ChannelFireball has revealed the formats for the final three months of Grand Prix events in 2019.
There will be four Limited Grand Prix in October following the release of “Archery,” Magic’s upcoming Fall expansion set, on October 4, 2019. Standard dominates the rest of the Q4 2019 Grand Prix schedule, with six total Grand Prix, while Modern, which has been a major focus of the first seven months of 2019, will only have a single event.
The Legacy format will be featured at Grand Prix Bologna in Italy on November 30, 2019. ChannelFireball had come under fire for scheduling the only Legacy Grand Prix in the first nine months of 2019 on Easter weekend in Niagara Falls, NY. Another Legacy Grand Prix will be on September 20, 2019 in Atlanta, GA, making Grand Prix Bologna the third Legacy Grand Prix of 2019, but the only one that will be held in Europe.
An Historic or Pauper Grand Prix in December?
Interestingly, Grand Prix Portland on December 21, 2019 will be a to-be-determined Constructed format. There is some speculation that it could be a tabletop event featuring the recently-revealed Historic format that will come MTG Arena this Fall, which will only use cards from Ixalan forward. However, Wizards has given no indication that Historic will be anything but an MTG Arena-only format.
A more likely possibility is that Grand Prix Portland could be the first Pauper Grand Prix. Wizards announced on Thursday that it was making Pauper an official format and unifying the disparate Magic Online and tabletop card pools into a single format. Planning a Puaper Grand Prix for the end of the year would give Wizards more than five months to monitor the new Pauper metagame and make any necessary bannings before holding a major event featuring the format.