Magic: The Gathering is set to host one of its most surprising high-stakes tournaments yet, with the most prized and powerful cards up for grabs worth $65,000. Later this year, Magic: The Gathering Online developer Dawn to partner with accessories manufacturer TCG Ultimate Guard to host a competition centered around the iconic Vintage Cube format, culminating in a live “keep it” draft featuring booster packs filled with exceptionally rare cards, including a genuine Black Lotus.
Called “Magic Online Vintage Cube LIVE: Powered by Ultimate Guard,” online qualifiers for the tournament will begin later this week and run through MagicCon: Las Vegas in October, where the top eight competitors will conduct a final in-person Vintage Cube draw and keep all of the cards they choose. MTGO Creative Director Ryan Spain explains to me that the concept was to make this Cube project a “dream come true”, while that of Ultimate Guard Martin Juzawho is the event’s project lead and who came up with the idea in the first place (and is also in the Competitive Magic Hall of Fame), says they really wanted to create “the coolest event we could possibly do for the community.”
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a Cube, it’s another way to play Magic, where someone assembles a curated list of a few hundred cards to create a custom draft experience of their own design. Unlike a typical draft at your local store, players don’t keep the cards in their deck after the games are over, because building a Cube and tweaking it over time can be a fairly complex process for its creator, as they have to figure out exactly what kind of play experience they want to deliver. That could mean enabling specific strategies or playstyles, including your favorite cards just for the fun of it, or gathering together all of the most powerful options from the game’s 30-year history.
In the case of MTGO’s Vintage Cube, which is considered by many to be something of a reference list due to both its official status and easy availability, that means a mix of flashy new cards alongside some of the most infamous ones ever printed. For example, the entirety of the Power Nine is available for draft if you’re lucky enough to open one, and there are many other cards that have never been reprinted thanks to the infamous Reservation list.
That’s what makes the prospect of doing a “keep” Vintage Cube draft—where the cards you choose for your deck are yours to keep—so unique and exciting. While the exact list of cards in this tournament has yet to be revealed, Daybreak has already committed to a few parameters, like including the Power Nine, the original dual lands, and every other card that’s been in every iteration of MTGO’s cube over the years. On top of that, the goal is to make all of these cards truly desirable versions, rather than cheap reprints or copies in very poor condition.
“There are so many versions of The Elves of Llanowar “It would be trivial to find one that doesn’t excite anyone,” Spain says, “but it’s an iconic card that’s loved by a lot of people, including me, and it’s going to be a lot cooler for everyone when that card flips around and it’s a Beta Llanowar Elves instead of something from 2015.” In fact, Spain says that all of the common and uncommon rarity cards that were originally printed in Magic’s first set will be Beta versions at the latest, which will greatly increase both the monetary value and nostalgic appeal of the entire cube.
The final list also won’t exactly resemble MTGO’s typical Vintage Cube lists, as those often tend to experiment with newer cards or strategies – Spain even stated this explicitly in an article last year that the MTGO cube was intended to “create an engaging gaming experience, not a card museum.” He says, however, that the cube, in fact, East It’s a mix of both. Similarly, Jůza states that they “aim to create the most old school version of the cube possible, so in a way, we’re showcasing the last 30 years of Magic.”
The result of their dedication to not just doing this, but doing it RIGHTis a cube that will be worth at least $65,000 in total. While each of the top eight competitors will only take home a share of that prize pool, there’s a good chance their shares will still be worth a substantial sum. For reference, placing in the top 8 of the 2023 Magic World Championship (which had a $1,000,000 prize pool) netted you $20,000, which could hypothetically be exceeded by the value of that tournament’s Black Lotus alone, depending on the printing and condition of the card. Each player will draw 48 cards directly (three packs of 16 cards each), but the Cube’s 540-card deck won’t be opened up in this way, so winning matches with your deck will also net you a larger share of the leftovers.
For a community of Cube enthusiasts who are used to turning in their cards after every draft, this event is sure to be a sensation. I had the chance to ask Twitch streamer Caleb Durward, the winner of the first edition. CubeCon tournament returning in 2022 and best known for its online Vintage Cube content, for his thoughts on the event ahead of the announcement, and he says “it’s a special thing, for sure.”
“It’s not just a prestigious Cube event where you have to earn a qualifier to go and play,” which he says is pretty rare in the community, “but just drafting with these old cards is not something that everyone gets to do these days.” Durward says that while he’s had the privilege of drafting paper cubes with real Power Nine cards before, it’s still exciting to do, and even just seeing others draft with the real cards for the first time can be pretty cool.
This tournament also seems to come at a better time for the format: while the Cube concept is by no means new, it has been enjoying something of a renaissance in recent years. Daybreak has been iterating more aggressively on its cube, Cube-focused community events like CubeCon and others have sprung up, and some content creators are getting more involved with it. Even Magic’s original creator Richard Garfield recently expressed his love for the format.
Durward says there are many factors behind the boom, but he partly credits Daybreak’s receptiveness to feedback since it took over MTGO development two years ago. Jůza points to the popularity of fellow Hall of Famer Luis Scott-Vargas, who began posting daily Cube videos on his site. Youtube channel about a year ago. Meanwhile, Spain is wary of taking too much credit for anything when Cube is so much fun on his own, describing him as “Commander for Limited” in the way he brings big, exciting plays to the Draft experience.
Durward tells me that part of what appeals to him about Cube is that it’s an “expressionist” way to play Magic. “Because there are no bad cards in Cube, because all the cards are designed for that environment, and because the power level is so high,” he says, “you can do different things with the game every time you play it.” He compares building a Cube deck to painting with a brush, allowing you to follow the mood that comes to you in a way that’s unique to the Magic card-making scheme.
That said, Tony Mayer, Daybreak’s product manager, says that “the selection element can’t be understated” in terms of what’s helped Cube thrive, at least when it comes to MTGO’s Vintage Cube. It’s typically only available during set windows of time so as not to conflict with or distract players from Magic’s major set releases—but downtime has been getting shorter and shorter of late. Spain says that’s been driven in part by the success of MTG Arena, Magic’s most recent digital client. It’s a much more user-friendly platform, which makes it appealing for things like selecting new sets, but it’s also much less comprehensive in its card pool and offerings, making it unsuitable for something like Vintage Cube.
“Whereas (Cube) used to be a filler event, it’s now our main event,” Spain says, acknowledging that the ecosystem has changed as Magic continues to grow. Mayer goes on to say, “We used to think of it as ‘is it the McRib or the Big Mac?’ And the answer for us right now is something in between.” That shift in philosophy has certainly impacted Cube’s growth, and without the newfound enthusiasm Daybreak has brought to the format, we probably wouldn’t be seeing a tournament of this magnitude at all.
It makes sense, then, that qualifying for MagicCon’s final event will involve (you guessed it) playing a lot of Cube on MTGO. More specific details have been shared in an official blog post , but a series of single-elimination qualifiers will take place over the next few months, starting with a “feeder league” that costs six event tickets (about $6) or 80 Game Points to enter. Winning three matches will earn you a spot in a two-draft, 64-person event later on, and winning that will give you access to a final qualifying draft to find the eight finalists for Las Vegas. So while anyone with a few bucks to spare and the client installed can give it a shot, reaching the top 8 will essentially mean winning 12 Cube matches in a row across four different drafts leading up to MagicCon.
It’s no easy feat, but considering the prize pool compared to the low initial entry fee, it’s a remarkably accessible event for those willing to give it a try. And since the opportunity is likely to attract all sorts of Magic players, I asked Durward and Jůza if they had any advice for newcomers to the Cube world hoping to win their own Black Lotus.
Jůza recommended doing some research on the cube ahead of time, watching videos of experienced players drafting, and when in doubt, coming up with simple but reliable strategies like mono-red or mono-white aggro rather than trying to get too fancy. Durward’s advice echoes this last sentiment, though perhaps in a slightly more direct way:
“Attacking is always a good thing. Just attack and kill people.”
Tom Marks is IGN’s Game Reviews Editor. He enjoys card games, puzzles, platformers, puzzle-platformers, and more.