Magic Online Weekly Announcements, April 2, 2024

Posted on Apr 02, 2024

Premier Play Information

Treasure Chest Information

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THE LEAD 

Magic Online Creator Program Launches Today!

Our team is extremely excited to invite streamers and content creators from across the Web to apply for inclusion in the Magic Online Creator Program! Find out more about applying to the Program by clicking on the image below. 

MOCS Open Weekend – Last Chance to Reach the Showcase!

We are down to the final weekend of qualification events for the next MOCS Showcase on May 18^th. If you haven’t punched your ticket into that elite 8-player event, your last chances to score an invitation will be in this weekend’s MOCS Showcase Opens!

Featuring Murders at Karlov Manor Sealed Deck with a Top 8 Draft, this is your opportunity to spike a tournament for a big payoff.

In addition to reaching the Champions Showcase (with its $70,000 prize pool and two Worlds invitations), the winner of each Showcase Open is invited to Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 plus the Regional Championship round in April-June feeding that event.

The final batch of Leaderboard Points are up for grabs in the Opens, and when the weekend ends the two highest finishers on the Leaderboard snag At-Large invites to the Showcase.

Our intrepid team of Digital Event Coordinators will also be on hand inside the game during the Opens to lend a hand if something goes awry. To contact a DEC, click the Chat button in the top-right corner of the Home Scene, choose Create/Join New Chat …, then type in #DEC and press Enter to join the room.

For more information on MTGO Premier Play, click the link at the top of the Blog.

Vintage Cube Continues for One More Week!

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it's time for spring cleaning and Spring Break. The changing of the seasons marks another major update to the Magic Online Vintage Cube!

Our Curation team of Ryan Spain and Chris Wolf has set up another metagame puzzle for you to solve. You can read all about the latest changes, then you can view the full 540-card list on this page.

As usual, 3-round Leagues and single-elimination Queues will be offered. A decision will be announced regarding 64-Player events for this week sometime tomorrow.

Prizes for these events can be viewed on the MTGO Limited Events page.

SAVE THE DATE

Revamp of New Player Products Coming April 10 – Full Details Next Monday

We are updating the contents of our New Account Starter Kit and the Account Upgrade Kit following downtime next Wednesday, April 10^th. We’ll provide a pair of articles to detail the changes next Monday, April 8^th. Commander enthusiasts – we'll have news for you as well in those articles!

Outlaws of Thunder Junction Set Article Next Tuesday

Save the date – we'll have our usual article explaining all that’s happening during OTJ season next Tuesday in this space. Keep an eye out on our social pages for this article and for other announcements coming down the pike!

MTGO BROADCASTS

MTGO Masters – Every Wednesday at 1 p.m. & 5 p.m. PT

Our newest streaming series - MTGO Masters – rolls on in the second phase of this season's competition!

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/magiconline or twitch.tv/anzidmtg. There is also a re-broadcast in prime time in the Americas that begins immediately following the live stream (usually about 5-6 p.m. PT)! There are giveaways every week during the live stream, so be sure to join us!

Last week, Carmen Klomparens and Jake Beardsley became the first two competitors to reach the Top 8, while Luna and Reid Duke will have one more chance to get there in a few weeks.

Tomorrow’s show features the other Upper Bracket pod:

• One of the original MTGO end bosses, 2010 Player of the Year Brad Nelson
• Pro Tour coverage masters Eduardo Sajgalik and Cedric Phillips
• And from Studio X inside Wizards of the Coast and the Venus and Mercury League – Arya Karamchandani

The two winners this week will advance to the Top 8 show on May 1, while the other two will have one more chance to get in from the Last Chance pod on April 24.

ALTERNATE PLAY

No Foolin’ - One Day Left to play The Original OTJ!

For over 20 years, OTJ was burned into Magic players’ brains as the acronym for Odyssey-Torment-Judgement booster draft. Before Outlaws of Thunder Junction takes the OTJ mantle in a couple weeks, we’ve brought back the old stuff as a super-short Flashback League for April Fool’s Day!

The two-day Odyssey Block Phantom Draft League concludes tomorrow, April 3 at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC). We’re discounting this experience as a test – just 4 Event Tickets or 40 Play Points get you in for up to three matches! Prizes are as follows:

• 3 Wins – 60 Play Points, 1 Treasure Chest, and 1 Friendly Trophy
• 2 Wins – 30 Play Points and 1 Treasure Chest
• 1 Win – 10 Play Points

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.

• Until Tomorrow – The O.G. OTJ – Odyssey-Torment-Judgement Flashback for April Fool’s!
• Now-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:

• Spring Update: Now-April 10 (64-Player Drafts TBD for Week 3)
• MOCS Support Round: May 8-22

AND ANOTHER THING...

Last Chance – Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks Leave the Store This Friday!

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. They are:

• 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. The decks are only available in the MTGO Store until this Friday, April 5^th at 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) – be sure you don’t miss out before they’re gone for good! 

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

Metagame Authenticity & Format Parity

A couple of weeks ago we posted a new reference page to show which sets are fully or partially on Magic Online. Today we’re providing a bit more background on the issues involved and our plans to address them. Check out this article for more details.

WEEKLY UPDATES 

Redemption Corner

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

Murders at Karlov Manor Redemption Tokens are now available and are almost half-gone.

Stock is running low for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Redemption Tokens (both regular and premium) and Wilds of Eldraine (regular sets only).

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 2, Standard and Vintage 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 – April 10, 2024

The next scheduled maintenance will take place on Wednesday, April 10 between 9 a.m. and 12 noon Pacific time (16:00-19:00 UTC). This is to support the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction.