The Classic Cube is recognized as one of the highly popular cubes on the original digital platform, the primary digital service for playing MTG before Arena came into existence. Now, MTGA players will get the opportunity to experience immense strength when the Powered Cube limited event debuts on Oct. 28. As per the official description, "This exciting event is unlike anything else on MTG Arena and will feature some of the most powerful cards from throughout Magic's history, featuring the legendary Power Nine."
Understanding the Vintage Cube?
For seasoned Limited enthusiasts, a cube is a unique form of draft format 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 MTG players to experience the thrills of using some of the most powerful cards in the history of the game without having to pay the significant money required for tabletop Vintage. Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless format, but it excluded cards such as the Power Nine — Magic's legendary high-power cards, such as Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk, Timetwister spell, and Ancestral Recall ability.
Details of the New Cube Event
The Arena Powered Cube will incorporate 100 new Arena card printings, but not all of them will be collectible at the launch of the event. This allows for the addition of a larger card pool, as some of these extremely strong cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed gameplay. Based on the official news, this also facilitated the launch of the new cube quicker. Online community members are already speculating 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 ever, as indicated by various sources.
How It Works and Participation Information
Launching a iteration of one of the top draft formats ever will surely boost numbers in Arena, but there is an important caveat to add. The Arena Powered Cube will adopt a reward system and entry fee comparable with the Premier Draft tournaments, thus being more expensive to play than earlier cube events. The event structure will be the following:
- Begins On: October 28, 8 a.m. PT (3 p.m. UTC)
- Signup Close: Nov. 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (3 p.m. UTC)
- Participation Cost: 10,000 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; without ranking
Rewards and Extra Details
The Cube Prize Packs issued as rewards can include nearly all cards 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 Powered Cube, interested players can examine the full details. Also, on October 22, MTG pro players LSV and Paul Cheon, experienced cube format experts, will provide more updates on their YouTube channels.
