Greetings Casters and welcome to Snowshade Organized Play!
We’re here to give you all the details for both In-Store and Online play, with a new season starting today. This article will have a ton of information, so we have a table of contents for you!
We’re thrilled with how stores and players connected with the game and our OP systems during Sunstrike, so we’re not making major changes, but we have a few tweaks to help improve quality of life. Before that, though, let’s cover some basic terms.
- An Organized Play Season is a period of competitive play that matches up with a set release. For Snowshade, this season starts on October 2nd and runs until mid-February 2027. (End date will be confirmed later in the season)
- Organized Play Packs or “OP Packs” are the special LGS-exclusive packs you earn from playing in local events.
- Qualifier Points are the points you need to qualify for the World Championship! 250 QP earns you an invite and additional points can earn you travel stipends.
- Folk Hero points are earned by playing in events at stores. Earn enough and you will earn exclusive goodies for yourself AND for your local community!
- Divine Favor points are earned by playing in events throughout the season. This includes local events AND online events.
IN-STORE PLAY
WEEKLY EVENTS
Weekly local play is the cornerstone of Elestrals Organized Play and community! Once a week, your local store can run an event at the “League” level. These events provide an exclusive Organized Play pack to all players and an additional pack to the winner. These events are also eligible to earn seasonal points such as Folk Hero and Divine Favor. Meet other players, compete to be the best of your group, and (most importantly) have fun!
However, beyond weekly play, we have major events that occur once per expansion!
MAJOR EVENTS
We have three major store events every expansion: Prerelease, Set Celebration, and Store Championships. These events reward seasonal points and they also have lots of other cool goodies.
PRERELEASE
Prerelease is our best way to pick up the game and the first tournament of Snowshade! Prerelease is coming SOON between October 9th and October 18th. Check this article for all currently known Prerelease events. All Prerelease competitors will receive THIS Morphost - Draco Form | Champion of Hades for entering.
SET CELEBRATION
Set Celebration is our post-launch elevated Casual tournament. For Snowshade, stores will be able to schedule this event between November 27th and December 17th, 2026. All participants will receive 10 Qualifier Points for entering and the winner will receive this sweet Pterrostar - Champion of Athena playmat.
While previous Set Celebration formats had restricted formats in an attempt to make starter decks feel more level with the playing field, this hasn’t worked in practice. Snowshade Set Celebration will have the same format as other constructed events and will not have any unique rules. Bring your favorite deck and have a good time!
STORE CHAMPIONSHIP
Store Championship events are our most competitive in-store event. These reward special promos and Premier level packs to all entrants along with prize cards and Qualifier Points for high finishes. Snowshade Store Championships can be scheduled between January 1st and January 21st, 2027, right after the scheduled Snowshade Tartarus window. (More on that in a little bit.)
All players will receive a Schnark, Champion of Athena and the winner will receive this Jawblin, Champion of Athena!
Much like last season, Qualifier Points will be awarded based on placement for events of 4 or more players:
- 75 QP for 1st place
- 50 QP for 2nd place
- 35 QP for 3rd-4th place
- 20 QP for 5th-8th place
If your Store Championship has less than 4 players, all participants will receive a flat 10 QP instead.
New! As an adjustment to the previous system, players can now accumulate QP from multiple events up to a ceiling of 75 QP for the Snowshade season. Previously, players only received points for their highest finishing event. Let’s illustrate this with an example:
- In Sunstrike, a player who finished 2nd once (50 QP) and 3rd once (35 QP) would only receive 50 points for their highest finish.
- Now, in Snowshade, a player who finishes 2nd once (50 QP) and 3rd once (35 QP) combines their points from all finishes. This player would hit the cap and earns 75 QP.
We hope this pays off for those of you who plan on traveling to multiple events!
IN-STORE REWARDS
We’ve mentioned both Folk Hero and Divine Favor multiple times this article, so we should remind you about how they work.
FOLK HERO
Folk Hero is a system that rewards you for playing games at a local store. For any weekly League or major events with more than 3 players, entrants will receive 100 points for playing and 20 additional points per match win. (Events with 2 or 3 players will instead earn 50 participation points and no match win points.) These points are specific to each store and are automatically tracked for any players who play at least two rounds of the event.
If you earn 800 points, you get a special promo that’s sent to the store for you to pick up at the end of the season. For Sunstrike, it was this adorable Gem Frame Noxid.
If you’re the #1 Folk Hero player at your store at the end of the season, you get an EXCLUSIVE Series Champion playmat. For Sunstrike, this Gem Frame Sulfury is already flying to your store:
You can check out the Folk Hero leaderboard at any time on the Elestrals Play Network, either from your Profile or from any Store Hub.
New! Starting in Snowshade, you can do both your weekly League event AND one of the major seasonal events in the same week and earn Folk Hero points for both!
New! Players are now rewarded points at the conclusion of their second played match instead of at the start of the third round. If a player goes 0-2 drop, they will receive their points for entry.
So what are you playing for in Snowshade? For the Folk Hero promo, it’s this awesome Blazerus - Champion of Hades!
And if you’re on the quest for #1 on the leaderboard, you could earn this incredible Gem Frame Sinistrex playmat:
Earn points as soon as October 2nd!
STORE LEVELS
In addition to rewarding players, we want to reward communities that come together to build up their stores. That’s where Store Levels come in.
Any store that has 5 or more players with 800+ Folk Hero points at the end of the season will be a Holo Store!
- Folk Hero players at these stores will earn double the promo cards (two per person instead of one).
- The store will receive a free Booster Box (from the next expansion), which they can use it however they like.
Any store that has 10 or more players with 800+ Folk Hero points at the end of the season will be a STELLAR STORE!
- Folk Hero players will receive triple the promos (three per person)!
- The store will receive TWO Free Booster Boxes (from the next expansion).
- The store will receive official “Stellar Store” branding and an Uncut Sheet to display.
- We’ll also provide the store with exclusive “Winner’s Packs” - only one (1) per week will be distributed to the winner of locals each week!.
These Winner’s Packs are going out to the top 20 stores from the Sunstrike season. These packs each have a spirit and 2 FULL ART versions of cards from the regular Organized Play 6 packs. For example, take a look at both versions of Pandora’s Box:
These promos, boxes, and packs are on their way already with your store’s prerelease materials!
UNIVERSAL REWARDS
DIVINE FAVOR
Divine Favor is similar to Folk Hero, but instead of rewarding you for playing at a specific store, it rewards you for just playing Elestrals, either in person or online!
- Earn 100 points for entering and 20 points for winning a match in any League or higher event with 4+ people
- New: Players cannot earn more than 1600 Divine Favor from a single store per season.
- Earn 50 points for entering any Elestrals Webcam Casual
- Updated! Earn 400 points for entering and 40 points for winning a match in any Premier level event
At the end of a competitive season:
- Any player with 1600 Divine Favor points or more will receive an exclusive Marble Promo Card. (There is no maximum number of players that can earn this.)
- The Top 32 players on the Divine Favor leaderboard will each receive an additional Gold Marble version of the same Promo Card.
- 3rd Place will receive one (1) Booster Box (from the current set), 2nd Place will receive two (2) Booster Boxes, and 1st Place will receive three (3) Booster Boxes. These three players will also receive an Uncut Sheet of the latest Elestrals TCG expansion.
- All of these will be mailed directly to players (at no additional charge).
For Sunstrike, these Patroclus’ Dice are about to roll into your mailbox:
Before I show you the Snowshade promo, let’s take a moment to explain the tweaks above. Divine Favor as a system was meant to reward consistent play and high-level results. However, the point math didn’t quite work out this way - Premiers didn’t push people high enough on the leaderboard, and instead, players with multiple local stores earned lots of points through routine play. We love the engagement with local scenes, but we want those top 32 promos to truly reflect the results from players who are grinding out wins at the top of the competitive circuit.
As such, we’ve increased points earned through Premier play and also capped Divine Favor at 1600 points per store. It’s very important to us that players can still earn the regular version of this promo through local play, but the top 32 versions will strongly reflect our top Premier performers.
So what’s the prize? It’s Eternal Winter:
Check out the Divine Favor standings over on the Play Network leaderboard!
ONLINE PLAY
If you want to compete at the highest level or goof off in a weekly casual event, we have you covered with Elestrals Webcam play.
ONLINE PREMIERS
Elestrals Premiers are the place to hone your skills and compete for a spot at the World Championship. You’ll have a chance to play against the very best players, make a name for yourself, and win special prizes along the way! These events are played remotely via Webcam and are scheduled on Saturdays roughly twice a month.
For your $25 entry fee, you’re guaranteed a Snowshade pack along with 2 Premier Pack 4 boosters with special marble frame cards like this Shield of Achilles or this Reverse Stellar Gnawbie:
And prizing scales up from there! Top players will earn coveted Qualifier Points based on their placement, with 1st place earning enough to guarantee their invite to Worlds. Those players also receive more Premier packs, Snowshade product, and special prize cards and mats.
For the Snowshade season, all players who get top 16 or higher will receive a prize card and playmat for Komalice, Champion of Athena:
And the Champion will receive the incredible Full Art Stellar Trifernal, Champion of Hades!
All prizing is mailed directly to competitors with no shipping charges! (Note: Elestrals cannot predict and is not responsible for customs or import fees charged by the receiving country.)
Full prizing for each event will be listed on the Premier page on the Play Network!
QP REWARDS UPDATE
Qualifier Points don’t just earn you an invite to the biggest tournament of the year - they can also help you get there.
- Players with 250 QP are qualified to play in the World Championship (Spring 2027, date tbd)
- Players with 500 QP who confirm attendance to the World Championship will receive a $500 USD travel stipend
- Players with 1000 QP who confirm attendance to the World Championship will receive an additional $500 USD travel stipend ($1000 USD total)
But here’s the thing… we already have someone at 1000 QP. We have to add more rewards!
Above 1000 QP, every 500 QP a player earns, they will receive an additional $250 travel stipend.
This does not cap. Earn it once, earn it twice, earn it sixx times!
PREMIER SCHEDULE
Here is the schedule for online Snowshade Premiers:
- October 03 2026, 10:00am ET
- Sunstrike format, but Snowshade prizing!
- October 24 2026, 10:00am ET
- First Premier with Snowshade legal!
- November 21 2026, 01:00pm ET
- December 05 2026, 10:00am ET
- December 19 2026, 01:00pm ET
- First event after possible Tartarus ban/limit adjustments
- January 09 2027, 07:00am ET (Europe friendly!)
- January 23 2027, 01:00pm ET
- February 06 2027, 10:00am ET
- Last event of the season - extra prizing!
Please note that the first weekend of November does not have a Premier, as instead we’re hosting the Elestrals Columbus Open! We hope to see you there, but we’ll have a livestream for everyone watching at home.
There may be more Premier dates added in addition to these, as we’re currently exploring possible options to support one-off events in other time zones. The best way to keep track of all upcoming events is via the Elestrals Event Hub, where all of our upcoming tournaments can be conveniently viewed in one place.
WEEKLY CASUALS
If you’re looking for a more relaxed environment, Elestrals Webcam Casuals are for you. These run every Tuesday at 7:30pm ET and are quick, fun events that are FREE to enter. You’ll play four best-of-1 rounds against other friendly players who may be learning the game or trying out a wacky new brew. You may even see some Elestrals staff in the bracket!
To play in Casuals, all you need is a webcam and to join the official Elestrals discord!
TARTARUS PLANNED TIMING
As an additional note, with Snowshade, we’re moving back to a single planned window for balance changes over the season. While previous expansions have had a larger need for adjustments, we’re confident that Snowshade will not need a large volume of changes multiple times throughout the set.
If we have any changes to announce, they will be shared no later than December 11th, 2026 and will go into effect on December 18th, 2026. Please note that this window is not a commitment to any changes and we may elect not to make adjustments at all.
Click here to see the current Tartarus Banned and Limited list.
Thank you so much for being part of our Elestrals community and for showing us how much you care, both about the game and each other. If you have any questions, please let us know in the official discord. Thank you!
