Magic Online Weekly Announcements, September 10, 2024

Posted on Sep 10, 2024

THE LEAD

2024 MOCS Season 2 Showcase – This Sunday at 8 a.m. PT

Eight of Magic Online’s top players have earned the right to battle for their share of $50,000 & two invitations to the 2025 Magic World Championship in the 2024 MOCS Season 2 Showcase. The event itself will be held this weekend. This is the pinnacle of competition on MTGO, so be sure to tune in!

Read all about the event in this Viewers Guide article.

The eight competitors are:

Catch all the action in Vintage Cube and Modern with the casting crew of Corey Baumeister and Arya Karamchandani! Coverage starts Sunday, September 15 at an earlier time of 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC) only on twitch.tv/magiconline and the MTGO channel on YouTube. Tune in for giveaways including Play Points and a caster microphone from our sponsor BEACN.

Vintage Cube LIVE Returns Saturday

One of the biggest events in Magic Online history hits its stretch drive starting this Saturday. Win your way to Las Vegas to draft Vintage Cube – LIVE at MagicCon: Las Vegas, thanks to our friends at Ultimate Guard – and take everything you draft home with you!

For the latest updates to the series announced yesterday, check out this article. Feeder Leagues for Week 7 and Week 8 will be shorter than usual to limit the number of players who will end up unable to use their Tokens.

To get to Vegas, you must run a gauntlet of three different tournaments undefeated:

Step 1 – The Feeder League

The entry point for the series - 6 Event Tickets or 80 Play Points per course

Your next scheduled chance to play in the Feeder League will come this Saturday, September 14 starting at 9 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC). Note: Based on recent play history, this League could be as short as 8 hours. The player cap will be set at roughly 75% of the level it was in previous weeks.

Step 2 – The 64-Player Drafts

Use that Entry Token to battle through two straight single-elimination Cube Drafts. Six match wins in a single event advances you to the last step.

Week 7’s 64-Player Drafts will post next week on an unusual schedule due to downtime:

• 64s on Tuesday 9/17 will be posted Monday, September 16 at 10 a.m. PT
• 64s on Wednesday-Friday 9/18-20 will be posted at 12 p.m. PT next Wednesday or the end of the downtime period, whichever is later. There will be at least 30 minutes signup time for the first 64 on Wednesday.

Friendly Reminders:

• Scheduled Events that are full will continue to be displayed in the client until their start time! This means that if someone drops from the event, that change will reflect right away instead of requiring you to restart MTGO.
• If a 64-Player Draft (or any other Scheduled Event) hasn’t reached its minimum number of players at the start time, the event will wait up to 15 minutes to get to the right number of players. There’s no reason to drop out after the start time – you'll be refunded if it fails to fire!
• If a regularly-scheduled 64 doesn’t fire for some reason, the replacement will be scheduled for 3 hours later and will be posted for entries as soon as possible following the cancellation.

Limited Championship Entry Tokens are usable as entry for all 8 Weeks of Vintage Cube LIVE.

Step 3 – The Vegas Qualifier

The eight winners of a single Week’s 64-Player Drafts meet in one final showdown. The one player who’s left standing at the end punches their ticket to Las Vegas, while the other participants receive digital set prizes and an exclusive avatar.

Week 7’s Vegas Qualifier will be held on Saturday, September 21 at 9:30 a.m. PT (16:30 UTC).

The Winner’s Circle

Our sixth player qualified for the Ultimate Guard Finals at MagicCon is Rexjak! Congratulations to them - Who will join them next week?

You can get full details on the entire series on this page, including the Official Rules. The link to the announcement article is found here.

NEXT-SET NEWS

Duskmourn: House of Horror Article Next Tuesday

Be sure to watch this space next Tuesday to learn all about Magic’s return to the scariest sub-genre around on Magic Online! From Rooms to multiple cool card treatments, this impending set does anything but manifest dread ...

(Ed Note: Heh, I’ll see myself out)

Sign Up for Duskmourn Beta – September 16-18

Want to help us squish bugs and test card functionality while getting a first look at the newest set? MTGO’s Closed Beta Program has returned after several years!

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 DSK Beta round starting next Monday, September 16.

MTGO BROADCASTS 

MTGO Masters Season 2 Reaches Top 8 – New Web Page!

What began as sixteen online Magic luminaries gathering to sling spells in Modern on Magic Online is now down to the Top 8. It’s crunch time for MTGO Masters!

Tune in tomorrow at 1 p.m. PT (20:00 UTC) for the quarterfinals – one deck, one match, win or go home. Only four will advance to next week’s final show of the season

The eight competitors for tomorrow’s show are:

• Alexander Hayne
• Arne Huschenbeth
• The defending champion, Arya Karamchandani
• Caleb Durward
• Kanister
• Martin Juza
• Mason Clark
• Nathan Steuer

Anuraag Das and Will Hall return as hosts for the stream broadcast on the main MTGO Twitch channel – twitch.tv/magiconline – as well as Anuraag’s channel twitch.tv/anzidmtg. We will be featuring co-streaming partners throughout the season as well. Also, keep up to date with the series at mtgo.com/masters.

Creator Showdown Results

Over 50 of your favorite Magic content creators were in action on Saturday competing for up to $5,000 in cash and prizes in the MTGO Creator Showdown!

In this Standard battle, Tandymtg playing Jeskai Convoke defeated shir khan on Gruul Aggro in the finals to claim the top prize of $1,250 USD. Other cash winners included Conorman_11, nola_gold, RuneclawBarich, and The CntrlFreak.

Be sure to mark your calendar for the next Creator Showdown on October 12 when the streamers take on MTGO’s newest format – Duel Commander!

PREMIER PLAY

Two Super Qualifiers This Weekend 

Your next chance to earn an invite to 2025’s first Regional Championship comes this weekend!

First, we have a Limited Super Qualifier this Saturday, September 14 at 7 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC). Bloomburrow is the featured set for this Sealed Deck event with a Top 8 Draft.

Then on Sunday, September 15, a Standard Super Qualifier kicks off at 7 a.m. PT (14:00 UTC).

It takes 40 Event Tickets, 400 Play Points, or 40 Season 3 Qualifier Points to enter a Super Qualifier. The Top 4 finishers in each tournament grab a seat in the January-March RC round, and prizes pay out to the Top 128! 

Click the MTGO Premier Play link at the top of the Blog for more information.

ALTERNATE PLAY

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Duskmourn: House of Horror. 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 September 18 – Vintage Cube returns to support the next MOCS Showcase on September 14. (Phantom, League ends at downtime, Single-Elim ends with DSK)
• September 18-24 – As promised when we had to end its run early in May, we are running back Modern Horizons 2 Flashback (Phantom only, starts after downtime)

When Is Vintage Cube League Back?

A regular feature of the Blog, this item points out when the next scheduled run of our most popular event will take place:

• August Refresh to Support MOCS & Vintage Cube Live
  • New Cube in Feeder Leagues/64s/Vegas Qualifiers Now!
  • New Cube in Single Elimination Queues Now!
  • Normal Cube Leagues run until September 18

AROUND THE WEB

Content Creator Applications - Round 2 Closing This Friday!

If you’ve been on the fence about getting into our Creator Program, applications are due by this Friday, September 13. Read about it in this article. Be part of something special and help us shape the future of MTGO. Think you have what it takes to be an MTGO Creator? 

MTGO University – MTGO Fundamentals How-To Series Live

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!

WEEKLY UPDATES 

Bloomburrow Now Available!

It's time to gather the communities of the Valley together in an epic fight against the Calamity Beasts – Bloomburrow is on sale now in the MTGO Store! Check out this article now to learn all about what MTGO has on offer with this new set:

• Play Boosters, Premium Boosters, and Commander Decks
  • Gilded frames return on the Anime cards
• Treasure Chest Update
• Commander Backlog progress, plus the usual pile of updates from around MTGO

Duel Commander Now Available on Magic Online

One of the most popular ways to play competitive Commander is now available on Magic Online. Duel Commander is a 1v1, 20-life format utilizing the 99 in new ways never done digitally before. With thousands of fans worldwide, its distinct metagame and banned lists, and both a Tournament Practice room and a League, the time is ripe to take this game mode for a spin!

Check out this article now to learn all about the format, its origins, and get ready to play on MTGO.

Note: There is one Known Issues and one Known Exploit for Duel Commander:

• Known Issue – You can’t submit a deck that has multiple creatures with Companion, even if all but one are in the main deck.
• Exploit - It’s possible to swap into a card banned as a Commander during sideboarding.

Although we are trying to get fixes for these as soon as possible, if the Exploit is seen in a League match, it should be reported at help.mtgo.com.

Redemption Corner – BLB On Sale Tomorrow

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

Bloomburrow redemption sets (both regular and foil-for-regular) are now on sale. As a reminder, we announced changes to the Redemption Program starting with Bloomburrow – read all about it in this article.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is nearing the end of its run in the Store – be sure to redeem that set soon

2FA Required to Trade on MTGO

MTGO accounts that wish to engage in trade are now required to enable Two-Factor Authentication. You can read all about the reasoning for this change in this article and get instructions for enabling 2FA here.

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 – September 18, 9 a.m.-Noon PT

The next scheduled maintenance is set for Wednesday, September 18 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (16:00-19:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Duskmourn: House of Horror.