Original Creation by Dennis Perlstein

This cube is the lovechild of two of my favorite things: Hidden Identity Games and MTG Archenemy! It is designed to seat exactly four players, with one player serving as the Arch-Enemy, although it may take some time to discover who the archenemy is, and even then you're not sure you can trust all your allies!

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Identities:

Identities (google drive link) are a new card type I created specifically for the Archenemy Cube. Each player will be dealt a facedown Identity specifying some role they will play. You may be the heroic savior, righteous to their core, a dastardly villain who cares only for themselves, or someone in the grey area between good and evil pursing those morally ambiguous desires.

Identities are similar to most Magic: The Gathering cards in that they have a name, type, and rules text. Like Schemes, Identities will stay in your command zone for the duration of the game and cannot leave. They aren't permanents and can't be cast. As long as an Identity card is in the command zone, its triggered abilities may trigger (mostly abilities that would turn it face up). While it is face-up, its static abilities affect the game and its activated abilities may be activated.

Every Identity card has an Ethic Score, indicated by a word and corresponding number on the right side of the type bar (the word serves as a thematic descriptor). Ethics scores are

• Diabolical
• Wicked
• Uncaring
• Conflicted
• Survivalist
• Upstanding
• Heroic

The player who will serve as the Archenemy is the player who is revealed to have the lowest Ethic Score on their assigned Identity throughout the course of the draft. Note, though that the game will not always be a straightforward 1v3. If the Archenemy has an Identities like The Righteous Revolutionary, the players will engage in a game of two-headed giant with schemes instead! Or if a player is The Traitorous Teammate, they will betray their team and take up the mantle of Archenemy if the big bad is defeated!

Setup:

Before the draft begins, sort all the identities by their Ethic Score . I have provided three identities of each Ethic Score, so each pile should have 3 identities. Shuffle each pile, and without looking, randomly set one identity aside, facedown and return the rest to the cube without looking at them. When you have done this for each pile you should have seven set aside face-down identities, one of each Ethic Score 1 through 7. Shuffle these and randomly assign each player one. You should have three unused Identity cards. Return these to the cube without looking at them; they won't be used for the duration of the draft or game.

Also required for this cube is a set of at least 48 schemes. I have one of each in my cube, but only 48 are actually needed for the draft.

Prepare six packs for each player. Each pack will have 13 regular cards and 2 oversized scheme cards.

Drafting the Cube:

The archenemy cube drafts similar to other cubes in that players will make a pick from a pack, and then pass it to the next player (alternating clockwise and counter-clockwise each pack).

The archenemy cube drafts differently in that players have 2 draft areas: their normal draft pool, and their archenemy pool. Each time a player is passed a pack, they select one card to be placed facedown into their draft pool as normal, but they also select a second card to be placed face-up into their archenemy pool.

When it comes time to build a deck, only the player who is the Archenemy will add their archenemy pool to their normal draft pool.

Packs are drafted one at a time as normal, but after drafting pack two, if any player's identity has an Ethic Score of Diabolical , they must reveal their identity and are designated as the archenemy. If there is still no archenemy after drafting pack four, if any player's identity has an Ethic Score of Wicked , they must reveal their identity. If there is still no archenemy after drafting pack six, if any player's identity has an Ethic Score of Uncaring , they must reveal their identity. If there is still no archenemy, then the player with the Conflicted Identity reveals their identity and becomes the archenemy. (Note: Since only 3 identities aren't assigned during setup, 4 is the highest Ethic Score that can still be the Archenemy)

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Primary Archetypes: Tokens /, secondary

Mardu colors support going wide with a creature token generation. Cards like Doomed Artisan, Arasta, and Pollenbright Wings give you a steady stream of tokens, doubled up by Parallel Lives or Anointed Procession. Token anthems like Prava and Phantom General make them into respectable beaters, or you can turn the mass casualties of your weak underlings to a win with cards like Cruel Celebrant or Poison-Tip Archer.

Artifacts /, secondary

Ramp up production of your factory with the help of the lowly Vedalken Engineer or Urza, Lord High Artificer while Ethersworn Canonist and Lodestone Golem slow your opponents. Artifact Creatures made of Tempered Steel or led by Jor Kadeen help your creatures outclass your opponents', but if you're too proud to get down and dirty, you can always claim victory by becoming a true Tyrant of Production.

Mill /, secondary

Unravel your opponent's minds with Increasing Confusion and Maddening Cacophony while you hide safely behind ever-growing beaters like Consuming Aberration and Sewer Nemesis and their sidekick. If you run out of creatures, you can have Geth or a Body Double turn their creatures against them. Are you becoming a victim of your own mill? Don't fret! Ramunap Excavator can dig you out of that hole, or a Deadbridge Chant makes your graveyard a source of fuel. And if worse comes to worst, Jace has your back.

AoE Burn /, secondary

Why kill just one opponent at a time when you can kill everyone all at once?! Creatures like Gibbering Fiends and extorting bats and spells like Sulfurous Blast or Breath of Malfegor hit all opponents at the same time, and Chandra's Pyreling and Wildfire Elemental grow more massive with each ping! Great for when you plan to have, say, three enemies instead of one (just so long as your best cards don't get hate-drafted)!

Cheating Fatties /, secondary

Good beaters are expensive! Good thing you don't plan to pay full price, huh? While a lot of these fatties like Ghalta, Smol Emrakul, and Primeval Protector have built-in ways to save on casting costs, the coolest beaters require you to go out of your way to set up a Sneak Attack or Impromptu Raid to turn your lurking predators into actual threats. Or just pray to an angry god! And sure, those morbidly obese creatures won't live long, but that's fine. Their 'live fast, die young' mentality is your gain with sac outlets like Birthing Pod or Birthing Pod 2, Simic Boogaloo

Secondary Archetypes: Golems secondary //

The Archenemy cube contains five phyrexian Splicers: Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer, Master Splicer, Blade Splicer, Sensor Splicer, and Wing Splicer. Couple these with the 11 colorless golems in the cube from the lowly Prismite to the terrifying Phyrexian Triniform, and some spammable token outlets like Hammer of Purphoros and Splicer's Skill and you have a formidable army of compleated golems.

The More Opponents, The Better ////

A number of MTG mechanics pay off better for the Archenemy than their adversaries. The bond lands are functional true duals for the Archenemy. Cards with Myriad, Melee and Encore are below-curve beaters unless you have multiple opponents. Some cards give you a discount for each opponent, and others give you more utility the more opponents you have. The archenemy will have lots of strong options to select from in the draft to help them contend with having multiple opponents.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work ////

Just as some cards offer an asymmetric advantage to the Archenemy, others give advantages to those batting for the good guys. Surge offers discounts if your teammates have cast a spell, assist allows your team to share mana, and the 'friend or foe' cycle lets you help players on your team and kick the Archenemy right in the teeth all in the same stroke. Then some cards allow you to help out a specific player, while others help out everyone equally, but remember: if each player draws a card, that's three cards for your team, and only one for the Archenemy's! If you're Ethics Score is a 5, 6, or 7 and you're sure to be on the heroes' team, keep a look out for these cards!

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FAQ

I will have to work on building this section out more as questions arise, but for now, the big one is:

What if I need to build a scheme deck but didn't draft 10 schemes (enough for the minimum scheme deck size)?
There is a chance, either because you were surprised to find you were the Archenemy with a middling Ethical score of 3 or 4, or because the Archenemy's identity was The Perfidious Praetors or The Righteous Revolutionary, that you are required to build a scheme deck but don't have 10 scheme cards. Well, we can't simply waive the minimum scheme deck size; a savvy Archenemy could abuse that to run only the most powerful scheme and get it every single turn. Instead, players should be given a number of "blank" scheme cards equal to Ten minus the number of schemes they did draft. Their deck will be Ten scheme cards, where some number of those cards are blank and will do nothing when set in motion. If you find yourself in this rare scenario, you can:

• Use these awesome blank Scheme cards (google drive download) I made myself (being sure to credit the artists for their amazing work!)
• Turn schemes that weren't used during deckbuilding backwards in their sleeves and use these as blank cards
• Or, if all else fails, gather any ten normal sized cards, write an index of which card corresponds to which scheme (and which are blank), and use the normal sized cards as a proxy for your whole scheme deck.