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
Conclusion
Well, that's it. Thanks to all who voted in the power rankings to aid in the construction of this year's cubes, as well as for your continued interest in my annual mad folly.
If you're just starting out building a Multiplayer-centric cube, by all means use this as a guide, and don't stop if you're missing half of the cards - replace them with whatever is lying around and draft like no tomorrow. Your group will enjoy it regardless! From there, the continual upgrading of your cube is one of life's simple pleasures (but perhaps not your wallet's)!
What's Changed
Thanks to CubeTutor's fan-diddly-tastic cube comparison page, it's easy to have a look at what has changed since last year. Rather than going into it in gory detail here, it's easier to just link to the pages.
While the flux looks high, we need to remember that most of this is due to us changing the archetypes between years, which accounts for 20% of the cube (or 72 cards).
What's New
Cards that are newly-printed in 2014 that made it into the optimal cube are the following:
- Brimaz, King of Oreskos
- Council's Judgment
- Chasm Skulker
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel
- Nighthowler
- Waste Not
- Fanatic of Mogis
- Goblin Rabblemaster *
- Purphoros, God of the Forge
- Reclamation Sage
- Daxos of Meletis *
- Deathreap Ritual
- Prophet of Kruphix
- Kiora, the Crashing Wave *
- Dack Fayden
- Marchesa, the Black Rose
- Burnished Hart *
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
What Almost Made It In
As always, adding the last 20% is a very subjective exercise, and usually an opportunity to put some pet cards in. There were some cards I considered very strongly and only just missed out on making it in. In particular, I want to highlight two that could live in this cube easily:
- Nightveil Specter - Incredible in Black Devotion decks, and works with control builds to a certain degree.
- Squee, Goblin Nabob - Is a Goblin, and simply has an abundance of uses throughout Cube (not the least being something to discard to Survival of the Fittest).
What It Costs To Build
I am not even going to attempt to price the Optimal Cube - it's got almost all of the Power Nine onboard, along with a full set of Revised duals. Let's be honest... we know it's going to be in five figures, and completely unfeasible to construct in real life (even if it is fun to dream)!
But the Budget and Legacy-Legal builds are very much buildable. While it's not possible to price an entire cube using MTGPrice (at least not without taking days to do so), it is possible to get a rough estimate using DeckStats.net, which takes a list and provides the TCGPlayer medium value for each card. While there is always an outlier or two, the price given is reasonably accurate.
Deckstats.net gives an estimate of $1759.82 for the budget version of the cube, and an estimate of $4900.03 for the Legacy-legal version (with most of that difference being made up by the set of Revised duals).
Ready, Set, Draft!
Anyway, that's enough facts and stats. I'm not silly. I know what you want. You want to hurry up and draft the suckers! Ask and you shall receive - here are the links to all three cubes on CubeTutor. Enjoy drafting them, feel free to give me any feedback, and please support Ben, the CubeTutor admin!
- The 2014 Optimal Multiplayer Cube @ CubeTutor
- Budget Version @ CubeTutor
- Legacy-Legal Version @ CubeTutor
Until 2015!
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