Magic Online Weekly Announcements, December 19, 2023

Posted on Dec 19, 2023

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THE LEAD 

Holidays 2023 Festival Starts Tomorrow!

We’ve reached one of the best times of the year for Magic Online players – the Holidays Festival! As we’ve done the last several years, we’re serving up a heaping helping of great events starting tomorrow Wednesday, December 20.

In addition to Festival hallmarks like a free Magic Online Vintage Cube entry for all accounts active as of December 12th, the return of the All-Access token, and a Week of Super Qualifier, there are extra perks this year:

• Vintage Cube 64-Player Elimination Drafts around the clock starting tomorrow
• Using Leftover Season 3 (Red) QPs for Cube Entry

You can get all the details in this article. 

ICYMI: Vintage Cube Articles

Our most popular format is back this week for a five-week run, and we have two articles for you to consume before you start playing tomorrow:

• Ryan Spain’s Future of Magic Online Vintage Cube
• Chris Wolf’s Winter Cube Update – including Changelist (with designer comments) and the full Cube list.
• Plus, bookmark this page to find the most recent Vintage Cube list whenever you like!

All-Access Tokens On-Sale Tomorrow

The Mythic Event Token is back to provide All-Access to the cards in Magic Online for up to two weeks. Purchase the Token starting tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC) and you can build almost any deck you want for Constructed games – whether it’s casual, Commander, or competitive – from the time of purchase until Wednesday, January 3 at 10 a.m. PT. (Entry options of events must still be paid)

Read the Holidays article for full details.

MTGO Calendar is Live!

A long-awaited feature is now in place – the Calendar link at the top of every MTGO.com page leads to our brand-new filterable weekly and monthly views – synced to your computer’s time zone!

The Monthly View takes a wide-angle look at what’s happening, but hover over a date and click More to see a quick pop-up of that day’s events.

The Weekly View keeps the next seven days in view, showing off as many or as few events as you want:

• Are you a Modern specialist and want to know when events are scheduled just for your format?
• Maybe you’re ready to step up your competition and want to know when events containing a Top 8 are happening ...

We hope you find this version of the Calendar to be super-useful, and like everything else in MTGO, we’d love to get your feedback through our channels linked at the top of the Blog.

PREMIER PLAY

Congratulations to MOCS Showcase Invitees

Eight players have earned the right to battle for their share of $70,000 & two World Championship 30 invitations on January 13. Congratulations to the following players:

The Week of Super Qualifiers Begins Saturday!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year ... for earning seats at an upcoming Regional Championship!

First up are the last three events that feed the next Regional Championship in January-March (feeding PT Thunder Junction)

• Pioneer Super Qualifier – This Saturday, December 23 at 7 a.m. (15:00 UTC)
• LCI Limited Super Qualifier – Christmas Day (Monday, December 25) at 2 p.m. PT (22:00 UTC)
• Modern Super Qualifier – Boxing Day (Tuesday, December 26) at 1 a.m. PT (09:00 UTC)

Then we have your first four chances to be invited to the following Regional Championship round in April-June (feeding PT Modern Horizons 3)

• Modern Super Qualifier – Wednesday, December 27 at 7 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC)
• Legacy Super Qualifier – Thursday, December 28 at 7 a.m. PT
• Pioneer Super Qualifier – Friday, December 29 at 7 a.m. PT
• LCI Limited Super Qualifier – Saturday, December 30 at 7 a.m. PT

Entry options for each Super Qualifier are 40 Event Tickets, 400 Play Points, or 40 Season 1 Qualifier Points.

Additionally, Constructed Super Qualifiers listed above can also be entered with 2 Mythic Event Tokens. Don’t worry, you keep All-Access until January 3 even if you spend the Tokens, so there’s no reason to buy more than two.

The Top 4 finishers in each event earn invitations to the Regional Championship round mentioned, and the Top 128 players receive prizes!

Finally, there is a Standard Qualifier on New Year’s Day – Monday, January 1 at 7 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC). This event offering 2 invites to the Regional Championship can only be entered with 40 Season 1 Qualifier Points, and prizes are given to the Top 64.

MTGO BROADCASTS

The AlphaFrog Invitational Continues Today!

A popular stream for watching Pro players try their hand at a Vintage Cube variant is on the MTGO Twitch channel every week! Designed by Gavin Thompson-Exner – AlphaFrog himself – the Cube has been a place for some of the biggest names in Magic to show off, goof around, and compete against their peers.

Tune in today at 1 p.m. PT (21:00 UTC), a single pod of eight will draft and then battle on stream. The best performers are invited back the next week to take on new challengers. Today’s episode features this group of players:

On top of that, this is our Spotlight Cube in Magic Online until tomorrow, December 20 – mimic the Pros or forge your own path. Be sure to get your last matches in!

Check out Gavin’s article now laying out the history of the Cube, the archetypes and combos, and the full list will be presented. Get Hyped for the AlphaFrog Cube!

ALTERNATE PLAY 

Vintage Cube 64-Player Elimination Events Return

A higher-stakes version of the Vintage Cube League is back – the 64-Player Elimination Drafts! Like previous runs, we’ve scheduled these around the clock for the next few weeks starting tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT:

• 4:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. PT (12:30 one day to 04:30 next day UTC) - Every half-hour
• Other times – Every hour on the :30s

Based on community feedback, we have adjusted the prizes to convert some of the Treasure Chests to Play Points. Here’s the new prize table:

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Murders at Karlov Manor. Each description mentions whether 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 (18:00 UTC) unless otherwise noted.

• Until December 20 – Get your last runs in on the AlphaFrog Vintage Cube before it leaves MTGO tomorrow, December 20 at 10 a.m. Pacific time (18:00 UTC). (Phantom)
• Tomorrow-January 24 – Vintage Cube returns for the Holidays Festival! Like last year, this will be a five-week run that supports competitors testing for the MOCS Season 3 Showcase (Jan. 13, twitch.tv/officialmagiconline & twitch.tv/magic). (Phantom)
• January 17-February 6 – Ravnica Remastered will be in the spotlight with a Draft League that overlaps the last week of Vintage Cube. (Keeper)

When Is Vintage Cube Back?

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

• Winter Update: December 20-January 24

EVENT UPDATES

Preliminary Changes

Starting tomorrow, we have replaced most of the Standard Preliminary events with either Modern or Legacy format events. Standard will keep one time slot Thursdays at 5 p.m. PT. Details can be found on the Prelims & Challenges page.

WEEKLY UPDATES 

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan® on Magic Online​

It's time to descend below the surface of our tropical plane and discover a wondrous world! The Lost Caverns of Ixalan® is now live on MTGO. Check out our traditional set article for full information:

• The Jurassic World Bundle
  • 20 All-New Cards & 12 Lands for $35 USD
• A UI improvement in tracking floating mana
• Booster Fun, a Treasure Chest update, and more
• A companion article about our new Premium looks

Cosmium Neon Ink Bundles

Introduced on Cyber Monday, our Cosmium Neon Ink Bundles remain on sale – $20 USD gets you a Mana Crypt and Cavern of Souls in a randomly-selected color choice. Check out this article for full details.

Redemption Corner – Holiday Delay

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

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Redemption Tokens are now on sale alongside Wilds of Eldraine.

NOTE: Daybreak Games will be closed between Christmas and New Year’s Day. All Redemptions processed on December 26 will have shipping delayed by a week until the first week of January. That includes all Redemption Tokens purchased starting today.

Two-Factor Authentication Is Now Live – Protect Your Account Today!

A long-requested security feature is now part Magic Online – check out Ryan Spain’s article to learn the why, what, and how to put Two-Factor Authentication into effect to help protect your account!

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 below.

On weekends featuring Showcase Challenge events, the Format Challenge that starts at either 6 a.m., 8 a.m., or 10 a.m. Pacific time is pre-empted by the Showcase Challenge; Format Challenges scheduled at other times remain in place.

NOTES:

• The number in the title represents the minimum fire size and the lowest place to receive prizes.
• In MOCS Season 1, Standard and Pauper Challenges are never pre-empted.
• 32-Player Limited Challenge events are 6 rounds with no playoff

Check out the Magic Online Format Challenges page for further event details.

PATCH NOTES – December 20, 2024

Card Notes

• An issue with the Amalia Benevides Aguirre combo in Pioneer that caused the game to draw incorrectly in certain scenarios has been fixed
• Deeproot Pilgrimage will correctly trigger only once if multiple creatures are tapped to convoke a spell
• Exploring an empty library will correctly apply a +1/+1 counter to the targeted creature
• Market Gnome’s second ability will correctly trigger – some corner cases have been fixed

Quality-of-Life Fixes

• If you undock the Prompt Box, its position in the Duel Scene will be sticky from game to game
• When importing a decklist to Collection, “Sideboard:” will no longer fail to be processed correctly
• Links to Customer Service across the game have been updated to point to Daybreak resources

NO BLOG NEXT WEEK

Daybreak Games will be closed for its holiday break at end-of-day this Friday, December 22. The MTGO Game Team will return on Tuesday, January 2. During this time, please expect slower response times to non-emergencies on social media. Redemption orders processed next Tuesday will not be fulfilled or shipped until the following week.

Customer Service will be available to process tickets filed at help.mtgo.com throughout the break, except on Christmas Day.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – January 17, 2024, 9 a.m. to Noon PT

The next scheduled maintenance will be Wednesday, January 17 from 9 a.m. to noon PT (17:00-20:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Ravnica Remastered.

Author: Tony Mayer