Magic: The Gathering Arena is adding several new features in the upcoming months. Along with the much asked for Direct Messaging addition, a new type of format is going to be added: Sealed Cube.

Cube drafting is a format that is fairly popular in paper Magic. Players come up with a theme, like high-end cards, one-drop cards, or a certain block or time-frame, and choose cards to put into the cube. After all the cards are chosen, they are randomized and put into 15 card “packs” that can been drafted as though they were sealed packs. Once the draft is over with, the cards can be put back into the cube and reshuffled to create new 15-card “packs” for next time.

Cube drafting, while easy to do in paper, has never really been an option online. So when Wizards announced on March 5, 2020 that Cube Drafting would soon be available in Magic the Gathering Arena, it raised a lot of questions. Cubes will be prebuilt with cards currently available in Arena, which will include the “new” cards for the historic format from History Anthology II.

https://media.wizards.com/2020/videos/daily/march_sog_sealed.webm

This will be a phantom event, which means that the cards from the Cube won’t be added to players’ collections, but will only be available temporarily for the event itself, much like a real Cube. It’s unfortunate if a players “opens” one of the best cards from Theros Beyond Death, but it also is part of the sealed cube’s charm. It also looks like players won’t be cubing against bots, so perhaps players will be able to build friend groups or choose a random match.

The Sealed Cube is slated to start on Arena in April of 2020, and hopefully will also be available on Magic the Gathering Arena mobile version when it is live.

Adding new sealed events to Arena is great for both Magic and the fanbase. Cube drafts are incredibly fun, but finding the time to sit down with seven friends in one location can be difficult for a lot of people. Having a cube feature online and on mobile will be amazing for tons of Magic fans all over the world. This also means players may even see other new formats moving to Arena, like the new Jumpstart format.

On the other side of the coin, however, it seems as though Arena will only have one, premade Cube to draft from. Hopefully they will add features for players to make their own Cubes out of cards in their collections, or have a variety for people to choose from. Only time will tell.

Magic: The Gathering Arena is available for Mac and PC.

Source: Wizards of the Coast