Magic Online Weekly Announcements, December 10, 2024

Posted on Dec 10, 2024

THE LEAD

Read All About It - Holidays 2024 Article

It’s that time of year again! Magic Online closes out the year in style with a bunch of different promotions. Check out this article now for details on:

• Holiday Bundle – 3 Cube Drafts plus an exclusive avatar for $27 USD!
• Cube Preview League – Test-drive the new Cube for Free next Monday and Tuesday
• Original All-Access is Back - $25 for up to 15 days starting next Wednesday
• Week of Super Qs & Qualifiers – 8 events awarding RC invites December 20-30

Read All About It – Commander Backlog Update Article

Our Cardset team put in some extra work to attack the Commander Backlog – it's yielded 50 new cards arriving on MTGO this month, as well as getting us SEVEN completed Commander pre-cons to sell in the MTGO Store starting after tomorrow’s downtime – 4 from Commander 2021 (the Strixhaven set), the last 2 from LCI and the last one from March of the Machine.

Check out the article now for full details.

Downtime Tomorrow – 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT

Magic Online will have scheduled maintenance tomorrow, December 11, from approximately 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (17:00-20:00 UTC). Be sure to follow our social media outlets (Discord, Twitter/X, BlueSky and more) to keep real-time tabs on this release. As a reminder, our Help site and Forums will also be down during this period.

VINTAGE CUBE

Holiday Vintage Cube Article This Friday

Our Cube curation team of Ryan Spain and Chris Wolf has put together one more puzzle for Cube lovers to solve through the holidays and into January – it's the return of the main-line Vintage Cube for the holidays! Check out thir article arriving this Friday, December 13 for details on what’s in, what’s out, and the full list, then ...

Test-Drive Vintage Cube in the Free Preview League Next Monday & Tuesday!

For the first time, we’re giving everyone a chance to practice the updated Vintage Cube for free ahead of its League startup next week! Check out the Holidays article for full details, including the dates and special code to redeem for free entries into the Preview League.

No Holds Barred Vintage Cube Extended Through the Weekend!

Our Discord community demanded it, so it’s here – the most broken, combo-riffic, game-altering cards are all in one place for a few extra days!  The No Holds Barred Vintage Cube is a special edition concocted by our Curation Team for maximum ... everything:

• Combos for days – no really, sooooo many combos
• Card advantage through the roof (hello again, initiative)
• The wildest ways to say No – even without playing a land

Check out this article from Creative Director Ryan Spain and Cube Curator Chris Wolf to see what exactly distinguishes this group of ne’er-do-well digital cardboard, then play to see all the power (both capital and lower-case P) unleashed!

It’s been so popular that we’re extending the current League and Queue through this weekend, now closing Monday at 5 a.m. PT (13:00 UTC) - enjoy!

MTGO CREATOR SEASON

We’re reaching the conclusion of the first Magic Online’s Creator Season – you can read all about it in this article.

Also, congratulations to MicroPago, winner of Birds of Paradise’s Standard Spectacular tournament held yesterday!

Here’s what’s on tap for the final week or so of Creator Season:

This Week

• Duel Commander Mini-League
  • It’s Duel Commander’s turn to run as a mini-League for exclusive Trophy Race avatars! The League begins tomorrow after downtime and runs until Friday at 10 a.m. PT. Accounts finishing in the Top 15 and ties on the Leaderboard will snag the exclusive XXX
• Even More All-Access - $15 USD Until Friday, $10 USD For the Weekend
  
  • Due to a technical issue on our end, the Emerald Entry Token is no longer available for sale. No replacement All-Access will be provided for this week - we apologize for the inconvenience.
  • Common Event Token on sale for $10 starting Friday at 10 a.m. PT that lasts until Monday, December 16 at 10 a.m. PT
• CoreyB’s Duel Commander Week – December 9-12, Finals December 13
  • We’re running two Trial events a day Monday-Thursday during this week. They’re basically 5-round versions of other format’s Prelims with higher prizes.
  • Each Trial is five rounds, and those you go 5-0 or 4-1 earn a Vintage Point good to enter Friday’s Finals.
  • There’s big prizes on the line in the Finals with Standard-legal digital sets for the Top 8. Plus the Top 32 and ties will receive an event-exclusive Yorion, Sky Nomad avatar!
• MTGNerdGirl Commander Community Meetup
  • MTGNerdGirl will be hosting another Sunday Commander Community Meetup. Watch the stream on Sunday afternoon PT for giveaways or join the Decked Out Discord to find games with other Commander fans!
  • Purchase the Common Event Token to get All-Access to the cards for the Meetup

Next Week

• Mythic Event Token - $25 USD for 15 Days
  • See our Holidays article for full details – on sale Wednesday, December 18
• Vintage Mini-League
  • Wednesday-Friday, December 18-20

PREMIER PLAY

MOCS Open Weekend – Last Chance to Reach the Showcase!

We are down to the final weekend of qualification events for the next MOCS Showcase in January. If you haven’t punched your ticket into that elite 8-player event, your last chances to score an invitation will be in this weekend’s MOCS Showcase Opens!

Featuring Duskmourn: House of Horror Sealed Deck with a Top 8 Draft, this is your opportunity to spike a tournament for a big payoff! Entry Options are 40 Event Tickets or 400 Play Points and prizes are paid out to the Top 64 with DSK product.

In addition to reaching the Champions Showcase (with its $50,000 prize pool and two invitations to the 2025 World Championship), the winner of each Showcase Qualifier is invited to the Pro Tour at Magic Con Las Vegas plus the Regional Championship round in January-March feeding that event. Leaderboard Points are also on the line as players seek one of two At-Large invites at the end of the postseason.

The final batch of Leaderboard Points are up for grabs in the Opens, and when the weekend ends the two highest finishers on the Leaderboard snag At-Large invites to the Showcase.

Our intrepid team of Digital Event Coordinators will also be on hand inside the game during the Opens to lend a hand if something goes awry. To contact a DEC, click the Chat button in the top-right corner of the Home Scene, choose Create/Join New Chat …, then type in #DEC and press Enter to join the room.

For more information on MTGO Premier Play, click the link at the top of the Blog.

ALTERNATE PLAY

Season 3 QPs Usable for No Holds Barred Vintage Cube

If you still have leftover Red Season 3 QPs – you have one more week to use them as free entries into our No Holds Barred Vintage Cube. Each entry will cost 10 Season 3 QPs – the red ones (normal entry options will also be available). That Cube is now slated to run until December 16.

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 December 16 – We'll celebrate Thanksgiving with the long-awaited No Holds Barred Vintage Cube – the variant with power to the max! (Phantom)
  • Season 3 QPs will be usable as an alternate entry option.
  • Check out for info and a card list.
• December 16-18 – Free Preview Vintage Cube League!
• December 18-January 22 – The main line Vintage Cube returns to its regular time slot as part of the Holiday Season and as support for the next MOCS Showcase in January.
  • Check out the article this Friday, December 13

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:

• Until December 16 – 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 Online Player Rewards Change

In the Foundations set article, we had announced that Mystery Booster 2 commons and uncommons would comprise the next MOPR grant on January 2. We have had to push back the release of those cards by a month, so we are re-evaluating what will go into the next MOPR pack. That should be ready to announce in next week’s Blog.

Magic: The Gathering Foundations On Sale Now

Click here for more details on the newest expansion, Foundations. Highlights include:

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

Redemption Corner

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

Bloomburrow redemption sets (both regular and foil-for-regular) are getting low. 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. A limited number of Outlaws of Thunder Junction sets still remain available.

Finally, Magic: The Gathering Foundations is not a redeemable set – redemptions will resume with Aetherdrift.

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 – December 11, 2024

Card Fixes

• Marath, Will of the Wild will correctly wait to remove counters to activate its abilities until costs are paid.
• Amped Raptor will no longer allow you to cast March of Otherworldly Light for an unbounded value of X.

Quality-of-Life Improvements

• 51 cards will be added to the game from the Commander Backlog.
• Right-clicking a Qualifier Point object will show its updated expiration date in the 2025 season.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – January 22, 9 a.m.-Noon PT

After tomorrow, the next scheduled maintenance is set for Wednesday, January 22 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT (17:00-20:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Innistrad Remastered.