INTRODUCTION:
(If this is not the first time you read a "The Seriously Casual Series: ..." thread, skip the introduction)
"The Seriously Casual Series: ..." is a series of threads which introduces some of my more successful multiplayer-decks. However, "successful" does not neccessaryly equal "winning". From my point of view Magic is a social game in the first place. As such I try to build decks as funny to play against as to play with. Of course there are as many definitions of "fun" as ways to abuse Necro. Here is what I and my playing group would define "fun":
We enjoy playing unusual cards or using commonly used cards in unusual ways. That does not mean that we do not use staples or power cards, but we do not abuse power cards to the fullest. We do try to win games but "making the deck work" is more important.
What we don´t find funny:
Killing everyone with infinite-whatever-combos. Taking 15-minute-turns. Using no-brainers like Overrun or Coat of Arms. Making someone watching the game incapable of doing anything (Armageddon, Stasislock). Overuse of endless repitions of CIP-effects or similar annoyances. Playing extremely unsocial cards like Gravepact.
These are no official rules and they are bend sometimes by common sense. Additionally I have my own style of play and deckbuilding: I mostly build theme decks, but my themes are related to game mechanics instead of creature types or movie titles. For example, I created a deck called "Was mich nicht tötet, härtet mich ab", a german expression that means "What doesn´t kill me makes me tougher". It packed Scars of the Veteran, Fungusaur, Reverse Damage, Respite, Sentinel, Sworn Defender, Living Artifacts and so on. I love flexible cards and tend to build nearly highlander decks, increasing it´s flexability.
These decks do not win more often than other decks because they need time to evolve. They have a very high proportion of synergy which is their greatest strength and weakness by the same time because they get only slowly stronger. Really successful (winning) decks start out harmless and kill in a flashpoint of 1 to 3 turns. Usually my decks do give my opponents a chance to stop them.
That´s social play for me.
NOTE: I am playing since Revised/Fallen Empires and my collection is rather large including many power cards such as Moxes. However, I almost never build decks around super-expensive cards and most of the older cards I use can be replaced by newer ones. Since my decks tend to be highlander anyways you´ll have no problems when you rebuild them. Just up the count of a similar card instead. This will work almost every time. I do not proxy cards and if I do not have more copies of a specific card I turn on my brain and add another, similar card. This leads me to new card combinations and forces me to try out cards that I did not use before. For example I own only one Sylvan Library. When I needed more for other decks I tried out Preferred Selection and were quite satisfied. Fight the laziness in your head and drop in some anarchy.
The decks I post are fine-tuned and I do not intent do modify them unless a new card seems to be the perfect card for this deck. You may still suggest some card additions but realize that I do not post the decks to optimize them, I do post them to share the fun I had with them and to foster some discussions about "adult" casual/multiplayer deckbuilding and gaming.
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BLOCKING MADNESS
Multiplayer multi-purpose deck (optimal: Pentagram)
Type I
November 2000, last modified June 2001
This is going to be the first deck I post in this series. It is a rather basic one to introduce you to my style of playing and deckbuilding.
Blocking Madness features many creatures with nasty abilities which trigger if the creature is blocked. Have fun after declaration of blockers with instant removal, creature pumpers and effects like Maze of Ith.
For example attack with Thresher Beast. He blocks with a power 4+ and sacs a land. Use Maze on Thresher Beast and repeat next turn. Or, attack with Gorilla Berzerkers, he blocks with three creatures with combined power of 7 or greater, Gorilla gets angry (+4/+4 rampage bonus), instant kill one blocker and trample over remaining blockers, usually killing them. And so on.
Blocking Madness v1.2
3 Thresher Beast
2 Sengir Vampire
1 Two-Headed Dragon
3 Lim-Dúl´s Paladin
2 Gorilla Berserkers
1 The Wretched
1 Axelrod Gunnarsson
1 Rock Basilisk
1 Corrupt Official
1 Sedge Troll
1 Wall of Blossums
2 Vine Trellis
2 Yavimaya Elder
1 Adun Oakenshield
1 Vhati il-Dal
1 Tuknir Deathlock
1 Latulla´s Order
2 False Orders
2 Terminate
2 Annhilate
1 Agonising Demise
1 Fissure
1 Tawnos´Coffin
2 Invigorate
1 Elvish Fury
1 Darigaaz´s Charm
1 Maze of Ith
1 Safe Haven
1 Consume Strength
1 Keldon Mantle
2 Gaea´s Blessing
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Multani´s Decree
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Urborg Uprising
1 Grim Feast
1 Barrin´s Codex
1 Exploration
1 Sol Ring
2 Mind Stone
2 Rocky Tar Pit
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Heart of Yavimaya
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Quicksand
1 Taiga
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Darigaaz´s Caldera
7 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Mountain
Some card choices:
Invigorate:
This is nice because you can give a friendly opponent (you have 2 of them in Pentagram) 3 life with super-instant speed and without using the stack. This one is always free.
Mind Stone, Urborg Uprising, Phyrexian Furnace:
They do their purpose and do not cost you a card. Important since you have more than 60 cards. Mind Stone grants you some mana acceleration and is "cycleable" later in the game. Urborg Uprising nets you 2 cards. Graveyardkill (P.Furnace) is important in multiplayer. If not, sac it for a card (don´t be shy and remove a card of your own in emergency situations!).
Grim Feast:
Your opponents creatures will die in one or another way. If they have no creatures either you or them will be in trouble anyway! Grim Feast turned out to be very useful in this deck.
False Orders:
A underrated card since it can make one of your attackers virtually unblockable (you can make one of your attackers, that is blocked by only one creature unblocked). In this deck it is awesome!
Lim-Dúls Paladin:
I love this card and finally I found a home for it!
Darigaaz´s Charm:
Useful in all three ways. If the deck wasn´t built before this card came out I would have packed more of them but I do not want to cut any further card.
Safe Haven:
Just for Nostalgic Reasons (TM). Play Cold Storage instead or just cut this slot.
GAMEPLAY AND DECK BUILDING NOTES
This deck doesn´t do much on the first few turns. Be sure that you do not annoy anybody with your combat tricks too early. The Blessings should be used to recycle your critter kill, the combat tricks and obvious things like Demonic T. Multani´s Decree is one of your strongest cards since it doesn´t hurt you and since it is on double-duty (lifegain). Do Blessing back your creatures, you will regret this if you draw a U.Uprising, D.Charm or Adun Oakenshield. Don´t forget that you can use all your combat tricks on other player´s creatures, too! This can be very rewardful if one player attacks one of your enemies, eventually he will additionally do you a favour!
I could have added more dual lands but I have more than ten decks at a time and fetching them with the Mirage fetch lands does work also. The Elders and Glaciers will solve any problems. The creature count is very low but realize that the other cards are either cantrips, do thin your deck or do result into a creature (U.Uprising) or do save creatures from death.
That´s it for now. I will be happy about any comments and I will answer all questions if I have the time to do so. If you copy and play the deck, please let us know your experiences!
Magic can be as funny and exciting as you want.
Puschkin
I see cards with abilities that trigger when blocked, but I don't see any cards which force oppoent to block. Is the idea here making sure your opponent doesn't want to block or is it that you WANT your opponent to block you?
For this kind of deck, I'd play a Basilisk/Lure combo.....it's not as really casual, and the trick's old, but it fits your theme. Although I'd prefer Taunting Elf/Venom for the same purpose.
Oh, if they don´t block ... they eat damage !?!
Usually they let them through if they have the life = fine. Later, if they don´t have the life, they (try to) block. It almost always results in card advantage = fine. And if I really want that Ali from Cairo to block one of my nasties I have False Orders.
And another aspect of this deck is that most of my combat tricks are instants that my opponent cannot see. Take the Gorilla Berzerkers for example. He won´t block them (and eat damage) until he is sure that his blockers will be sufficient enough to kill them. Guess what, they aren´t.
Additionally there are cards like Latulla´s Order and Keldon Mantle to make sure that my opponent is doomed, whether he blocks or not.
And yes, I haven´t played Basilisk/Lure for years now because it´s so old. But thank you for reminding me, I should have mentioned it so newer players can put it in. BTW, I forgot a Cockatrice in the Decklist!
A correction (and "upping" of this thread...):
Of course it should read "... Do NOT Blessing back your creatures, you will regret this if you draw a U.Uprising, D.Charm or Adun Oakenshield..." in the "GAMEPLAY AND DECK BUILDING NOTES" section.
That deck is SO hosed by Bedlam.
What is Bedlam? And who is using that? I think cards like Moat are more terrible, whtever Bedlam does. But, Matt, show me a deck without weak spots. It´s impossible.
Bedlam: nobody is allowed to block. costs 2R? enchantment.
Well, if you're counting on abilites that require an opponent to block, then you're screwed unless you're still way faster by a few critters. But I've looked through your deck and found that about 55% of your attackers are better off left unblocked.....so Bedlam doesn't make a difference.
Exactly. I don´t want to force every creature to block mines and it is not my intention to sneak every creature through - I just want to get sure that I will be better off after an attack, block or not.
What´s up, I chose me least complicated deck first. Or did I write too much?
Nice series so far. Being myself, I read them in reverse order. I'm also tempted to dig my cards out and find players again...
What about Camouflage - the king of blocking tricks? And to a lesser extent, Illusionary Mask would give you a one-attack advantage. And General Jarkeld lets you switch two target ... blockers, I believe. But that is a fourth color...
Another fun thing about Sengir Vampire is that if a creature they damaged (even for 1 point) goes to the graveyard that turn, the Vampire grows larger. Long ago, a friend played a deck built around Tim-enchantments, Sengir Vampires, and instant creature removal. When the Vampires were large enough, and your visible blockers were gone, the Vampires would swoop in and finish you off. Not exactly a blocking trick, but something to think about.
That's all.
That guy shoulda played with Pit Spawn (1 point of damage removes anything from the game!)
I would have suggested it for this deck if it weren't so expensive in terms of CC....still, it would be a powerful addition. First Strike plus the aforementioned ability! It's nigh unstoppable (except by a StP)!
That guy is Puschkin and I thought we were quite familiar with each other, Chicken No.1?
Yeah, Pit Spawn. I love him, too. He is in almost every black deck that can handle it´s cc. So I left him out this time.
Krichaiushii: There are Sengirs in the deck! For the reason you said: I attack, he blocks with two or more creatures which should be sufficient to kill Sengeir, then I pump Sengir or kill one of the blockers and Sengir gets biiiig and angry!
Camouflage and Illusionary Mask. Yes, two cards that belong into this deck. I have only one of each and I guess that I overlook them always for this reason. Also it would reduce the creature ratio further. Hm, I will replace something with Mask and Camouflage and tell you what happened.
Duh, what a funny mistake! Illu Mask does not work since my creatures are revealed when they are tapped to attack! I earned some really confused and amused looks when I pulled the "combo" last weekend ... But Camouflage works.
Sorry 'bout the bit with Illusionary Mask. But I am glad you enjoyed Camouflage.
Do you want to hear my story of how I survived (and won) an 8-way chaos game using Camouflage?
No? Too bad. It was down to four players, myself included. Camoflage had been thrown in my deck on a lark. Between the creature spread of myself and my opponents, and the fact that we all had low single digits of life, the game would end due to topdecking. I topdecked Camoflage, flipped the critters over, attacked all at once, and got all three players. A Mesa Pegasus factors into this story too, but beyond that, the details are fuzzy.
All told, Camoflage is a great card.
Time for updates:
Camouflage was great fun, I added it while I was on a hurry and took no card out for this.
One of the False Orders became a Melee. Although Melee can´t push any attackers through it is capable of screwing multiple blocks which can be right disasterous in this deck!
I took out the Exploration. It was there to speed things (Glaciers, Druids) up but just one was too situational. I´m running my only Sylvan Library instead now. As always, adding this cutie helps running the deck more smoothly, there are enough shuffling effects.
Although I really like the Lim-Dul´s Paladins I replaced one with Pyre Zombie. Pyre Zombie helps paying the remaining Paladin´s upkeeps (without being boring like adding Squee) and it is also a reliable damage source/blocker in one. It helps creating headaches how to block, too!