Community

Updated: Extended downtime tomorrow starts at 3:00 AM PDT. Full details below.

Note: All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -7 hours).

Magic Online Wide Beta Feedback
With all the big changes that have recently come to the Magic Online Wide Beta we want our player's feedback. Follow this link and let us know what you think! If you missed Ryan Spain's article about these update, read it here. Don't have the Beta Client yet? Download it now!

Magic Online Championship 2012 Live at PAX East!
We will be holding the Magic Online Championship 2012 live at PAX East in Boston this Friday and Saturday! Coverage will be streamed live and will be available here. Make sure you tune in.

Pro Tour "Friends" Qualifiers Start this Week!
PTQ "Friends" season starts this Sunday with its first qualifier at 11:00 AM. The format for March 24 is Standard. Mark your calendars for all the other upcoming qualifiers!

Magic Online Championship Series Season 3 Preliminaries
With the end of MOCS Season 3 tomorrow, the season 3 Preliminaries are this weekend on Friday, March 22, at 6:00 PM, and on Saturday, March 23, at 6:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 6:00 AM. As always they will be in the Scheduled Events room.

The MOCS Season 3 Finals are Saturday, March 30, at 3:00 PM. All players who have earned at least 35 Season 3 Qualifier Points can join the MOCS Season 3 Finals and try to win an invitation to the 2013 Magic Online Championship to be held in 2014. Both the Preliminaries and the Finals will be Gatecrash Sealed.

MOCS Season 4 starts after tomorrow's downtime. Start earning your Qualifier Points to complete in the Preliminaries and Finals that will take place in April. The format for this season is Magic 2013 Sealed. Find out more information on the 2013 MOCS here. If you missed last week's announcement don't forget to check out the MOCS Season 4 promo cards.

Downtime Notes for Mar 20, 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 10:00 AM.
This downtime is expected to last approximately 7 hours.
This is a maintenance downtime, there is no build.

General:

• Added: MOCS Season 3 promo card distribution.

Note: All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -7 hours).

Note: All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -7 hours).

All times related to the extended downtime are estimated.

Unique Downtime Tomorrow starts at 7:00 AM!
Magic Online is deploying a major update tomorrow, that includes some infrastructure work which requires the downtime to be extended. In addition, as we return from downtime we will introduce features slowly until we are fully operational. Below is an estimated schedule:

• Magic Online logins disabled: 7:00 AM- 11:00 AM.
• Special Phantom queues (no entry requirement, no prizes): 11:30 AM- 1:30 PM.
• Trades, tournaments, and the Magic Online store: enabled sequentially between 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM.
• Magic Online fully functioning: 3:00 PM.

Home scene and system announcements will be posted in the client when each feature becomes available. If unforeseen issues arise that dramatically alter the schedule above, communication to players will be posted in the client and on the Magic Online blog.

Special Phantom Queues Formats
While we are down and testing our internal systems, we will be offering two different Phantom queues during tomorrow's downtime. These queues do not have entry requirements and do not provide prizes and will only be available while we are testing.

Cube: Holiday 2012: Draft, 8-Player, 3 Rounds, Single Elimination
Cube: Holiday 2012: Sealed, 4-Player, 2 Round, Swiss pairings
In addition, we will offer an 8-player Standard Constructed queue that uses Swiss pairings.

Magic Online Promo Codes
Magic Online Promo Code program is available after the downtime tomorrow. Players will only be able to enter their promo codes into the Magic Online Wide Beta Client, which you can download now. Redeem codes by going to the Magic Online Store, entering the code in the Promo Code field, and clicking Submit. Please note, that due to our extended downtime, Promo Code redemption may not be immediately available, but will be active by 3:00 PM.

Celebrate our launch with this code: MTGOCodeLaunch

Pro Tour "Friends" Qualifiers Announced
Pro Tour "Friends" Qualifiers on Magic Online was announced today, find all the times and formats here.

Magic Online Championship Series
Just over one week remains for MOCS Season 3, so make sure you earn your 15 Qualifier Points before next week's downtime. MOCS Season 3 Preliminaries are next week, Friday, March 22, at 6:00 PM and Saturday, March 23, at 6:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 6:00 AM. The format is Gatecrash Sealed.

MOCS Season 4 starts March, 20. The promo card is an alternative art Savannah. The Season 4 Championship format is Magic 2013 Sealed. Get the full MOCS details here.

Magic Online Player Rewards for April 2013
The March 2013 Player Rewards season ends with the downtime on March 27. Don't miss your chance to earn March's promo cards. The April 2013 season runs from March 27 to April 24. Learn More.

Event Participation promo card for April is Reliquary Tower, originally given out as a Friday Night Magic Promo in February, 2013.

Store Activity promo card for April is a new art Command Tower, originally included in Commander's Arsenal.

Wide Beta Client Update Tomorrow!
We will be deploying our next major Wide Beta update on March 13, which includes additional improvements to the battlefield, fixes to collection, and the ability to save and load Limited decks during events. Learn more in Ryan Spain's Wide Beta feature tomorrow, or check out the full change list.

Downtime Notes for Mar 13, 2013
Note: The times listed below are estimates.
The system will go into "No Pay" at 4:00 AM.
Store and trades will shut off at approximately 6:45 AM.
The system will be down from 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM.
The system will come up and allow logins at 11:00 AM.
Trades, store, and tournaments will be disabled.
The system will be offering Special Phantom queues (no entry, no prizes) from roughly 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.
Tournaments with normal entry options and prize support will be uploaded at around 1:30 PM.
Between 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM we will be enabling Trades followed by enabling the Magic Online Store.
Magic Online should have all features and tournaments up and running by 3:00 PM.
The entire downtime is expected to last approximately 8 hours.

This downtime contains a build with updates and several bug fixes.

The Wide Beta change list will be updated at the end of the blog and added to the full change list by the end of the today.

General

• Added: A Storm counter has been added to the game log indicate how many spells have been cast so far this turn. This counter activates after the fourth spell has been cast.
• Added: The Storm triggered ability placed on the stack when a Storm spell is cast now indicates how many copies it is going to place on the stack.

Card Rules

• Fixed: Simic Manipulator's activated ability no longer takes control of targeted creature if that creature's power becomes greater than Simic Manipulator's power before Simic Manipulator's ability resolves.
• Fixed: Phyrexian Manipulator correctly taps for the chosen color of mana when it has copied a Coldsteel Heart.
• Fixed: Silkbind Faerie's activated ability will no longer increases in cost if mana from Couldpost is used to activate it.
• Fixed: Pithing Needle will no longer prevents the mana ability of Food Chain from being activated.
• Fixed: Wake Thrasher no longer triggers if an ability that would untap a permanent is countered.
• Fixed: Ant Queen now uses the correct tokens.
• Fixed: Gargantuan Gorilla can no longer target itself.
• Fixed: Scythe Specter no longer causes a player to lose life when they have no cards to discard.

Wide Beta Updates

General

• Fixed:  Several crashes across multiple scenes, including Collection, Play Lobby, Duel Scene, and Trade
• Updated: Performance improvements for Collection and Duel Scene
• Updated:  Started implementing some slash commands for Chat
• Fixed:  Link to New Account activation webpage for accounts that have not been activated
• Fixed:  About Me text is now remembered between sessions
• Fixed:  Login Window field alignment
• Fixed:  Issue with Avatar selection not persisting
• Fixed:  Corrected link to Banned and Restricted list
• Updated:  'Edit Theme' now says 'Select Theme'
• Fixed:  Input Settings now has a scroll bar
• Updated:  Added additional crash reporting
• Added:  Dialog for out of memory exceptions
• Updated:  Chat entry text box now dynamically expands as players type
• Updated:  Reduced the height of all grid splitters

Duel Scene, Play Lobby, and Tournaments

• Updated:  Moved the Add Lands, Submit, and Details buttons in Limited deck building
• Updated:  Adjusted card layout in hand and added animations to card movement in hand
• Updated:  Prompt now informs how to rearrange blockers and rearranging blockers  has been improved
• Fixed: Issue where blockers were not moved to the Red Zone on attacking player's screen
• Fixed: Issue where dialogs became obscured by chat
• Updated:  Commanders now have a Command Zone, display how many times they have been cast, have a Commander tag when on the battlefield, and return to the Command Zone appropriately
• Fixed:  Issue that caused results pop up persisting through sideboarding, future games, into a Top 8 in match
• Fixed:  Limited deck building default sort is now converted mana cost
• Fixed:  Incorrect quantity overlay when dragging cards to sideboard
• Fixed:  Planechase is now available as format in Wide Beta
• Fixed:  Some issues with battlefield piling
• Fixed:  Issue with prompt highlighting
• Updated:  Presentation for a single creature blocking multiple creatures has been improved
• Added:  Holding 'm' while tapping mana sources with multiple abilities automatically chooses the first mana ability
• Updated:  Targets in a pile on the battlefield will move to indicate they have been targeted
• Fixed:  Issue with multiple abilities appearing to be on the stack in the incorrect order
• Fixed:  Issue with soul bonded pairs being split across rows
• Fixed:  Issue with misaligned counters on Garruk, the Veil-Cursed
• Fixed:  Issue where some tokens had rules text they should not have
• Fixed:  Display issue with Phyrexian mana symbols
• Fixed:  Fixed issue with disabling reminder text hiding abilities granted to creatures by other sources
• Added:  Watermark text to the Play Lobby search bar
• Fixed:  If a land becomes a creature and is then cloned, the clone will correctly move to land row
• Fixed:  Prompt text for Bioshift
• Fixed:  Can now open Event Details by double clicking on event in the Featured Tournaments in the Home Scene
• Fixed: Issue where joining an event temporarily causes the join progress bar to show and incorrect player total
• Fixed:  Issue where the Next Game button does not scale correctly with docked chat
• Fixed:  Toughness display issue with Fumiko, the Lowblood
• Fixed:  Update with large piles of cards on the battlefield resizing after any actions are taken
• Fixed:  Issue with Gatecrash set symbol
• Fixed:  Cards in hand now support dimming during spell casting/resolution
• Updated:  Styling pass on Game Details window
• Fixed:  Issue where underscores in user names were not displaying correctly
• Added:  Card dimming and highlighting to show cards associations in the Duel Scene
• Updated:  Moved Permitted Opponents and Allow Watchers to Players Option filter in Open Play Lobby
• Updated:  Allow Watchers option text
• Fixed:  Several issues involving morph cards and the functionality of F5 including displaying correct information and the order in which morph creatures are played. 
• Updated:  Leveler card display
• Fixed:  Issue with exiled cards still appearing under a card that has been destroyed/exiled and then returned to the battlefield
• Fixed:  Occasional issue where rapidly rearranging cards in hand attempts to cast or play a card
• Fixed:  Draft sorts cards in rarity order
• Fixed:  Targeting a player now displays a targeting pulse on the player details area
• Fixed:  Snow mana symbol is now correct
• Updated:  A single blocker that blocks multiple attackers can now order the attackers to assign damage
• Fixed:  2-player single elimination tournaments no longer display a time to next round when completed
• Fixed:  Issue with declined challenges taking players to the results of previous tournaments
• Updated:  Duel Scene now correctly remembers hand size
• Fixed:  Identical counters added to cards on the battlefield now stack as soon as there are two or more
• Updated:  Start time formatting for events
• Fixed:  Issue with incorrectly displaying power and toughness on animated lands
• Added:  Players can save limited decks to their collection
• Added:  Players can load limited decks they have saved during limited deck building and side boarding
• Fixed:  Redundant pop up that displayed a teammate's hand
• Updated:  Mana pool icons have highlighted states
• Fixed:  An display issue with exiled, shields, and revealed zones
• Updated:  Blocker row only opens if there are more than one possible blocker
• Updated:  Left click on a card to activate no longer brings up full tool tip, only context menu
• Fixed:  Issue where pairing a creature with soul bond to a creature in the pile can cause piling problems
• Updated:  When several cards go to the same game zone at the same time, only one alert is displayed
• Fixed:  An issue that can cause cards that should be highlighted to lose their highlight
• Fixed:  Mulitplayer games now seat players correctly
• Fixed:  Issue in Duel Scene where cards in floating windows were not being resized appropriately
• Fixed:  Watermark text is visible in search fields after resetting all filters

Collection and Trade

• Fixed: Issue where 'You Will Receive' got out of sync during trade
• Fixed: Several scenarios that allowed players to add unowned cards to trade binder
• Fixed:  Multi-select now works in List View
• Fixed:  List View persists when opening new decks
• Updated:  Sorting for multi-color cards
• Fixed:  Issue where collection would refresh when removing cards from deck or binder with certain filters active
• Fixed:  Issue that can cause some collections to load incredibly slowly
• Fixed:  Font on cards in deck options
• Fixed:  Issue when adjusting column width in list view not truncating words correctly
• Fixed:  Issue with format filtering when cards are also in selected format and Planeswalker format
• Fixed:  List view and quantity display in collection
• Updated: Import deck dialog design
• Fixed:  Issue with Trade button not registering clicks
• Updated:  Analysis in deck options now has color and mana curve displays
• Fixed:  Buddies drop down alignment in Trade scene
• Fixed:  Several small card set symbols
• Fixed:  Theme issues for Advanced Sort in Collection
• Fixed:  Issue where reset filters were not cleared
• Fixed:  Issue with multiple clients open not showing all card art
• Fixed:  Issue with zoomed cards showing outside of the game/client window
• Fixed:  Occasional issue where quantity in collection displayed a negative number
• Fixed:  Issue where Collection scroll bar is unable to scroll to bottom of the collection
• Fixed:  Collection no longer presents unusable sort options
• Fixed:  Corrected right click context menu for Trade Binders
• Fixed:  Players can now select and drag multiple cards to the "You Will Receive" pane in Trade
• Fixed:  Typo in deck confirmation dialog
• Updated:  Classified message box reduced in height
• Updated:  Styling pass on Trade Confirmation window
• Added:  Confirmation dialog when using Open button to open sealed product in collection
• Fixed:  Enter now confirms changes when editing deck names
• Updated:  Set and format list orders are now correct in filters
• Updated:  Sorting by Set now orders cards by set and collector number
• Updated:  Unified warning icon in deck building
• Updated:  Added foil indicator to cards in List View
• Fixed:  Players cannot edit the name of system deck folders
• Fixed:  Dragging cards from collection to a deck box opens the deck and adds the card to it
• Fixed:  Issue that caused split cards to lose their appearance when they are being dragged
• Updated:  Added format separators in format lists
• Fixed:  Rows in List View now highlight correctly
• Fixed:  Players can no longer duplicate deck categories
• Updated:  Players column formatting
• Fixed:  All versions of format legal cards now show when filtering by format
• Fixed:  Issue in list view that caused split cards to show incorrect data
• Fixed:  Right click context menu in Collection includes "Add All to Active Trade Binder"
• Fixed:  Issue with illegal cards in a deck not displaying in the card preview pane
• Updated:  Deck header in collection now displays deck name
• Added:  Players can now import binders
• Fixed:  Issue in collection where the large 'Add Deck' and 'Add Binder' buttons were not being displayed
• Fixed:  An issue that can cause context menus in the Trade scene to become unresponsive

Note: All times on or before March 9, are Pacific Standard Time (UTC -8 hours). All times on or after March 10, are Daylight Saving Time (UTC- 7 hours).

March Thursday Night Magic Online Promo Card
The first Thursday Night Magic Online events for March are this Thursday at 4:00 AM, 9:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and 7:00 PM. The TNMO promo card for March is an alternative art Forbidden Alchemy seen below. This week's format is Gatecrash Sealed. Learn more about TNMO here.

Duel Decks: Sorin vs Tibalt Releases Next Friday, March 15
Pick up the new Duel Deck next Friday in the Magic Online store. Sorin cares about the long-term survival of Innistrad’s humans, and Tibalt cares only for hearing their screams. Now you can settle the vicious feud between these rivals.

Pro Tour Dragon's Maze Qualifier
There are two Pro Tour Dragon's Maze Qualifiers this weekend. The first PTQ is Modern on Saturday, March 9, at 7:00 AM PST. The second PTQ is Modern on Sunday, March 10, at 7:00 AM PDT. Special note: the Sunday PTQ falls after Daylight Saving, we will "spring forward" an hour. Full list of PTQ Qualifiers here.

Unique Downtime Next Wednesday, March 13
Magic Online is having a major deployment featuring infrastructure updates which will cause the March 13 downtime to be extended. Magic Online will be down starting at 7:00 AM and will have a staggering start of key features lasting until 3:00 PM. We will be offering no entry, no prize, Phantom Queues for a couple of hours then we phase in queues with normal entry's and prizes, trades features, and the Magic Online store. We expect the whole downtime process to be done by 3:00 PM. Check out next week's blog post for full details.

Daylight Saving This Weekend
Reminder that Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 10, and we will "spring forward". This means that at 2:00 AM PST (UTC- 8) the time will become 3:00 AM PDT (UTC -7). This also means that there will be a gap in events for the skipped 2:00 AM hour. Make sure you plan accordingly.

Downtime Notes for Mar 6, 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 11:00 AM.
The downtime is expected to last approximately 2 hours.

This is a maintenance downtime, with a small bug fix.

General:

• Added: MOPR February 2013 promo card distribution.
• Fixed: Pillar of Flame and cards with similar exile effects have been corrected to once again exile when the damaged creature dies.

Note: All times on or before March 9, are Pacific Standard Time (UTC -8 hours). All times on or after March 10, are Daylight Saving Time (UTC- 7 hours).

Currently cards that damage creatures and then exile them when they die, such as Pillar of Flame, are not working correctly. We are aware of the issue and expect a fix to be deployed during the downtime on Wednesday, March 6.

The following list of cards are confirmed to be affected by this issue:

• Annihilating Fire
• Demonfire
• Pillar of Flame
• Red Sun's Zenith
• Yamabushi's Flame

Until a fix is deployed, we recommend that players use alternative cards in their decks when possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Note: All times are Pacific Standard Time (UTC -8 hours).

Magic Online Player Rewards for March 2013
Start earning your March 2013 Player Rewards promo cards after tomorrow's downtime. Reminder that March's season runs from February 27 to March 27 and the promo cards are Vampire Nighthawk and Cathedral of War. Learn more.

Magic Online Championship Series Season 2 Finals
The Season 2 Finals are Saturday, March 2, the event will be available to join in the Scheduled Events room after tomorrow's downtime. All players who have at least 35 Season 2 Qualifier Points can join and try to win an invitation to the 2013 Magic Online Championship to be held in 2014. Find out more information on the 2013 MOCS here.

Gatecrash Championship Sunday
Gatecrash Release Events Championship is at 10:00 AM on Sunday, March 3. Most Gatecrash Release Events end with tomorrow's downtime, so don't miss your chance to play and qualify for the Champs. Learn more about Gatecrash Release Events here.

Daylight Saving Next Weekend
Reminder that Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 10, and we will be "springing forward". This means that at 2:00 AM PST (UTC- 8) the time will become 3:00 AM PDT (UTC -7 hours). This also means that there will be a gap in events for the skipped 2:00 AM hour. Make sure you plan accordingly.

Downtime Notes for Feb 27, 2013
The system will go into "No Pay" at 12:00 AM.
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 features a build with general fixes and card rule fixes.

General:

• Fixed: No longer will the text from some cards incorrectly display in various text fields of other cards.
• Fixed: Onslaught Block fetch lands now have the correct dual color text boxes.
• Fixed: Planeswalkers' loyalty ability costs have been adjusted to be centered in the correct spot.

Card Rules:

• Fixed: Bane Alley Broker can no longer return Cipher cards that were encoded on it to its owner's hand.
• Fixed: Bioshift will now only trigger abilities that monitor counter placement once for each counter that is moved.
• Fixed: Hands of Binding will know which player is casting it from exile with Cipher triggers.
• Fixed: Aurelia's Fury has been fixed to not tap creatures that have had the damage from Aurelia's Fury prevented.
• Fixed: The emblem created by Domri Rade no longer gives your opponents' creatures hexproof.
• Fixed: Dinrova Horror now correctly causes the owner of the returned permanent to discard a card.
• Fixed: Emrakul can no longer intermittently be targeted by spells from Split Cards.
• Fixed: When a player concedes, face down Morph cards will correctly be revealed.
• Fixed: Dryad Militant no longer prevents the exiling replacement effect on Rest in Peace.
• Fixed: Search the City will now always correctly grant the player an extra turn when it is sacrified after the fifth card exiled with it is played.

Note: All times are Pacific Standard Time (UTC -8 hours).