Magic Online Weekly Announcements, October 29, 2024

Posted on Oct 29, 2024

THE LEAD

Congratulations Luca Jakobovits, Winner of the Vintage Cube LIVE Ultimate Guard Finals!

One of the most exciting events in Magic Online history wrapped up this weekend at Magic Con Las Vegas – the real-life, keep-what-you-pick Ultimate Guard Finals of MTGO’s Vintage Cube LIVE series!

There were many thrilling highlights in Friday night’s Rochester Draft:

• Rex Jakobovits captured the Cube’s biggest prize, the Black Lotus, midway through the second pack.
• Luca Jakobovits was certifiably the luckiest at the table – opening Mox Jet, Ancestral Recall, AND Time Walk!
• Cards from across Magic’s storied history were on display: Magic Invitational winner playtest cards from Kai Budde and Jon Finkel. In all, two dozen autograped cards from Magic luminaries were included. Read all about these special additions to the Cube here and here.

After having a night to consider their strategy, the Vegas 8 returned Saturday night to battle for the lion’s share of the remaining undrafted cards.

Quarterfinals: Chris Bruner, Fernando Palmero Garcia, and both Rex and Luca Jakobovits advanced.

Semifinals: Fernando and Luca reached the Finals, where Luca completed a 6-0 run of games on the night to emerge victorious!

Luca earned Mox Sapphire as their first-pick prize. Then after the others chose a single card each, Luca claimed the rest of the Cube. Well done, Luca!

This event was a dream come true – we hope the 6,800 of you who took your shot at getting to Vegas enjoyed the hype, the competition, and the biggest stars in our game all together in one event!

The MTGO Team would like to extend sincere thanks to Martin Juza (who pitched us the original idea and was one of the main project champions) and the team at Ultimate Guard for their partnership in this endeavor. We also wish to thank our Cube curator, Chris Wolf, for designing the play experience. Finally, we salute our Creative Director, Ryan Spain, for his tireless effort in leading this project from our side.

Magic Con Avatar

Everyone who walked in the door at Magic Con will find a card in their welcome bag with a QR code from MTGO. If you were one of those folks and completed the survey, we’ll grant you this special, tradeable Ancestral Recall avatar later this week! This is the only way to earn this avatar, and the window to complete the survey has ended.

MTGO Prize Cube Events Live Through November 12 – 64s Start Tomorrow

Whether you made the trip to Magic Con or not, you can enjoy the same Prize Cube as the Vegas 8. Prize Cube events are now up and running in Magic Online. They’ll be live until November 12, so you have a total of 2½ weeks to show off your skills – have a blast!

In addition, our round-the-clock 64-Player Elimination Drafts return! They kick off tomorrow, October 30 at 10:30 a.m. PT (17:30 UTC) and fire every two hours. Entry options are 15 Event Tickets or 150 Play Points, and prizes are found here. They’ll be up until next week’s downtime.

Click here to learn all about the MTGO version of the Vintage Cube LIVE Prize Cube from our curators Ryan Spain and Chris Wolf, or you can just skip ahead to view the Full List.

MTGO Creator Season Starts This Week!

For the first time, we’re letting a handful of MTGO’s Creator Program members curate and inspire some unique event experiences over the next couple months. Magic Online’s Creator Season kicks off this weekend and runs until December 18! Read all about it in an article going live later this week ...

We can share the first two events now – both of which have All-Access periods attached to them!

• Community Commander Meetups presented by MTGNerdGirl
  • $10 All-Access good from Friday, November 1 10 a.m. to Monday, November 4 10 a.m.
  • Meetup event on Sunday, November 3 – details to be announced later this week.
  • First of three meetups between now and end of 2024
• AnziD’s Eternal Legacy Showdown
  • $20 All-Access good from end of downtime Wednesday, November 6 to Tuesday, November 12 10 a.m.
  • Qualify for the Showdown on Sunday, November 10 by doing well in Legacy events starting November 4

Magic: The Gathering Foundations Set Article Next Tuesday

It’s time to bring Magic back to its roots – watch this space next Tuesday, November 5 for all the details on Magic: The Gathering Foundations!

MTGO BROADCASTS 

MTGO Extra Life Stream: This Saturday, November 2

It’s time for our annual Extra Life fundraiser! Catch the stream on the MTGO Twitch channel to support Seattle Children’s Hospital this Saturday, November 2 at 12 noon PT (19:00 UTC). Hosted by Community Manager Torbin, the stream will feature Commander and other gameplay, as well as discussion of upcoming features and improvements to Magic Online from Creative Director Ryan Spain and Product Manager Tony Mayer will be hand.

We’ll have plenty of donation rewards to earn including two unique avatars, Soul Warden and Mox Diamond. A 100 Play Point code is available for just a $5 donation (limit one per account), and we have a few surprises in store for those ponying up more to support the kids. Tune in to find out!

Save the Date: Next Creator Showdown – Legacy on November 9

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, November 9!

The rotating format of battle this month is Legacy and 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 in the last Showdown of 2024 (it’ll be back in January)!

PREMIER PLAY

Modern Showcase Challenge This Saturday!

It’s time to get the next batch of players invited to MOCS Season 3’s Showcase Qualifiers in November & December.  

You’ll need 40 Season 3 Qualifier Points to enter a Showcase Challenge. The Top 8 finishers in each event earn a Championship Entry Token for the event’s format plus earn Leaderboard Points toward an At-Large berth in the next Showcase!

Here is the timing for the next event:  

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

4 Weeks Left to Gather Season 3 QPs

November 27 will be here before we know it! That’s the last day to earn the current MOCS season’s Qualifier Points. There’s only a few tournaments remaining to use them as well:

• Showcase Challenges
  • November 2 – Modern
  • November 16-17 – Modern & Legacy
  • November 23-24– Standard & Pioneer
• Showcase Last Chance Events
  • November 25-27 – Dates and times to be finalized in a couple weeks
• Cube Drafts after Expiration
  • To be determined

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.

• Until November 6 – 4-player pods of Commander Masters draft return – each League course is two matches with winner-take-all prizes. (Phantom)
• Until 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 8:30 p.m. PT once the Live event draft has concluded. (Phantom)
  • 64-Player Events start October 30

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
• November 27-December 4 – Max-Power Vintage Cube
• December 18-January 22 – Vintage Cube for the Holiday Season

EVENT UPDATES

Daylight Savings in North America This Sunday

The clock falls back one hour in North America this Sunday, November 3 at 2 a.m. PT. Usually this has the effect of delaying the start of the first round after that time by up to one hour. We will keep the scheduled Challenge events in place – Legacy Saturday at 8 p.m. PT, Vintage Sunday at midnight PT, and Duel Commander Sunday at 1 a.m. PT.

The most important thing: if your local time zone is correct, the game will display accurate start times for events from Sunday onward.

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!

WEEKLY UPDATES 

Magic: The Gathering® - Fallout® Available Now!

Click here to read all about Magic: The Gathering® – Fallout®, now available on Magic Online!

The MTGO Store has all four Commander decks as well as the MTGO-exclusive Premium Booster (six foils, seven rares/mythics).

A couple items that didn’t make it into the original announcement:

• Fallout® cards appear in Treasure Chests until November 6.
• No new avatars with this set, nor are there any events.

We also have a new Premium effect to debut with Fallout® - the Pip-Boy frame and animation. Take a look!

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

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 are also now available in the Store.

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 – November 6, 9 a.m.-Noon PT

After tomorrow, the next scheduled maintenance is set for Wednesday, November 6 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (17:00-20:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Magic: The Gathering Foundations.