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The Vintage Cube stands as one of the highly popular cubes on the original digital platform, the premier digital service for playing MTG before Arena was launched. Now, Arena enthusiasts will get the opportunity to encounter true power when the Arena Powered Cube launches on October 28. According to the official description, "This exciting event is distinct from all others on Arena and will showcase some of the strongest cards from across Magic's legacy, featuring the Power Nine."

What Is the Vintage Cube?

As experienced Limited players know, a cube is a distinctive form of Booster Draft that doesn't draw cards from one or more specific sets, but instead from a pre-selected collection. The Vintage 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 having to pay the significant money required for tabletop Vintage. MTG Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless format, but it excluded cards such as the Power Nine — MTG's classic powerhouse cards, including Black Lotus, the five Moxen, Time Walk card, Timetwister spell, and Ancestral Recall.

Features of the Arena Powered Cube

The Powered Cube will include 100 new MTG Arena card printings, but some of these will be obtainable at the launch of the event. This enables the addition of a larger card pool, as some of these extremely strong cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed gameplay. According to the announcement, this also made the release of the new cube faster. Fans online are already speculating that this decision was a reaction to the poor reception of Through the Omenpaths — the Arena adaptation of Marvel's Spider-Man and the least-played Arena set to date, as indicated by various sources.

How It Works and Entry Details

Introducing a iteration of one of the top draft formats ever will surely boost numbers in Arena, but there is an important caveat to note. The Arena Powered Cube will use a reward system and access cost comparable with the Premier Draft tournaments, thus being costlier to play than previous Arena cubes. The event structure will be the following:

• Begins On: Oct. 28, 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC)
• Registration Ends: November 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 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: 7 victories or 3 defeats; with ranking
• Match Play Mode: 3 matches; without ranking

Rewards and Extra Details

The reward packs awarded during the event can include almost every card legal in the Timeless format, plus cards from a unique bonus card list. For more details on the prizes and the cards present in the Powered Cube, interested players can review the official announcement. Additionally, on October 22, MTG pro players Luis Scott-Vargas and Paul Cheon, experienced Vintage Cube aficionados, will share further insights on their video platforms.