The Optimal Multiplayer Cube - 2014
Contents
- Introduction
- White
- Blue
- Black
- Red
- Green
- Gold
- Colourless
- Non-Basic Land
- Optimal Multiplayer Cube 2014
- Budget Version
- Legacy-Legal Version
- Conclusion
Gold
The gold vote was completed on November 14th 2014.
The Top 40
The gold section in a 360-card cube is 50 cards in size. As we are listing the top 80% we are after the top 40 cards in our power rankings for gold. In order, these were:
- Mirari's Wake (18.0)
- Aura Shards (18.0)
- Pernicious Deed (17.5)
- Prophet of Kruphix (15.8)
- Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (13.0)
- Assemble the Legion (9.3)
- Deathrite Shaman (8.5)
- Vizkopa Guildmage (8.5)
- Baleful Strix (8.0)
- Olivia Voldaren (6.3)
- Consuming Aberration (5.0)
- Deathreap Ritual (5.0)
- Maelstrom Wanderer (5.0)
- Sigarda, Host of Herons (5.0)
- Supreme Verdict (5.0)
- Marchesa, the Black Rose (4.3)
- Boros Reckoner (4.0)
- Nekusar, the Mindrazer (4.0)
- Havengul Lich (4.0)
- Mirrorweave (3.8)
- Plasm Capture (3.8)
- Dragon Broodmother (3.3)
- Venser, the Sojourner (3.3)
- Spitting Image (3.0)
- Vindicate (3.0)
- Debtors' Knell (2.8)
- Decimate (2.8)
- Magister of Worth (2.5)
- Qasali Pridemage (2.3)
- Kaervek the Merciless (2.3)
- Sliver Hivelord (2.3)
- Glissa, the Traitor (2.0)
- Ashen Rider (1.8)
- Sphinx of the Steel Wind (1.8)
- Grand Arbiter Augustin IV (1.5)
- Mage Slayer (1.3)
- Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (1.0)
- Ruric Thar, the Unbowed (0.8)
- Dragonlair Spider (0.5)
- Prime Speaker Zegana (0.5)
The Curve
Okay, the problems with the initial curve...
- Gold is always a cow to balance. Firstly, we need to balance the guilds evenly. In years past, we have gone with four cards from each allied-colour guild, three from each enemy-colour guild, and five cards with 3+ colours in their casting cost. Getting this balanced is the first task.
- After this, we do want to at least pretend to have creature/spell balance and a decent curve, but gold is probably the place to be a little more fast and loose with this rule if we need to be. We are currently at a creature/spell ratio of 24/16, and a curve of 3-7-7-9-13. It's normal to be a little top-heavy with gold, but this is a bit ridiculous. And I can tell you that most of that CC6+ bulge is thanks to a large number of finisher creatures. We'll have to drop some of those.
Fixing the Holes
Fixing the Guild Balance
Okay, time to approach the hardest part of building our cube, to be honest. The guild balance is currently as follows:
Azorius (W/U) - 4 (Supreme Verdict / Mirrorweave / Venser / Grand Arbiter)
Dimir (U/B) - 3 (Strix / Aberration / Havengul)
Rakdos (B/R) - 2 (Olivia / Kaervek)
Gruul (R/G) - 5 (Broodmother / Mage Slayer / Decimate / Ruric Thar / Dragonlair)
Selesnya (G/W) - 4 (Wake / Aura Shards / Sigarda / Qasali Pridemage)
Orzhov (W/B) - 5 (Vizkopa Guildmage / Vindicate / Knell / Magister / Ashen Rider)
Izzet (U/R) - 0
Golgari (B/G) - 4 (Deed / DRS / Deathreap Ritual / Glissa)
Boros (R/W) - 3 (Gisela / Assemble / Boros Reckoner)
Simic (G/U) - 4 (Prophet / Plasm Capture / Spitting Image / Zegana)
3+ Colour - 6 (Maelstrom Wanderer / Marchesa / Nekusar / Hivelord / Sphinx / Bolas)
It's the usual story for gold... Rakdos and Izzet are wastelands, there's too many 3+ colour cards, and some are downright unplayable.
Firstly, let's clean up the ones we can. Remember, we're aiming for 4 in each allied guild, 3 in each enemy guild, and five cards with 3+ colours.
In the allied guilds, Azorius and Selesnya are fine, while Dimir and Rakdos are under. Gruul is one over, so we'll tip the last one overboard in Dragonlair Spider.
In the enemy guilds, Boros is fine and Izzet is under, while Orzhov, Golgari and Simic are all over. We'll lose the last two from Orzhov (Magister of Worth and Ashen Rider), as well as the last one from both Golgari and Simic (Glissa, the Traitor, Prime Speaker Zegana).
Finally, the 3+ colour section has one too many, and features Sliver Hivelord, which is nigh-on uncastable and has no other Slivers to play with.
-1 Dragonlair Spider
-1 Magister of Worth
-1 Ashen Rider
-1 Glissa, the Traitor
-1 Prime Speaker Zegana
-1 Sliver Hivelord
Now for the tidy-up. We only had two cards left in this year's vote that were only two colours. Mercifully, they were both Izzet! That hands us Dack Fayden and Jhoira of the Ghitu. From here, we're into the 2013 count to fill out our slots.
In our allied guilds, Dimir needs a card and Rakdos needs two. In those guilds, the first cards we see from 2013 that fit these slots are Oona for Dimir and Dreadbore and Deathbringer Thoctar for Rakdos.
In our enemy guilds, Izzet needs one more, and the next one in from 2013 is Djinn Illuminatus.
+1 Dack Fayden
+1 Jhoira of the Ghitu
+1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
+1 Dreadbore
+1 Deathbringer Thoctar
+1 Djinn Illuminatus
Finally, we want our 3+ colour section to at least be balanced. Our current five are one from Esper, one from Temur and three from Grixis. Yeesh. We have to throw those last two Grixis cards overboard and at least find something a little different...
-1 Nekusar, the Mindrazer
-1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Heading back into the 2013 count, the next two we find that fit what we're looking for are Teneb, the Harvester and Bant Charm.
+1 Teneb, the Harvester
+1 Bant Charm
Fixing the Curve
Okay, after all of that, our creature/spell balance is at 23/17. We can live with that - the spells usually get their own back when we get to the colourless and land sections anyway.
But our curve? Well, that's at 4-9-7-7-12. It's still a bit out of wack and has too many finishers. How about we throw out the bottom three two-colour gorillas from our 2014 vote, and find some CC4-5 stuff to replace them with?
The bottom three that we still have in are Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, Kaervek the Merciless and Dragon Broodmother. We added Deathbringer Thoctar after Kaervek, and Kaervek is much better, so let's drop the Thoctar instead. Apart from that, it's a bit unkind to Gruul... oh well...
-1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
-1 Deathbringer Thoctar
-1 Dragon Broodmother
We have to head back into previous years again to find replacements. Looking at 2013 will see us add Huntmaster of the Fells for Gruul, but won't find slots for the other two cards. For Rakdos, 2012 first hands us Demigod of Revenge, but he's pretty useless in Cube - the next one down is Lightning Reaver, which is excellent, so we'll go with that. Gruul hands us Bloodbraid Elf! Yay!
+1 Huntmaster of the Fells
+1 Lightning Reaver
+1 Bloodbraid Elf
That gets our curve to 4-9-9-8-9. Good enough!
Azorius (W/U) - 4 (Supreme Verdict / Mirrorweave / Venser / Grand Arbiter)
Dimir (U/B) - 4 (Strix / Aberration / Havengul / Oona)
Rakdos (B/R) - 4 (Olivia / Kaervek / Dreadbore / Reaver)
Gruul (R/G) - 4 (Mage Slayer / Decimate / Huntmaster / BBE)
Selesnya (G/W) - 4 (Wake / Aura Shards / Sigarda / Qasali Pridemage)
Orzhov (W/B) - 3 (Vizkopa Guildmage / Vindicate / Knell)
Izzet (U/R) - 3 (Dack Fayden / Jhoira / Djinn Illuminatus)
Golgari (B/G) - 3 (Deed / DRS / Deathreap Ritual)
Boros (R/W) - 3 (Gisela / Assemble / Boros Reckoner)
Simic (G/U) - 3 (Prophet / Plasm Capture / Spitting Image)
3+ Colour - 5 (Maelstrom Wanderer / Marchesa / Teneb / Sphinx / Bant Charm)
Budget Constraints
There is a single card above our $20 budget limit:
- Dack Fayden ($22.97)
Surprisingly, Vindicate has fallen off this list in the last few months... it's down to $19, so it stays in.
-1 Dack Fayden
+1 Ral Zarek
Archetypes to Add
When it comes to the archetypes for gold, it's usually best to throw in things that either synergize really nicely with the other guild cards, or things that work with the archetypes you already have in. We'll be adding our final ten when we've added our other archetypes and we've pieced together the rest of our optimal cube. Hold tight!
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