Magic Online Weekly Announcements, May 20, 2025

Posted on May 20, 2025

THE LEAD

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.

Read All About It - Cube Design & Full List

Creative Director Ryan Spain presents the full Cube list and the philosophy and strategy behind its creation in this article. This Cube has 810 cards total, 50% more than a regular MTGO cube, so it contains a lot of cards not normally found in an online cube event. Be sure to have a look before you start!

Commander Cube League Details

The League begins tomorrow, May 21 at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) and will run until downtime on Wednesday, June 4. Entry options will be just 4 Event Tickets or 40 Play Points. Four players queue up and draft, then you get to play up to two single-game, 4-player matches with your deck in a League course. Prize payouts for the League are as follows:

• 2 Match Wins – 130 Play Points and 1 Treasure Chest
• 1 Match Win – 70 Play Points

As with all Leagues, there is a matchmaking queue to join after you’re done building. This means you may not play your matches against players with whom you drafted. Like all Commander games, there is a free mulligan and the player who wins the die roll draws a card on their first turn. The timer is set for 30 minutes per player – so a maximum of 2 hours per game (though most games won’t go nearly that long).

How to Draft and Build a MTGO Commander Cube Deck

So how do you Commander Cube on MTGO? You start by adding a Command Tower to your draft pool – everyone gets a single copy. Then the draft continues by picking 2 cards at a time out of 15-card packs. There are FOUR packs to draft.

Because this is a Commander Limited game, you have to draft a Commander that fits the color identity of the colors you want to play. Fortunately, there are a few extra rules in this format to help you out:

• All colorless and mono-colored legendary creatures gain the partner ability – this will not appear on the card itself in the draft. These can partner with each other or Prismatic Piper (see below) 
• Any cards that were printed with partner or partner-like abilities (partner with, Choose a Background, and friends forever) can pair with each other. 
  • Printed partners can't pair with non-printed partners.   
  • In this way, you can end up with as many as four colors in your deck’s color identity – two 2-color cards with printed partner. 
• Three-color legends cannot partner with anything. 
• Backgrounds can only be paired with creatures with Choose a Background. 
• Prismatic Piper has the partner ability, but it can pair only with mono-colored legends (printed partner or not).   

You’re building a deck with a minimum of 60 cards with partners included. Unlike regular Commander, you are allowed to go higher than 60 if you find it necessary.

Free Preview League – 1 Day Left

To help everyone try out this format, we’re running a Preview League this week! It is in progress now and concludes tomorrow at 7 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC). Like other Preview Leagues, there is a code to enter in the MTGO Store: CMDRCUBE2025. The code is live right now!

It grants you a Draft Point token good for one free draft and game of Commander Cube during the Preview League. There are no prizes for this Preview League. The code can be redeemed once per account, but any unused Tokens will be cleared from accounts at the end of the League.

Modern Gold League Debuts Tomorrow

After taking community feedback on the idea of running higher-entry, higher-prize Leagues, we are debuting the Modern Gold League starting tomorrow. For the first time in several years, players will have three distinct options for playing in a Modern League: Gold, Regular, and Friendly.

The entry cost is twice as much as the regular league – 20 Event Tickets or 200 Play Points. It is a Competitive League in that you have to achieve a winning record to earn any prizes. But because of that fact, the prizes are more than doubled! Here are the details:

Modern Gold League
Start Date: Wednesday, May 21 at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC)
End Date: Tuesday, June 10 at 10 a.m. PT
Location: Constructed -> Modern
Entry: 20 Event Tickets or 200 Play Points
Structure: Up to five best-of-three matches, 25-minute timers

Prizes:

• 5-0 – 400 Play Points, 12 Treasure Chests, and 12 Season 2 QPs
• 4-1 – 320 Play Points, 6 Treasure Chests, and 6 Season 2 QPs
• 3-2 – 240 Play Points, 2 Treasure Chests, and 2 Season 2 QPs

MTGO Spellgrounds Debut This Friday

Great news – our Spellgrounds project is ready to go, and we are re-rolling it out over the upcoming long weekend! Try out six of the decks from this month’s MOCS Showcase event with sideboards geared specifically for this group of decks – all for free!

Try out a combination of decks from our Modern Gauntlet for new players and well as this month’s MOCS Showcase – all with sideboards geared specifically for this group – all for free!

You’ll encounter a Super-Jump style draft – 3 of the 6 decks are presented randomly for you to select one.

There are 2 pieces to this new initiative:

• The Spellground event normally runs Monday to Wednesday and is FREE – pick a deck and play up to 3 matches without the pressure of prizes on the line.
  • For this first go, it will run from this Friday, May 23, until Wednesday, May 28.
• If you want to step up the competition a little, try the one-week Gauntlet event that normally runs Monday to Friday – it’s the same event but playing for small prizes.
  • Entry Options: 2 Event Tickets or 20 Play Points or 1 Gauntlet Token
  • Prizes
    • 3 Wins – 30 Play Points
    • 2 Wins – 20 Play Points
  • For this first go, we will run the Gauntlet League starting this Friday and running until Wednesday.

Normally, Spellgrounds and their Gauntlets start at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) on Monday and close to new entries at 10 a.m. PT on the designated day (or at downtime, if applicable).

These events will not be run during weeks where there is a Preview League in the same time slot. We may also skip a week occasionally if the metagame represents a dead format after a new set’s release.

Otherwise you can follow the schedule in the Weekly Updates section of the MTGO Blog starting next week. Here’s what we have planned for the first few weeks ...

• June 2 - Legacy
• June 9 - Pauper
• June 16 - Vintage
• June 23 – Duel Commander

Decklists will be posted on this Moxfield page the Friday before the events.

We hope you find this is a no- or low-risk way to expand your horizons in Magic Online!

ALL THINGS VINTAGE CUBE

Vintage Cube League Ends Tomorrow

If you still have matches left to play in the current Magic Online Vintage Cube or Draft Tokens from the Bundle to spend, you have one last day to do so – the League closes to new entries tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) and no new matches can begin after 2 p.m. PT (21:00 UTC).

Of course, the always-on single-elimination queue will remain live and continue using this version of the Cube through the month of June.

MTGO BROADCASTS

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). This week, only catch Oblivion as she streams our new Spellgrounds on Friday. 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

It's Showcase Challenge Weekend

A new MOCS season is underway, so it’s time to qualify the first players for the next round of Showcase Qualifiers in August. 

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!

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

Six RC Slots Available This Long Weekend

A holiday weekend in many parts of the world means we have extra days to get players qualified for the next Regional Championship round.

First up is the Modern RC Super Qualifier on Friday, May 23 starting at 2 p.m. PT (21:00 UTC).

Then on Monday, May 26, a Standard RC Qualifier will commence at 7 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC).

Entry options for the Super Qualifier are 40 Event Tickets, 400 Play Points, or 40 Season 2 Qualifier Points. The Top 4 finishers earn an invitation to the October-November round of tabletop RCs, while prizes go to the Top 128!

Conversely, it takes 40 Season 1 Qualifier Points to enter a Qualifier. The Top 2 finishers earn an invitation to the RC and prizes go to the Top 64.

Please note that we have added RC to the name of these events going forward to help better differentiate them from the MOCS series.

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 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.

• May 21-June 4 – It’s Commander Cube – a 4-player queue that drafts together and plays 1 game – easy peasy! (Phantom)
• June 4-10 – To be determined ... either a third week of Commander Cube or a Flashback Draft.

When Do Vintage Cube Leagues Return?

• July 2-23 – Summer Refresh

EVENT UPDATES

Throwdowns Removed from Schedule

Our experiment with a lower-cost alternative to Preliminaries for Pioneer, Pauper, and Vintage formats has concluded. We will continue to explore alternative play experiences for those formats.

Standard Challenges Return to 32-Player Level

As the Regional Championship round comes to a close, we’ve noticed a number of Standard Challenge 64 events failing to fire despite having more than 32 players. Therefore, we have shifted the Standard Challenges on Wednesday-Sunday back to the 32-player level starting tomorrow. As a reminder, players who finish a Challenge X-2 are guaranteed no worse than their entry option as a prize.

AROUND THE WEB

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 regular redemptions remain on sale in the MTGO Store and Tarkir: Dragonstorm redemptions are now available as well!

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 21, 2025

Duel Scene

• Commander’s Plate will correctly provide no bonus in non-Commander games.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – June 4, 9 a.m. to Noon PT

The next scheduled maintenance is Wednesday, June 4 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (16:00-19:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Magic: The Gathering®–FINAL FANTASY™.