Arena Powered Cube Draft

If you're already well-acquainted with Arena Powered Cube, you can skip ahead to our philosophy and what's new in the September 2026 version of the cube, the changelog, or you can head straight to the card list.

---

Slow Down! What's Arena Powered Cube?

Oracle of the Alpha Time Walk Black Lotus Booster Tutor Sol Ring Library of Alexandria

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.

Flash Hullbreacher Animate Dead Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer Natural Order Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary Tolarian Academy

---

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 them 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 for their 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 artifacts. 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 a 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.

---

What's New in September 2026's Arena Powered Cube?

Crowning Monarchs

For the first time since Arena Powered Cube came to MTG Arena in September 2025, we've added new cards to the client specifically for this cube. We're starting with just seven cards, but each one showcases a proven powerhouse mechanic in Arena Powered Cube: the monarch. (Fun fact: The monarch just celebrated its tenth birthday in August.)

One of the more powerful, aggressive mechanics, the monarch gave aggro strategies staying power before they had the many value-generating threats they do today, particularly creatures in red and white like Laelia, the Blade Reforged and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd. Which is a perfect segue into our …

Design (and Boros) Check-In

Boros has been the most-watched color combination in Arena Powered Cube since the beginning. We want Arena Powered Cube to be a dynamic play experience where many strategies are possible and no one strategy utterly dominates. Individual cards will always be power-level outliers. This is Arena Powered Cube, after all, and cards like Black Lotus and Time Walk are more powerful than nearly every other Magic card and are definitional to this being a "powered cube."

But archetypes need more balance, and Boros Aggro has always been one of the best-performing, if not the best-performing, archetypes in every version of every cube on MTG Arena. So, we've intentionally kept some toys from Boros. We didn't give it the monarch at the get-go. We've rotated some of its strongest cards (like Parallax Wave and Broadside Bombardiers) in and out of the cube, and we've limited the number of red and white cards that only go in dedicated aggressive decks.

At present, the cube is the most balanced it's ever been. In its most recent iteration, Boros had both the lowest win rate and the lowest play rate it has ever had on MTG Arena. Boros fans needn't worry. It's still popular and wins a lot, it simply does so a smidge less than ever before. That's unusual! Normally, a decreased play rate means less competition for the archetype, which raises its win rate. The cube is nicely balanced at this time. Adding the monarch is very likely to upset that balance, so we knew we had to take preemptive action.

Our most high-profile cuts are two of the strongest white cards. Ajani, Nacatl Pariah is one of several powerhouse cards from Modern Horizons 3. He provides an enormous, resilient threat for a steep discount. He's routinely one of the highest win rate cards in Arena Powered Cube. That's not exactly a problem, but when considering the changes we'd need to make, Ajani seemed an ideal candidate to sit on the bench for a season or two to let Parallax Wave come off the bench, and so we can see the impact of Palace Jailer.

Karakas is divisive. It's a classic card from Magic's early years. Once upon a time, its primary use in Vintage Cube on Magic Online was protecting your own Vendilion Clique or Venser, Shaper Savant and recurring their triggered abilities. Now, it's free, repeatable interaction for about 12% of all cards in Arena Powered Cube. As a land, it's the most difficult card type to answer. It fits into every deck as a colorless land, and in a deck that uses white mana, it's a massively upgraded Plains. (Okay, it can't be fetched and is weak to Wasteland, but its benefits outweigh those weaknesses.)

Karakas is cool; has history and cachet; and offers sweet play patterns like protecting your Lurrus of the Dream-Den or recurring your Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. But it can single-handedly invalidate individual cards and entire decks. We debated whether to add it to MTG Arena in the first iteration of Arena Powered Cube. Having seen it overperform time and again, we're going to see what life is like without it, at least for a little while.

Finally, the monarch is itself an experiment. Forth Eorlingas! gives Boros yet another powerful, flexible multicolor card that could easily prove to be too much. Court of Bounty and Court of Garenbrig could give green decks more staying power. Palace Jailer and Emberwilde Captain could lead to grindier decks that would otherwise be aggressive, or they could imbalance aggro too much. As always, we're focused on creating a dynamic, enjoyable experience. If the monarch proves to upset the apple cart too much, we could bench some (or all of) these cards in the next iteration.

More Additions to Arena Powered Cube

As always, we're trying out some of the newest cards to see how they fit into the Arena Powered Cube. The Queen of Dale joins Esper Sentinel and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben as a cheap, disruptive threat. Bilbo, Thief in the Night and Thor, God of Thunder add new ways to recur spells. Mole Man, Moloid Master is a twist on Ramunap Excavator. World War Hulk provides redundancy for Natural Order. Doctor Doom, Unrivaled works with the new-to-MTG Arena Doomsday to make a self-mill combo more viable, which means we're also bringing back Thassa's Oracle; Jace, Wielder of Mysteries; and Tainted Pact to support that style of gameplay. Relic of Sauron is another recent addition to MTG Arena and slots nicely into artifact ramp strategies. And, as previously mentioned, Parallax Wave is back and likely to reclaim its slot as one of the most-winning cards in Arena Powered Cube.

To make room for these additions, we've temporarily removed much of the support for artifact-based aggro decks that we added in the previous iteration of the cube. We were happy with the archetype and are certain we'll bring it back at some point, but adding cards requires cutting others.

---

Changelog

IN

OUT

Aang's Iceberg Aragorn, King of Gondor Archnemesis Baleful Mastery Beorn the Fierce Bilbo, Thief in the Night Black Widow, Super Spy Blooming Marsh Botanical Sanctum Brightclimb Pathway Brightglass Gearhulk Captain Marvel, Earth's Protector Cloak and Dagger, Entwined Court of Bounty Court of Garenbrig Dark Fortress Dig Through Time Doctor Doom, Unrivaled Doomsday Emberwilde Captain Environmental Scientist Ephemerate Etali, Primal Conqueror Fall from Favor Forth Eorlingas! Gandalf, Goblins' Bane Gathering Place Giver of Runes Gleaming Bastion Gollum, Riddle Master Hidden Lair Inspiring Vantage Iron-Shield Elf Jace, Wielder of Mysteries Jennifer Walters Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger Loki, God of Mischief Loot, the Pathfinder Mole Man, Moloid Master Monastery Mentor Myr Battlesphere Night Nurse, Healer of Heroes Nissa, Resurgent Animist Overwhelming Surge Palace Jailer Parallax Wave Primeval Titan Relic of Sauron Riddles in the Dark Riverglide Pathway Sauron, Dino Devotee Smaug the Magnificent Tainted Pact Thassa's Oracle The Mind Stone The Queen of Dale Thor, God of Thunder Together as One Training Compound Treasure Cruise Trumpeting Carnosaur Wolverine, Fierce Fighter World War Hulk Young Pyromancer

Agent Bishop, Man in Black Ajani, Nacatl Pariah Ambitious Augmenter Armageddon Birgi, God of Storytelling Blood Fountain Breya's Apprentice Chrome Dome Chrome Host Seedshark Clarion Conqueror Clockwork Percussionist Cloud, Midgar Mercenary Cranial Ram Crucible of Worlds Cryogen Relic Does Machines Emeritus of Truce Emeritus of Woe Enduring Curiosity Etherium Pteramander Experimental Synthesizer Floodpits Drowner Gene Pollinator Germination Practicum Gideon, Ally of Zendikar Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor Goblin Engineer Grave Researcher Harmonized Trio Hazoret the Fervent Improvised Arsenal Karakas Karn, Legacy Reforged Kellan, the Fae-Blooded Krang, Master Mind Lorehold, the Historian Magmablood Archaic Mai, Scornful Striker Monoskelion Nova Hellkite Nutrient Block Otawara, Soaring City Phyrexian Dragon Engine Rabbit Battery Rust Harvester Searslicer Goblin Skrelv, Defector Mite Slumbering Trudge Spire of Industry Splitskin Doll Steel Overseer Stoke the Flames Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender The Legend of Kuruk The Legend of Yangchen Thieving Skydiver Thought Monitor Thousand Moons Smithy Tinybones, the Pickpocket Tireless Provisioner Tough Cookie Trash for Treasure Traxos, Scourge of Kroog Wildgrowth Archaic

Cube Prize Pack Changes

Four cards will become collectible with this release: Comet, Stellar Pup; Hymn to Tourach; Urza's Bauble; and Vindicate. These newly collectible cards will be legal in Historic, Timeless, Brawl, and Competitive Brawl. In addition, the already collectible Brain Freeze, Daze, Force of Will, and Library of Alexandria will have their Arena Powered Cube artwork added to Cube Prize Packs.

Wrapping Up

As ever, we're excited to present another iteration of Arena Powered Cube. We hope it lands close to the razor's edge of feeling familiar and nostalgic while also feeling distinct from prior versions. We want its archetypes to feel in dialogue with each other so that everything feels possible (even if a dedicated storm deck is going to be very hard to draft and play), and that there's something for a variety of audiences and play styles. We hope you have an absolute blast with it. And as always, I look forward to seeing you in the queues.

Select a symbol to see card lists.