Puschkin's The Seriously Casual Series
Beyond Dominia: Casual and Beginner's Advice Mill: Puschkin's The Seriously Casual Series
(This page is an archive for Puschkin's contributions to the Casual and Beginner's Mill--Rakso)
"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.
All this does also mean that you will play very interesting and balanced games if all players use decks from these series. One player building all decks is always a thrilling variant for the bored.