Arena Powered Cube Draft: March 31–April 21

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Slow Down! What's Arena Powered Cube?

Cube is like Booster Draft but pulls cards from across Magic's history. There are all sorts of permutations of cubes, from high-powered to rarity-restricted, special rules to color-restricted, and many, many more flavors. Arena Powered Cube is:

1. Powerful (and power-full): Arena Powered Cube showcases many of the strongest cards available on MTG Arena, including uncollectible cards like the Power Nine. You won't find a Limited format more chock-full of the biggest power-level outliers on MTG Arena.
2. Fast: Between the best mana acceleration, the strongest threats, and the most potent combos, this cube requires you to have a plan or be proactive. Arena Powered Cube rewards you the most for doing your homework and having a plan.
3. Singleton: Arena Powered Cube contains exactly 540 cards with only one copy of each.
4. Phantom: In tabletop, a cube is lent out to players who return the cards at the end of the draft, and the same is true here. Cards drafted are not added to a player's collection.

Ajani, Nacatl Pariah // Ajani, Nacatl Avenger Flash Hullbreacher Animate Dead Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer Natural Order Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary Tolarian Academy

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How to Draft Arena Powered Cube

While some people have been drafting powered cubes for decades, for others, Arena Powered Cube will be their first foray. We want to give you a brief guide before you jump into the deep end.

In general, you should take intrinsically powerful cards like Sol Ring; Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes; and Strip Mine that can enable wins all by themselves. However, it's ideal to draft around them to improve their potency. Sol Ring is absolutely busted, but you can find it twice as frequently with Urza's Saga. Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes rewards you for having Ancient Tomb (or Mana Crypt) to accelerate the card out a turn or two early. Strip Mine becomes even more misery-inducing fun potent when combined with Icetill Explorer. This heuristic is true for the majority of cards in the cube—Underworld Breach isn't the most straightforward to use, but combine it with Brain Freeze and Lion's Eye Diamond, and you'll almost certainly be able to win the game on the spot (mill yourself to fuel escape, then mill your opponent's entire library). We won't get bogged down detailing every card and card interaction in the cube, but we want to give you a taste of all that you can discover in Arena Powered Cube. Instead, let's focus on some broad archetypes you can use as a guide.

1. Aggro: Pick a base color—usually red or white—and draft lots of cheap creatures and removal. You can load up on fixing and play multicolor aggro, you can find aggressive lanes in black or green, and you can even play a full Five-Color Domain Aggro deck.
2. Ramp: This is primarily found in green and artifact decks. Generate extra mana in the first turns of the game, then deploy a devastating finisher. This could be an early Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger off an early Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary or Channel; a Comet, Stellar Pup on turn two or three; or a massive Upheaval that leaves you ahead and your opponent discarding eight cards.
3. Cheaty: Many decks try to "cheat" a powerful card into play, putting an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or an Atraxa, Grand Unifier onto the battlefield without paying its mana cost, for example. There are many flavors of this, but the most common is Reanimator, a black-centric deck (often paired with red or blue) that seeks to put a giant threat like Archon of Cruelty into its graveyard and then cast Reanimate or Animate Dead to bring it into play. There are also Sneak decks which avoid the graveyard by using Flash, Sneak Attack, Show and Tell, or Natural Order to put these cards into play from your hand instead.
4. Artifacts: Most commonly found in blue and red, these decks take advantage of the cube having a lot of artifacts. Generate a ludicrous amount of mana with Urza, Lord High Artificer or Tolarian Academy; be aggressive with a giant Kappa Cannoneer or Nettlecyst; or Tinker out a Bolas's Citadel.
5. Control: Remove all your opponents' threats and win the long game, or keep your opponent off balance long enough and win as a Combo Control deck, such as using Hullbreacher or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse alongside Wheel of Fortune to instantly upend the game.
6. Mix and match: Hybridize archetypes, such as a Combo Cheat deck or an Artifact Aggro deck. Make no firm commitments to any one archetype, take lands to keep yourself open, and combine multiple strategies to win.

These are the broadest archetypes, but there are plenty of other directions to go toward and card synergies to discover.

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What's New with Arena Powered Cube?

Introducing Magic: The Gathering® | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Magic: The Gathering | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is here and brings both novel support to established archetypes and some new directions to explore. Leonardo, Sewer Samurai offers both massive damage and repeatable value for white decks. Super Shredder promises to grow huge quickly in aggressive and reactive black decks. Ravenous Robots combines with Pinnacle Emissary and Third Path Iconoclast to churn out hordes of artifact tokens. Krang, Utrom Warlord is a powerful new option for Tinker and Sneak Attack decks. Green gets more aggressive support in the form of Michelangelo, the Heart and Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11; more midrange tools in Mutagen Man, Living Ooze, Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker, and Bebop & Rocksteady; and another way to sneak in giant creatures with Michelangelo, Improviser. We're excited to see how these new cards play with the many established powerhouses of Arena Powered Cube.

Landfall Continues

In the previous version of Arena Powered Cube, we added support for green "lands matter" creatures like Bristly Bill, Spine Sower and Titania, Protector of Argoth. We are pleased with how this has helped further define green's identity and strengthen its decks. Accordingly, we are adding a few more landfall enablers in the form of Tranquil Landscape, Deceptive Landscape, and Foreboding Landscape. We are also removing Lumbering Worldwagon, which never quite got there, and Ramunap Excavator, which has struggled even when paired with Strip Mine. Green still has Icetill Explorer as a powerful engine, and all colors still have Crucible of Worlds to combine with Strip Mine to try to slowly lock opponents out of the game.

We have also removed ten lands from the cube: Seachrome Coast, Darkslick Shores, Restless Vents, Restless Ridgeline, Restless Prairie, Restless Fortress, Fiery Islet, Blooming Marsh, Inspiring Vantage, and Botanical Sanctum. Arena Powered Cube intentionally has ample mana fixing, but we're testing having just a bit less to encourage competition for fixing and make it slightly harder to play additional colors.

Creatures Are the New Black

Green and black have struggled the most in Arena Powered Cube. Those colors have plenty of powerful cards, but in aggregate, decks heavy in green and black have underperformed compared to decks based in white, blue, and red. Some of this is just the nature of the game. Blue has cards like Ancestral Recall and Time Walk, and white and red have many of the best cheap creatures and interactive spells. We're happy that green has gained on the Jeskai colors while continuing to have its own identity by promoting land-focused, ramp, and multicolor midrange strategies. However, black has struggled with both power and identity.

Black is an outstanding support color. It has discard, disruptive spells, and a reanimation package. However, it has steadily lost creatures in favor of support spells, so it's lost much of its ability to be proactive or to support proactive decks. In this, we're trying something different.

Black has almost 40% more creatures in this iteration of Arena Powered Cube. You'll also see more cheap, aggressive creatures in blue and green. We hope that this opens up more lanes for aggressive strategies beyond Boros, makes it easier to contest aggro decks by playing to the battlefield earlier and more often, and makes it more likely you'll be able to sneak and ninjutsu in Raphael, the Nightwatcher and Fallen Shinobi. As with all experiments, we'll monitor how much it changes the texture and balance of Arena Powered Cube and how players respond.

Change Is Constant

Arena Powered Cube isn't static. We rotate in cards and packages, and an equal number of cards rotate out. This time around, we're cycling out several combo cards that have struggled since the introduction of Arena Powered Cube. We've already mentioned Ramunap Excavator, but a handful of other cards are joining it in the sideboard. As with Broadside Bombardiers, we plan for them to come off the bench, ideally at a time they can really shine.

Boros Update

Boros remains one the strongest and most approachable decks in Arena Powered Cube, so we always have our eyes on it. This update slants the entire cube a bit more aggressively, which could go in all sorts of directions. It could spur more competition for red and white cards, enabling more non-Boros aggro and midrange decks. It could favor Boros, because Boros generally does aggro best. It could improve the performance of non-aggro decks by reducing competition for them. Or it might only have small impacts.

We like to shake things up, so we're rotating out some of Boros's strongest cards. Comet, Stellar Pup has gone for a walk but will definitely be back. Both Broadside Bombardiers and Gut, True Soul Zealot return to reward all that attacking.

Changelog

Another popular request has been a changelog so people can quickly see how the current Arena Powered Cube list has changed from the previous version. These aren't one-for-one swaps—Unlicensed Hearse wasn't replaced by Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, for example—but this will give all those interested a quick summary of the changes.

OUT

IN

Infernal Grasp Yawgmoth's Will Damnation Tendrils of Agony Wishclaw Talisman Bolas's Citadel Stadium Headliner Voldaren Epicure Amped Raptor Anje's Ravager Trumpeting Carnosaur Monstrous Rage Seething Song Tribal Flames The Legend of Roku Eladamri, Korvecdal Ramunap Excavator Esper Origins Lumbering Worldwagon Haywire Mite Phyrexian Revoker Summon: Bahamut Sundering Titan Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger Talisman of Indulgence Ertai Resurrected Questing Druid Arwen, Mortal Queen Unburial Rites Deathrite Shaman Comet, Stellar Pup Seachrome Coast Darkslick Shores Restless Vents Restless Ridgeline Restless Prairie Restless Fortress Fiery Islet Blooming Marsh Inspiring Vantage Botanical Sanctum Field of the Dead

Moonshadow Blood Artist Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia Super Shredder Tenacious Underdog Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor Midnight Reaper Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER Warren Soultrader Woe Strider Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Deceit Hired Claw Kellan, Planar Trailblazer Ravenous Robots Scuzzback Scrounger Searslicer Goblin Broadside Bombardiers Gut, True Soul Zealot Yuffie, Materia Hunter Magmatic Hellkite Raphael, the Nightwatcher Bonehoard Dracosaur Stoke the Flames Goblin Bombardment Michelangelo, the Heart Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11 Mutagen Man, Living Ooze Tireless Provisioner Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker Michelangelo, Improviser Razorlash Transmogrant Krang, Utrom Warlord Vibrance Bebop & Rocksteady Glissa Sunslayer Wistfulness Omnath, Locus of Creation Tranquil Landscape Deceptive Landscape Foreboding Landscape Shifting Woodland

Prize Pack Changelog

Changes are also coming to Arena Powered Cube's prize packs. Five cards are rotating out of the prize packs to make room for five cards rotating in, making them available in Historic and Timeless for the first time!

OUT	IN
Fireblast Coalition Relic Unexpectedly Absent Preordain Figure of Destiny	Fire Covenant Echo of Eons Survival of the Fittest (Banned in Historic) Coveted Jewel Parallax Wave

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Wrapping Up

We hope you have an absolute blast playing Arena Powered Cube and experiencing over 30 years of Magic's history. We look forward to seeing how you all feel about it and hearing your thoughts on this iteration. Until next time, I hope to see you in the draft queue!

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