Magic Online Weekly Announcements, May 27, 2025

Posted on May 27, 2025

THE LEAD

Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™ Set Article Next Tuesday

Two of the world’s titans of the gaming industry are teaming up for a fantastical play experience! Magic: The Gathering®–FINAL FANTASY™ (set code FIN) debuts on Magic Online on Tuesday, June 10 at 10 a.m. Pacific time (17:00 UTC)!

Be sure to check out MTGO.com next Tuesday for full info on this expansion, including products, events, and Booster Fun.

Sign Up for Beta – This Weekend!

Want to help us squish bugs and test card functionality while getting a first look at the newest set? MTGO’s Closed Beta Program is just the place!

Our normal Cardset betas involve playing a selection of complicated cards against a curated set of wordy and weird cards from MTGO’s history. A Sealed Deck League will be available and Commander games are encouraged. The goal is to ensure we release a quality product, so we appreciate all the help we can get – sign up today!

To apply for the program, submit a ticket at help.mtgo.com - choose Apply to Beta Program as the subject, fill out the form and agree to Terms. If you're admitted to the Program, you will be invited to join us for the FIN Beta round starting this Friday, May 30.

MTGO COMMANDER CUBE

We have the most peanut-butter-and-chocolate Magic experience lined up for you – 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 continues until downtime on Wednesday, June 4. Entry options is 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 a 1-color card printed with partner - including 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.
  • 1-color printed partners can pair with 1-color non-printed partners.
  • 2-color printed partners cannot pair with 1-color 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.

MTGO SPELLGROUNDS - NOW WEEKLY

Great news – our Spellgrounds project is underway! 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 started on Friday to have extra days, but it will run until tomorrow as normal
• If you want to step up the competition a little, try the weekday 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 until tomorrow.

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
  • Watch for deck primer videos from MTGO Creator and Legacy guru Joe Dyer later this week.
• June 9 - Pauper
• June 16 - Vintage
• June 23 – Duel Commander

Decklists will be posted on this Moxfield page the Friday before the events. The current Modern Spellgrounds lists are found here.

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

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) 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 More Super Qualifiers This Weekend

Another eight invitations to the next tabletop Regional Championship round are on the line this weekend.

First up is a Modern RC Super Qualifier this Saturday, May 31 at a special start time of 1 a.m. PT (8:00 UTC).

Then on Sunday, June 1 we’ll have a Limited RC Super Qualifier featuring Tarkir: Dragonstorm Sealed Deck with Top 8 Draft. That tournament kicks off at 7 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC).

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.

• Until 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

Modern Gold League Now Available

After taking community feedback on the idea of running higher-entry, higher-prize Leagues, we have started the Modern Gold League! For the first time in several years, players 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
Inital League 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

We will closely follow feedback on prizes, queue health, and other aspect of this League and announce any changes on Tuesday, June 10 when the FIN version of the League begins.

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.

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™.