Magic Online Announcements, May 15, 2018

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Every Tuesday, we round up all of the biggest Magic Online news for the Weekly Announcements Blog.

Check in weekly for the latest updates!

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Lorwyn Flashbacks Start Tomorrow

MOCS Monthly Event Saturday

PTQ Finals Event Sunday

MOCS Playoff Now Aug. 11

Watch for Tomorrow's News

Team Vintage Super League Thursday

Redemption News

Changes to Brawl

Build Notes

Magic Online Format Challenges Every Weekend

Downtimes and May 30 and June 27

Lorwyn Flashbacks Start Tomorrow

Get ready for all the tribal shenanigans you can handle! Lorwyn Flashback Drafts start tomorrow, May 16, on Magic Online. Just remember: that Shapeshifter may look like an alien made of jelly, but it is definitely a Treefolk. And also a Goblin. It's a weird and wonderful world.

You can find the Lorwyn Flashback Drafts in the Limited Leagues section of the Play Lobby, May 16–22, and players may enter with any of the following options: 10 Event Tickets; 2 Lorwyn boosters + 2 Event Tickets; or 100 Play Points.

MOCS Monthly Event Saturday

A Magic Online Championship Series Monthly Event will take place this Saturday, May 19. The format will be Standard, and the tournament will begin at 7 a.m. PT. Players can enter with 35 Qualifier Points, and top finishers will qualify for the (recently rescheduled) MOCS Playoff Event on August 11.

Learn more about the MOCS and see the full schedule here.

PTQ Finals Event Sunday

Sunday, May 20, brings a Pro Tour Qualifier Finals Event to Magic Online, beginning at 7 a.m. PT. The format will be Dominaria Sealed Deck. A red or blue PTQ Finals Entry Token is required to join the event, and top finishers will qualify for Pro Tour "Spaghetti."

Learn more about Magic Online PTQs here.

MOCS Playoff Now Aug. 11

The Magic Online Championship Series Playoff Event previously scheduled for July 28 has been rescheduled, and now will take place on August 11. Mark your calendars!

Watch for Tomorrow's News

Keep an eye on MTGO.com tomorrow for an article by Alli Medwin introducing an exciting new event series to Magic Online. We can't tell you exactly what that is just yet, but we're pretty sure you're going to like it!

Team Vintage Super League Thursday

Get your weekly dose of ridiculously complex, powerful Magic every Thursday evening. The team-based deck-building rules and tournament structure make it even more interesting and unpredictable. You don't have to play (or even understand) Vintage to enjoy TVSL—in fact, it's a great way to learn more about Magic's most complicated format!

TVSL will air each Thursday at 6 p.m. on twitch.tv/magic. Learn more about it (and see who's playing) here.

Redemption News

Redemptions requests for Dominaria will be available in the Magic Online store starting Monday, May 21, at 9 a.m. PT. Please make sure you have all the relevant cards in your collection before purchasing the request. Redemption orders are processed Tuesday mornings at 3 a.m. PT. As previously announced, the Dominaria redemptions are guaranteed to be available for fifteen weeks (through September 5), with a redemption cutoff five weeks later (October 10). Rivals of Ixalan redemption sets are currently out of stock but are being reprinted since they are still within the redemption guarantee window. We don't have a firm ETA yet, but we anticipate that it will be around six to eight weeks before they are available in the MTGO store again.

Changes to Brawl

In case you missed it, last week Gavin Verhey announced some changes that are coming to Brawl. Based on early gameplay data and lots of player feedback, we're making a few tweaks to ensure that Brawl remains a fun, healthy, dynamic format. In order to implement these changes, we're suspending Brawl events for the time being, as of tomorrow (Wednesday, May 16)—but never fear! Brawl will be back, and better than ever.

Build Notes

General | If you select “Yield Until Here” on the phase bar, it no longer will carry over to subsequent games.

General | The storm counter has returned.

General | Apathy no longer prevents the game from proceeding, I guess.

Cube | Mana Bloom can now be activated on an opponent's turn.

Cube | Puppeteer Clique now correctly only exiles the targeted creature at the beginning of your end step.

Standard, Limited | If Squee, the Immortal loses all abilities then goes to the graveyard, you are now able to cast it from there.

Standard | Eager Construct is eager to let both players scry again.

Standard, Modern | Gideon of the Trial’s emblem now correctly prevents players from winning with “You win the game” effects such as Approach of the Second Sun.

Modern | Dubious Challenge can no longer dubiously reset the game.

Modern, Legacy | Merfolk Trickster no longer sets the power and toughness of Tarmogoyf to 0/0.

Modern, Legacy | An issue with cards such as Leyline of Sanctity preventing the game from proceeding has been fixed.

Commander | Kess, Dissident Mage no longer allows players to cast spells from their graveyard during an opponent’s turn.

Commander | Curse of [autocard]Shallow Graves[/autocard] no longer creates animated zombie swamps, and now just creates regular zombies.

Magic Online Format Challenges Every Weekend

The Magic Online Format Challenges continue every weekend for Modern, Vintage, 1v1 Commander, Legacy, and Pauper formats. (For the time being, we are not running Brawl challenges while we make some tweaks to the format.)

Pacific Daylight Time (-7 from UTC)

Check out this page for further event details.

Downtimes and May 30 and June 27

The next two downtimes will be May 30 (extended), 3 a.m.–noon PT/-7 from UTC; and June 27 (extended), 3 a.m.–noon PT/-7 from UTC.