The Vintage Cube stands as one of the highly popular cubes on Magic Online, the premier digital service for playing MTG before Arena was launched. Now, Arena enthusiasts will have the chance to experience true power when the Powered Cube limited event debuts on October 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, featuring the legendary Power Nine."
Understanding the Classic Cube?
For seasoned Limited enthusiasts, a cube is a distinctive form of draft format that doesn't draw cards from one or more specific sets, but instead from a pre-selected collection. The Vintage Cube has long been a enjoyable and widely-used way for MTG players to enjoy the excitement of using some of the strongest cards in the game's history without having to pay the significant money required for tabletop Vintage. MTG Arena previously offered a comparable option with its Timeless format, but it did not include cards such as the iconic Power Nine — Magic's legendary high-power cards, such as Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk card, Timetwister spell, and Ancestral Recall ability.
Details of the Arena Powered Cube
The Arena Powered Cube will include 100 new Arena card versions, but not all of them will be obtainable at the release of the event. This enables the addition of a broader selection of cards, as some of these extremely strong cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed gameplay. According to the announcement, this also facilitated the launch of the new cube faster. Fans online are already speculating that this decision was a response to the poor reception of the Omenpaths set — the Arena adaptation of Marvel's Spider-Man and the lowest-engagement Arena set ever, as indicated by various sources.
Event Structure and Entry Details
Launching a iteration of one of the top draft formats ever will certainly boost numbers in Arena, but there is an key point to note. The Arena Powered Cube will adopt a prize structure and entry fee similar to the Premier Draft tournaments, thus being more expensive to play than earlier cube events. The format details will be the following:
- Event Start: October 28, 8 a.m. PT (3 p.m. UTC)
- Registration Ends: Nov. 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 UTC)
- Participation Cost: 10,000 gold, or 1500 gems, or one draft token
- Game Style: Phantom Player Draft (Participants won't retain the drafted cards)
- Best-of-One: Seven wins or three losses; ranked
- Match Play Mode: Three matches; without ranking
Prizes and Extra Details
The reward packs awarded during the event can contain almost every card permitted in the Timeless mode, plus cards from a new, special bonus sheet. Additional information on the rewards and the cards present in the Arena Powered Cube, interested players can examine the full details. Additionally, on October 22, MTG pro players LSV and Paul Cheon, experienced cube format experts, will provide more updates on their YouTube channels.
