Magic Online Weekly Announcements, February 27, 2024

Posted on Feb 27, 2024

Premier Play Information

Treasure Chest Information

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THE LEAD 

Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks On Sale Now!

Your favorite characters from Warhammer 40,000 join the Magic: The Gathering Multiverse for a special Universes Beyond set. The same four decks that debuted in tabletop in October 2022 are on offer in the MTGO Store.

• Forces of the Imperium (white-blue-black)
• The Ruinous Powers (blue-red-black)
• Tyranid Swarm (blue-red-green)
• Necron Dynasties (mono-black)

Each deck sells for $39.99 USD. Once purchased, the cards become part of your Magic Online collection for use in Legacy (#triumphofsaintkatharine), Vintage, Commander, and Freeform formats. 

Cards in these decks will not be made available in Treasure Chests nor be part of any All-Access period. The decks are only available in the MTGO Store until April 5 – be sure you don’t miss out! 

WARHAMMER 40,000 and its trademarks used with permission from Games Workshop. Warhammer 40,000 © Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2024.

Vintage Cube Continues - 64-Player Events March 1-5!

Magic Online’s most popular format is back again with a fresh polish! Enjoy two weeks of Cube starting tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT. Current events run through next Wednesday at 10 a.m. PT.

Check out the Curation Team’s design comments in this article, or access the full Cube list in its usual spot.

Events-wise, we will feature the usual Swiss Draft League and Single-Elimination Draft – details found here. We were going to skip 64-player events this time as a test, but we have a good cause to bring them back March 1^st-5^th!

Like last time, events will fire every hour during peak hours and every two hours during slower times – all at the bottom of the hour (XX:30).  Entry options are 15 Event Tickets, 150 Play Points, or 2 Common Event Tokens.

Reminder: If there aren’t 64 players signed up at the start time, the event will wait up to 15 minutes to try to reach 64 – so don’t jump out of the event right away if there’s a delay.

In continuing response to community feedback, we have shifted more of the prize pool from Treasure Chests to Play Points. Here’s the new structure:

MTGO BROADCASTS

MTGO Masters Debuts Tomorrow!

Our newest streaming series kicks off tomorrow – it's MTGO Masters!

Sixteen top Magic celebrities square off in a 12-week tournament to determine who’s best at solving the Modern metagame. Returning to host are Anuraag Das and Will Hall with added commentary from the players themselves throughout the broadcast.

Here are the four contestants in tomorrow’s show: 2016 World Champion Brian Braun-Duin, top streamer AspiringSpike, coverage master Eduardo Sajgalik, and from Wizards R&D – 3-time Venus & Mercury League champ Arya Karamchandani

Keep an eye on our Twitter/X channel all day today as the remainder of this season's players are introduced.

Catch all the action every Wednesday at 1 p.m. PT (21:00 UTC) on twitch.tv/officialmagiconline or twitch.tv/anzidmtg. There are giveaways every week during the stream, so be sure to join us!

Vintage vs. Type 1 Stream Hosted by BDM This Weekend

One of Magic’s most prominent personalities, Brian David-Marshall, is hosting a weekend of Magic Online Vintage Cube with celebrity drafters taking on an entertaining challenge: Stipulation Draft! It’s all to raise funds and awareness for JDRF Game2Give, the gaming arm of JDRF, the leading global type 1 diabetes research and advocacy organization.

The stream starts at 9:30 a.m. Pacific time (12:30 ET, 17:30 UTC) on both this Saturday and Sunday, March 2-3 and will be broadcast on MTGO’s Twitch channel - twitch.tv/officialmagiconline.

You can donate now via the Vintage vs Type 1 campaign page to earn rewards on MTGO ranging from free Vintage Cube event entries to event-exclusive avatars. All-Access until March 6 is also in the mix!

Check out the why and how of this special event in this article.

Introducing The Magic Discovery Zone!

Looking for a fun way to introduce your friends to some of Magic Online’s competitive formats? Gather around your favorite screen of choice for our new series The Magic Discovery Zone!

Every Monday at 5 p.m. PT (01:00 Tuesday UTC), join host NileJoanRivers in a live stream on the MTGO Twitch channel. She’ll be coached by an MTG celebrity on the ins and outs of a featured deck. Then follow along as they dive into a MTGO League to practice, ask questions, and get a better understanding of the deck’s game plan. The mood here is all about fun and learning!

Season One will follow Nile through the Standard format. Episode One, featuring celebrity coach Ashlizzle and her Cookies deck brew, is live on MTGO’s YouTube channel.

In a one-time shift, you can tune in live for Episode Two tonight at 5 p.m. PT when Nile is joined by Yoman5.

Then next Monday, Haiyue Yu gets her turn in the coach’s seat.

Other featured coaches this season include Mason Clark and Gerry Thompson!

PREMIER PLAY

Eight RC Slots At Stake with MTGO’s Oldest Formats This Weekend!

This weekend is shaping up to be epic for fans of Magic Online formats reaching back the furthest into Magic’s history. With eight Regional Championship slots on the line, the competition will be fierce!

First up: Is it Saint Katharine’s time to Triumph? Enter the Legacy Qualifier to find out how cards from Warhammer 40,000 Commander fare in its first major MTGO test. It starts this Friday, March 1 at 2 p.m. PT (22:00 UTC) and two RC spots are up for grabs.

Next is the one with its roots in MTGO history – the Pauper Qualifier on Saturday, March 2 at 7 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC). Connoisseurs of the all-common format will battle for another pair of RC invites.

The weekend is capped off by a tournament of a certain ... you know! The Vintage Super Qualifier kicks off Sunday, March 3 at 7 a.m. PT. The Top 4 score seats at the next RC.

Each tournament costs 40 Season 1 Qualifier Points to enter, while Sunday’s Super Q can also be joined with either 40 Event Tickets or 400 Play Ponts. Prizes pay out to the Top 64 (Qualifier) or Top 128 (Super Q).

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

MOCS Season 1 Winding Down

After this weekend, the number of events requiring Season 1 Qualifier Points shrinks dramatically. Be sure to scrap together 40 QPs in time for the following events:

• MKM Limited Qualifier Friday, March 8
• Showcase Challenges March 9-17
  • Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Legacy
• Last Chance Events March 17-20
  • Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Legacy

ALTERNATE PLAY

MKM Best-of-One Closes Tomorrow

We made an error publishing the ending time of the MKM Best-of-One League. It was originally supposed to end last Wednesday per our Blog, but it was listed in the client to go until OTJ in April.

That Leagues will now close tomorrow, February 28 at 10 a.m. PT. We hope those of you in the League enjoyed the extra week of play.

Alternate Play Schedule

Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Outlaws at Thunder Junction. Except for Best-of-One, all of these offerings are Phantom – cards won’t be added to players’ collections in Phantom events. All transitions take place at 10:00 a.m. PT unless otherwise noted.

• Now-March 6 – The Polish Pass of Vintage Cube allows two more weeks of play in a slightly-tweaked sandbox. (See the Vintage Cube item above)
• March 6-13 – The Vintage Cube goes Supreme for one week – everyone's favorite top-two-of-every-pack format returns. On top of that, we’re going back to the more Power-packed version where you’re opening 1 pack from each of 18 copies of the Cube. So the dream of multiple Moxen, Lotuses, and Ancestrals will be everywhere!
  • There will be 64-Player events of normal Vintage Cube during this week as well.
• March 13-20 – An old friend returns: Flashback Invasion Block Draft.
• March 20-April 10 – Chris Wolf and Ryan Spain will have the first quarterly refresh of Vintage Cube with packages of cards shuttling in and out.
• April 10-16 – We’ve gathered 18 sets with a medium-to-heavy emphasis on the most universal of card types to create Artifact Chaos Draft!

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:

• Fast Follow Update: Now-March 6
• Supreme Vintage Cube: March 6-13 (plus 64’s of regular Vintage Cube)
• Spring Update: March 20-April 10 (64’s TBD)

AND ANOTHER THING...

Treasure Chest Update Tomorrow

It's time for our Fast Follow update of the Treasure Chest booster. With Booster Fun variants of Murders at Karlov Manor sufficiently distributed, a bunch of cards in the half-decks of Clue: Ravnica Edition will take their place in the TC-Only Slot.

The dedicated MKM slot has been removed, and we’ve jostled the mix of cards in the Curated slot as well.

These changes will take effect around 10 a.m. (17:00 UTC) tomorrow – follow our social channels for precise timing.

For more information on Treasure Chests, click the link at the top of the Blog.

MOPR-Exclusive Clue Rewards Get to Accounts This Friday

We have a unique month of Magic Online Player Rewards coming up. Cards from the special Clue booster – including all six Commanders (the lead characters of Clue) and the Showcase versions of the rooms and weapons – will be sent out to accounts via MOPR this Friday, March 1^st (based on February event play and Store spend). This is your only chance to get Senator Peacock, Commander Mustard, and the rest, so don’t miss out!

For more information, visit the Player Rewards page.

Clue® and its characters ™ & © 2024 Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast

WEEKLY UPDATES 

Redemption Corner

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

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Redemption Tokens (both regular and premium) are now on sale alongside Wilds of Eldraine Tokens (regular sets only).

Murders at Karlov Manor will go on sale next Wednesday, March 6.

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
• Challenges with a Second Chance Event that fires 30 minutes later are shown in Bold.

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

PATCH NOTES – February 28, 2024

• Cards from Clue: Ravnica Edition will be added to the game.
  • 13 cards from this set are going to the Commander Backlog – see the Feb 6 Blog for details.
• Soul Search will correctly not provide a Spirit token if a card isn’t exiled.
• Surveillace Monitor will correctly fail to trigger if an opponent’s Outrageous Robbery led to that player collecting evidence.
• A stolen Homicide Investigator will correctly grant its new controller a Clue if one of their other nontoken creatures die.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – To Be Announced

The next scheduled maintenance will be announced at a later date.

Author: Tony Mayer