The Return of Vintage vs. Type 1

Posted on Sep 26, 2025

By Brian David-Marshall & The Magic Online Team

Type 1 diabetes has been with me longer than Magic: the Gathering has, and I have been playing the game consistently since 1994. There are not many things I can say that about. Almost everything else that shares that distinction is still with me, much like Magic, because I choose to keep it in my life. I didn’t have much say about diabetes entering my life, but I am trying to do something about getting rid of it. That’s what you are reading about today.  

I am organizing an online fundraiser next week to raise money and awareness around finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes (T1D). I am working with Breakthrough T1D Play a program within Breakthrough T1D, the leading global T1D research and advocacy organization that brings together all types of people who love games to spread awareness, support each other, and fundraise through gaming. 

The last time we did this, the organization was known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation; they rebranded last year because juvenile diabetes is an outdated name for type 1. The name may have changed, but the mission to eradicate T1D in our lifetimes remains the same. In addition to Breakthrough T1D Play, I am once again working with the amazingly generous folks at Daybreak Games and Magic Online against the backdrop of their legendary Vintage Cube.

My History with Type 1

I was diagnosed with diabetes the year before I started playing Magic back in the early ‘90s. I was somewhat familiar with the disease because my baby brother Michael had been diagnosed some 10 years earlier. Ten years may not seem like a very long time, but in terms of medical research, it can make a vast difference in the quality of care.

T1D is an autoimmune disease that prevents the pancreas from making insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar, and it’s a tough disease to keep on top of for anyone. It requires constant vigilance over your intake of carbs, which raise blood sugar, and injecting insulin to keep blood sugar levels under control. If your blood sugar runs too high, this can cause crystals to form in your blood that lead to long-term complications affecting your vision, circulation, and kidneys. Overcorrect with too much insulin and you can, quite simply, fall into a coma or die. 

It’s tough for anyone, but it was even tougher more than 40 years ago when the tools and strategies at the disposal of a diabetic were simply not up to the task. Later on in life, my brother would take advantage of those tools, but he suffered from diabetic complications for the latter portion of his life, and unfortunately, he passed away in 2022. 

Despite my brother’s health struggles, he was always an optimistic and helpful person. Someone who would never let someone struggle when there was some way he could be providing a helping hand. I remember when he was still in high school, he organized an art auction for a comic book artist who had fallen and was not going to be able to draw for an extended period of time. I think a lot about what could have been had Michael been afflicted with this disease even 10 years later. Or, better yet, not at all.

Breakthrough T1D has been working not only to find a cure for this disease, but to delay the onset for folks who have the genetic markers for developing type 1 diabetes. That could have meant decades more for Michael and countless others who could have benefited from more advanced treatments, a better understanding of how to minimize long-term complications, and technology (such as insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors) that more closely mirror the function of a pancreas.

The Vintage vs. Type 1 Event on MTGO

In March 2024, we raised more than $15,000 with our first Vintage vs. Type 1 event, and I really hope we can surpass that total this year. Last time out, we did an event over the course of a weekend, with a narrow focus on players coming into our stream to play the Vintage Cube and compete against each other. This time out we are mixing things up a little. 

We are going to have a roster of featured players who will be registered into a Vintage Cube trophy race which will last from Wednesday, October 1, at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) until Sunday, October 5 at 3 p.m. PT (22:00 UTC). Each player will be streaming the Cube whenever possible while collecting donations for Breakthrough T1D through the online fundraising platform Tiltify.

And thanks to the folks at Daybreak Games, your donations will unlock free draft tokens, exclusive avatars, and more. So if you are going to be drafting Vintage Cube anyway, you can throw your support behind your pick to win the trophy race and help us make this an even better event than last year!

Donation Incentives

$15 Donation: You'll receive a code good for a Common Event Token (1 entry to a MTGO Vintage Cube League course October 1-22) and a Breakthrough T1D-exclusive avatar featuring Ponder! 

$30 Donation: You'll receive a code for 2 Common Event Tokens (2 entries into a Vintage Cube League course October 1-22), an exclusive Flickerwisp avatar, plus the Ponder avatar from the $15 level!

$75 Donation: You'll receive a code that enables All-Access on your MTGO account from time of activation until Monday, October 13 at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC). Normal All-Access rules apply. Also included: Everything from the $30 tier, plus an exclusive Seething Song avatar!

   

About the Trophy Race

In addition to the donation incentives, an exclusive MTGO avatar featuring Breakthrough will be awarded to everyone who donates $15 or more to:

• The featured player who wins the most trophies during that five-day sprint
• The featured player who raises the most money over those five days

If featured players are tied for the lead in a category, all players backing them will receive the avatar.

In the event one featured player is tops in both categories, the backers of the player who raised the second-highest amount of money will also get the avatar. You can certainly back multiple players throughout the five days!

IMPORTANT: To qualify for the exclusive Breakthrough avatar, you must donate to the specific campaign of the player you want to support. You can get to the players’ campaign pages from the Current Fundraisers boxes on the Tiltify event page.

(Limit one award avatar per MTGO account. Donation-tier avatars are tradeable, but award avatar is untradeable.)

Featured Streamers for Trophy Race

Leading up to Wednesday's League kickoff, we'll post the roster, streaming schedule, and other details on Breakthrough T1D Play's Vintage vs. Type 1 webpage. For now, I can spotlight two of the participants right now … two players I would talk to regularly in my weekly Magic columns that ran for more than a decade on Daily MTG.

Magic the Gathering Hall of Famer Reid Duke is returning to the event from last year. Reid has been playing the game at least as long as I have (if not longer) and has had one of the most remarkable playing careers in the history of the Pro Tour while also being one of the most approachable and relatable players to achieve that level of success. I am looking forward to being a guest on his stream during that week and maybe learning a thing or two about Vintage Cube draft.  

Speaking of folks who know their way around a Vintage Cube; playing in the event for the first time this year is Caleb Durward. Back when I was the first writer of Swimming with Sharks on the Wizards page, I felt like I interviewed Durward every other column as he would win PTQs with outrageously inventive homebrews. He has gone on to become one of game’s most popular streamers and is a huge proponent of Cube drafting who looks forward to the MTGO Vintage Cube whenever it is available. I am also excited to be joining him for a crash course in how to navigate drafting some of the most powerful Magic cards ever printed. 

We will also be streaming from the Magic Online Twitch channel over the weekend as we follow the trophy race to its conclusion. We will be checking in with the various participants, keeping an eye on the leaderboard, and seeing who will be earning that special avatar for folks who make a donation on their campaign

Cubing for a Cause

We are hoping that when the weekend comes to a conclusion, we will have had some fun, educated people about the struggles of living with Type 1 diabetes, and raised enough money to put a little dent in its remaining time as a disease that afflicts people out in the world. Even if you can’t make a donation, you can help by tuning in and signal-boosting the event during the weekend.

But if you are going to be drafting the Vintage Cube anyway, please do it through Vintage vs. Type 1 and support us in this effort. Thank you!