The Vintage Cube stands as one of the highly popular cubes on Magic Online, the primary digital platform for playing Magic: The Gathering before MTG Arena came into existence. Now, MTGA players will get the opportunity to experience immense strength when the Powered Cube limited event launches on Oct. 28. According to the official description, "This exciting event is unlike anything else on Arena and will showcase some of the strongest cards from across Magic's legacy, including the Power Nine."
Understanding the Classic Cube?
For seasoned Limited enthusiasts, 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 MTG players to enjoy the excitement of using some of the strongest cards in the history of the game without needing to spend the substantial cost required for tabletop Vintage. MTG Arena previously offered a comparable option with its Timeless format, but it excluded cards such as the Power Nine — Magic's classic powerhouse cards, such as Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk card, Timetwister, and Ancestral Recall ability.
Details of the New Cube Event
The Arena Powered Cube will include a hundred fresh MTG Arena card versions, but not all of them will be obtainable at the launch of the event. This enables the addition of a broader selection of cards, as some of these extremely strong cards could cause balance problems in Constructed gameplay. Based on the official news, this also facilitated the launch of the latest cube faster. Online community members are already theorizing that this decision was a response to the negative feedback of the Omenpaths set — the Arena adaptation of a Spider-Man themed set and the least-played Arena set to date, according to some reports.
How It Works and Entry Information
Launching a iteration of one of the most popular cubes ever will certainly increase engagement in Arena, but there is an important caveat to note. The Arena Powered Cube will use a prize structure and access cost similar to the Premier Draft tournaments, thus being more expensive to play than previous Arena cubes. The format details will be the following:
- Event Start: October 28, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 UTC)
- Signup Close: November 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (3 p.m. UTC)
- Entry: 10k gold, or 1500 gems, or 1 Player Draft token
- Format: Phantom Player Draft (Participants won't retain the event cards)
- Best-of-One: Seven wins or three losses; ranked
- Best-of-Three: 3 matches; unranked
Rewards and Additional Information
The Cube Prize Packs awarded during the event can contain almost every card legal in the Timeless mode, along with cards from a new, special bonus sheet. For more details on the rewards and the included cards in the Arena Powered Cube, interested players can review the full details. Also, on Oct. 22, professional Magic players LSV and Paul Cheon, experienced cube format experts, will share further insights on their YouTube channels.
