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. Optimal Multiplayer Cube 2013
11. Budget Version
12. Legacy-Legal Version
13. Conclusion

Optimal Multiplayer Cube 2013

Okay, we have the results for our individual sections. It's time to fill out the remaining 20% with some fun archetypes and throw the whole thing together.

The Archetypes To Add
The aim here is to pick what we consider to be the most powerful archetypes to work with our cube. Here goes...

White - Knights
The Knight tribe fit our white curve perfectly. We were low on 2-3CC cards, and half the knights we wanted to put in were exactly that. Our example gave us the following:
+1 Knight Exemplar
+1 Kinsbaile Cavalier
+1 Hero of Bladehold
+1 Paladin en-Vec
+1 Puresteel Paladin
Spell-wise, we were making stuff up. Honor of the Pure and Glorious Anthem are obvious choices. From there, we probably just want to pad things out with decent cards. We could sit behind Worship all day long if our Knights are indestructible. Idyllic Tutor will let us fetch all three. And perhaps a bit more targeted removal? Journey to Nowhere can be fetched too. Looks good.
So, on top of the creatures above, we're adding:
+1 Honor of the Pure
+1 Glorious Anthem
+1 Worship
+1 Journey to Nowhere
+1 Idyllic Tutor

Blue - Artifact
While mill is very viable here, it's not to everyone's tastes. Artifact is already strong. From before, we add:
+1 Vedalken Archmage
+1 Etherium Sculptor
+1 Arcum Dagsson
+1 Grand Architect
+1 Artificer's Intuition
+1 Copy Artifact
+1 Tezzeret the Seeker
+1 Fabricate
We had a choice for the last two spells. Let's go with a little bit more card draw and countermagic, because we're lacking.
+1 Thirst for Knowledge
+1 Stoic Rebuttal

Black - Reanimator
We went with Zombies here last year, but there are some complete and utter gorllia reanimator targets in this year, and we've already got a few spells in to support this. Onwards!
+1 Entomb
+1 Reanimate
+1 Buried Alive
+1 Exhume
+1 Rise from the Grave
+1 Unburial Rites (This sometimes gets lumped in with Orzhov cards due to its flashback cost... move it around in your own cube to suit)
+1 Corpse Connoisseur
+1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
+1 Griselbrand (Obvious black reanimator target, but not budget. We'll change him to suit in our budget version of the cube below)
+1 Phyrexian Obliterator (As per Griselbrand)

Red - Dragons
Elementals are very close to being viable here, but they're probably one fatty short, given we've picked Reanimator above. Dragons will certainly make up for that.
+1 Dragonspeaker Shaman (Accelerator)
+1 Mana-Charged Dragon
+1 Bogardan Hellkite
+1 Flameblast Dragon
+1 Scourge of Valkas
+1 Furnace Whelp (Let's at least pretend to care about our curve!)
+1 Crucible of Fire
+1 Dragon Roost
And before we completely smash our curve, let's throw in two burn spells to round things off, like we did last year.
+1 Banefire
+1 Red Sun's Zenith

Green - Ramp
We went with Elves last year, but we've committed to fatties this time around... let's make it fun.
+1 Dryad Arbor (We can argue about whether this goes under land or green... but it fits the archetype given we can GSZ for 0 to fetch it)
+1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
+1 Gyre Sage
+1 Yavimaya Elder
+1 Skyshroud Elf (An underrated little guy who gives seriously good colour-fixing. Wirewood Channeler is another good one here if you don't like Skyshroud)
+1 Oracle of Mul Daya
+1 Fertile Ground (Enchantress's Presence is in already, so we might as well pick a couple of good enchantments to help)
+1 Utopia Sprawl
+1 Rampant Growth
+1 Explosive Vegetation

Gold
Gold has left us room ten more support cards. Let's try and add one from each of the guilds.
Azorius: +1 Detention Sphere (an extra O-Ring, and capable of stopping token shenanigans)
Dimir: +1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (Pushes our artifact strategies)
Rakdos: +1 Lightning Reaver (Too good in multiplayer to leave out)
Gruul: +1 Dragon Broodmother can come back in (Dragon, reanimator target)
Selesnya: +1 Sigarda, Host of Herons can come back in (Dropped late, reanimator target)
Orzhov: +1 Stillmoon Cavalier (An evasive Knight)
Izzet: +1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius (Dragon, reanimator target)
Golgari: +1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Adores playing with reanimator)
Boros: +1 Assemble the Legion (Too good in multiplayer to leave out)
Simic: +1 Unexpected Results (Ramps, maintains the gold creature/spell balance)

Colourless - Equipment

Let's go bananas with the equipment. As suggested previously:
+1 Sword of War and Peace (Three moar Swords!)
+1 Sword of Feast and Famine
+1 Sword of Body and Mind
+1 Whispersilk Cloak (Provides wonderful evasion for a Limited environment)
+1 Trepanation Blade (We've got a cube full of reanimation... this becomes a wonderful gamble)
+1 Loxodon Warhammer (Because it's the n00bstick)

Nonbasic Land
Another nice, easy one. We're playing a blue artifact archetype above. Let's help it along.
+1 Academy Ruins
+1 Ancient Den
+1 Great Furnace
+1 Seat of the Synod
+1 Tree of Tales
+1 Vault of Whispers

The Full Optimal Cube

So we have our 360 cards, and therefore our cube. It is as follows: