Magic Online Weekly Announcements, March 5, 2024

Posted on Mar 05, 2024

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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.

MTGO BROADCASTS

MTGO Masters – Every Wednesday at 1 p.m. PT

Our newest streaming series - MTGO Masters - rolls on with another set of four players in their opening pod.

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.

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!

Tomorrow’s show features:

• One of the original MTGO end bosses, 2010 Player of the Year Brad Nelson
• MTG’s most prolific Goldfish Saffron Olive
• Top digital card game streamer Luna Love
• Canadian Modern maven Nikachu

Vintage vs. Type 1 Raises Over $15,000!

The MTGO team was proud to provide rewards for a successful weekend of fundraising with one of Magic’s most prominent personalities, Brian David-Marshall. Vintage vs Type 1 raised $15,102 for JDRF Game2Give, the gaming arm of JDRF, the leading global type 1 diabetes research and advocacy organization.

For those of you who have not yet redeemed your Common Event Tokens for a free Vintage Cube draft, you’ll need to hurry – they expire tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC).

Donors who were rewarded with All-Access will also see that perk run out at the same time. As usual, if you are in a Constructed tournament or League with cards not in your Collection when All-Access ends, you are permitted to finish that event or League course.

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

The Magic Discovery Zone – Every Monday at 5 p.m. PT

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.  

Nile, Haiyue, Yoman5, Mason, Gerry, Ashlizzle, 

• Episodes 1 & 2, featuring celebrity coaches Ashlizzle and Yoman5, are live on MTGO’s YouTube channel now.
• Episode 3 featured Haiyue Yu and that video will be live on the channel soon.
• Next Monday’s guest mentor is Mason Clark - catch it live on our channel at 5 p.m. PT.
• Then on March 18, Gerry Thompson will close out the season.

PREMIER PLAY

It's Showcase Challenge Weekend

The current MOCS season is entering the final stretch before the Postseason, so it’s time to get another batch of players for the next round of Showcase Qualifiers at the end of March. 

It takes 40 Season 1 Qualifier Points to enter a Showcase Challenge. The Top 8 finishers in each event earn a Championship Entry Token for the event’s format plus earn Leaderboard Points toward an At-Large berth in the next Showcase!

Here are the dates and times for this weekend’s events: 

*Daylight Savings Time – see separate item below

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

Last Two RC Slots At Stake This Friday

Your final chance to reach the April-June round of Regional Championships that aren’t tied to MOCS events happens this Friday.

The Limited Qualifier kicks off March 8 at 2 p.m. PT (22:00 UTC). Two RC slots are on the line using Murders at Karlov Manor Sealed Deck with Top 8 Draft.

It takes 40 Season 1 Qualifier Points to enter and prizes pay out to the Top 64.

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

Supreme Vintage Cube Starts Tomorrow

Magic Online’s most popular format gets downright wacky starting tomorrow. For one week, you can live the dream of playing with multiple pieces of Power in almost every deck. 

In Supreme Vintage Cube, you draft by yourself, not a pod – so no waiting. Open a booster, take two cards, then discard the rest of the pack. Rinse and repeat until you’ve opened 18 packs. You have a 50 percent chance of seeing any given card available in the Cube during your draft - including the broken ones!

When we first ran this in 2020, we saw some of the wildest deck builds imaginable. Prepare to have a story with this play experience!

The full Cube list in its usual spot. The usual League entry options of 10 Event Tickets or 100 Play Points apply along with the usual prizes - and of course, this event is Phantom (that dream would be a little too good).

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.

• March 6-13 – The Vintage Cube goes Supreme for one week (see item above)
  • We are skipping the planned 64-Player Drafts this week.
• 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:

• Supreme Vintage Cube: March 6-13
• Spring Update: March 20-April 10 (64’s TBD)

AND ANOTHER THING...

Daylight Savings Time in MTGO This Sunday

It’s time for Magic Online to spring forward for its semi-annual time change. Daylight Savings (DST) kicks into the client starting this Sunday at 2 a.m. PT (UTC -7). What does that look like for you?

• Times listed in-client and on our website for events starting after 2 a.m. PT will be off by an hour until DST begins.
• In the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean, 2 a.m. becomes 3 a.m., so you lose an hour of sleep.
• In all other parts of the world, weekly events will start one hour earlier in your local time than they did last week.

Event Updates – New Events for APAC Time Zones

As part of a regular review, we’ve identified time slots and events that may be more suited to our player base in the Asia-Pacific region. The following tournaments will begin starting this week:

• Friday midnight PT (Saturday 08:00 this week/07:00 next week UTC) - Modern Preliminary replaces Limited Preliminary
• Friday 11 p.m. PT (Saturday 07:00/06:00 UTC) - Modern Challenge 32
• Saturday 8 p.m. PT (Sunday 04:00/03:00 UTC) - Legacy Challenge 32

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 Redemption Tokens will go on sale tomorrow, March 6 at 10 a.m. PT

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.

NEXT SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – To Be Announced

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

Author: Tony Mayer