Magic Online Weekly Announcements, October 1, 2024

Posted on Oct 01, 2024

THE LEAD

Congratulations Vintage Cube LIVE Ultimate Guard Finals Competitors!

One of the biggest events in Magic Online history is now in the books! Over 6,800 accounts signed up for the competition over two months, and all that play has led to our Great Eight:

These players will gather live at Magic Con Las Vegas to Rochester draft a real-life version of the Magic Online Vintage Cube on October 25-26. Everyone keeps what they draft, then the players compete for the lion’s share of the remaining undrafted cards – this is going to be epic – someone will walk away with a Black Lotus!

Our curation team of Chris Wolf and Ryan Spain have been assembling the final set of 540 to be drafted in Vegas. The card list will be announced in an article here on MTGO.com this Friday, October 4. Then on October 11, Ryan will detail the process of assembling the physical Prize Cube.

On top of all that, you’ll be able to draft the digital version of the Prize Cube in Magic Online events starting immediately after the players complete the live draft on Friday, October 25. Those events will run until November 12.

Magic: The Gathering® - Fallout® Comes to MTGO October 16!

Fallout® Fans: Your patience will soon be rewarded. The iconic video game series showcasing a post-nuclear alternate reality gets its due when Magic: The Gathering® – Fallout® debuts on Magic Online following downtime on Wednesday, October 16!

Watch this space next Tuesday, October 8 for full details.

Fallout® and its trademarks used with permission from Bethesda Softworks.

Next Cardset Beta Starts This Friday

The next round of Beta is again upon us. If you’re already signed up for the Beta Program, mark your calendar for this weekend. We’ll be putting the Fallout® Commander Decks through their paces from Friday, October 4 until Tuesday, October 8.

Not yet signed up for MTGO’s Beta? Help us test the new set to get a sneak preview, 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 this week's Beta round.

MTGO BROADCASTS 

Upcoming: Next Creator Showdown October 12 – Duel Commander

Dozens of your favorite Magic content creators will be in action competing for up to $5,000 in cash and prizes in the next MTGO Creator Showdown on Saturday, October 12!

The battle this month features MTGO’s newest competitive challenge: Duel Commander! This will be among the highest-stakes tournaments to date in this 1-vs-1, 20-life format. All participants will be streaming simultaneously in this six-round, double-elimination event starting at 9 a.m. PT (16:00 UTC).

Once the field is whittled down to 16 undefeated players, the official MTGO Twitch channel will fire up a broadcast hosted by Will Hall and featuring a rotating cast of commentators. We’ll whip around from stream to stream catching every turn of the cards until one player emerges with a 6-0 record and scores the top prize of $1,250!

There will be giveaways galore on the MTGO channel’s broadcast, so be sure to tune in and follow the action!

PREMIER PLAY

Two Super Qualifiers This Weekend 

Eight more seats in 2025’s first Regional Championship round are at stake this weekend!

First up is the first Limited Super Qualifier to feature the new set. It’s Duskmourn: House of Horror Sealed Deck with Top 8 Draft, and it begins Saturday, October 5 at 1:00 a.m. PT (8:00 UTC).

Then the weekend concludes with a Legacy Super Qualifier on Sunday, October 6 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 Magic: The Gathering Foundations. 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 until Nov. 3, 18:00 UTC after) unless otherwise noted.

• Now-October 9 – Duskmourn Limited is center stage for these two weeks.
• October 9-25 – Just in time for our newest horror set, Frank Lepore returns with his Horror Cube, incorporating Duskmourn and other creepy crawlies from across Magic’s history into the previously Innistrad-themed set. (Phantom)
  • We’ll have Frank’s article and full Cube list early next week.
• October 25-November 12 – The Vintage Cube LIVE Prize Cube makes its appearance digitally – see if you can do any better than the eight from Vegas. This Cube will begin at approximately 9 p.m. PT once the Live event draft has concluded. (Phantom)

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:

• October 25 to November 12 – Vintage Cube LIVE’s Prize Cube will be in MTGO

EVENT UPDATES

Additional Challenge Entry & Prize Changes Effective Today

We would like to thank the community for your feedback regarding our first attempt at making changes to MTGO’s economy through reduced entries and prizes for Challenge events. Data shows that further changes are required.

The first item to note: 64-Player events will return to its old entry of 30 Event Tickets. But it’s also going back to the the same amounts of Treasure Chests they previously were!

32-Player events will also again feature 100 Treasure Chests in its top prize!

Additionally, prizes will again pay out 32 or 64 players, respectively, as they did up until this month.

This should allow us to meet all of our original goals for these changes:

• Maintaining the breadth and frequency of smaller Challenges across the schedule
• Restoring an attractive prize pool, particularly for the Top 8
• Reining in the unsustainable amount of prizing for small Challenges (particularly those that fire with close to minimum participation)
• Reducing the total amount of Treasure Chests and Play Points entering the system

These changes will take effect starting with today’s Modern Challenges. As previously mentioned, we will be aggressive about promoting small events up to the larger level once a sustainable audience has been found.

Duel Commander League & Challenge Changes

Following yesterday’s update to the Duel Commander Banned & Restricted Lists, we have set up the new version of the DC League. For the first time, entry and prizes match those of other regular Constructed Leagues – 10 Event Tickets or 100 Play Points to enter. Try it out today!

Also, based on community feedback, we are pushing back the start times of two Duel Commander Challenge 32 events – the ones Saturday and Sunday at 3am PT are being pushed back to 1am PT (8:00 UTC) starting this weekend. The Limited Challenge 32 events in that time slot will move to 3am PT (10:00 UTC).

AROUND THE WEB

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!

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.

WEEKLY UPDATES 

Duskmourn: House of Horror Now Available

From Rooms to multiple cool card treatments, this impending set does anything but manifest dread ... learn all about Duskmourn: House of Horror (set code DSK) in this article. Within that you’ll find out about all the scariness in store on MTGO:

• DSK Premium Boosters – get your bling on for just $5.99 USD each
  • Ryan Spain shows off our newest suite of Premium effects in this article!
• Commander Decks – both the ones from this set and several from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate
• Duel Commander’s ascent to full format with Challenges and Leagues
• Alternate Play (#horrorcube), including the return of Commander Draft Leagues
• Plus the usual bits and bobs: MOPR, Avatars, Treasure Chest info, etc

Redemption Corner

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.

Duskmourn: House of Horror redemption tokens go on sale Wednesday, October 16.

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

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.

TOMORROW’S PATCH NOTES – October 2, 2024

Duel Scene

• Come Back Wrong and Unstoppable Slasher will play nicely – the Slasher will come back under its owner’s control at end of turn.
• Demonic Counsel will no longer inform all players which card has been chosen while delirium is in effect.
• Forger’s Foundry will no longer cause a game reset if its exiles a sorcery with Plot.
• Staff Room will show which creature its effect is applying to while on the stack.
• Tetzin, Gnome Champion will correctly not trigger when a land is played.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – October 16, 9 a.m.-Noon PT

The next scheduled maintenance is set for Wednesday, October 16 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (16:00-19:00 UTC).