Magic Online Weekly Announcements, November 12, 2024

Posted on Nov 12, 2024

THE LEAD

Magic: The Gathering Foundations On Sale Today After Downtime!

It’s already time for another new set! Click here for more details on the Foundations set. Highlights include:

• FDN Premium Booster for $5.99 USD – includes five rare/mythic cards and eight foils (some are both!)
• Wall of Roots Fixed Today!
• Commander Corner, Treasure Chest Updates, and more

Note: Rule changes that removed the task of assigning a damage order take effect following today’s downtime.

Hover Zoom Reversion

Hey All,

Creative Director Ryan Spain here — apologies for the recent Magic Online issues.  Over the weekend we announced our intention to update the hover-zoom settings with today's downtime to improve the experience, but there are bugs with the feature that adjustments to its defaults won't address. We are working on this reversion now and hope to have it deployed before Thursday's planned patch at the latest.

The hover-zoom feature was inadvertently implemented this weekend in the midst of a larger UI crashing issue. We hoped the experiential problems with the feature could be solved with tuning the default timing and sizing of the zoom, and that we could update those settings by downtime today.

While the crashing issue subsided and we were able to run our intended events, the issues with hover zoom proved to be greater than what a few settings tweaks could fix. While we're excited about the feature, it has bugs that simply make it not ready for deployment. Accordingly, we are taking the time to back it up and polish it right.

Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

MTGO CREATOR SEASON

Pauper and Commander Gauntlet in the Spotlight!

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 this article

Last week, AnziD’s Eternal Legacy Showdown had a ton of new fans try out the Legacy format ahead of both upcoming MTGO Premier Play as well as tabletop Eternal Weekends in the U.S. and Europe! A big shout-out goes to Anuraag Das for developing and promoting this event series. Players who earned avatars from either Sunday’s event or the Trophy Race league will have them granted during today’s downtime.`

(Reminder: All-Access ends with today’s downtime as well.)

Here’s what’s on deck for Creator Season:

• Girls Play Commander Gauntlet Refresh Starts Today!
  • Five new mono-color Commander Gauntlet decklists featuring a healthy dose of Foundations cards go live after downtime today alongside FDN! Pick one of the decks, play up to three 1-v-1 games, and earn some Play Points with each win.
  • The decklists are available for download thanks to our friends at Moxfield (hat tip to deck creators ChewbaccaNinja and HomerExtreme):
    • White – Arahbo, the First Fang
    • Blue – Kiora, the Rising Tide
    • Black - Zul Asher, Lich Lord
    • Red – Kellan, Planar Trailblazer
    • Green – Loot, Exuberant Explorer
  • Players new to Magic Online can join the Girls Play community’s channels for a code containing an Account Upgrade Kit and a bonus Commander Gauntlet token.
  • Girls Play will be streaming MTGO Commander November 13-17 – check their channel for exact times.
  • Commander Gauntlet entry options: 1 Commander Gauntlet Entry Token, 2 Event Tickets, or 20 Play Points
• Pauper Mini-League
  • It’s Pauper’s turn to run as a mini-League for exclusive Trophy Race avatars! The League begins after downtime and runs only until this Thursday, November 14 at 10 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC). Accounts finishing in the Top 15 and ties on the Leaderboard will snag the avatar.
• Amaz’s Cube Week – November 20-27
  • The new Amaz Cube features multiple playstyles, as color pairs have up to 3 archetypes! If you like creative strategies and dynamic gameplay, this is the cube for you.
  • Amaz is calling up his streamer friends for a Bounty Event during this Cube week – defeat a Bountied player on stream and earn a 120 Play Point bonus code!
  • Full details of this event and the full Cube list go live this Friday, November 15.
• Next All-Access – November 22-25
  • MTGNerdGirl will be hosting another Sunday Commander Community Meetup – All-Access for Friday 10 a.m. PT-Monday 10 a.m. PT will just be $10.

Be sure to keep an eye on this space to see who else will bring the fun this Creator Season – upcoming guest event curators include AspiringSpike and some other guests!

MTGO BROADCASTS

Creator Showdown Results - Minh Wins!

Dozens 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 Legacy battle, Minh Nguyen collected his first Creator Showdown victory! His Dimir Reanimator list bested CherryxMan's Mystic Forge combo builf in the finals to claim the top prize of $1,250 USD. Other cash winners included CtrlFreak, Sharkcaster, AndyMega, and Ryan Overturf.

Thanks to all the Creators who took part in our six Showdowns this year – we'll see you again in January!

PREMIER PLAY

Final Round of Season 3 Showcase Challenges

It’s time to get another batch of players qualified for 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 are the dates and times for this weekend’s events:  

 Due to the timing of upcoming tabletop Eternal Weekends, the Showcase Qualifiers for each format listed above will be held 2 weeks after its last Showcase Challenge. (This is a different order for formats than normal, so be sure to confirm the date if you qualify)

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

2 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 16-17 – Modern & Legacy
  • November 23-24– Standard & Pioneer
• Showcase Last Chance Events
  • November 25-27 – Dates and times to be finalized next week

Season 3 QPs Usable for No Holds Barred Vintage Cube

Don’t fret if you end up with leftover Season 3 QPs – you'll be able to use them as free entries into our No Holds Barred Vintage Cube which goes live on November 27. Each entry will cost 10 Season 3 QPs – the red ones (normal entry options will also be available). That Cube is slated to run until December 4 but may be extended based on demand.

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.

• November 12-20 – FDN is center stage for this week.
• November 20-27 – Our first Creator Season offering is from Amaz, who returns to the Cube Spotlight for the second time. The Amaz Cube focuses on creature-type synergies and more! (Phantom)
• November 27-December 4 – We'll celebrate Thanksgiving with the long-awaited No Holds Barred Vintage Cube – the variant that includes even "oppressively busted" cards and combos. (Phantom)
  
  • Season 3 QPs will be usable as an alternate entry option.
• December 4-11 & December 11-18 – we're still thinking over what to present during these two weeks ...
• December 18-January 22 – The Vintage Cube returns to its regular time slot as part of the Holiday Season and as support for the next MOCS Showcase in January. We’ll provide more details closer to the holidays. (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:

• November 27-December 4 – No Holds Barred Vintage Cube
• December 18-January 22 – Vintage Cube for the Holiday Season

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.

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.

TODAY’S PATCH NOTES – November 12, 2024

Duel Scene

• For more details on these changes, consult the FDN Release Notes.
  • Rules involving damage assignment order have been removed from the game.
  • Oracle updates to change referencing to a card itself with its card name have been implemented.
• Wall of Roots’s mana ability has been restored to function during mana payment steps of casting spells/activating abilities.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – December 11, 9 a.m.-Noon PT

The next scheduled maintenance is set for Wednesday, December 11 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (17:00-20:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Magic: The Gathering Foundations.