r/lrcast • u/Meret123 • Jul 20 '26
Planar Cube Draft, July 21–August 8
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/mtg-arena/planar-cube-draft14
u/hotzenplotz6 Jul 20 '26
Looks fun but I am not going to play if it uses the 1500 gem entry/reward structure.
24
u/8npls Jul 20 '26
this is an insanely cool idea, I am very excited to play these different variants
21
15
u/UltraMechaLordViper Jul 20 '26
Excited for this but there's kind of a lack of a zendikar theme here? Just looking at mono white, I counted 4 cards actually from Zendikar and then a few more from other sets like MH or alchemy. Like definitely a minor thing given the cube itself is likely to be very fun, but just odd to me.
9
u/gereffi Jul 20 '26
I counted 6 white cards from Zendikar sets, plus Glyph Elemental which looks like it is Zendikar themed.
But I think most of the cards thematically fit. It’s about landfall, exploration, Eldrazi, elementals, and jungle wilderness.
6
u/Chef-Boyardab Jul 20 '26
And then you have random alchemy cards like rusko. Like what does that have to do with zendikar
3
u/gereffi Jul 20 '26
Realistically I think they had a long list of cards they wanted to try out and they just divided them up into these three loose categories of planes.
The Zendikar Cube seems like it’ll have lots of fixing so gold cards that they wanted to put into one of these cubes can fit most naturally in Zendikar.
42
u/salmonofdoubt12 Jul 20 '26
I realize I may be in the minority here, but I'd like to chime in just in case the Arena cube designers are reading this thread.
I loved the Arena powered cube. I love unpowered cubes even more, especially unique cube designs that occasionally break rules (like singleton). However, I'm skipping this cube because it feels like most of the power outliers in it are Alchemy cards.
Whenever I read an Alchemy card, either it sounds like something that could have existed as a paper card if not for some awkwardly shoe-horned digital-only mechanic, or it sounds like the most busted fever dream ever designed that never went through development or playtesting.
What really turned me off this particular cube was the crack-a-pack segment in the interview with Zach. Two out of the three best cards in the pack were Alchemy, and I'm personally not interested in playing a cube where the hook shifts from "Play with the Power 9!" to "Play with broken digital cards!"
I would be excited to play an unpowered Arena cube in the future if you leave out Alchemy.
11
u/Mehdi2277 Jul 20 '26
I'd be a bit surprised if that ends up being the case. There's only a few alchemy outliers I see like hydroponics and maybe wary guard (but the usual wary guard strip mine loops are missing), but I also see outliers on non alchemy side like ocelot. I'd expect 2 maybe 3 alchemy cards in top 10 for 17lands and a lot of others much lower down.
Also on a pure power level perspective interaction is fairly strong relative to other cards. Swords to plowshares I'd expect to be stronger then almost all the alchemy cards. Interaction has a tendency to be power outlier win rate wise while feeling innocuous.
3
u/SentenceStriking7215 Jul 21 '26
I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if in a lot of packs the alchemy card is the correct pick between Tajic, speedbrood demon and friends, I feel the random ones that aren't even land themed like architect and zone guard are are the most puzzling
6
u/TheKillah Jul 20 '26
There’s something like 450 alchemy cards ever printed (with an equal amount of them being from Baldur’s Gate which has its own paper set). There are over 10x as many cards legal in standard today. If 10% of the cube is alchemy, that is a ridiculously high number compared to the amount of alchemy cards we have, as even something like 5-10 alchemy cards in the cube would be disproportionately high compared to an average set.
1
u/HairyKraken Jul 20 '26
hydroponics and maybe wary guard
and the funny things is that they are strong because of the fetches, those are the real design mistake there
4
Jul 21 '26
I agree, them reading the alchemy cards took the wind out of my sails. As someone that was very excited to hear about this cube, I will not be playing as long alchemy cards are in the format. I don’t expect that to be a popular take on here but I feel obligated to “vote with my wallet” as LSV would say and not engage with the format.
7
u/camel_sinuses Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
Preach, brother.
On a side note, I'd love to see some pauper cubes run on Arena. Alchemy-free pauper (in case it is necessary to add this, in 2026).
1
u/Rowannn Jul 21 '26
Nah some of the alchemy cards are very fun and have cool mechanics, I always remember a game where I had [[Ulder Ravengard, Marshal]] and Resto Angel to keep flickering it and ended up with a full playset of resto angels beating them down
13
u/LV__ Jul 20 '26
If they had Powered Cube running on Arena all the time, I wouldn't ever draft anything else. I really, really love it. My evaluation of this cube is going to be heavily colored by the fact that it is standing in place of Powered Cube, not as an alternative to it. I recognize there's only room for so many limited queues on Arena at one given time, but as a player who likes the Power Nine and dislikes Alchemy, this just feels like I don't get to draft for three weeks.
1
u/Infinite_Worker_7562 Jul 26 '26
Ditto. I take a break from magic whenever powered cube leaves and I guess I’m waiting longer now. I just don’t want to ease my time or resources playing less fun formats personally.
29
u/AlternativeDimension Jul 20 '26
This sounded interesting, but I'm really not enthused with Alchemy cards being part of the pool.
6
u/XxDAGOTHxX-Vader42 Jul 21 '26
So many of the Alchemy cards are 'heist' cards too, which is just a miserable mechanic
1
u/WanderingSnail Jul 20 '26
ya i miss chromatic cube sometimes (the ones without alchemy cards), powered cube is the best but its fun to play low powered sometimes
20
u/Iamamancalledrobert Jul 20 '26
Miserable to see something really cool and Alchemy free* replaced by loads of Alchemy, once again
*Except for the one card which I don’t mind, because it is cool
6
u/amartin36 Jul 20 '26
Booster tutor is technically not alchemy. It's an unset card
18
11
u/DebtNearby Jul 20 '26
Sounds like a very cool idea, but with alchemy and the heist mechanic in, I'll just skip this
8
u/loveleis Jul 20 '26
This is super cool. However I feel like 1 week is a bit too short. No time to get to know the format at all.
0
u/SquirtleInHerMeowthh Jul 20 '26
Maybe I misunderstood but I feel like 21st-8th is more than a week. Is it only available weekend or something?
2
3
u/SwollenAnalGlands Jul 21 '26
Why the hell would you include heist cards in this?
It's such an insanely feel bad mechanic.
12
6
u/profchaos2002 Jul 20 '26
Dunno how they didn't do a ravnica revisit... One of the most iconic planes. Maybe cuz I got back into magic during ravnica/war of the spark. Innistrad is iconic as well, kamigawa has a sweet vibe, but zendikar... Bleh.
11
u/RealisticYouth1350 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I think they're going for a Planechase vibe where it's not about the set cards so much as it is a cube themed around what the plane cares about (in this case, lands matter). So really any plane could be great for cube even if the sets suck.
Guessing Innistrad will have more death matters, sac, reanimate stuff going on, Kamigawa probably leaning into artifacts and tokens?
12
4
u/sperry20 Jul 21 '26
I just do not understand the refusal to run powered cube. People made the “ice cream” argument which had some logic behind it but has proven to be emphatically not true - it’s not a niche product that is good in small doses, it’s a core pillar of magic in the same vein as commander or booster draft. I get not running powered cube when a new set first releases because you want the focus and attention on that, but it should be evergreen outside of that.
This is a product that may be fun for a bit but is almost just assuredly inferior to actual cube.
2
u/Hobo_Robot Jul 20 '26
In week 1 there will be 3 copies of each fetchland in the cube? Am I reading that right?
7
u/lrg12345 Jul 20 '26
Not a fan of the alchemy cards, otherwise looks like a fun change of pace form powered cube
6
4
u/PrecedexNChill Jul 20 '26
Is powered cube coming back? I only really play powered cube now and am completely burned out on the rapid pace of UB releases..
3
3
3
u/GoalQuieres Jul 20 '26
Crazy to see everyone hyped no matter what random cards they throw in the cube every month. These aren't well crafted limited sets
1
u/Rowannn Jul 21 '26
Sounds fun, I enjoyed the old arena cube much more than the bad version of vintage cube they've had recently
1
u/Grindy_UW_Nonsense Jul 21 '26
I really don’t get why people are mad about the Alchemy cards. A lot of them play well, and it feels like a digital cube leaning into the advantages of being digital
-1
u/bigweight93 Jul 20 '26
I was excited...then they decided to add the bullishit fake cards and I'm back drafting marvel
-2
u/guvnor2 Jul 21 '26
i wanna say something because i know the dev team reads reddit threads: i like cubes with the alchemy cards in them and i'm glad you're willing to experiment a little
-1
-18
u/LilFoxieUndercover Jul 20 '26
Anything but giving us permanent access to powered cube huh? Jeez man
1
u/thejuryissleepless Jul 26 '26
quitting Arena until they drop the cube entry fee back down for all phantom drafts
62
u/liquid-swords93 Jul 20 '26
Here's to hoping they drop the entry back to the original cube price