Magic Online Weekly Announcements, August 22, 2023

Posted on Aug 22, 2023

Premier Play Information

Treasure Chest Information

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THE LEAD

Tune in to the MOCS Season 2 Showcase This Saturday!

Tune in as eight of Magic Online's best players compete for their share of $70,000 and two invitations to the 2024 World Championship! Headlining the field are former Rivals League members Sebastian Pozzo and Sam Rolph, as well as 2-time Pro Tour Top 8 competitor Jesse Hampton.  

The broadcast begins this Saturday, August 26, at 10 a.m. Pacific (17:00 UTC/19:00 CEST/02:00 Sunday JST) on twitch.tv/magic.

Tannon Grace and former MPL member Gavin Thompson-Exner enter the commentary booth, joining Carmen Handy and Haiyue Yue to call all the action in Vintage Cube and Legacy!

Learn more about the Showcase in this Viewers Guide article.

Vintage Cube 64-Player Elimination Events Start Friday!

To fill the gap between qualifying seasons for Premier players, we present a special treat – 64-Player Vintage Cube Single Elimination Draft tournaments.

Draft Vintage Cube once, win your pod, then draft Vintage Cube again with big prizes on the line.

These events will run around the clock at varying intervals starting this Friday, August 25 until the release of Wilds of Eldraine on September 5. Events will appear in the client to join starting Wednesday morning around 10 a.m. PT.

Here are the details:

64-Player Vintage Cube Elimination Draft

Location: Limited Play Lobby -> Premier Events

Entry Options: 15 Event Tickets or 150 Play Points

Number of Players: 64 minimum, 64 maximum (event will wait up to 15 minutes after start time to fill)

Format: Vintage Cube Draft, then three 50-minute single elimination rounds. Players who finish 3-0 draft again in a similar fashion. This event is Phantom – cards opened will not be added to Collections.

Prizes:

Schedule for Week 1 (all times Pacific – local time will appear when events are added to game):

• Friday 8/25 – midnight (pre-empting Limited Prelim), 5am, 9am, 1pm, 7pm
  • Additional times Friday (added 8/24) - AM: 1:30, 3:30, 6:30, 7:30, 11:30 - PM: 2:30, 3:30, 5:30, 8:30, 10:30
• Saturday 8/26 – 5am, 7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm, 5pm, 7:30pm, 10pm
  • Additional times Saturday (added 8/25) - AM: 3:30 - PM: 3:30, 4:30, 8:30
• Sunday 8/27 – 5am, 7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm, 5pm, 7:30pm, 10pm
  • Additional times Sunday (added 8/25) - AM: 3:30, 5:30 - PM: 6:00, 9:00
• Monday 8/28 – 1am, 5am, 10am, 3:30pm, 5:30 pm, 7:30pm
  • Additional times Monday (added 8/25) - AM: 6:30, 8:00 - PM: 12:30, 9:30
• Tuesday 8/29 - midnight (overwriting Limited Prelim), 5am, 8am, 12pm, 3:30pm, 5:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm
  • Additional times Tuesday (added 8/25) - AM: 2:30, 6:30 - PM: 1:30
• Wednesday 8/30 – 1am
  • More events will be added following the downtime on 8/30

Vintage Cube Continues Through September 6

Magic Online’s most popular format is back – Vintage Cube – to support this weekend’s MOCS Season 2 Showcase event! We have also extended these events by one day to enable three full weeks in all – the close time is Wednesday, September 6 at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC).

Creative Director Ryan Spain details the suite of updates to the Cube and his thinking behind the changes in this article.

The full Cube card list and change list can be viewed on this page.

Entry options for this Phantom event (your choice – League or single-elimination Queue) are the customary 10 Event Tickets or 100 Play Points. See you in the Cube!

Wilds of Eldraine on MTGO Article Next Tuesday

Our return to the fairy-tale plane of Eldraine will be chronicled in a MTGO.com article that will go up alongside next week’s Blog – be sure to check it out!

PREMIER PLAY

Schedule for Rest of 2023 is Live

The Premier Play schedule for the remainder of 2023, including events that qualify for the Regional Championship round in the first quarter of 2024 (feeding the second Pro Tour in 2024), is now available at this link.

Standard Preliminaries Are Back!

Because Standard is the rotating MOCS format for the current season, we have added Preliminary events to the Weekly Schedule. They will be held at the following times:

 *indicates next-day

** This event won’t run on weeks with Wednesday downtime

Like other Constructed Preliminaries, the entry option for these four-round events is 20 Event Tickets or 200 Play Points – full details can be found here.

WEEKLY UPDATES

Commander Masters on MTGO!

Check out our latest set article to get all the ins and outs of Commander Masters (CMM)! Get all the info on:

• CMM Draft Leagues (Keeper and Phantom), which run until downtime on August 30.
• Store offerings, including the stunning Unfinity land bundles (only available for a month) and CMM Boosters & its powerful Commander Decks
• Treasure Chest updates

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ on MTGO

Check out this article for the scoop on everything on offer:

• Art Bundles and other items
  • Note: LTR Bundles will continue to be sold until September 5
• Event updates, including special prize structures
• Jumpstart’s return as a New Player experience

Redemption Corner

We’ve updated our Redemption page with new quantity percentages – we are now completely sold out of Dominaria United regular sets.

Information on remaining stock of March of the Machine (regular and foil), Phyrexia: All Will Be One (regular) and The Brothers' War (regular) can be found on that link above.

IMPORTANT: As of May 23, all new orders of Redemption Tokens are non-refundable!

Freeform with Commander Now Available

We’re particularly excited with our newest game mode – Freeform with Commander!

Check out describing the how, what, and why of this wild new play mode, then give it a shot! And what better way to try out cards in a new format than ...

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:
CONSTRUCTED

• In MOCS Season 3, Vintage and Pauper Challenges are never pre-empted.
• 32-Player events require 32 players to fire and give prizes to the Top 32.
  • Pauper and Vintage Challenges are always 32-Player tournaments.
• All other events listed require 64 players to fire and give prizes to the Top 64.
  
  

LIMITED

• 32-Player Limited Challenge events are 6 rounds with no playoff
• 64-Player Limited Challenge events are 7 rounds with no playoff

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

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – August 30, 9 a.m. to Noon PT

After Thursday’s downtime, the next scheduled maintenance will be Wednesday, August 30 from 9 a.m. to noon PT (16:00-19:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Wilds of Eldraine.