The Vintage Cube is recognized as one of the most beloved cubes on Magic Online, the premier digital service for playing Magic: The Gathering before MTG Arena came into existence. Now, MTGA players will get the opportunity to encounter immense strength when the Arena Powered Cube debuts on Oct. 28. As per the announcement, "This exciting event is unlike anything else on MTG Arena and will feature some of the strongest cards from across Magic's legacy, including the Power Nine."
Understanding the Classic Cube?
As experienced Limited players know, a cube is a distinctive form of draft format that does not pull cards from particular expansions, but rather from a predetermined pool. The Vintage Cube has consistently served as a enjoyable and widely-used way for Magic fans to experience the thrills of using some of the strongest cards in the game's history without having to pay the substantial cost required for physical Vintage play. Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless play style, but it did not include cards such as the Power Nine — Magic's classic powerhouse cards, such as Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk, Timetwister, and Ancestral Recall.
Features of the New Cube Event
The Arena Powered Cube will incorporate a hundred fresh MTG Arena card versions, but not all of them will be collectible at the release of the event. This enables the inclusion of a larger card pool, as some of these massively overpowered cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed gameplay. According to the announcement, this also made the release of the new cube faster. Online community members are already speculating that this decision was a reaction to the poor reception of the Omenpaths set — the Arena adaptation of Marvel's Spider-Man and the lowest-engagement Arena set to date, as indicated by various sources.
How It Works and Participation Information
Introducing a iteration of one of the top draft formats ever will certainly increase engagement in MTG Arena, but there is an key point to add. The Powered Cube will adopt a reward system and entry fee comparable with the Premier Draft events, thus being costlier to play than earlier cube events. The event structure will be the following:
- Begins On: Oct. 28, 8 a.m. PT (3 p.m. UTC)
- Registration Ends: Nov. 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 UTC)
- Participation Cost: 10k gold, or 1500 gems, or 1 Player Draft token
- Game Style: Phantom Player Draft (Players do not keep the drafted cards)
- Best-of-One: 7 victories or 3 defeats; ranked
- Best-of-Three: 3 matches; unranked
Prizes and Extra Details
The reward packs issued as rewards can include almost every card legal in the Timeless mode, along with cards from a unique bonus card list. For more details on the rewards and the included cards in the Arena Powered Cube, interested players can examine the official announcement. Also, on Oct. 22, professional Magic players LSV and Paul Cheon, long-time cube format experts, will provide more updates on their YouTube channels.
