Magic Online Weekly Announcements, March 18, 2025

Posted on Mar 18, 2025

THE LEAD

Vintage Cube Returns!

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

We have full-press coverage here on MTGO.com:

• 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.
• Creative Director Ryan Spain brings us up-to-date in the State of Vintage Cube article.
• If you are a Vintage Cube newbie or just getting comfortable with the format? We’ve got you covered with a Beginner’s Blueprint reference article from Cube aficionado Econbronen – read it, bookmark it, use it anytime!

Vintage Cube "Holiday” Bundle Returns

The other promotion we had during the last Holiday season, the Vintage Cube Holiday Bundle, is back for a special appearance: same name, same price, new avatar!

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 – a savings of $1 per draft!
• A Loot, the Pathfinder avatar that can only be obtained via this Bundle during this promotion!

The Draft Bundle itself is not tradeable nor are its contents. The Tokens expire when the Cube League ends during our April 2 downtime, so be sure to use them all up (we’ll remove them at that time and they are non-refundable)!

Important: These Tokens are valid for a 3-week period this time, two weeks shorter than we had during the Holidays.

The New Hotness – Vintage Cube Single-Elim Queue All The Time!

Our community has been asking us for years now to find a way to have Vintage Cube up all the time, around the clock. After extensive care and thought, we present our solution – the 8-Player Single-Elimination Queue is now live continuously starting tomorrow, March 12.

We have tweaked the prize payouts to be more top-heavy – our most competitive Cubers will enjoy the challenge of higher-risk, higher-reward events.

8-Player Single-Elimination Queue

Entry Options:

• 10 Event Tickets or 100 Play Points (no changes)
• 1 Vintage Cube Draft Token (only when offered – currently March 12-April 2)

Prizes:

• 1^st Place – 400 Play Points and 3 Qualifier Points
• 2^nd Place – 200 Play Points and 1 Qualifier Point
• 3^rd-4^th Places – 1 Qualifier Point

The set of cards being used in this queue will always match the most recent League version. This page is the best reference.

64-Player Vintage Cube Events Back Tomorrow

Our Vintage Cube 64-Player Single-Elimination tournaments are back tomorrow starting at 10:30 a.m. PT (17:30 UTC). The schedule remains the same as the end of the Holiday season – new events fire every four hours between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. PT (13:30 same day and 01:30 next day UTC).

For full details including the prize table, visit the MTGO Limited Events page.

MTGO BROADCASTS

Creator Showdown Results

Dozens of your favorite Magic content creators took on the Vintage format competing for up to $5,000 in cash and prizes in Saturday’s MTGO Creator Showdown!

Sandioche dominated the first five rounds of play with their Dimir Lurrus build. But in the finals, they were edged out by Reid Duke and his Lurrus-aided take on Doomsday in a three-game set.

In the end, five players earned cash prizes at 5-1. Joining Sandioche and Reid in the money were Lucas Giggs on Fleshraker Shops, Minh Nguyen with BUG, and Maxtortion, also on Fleshraker Shops.

We’ll be back on Saturday, April 12 with the next Creator Showdown!

PREMIER PLAY & EVENT NEWS

Last RCQ of the Season This Friday

Your final chance to reach the last Regional Championship of the 2024-2025 competitive season via a Magic Online RCQ comes this Friday.

A Legacy Qualifier event begins at a special start time of 2 p.m. PT (21:00 UTC) on Friday, March 21.

It takes 40 Season 1 QPs to enter a Qualifier. The Top 2 finishers earn an invitation to the RC while prizes go to the Top 64!

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

Final Round of Season 1 Showcase Challenges

It’s time to get another batch of players qualified for MOCS Season 1’s Showcase Qualifiers in April.  

You’ll need 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:  

Unusual Timing of Showcase Qualifiers in April

Due to the timing of the upcoming Tarkir: Dragonstorm release, the Showcase Qualifiers for each format are in a different order than normal. Other than a tweak to Standard’s start time, this schedule hasn’t been changed since it was first published in December. (There are no changes to the Limited-format Showcase Opens – they will take place April 19-20 in their usual slot)

For those who are already qualified or will qualify the next couple weeks, we want to ensure you are fully informed:

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

Season 1 QPs Expiring Soon

If you have been amassing Qualifier Points since December, it’s time to make time to use them up prior to season’s end. Here are the events that accept QPs between now and April 2:

• Legacy Qualifier on March 21
• Showcase Challenges this weekend and next weekend (Modern, Standard, Vintage, Legacy)
• Last Chance Events March 30-April 2 (Modern, Standard, Vintage, Legacy)
  • We’ll be adding a handful of extra Vintage Last Chances to the schedule – dates/times to be announced next week

If you don’t have a full 40 QPs to enter one of these events before April 2 (or you have too many left to spend), you will have one final chance to spend leftover Season 1 QPs. Starting after downtime on April 2 until the start of Tarkir: Dragonstorm events on April 8, as an additional entry option you can spend 10 Season 1 QPs for an entry into either:

• Flashback Kaladesh Draft League, or
• Vintage Cube Single-Elimination Queue

EVENT UPDATES

More Duel Commander Trials Added to Weekly Schedule

For those of you who have wanted to try out Duel Commander in a more competitive environment, we have expanded Trial events to most weekdays! With the next B&R update for this format being announced on March 31, it’s a great time to get ahead of the metagame.

These tournaments require a minimum of 16 players to fire. Full entry & prize details can be found in our Format Challenge info page. The new times include (all times Pacific, for UTC add 7 hours):

• Monday at 8 a.m.
• Tuesday at 3 p.m.
• Wednesday at 6 a.m. and 1 p.m.
• Thursday at 9 a.m.

New Phantom Sealed Scheduled Event Type Starts Thursday

We’re trying something different with some of our Limited-format weekly time slots. Introducing the Phantom Sealed Trial 24, a re-jiggered variant of the Limited Challenge priced to reflect being an event where Sealed cards are not added to Collections.

These five-round events require 24 players to fire and have entry options of 25 Event Tickets or 250 Play Points. Prizes are listed at the bottom of the Preliminary & Challenge info page - they include a mix of boosters, Treasure Chests, Golden Boosters (during DFT season), Qualifier Points, and a regular set for a 5-0 finish.

Phantom Sealed Trials will be run at the following times:

• Thursdays at 12 noon PT (19:00 UTC)
• Saturdays and Sundays at 3 a.m. PT (10:00 UTC)

ALTERNATE PLAY

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Tarkir: Dragonstorm. 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.

• Now until April 2 – The Vintage Cube will be back with another refresh for a single 3-week run. (Phantom)
  • Look for the article describing the latest update on Friday, March 7.
• April 2-8 – Before leaving Avishkar and Aetherdrift behind, we’ll make a return trip to the plane’s original format – Triple Kaladesh (Phantom)

When Does Vintage Cube Return?

• Now Until April 2 – Spring Refresh
• April 23-May 21 – Update to support MOCS

AROUND THE WEB

MTGO University – Fundamentals of Playing MTGO

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!

New Education Series Comes to MTGO University in March

Next month, we’re launching 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. Stay tuned for more details!

WEEKLY UPDATES

Aetherdrift on MTGO

The need for (max) speed and the thrill of the open (interplanar) road take center stage in the newest expansion to arrive on Magic Online! Aetherdrift is available now in the MTGO Store - check out this article now for details on this shiny new set:

• The Golden Booster, with its GOLD First-Place Foils, awaits winners of Scheduled Events during DFT season plus it appears in 1 of 20 Treasure Chests.
• The 10-card Premium Booster returns with a tinge of GOLD – a First-Place Foil in every one – for only $6.99 USD.
• Beyond the Golden Booster, the Booster Fun in this set is stunning! Check out our favorites in the article.

Redemption Corner

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

Aetherdrift redemptions are now on sale in the MTGO Store!

A limited number of Duskmourn redemption tokens – both regular and foil-for-regular – have been added back into the Store.

Meanwhile, new BLB redemption orders are temporarily on hold until our next downtime on April 2. A technical issue incorrectly is requiring Starter Kit cards to Bloomburrow redemption as of a couple weeks ago. Apologies for the inconvenience.

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

The last batch of Outlaws of Thunder Junction foil sets still remain available.

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 – March 19, 2025

Duel Scene

• If a spell is cast with bargain, that fact will appear in blue text while the spell is on the stack.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – April 2, 9 a.m.-Noon PT

The next scheduled maintenance is set for Wednesday, April 2 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (16:00-19:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm.