Last updated on October 24, 2025

Diabolic Tutor - Illustration by Greg Staples

Diabolic Tutor | Illustration by Greg Staples

Not too long ago, MTG Arena got a taste of its very first silver-bordered card. A real silver-bordered card, not that Alchemy shlock. Saw in Half came to Arena via the Spider-Man Through the Omenpaths bonus sheet, marking the first time an Un-set card hit the digital client. It was a perfect fit, too, since Saw in Half has the type of rules text that just works better digitally anyway.

Now, with the advent of the Powered Arena Cube releasing next week, Arena gets to see what an actual Un-set card feels like, with Booster Tutor being one of the cards in that cube.

Not Your Mamaโ€™s Tutor

Booster Tutor

Booster Tutor is an Unhinged card, appearing in the Arena Powered Cube with its Arena League/Unsanctioned alternate art. It has a completely whacky effect, which allows you to add a card to your hand from among cards in a freshly-opened booster pack. Itโ€™s a fun addition to cubes and a great chaos draft card, since opening this in-store usually prompts someone to go up to the store counter and buy a new pack of cards. And thanks to a sneak peek from Luis Scott-Vargas, we know that itโ€™ll be draftable in Arenaโ€™s take on Vintage Cube, releasing next Tuesday.

Celestial Vault

So, uhโ€ฆ how does this card even work? Presumably, โ€œopen a sealed Magic booster packโ€ means the in-game client will generate a pack from the Arena Powered Cube and youโ€™ll select one of the cards to add to your hand, sort of like using the Alchemy spellbook mechanic. Maybe it generates a random booster from among sets on the client, but that seems unlikely.

And what about outside of the Arena Cube itself? What if you put this card in your Timeless or Brawl deck? Well, slow down there tiger; odds are, Booster Tutor wonโ€™t be craftable, now or ever, so you wonโ€™t be able to add it to your collection or put it in a preconstructed deck. Despite over 100 new cards coming to Arena next week, only a handful of them will actually be collectible and playable outside of the cube. Booster Tutor is not in the first wave of craftable cards, and likely wonโ€™t be rotated in at any point, given its Draft-centric nature. It does have a shot of making it into other Arena cubes, like the namesake cube or the Tinkererโ€™s/Chromatic Cubes, but donโ€™t expect to see this in the deckbuilder any time soon.

Is Booster Tutor Good?

Vampiric Tutor | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Vampiric Tutor | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

It remains to be seen how the Arena Powered Cube will play out, and how close to Vintage Cube itโ€™ll actually be. It looks like a close approximation to Magic Onlineโ€™s long-lasting Vintage Cube, so you could make some guesses, but thereโ€™s enough of a difference that weโ€™ll have to wait to see how it shakes out.

Booster Tutor

That said, how does Booster Tutor fit into a typical Cube Draft environment? Well, itโ€™s fun, thatโ€™s for sure. If fun is your primary goal when you play Cube, then go for it. Be warned that Arena Cube is priced the same as a normal Premier/Traditional Draft, but itโ€™s a โ€œphantom eventโ€, so you donโ€™t keep any of the cards you draft. That gives it pretty low estimated value compared to normal drafts (unless you really want the Cube Prize Packs), so youโ€™re probably more incentivized to prioritize โ€œgoodโ€ over โ€œfunโ€, and itโ€™s not clear how โ€œgoodโ€ Booster Tutor is.

It certainly sounds like a good proposition: Vintage-style Cubes are full of all-time great Magic cards, so exchanging a card from your hand and a single black mana for your shot at one out of 15 cards from the cube sounds great. You could open a piece of Power Nine.

The more streamlined your strategy is, the less likely Booster Tutor will help. But itโ€™s hard to miss completely, and youโ€™ll always have a great time casting it, so go for it if it appeals to you. Just donโ€™t let it be the reason youโ€™re drafting black, and donโ€™t take it over another key piece for your deck.

Follow Draftsim for awesome articles and set updates:

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *