlefield on its controller’s next upkeep after being exiled by its trigger. (#orzhovplayersrejoice)
- If Saproling Burst is destroyed with a make-a-Saproling ability on the stack, that Saproling will correctly die as a 0/0 creature.
- Creatures entering the battlefield via Valkyrie’s Call will correctly be considered Angels for effects that care (Giada, etc).
- Xolatoyac, the Smiling Flood will correctly untap only permanents with flood counters.
Duel Scene
- A number of effects incorrectly applying to phased-out creatures will be corrected.
- Always Say Yes and Always Say No will again appear as yield options for triggers with “may” abilities.
- Players will correctly be unable to undo milling once new game information is revealed while resolving an ability (Barrowgoyf, etc).
- When a player uses a Bargain ability, the Game Log will indicate so.
- Delirium will correctly account for multi-type split cards in the graveyard.
- If you float mana during an optional payment step (Esper Sentinel, Chain Lightning, etc) but you choose not to pay, the floating mana will correctly not disappear from your pool.
- Foretold cards in exile will be revealed at the end of the game or when its owner loses the game in multiplayer.
- If a creature with a keyword counter later loses all abilities, the game will correctly apply that to the counter.
- When multiple permanents enter at the same time, certain replacement effects will correctly not be applied.
- Wonkiness created when mana-doubling effects and attack tax interact has been fixed (no more drawing face-down cards).
General
- Borderless cards with devoid will render correctly.
- Certain cards missing snow or pawprint symbols will have those symbols restored.
- Foil cards will again display the foil animation in the Collection scene.
- Reprint cards from the Bloomburrow Starter Kit have been added to Standard legality.
Manual Zoom Control Update
-
In the frame-refactor article, we discussed our plan to bring back an “input zoom” option with Aetherdrift. Unfortunately the performance issues that came up took precedence, and we have had to move the return of input zoom to the Aetherdrift fast follow on Tuesday Feb 11th.
NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – April 2, 9 a.m.-Noon PT
After tomorrow, the next scheduled maintenance is set for Wednesday, April 2 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (16:00-19:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm.