Magic Invitational

For the 2019 event, see Mythic Invitational.

The Magic Invitational Tournament used to be an annual Magic: The Gathering tournament where the sixteen best players of the past year are invited to duel in various formats.

Description

The played formats usually were specialty formats that were never played in other officially sanctioned tournaments, e.g. Auction of the People, and sometimes were experimental or specifically created for the tournament. Mark Rosewater also sometimes designed special stickered cards for these formats. In 2000 he recosted existing cards. Played formats were switched every few rounds. The tournament itself was Round Robin, meaning that every player plays each other at least once.

After the Round Robin portion was completed, the best two players played a finale which usually consisted of an array of formats previously played in the tournament. The winner of the tournament was allowed to design a card that would see printing on a later date after Research & Development had its input on it to make it feasible for a Magic set. The artwork of the designed card featured the likeness of the tournament's winner.

The tournament started in 1997 and was held until 2007, but hasn't been held since. As part of the Organized Play Department's refocusing on grassroots programs, the Invitational was cut from the schedule.

Invitationals returned in another form with the 2019 Mythic Invitational, but these didn't feature specially designed cards for the winner. However, 2019 also saw the introduction of Player Spotlights in Throne of Eldraine. These are similar to the Invitational Cards but depict the current World Champion instead.

Magic Invitational winners and their cards

Season	Winner	Card
1996-97	Olle Råde	Sylvan Safekeeper (Judgment)
1997-98	Darwin Kastle	Avalanche Riders (Urza's Legacy)
1998-99	Mike Long	Rootwater Thief (Nemesis)
1999-2000	Chris Pikula	Meddling Mage (Planeshift)
2000-01	Jon Finkel	Shadowmage Infiltrator (Odyssey)
2001-02	Kai Budde	Voidmage Prodigy (Onslaught)
2002-03	Jens Thoren	Solemn Simulacrum (Mirrodin)
2003-04	Bob Maher	Dark Confidant (Ravnica: City of Guilds)
2005	Terry Soh	Rakdos Augermage (Dissension)
2006	Antoine Ruel	Ranger of Eos (Shards of Alara)
2007	Tiago Chan	Snapcaster Mage (Innistrad)

• Note: Even though Olle Rade won the first Invitational, his card was only the fifth card by an Invitational winner to be published. This was due to the circumstances that Rade quit Magic rather soon after the tournament without asking for his prize. He later made a comeback and asked Wizards of the Coast if he could still get his prize for this Tournament. Wizards agreed under the condition that Rade, who had since shaven his head, would be depicted in the Art with the long blond hair he had when he won the tournament.

Public voted Invitational cards

In addition, during the 2005 Tournament Wizards of the Coast held a public vote among the users of their website for the most popular card among the submissions which would also be printed after going through the usual R&D process but without featuring the winner in the art. The winning card was submitted by Tsuyoshi Fujita and was eventually turned into Gemstone Caverns.

Formats Used, By Year

As mentioned, Invitationals used a variety of usual and unusual formats. These were:

Year	Formats Used
February 1997	Standard Type 1.5 Restricted Highlander - one copy maximum per card, any card banned in either major format (Type 1 = Legacy, Type 2 = Standard) was banned. Vintage New York Style - Each deck had to contain at least 4 cards from Unlimited and from each of the 10 expansion sets released at that point, except Homelands. "New York Style" refers to the inaugural Pro Tour New York 1996, which, in a ham-fisted attempt to ensure Homelands, the newest set, was played in the tournament, the Standard rules were amended to require 5 cards per set released to date to appear in each decklist (main deck or sideboard). Sealed Deck (presumably Mirage/Visions) Solomon Draft: Two-player draft format in the style of Fact or Fiction. Backdraft: Rather than building a deck out of the pool of cards you drafted, you build one from the cards your opponent drafted. All cards drafted must be played though the player chooses lands.
January 1998	Standard Extended New York Style - Each deck had to contain at least 4 cards from The Dark, Fallen Empires, Ice Age, Homelands, Alliances, Mirage, Visions, Weatherlight, and Tempest. Mystery Constructed - format announced only three weeks before the event. It was Mirage-Visions-Weatherlight-Tempest 'block' with Vanguard; Squandered Resources was banned. Duplicate Sealed - all players received the same card pool to construct their decks from. Solomon Draft
February 1999	Standard Vintage Refined Extended (New York Style-ish) - Exactly 5 cards from each set which was then in Extended - Fifth Edition, Fourth Edition, Chronicles, Urza’s Saga, Exodus, Stronghold, Tempest, Weatherlight, Visions, Mirage, Alliances, Homelands, Ice Age, Fallen Empires, and The Dark. Duplicate Sealed Urza's Block Draft - Urza's Saga/Urza's Legacy/Urza's Legacy
March 2000	Standard Vintage Block Party - deck must be legal in any one block format from Ice Age, Mirage, Tempest, Urza's, and Mercadian Masques blocks Duplicate Sealed - card pool was intentionally low quality and contained never-printed cards Solomon Draft
November 2000	Vintage Bring Your Own Block Auction of Champions - players bid starting life and hand size for the decks which had won each World Championship and Pro Tour to date Duplicate Sealed - cards modified from printed costs Solomon Draft
October 2001	Standard 5-Color Ante - 300-card decks, at least 25 cards of each color, played with ante rules. Winner of the round was highest monetary value of ante cards won. Auction of the People - 17 decks were auctioned from 3732 entries to the prompt "decks themed around creature types" Duplicate Sealed - all cards in the pool had a converted mana cost of 1. Never-printed cards were again added to the sealed pool. Odyssey Rotisserie Draft
October 2002	This was the first year of the Invitational being played in Magic Online, and strange formats were therefore limited. Standard Extended Auction of the People - All deck submissions had to be alphabet-themed; had to have at least one word per card name starting with a chosen letter Two-Headed Giant Draft Onslaught Rochester Draft
May 2004	Mirrodin Block Constructed Online Extended - This allowed cards from 7th Edition and Invasion block forward to the most recent set (Darksteel). While Tempest block, Urza's block, Masques block, and Sixth Edition were legal in Extended, they were excluded due to their absence in Magic Online. Auction of the People - All deck submissions had to use the same artist for all cards beyond basic lands. Eighth Edition Rochester Draft Pack Draft - sixteen-player Rochester Draft where the picks are not cards, but packs; each player then opened their five packs and constructed a deck via Sealed Deck rules. The 80 packs were 6 each of the 13 sets of Online Extended, plus a 7th pack from7th and 8th Editions.
May 2005	Vanguard Sealed Deck - Champions/Betrayers of Kamigawa Online Extended Standard Auction of the People - Each deck had to have a certain word appear on every card, whether as rules text, reminder text, flavor text, name, or typeline. This year's bidding began at 8 cards and 25 life, rather than 7/20 like past years. Invasion Block Draft - (while listed as 'IPA Draft', this did not have anything to do with beers on tap)
May 2006	Duplicate Sealed - themed around an abundance of card drawing and cards which punished card draw Auction of the Geniuses - Classic with Vanguard; each of 18 famous deck designers was given a Vanguard Avatar and told to design a deck. Mirage/Visions Draft - these were newly available on Magic Online at the time Block Party returned, with considerably more block options than in 2000; Invasion (Domain), Odyssey (UG Madness), and Onslaught (Goblins) featured heavily; Affinity (Mirrodin) did not, as it followed the final ban list for the block.
October 2007	This year, the Invitational returned to paper Magic Auction of the People - each deck had to have at least one card starting with each letter of the alphabet Vintage Cube - designed by Aaron Forsythe; its contents at the time are visible here Make Your Own Standard - any two blocks plus any core set from Fifth Edition forward Winston Draft - Lorwyn