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The Vintage Cube stands as one of the most beloved cubes on Magic Online, the premier digital service for playing Magic: The Gathering before Arena came into existence. Now, MTGA players will get the opportunity to experience true power when the Powered Cube limited event launches on Oct. 28. As per the official description, "This thrilling occasion is unlike anything else on Arena and will feature some of the most powerful cards from across Magic's legacy, including the Power Nine."

Understanding the Vintage Cube?

As experienced Limited players know, a cube is a unique form of draft format that does not pull cards from one or more specific sets, but rather from a pre-selected collection. The Vintage Cube has long been 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 significant money required for physical Vintage play. Arena introduced something similar with its Timeless play style, but it did not include cards such as the Power Nine — Magic's classic powerhouse cards, including Black Lotus, the Mox gem series, Time Walk card, Timetwister, and Ancestral Recall.

Features of the New Cube Event

The Powered Cube will include a hundred fresh 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 cause balance problems in Constructed formats. According to the announcement, this also facilitated the launch of the new cube faster. Fans online are already speculating that this decision was a response to the negative feedback of the Omenpaths set — the Arena version of a Spider-Man themed set and the least-played Arena set to date, as indicated by various sources.

How It Works and Entry Information

Introducing a version of one of the top draft formats ever will certainly increase engagement in Arena, but there is an key point to add. The Arena Powered Cube will adopt a reward system and entry fee similar to the Premier Draft tournaments, thus being more expensive to play than previous Arena cubes. The event structure will be the following:

• Begins On: October 28, 8 a.m. PT (15:00 UTC)
• Signup Close: November 18, 8:00 AM Pacific Time (15:00 UTC)
• Entry: 10k gold, or 1500 gems, or 1 Player Draft token
• Game Style: Phantom Player Draft (Players do not keep the drafted cards)
• Best-of-One: Seven wins or three losses; with ranking
• Best-of-Three: Three matches; unranked

Prizes and Additional Information

The reward packs issued as rewards can contain almost every card permitted in the Timeless format, along with cards from a unique bonus card list. For more details on the rewards and the included cards in the Powered Cube, enthusiasts can examine the official announcement. Also, on Oct. 22, professional Magic players Luis Scott-Vargas and Paul Cheon, experienced cube format experts, will provide more updates on their YouTube channels.