Magic Online Weekly Announcements, March 25, 2025

Posted on Mar 25, 2025

THE LEAD

Vintage Cube League – One Week Left

The Magic Online Vintage Cube League has a week to go!

Check out all the info 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!
• 64-Player Drafts continue four times a day until next week’s downtime.
• Always-On single-elimination queues roll on – they will continue to accept the Vintage Cube Draft Token only until downtime.

Vintage Cube "Holiday” Bundle Leaves the Store Tomorrow

The return engagement of the Vintage Cube Holiday Bundle in the MTGO Store will end tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC). $27 USD gets you 3 Vintage Cube Draft Tokens plus an exclusive Loot, the Pathfinder avatar. The Holiday Bundle itself is not tradeable nor are its contents.

If you’re holding onto any of those Tokens, this is your one week warning! The Tokens expire when the Cube League ends during our downtime next Wednesday, April 2. We’ll remove the Tokens at that time, and they are non-refundable!

Tarkir: Dragonstorm Set Article Next Week

After speeding across three planes in a single set, we’re nearly ready to return to the land of dragons and clans! Check MTGO.com next week to see our plans for Tarkir: Dragonstorm in our normal set article.

Sign Up for Tarkir: Dragonstorm 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 TDM Beta round starting this Friday, March 28.

MTGO BROADCASTS

New Creator Streams on MTGO Twitch Starting Next Week – YungDingo & MeatMTG

Magic Online is pleased to bring you weekly streams from some of our top creators starting next month. We’ve teamed up with YungDingo and MeatMTG to show off MTGO at a regular time each week.

Catch YungDingo Friday nights at 6 pm PT and MeatMTG on Wednesdays at 5:30 PM PT starting next week – both at twitch.tv/magiconline!

MTGO Masters Returns with New 1v1 Challenge Format

Our competition series has switched gears for 2025. MTGO Masters returns as a weekly show on our YouTube channel, but this time it’s all about 1-on-1 quick duels – a 15-minute content bite instead of a four-hour stream.

Hosts Anuraag Das and Will Hall return alongside a rotating cast of top streamers and formats. The first episode, coincidentally, features YungDingo and MeatMTG facing off in Modern format!

The fun begins next Wednesday on the MTGO YouTube page!

PREMIER PLAY

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.

MOCS Last Chance Events Start Saturday

Did you fall just short of a Top 8 Showcase Challenge finish? Did you scrape together that 39^th and 40^th Qualifier Point at the last second? If so, your ticket to the upcoming Showcase Qualifiers could be earned in a Last Chance Event! 

Starting this Saturday afternoon and continuing until 3 a.m. PT on Wednesday, April 2, all Preliminaries in Modern, Legacy, Standard, and Vintage convert to Last Chance Events. Finish with a 5-0 record in that event to earn an Entry Token to that format’s Showcase Qualifier in April. We’re also supplementing the supply of both Standard & Vintage Last Chance events.

Entry options require both 40 Qualifier Points plus either 30 Event Tickets or 300 Play Points.

Here’s the schedule of Last Chance Events this round: 

*indicates next-day  

Last Chance Events pre-empt Preliminaries normally scheduled at those times.  

Click the Premier Play Information link at the top of this Blog for full Last Chance Event details. 

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:

• Showcase Challenges this weekend (Vintage, Legacy)
• Last Chance Events March 29-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

Extra Phantom Sealed Trials Added Starting Today

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:

• Tuesdays at 8 a.m. & 4 p.m. PT (15:00 & 23:00 UTC) - starting today!
• Wednesdays at 4 p.m. PT (23:00 UTC) - starting tomorrow!
• Thursdays at 12 noon PT (19:00 UTC)
• Saturdays and Sundays at 1 a.m. PT (08:00 UTC) - new start time to dodge Premier Play

Check Out the New Duel Commander Trials!

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.
• Friday at 12 noon – starting this week!

Adjustments to Challenge Schedule Starting This Week

With the turning of qualifying seasons from Modern to Standard, we have tweaked a few of our weekly Challenge offerings.
MTGO will offer a Standard Challenge every day beginning with the new 32-player event this Thursday at 5 p.m. PT (midnight Friday UTC).

We have also revised a handful of Modern Challenges on weekends – the Saturday 6 p.m., Sunday 4 a.m., and Sunday 6 p.m. events have been shifted to the 32-player level. As always, our caveat for X-2's getting no worse than their entry option back is in force, and we will watch these time slots for promotion back to 64 in the future.

You can check out all of the changes to the weekly schedule on this page.

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 (Phantom)
• 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 April

Starting next week, 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. 

Look for streams on Tuesdays and Thursdays 6 pm ET starting April 2, with YouTube postings of the episodes soon afterward!

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, the technical issue of Starter Kit cards being required to complete Bloomburrow redemption sets has been corrected earlier than expected. A limited number of that set’s redemption tokens remain.

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.

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.