Last week we announced the Vegas 8: Eight competitors who proved their mastery in the Vintage Cube format throughout the MTGO qualifiers in the Magic Online Vintage Cube Live! Powered By Ultimate Guard event.

For reference, here is the list:

Week 1 - MunsonJenkins - Matthew Abrams
Week 2 - Foolishpuppy - Christopher Bruner
Week 3 - FerMTG - Fernando Palmero Garcia
Week 4 - Lucajak - Luca Jakobovits
Week 5 - Slaxx - Jesse Hampton
Week 6 - Rexjak - Rex Jakobovits
Week 7 - Lenny - Daniel Prošek
Week 8 - Chefen - Oscar Christensen

Today we are ready to share the full details of the Ultimate Guard Finals.

Vintage Cube Live! Finals: Format

8-person Vintage Cube Rochester Draft with 3 rounds of play.

Vintage Cube Live! Finals: Schedule

The Ultimate Guard Finals take place at Magic Con Las Vegas from October 25-27, 2024

Draft portion: Friday, October 25th, 2024, approx. 7-8:30PM PST
Gameplay: Saturday, October 26th, 2024, approx. 7-10PM PST

To avoid overlapping with the World Championship, the Ultimate Guard Finals will start as soon as the last round of the World Championship ends on Friday and on Saturday. There are 8 Worlds rounds each day, so this will be approximately at 7PM PST. 

Vintage Cube Live! Finals: Coverage

The tournament will be broadcasted live both days on twitch.tv/UltimateGuardLive and co-streamed on twitch.tv/MagicOnline and twitch.tv/LSV.

There will be exciting giveaways on our stream during the broadcast, so make sure you follow the channel! 

Vintage Cube Live! Finals: Casters

Play-by-play: Marshall Sutcliffe
Expert: Reid Duke

We are very excited to have two of the best in the business in the coverage booth who will walk you through the Rochester Draft action and all the games. 

Vintage Cube Live! Finals: Tournament Location

The tournament area will not be open to the public, but we set up a viewing area for spectators in room S204 on the second level of the Las Vegas Convention Center, the location of MagicCon: Las Vegas 2024. 

Vintage Cube Live! Finals: Cube Card List

The full 540-card list of the Vegas Cube can be found here. You can also check out an article from Ryan Spain, the Creative Director of MTGO, and Cube designer Chris Wolf, about designing the Cube and all the archetypes and combos here. 

Two cards will be different from the MTGO version of the Cube. The physical Vegas Cube will have Wisedrafter’s Will replacing Snap and Wrath of Leknif replacing Supreme Verdict. 

The Vegas Cube will be draftable on MTGO immediately following the live draft on the 25th of October. 

Vintage Cube Live! Finals: Prizes

The Vegas Cube consists of 540 cards. During the draft, each player will open 3 packs of 15 cards each, which means that a total of 360 will be drafted. These cards are for the players to keep. This will leave us with 180 unopened cards.

After 3 rounds of play, players will do 1 round of "backdraft" from the unopened cards based on the final standings. First player in the final standings selects a card to keep, then players 2-8 in order each select their card. Afterwards, the overall winner is awarded every card that is left undrafted. Each player will also receive a special playmat and an engraved deck box with their name. Winner receives a trophy. 

Vintage Cube Live! Finals: Pairings

Round 1

Match A - Seat 1 vs Seat 5
Match B - Seat 2 vs Seat 6
Match C - Seat 3 vs Seat 7
Match D - Seat 4 vs Seat 8

Round 2

Match W1 - Winner A vs Winner C
Match W2 - Winner B vs Winner D
Match L1 - Loser A vs Loser C
Match L2 - Loser B vs Loser D

Round 3

1st-2nd - Winner W1 vs Winner W2
3rd-5th - Loser W1 vs Loser W2
4th-6th - Winner L1 vs Winner L2
7th-8th - Loser L1 vs Loser L2

Rochester Draft Rules

If you aren’t familiar with Rochester Draft, here are the most important details:

• Players will randomly determine their seat number at the draft table.
• The player drafting first from the cards presented on the table is called the active player. The first active player is the participant in the first seat, designated by the Judge. All players in each drafting pod serve as the active player once for each of their booster packs, with the active player moving between players as follows: 1) in a clockwise direction for the first booster pack group (beginning with the first active player); 2) in a counterclockwise direction for the second booster pack group (starting with the last active player in the first group); 3) and returning to a clockwise direction for the third booster pack group (beginning again with the first active player).
• Active player lays out their pack on the table, then there is a 30 second review period when players may look at their drafted cards, then players draft in 5 second intervals. 
• The draft order moves in a horseshoe pattern, beginning with the active player, continuing around the table to the last participant in the group who has not yet drafted a card. The last player in the group selects two cards, instead of one, and drafting continues in reverse order, moving back to the player who began the drafting (the first person who drafted from the pack). Once all cards have been drafted, the table Judge prepares the drafting area for the next booster pack.
• All booster packs are laid out on the table face up during the drafting process
• Players will not be able to take or reference outside notes during the draft.

Vintage Cube Live! Finals: Player Stats

So who are the favorites?

Based on these numbers, Rex has the highest win rate by far, but out of a very low sample. Daniel and Oscar are both around the 64% mark, which is very high even for the most competitive players. 

Experience-wise, you probably have to give the best odds to Jesse Hampton or Oscar Christensen, but Vintage Cube is a format where anything can happen. 

Who do you think will be the winner?