Magic Online Weekly Announcements, January 2, 2024

Posted on Jan 02, 2024

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THE LEAD 

Holidays 2023 Festival Wraps Up Tomorrow

We hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s Holidays Festival! There are a couple of pieces that are ending tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC):

• Leftover Season 3 (Red) QPs will expire.
• The current All-Access period will end, and Mythic Event Tokens will be cleared from accounts.
  • If you are still entered in a Constructed event with cards not in your Collection at that time, you will still be able to complete that course.

Other leftovers from the Festival will continue:

• The Vintage Cube League and Queue remain live until January 24
• 64-Player Events will continue on an adjusted schedule for the next week starting Wednesday
  • 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. PT (15:30 to 03:30 next day UTC) - Hourly on the 30s
  • Other times - Every two hours on the even-hour 30s (8:30 p.m. PT, 10:30 pm PT, etc until 6:30 a.m. PT)

You can get all the details in this article. 

ICYMI: Vintage Cube Articles

Our most popular format is in the middle of a five-week run, and we have two articles for you to reference as you play:

• Ryan Spain’s Future of Magic Online Vintage Cube
• Chris Wolf’s Winter Cube Update – including Changelist (with designer comments) and the full Cube list.
• Plus, bookmark this page to find the most recent Vintage Cube list whenever you like!

MTGO Calendar is Live!

A long-awaited feature is now in place – the Calendar link at the top of every MTGO.com page leads to our brand-new filterable weekly and monthly views – synced to your computer’s time zone!

The Monthly View takes a wide-angle look at what’s happening, but hover over a date and click More to see a quick pop-up of that day’s events.

The Weekly View keeps the next seven days in view, showing off as many or as few events as you want:

• Are you a Modern specialist and want to know when events are scheduled just for your format?
• Maybe you’re ready to step up your competition and want to know when events containing a Top 8 are happening ...

We hope you find this version of the Calendar to be super-useful, and like everything else in MTGO, we’d love to get your feedback through our channels linked at the top of the Blog.

Ravnica Remastered on MTGO January 17

Circle your calendar - following downtime on Wednesday, January 17, Ravnica Remastered will make its debut on Magic Online. We'll give you the full details in next week's Blog, but here are the highlights:

• Packs will be $3.99 USD in the MTGO Store
• There will be a Draft League running for almost three weeks
• A total of 6 Regional Championship invites will be given out using RVR Limited
• We'll have two more Art Bundles for sale in the Store

PREMIER PLAY

Next MOCS Showcase January 13

Eight players have earned the right to battle for their share of $70,000 & two World Championship 30 invitations in the 2023 MOCS Season 3 Showcase on Saturday, January 13!

Catch all the action in Vintage Cube and Modern with the casting crew of Haiyue Yu, Carmen Klomparens, Corey Baumeister, and DeQuan Watson! Coverage starts at 10 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC) on twitch.tv/magic and twitch.tv/officialmagiconline.

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 March. 

It takes 40 Season 1 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!

Here are the dates and times for this weekend’s events: 

MTGO BROADCASTS

The AlphaFrog Invitational Returns January 16

A popular stream for watching Pro players try their hand at a Vintage Cube variant is on the MTGO Twitch channel! Designed by Gavin Thompson-Exner – AlphaFrog himself – the Cube has been a place for some of the biggest names in Magic to show off, goof around, and compete against their peers.

After an extended holiday break, the weekly broadcast return on Tuesday, January 16 – look for some exciting personalities to show up and see the shakeups to the show’s format. We’ll talk more about those in a couple weeks.

ALTERNATE PLAY

Vintage Cube 64-Player Elimination Continue

A higher-stakes version of the Vintage Cube League is back – the 64-Player Elimination Drafts! Like previous runs, we’ve scheduled these around the clock. Starting tomorrow, here's the adjusted schedule:

• 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. PT (15:30 to 03:30 next day UTC) - Hourly on the 30s
• Other times - Every two hours on the even-hour 30s (8:30 p.m. PT, 10:30 pm PT, etc until 6:30 a.m. PT)

IMPORTANT: Events will wait up to 15 minutes past their scheduled start time to reach 64 players and fire - be sure to stay in the event past the start time.

Based on community feedback, we have adjusted the prizes to convert some of the Treasure Chests to Play Points. Here’s the new prize table:

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Murders at Karlov Manor. Each description mentions whether 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 (18:00 UTC) unless otherwise noted.

• Through January 24 – Vintage Cube returns for the Holidays Festival! Like last year, this will be a five-week run that supports competitors testing for the MOCS Season 3 Showcase (Jan. 13, twitch.tv/officialmagiconline & twitch.tv/magic). (Phantom)
• January 17-February 6 – Ravnica Remastered will be in the spotlight with a Draft League that overlaps the last week of Vintage Cube. (Keeper)

When Is Vintage Cube Back?

A new regular feature of the Blog, this item will mention when the next scheduled run of our most popular event will take place:

• Winter Update: Through January 24
• Fast Follow Update: Late February, Dates TBD
• Spring Update: Mid-March, Dates TBD

EVENT UPDATES

Adjustments to Challenges Starting This Weekend

We are undoing some recent changes to event structure for the following events (all times Pacific):

• Pauper - 10 a.m. Sunday returning to 32-player structure
• Pioneer - 2 p.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday returning to 64-player structure

Also, based on previous feedback, the Sunday Modern Challenge will be moved down to a 64-player structure on Showcase Challenge weekends - this weekend is the first such case.

WEEKLY UPDATES 

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan® on Magic Online​

It's time to descend below the surface of our tropical plane and discover a wondrous world! The Lost Caverns of Ixalan® is now live on MTGO. Check out our traditional set article for full information:

• The Jurassic World Bundle
  • 20 All-New Cards & 12 Lands for $35 USD
• A UI improvement in tracking floating mana
• Booster Fun, a Treasure Chest update, and more
• A companion article about our new Premium looks

Cosmium Neon Ink Bundles

Introduced on Cyber Monday, our Cosmium Neon Ink Bundles remain on sale – $20 USD gets you a Mana Crypt and Cavern of Souls in a randomly-selected color choice. Check out this article for full details.

Redemption Corner – Holiday Delay

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

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Redemption Tokens are now on sale alongside Wilds of Eldraine.

NOTE: Due to the just-concluded holiday break, all Redemptions processed on December 26 have had shipping delayed by a week until this week.

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!

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:

• The number in the title represents the minimum fire size and the lowest place to receive prizes.
• In MOCS Season 1, Standard and Pauper Challenges are never pre-empted.
• 32-Player Limited Challenge events are 6 rounds with no playoff

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

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – January 17, 2024, 9 a.m. to Noon PT

The next scheduled maintenance will be Wednesday, January 17 from 9 a.m. to noon PT (17:00-20:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Ravnica Remastered.

Author: Tony Mayer