Magic Online Weekly Announcements, June 13, 2023

Posted on Jun 13, 2023

Premier Play Information

Treasure Chest Information - UPDATED TODAY FOR CHANGES NEXT WEEK

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THE LEAD

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ on MTGO!

The wait is nearly over – the straight-to-Modern set featuring The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ will debut on Magic Online next Tuesday, June 20^th. Check out this article for the scoop on everything on offer:

• Art Bundles and other items
• Event updates, including special prize structures
• Jumpstart’s return as a New Player experience
• Treasure Chest update
• Alternate Play, including Supreme Draft and Commander Legends in a whole new format

Downtime Tomorrow – 9 a.m. to Noon PT

Magic Online will have a scheduled maintenance tomorrow at 9 a.m. Pacific time (16:00 UTC). It is expected to last three hours.

Battle of the Planes Returns Tomorrow!

As we send off March of the Machine and its epic interplanar war, we thought it a great moment to bring back an epic interplanar event for the first time in four years – the Battle of the Planes!

Starting after tomorrow’s downtime, you can join this Phantom Sealed experience for 10 Event TIckets or 100 Play Points. When you do, you’ll choose one of five planes to represent and will open 8 packs to build a high-powered Sealed deck. The planes are the same as before, but the packs in each plane have been updated …

• Dominaria: 2 Dominaria Remastered; 1 each of Dominaria, Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Dominaria United, The Brothers’ War, and March of the Machine
• Innistrad: 2 each of Innistrad and Innistrad: Midnight Hunt; 1 each of Dark Ascension, Shadows over Innistrad, Eldritch Moon, and Innistrad: Crimson Vow
• Mirrodin: 2 each of Scars of Mirrodin and Phyrexia: All Will Be One; 1 each of Mirrodin, Darksteel, Mirrodin Besieged, and New Phyrexia
• Ravnica: 1 each of Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, Dissension, Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, and War of the Spark
• Zendikar: 2 each of Zendikar, Battle for Zendikar, and Zendikar Rising; 1 each of Worldwake and Oath of the Gatewatch

Each League course is three matches long and the normal Phantom League prizes are in effect. Give each plane a try!

NOTE: This League ends a day earlier than normal – next Tuesday, June 20 at 10:00 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC)

Two-Factor Authentication Is Now Live – Protect Your Account Today!

A long-requested security feature is now part Magic Online – check out Ryan Spain’s article to learn the why, what, and how to put Two-Factor Authentication into effect to help protect your account!

ALTERNATE PLAY

All-Access Wraps Up Tomorrow

For those of you who have enjoyed All-Access over the last two weeks, thank you! We'll remove all Mythic Event from accounts and turn off All-Access during tomorrow’s downtime. If you’re still competing in a Constructed League on that day, you’ll be allowed to complete that course.

PREMIER PLAY

No Premier Play This Weekend

We don’t have any Premier Play events lined up for this weekend, but we’ll still have our normal slate of Preliminaries and Format Challenges at their regularly scheduled times.

Also, this is a reminder that the current season’s Qualifier Points expire on July 5^th. There are the remaining events that accept Season 2 QPs:

• The LTR Limited Qualifier on Friday, June 30
• The last round of Showcase Challenges
  • Modern/Pioneer June 24-25
  • Pauper/Legacy July 1-2
• The Last Chance events July 2-5
  • Additional events will be created for Pauper Last Chance

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

WEEKLY UPDATES

Redemption Corner

Redemption Tokens for March of the Machine are now on sale in the MTGO Store.

IMPORTANT: As of May 23, all new orders of Redemption Tokens are non-refundable! We’ve updated our Redemption page with that information.

Tokens for Phyrexia: All Will Be One and The Brothers' War remain available.

For more details on the redemption program, click here.

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 below.

On weekends featuring Showcase Challenge events, the Format Challenge that starts at either 6 a.m., 8 a.m., or 10 a.m. Pacific time is pre-empted by the Showcase Challenge; Format Challenges scheduled at other times remain in place.

NOTES:
CONSTRUCTED

• In MOCS Season 2, Vintage and Standard Challenges are never pre-empted.
• 32-Player events require 32 players to fire and give prizes to the Top 32.
  • Pauper and Vintage Challenges are always 32-Player tournaments.
• All other events listed require 64 players to fire and give prizes to the Top 64.
  
  

LIMITED

• 32-Player Limited Challenge events are 6 rounds with no playoff
• 64-Player Limited Challenge events are 7 rounds with no playoff

Check out the Magic Online Format Challenges page for further event details.

PATCH NOTES – June 14, 2023

General

• The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ will be added to the game – events and products go on-sale on June 20^th
  • Reprints that are new to Modern will not be legal until LTR goes on sale
  • Card names with special characters can be searched as though they didn’t have the diacritic (accent mark).
  • Treasure Chest update isn’t until June 20^th
• Scheduled Events will feature Mythic Orange, Gold, or Silver borders (depending on the event’s importance) in the Play Lobby

Competitive Play

• Metamorphic Alteration will correctly cause the enchanted creature to copy Archfiend of Dross … I mean, the chosen creature
• MOCS Showcase Avatars will be granted to all participants of Season 1 Showcase Qualifiers as well as the 2022 Season 3 Standard Showcase Qualifier

Duel Scene Fixes

• If multiple identical tokens attack, one is blocked, and then its blockers are removed, the game will correctly display which tokens remain unblocked
• When multiple players/planeswalkers/battles are attacked, the game log will correctly show each one being attacked by individual creatures (instead of only one player/etc)
• Holistic Wisdom will no longer cause the game to reset

Upcoming Flashback Cards

• Intuition will work correctly when split cards are among the chosen cards
• Goblin Game will no longer reveal the active player’s chosen number to opponents early

Other Cards

• Oath of Teferi’s static ability will correctly allow its controller to activate each planeswalker’s ability twice a turn (#superfriends)
• Gonti’s Machinations and Vengeful Warchief will correctly trigger upon its controller’s first life loss of the turn
• A kicked Myriad Construct will enter with the correct number of +1/+1 counters
• Awaken the Maelstrom will correctly place the copy of the chosen permanent on its controller’s side of the battlefield
• Halana, Kessig Ranger’s triggered ability will correctly deal damage
• Zoological Study (the adventure half of Monster Manual) will be castable
• Patron of the Orochi will correctly untap Forests

Other

• Universes Beyond IP credits appear in the new Credits tab under Settings

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – To Be Determined

After tomorrow’s downtime, the next scheduled maintenance has not yet been finalized. There will definitely be one on Wednesday, August 2 to support Commander Masters, but we may also take one in mid-July if we are able to complete some new features in time.

P.S. – Come Work For Us!

We have recently rolled out a slate of positions now available on the Magic Online team, ranging from Associate Product Manager to Software Engineer to Producer. If you want to review open positions and live/can legally work in:

• The United States – check our Daybreak Games’ careers page (CTRL+F for Renton).
• Canada – check out the career page of our sister company Big Blue Bubble.