Buried in today’s Players Tour and Magic Rivals League announcements was the revealation that the Magic Pro League’s Eldraine Split will begin on October 5, 2018.
This means that the Eldraine Split will kick off just three weeks after the Core Split ends on September 14. The Eldraine Split’s division winners will advance directly to Day 2 of Mythic Championship VII in December, 2019.
Magic Pro League Updates
Two weeks ago, Wizards of the Coast made significant changes to the way the the Magic Pro League’s splits would work. Each Split has been reduced to four weeks from five, and each MPL division will now play its entire divisional schedule in its own dedicated week. That week will feature a round robin tournament in the first half of the week, and then a Top 4 double-elimination bracket that will be broadcast every Saturday on MPL Weekly.
Today, Wizards also announced that it was reducing the Magic Pro League to 24 players from its original 32, starting with the shortened 2020 season. It is also adding in a promotion/relegation system by creating the Magic Rivals League, which will act as a sort of a minor league for the Magic Pro League. It will feature 46 players vying for a chance to be promoted to the Magic Pro League, while the bottom four (places 21-24) of the Magic Pro League at the end of the season will be automatically demoted to the Magic Rivals League for the next season, and the next bottom four (places 17-20) will have to compete in the Magic Pro League Gauntlet to make it back into the MPL.
