Magic Online Weekly Announcements, May 6, 2025

Posted on May 06, 2025

THE LEAD

Coming Soon to MTGO – Commander Cube!

We have the most peanut-butter-and-chocolate Magic experience lined up for you later this month – it's the debut of the Magic Online Commander Cube! It’s Cube ... but with Commanders – an irresistible blend of traits that can appeal to every Johnny, Spike, or Vorthos.

Entry options will be 4 Event Tickets or 40 Play Points. Four players queue up and draft together, then play one League game with the winner scoring 120 Play Points and 1 Treasure Chest. Easy peasy!

Watch MTGO.com next week for an article introducing the Cube from Creative Director Ryan Spain.

Then join us for a Commander Cube Preview League on May 19-20 in advance of the Cube League’s first run on May 21!

MTGO Spellgrounds Debut Postponed

We apologize for the technical issues that stopped us from getting the Legacy Spellgrounds event off the ground this week. The fix needed for the issue requires a downtime to update our database. Assuming all is well after that, we will debut Spellgrounds properly later this month.

Next Week After Downtime – Progressive Sealed Deck Mini-League

Here’s a new yet familiar twist on Sealed – it's the add-a-booster League that’s popular in tabletop at stores and conventions. The Magic Online version will be a five-stage League totaling 10 Best-of-One games.

After every 2 games (win or lose), you’ll proceed to the next stage and be offered the chance to add a booster to your Sealed Pool (#improvement). The first extra booster is free!

We’ll lay out full details in next week’s Blog – here are the key points:

• The first League will feature the original Khans of Tarkir format, and it will be a Keeper League – not Phantom!
• The League runs for 4 days from the end of downtime Wednesday, May 14 until Sunday, May 18.
• It will cost 6 Event Tickets or 60 Play Points to join. (Yes, even for a Keeper League)
• Upgrade boosters in Stages 3, 4, and 5 will each cost 1 Event Ticket, 10 Play Points, or 1 KTK Booster.
  • The League exclusively features KTK.
• Prizes start at the 5-win mark with QPs on offer starting at 6 wins and a big jump at the top.

ALL THINGS VINTAGE CUBE

Vintage Cube Rolls On

It’s time for a new round of MTGO’s favorite – the Magic Online Vintage Cube!

Learn about the latest changes to the Cube from Cube Curator Chris Wolf in this article.

Want to see the full card list? Here’s your page.

NOTE: 64-Player Single-Elimination Drafts will be off the schedule this week due to low fire rates.

Vintage Cube "Holiday” Bundle Returns

Another feature that’s proven to be a hit is the Vintage Cube Holiday Bundle which returns with the same value!

For $27 USD, you get the following:

• 3 Vintage Cube Draft Tokens – each Token is an entry option into either a League course or an 8-player single-elimination draft until May 21 – a savings of $1 per draft!
• A Loot, the Pathfinder avatar - the same one we offered in last month’s Bundle.

The Draft Bundle itself is not tradeable nor are its contents. The Tokens expire when the Cube League ends on May 21, so be sure to use them all up (we’ll remove them at that time and they are non-refundable)!

MOCS SHOWCASE THIS WEEKEND

2025 Season 1 MOCS Showcase This Sunday, May 11 at 9 a.m. PT on YouTube

Eight of Magic Online’s top players have earned the right to battle for their share of $50,000 & two invitations to the 2025 Magic World Championship in the 2025 MOCS Season 1 Showcase. The event itself will be held this weekend. This is the pinnacle of competition on MTGO, so be sure to tune in!

Read all about the event in this Viewers Guide article now live on MTGO.com.

The eight competitors are:

*player qualified under a since-changed username

Catch all the action in Vintage Cube and Modern with the casting crew of Corey Baumeister, Arya Karamchandani, and Anuraag Das! Coverage starts Sunday, May 11 at 9 a.m. PT (19:00 UTC) only on the MTGO channel on YouTube.

MTGO BROADCASTS

Creator Showdown This Saturday – Modern for Cash!

Dozens of your favorite Magic content creators will be in action competing for up to $5,000 in cash and prizes in the next MTGO Creator Showdown this Saturday, May 10!

The rotating format of battle this month is Modern and all participants will be streaming simultaneously in this six-round event starting at 9 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC). For the first time, this will be a true Swiss format event, so participating streamers can play all six rounds if they choose!

Once the field is whittled down to 16 undefeated players, the official MTGO Twitch channel will fire up a broadcast hosted by Admirable (aka Nathan Zamora) and featuring a rotating cast of commentators – this month it’s Gerry Thompson – and giveaways galore! Look for that to begin between 10:30 and 11 a.m. PT (17:30-18:00 UTC).

MTGO Twitch Streams Four Nights a Week

MeatMTG Wednesdays & YungDingo Fridays

Magic Online is pleased to bring you weekly streams from some of our top creators. We’ve teamed up with YungDingo and MeatMTG to show off MTGO at a regular time each week.

MeatMTG is streaming Wednesdays at 5:30 PM PT (00:30 Thursday UTC), while YungDingo takes the reins Friday nights at 6 pm PT (01:00 Saturday UTC) – both at twitch.tv/magiconline.

There will be giveaways galore, including Play Point codes and their own unique in-game avatars!

Visit their streams to earn and collect starting Wednesday and Friday this week

Oblivion Sorrow’s MTGO University How-To Series Tuesdays & Thursdays

We have launched an exciting new How-To series featuring one of our favorite content creators, OblivionSorrow from The Grim Tutors! Join her as she embarks on a journey through Magic: The Gathering Online, guiding both new and returning players through the ins and outs of the game. From streams to YouTube videos, shorts, and more—there’s something for everyone.

Look for streams on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 p.m. PT (6 p.m. ET) with YouTube postings of the episodes soon afterward. Be sure to tune in to the stream starting this week to get OblivionSorrow’s exclusive in-game avatar!

Use Code "Oblivion" Today

PREMIER PLAY

Two Super Qualifiers This Weekend!

Eight more seats in 2025’s first Regional Championship round are at stake this weekend!

First up is the Legacy Super Qualifier that begins Saturday, May 10 at 7:00 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC).

Then the weekend concludes with a Limited Super Qualifier on Sunday, May 11 at 7 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC). It features Tarkir: Dragonstorm Sealed Deck with Top 8 Draft.

It takes 40 Event Tickets, 400 Play Points, or 40 Season 2 Qualifier Points to enter a Super Qualifier. The Top 4 finishers in each tournament grab a seat in the October-November RC round, and prizes pay out to the Top 128! 

Click the MTGO Premier Play link at the top of the Blog for more information.

ALTERNATE PLAY

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Magic: The Gathering®–FINAL FANTASY™. Each description mentions if the Draft is Phantom – cards won’t be added to players’ collections in Phantom events. All transitions take place at 10:00 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) unless otherwise noted.

• Until May 21 – The Vintage Cube will be back with another refresh for a four-week run to support the next MOCS Showcase premiering on May 11. (Phantom)
• May 21-June 10 – It’s Commander Cube – a 4-player queue that drafts together and plays 1 game – easy peasy! (Phantom)

When Do Vintage Cube Leagues Return?

• Until May 21 – Update to support MOCS
• July 2-23 – Summer Refresh

AROUND THE WEB

MTGO’s Web Event Calendar is Now Downloadable!

Magic Online’s Web-based Event Calendar is up and running again! Capture all of the important dates in a weekly or monthly layout and filter down to the types and formats of game play you care about most. Cruicially, all of the start times are listed local to your time zone!

Want to see all of your upcoming chances to play competitive Pauper/Legacy/whatever? The calendar’s got you covered.

Looking for all of the mid-range events to build your experience towards the Premier level? We’ve got a filter for that too!

Those filters will come in handy using our new feature – a downloadable iCalendar format that can be added in to your Google Calendar, Outlook, or just about any other calendar program that accepts the universal .ics format.

A couple tips with this:

• Except for Premier Play, the calendar only displays events that are currently loaded into the MTGO Client. Any events past downtime won’t appear until after downtime.
• If an event time is changed after you download, it will not update on your local version.
• Be very sure to filter to the events you want before downloading and be extra careful when linking to a calendar displaying on your mobile device. Notifications are on by default.

MTGO University – MTGO Fundamentals How-To Short-Form Video Series

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

Redemption Corner

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

Aetherdrift redemptions are now on sale in the MTGO Store.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm redemptions begin tomorrow, May 7!

As a reminder, we announced changes to the Redemption Program starting with Bloomburrow – read all about it in this article.

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 – May 7, 2025

Duel Scene

• Copies created by Panoptic Mirror will be able to be cast without needing to tap a land.
• If a two-brid spell’s mana costs is fully reduced by other effects, the game will correctly not need you to tap a land to cast the spell.
• Mindleech Mass’s trigger will work correctly.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – May 14, 6-8 a.m.

The next scheduled maintenance has been reset to Wednesday, May 14 from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. PT (13:00-15:00 UTC). This is to support a postponed hardware changeover.