Magic Online

Magic Online (abbreviated MOL, previously Magic: The Gathering Online, MTGO, or MODO) is the official means of playing Magic: The Gathering over the Internet. Wizards of the Coast launched it in 2002 with the release of Invasion and has since added each new set to its server as well. This causes Magic Online to have slightly different formats than paper Magic.

Magic Online requires digital cards. They are sold in booster packs just like in stores.

MTGO booster

The existence of online magic has resulted in several new types of formats like the Pauper Deck Challenge.

Online-only

Several Magic Online sets and cards are not available in paper Magic

Sets

• Masters Edition
• Masters Edition II
• Commander Theme Decks
• Masters Edition III
• Momir Basic Event Deck
• Masters Edition IV
• Vintage Masters

Card

• Gleemox

A Magic Online-only promo card that was given away with the announcement of the Gleemax project. They were distributed on Magic Online by Gleemax. The card only exists on Magic Online. It doesn't show up in gatherer because it's not a real-world card.

Avatars

Avatars are graphical representations of the player's persona or character. Avatar cards were used in casual Vanguard format games. You added one of them to your deck before play, and at the start of the game, the avatar card from your deck started in play for you and applies the modifications listed on it. Starting with Zendikar, rules text and hand size/life total modifications for vanguard avatars was discontinued. You may continue to play the vanguard format with previously avatars. Both old and new avatars can still be used to represent you in-game.

DCI-Sanctioned Tournaments

• Freeform: all sets and cards are allowed. Regular deckbuilding rules are relaxed.
• Classic: all sets and cards are allowed. Normal deckbuilding rules do apply.
• Prismatic: each deck must contain at least 250 cards, including at least 20 cards of each color.
• Singleton: with the exception of basic land cards, a player’s combined deck and sideboard may not contain more than one of any individual card.
• Tribal Wars: emphasizes creature combat: one-third of every deck must be of a single creature type.
• Momir Basic: based on the “Momir Vig” Vanguard avatar.

Community Cup

See also: Magic Online Community Cup.

The Magic Online Community Cup is a yearly invitation-only tournament, first held in 2009, in which a group of Wizards of the Coast compete against a group of eight or twelve Magic players selected via a voting system in Magic Online.

Issues and controversies

Invasion block shortage

As Invasion block was one of the first sets released on Magic Online, cards of the block are in short supply as the user base was very small at the time.

Judgment spoiler

Due to a mistake, the entirety of Judgment was spoiled via Magic Online when the set was released in the Software too early. This has led to the release of Sets on Magic Online to be several weeks after the release of the physical product.

Instability and removal of premier events

In November of 2013, after suffering a tournament loss by experiencing technical issues on Magic Online, Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame member Brian Kibler aired his frustration in an article on StarCityGames entitled "The Magic Online Championship Series should not exist". As this server instability and the inability to restore Magic Online Tournaments to certain states have been a longstanding issue, this led to the suspension several types of high profile types of events which have been slowly phased back in since. In July, 2014, a new client was launched.

External Links

• Magic Online Official Site