Modern Masters Sealed Swiss Phantom Queue announcement

Given the excitement surrounding the record-breaking turnout expected for Grand Prix Las Vegas, Magic Online will be offering a Modern Masters Sealed Swiss Phantom Queue. Grand Prix practice for some, and a chance to experience the format for others! Read all about it.

Prize Payout Update

A post in the Magic Online Community forums noted a difference in the type of prizes being awarded between our various Constructed format queues. After tomorrow’s downtime ends, there will no longer be a difference in prizes for those queues. All Constructed-formats 8-person queues will award Return to Ravnica block product and 2-person queues will also award a Return to Ravnica booster.

We will continue to evaluate and update how our queues award prizes moving forward.

Magic Online Celebrates its 11th Anniversary!

Magic: The Gathering Online is celebrating its debut to the world, eleven years ago, on June 20, 2002, with special events! This year, we have created a weekend featuring special 11-booster Phantom celebration events that offer you the chance to play Sealed Deck with one booster pack from each fall Magic expansion that has been released on Magic Online, beginning with Onslaught and going through Return to Ravnica.

In addition, Magic R&D will be running a special R&D Challenge Event on Friday, June 21. This Standard tournament will be hosted by Ryan Spain and Jon Loucks on TwitchTV, where they will be streaming their Challenge matches. Read all of the details here!

Magic Online Player Rewards for July

Magic Online Player Rewards for July starts June 26, which means you have just over a week to earn your June promo card. For July the event participation promo is Mortify and the store activity promo is Skaarg Goliath.

Magic Online Championship Series Season 6 Finals

MOCS Season 6 Finals is this Saturday at 7:00 AM. Good luck to those who have qualified. If you missed the chance to qualify for the preliminaries or finals, don’t worry, Season 7 started last week, so you have three more weeks to earn your 15+ qualifier points. Full details.

Downtime Notes for June 19, 2013

The system will go into "No Pay" at 5:00 AM.
Store and trades will shut off at approximately 7:45 AM.
The system will be down from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, noon.
This downtime is expected to last approximately 4 hours.

Release Notes:

General -

We have adjusted our process for assessing taxes on redemption orders that are shipping internationally.  All taxes, duties, and fees associated with redemption orders (beyond the shipping and handling costs) will be assessed as part of the shipping and customs’ process. This change applies to all redemptions order on or after June 19, 2013.

Card Rules -

MMA | Blinding Beam now functions correctly when entwined.

During pre-production testing of Modern Masters we have discovered that Blinding Beam cannot be Entwined while using the Wide Beta Client.

If you are playing Blinding Beam in your Modern Masters draft deck, we ask that you use the current version of Magic  Online while playing that draft.

This issue will be fixed during the upcoming Wednesday downtime.

We hope this issue does not take away for your enjoyment of the Modern Masters events.

Thanks,

Mike Turian

Modern Masters Available Friday!
Starting at 10:00 AM Friday, June 14, players will be able to purchase and play with Modern Masters. Featuring powerful cards from Eight Edition to Alara Reborn, you can play in 64-player Premier drafts, Phantom drafts, or normal drafts until July 10. Read the full announcement now.

Magic Online Celebrates its 11th Anniversary!
Magic: The Gathering Online is celebrating its debut to the world, eleven years ago on June 20, 2002, with special events! This year we have created a weekend featuring special 11-booster Phantom celebration events that offer you the chance to play Sealed Deck with one booster pack from each fall Magic expansion that has been released on Magic Online, beginning with Onslaught and going through Return to Ravnica.

In addition, Magic R&D will be running a special R&D Challenge Event on Friday, June 21, that you can play your favorite Standard deck in. The event will be hosted by Ryan Spain and Jon Loucks on TwitchTV where they will be streaming their Challenge matches. Read all of the details here!

Magic Online Championship Series Season 6 Preliminaries
MOCS Season 6 ends with tomorrow's downtime so only a few hours remain to earn the 15 QP's needed to participate in the Season 6 Preliminaries this Friday and Saturday. It's also your last chance to qualify for the full art Cryptborn Horror promo card. Preliminaries will be available in the Scheduled Events room after the downtime tomorrow. Preliminaries are Modern Masters Sealed Deck and run at 6:00 PM on Friday and 6:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 6:00 PM on Saturday.

Extended Downtime this Week
Note that our downtime will start at 3:00 AM this week, five hours earlier than normal. Please plan accordingly.

Downtime Notes for June 12, 2013
The system will go into "No Pay" at 12:00 AM, midnight.
Store and trades will shut off at approximately 2:45 AM.
The system will be down from 3:00 AM to 12:00 PM, noon.
This downtime is expected to last approximately 9 hours.
This downtime includes the Modern Masters and Wide Beta Spotlight build.
The Wide Beta includes three fixes originally deployed on June 10.

Release Notes:

General

• Added: Modern Masters card set and product
• Updated: Disabled the current client for the Wide Beta Spotlight

Card Rules

• Fixed: Rebels can no longer select non-creature rebel cards with their search ability
• Fixed: Issue where face-down morph cards could be identified by moving the mouse cursor over them
• Fixed: Earwig Squad now correctly forces the user to exile three cards when able
• Fixed: Issue where Sakashima the Imposter's name changed after copying another creature

User Interface

• Added: Blue reminder text to cards that gain suspend and split second
• Fixed: Return to Ravnica Block Draft Pack and Sealed Event Pack now have the correct name

Wide Beta Update (deployed June 10)

General

• Fixed: Issue that prevented right-click context menu from appearing on cards/products during a trade
• Fixed: Crash related to the password being cleared before login
• Fixed: Common crash in collection

Modern Masters Release Updates
We have adjusted the release structure for Modern Masters, including reducing the entry for the regular drafts and starting the Phantom drafts earlier. Read all about it.

MOCS Season 7 Starts Next Week!
MOCS Season 7 starts with the downtime next week, so you only have a few more days to earn your Season 6 promo card. MOCS Season 7 runs from June 12 to July 10. The format for the Preliminaries and Finals is Return to Ravnica Block Sealed. The promo card for Season 7 is an alternative art Bribery.

Thursday Night Magic Online Promo Card
In case you missed the update on the calendar, the TNMO Promo Card is an alternative art Izzet Charm. Play every Thursday at 4:00 AM, 9:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and 7:00 PM. Next week's format is Standard.

Extended Downtime Next Week
Note that our downtime will start 3:00 AM PDT next week, five hours earlier than normal. Please plan accordingly.