Planar Cube Draft, July 21 - August 8
Planar Cube is a brand-new Phantom Draft experience arriving on MTG Arena featuring a rotating card pool that changes planes every week. Players can experience shifting environments built around Zendikar, Innistrad, and Kamigawa themes.
- Planar Cube runs from July 21 through August 8 on MTG Arena.
- Week 1 features Zendikar from July 21 to July 27.
- Week 2 moves to Innistrad from July 28 to August 2.
- Week 3 concludes on Kamigawa from August 4 to August 10.
A Unique Draft That Rotates Planes
Planar Cube brings a fresh dynamic to MTG Arena by transforming its available card pool on a weekly basis. Each Tuesday during the event, the draft shifts focus to a new destination in the Magic universe, spotlighting the specific mechanics, aesthetics, and play styles associated with that world.
The overall draft pool consists of 560 cards broken into two distinct sections: a static 200-card planar core and a rotating 360-card planar module. While the planar core stays consistent every week to provide essential mana fixing and versatile interactive spells, the module changes completely to highlight the visiting plane's unique identity.
High Power and Phantom Format
Designed to offer a higher octane environment than typical set drafts, Planar Cube lands in a middle ground between standard Arena Cube and the extremely explosive Arena Powered Cube. It primarily follows a singleton structure, though select duplicates are intentional inclusions to enable specific mechanical synergies.
Because this is a Phantom event, any cards selected during the draft process are not added to your permanent collection. This allows players to draft ambitious strategies and high-impact cards purely for the thrill of the limited gameplay experience without worrying about set collection.
Three Distinct Worlds to Visit
The event kicks off on Zendikar, putting a massive emphasis on landfall synergies, low-cost aggressive strategies, and ambitious mana bases. Draft pools are stocked with three copies of fetch lands like Misty Rainforest alongside value engines such as Hydroponics Architect, Tireless Tracker, Treasure Cruise, and Mystic Sanctuary. Players might even spot duplicate copies of Thought-Knot Seer and Risen Reef floating around.
Week two ventures to Innistrad for a heavily mechanics-driven format built around classic tribal themes like Zombies, Vampires, and Humans, alongside graveyard payoffs like Spider Spawning and Rise from the Tides. The final stop takes drafters to Kamigawa, where the battle between modern artifacts and traditional enchantments takes center stage alongside shadowy Ninjas and flying Dragons.
The Evolution of Planar Cube
The concept for Planar Cube grew out of a desire to create a distinct identity for digital drafting on Arena without simply competing with high-power cubes. Initial concepts involved a Strixhaven theme utilizing learn mechanics and crossover Lessons, but playtesting revealed the draft felt too repetitive and needed a fundamental redesign.
Designers pivoted to a planeswalking concept, shrinking the static core and expanding the rotating modules so every week offered a noticeably different texture. With design contributions from cube expert Dan Schneider, the team landed on the final 560-card structure to ensure each destination presents its own captivating gameplay.
