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The Vintage Cube is recognized as one of the highly popular cubes on Magic Online, the primary digital service for playing Magic: The Gathering before MTG Arena came into existence. Now, Arena enthusiasts will have the chance to encounter immense strength when the Arena Powered Cube launches on Oct. 28. According to the announcement, "This thrilling occasion is unlike anything else on MTG Arena and will feature some of the most powerful cards from across Magic's legacy, featuring the Power Nine."

Understanding the Classic Cube?

For seasoned Limited enthusiasts, a cube is a distinctive form of draft format that does not pull cards from particular expansions, but rather from a pre-selected collection. The Vintage Cube has consistently served as a fun and popular way for Magic fans to experience the thrills of using some of the most powerful 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 play style, but it did not include cards such as the iconic Power Nine — Magic's classic powerhouse cards, including the famed Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk card, Timetwister spell, and Ancestral Recall ability.

Details of the Arena Powered Cube

The Arena Powered Cube will incorporate 100 new Arena card printings, but some of these will be collectible at the launch of the event. This enables the inclusion of a broader selection of cards, as some of these extremely strong cards could create imbalance issues in Constructed formats. According to the announcement, this also facilitated the launch of the latest cube faster. Online community members are already speculating that this move was a response to the poor reception of the Omenpaths set — the Arena version of a Spider-Man themed set and the least-played Arena set ever, as indicated by various sources.

How It Works and Entry Details

Launching a iteration of one of the most popular cubes ever will certainly boost numbers in Arena, but there is an key point to add. The Arena Powered Cube will use a reward system and access cost similar to the Premier Draft events, thus being more expensive 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: November 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (3 p.m. UTC)
• Participation Cost: 10k gold, or 1500 gems, or 1 Player Draft token
• Format: Phantom Player Draft (Participants won't retain the drafted cards)
• Best-of-One: 7 victories or 3 defeats; with ranking
• Match Play Mode: Three matches; unranked

Rewards and Extra Details

The reward packs issued as rewards can contain almost every card legal in the Timeless mode, along with cards from a new, special bonus sheet. Additional information on the rewards and the cards present in the Arena Powered Cube, interested players can examine the official announcement. Additionally, on October 22, MTG pro players Luis Scott-Vargas and Paul Cheon, long-time cube format experts, will share further insights on their video platforms.