This is a cube built for 3-5 player free-for-all multiplayer (MP) games, starting with 20 life.

Type: Non-singleton MP cube
Identity: Low curving, synergy driven MP cube
Speed: Fast
Power level: High
Mana fixing: Plentiful
Target audience: Experienced players

Do any of the above speak to you? Because these cards certainly get me excited about how to best abuse them!

This cube tries to capture the fun and creativity of building an EDH deck during the draft and the fast-paced gameplay of a one on one format.

Draft: I've included some high ceiling build arounds as well as many glue cards that fit into different archetypes. This lets you mix and match cards to build whatever monstrosity you can think of. The lack of Commanders means that you aren't restricted by color identity or theme, and the decks are less prescriptive as a result. The tradeoff is that you are on your own and cannot use your Commander as guidance.

Gameplay: I like casting lots of spells and having the game move forward. To that effect, the overall curve is low for a MP cube and aggressive decks are well supported. MP games are also conducive to letting you deploy your synergies, since the games are slower than in traditional one on one formats.

Aggro

Aggro is tough in MP games because of the amount of damage you need to deal. Some tools to help aggro out are detailed below.

Global damage

To entice players to play aggro, most global damage cards are best in aggressive decks. This allows you to deal some damage early and win with a "combo" finish.

Reward attacking

Getting a bonus for smacking someone is a great way to make aggressive decks more appealing. Monarch is a mechanic that works well in that regard and encourages everyone to participate in combat.

Aggro killers

Omitting or limiting certain types of cards gives aggro a real boost.

• Limit the most broken finishers (Craterhoof Behemoth)
• Limit the amount of board wipes (Wrath of God)
• Limit the amount of stalling cards (Maze of Ith)
• Limit the amount of life gain (Thragtusk)
• Limit the amount of ramp (Rampant Growth)

Scaling Threats

Cards that can apply pressure early and stay relevant late are perfect since they aren't dead draws later in the game. Also, having some mana sinks lets you use your mana without committing to the board. This helps rebuild post-wrath much quicker.

Resiliency

Your threats will be answered, you need to bounce back. Recursive creatures are obviously amazing, but so are spells that return creatures from the GY. I especially like the ones whose targets are restricted in mana value so they have more chance to get picked up by the aggro drafter.

Creature lands

Creature lands make your decks more threat dense without taking a spell slot. They provide mana sinks which let you threaten opponents without committing additional cards.

life payments

Incidental damage incorporated into your cube will help aggressive decks. A fetchland/fetchland/shockland/dual mana base will deal damage to you over the course of a game. You could go even more extreme by replacing the duals with a second shockland cycle. I don't think it's quite necessary, but it's an easy option to boost faster decks. Same thing with the Talisman cycle instead of Signets if you chose to run them.

Some examples of possible aggro decks:

Sacrifice

The goal is to sacrifice creatures for value and damage. Tokens and/or recursive creatures are best since you get multiple sacrifices. Usually Black based in the Mardu colors.

Artifacts

Cheap aggressive creatures that care about artifacts. You can go both wide and tall with cards like Urza's Saga and Nettlecyst. Given the colorless nature of many artifact payoffs, this deck can be found in almost any color, Boros being the most frequent.

GY

Discard or fill the GY with cards that you can recur. This deck is based in Jund colors.

Spells

Cast a bunch of cheap spells and get rewarded for doing so.

Good stuff

You don't always have to go fancy! Cheap beaters, equipment and reach will win the game all the same.

Interaction

I encourage plenty of interaction with cheap removal/bounce spells. Instant speed is the name of the game since you want people attacking each other, but you need to be able to take out a threat coming your way. Instants also keep players engaged even when it’s not their turn.

I mentioned limiting wraths to help aggro thrive, but limiting the quantity of spot removal is important too. I want players to create cool synergies, but if individual pieces are too easily removed, it becomes impossible. It’s all about finding a balance, which has taken a lot of playtesting.

Variance

In MP games, being mana screwed or flooded can be a death sentence. You will get taken out and then hope that the game finishes up quickly. To lessen variance, I’ve included cheap cantrips and draw, lots of fixing and plenty of mana sinks to keep players busy.

Reward synergy, don't demand it!

Almost all the cards in the list are solid on their own, meaning you can build a good stuff deck easily. However, should you choose to lean into synergy decks you can. Here are a few examples of “explosive synergy” cards:

Regarding archetypes, instead of having dedicated ones for each color pair, I have a few broad themes represented in almost every color. These include:

• Artifacts
• Spells matters
• Graveyard matters
• Lands
• Tokens
• Sacrifice
• Enters the battlefield (ETB) value

Some colors lean more than others in some themes, the challenge is to mix and match the themes for a coherent deck.
I tried to keep these open ended. To make it happen these synergies are usually encapsulated in small packages (like a red ETB package of Terror of the Peaks, Witty Roastmaster, Impact Tremors and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker). Meaning you can draft a good stuff RG deck with an ETB package inside!

Breaking singleton

If possible, I like to keep the cards singleton. However, some cards are just so valuable to making the cube work that I am okay doubling or even tripling up on them.

For example Faithless Looting has 4 copies in my cube. It's cheap at 1 mana, fills the GY and counts as 2 spells for the decks that care. I could play Cathartic Reunion, Bitter Reunion and Thrill of Possibility, but 2 mana, 1 spell trigger and the risk of getting owned by counter magic makes them so much worse.

If this is a deal breaker for you, don't worry, you can always find alternatives. They might be a step down in power level, but a card or two won't break the cube.

Cube size

The cube size is 450 cards so that we can draft it all whether we play 3 or 5 players. Since we are fewer players than a regular pod, I don't want the same packs to wheel multiple times. Thus burning one or two cards simulates extra players taking cards while also letting us wheel something. We've been drafting like this for years and it's been awesome for smaller groups.

3 players: 10 packs of 15 cards. Pick 1, burn 2 then pass the pack. Switch sides every 2 packs.
Total of 50 cards drafted. 450 cards used.

4 players: 8 packs of 14 cards. Pick 1, burn 1, the pass the pack. When there are 2 cards left in the pack, burn them and open the next one.
Total of 56 cards drafted. 448 cards used.

5 players: 6 packs of 15 cards. Pick 1 and burn 1.
Total of 48 cards drafted. 450 cards used.

Read about the design, discussion and the archetypes here:
https://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/fast-multiplayer-cube.3208/