Magic Online Announcements, January 26, 2021

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QUICK LINKS

Kaldheim Update

Treasure Chest Update

Kaldheim Season Alternate Play Calendar

Modern Super Qualifier Saturday

Vintage Masters Flashback Ends Thursday

Magic Online Format Challenges Every Weekend

Downtime January 27

KALDHEIM UPDATE

Downtime: Magic Online will be offline starting 9 a.m. Pacific time (UTC-8) on Wednesday, January 27. We expect this downtime to last until approximately noon that same day.

Legality: Kaldheim will become legal in all formats immediately, including any reprints. This may add cards to Standard or Modern. Please note that since the new Treasure Chest collation contains cards from Kaldheim, a small quantity may be in the system and legal for use before Kaldheim events begin.

Treasure Chests: All Treasure Chests will be updated to the new Treasure Chest collation when we come up from downtime. Please see the Treasure Chest page for full details. With Kaldheim, there's a significant update regarding the contents of the Curated sheet.

Redemption: Redemption will be available for Kaldheim.

• Kaldheim redemption will begin on February 24.
• Kaldheim redemption's availability guarantee will expire on May 12. After that, redemption will be available only as supplies last.
• Kaldheim redemption will end completely on June 16.

Set Avatars: Kaldheim will have five avatars: one given to new accounts and contained within the Deck Builder's Essentials, one unique to the Treasure Chest, and three Prestige avatars.

• New accounts will receive the Planeswalking to Kaldheim avatar

• There is a 1% chance in each Treasure Chest to open the Infernal Pet avatar.

• Prestige Avatars will be granted at the end of Kaldheim season using the same system as in previous seasons: each Competitive Trophy earned counts as five points, and each Friendly Trophy earned counts as one point.
  • Players with 5 points or more will get the Tyvar Kell Prestige Avatar.
  • Players with 20 points or more will also get the Niko Aris Prestige Avatar.
  • Players with 40 points or more will also get the Kaya the Inexorable Prestige Avatar.

TREASURE CHEST UPDATE

For this Treasure Chest update, we're changing things up a good amount on the Curated sheet. The most significant change that you'll see is that booster packs now appear on the list, and with a Relative Drop Rate notably higher than cards. For another thing, we're reducing the number of slots overall, and this means dropping a lot of cards out of chests. Most format staples (and a few other cards) remain, so there's no need to worry too much. And we've increased the number of full sets on the Curated sheet as well. We've also increased the mean number of Play Points in a chest, as well. To compensate, you'll get something from the Curated sheet less often than previously, but when you do, it's much more likely to be exciting.

Because the changes to the contents are so significant (a change list would be longer than the list of what's there), we will not be posting a change list at this time.

The complete contents of the new Treasure Chest can be found on the Treasure Chest page.

KALDHEIM SEASON ALTERNATIVE PLAY CALENDAR

For Kaldheim season's alternative play, we have quite the variety for you. Please note that events change over from one week to the next on Wednesday mornings and last for one week unless specified otherwise.

• February 3: Triple Khans Flashback. Tarkir at its best: five clans of three colors, powerful creatures hidden face-down as morphs, and infinite possibilities.
• February 10: David McDarby's Live the Dream Spotlight Cube returns. New set, new dreams. Don't let them be memes.
• February 17: Modern Horizons Encore. The set everyone loves, and back for one week only. This is an Encore Draft, not a Flashback, which means you'll keep the cards you draft!
• February 24: Ultimate Masters Flashback. One of the most underplayed yet incredibly fun Draft environments returns for a week.
• March 3: Vintage Cube. We've got a three-week run of this classic experience from March 3 until March 24. March is a little unusual for this cube, but . . . well, we live in unusual times. Life's too short not to have a little more Vintage Cube.
• March 24: Time Spiral Remastered Supreme Draft. Time Spiral Remastered comes out on March 19, but before everyone has mastered this remaster, let's draft some truly absurd decks.
• March 31: A new Spotlight Cube. As usual, we'll have more to share when we get closer.
• April 7: Another new Spotlight Cube. Again, details will come as the event approaches.

MODERN SUPER QUALIFIER SATURDAY

On Saturday, January 30, there will be a Modern Super Qualifier with a start time of 7 a.m. PT! The entry fee is 40 MOCS Qualifier Points, 40 Event Tickets, or 400 Play Points. The top two finishers qualify for the Kaldheim Championship on MTG Arena.

Learn more about Super Qualifier events here.

VINTAGE MASTERS FLASHBACK ENDS THURSDAY

One of the most popular Draft formats of all time is back to round out Zendikar Rising season. We're doing a week of Vintage Masters flashbacks. This Phantom League will run January 20–28—entry and prize details can be found 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 Premier Play qualification, click here.

Magic Online's Format Challenges now run once on Saturdays and once on Sundays for each Constructed format! 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. NOTE: The Pauper Challenge is never pre-empted.

Check out this page for further event details.

DOWNTIME JANUARY 27

The next downtime will be January 27, beginning at 9 a.m. and continuing until noon. This is for the release of Kaldheim. All times listed are Pacific time (UTC-8).