The Vintage Cube is recognized as one of the highly popular cubes on Magic Online, the premier digital service for playing MTG before MTG Arena was launched. Now, MTGA players will have the chance to encounter immense strength when the Powered Cube limited event debuts on Oct. 28. As per the announcement, "This exciting event is distinct from all others on Arena and will showcase some of the strongest cards from throughout Magic's history, featuring the legendary Power Nine."
Understanding the Classic Cube?
For seasoned Limited enthusiasts, a cube is a unique form of draft format that does not pull cards from one or more specific sets, but rather from a pre-selected collection. The Vintage Cube has consistently served as a fun and popular way for Magic fans to experience the thrills of using some of the most powerful cards in the game's history without having to pay the significant money required for tabletop Vintage. MTG Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless play style, but it excluded cards such as the iconic Power Nine — MTG's classic powerhouse cards, including Black Lotus, the five Moxen, Time Walk card, Timetwister, and Ancestral Recall ability.
Features of the New Cube Event
The Powered Cube will include a hundred fresh Arena card printings, but some of these will be collectible at the launch of the event. This enables the addition of a larger card pool, as some of these massively overpowered cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed formats. Based on the official news, this also made the release of the new cube quicker. Fans online are already theorizing that this move was a response to the negative feedback of Through the Omenpaths — the Arena version of a Spider-Man themed set and the least-played Arena set ever, as indicated by various sources.
Event Structure and Entry Details
Introducing a version of one of the top draft formats ever will surely increase engagement in Arena, but there is an key point to note. The Arena Powered Cube will adopt a reward system and entry fee comparable with the Premier Draft events, thus being more expensive to play than earlier cube events. The event structure will be the following:
- Event Start: October 28, 8 a.m. PT (3 p.m. UTC)
- Signup Close: Nov. 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 UTC)
- Entry: 10k gold, or 1500 gems, or 1 Player Draft token
- Format: Powered Cube Phantom Player Draft (Participants won't retain the event cards)
- Single Game Mode: 7 victories or 3 defeats; ranked
- Best-of-Three: 3 matches; without ranking
Prizes and Additional Details
The reward packs issued as rewards can contain nearly all cards legal in the Timeless mode, along with cards from a new, special bonus sheet. Additional information on the prizes and the included cards in the Arena Powered Cube, interested players can review the full details. Additionally, on Oct. 22, professional Magic players LSV and Paul Cheon, long-time cube format experts, will provide more updates on their YouTube channels.
