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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 Magic: The Gathering before MTG Arena was launched. Now, MTGA players will have the chance to encounter immense strength when the Powered Cube limited event launches on Oct. 28. According to the announcement, "This thrilling occasion is distinct from all others on MTG Arena and will showcase some of the most powerful cards from across Magic's legacy, including 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 particular expansions, but instead from a pre-selected collection. The Vintage Cube has consistently served as a enjoyable and widely-used way for MTG players to experience the thrills of using some of the most powerful cards in the game's history without having to pay the substantial cost required for physical Vintage play. Arena previously offered a comparable option with its Timeless play style, but it did not include cards such as the Power Nine — MTG's legendary high-power cards, including the famed Black Lotus, the five Moxen, Time Walk, Timetwister spell, and Ancestral Recall ability.

Features of the New Cube Event

The Arena Powered Cube will incorporate 100 new MTG Arena card printings, but not all of them will be collectible at the release of the event. This enables the addition of a broader selection of cards, as some of these extremely strong cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed gameplay. Based on the official news, 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 Participation Information

Introducing a iteration of one of the top draft formats ever will certainly increase engagement in Arena, but there is an important caveat to note. The Powered Cube will use a prize structure and access cost similar to the Premier Draft events, thus being more expensive to play than previous Arena cubes. The event structure will be the following:

• Event Start: Oct. 28, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 UTC)
• Registration Ends: November 18, 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC)
• Entry: 10k gold, or 1500 gems, or one draft token
• Game Style: Phantom Player Draft (Players do not keep the drafted cards)
• Single Game Mode: Seven wins or three losses; ranked
• Match Play Mode: 3 matches; unranked

Rewards and Extra Information

The reward packs issued as rewards can contain almost every card legal in the Timeless mode, plus cards from a unique bonus card list. Additional information on the rewards and the cards present in the Powered Cube, interested players can review the full details. Also, on Oct. 22, MTG pro players Luis Scott-Vargas and Paul Cheon, experienced cube format experts, will provide more updates on their YouTube channels.