Wizards of the Coast has finally revealed the format for its upcoming Mythic Invitational at PAX East on March 28-31 in Boston, MA. The tournament will feature 64 players and pay out a total of $1 million—$250,000 to the winner all the way down to $7,500 just for getting invited. It will be played on MTG Arena and streamed live on twitch.tv/magic.
The Invited Players
The 64 players at the Mythic Invitational will include 31 of the 32 members of the Magic Pro League. Rei Sato was originally invited as a member of the MPL but was uninvited after being disqualified at Grand Prix Prague in January of this year for opportunistically cheating.
Those 31 players will be joined by 25 special invitees, ranging from Pro Tour winners Andrew Elenbogen and Wyatt Darby, to fan favorites Luis Scott-Vargas and Jason “Amaz” Chan. They are:
- Andrew Elenbogen (Aje8)
- Jason Chan (amaz)
- Amy Demicco (Amyzonian)
- Audrey Zoschak (AnnaMae)
- Autumn Burchett (AutumnLilyMTG)
- Cedric Phillips (Celldweller)
- Gaby Spartz (GabySpartz)
- Jessica Estephan (Jessica)_
- Luca Van Deun (Legend)
- Luis Scott-Vargas (LSV)
- Maria Fernanda Quintero Solano (MaferMTG)
- Connagh Hawkins (Merchant)
- Brittany Hamilton (MTGNerdGirl)
- Ashley Espinoza (Muffinpastrypie)
- Kenji Egashira (Nummy)
- Sheila Weidman (Pterodactylsftw)
- Janne Mikkonen (savjz)
- Jeffrey Brusi (Sjow)
- Allison Maino (Skybilz)
- David Nguyen (TheAsianAvenger)
- Thijs Molendijk (Thijsss)
- Matthew Moreno (Thundermo)
- Jamie Rigatti (Topples)
- Wyatt Darby (wd40rocks)
- Gabriel Nassif (Yellowhat)
That means only 56 of the 64 spots have been filled. The remaining eight invites will be given to the top eight Constructed players on MTG Arena during the month of February. The Top 100 players will be posted every week and the final standings will be set at 12 PM Pacific/3 PM Eastern on Thursday, February 28. The eight invitees will be notified a few days later on Monday, March 4.
A New Format: Duo Standard
The Mythic Invitational will feature a brand new MTG Arena format: Duo Standard.
The format will require players to submit two separate Standard-legal decks. The two decks can be exactly the same 60 cards or two completely different decks, but won’t include sideboards. (Unless you’re playing something like Mastermind’s Acquisition.)
Players will play a best of three match, but their initial deck choice will be randomized for Game 1, as will who plays first. For Game 2, both players will play their second deck (the deck not played in Game 1) and the player who played second in Game 1 will play first in Game 2. Should Game 3 be necessary, both players are able to choose whichever of their two decks they’d like to play and the player who goes first will again be determined randomly.
Tournament Structure
The players will be split into four groups of 16 players and will play double elimination tournaments on Thursday, March 28 and Friday, March 29, until four players from each group remain. Those 16 players will play another double elimination tournament on Saturday, March 30, and the four remaining players will play yet another double elimination bracket on Sunday, March 31, to determine the winner.