Magic Online Weekly Announcements, March 26, 2024

Posted on Mar 26, 2024

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THE LEAD 

MOCS Postseason Continues This Weekend

It’s time once again to qualify players for the next Magic Online Champions Showcase on May 18^th! Over two weekends, Top 8 finishers from Showcase Challenges and 5-win players from Last Chance events will battle until one remains as this season’s Showcase Champion for that format.

In addition to reaching the Champions Showcase (with its $70,000 prize pool and two Worlds invitations), the winner of each Showcase Qualifier is invited to Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 plus the Regional Championship round in April-June feeding that event. Leaderboard Points are also on the line as players seek one of two At-Large invites at the end of the postseason.

If you did not reach the Showcase Qualifier stage, your chance to reach the Showcase will be the weekend of April 6-7 in the Showcase Opens – events featuring Murders at Karlov Manor Limited where the winner earns a Showcase invitation.

For more information on MTGO Premier Play, click the link at the top of the Blog.

Vintage Cube Continues with the Quarterly Refresh!

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it's time for spring cleaning. The changing of the seasons marks another major update to the Magic Online Vintage Cube!

Our Curation team of Ryan Spain and Chris Wolf has set up another metagame puzzle for you to solve. You can read all about the latest changes, then you can view the full 540-card list on this page.

As usual, 3-round Leagues and single-elimination Queues will be offered. Due to reduced turnout, we will not be running 64-player events in either of the remaining two weeks of this Cube round.

Prizes for these events can be viewed on the MTGO Limited Events page.

MTGO BROADCASTS

MTGO Masters – Every Wednesday at 1 p.m. & 5 p.m. PT

Our newest streaming series - MTGO Masters – moves into the second phase of the competition this week.

Sixteen top Magic celebrities square off in a 12-week tournament to determine who’s best at solving the Modern metagame. Returning to host are Anuraag Das and Will Hall with added commentary from the players themselves throughout the broadcast.

Catch all the action every Wednesday at 1 p.m. PT (21:00 UTC) on twitch.tv/magiconline or twitch.tv/anzidmtg. There is also a re-broadcast in prime time in the Americas that begins immediately following the live stream (usually about 5-6 p.m. PT)! There are giveaways every week during the live stream, so be sure to join us!

Tomorrow’s show features our first Upper Bracket pod:

• Pro Tour Hall of Fame member Reid Duke
• Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings Champion Jake Beardsley
• Top digital card game streamer Luna Love
• From Studio X inside Wizards of the Coast – Carmen Klomparens

The two winners this week will advance to the Top 8 show on May 1, while the other two will have one more chance to get in from the Last Chance pod on April 24.

PREMIER PLAY

Season 2 Changes to MOCS

With QP collection for the next MOCS Season underway, it’s time for us to announce a couple long-term changes to the overall program. Visit this page to discuss changes to Showcase payouts and event structure, a summary of what’s not changing, and the rationale for taking these steps.

Extra Regional Championship Slots Starting in April – Schedule Now Live!

Based on the increase in event size for MTGO’s Premier events over the past two years, the Premier Play team at Wizards of the Coast has increased our allocation of invitations to Regional Championships!

Starting with the upcoming qualifying season in April, we’ll have 64 RC invites per season – up from the current 50. The schedule for MTGO’s Premier Play through July has now been updated on the Premier Play page and on our Calendar page.

ALTERNATE PLAY

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Outlaws at Thunder Junction. Except for Best-of-One, all of these offerings are Phantom – cards won’t be added to players’ collections in Phantom events. All transitions take place at 10:00 a.m. PT unless otherwise noted.

• Now-April 10 – Chris Wolf and Ryan Spain will have the first quarterly refresh of Vintage Cube with packages of cards shuttling in and out.
• April 10-16 – We’ve gathered 18 sets with a medium-to-heavy emphasis on the most universal of card types to create Artifact Chaos Draft!

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:

• Spring Update: Now-April 10 (No 64-Player Drafts in Weeks 2-3)
• MOCS Support Round: May 8-22

AND ANOTHER THING ...

Season 1 QPs Good for Vintage Cube Expire Tomorrow

Over the last two MOCS seasons, we have been able to provide an event where expiring Qualifier Points can be used just after the season’s end.

We are continuing that trend with Season 1’s Qualifier Points. If you have any left over when the season ends next week, you will be able to use them to enter Vintage Cube events but only until tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT. An entry to the Draft League or the Single-Elimination Queue will cost 10 QPs (or the normal 10 Event Tickets / 100 Play Points).

While we cannot guarantee this option will be available every MOCS season, we are happy to provide it here.

No Foolin’ - The Original OTJ Returns April 1 for 48 Hours

For over 20 years, OTJ was burned into Magic players’ brains as the acronym for Odyssey-Torment-Judgement booster draft. Before Outlaws of Thunder Junction takes the OTJ mantle in a couple weeks, we’re bringing back the old stuff as a super-short Flashback League on April Fool’s Day!

Odyssey Block Phantom Draft League will begin next Monday at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) and run only until next Wednesday, April 3 at 10 a.m. PT. We’re discounting this experience as a test – just 4 Event Tickets or 40 Play Points get you in for up to three matches! Prizes are as follows:

• 3 Wins – 60 Play Points, 1 Treasure Chest, and 1 Friendly Trophy
• 2 Wins – 30 Play Points and 1 Treasure Chest
• 1 Win – 10 Play Points

MTGO STORE NEWS

Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks On Sale Now!

Your favorite characters from Warhammer 40,000 join the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse for a special Universes Beyond set. The same four decks that debuted in tabletop in October 2022 are on offer in the MTGO Store.

• Forces of the Imperium (white-blue-black)
• The Ruinous Powers (blue-red-black)
• Tyranid Swarm (blue-red-green)
• Necron Dynasties (mono-black)

Each deck sells for $39.99 USD. Once purchased, the cards become part of your Magic Online collection for use in Legacy (#triumphofsaintkatharine), Vintage, Commander, and Freeform formats. 

Cards in these decks will not be made available in Treasure Chests nor be part of any All-Access period. The decks are only available in the MTGO Store until April 5 – be sure you don’t miss out! 

WARHAMMER 40,000 and its trademarks used with permission from Games Workshop. Warhammer 40,000 © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2024.

WEEKLY UPDATES 

Redemption Corner

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

Murders at Karlov Manor Redemption Tokens are now available and are almost half-gone.

Stock is running low for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Redemption Tokens (both regular and premium) and Wilds of Eldraine (regular sets only).

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 2, Standard and Vintage Challenges are never pre-empted.
• 32-Player Limited Challenge events are 6 rounds with no playoff
• Challenges with a Second Chance Event that fires 30 minutes later are shown in Bold.

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

PATCH NOTES – March 27, 2024

• The in-game link to our Twitch channel will be updated to twitch.tv/magiconline.
• Portent will correctly show if a player's library was shuffled in the Game Log.
• Gonti’s Machinations will correctly trigger when its controller pays life to play a shockland untapped.
• First Response will correctly trigger if its controller was dealt damage last turn.
• A number of cards from Odyssey have been updated to facilitate the OTJ Draft event.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – April 10, 2024

The next scheduled maintenance will take place on Wednesday, April 10 between 9 a.m. and 12 noon Pacific time (16:00-19:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction.