The Vintage Cube is recognized as one of the highly popular cubes on the original digital platform, the primary digital service for playing Magic: The Gathering before Arena came into existence. Now, MTGA players will get the opportunity to experience immense strength when the Arena Powered Cube debuts on Oct. 28. According to the announcement, "This thrilling occasion is unlike anything else on Arena and will feature some of the strongest cards from across Magic's legacy, including the legendary Power Nine."
Understanding the Classic Cube?
As experienced Limited players know, a cube is a unique form of draft format that doesn't draw cards from one or more specific sets, but rather from a predetermined pool. The Classic Cube has consistently served as a fun and popular way for Magic fans to enjoy the excitement of using some of the most powerful cards in the game's history without needing to spend the significant money required for tabletop Vintage. MTG Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless play style, but it excluded cards such as the Power Nine — MTG's legendary high-power cards, including Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk, Timetwister spell, and Ancestral Recall ability.
Features of the Arena Powered Cube
The Powered Cube will include a hundred fresh Arena card printings, but some of these will be obtainable at the release of the event. This enables the addition of a larger card pool, as some of these extremely strong cards could cause balance problems in Constructed gameplay. Based on the announcement, this also facilitated the launch of the new cube quicker. Fans online are already speculating that this decision was a response to the negative feedback of Through the Omenpaths — the Arena adaptation of Marvel's Spider-Man and the lowest-engagement Arena set to date, as indicated by various sources.
Event Structure and Participation Details
Introducing a iteration of one of the most popular cubes ever will certainly increase engagement in Arena, but there is an important caveat to add. The Powered Cube will adopt a prize structure and access cost similar to the Premier Draft tournaments, thus being costlier to play than earlier cube events. The format details will be the following:
- Begins On: Oct. 28, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (3 p.m. UTC)
- Signup Close: November 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 UTC)
- Entry: 10,000 gold, or 1500 gems, or 1 Player Draft token
- Format: Phantom Player Draft (Players do not keep the event cards)
- Single Game Mode: Seven wins or three losses; ranked
- Match Play Mode: 3 matches; unranked
Rewards and Extra Details
The Cube Prize Packs issued as rewards can contain almost every card legal in the Timeless format, along with cards from a new, special bonus sheet. For more details on the rewards and the included cards in the Powered Cube, interested players can examine the full details. Additionally, on October 22, professional Magic players LSV and Paul Cheon, long-time cube format experts, will provide more updates on their video platforms.
