Magic Online Weekly Announcements, May 14, 2024

Posted on May 14, 2024

THE LEAD

It’s Championship Week on Magic Online

We have an epic week of top competition in multiple formats streaming live on our Twitch channel!

2024 MOCS Season 1 Showcase – This Saturday on MTGO Twitch!

Eight of Magic Online’s top players have earned the right to battle for their share of $70,000 & two World Championship 30 invitations in the 2024 MOCS Season 1 Showcase held this Saturday, May 18. This is the pinnacle of competition on MTGO – four decorated Showcase veterans taking on four longtime grinders – so be sure to tune in!

Read all about the event in this Viewers Guide article now live on MTGO.com.

The eight competitors are:

Catch all the action in Vintage Cube and Modern with the casting crew of Corey Baumeister, Arya Karamchandani, and Riley Knight! Coverage starts at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) only on twitch.tv/magiconline.

MTGO Masters – Season 1 Finale Tomorrow

The four Magic celebrities remaining from the original group of 16 battle for bragging rights, an exclusive avatar, and more in the finals of MTGO Masters Season 1. The semifinals feature a pair of Studio X designers from Wizards of the Coast duel with a duo of past major event winners:

This 12-week tournament has tested all involved and each of the Top 4 will be bringing their fifth different deck of the competition – how will the metagame shake out and who will be crowned Champion?

Coverage begins at 1 p.m. PT (20:00 UTC) with hosts Anuraag Das and Will Hall on twitch.tv/magiconline or twitch.tv/anzidmtg. Catch the three-match finale live and enter to win giveaways, or take in the rebroadcast in American prime time immediately following the main stream.

Vintage Cube Continues

It’s time once again to set up the Vintage Cube to support this weekend’s MOCS Showcase! Cube curators Chris Wolf and Ryan Spain present the changes to the card list in this article – or you can just view the current card list on this page.

As usual, we are offering a Swiss Draft League and a Single-Elimination Queue that continues until next Wednesday, May 22^nd at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) – enter either one for 10 Event Tickets or 100 Play Points. Normal prizing applies – visit this page for details or click View Prizes once the events are live in-game.

64-Player Vintage Cube Events Back Tomorrow

Our popular 64-player single-elimination tournaments return for a week starting tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. PT. This time, we are offering them every two hours around the clock for the full week. Our new normal prize structures for 64-player events are in effect for this week – visit this page for details or click View Prizes once the events are live in-game.

Banned & Restricted Update

Yesterday’s B&R announcement has been applied in Magic Online – All That Glitters is now banned in Pauper, and “Name-Sticker” Goblin is banned in Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper (it remains legal in Commander).

MTGO BROADCASTS 

The Magic Discovery Zone –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 has featured our suite of New Player Decks. Episode 5 features Pauper Format special guest as the mentor to guide Nile through the mono-blue Pauper Delver 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 featuring Anuraag Das and Legacy Burn, catch a replay of that show plus all other VODs of this series on our YouTube channel now!

PREMIER PLAY

Eight RC Slots At Stake This Weekend!

Your next chance to reach the Regional Championships later this year comes up this weekend in a pair of Super Qualifiers featuring MTGO’s most popular Constructed formats!

First up is a Pioneer Super Qualifier this Friday, May 17 at 2 p.m. PT (21:00 UTC).

Then on Sunday, May 19 at at 7 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC), we have a Modern Super Qualifier. How will innovations in Saturday’s MOCS event play out with a wider field?

Each Super Qualifier costs either 40 Event Tickets, 400 Play Ponts, or 40 Season 2 Qualifier Points to enter. The Top 4 finishers earn RC seats in the September-December round, and prizes pay out to the Top 128.

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

ALTERNATE PLAY

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Modern Horizons 3. All 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.

• Through May 22 – Vintage Cube returns to support the next MOCS Showcase this Saturday.
• May 22-29 – As a prelude to the next big thing in Modern, we’re running back Modern Horizons 2 Flashback (Phantom only)
• May 29-June 11 – The Polish Pass of Vintage Cube will add some tweaks to improve the experience.

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: Through May 22
• Polish Pass: May 29-June 11
• Summer Refresh: Late June TBD

EVENT UPDATES 

Friendly Commander League Ending Early

We are pulling the plug on the Friendly Commander League early due to lack of interest. We will continue to look at ways we can help casual Commander players dip their toe into more organized play.

Other Commander Leagues are Live!

Leagues for all types of Commander players are back on the menu! They are:

• Competitive Commander: a 4-Player pod with winner-take-all prize
• 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.

More Weekend Challenge Updates

As promised last week, the Challenges at 1 p.m. PT (20:00 UTC) on Sunday and Tuesday for Pioneer and Modern, respectively, have been upgraded to 64-player structures.

Meanwhile, the Friday night PT Modern Challenge has been dropped down to 32 players.

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 USD 4.99.

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.

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 :

• 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
• The usual slate of updates (MOPR, CMDR Backlog, Prestige Avatars, etc.)

WEEKLY UPDATES 

Redemption Corner

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

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is now on sale – both regular and premium Redemption Tokens are available. Murders at Karlov Manor Tokens (both regular and premium) are running low.

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.

PATCH NOTES – May 15, 2024

• Colossal Rattlewurm will correctly only be castable with flash if you control a Desert.
• Sanctum of Ugin’s triggered ability will no longer be able to be undone mid-resolution.
• Deadly Cover-Up will not allow multiple opponent creatures to be exiled from other zones if Leyline of the Void is in play.

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.