🔗 Share this article

The Vintage Cube stands as one of the highly popular cubes on Magic Online, the primary digital platform for playing MTG before Arena was launched. Now, MTGA players will have the chance to encounter true power when the Arena Powered Cube launches on Oct. 28. According to the official description, "This exciting event is unlike anything else on Arena and will feature some of the most powerful cards from throughout Magic's history, featuring the Power Nine."

What Is 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 Vintage Cube has consistently served as a enjoyable and widely-used way for Magic fans to experience the thrills 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 play style, 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, and Ancestral Recall.

Features of the Arena Powered Cube

The Arena Powered Cube will incorporate 100 new Arena card versions, but not all of them will be obtainable at the release of the event. This allows for the inclusion of a broader selection of cards, as some of these extremely strong cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed formats. Based on the official news, this also made the release of the latest cube faster. Online community members are already speculating that this decision was a response to the negative feedback of the Omenpaths set — the Arena adaptation of Marvel's Spider-Man and the least-played Arena set ever, as indicated by various sources.

Event Structure and Participation Information

Introducing a iteration of one of the most popular cubes ever will surely increase engagement in MTG Arena, but there is an important caveat to add. The Arena Powered Cube will use a prize structure and entry fee comparable with the Premier Draft tournaments, thus being more expensive to play than earlier cube events. The format details will be the following:

• Event Start: Oct. 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 1500 gems, or one draft token
• Game Style: Phantom Player Draft (Participants won't retain the event cards)
• Best-of-One: 7 victories or 3 defeats; with ranking
• Match Play Mode: 3 matches; unranked

Rewards and Additional Details

The reward packs issued as rewards can contain almost every card permitted in the Timeless mode, plus 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. Additionally, on Oct. 22, MTG pro players LSV and Paul Cheon, long-time Vintage Cube aficionados, will share further insights on their YouTube channels.