Magic Online Weekly Announcements, April 30, 2024
Posted on Apr 30, 2024
THE LEAD
Outlaws of Thunder Junction is Available Now!
Breaking News! It’s time to gather your motley crew of outlaws for a Crime Spree to collect a Big Score! Outlaws of Thunder Junction is available now for purchase. But you can read all about all of this now in our set article:
- Play Boosters – including the Special Guests and The Big Score on The List, plus a Breaking News bonus sheet – and Commander Decks
- Art Bundles and two new Premium Effects – Gilded and Rain
- The return of Commander Leagues
- Event Updates, including a whole mess of new Format Challenge events on weekdays!
- The usual slate of updates (MOPR, CMDR Backlog, Prestige Avatars, etc)
MTGO BROADCASTS
MTGO Masters – Elimination Rounds Every Wednesday at 1 p.m. & 5 p.m. PT
Our newest streaming series – MTGO Masters – is entering the home stretch of this season's competition!
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 (20:00 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!
Last week, Brian Braun-Duin and Nikachu prevailed to reach the Top 8. Unfortunately, Luna and Saffron Olive were eliminated.
Tomorrow’s show is the final hurdle before the Top 8 and we have a stacked lineup of competitors: Hall of Famer Reid Duke takes on a trio of prominent Magic casters: Cedric Phillips, Eduardo Sajgalik, and Corey Baumeister.
The two winners this week will advance to the Top 8 that starts May 8, while the other two will be done for this campaign.
The Magic Discovery Zone – Now Thursdays at 5 p.m. PT
Looking for a fun way to introduce your friends to some of Magic Online’s competitive formats? Gather around your favorite screen of choice for our new series, The Magic Discovery Zone!
Host NileJoanRivers gets coached by an MTG celebrity on the ins and outs of a featured deck in each episode. Then Nile dives into a MTGO League to practice, ask questions, and get a better understanding of the deck’s game plan. The mood here is all about fun and learning!
Season Two will highlight our suite of New Player Decks. Episode 3 features Anuraag Das the Legacy Extraordinary, he will help Nile to pilot our new Legacy deck. The live stream starts Thursday night at 5 p.m. PT (midnight Friday UTC) at twitch.tv/magiconline.
If you missed last week’s episode, celebrity coach Mason Clark helped Nile with the Modern Infect deck. Catch a replay of that show plus all of Season 1’s VODs on our YouTube channel now!
PREMIER PLAY
Eight RC Slots At Stake This Week!
Your next chance to reach the Regional Championships later this year comes up tomorrow in a special May Day event. The Modern Qualifier begins at 5 a.m. PT (12:00 UTC).
Then on Saturday, the focus shifts to Pioneer. The Pioneer Super Qualifier kicks off at 7 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC) on May 4.
Finally, Sunday features a Vintage Qualifier at 7 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC).
Each Qualifier can only be entered with 40 Season 2 Qualifier Points, while the Super Q costs either 40 Event Tickets, 400 Play Points, or 40 Season 2 QPs to join. The Top 2 (Qualifier) or Top 4 (Super Q) finishers earn RC seats in the September-December round.
For more information on these events, click the Premier Play Information link at the top of the Blog.
Pauper Super Qualifier Moved to June 8
To accommodate a change of schedule with other programs, the Pauper Super Qualifier has moved up a week to Saturday, June 8 at 7 a.m. PT.
ALTERNATE PLAY
Modern Masters 2015 Flashback Starts Tomorrow
For the first time, MTGO returns to the halcyon days of nine years ago – it’s time to revisit the second Modern Masters set. An all-reprint set featuring affinity, convoke, and proliferate will be our alternate-play offering for a week starting tomorrow, May 1 at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC). The usual Phantom League entry and prizes will apply – for full details, visit the Limited Events page.
Vintage Cube Update Article This Friday
It’s time once again to set up the Vintage Cube to support the next MOCS Showcase event in mid-May. Cube curators Chris Wolf and Ryan Spain will present the changes to the card list in an article this Friday, May 3rd.
Alternate Play Schedule
Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Modern Horizons 3. 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 unless otherwise noted.
- May 1-8 – Here’s a change of pace – unbelievably, we’ve never run this set as its own alternate play – it's Modern Masters 2015 Flashback.
- May 8-22 – Vintage Cube returns to support the next MOCS Showcase on May 18.
- May 22-29 – As a prelude to the next big thing in Modern, we’re running back Modern Horizons 2 Flashback (Phantom only)
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:
- MOCS Support Round: May 8-22
EVENT UPDATES
Commander Leagues are Live!
Leagues for all types of Commander players are back on the menu! There are two Leagues for Constructed and one for Limited:
- Competitive Commander: a 4-Player pod with winner-take-all prize
- Friendly Commander: a 4-Player pod with prizes awarded by votes
- Commander Masters Phantom Draft: 4-Player Draft & 4-Player Matches, winner-take-all prize
Full details can be found in the OTJ Set Article linked at the top of the Blog. These Leagues run until the launch of Modern Horizons 3 in June.
Weekend Challenge Updates
Following a review of recent events, we have decided to drop the 96-player events back down to the 64-player level. For Standard, this took place last weekend. For Modern, this will take effect this weekend. Here’s the schedule of affected events (all times PT – for UTC, add 7 hours):
- Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. – Modern Challenge 64
- Sundays at 4 a.m. – Modern Challenge 64
- Sundays at 2 p.m. – Standard Challenge 64
We’ve left the Saturday event at the later time slot to allow players who pick up two quick losses in Premier events to have an off-ramp.
For the full grid of Preliminary and Challenge times, visit this page.
PRODUCT NEWS
New Player Kits Updated
Big news (and be sure to tell your buddies): The items that new accounts receive on sign up and after upgrading have changed. Check out this article as Creative Director Ryan Spain shares the thought process behind the changes intended to make playing games right away a frictionless experience!
UPDATE: Collection Upgrade Kit Available with MH3
We have heard a lot of community feedback regarding the rollout of these New Player product changes. Ryan Spain discusses the topic in this section of the article. We will be offering a new product starting June 5 that provides all cards in the Account Upgrade Kit plus the five Starter Decks that can be purchased by pre-existing accounts. The Collection Upgrade Kit will go on sale on June 5 following downtime for $4.99 USD.
Commander Workshop Now Available
Calling all Commander Players: Kick-start your Collection with 2,000 cards from across MTGO’s history curated for the 100-card format – all for just $39 USD! To learn more about this new evergreen product that goes on-sale after tomorrow’s downtime, check out Product Manager Tony Mayer’s article found here.
WEEKLY UPDATES
Redemption Corner
- Murders at Karlov Manor Redemption Tokens (both regular and premium) are over half-gone.
- Stock is running low for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Redemption Tokens (regular only).
- Outlaws of Thunder Junction is scheduled to go on sale Wednesday, May 15.
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 .
NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – June 5, 2024
The next scheduled maintenance will take place on Wednesday, June 5 between 9 a.m. and 12 noon Pacific time (16:00-19:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Modern Horizons 3.