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The Vintage Cube stands as one of the highly popular cubes on Magic Online, the primary digital service for playing MTG before MTG Arena was launched. Now, MTGA players will have the chance to experience immense strength when the Arena Powered Cube debuts on Oct. 28. As per the announcement, "This thrilling occasion is distinct from all others on MTG Arena and will feature some of the most powerful cards from across Magic's legacy, featuring the legendary Power Nine."

Understanding the Vintage Cube?

As experienced Limited players know, a cube is a distinctive form of draft format that does not pull cards from one or more specific sets, but rather from a predetermined pool. The Classic Cube has consistently served as 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 needing to spend the substantial cost required for tabletop Vintage. MTG Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless format, but it excluded cards such as the Power Nine — Magic's legendary high-power cards, including the famed Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk card, Timetwister, and Ancestral Recall.

Details of the Arena Powered Cube

The Arena Powered Cube will include a hundred fresh Arena card versions, but some of these will be obtainable at the release of the event. This enables the addition of a larger card pool, as some of these massively overpowered cards could cause balance problems in Constructed gameplay. According to the announcement, this also made the release of the new cube quicker. Online community members are already speculating that this move was a response to the negative feedback of the Omenpaths set — the Arena version of Marvel's Spider-Man and the least-played Arena set ever, according to some reports.

Event Structure and Entry Information

Launching a version of one of the most popular cubes ever will certainly increase engagement in Arena, but there is an important caveat to add. The Arena Powered Cube will use a prize structure and access cost comparable with the Premier Draft tournaments, thus being costlier to play than earlier cube events. The event structure will be the following:

• Begins On: October 28, 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC)
• Registration Ends: Nov. 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (3 p.m. UTC)
• Participation Cost: 10k gold, or 1,500 gems, or one draft token
• Format: Phantom Player Draft (Players do not keep the drafted cards)
• Single Game Mode: Seven wins or three losses; with ranking
• Best-of-Three: 3 matches; unranked

Prizes and Extra Details

The reward packs awarded during the event can contain nearly all cards legal in the Timeless format, plus cards from a unique bonus card list. For more details on the rewards and the included cards in the Powered Cube, interested players can review the full details. Also, on October 22, MTG pro players LSV and Paul Cheon, long-time Vintage Cube aficionados, will provide more updates on their YouTube channels.