Imagine unleashing the raw power of Magic's most iconic and game-shaping cards in an epic draft on MTG Arena—that's the thrill of the Arena Powered Cube, kicking off on October 28th. But here's where it gets controversial: how do you balance nostalgia with modern game design when reviving legends that could break the metagame? Stick around, because the journey to make this happen was anything but straightforward.
It all kicked off with what we call 'Experimental Frenzies'—our quarterly hackathons where every MTG Arena developer gets three full days to step away from routine tasks and experiment wildly. Think of it as a playground for innovation: solo tinkering or team collaborations, dreaming up bold ideas without the usual constraints. Some experiments veer into the absurd or purely technical, like optimizing backend networks or streamlining event scheduling behind the scenes. Yet, these sessions have birthed major features, from achievements to the very existence of cube drafts, plus smaller gems like that helpful 'reach' icon on creatures.
Our tale begins in April 2023 during one such Frenzy, when I dove into the feasibility of adding a powered cube to MTG Arena, focusing purely on the card rules implementation. I started by examining Magic Online's Vintage Cube list—not with plans to copy it wholesale, but as a solid starting point. It includes timeless staples like the Power Nine (Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, and the rest), along with gems such as Balance and Mana Vault. This approach helped gauge the workload and ensured we wouldn't slap our foreheads later, exclaiming, 'Oh right, Animate Dead! How did that slip our minds?'
From there, I assessed the implementation challenges for each card, building on an initial evaluation from over two years prior:
- About 215 cards were already live on MTG Arena.
- Roughly 200 more cards, absent from the platform, could function with minimal rules tweaks.
- A handful of around 20 cards needed standard development effort but weren't plug-and-play.
- Ten or so awaited upcoming mechanics like delve and suspend—remember how Ancestral Vision used to dominate cubes?
- The remainder were unlikely additions for various reasons, which we'll touch on later.
That analysis ate up half my Frenzy time, so I pivoted to hands-on implementation. I tackled Fastbond first and nailed it, then moved on to Dack Fayden. But that master thief of the Multiverse proved tougher than expected—at least for the moment.
I summarized my findings, pitched the idea to leadership, and got a green light. Even better, they approved dedicating about 10% of my time—roughly half a day weekly—to chip away at the trickier cards. And just like that, the real work began.
But here's the part most people miss: What does 'implementing cards' even mean? As an engineer on the RULE team, my role is to translate card text into digital rules the game engine can understand, ensuring everything plays by Magic's official rules. I dove deeper into this process in a previous article, but to clarify for beginners: It's like coding the logic behind abilities, triggers, and interactions so the game 'knows' what to do when you cast a spell or attack.
Of course, RULE work is just one piece of the puzzle. Bringing any card to life on MTG Arena involves a whole team effort, often in no particular order:
- Producers handle spreadsheets and databases, selecting card versions for reprints.
- The Art team refines images, frames, and builds new elements—like mana symbols or legendary crowns—from hundreds of components.
- Designers decide player interactions, such as whether to offer buttons for choices (e.g., 'Sacrifice a creature or discard a card?') or let you click directly. They also fine-tune 'smart stops'—think automatic priority in upkeep against threats like Sheoldred—and add prompts for risky moves.
- The Duel Scene team ensures everything displays and functions smoothly in the client app, covering visuals and interactions.
- Localization experts translate text, abilities, and buttons into supported languages.
- The Content team configures details like wildcard crafting, styles, and format rules.
- Occasionally, other specialists join, such as deck-building teams for cards like Grist, the Hunger Tide (to handle companion rules) or Audio for planeswalker voice-overs.
- Finally, QA rigorously tests it all.
So, when I say I 'implemented' a card, I'm not going solo or handling the 'most important' part—we need every team for a card to launch. But RULE work stands out for its unpredictability.
Many cards require zero RULE effort because our parser auto-converts their text accurately. Not just basics like Island, but even complex ones with unique abilities. For Powered Cube, these included Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (that reality-warping monstrosity), Currency Converter (a quirky artifact), Dauthi Voidwalker (the exile thief), and Recurring Nightmare (the recurring reanimator). They parsed flawlessly, no human tweaks needed.
Conversely, some cards demand days, weeks, or months of RULE coding. By implementing ahead, we minimized surprises, ensuring cards like Balance, Animate Dead, or Flash would be ready for launch.
Not that other teams are immune to unpredictability—Duel Scene wrestled with Comet, Stellar Pup's text box, for instance—but the RULE swings are the wildest.
Over 18 months of part-time effort, I tackled numerous cards, with some standouts (that felt more like setbacks at the time):
Necromancy was the toughest by far, with its deceptively simple two lines hiding rules nightmares. Its 'flash-then-sacrifice' mechanic is a rare 'timing permission' that creates conditional delayed triggers. After struggling with similar Parapet, I hand-coded the CLIPS rules (our programming language for logic). The reanimation part also has endless edge cases—like what if you copy its enter trigger? I now know, though I wish I didn't!
Grist, the Hunger Tide introduced static abilities active in libraries, leading to a baffling bug where it stopped working after shuffles. Turns out, shuffling creates 'new' objects, and we weren't reapplying abilities. This might've affected Sphinx of the Guildpact for years, potentially losing its all-colors trait in libraries post-shuffle.
QA uncovered bugs in several cards I thought were solid:
- Flashing in Silvergill Adept wrongly prompted for the extra 'reveal or pay' cost.
- Kytheon, Hero of Akros miscounted attackers, ignoring those that changed or left the battlefield.
- Tapping Urza's Saga for mana during its third chapter prevented its sacrifice as long as that mana lingered.
- Mox Diamond's bizarre enter-the-battlefield replacement effect saw multiple fixes for token copies, face-down entries, and more.
One card, Booster Tutor, got its own special treatment. In tabletop cubes, players 'open a cube pack'—15 random cards, pick one—rather than a literal booster. MTG Arena already had spellbook drafting: pick from three of 15, conjure the chosen card. So, I suggested adapting it, but the team improved it by collating the entire 540-card cube list randomized at match start. Each Booster Tutor cast pulls the next 15 cards, ensuring fresh, balanced reveals. A group Frenzy made it functional, then Duel and Art teams polished it to perfection.
Now, for the exiled cards: Many expected staples aren't in Arena Powered Cube yet, due to design, balance, or technical hurdles.
Corpse Dance and Shallow Grave rely on graveyard order, which digital platforms must enforce. When multiple cards enter the graveyard simultaneously (from milling, discarding, or destruction), we'd need a dialog for players to order them—potentially dozens. We could add it, but it slows the game and goes against modern Magic's shift away from order-dependence. We prioritized speed and fun, avoiding long-term maintenance. For a similar effect in cubes, try discarding Emrakul, flashing Necromancy to counter the shuffle, then equipping with Lightning Greaves.
Through the Breach sparked the most debate. It mirrors Sneak Attack, already in the cube, so why exclude it? Because of its splice onto Arcane ability—one of the hardest to implement on Arena. Our spell-casting model struggles with dynamic resolution steps, especially adding targets mid-cast. It needs RULE, Design, and Duel Scene overhauls.
Ironically, splice rarely matters in cubes; I've seen zero uses in countless games or streams. Our cube lacks Arcane spells, so splicing requires unlikely scenarios like tutoring a duplicate or stealing an opponent's copy with Etali. You'd need excess mana and motivation—it's just not practical.
Yet, including it doubles Sneak Attack options, boosting that archetype's viability.
We debated options:
Fully implement splice—too costly across teams.
Add it without splice, noting the change only in Powered Cube.
Include an 'A-' version sans splice.
Skip it entirely.
Substitute Kavaron Consumed from Alchemy: Edge of Eternities.
We considered option 2 but feared setting a precedent for partial implementations, even if splice seldom triggers. Option 5 appealed as a weaker alternative, but we committed to authentic cards for the inaugural Powered Cube. For now, Sneak Attack stands alone.
As implementation wrapped up, we tested in Frenzies, facing unexpected hurdles with non-collectible cards. Early drafts lacked weighting or Singleton rules, so bots drafted randomly, often netting multiple Power Nine. Deck-building then flagged them as illegal, wiping them out—a safeguard gone wrong for cubes.
Finally, after years of frustration, meetings, bugs, and secrecy, I'm thrilled to draft my beloved format. Spoiler: I'll probably end up with a convoluted five-color brew and a mediocre 3-3 record.
What do you think—should we have bent rules for Through the Breach's splice, or is authenticity worth the exclusion? Do graveyard orders belong in digital Magic, or are they relics of the past? Share your thoughts in the comments; I'd love to hear if you agree, disagree, or have your own cube horror stories!
