Magic Online Announcements, May 7, 2019

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New Play Lobby Beta

Vintage Cube Returns May 15

Modern Horizons June 6

Magic Online Championship

Afternoon Limited MCQ Friday

Standard MCQ Finals Saturday

Modern MOCS Preliminary Sunday

Magic Online Format Challenges Every Weekend

Downtime June 5

Build Notes

New Play Lobby Beta

The time has finally come—be the first to use our new Play Lobby Beta to join events! Our goal with this update is simple: we want to make it much quicker to find and join the events and games you want without asking you to work through inscrutable menus and option lists.

To sign up for the Beta, click here. The deadline for New Play Lobby Beta signup is 12 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8.

Vintage Cube Returns May 15

That's right! Vintage Cube is almost back, and it's nothing like any other cube out there. It's simply overflowing with iconic cards from Magic's entire 25-year history, and you can draft the super-deck of your dreams when it arrives May 15. Until then, enjoy plenty of play with War of the Spark.

Modern Horizons June 6

Modern Horizons is on the horizon. Expect more details on the arrival of this new set in the coming weeks and as soon as previews start on May 19.

Magic Online Championship

The wait is almost over—24 qualified players from the 2018 Magic Online Championship Series will battle for a $200,000 prize pool! The Magic Online Championship takes place Friday–Sunday, May 17–19 at Wizards' HQ in Renton, Washington.

Formats for the event include War of the Spark Draft, plus both Standard and Modern Constructed. Live video coverage will be provided by the Vintage Super League team of Randy Buehler and Athena Froehlich at twitch.tv/magic at 10 a.m. Friday, 8 a.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. Sunday.

Afternoon Limited MCQ Friday

On Friday, May 10, there will be a Limited MCQ Finals at 3 p.m. PT. This time change is a test for our ongoing effort to identify how best to serve our player base and accommodate different schedules. If the event does well, we'll likely continue to run events in this time slot occasionally going forward.

The set will be War of the Spark, and the event will cost 1 Limited MCQ Finals Token. The winner will receive an invitation to Mythic Championship Barcelona.

Learn more about Mythic Championship Qualifier events here.

Standard MCQ Finals Saturday

On Saturday, May 11, there will be a Standard MCQ Finals at 9 a.m. PT. The event will cost 30 Event Tickets or 300 Play Points. The winner will receive an invitation to Mythic Championship Barcelona.

Learn more about Mythic Championship Qualifier events here.

Modern MOCS Preliminary Sunday

On Sunday, May 12, there will be a Magic Online Championship Series Preliminary event for the 2019 MOCS! The format will be Modern, and things will kick off at 7 a.m. PT. MOCS Preliminaries are eight rounds of Swiss and require 35 Qualifier Points to enter. Winners will receive (among other prizes) an invitation to the MOCS Playoff event on July 13.

Learn more about MOCS events here.

Magic Online Format Challenges Every Weekend

Format challenges are the first step toward qualifying for premier play through your favorite Magic formats. To learn more about Format Focus events and premier play qualification, click here.

The Magic Online Format Challenges continue every weekend for Modern, Vintage, Legacy, and Pauper formats except when replaced by Format Playoffs during scheduled Format Playoff dates.

Pacific Daylight Time (-7 from UTC)

Check out this page for further event details.

Downtime June 5

The next downtime will be June 5, 3 a.m.–noon PT/-7 from UTC. This is the Modern Horizons content update, and the following downtime on Tuesday, July 2, will be for the Core Set 2020 release.

Build Notes

Standard | Cry of the Carnarium can no longer exile creatures that died many turns ago.

Replay | The game no longer crashes for a spectator when a player submits their sideboard.

Collection | The load time for planeswalker art assets has been improved.

General | Attacking with a creature that has provoke can no longer reset the game.

Limited | Band Together no longer gives incorrect text in the prompt box if only one friendly creature is targeted.

Duel Scene | Auto-Pass (F8/8) no longer passes priority when there is floating mana and a spell with unique ways of paying costs such as delve in the player's hand.