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

Understanding the Classic Cube?

As experienced Limited players know, a cube is a unique form of Booster Draft that does not pull cards from particular expansions, but rather from a predetermined pool. The Classic Cube has long been 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 significant money required for tabletop Vintage. Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless format, but it did not include cards such as the Power Nine — Magic's legendary high-power cards, such as Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk card, Timetwister, and Ancestral Recall.

Features of the New Cube Event

The Arena Powered Cube will include 100 new Arena card versions, but not all of them will be obtainable at the launch of the event. This enables the addition of a broader selection of cards, as some of these massively overpowered cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed formats. Based on the official news, this also facilitated the launch of the new cube faster. Online community members are already speculating that this move was a response to the negative feedback of Through the Omenpaths — the Arena version of Marvel's Spider-Man and the lowest-engagement Arena set to date, according to some reports.

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 key point to note. The Powered Cube will use a prize structure and access cost 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, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (3 p.m. UTC)
• Signup Close: November 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 event cards)
• Best-of-One: 7 victories or 3 defeats; ranked
• Best-of-Three: 3 matches; unranked

Prizes and Extra Details

The reward packs issued as rewards can contain nearly all cards permitted in the Timeless mode, plus cards from a unique bonus card list. For more details on the prizes and the included cards in the Arena Powered Cube, interested players can examine the official announcement. Additionally, on October 22, MTG pro players LSV and Paul Cheon, long-time cube format experts, will provide more updates on their video platforms.