The Classic Cube stands as one of the highly popular cubes on the original digital platform, the premier digital platform for playing Magic: The Gathering before MTG Arena came into existence. Now, Arena enthusiasts will have the chance to encounter immense strength when the Arena Powered Cube launches on October 28. According to the official description, "This thrilling occasion is unlike anything else on MTG Arena and will feature some of the most powerful cards from throughout Magic's history, featuring the Power Nine."
Understanding the Vintage Cube?
For seasoned Limited enthusiasts, a cube is a distinctive form of draft format that doesn't draw cards from particular expansions, but rather from a pre-selected collection. The Classic Cube has long been a fun and popular way for MTG players to enjoy the excitement of using some of the strongest cards in the history of the game without having to pay the substantial cost required for physical Vintage play. Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless format, but it excluded cards such as the iconic Power Nine — MTG's classic powerhouse cards, including Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk card, Timetwister, and Ancestral Recall.
Details of the Arena Powered Cube
The Powered Cube will include 100 new MTG Arena card printings, but some of these will be obtainable at the launch of the event. This enables the addition of a larger card pool, as some of these extremely strong cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed formats. According to the announcement, this also facilitated the launch of the latest cube quicker. Online community members are already theorizing that this decision was a response to the poor reception of the Omenpaths set — the Arena version of Marvel's Spider-Man and the least-played Arena set to date, as indicated by various sources.
Event Structure and Participation Information
Introducing a version of one of the top draft formats ever will certainly boost numbers in Arena, but there is an important caveat to add. The Powered Cube will adopt a prize structure and entry fee comparable with the Premier Draft events, thus being costlier to play than earlier cube events. The format details will be the following:
- Begins On: October 28, 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC)
- Signup Close: November 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 UTC)
- Participation Cost: 10,000 gold, or 1,500 gems, or 1 Player Draft token
- Game Style: Phantom Player Draft (Players do not keep the event cards)
- Single Game Mode: 7 victories or 3 defeats; ranked
- Best-of-Three: 3 matches; without ranking
Rewards and Extra Details
The reward packs issued as rewards can contain nearly all cards permitted in the Timeless mode, along with cards from a new, special bonus sheet. Additional information on the prizes and the cards present in the Powered Cube, interested players can review the official announcement. Also, on October 22, professional Magic players LSV and Paul Cheon, experienced Vintage Cube aficionados, will share further insights on their video platforms.
