Today, developer Daybreak Games and partner Ultimate Guard have announced a first-of-its-kind tournament series in Magic: The Gathering Online. Magic Online Vintage Cube LIVE is a in-person final draft that will take place at MagicCon: Las Vegas where eight finalists will compete with a $65K physical Prize Cube that the players will be able to complete with Black Lotus and the rest of the Power Nine. The eight players competing will be able to to keep the cards that they draft.
Qualifiers for the Magic Online Vintage Cube LIVE starts on Friday, July 19. Qualifying will require players to win all of the their matches across three Vintage Cube draft events. Each event will be using the latest curation of the Magic Online Vintage Cube as of the time of the event. Players will have to sweep a MagicCon Draft League to earn a 64-player draft entry token, win a MagicCon 64-player draft to earn an invite to a Vegas Qualifier, and then go 3-0 in the Vegas Qualifier. The players who end up winning these three Vintage Cube draft events will earn round-trip airfare to Las Vegas, lodging, a 3-day MagicCon pass, and a seat at the Ultimate Guard Finals Draft.
The eight finalists will not only draft a physical Vintage Prize Cube and keep all their picks, but they will also be awarded all of the undrafted cards too.
The Prize Cube the finalists will be drafting from is an iteration of the Magic Online Vintage Cube, starting with the iconic “Power Nine” that debuted in Magic’s first set: Time Walk, Timetwister, Ancestral Recall, Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, Mox Emerald, and Black Lotus.
The Prize Cube will contain all of the powerful, out-of-print cards that have been in every iteration of the Magic Online Vintage Cube under Daybreak Games. This includes all ten of the original “dual lands” and many iconic cards from the early days of Magic such as as Library of Alexandria, Mishra’s Workshop, Mana Crypt, Gaea’s Cradle, Mox Diamond, and Lion’s Eye Diamond.
It will also include Beta versions of common and uncommon classics like Lightning Bolt, Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, and Channel, and sweet promo cards like the Judge foil Imperial Seal.
The complete list will unfold this summer; the final list is still in design and the physical versions are in the process of being acquired. The final Prize Cube is guaranteed to have an estimated retail value of at least $65,000 as determined by an independent expert.
The Ultimate Guard Finals will take place at MagicCon: Las Vegas on October 25 and October 26. The players will draft decks on October 25 and the matches will be played on October 26.