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Double Masters 2022: Magic Online Edition

Posted on Jun 29, 2022

A WILD SQUID APPEARS . . .

Hello, Magic Online enthusiasts—my name is Tony Mayer, and I am the new product manager for Magic Online at Daybreak Games. I am thrilled to be taking the reins from David McDarby in providing you the latest information about our game through articles, weekly blog updates, and Twitter posts!

Tony Mayer

A little about me: I was a high-level judge in the Seattle area during the mid-2000s, helping to grow the local community at Premier events and large Prereleases, certifying new judges, working Nationals and Pro Tours around the world, and putting on my own series of Draft Extravaganzas. In 2014, I took on the moniker of DEC_Squid, both live inside the game and in customer support tickets. In addition, I spent the past year as digital tournament manager for Magic's Set Championships and World Championship XXVII.

Behind the scenes, I've been part of the team building for all the events posted in Magic Online each Wednesday. Additionally, I was a lead consultant for all things MOCS and Premier play, building schedules and organizing the MOCS Showcases.

Now I get to bring my experience to one of the key roles within Magic Online! I couldn't be more excited to help shape the game alongside Ryan Spain, our creative director, who you will hear more from in the coming weeks, as well as our veteran team of developers led by Mollie Harms. Ryan's focus will be on the future of our game, while my role zeroes in on events and other customer-facing aspects of live operations.

I'm looking forward to working with them and you, our community, to continue bringing you the digitized experience of tabletop Magic for years to come!

DOUBLE MASTERS 2022 CRYPTIC SPIRES

Let's begin by discussing the one new card in a set that is ostensibly about reprints—Cryptic Spires.

We have distinct challenges on Magic Online in that some of our events offer continuous construction—similar to friendly events at your Local Game Store—and some of them do not (events like Regional Championship Qualifiers). We'll make note of divergence with tabletop events below.

Here's how Cryptic Spires will work in Magic Online:

THE BASICS: CASUAL DECK BUILDING

When you add Cryptic Spires to your deck for the first time, you will be prompted to select the two colors using this dialog box:

Cryptic Spires color selection

Once you have set Cryptic Spires's colors, it looks like this:

Don't worry—if you make a mistake or otherwise want to change an individual Cryptic Spires's colors during deck building, just right-click on the Cryptic Spires and choose Change Color Selections to switch to a different color pair.

If you add multiple copies of Cryptic Spires to your deck at once, you can choose to apply your color choices to all copies using the Apply Selection to All Cards checkbox. You can adjust individual Cryptic Spires afterward using the right-click method.

If you are building a Commander deck, your Cryptic Spires has the color identity of the colors you choose when you add it to your deck.

LIMITED DECK CONSTRUCTION

During Sealed deck building, the process is the same as detailed in The Basics section above.

During Drafts, if you draft at least one Cryptic Spires, you'll be prompted to select colors as the game transitions to the deck-building screen. You can adjust those choices using the right-click menu before submitting the deck.

LIMITED LEAGUES

These events most resemble tabletop's events in the use of continuous construction. For this reason, Cryptic Spires choices will be changeable in between League matches on Magic Online. They can also be changed during sideboarding, but we don't expect that to be needed very often.

To make this change, simply use the right-click method mentioned above to adjust your primary deck or create a new deck with different Cryptic Spires choices made. Just be sure your preferred deck is chosen prior to joining the matchmaking queue or finishing sideboarding.

LIMITED QUEUES AND SCHEDULED EVENTS (INCLUDING PREMIER)

Because the deck's contents are locked while participating in the event, Cryptic Spires' colors cannot be changed between rounds. Game one of each match will feature the colors locked in at deck submission.

However, like our Limited Leagues, you are permitted to change the colors of Cryptic Spires during sideboarding on Magic Online. This is the main departure from tabletop, at least for higher-level events.

The reason for this lies in how Magic Online handles players who build multiple decks out of a Sealed pool, saves them to Collection, then reimports them to save time during sideboarding. This would enable players to switch the colors of their Cryptic Spires relatively undetected. We feel it's a fairer experience for all competitive players to have that level of utility instead of only those who know that specific deck-building trick.

For events with timed deck building (both Draft and Sealed), be sure to leave yourself enough time to confirm Cryptic Spires decisions and submit the deck before time runs out!

CONSTRUCTED LEAGUES

Build your deck as normal, then join the League. Like Limited, your Cryptic Spires choices are locked for Game 1 of each match, then can be changed by right-clicking during sideboarding.

We understand this will take a bit of familiarization, but we hope you find this an intuitive experience.

DOUBLE MASTERS 2022 EVENT DETAILS

Like previous Masters sets, we will be running three Leagues between the release on June 30 and the release of Dominaria United:

Note that Streets of New Capenna Limited Leagues are slated to run concurrently, all ending with the start of Dominaria United's Leagues. As there are no changes to card legality with Double Masters 2022, Constructed Leagues that began with Streets of New Capenna remain live until the downtime just prior to Dominaria United (Standard will also rotate at that downtime).

DOUBLE MASTERS 2022 AVATARS

We are introducing a bonus round of prestige avatars to celebrate Double Masters 2022. To keep up with our regular expectations, trophies earned between now and Dominaria United will count for both these prestige avatars and for those from Streets of New Capenna.

As a reminder, you get five points for each Competitive trophy you earn in Leagues and one for each Friendly trophy. At the end of the season, you'll earn every avatar for which you qualify:

Dockside Extortionist avatar

Earning at least five points gets you the uncommon Dockside Extortionist prestige avatar.

Earning at least 20 points nabs you the rare Animar, Soul of Elements prestige avatar.

Earning 40 points or more awards you with the mythic rare Lilliana, the Last Hope prestige avatar.

For those of you who were waiting for special avatars from participating in Showcase Qualifiers in MOCS Season 1, thank you for your patience; those will be granted during today's downtime!

TREASURE CHEST UPDATE

Because we just made a major update to the Curated slot of Treasure Chests a couple weeks ago, we are merely adding Double Masters 2022 extended-art cards to the Curated slot and leaving everything else in place. The only exception is we are upping quantities for about three dozen Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate cards.

Also, here are the Treasure Chest avatars available from Double Masters 2022:

 
Anger of the Gods avatarBlood Artist avatar
Summer Bloom avatarThought Scour avatar

ALTERNATE PLAY SCHEDULE

Here's a look at the schedule of events coming up in July:

ODDS AND ENDS

We are looking forward to a great summer of play on Magic Online—enjoy it!

The Magic Online Team