The Classic Cube stands as one of the highly popular cubes on the original digital platform, the premier digital service for playing Magic: The Gathering before Arena was launched. Now, Arena enthusiasts will get the opportunity to experience immense strength when the Powered Cube limited event launches on Oct. 28. According to the announcement, "This exciting event is distinct from all others on MTG Arena and will showcase some of the most powerful cards from across Magic's legacy, including the legendary Power Nine."
What Is the Vintage Cube?
As experienced Limited players know, a cube is a unique form of draft format that does not pull cards from one or more specific sets, but instead from a predetermined pool. The Vintage Cube has consistently served as a fun and popular 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 substantial cost required for tabletop Vintage. MTG Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless play style, but it did not include cards such as the Power Nine — MTG's classic powerhouse cards, such as the famed Black Lotus, the five Moxen, Time Walk, Timetwister spell, and Ancestral Recall.
Features of the New Cube Event
The Arena Powered Cube will incorporate a hundred fresh MTG Arena card versions, but not all of them will be collectible at the launch of the event. This allows for the inclusion of a larger card pool, as some of these extremely strong cards could cause balance problems in Constructed formats. According to the announcement, this also made the release of the new cube faster. Online community members are already theorizing that this decision 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.
Event Structure and Participation Information
Launching a iteration of one of the most popular cubes ever will certainly increase engagement in MTG Arena, but there is an key point to add. The Arena Powered Cube will use a prize structure and access cost similar to the Premier Draft events, thus being more expensive to play than earlier cube events. The format details will be the following:
- Begins On: Oct. 28, 8 a.m. PT (3 p.m. UTC)
- Signup Close: November 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 UTC)
- Participation Cost: 10k gold, or 1,500 gems, or 1 Player Draft token
- Format: Powered Cube Phantom Player Draft (Players do not keep the drafted cards)
- Single Game Mode: 7 victories or 3 defeats; ranked
- Match Play Mode: 3 matches; unranked
Prizes and Extra Information
The Cube Prize Packs issued as rewards can contain nearly all cards legal in the Timeless mode, along with cards from a unique bonus card list. Additional information on the prizes and the included cards in the Arena Powered Cube, interested players can review the official announcement. Also, on October 22, MTG pro players Luis Scott-Vargas and Paul Cheon, experienced cube format experts, will share further insights on their YouTube channels.
