MTG Salvation

The Optimal Multiplayer Cube - 2013

Contents

1. Introduction
2. White
3. Blue
4. Black
5. Red
6. Green
7. Gold
8. Colourless
9. Nonbasic Land
10. 2013 Optimal Multiplayer Cube
11. Budget Version
12. Legacy-Legal Version
13. Conclusion

Blue

The blue vote was completed on September 23rd 2013.

The Top 40
The blue 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 blue. In order, these were:

1. Tinker (12.2)
2. Ancestral Recall (10.6)
3. Rite of Replication (10.4)
4. Rhystic Study (10.2)
5. Cyclonic Rift (9.6)
6. Mana Drain (9.2)
7. Consecrated Sphinx (9.2)
8. Time Walk (8.7)
9. Blatant Thievery (6.7)
10. Stasis (6.3)
11. Deadeye Navigator (5.5)
12. Phyrexian Metamorph (5.5)
13. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur (5.2)
14. Propaganda (5.1)
15. Evacuation (4.8)
16. Inkwell Leviathan (4.7)
17. Omniscience (4.7)
18. Time Spiral (4.5)
19. Mystic Remora (4.2)
20. Timetwister (3.5)
21. Windfall (2.9)
22. Capsize (2.9)
23. Prosperity (2.5)
24. Sunder (2.4)
25. Fact or Fiction (2.3)
26. High Tide (2.2)
27. Stormtide Leviathan (2.0)
28. Flash (1.8)
29. Aetherling (1.8)
30. Show and Tell (1.7)
31. Master Transmuter (1.6)
32. Hive Mind (1.6)
33. Reins of Power (1.5)
34. Snap (1.5)
35. Cryptic Command (1.5)
36. Pendrell Mists (1.5)
37. Force of Will (1.5)
38. Gilded Drake (1.5)
39. Frantic Search (1.4)
40. Future Sight (1.4)

Just outside of this list, on 1.3, are Ponder and Mystical Tutor.

The Curve

• The creatures and spells are completely unbalanced (9 creatures, 31 spells). Thankfully, we're in blue, so this isn't as bad as it looks. As blue is the spell-heavy, creature-light colour, we probably want a ratio of 14:26.
• The creatures are very top-heavy, with some having triple-blue casting costs.
• The curve is 4-7-7-7-4-10. A big hole at CC5.

Don't be concerned by the lack of 1-drops for blue creatures. The reality is that apart from Looter-style creatures like Enclave Cryptologist, there are very few viable multiplayer options here. Cards like Cursecatcher and Delver of Secrets that would normally be houses in 1-on-1 play are simply too weak to consider in multiplayer.

Fixing the Holes

Fixing the Creature/Spell Balance

Here, we can at least kill two birds with one stone. We need to drop five spells to add five creatures, and we can probably find a couple of 5CC ones in the process.
Our bottom five spells are Frantic Search, Future Sight, Cryptic Command, Pendrell Mists and Snap.
The next five creatures to receive votes were Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, Archaeomancer, Phantasmal Image, Djinn of Wishes and Deep-Sea Kraken. All well and good. We at least got one 5CC dude in.
-1 Frantic Search
-1 Future Sight
-1 Cryptic Command
-1 Pendrell Mists
-1 Snap
+1 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
+1 Archaeomancer
+1 Phantasmal Image
+1 Djinn of Wishes
+1 Deep-Sea Kraken

Drop Some Fatties

We're now left with a whole batch of cards at 6CC+, and a lot with triple-blue casting costs. The general rule should be that if I cost three or more of a single colour, I should probably be winning the game on resolution.
Our current triple-blue cards are Stormtide Leviathan, Deep-Sea Kraken, Omniscience and Blatant Thievery. I think we're happy enough with the spells, but the creatures are probably a bit much.
Are there any more 5CC guys that got votes? Yes, one - Mulldrifter (who snuck in and got a single vote, but was in our optimal cube last year). We have to go back to 2012 for a second, and that's Teferi... who is triple-blue. Gack. Next one down is Morphling. Good enough.
-1 Stormtide Leviathan
-1 Deep-Sea Kraken
+1 Mulldrifter
+1 Morphling
Our curve is now at 4-8-7-6-6-9. That's probably about as good as we're going to get it. Blue is pretty thin around CC4-5 at the best of times.

That gives us the following...

 Budget Constraints

Yes, you will actually have to drop pieces of the Power 9 here, unfortunately.
Gilded Drake ($24.15)
Ancestral Recall ($1126.36)
Mana Drain ($224.98)
Timetwister ($599.98)
Force of Will ($106.34)
Show and Tell ($82.47)
Time Walk ($894.43)
Seven nasties here. Time Spiral stays in, currently sitting around $18 a copy.

The only other blue 2-drop capable of permanent creature theft is Tolarian Entrancer, but he's pretty fun.
Ancestral Recall is easily replaced by Visions of Beyond. Not quite the same card, but we have access to horrid things like Consuming Aberration in this cube, so it will trigger for three at times.
Mana Drain is easily replaced by the classical Counterspell.
There's nothing like Timetwister at 3CC - even Diminishing Returns is 4CC. About the closest thing is Reminisce, and that's mostly pointless. The next 3CC spell in the list is Frantic Search (which we dropped earlier). That'll do.
Nothing quite replaces Force of Will, but Desertion is another fun 5CC counterspell.
About the only thing that even comes close to sneaking things out like Show and Tell does for less than $20 is Dream Halls.
We most certainly cannot find another free turn for two mana, so the closest we can get is making sure it gets back to our turn quickly. That would involve horrible things like Arcane Laboratory.

Archetypes to Add

The mana curve for blue currently looks like:
4-8-7-6-6-9
We've wound up with an excellent curve for blue. We want to keep it that way when adding an archetype for the final ten cards. Bear in mind that we also want to keep the same ratio of spells to creatures here - we want to add 3-4 creatures and 6-7 spells for each archetype in order to maintain the balance in the cube.

Blue doesn't have too many obvious archetypes in addition to those we're already headed down. Some potential directions to take the final ten cards are:
Mill: Again, a personal taste decision, but entirely possible thanks to Jace Beleren, Jace, Memory Adept, Dreamborn Muse, Traumatize, Memory Erosion, Riddlekeeper and so on. There are also artifacts like Mesmeric Orb that can aid this archetype. Bear in mind that we are typically dealing with 40-card decks in cube drafting - mill becomes a much more viable and realistic option here.
Artifact: We are already heading heavily down the artifact route with the Top 40. There are further cards that can make this archetype dance. Vedalken Archmage, Etherium Sculptor, Artificer's Intuition and Arcum Dagsson will all accelerate, and Grand Architect will even serve as a lord of sorts.

Example Mill Archetype
+1 Riddlekeeper (Surprisingly good defender)
+1 Dreamborn Muse (Wins games quickly)
+1 Undead Alchemist (Excellent next to mill, and zombies should feature heavily when we come to black)
+1 Jace, Memory Adept (Will win games if left alone)
+1 Traumatize (Backbreacking against 40-card decks)
+1 Brain Freeze (It's just fun in this environment)
+1 Increasing Confusion (Another surprise killer)
+1 Chill of Foreboding (And another)
+2 other mill spells of choice. Jace Beleren and Archive Trap are decent options.

Example Artifact Archetype
+1 Vedalken Archmage (Enchantress for artifacts)
+1 Etherium Sculptor (Cost reducer, good early blocker for blue, Tinker target)
+1 Grand Architect or Master of Etherium (Lord of choice, dependent on how much artifact creature generation you have elsewhere)
+1 Arcum Dagsson (Good repeatable tutor)
+1 Artificer's Intuition (Good repeatable tutor)
+1 Copy Artifact (Too good to leave out)
+1 Tezzeret the Seeker (Planeswalker of choice)
+3 other spells related to artifacts. Good candidates are Thirst for Knowledge, Machinate, Override, Shape Anew and Stoic Rebuttal.