The Vintage Cube stands as one of the highly popular cubes on Magic Online, the primary digital service for playing Magic: The Gathering before MTG Arena came into existence. Now, MTGA players will have the chance to encounter immense strength when the Powered Cube limited event debuts on October 28. As per the announcement, "This thrilling occasion is distinct from all others on MTG Arena and will showcase some of the strongest cards from throughout Magic's history, featuring the Power Nine."
What Is the Vintage Cube?
For seasoned Limited enthusiasts, a cube is a unique form of Booster Draft that does not pull cards from particular expansions, but instead from a pre-selected collection. The Vintage Cube has consistently served as a fun and popular way for Magic fans to enjoy the excitement 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 excluded cards such as the Power Nine — Magic's classic powerhouse cards, including the famed Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk card, Timetwister spell, and Ancestral Recall ability.
Features of the Arena Powered Cube
The Powered Cube will incorporate a hundred fresh MTG Arena card printings, but some of these will be obtainable at the release of the event. This allows for 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 facilitated the launch of the latest cube faster. Fans online are already speculating that this move was a response to the poor reception of the Omenpaths set — the Arena adaptation of a Spider-Man themed set and the lowest-engagement Arena set to date, according to some reports.
How It Works and Participation Information
Launching a version of one of the top draft formats ever will certainly increase engagement in MTG 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:
- Begins On: October 28, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (3 p.m. UTC)
- Signup Close: Nov. 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (3 p.m. UTC)
- Participation Cost: 10,000 gold, or 1500 gems, or one draft token
- Format: Powered Cube Phantom Player Draft (Participants won't retain the event cards)
- Single Game Mode: Seven wins or three losses; with ranking
- Best-of-Three: Three matches; unranked
Rewards and Additional Details
The Cube Prize Packs issued as rewards can include nearly all cards permitted in the Timeless format, plus cards from a unique bonus card list. For more details on the prizes and the cards present in the Powered Cube, interested players can review the official announcement. Additionally, on October 22, MTG pro players Luis Scott-Vargas and Paul Cheon, experienced cube format experts, will provide more updates on their video platforms.
