My goal in this series of articles is to break down the extremely varied casual meta, and suggest a few reasonably priced deck lists that stand a chance at giving you a good chance at winning your casual room games.
As anyone that plays in the casual room knows, the quality of decks in there ranges DRASTICALLY. You get everything from the $10 prefab decks, to $2000 all foil classic tournament decks. Within that ranges lies a lot of really fun and original decks that you'll enjoy playing against. With the format being so varied and wide open to decks abusing a theme, I find playing 2/3 matches the best way to enjoy my time there. Having a chance to sideboard gives you really nice outs to some of the common deck themes there. Once I've sideboarded I find I rarely lose games 2 and 3 against most of the many nasty decks in the format.
For this article I'll give you a detailed look at my most recent competitive casual deck. For simplicity I'm running a mono black middle of the ground aggro/control deck. I find having the ability to use targeted discard absolutely game ruining to many decks in the format using very fragile combos.
Mono Black Casual Chaos
Lands
When I went about picking my creatures, I wanted to find creatures that would provide me either dual uses, or "answer me now or die" power.
Gatekeeper is a great multi use guy. Facing off vs other creature based decks I get to drop a guy and remove one of theirs all for three mana. The ability becomes even more important when you're facing off against shrouded or indestructible fatties which are known to pop up in casual games. Even when you're facing a strictly combo based deck, he's still castable for 2, with a Umezawa's Jitte in his hand he works great as a beater.
Bloodghast is the perfect fit for this deck. He gives you an aggro monster that comes out quickly, and slowly pecks away your life. He's my absolute favourite guy to put Umezawa's Jitte onto. You can throw him into the face of certain death carrying the jitte, knowing you can bring him back at your second main stage by playing a land. He comes back untapped, and you can just put the jitte on him with the newly acquired counters. Even after one attack gaining 2 counters he becomes a 6/5 the next turn, or uses the -1/-1 counters to remove troublesome creatures across the board. My second favorite part about Bloodghast is his ability to return from the grave. I hate playing against the all counter decks, and this allows me to bring him back from the grave via an uncounterable land drop. GG suckas.
I love the shade for his middle and late game abilities. I know when the game is going long and we're both in topdeck mode pulling a shade is never a bad thing. With his pump ability he's an unpredictable threat coming across the board. Block him and lose your creature to the pumped shade. Let him through and I either pump him like crazy for a face smash, or let him go through unpumped, only to cast a great spell after my attack. The unpredictability of his play makes him a very difficult card to play around.
People have a totally irrational fear of this guy. I've never seen people irrationally fear a creature as much as this guy is. Sure his ability can be brutal, but I use him mainly to draw spot removal from opponents decks, or to disrupt combo decks. There's nothing I love to see more than an opponent use a Lightning Bolt on my Hypnotic Specter on turn 3, only to play a Creakwood Liege on turn 4 which they no longer have an answer for.
Nighthawk is a decent multi use card too. To be quite honest, I still hmmm and haw about him in the deck. His lifelink is great when you're facing burn, or you're trying to recover some life from using Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal. I also like that you can leave him untapped and prevent your opponent from attacking with their uber fatty until they can find removal for him.
This guy is my only guy in my "answer me now or die" pile. With two of these guys on the board pumping out 2x 5/5 tokens each turn they're nearly impossible to out race. Hell even one on the board cranks out a steady supply of blockers to stall an opponent until you can bring in backup. He also gives the rest of your guys +1/+1 which can be a game changer. He's the top of the mana curve for this deck so I'm often tutoring for him mid game to give my smaller guys some teeth to finish things.
Sorceries are a tricky item to pick when you're up against as varied a field as you see in the casual room. If you pick anything too narrow focused you risk it being a dead card, or even worse, 4x a dead card to draw into. If you leave things too open, the broad sweeping brush cards often are too slow against the rooms faster decks. So with that in Mind I'll walk you through my choices
Duress is the one single card that deals with many of the formats less fun decks. If you start on the play a turn 1 duress can very quickly pic out the key piece of a combo they're looking to run. Vs the 20 islands + 40 counter spell decks you can pick out their lowest casting cost counter and try and give yourself a chance to drop something on turn 2.
This works along the same route as Duress, except that it can get creatures and lands too. I love to bust a fat mind twist after a blue deck as tapped out casting a counter. They'll very rarely recover from that kind of loss of card advantage.
This is really a multi use card. It's a jack of all trades. I most often use it to return a creature from my graveyard and kill one of the opponents creatures. I have used it to finish dealing lethal damage after an attack too. It's definitely not a 4x in the deck, but works well to tutor for if needed.
This is my answer to the rampant elf decks in the casual room. I understand that it's your right to play elves, and nothing but elves. It's also my right to dispatch them all with damnation. After I sideboard You'll wish it was just damnation. Again it's played as a 1 off, because you're not always up against creature based decks that you can't deal with through jitte.
This is the last of my 1 off cards. With out a lot of mana on the board this card is usually useless to me. What it does allow me to do, is run cards as a 1x, and then replay them a second time if I need them again. I often think about cutting it, but it's just too good.
The tutor cards are used to grab tools from my deck to deal with various situations. Having 3x tutors usually allows me to always have even my 1x cards in easy access.
Artifacts and enchantments are kept to a minimum in this deck.
Unfortunately extended's remodeling has made this an expensive card again. I think I got mine for 4x when they were decently priced. This works great in the deck though, so it's tough to replace. Spawning pit or other token generators just don't do as nice of a job. Having the creatures fly is fantastic with Umezawa's Jitte.
I'd almost go so far as to say that this is the one card that makes this deck work. It's certainly the card I tutor for the most. It's certainly the card that's won me the most games. It's just unbelievably overpowered. It's usefully in nearly every type of match up with it's many functions. I almost never side it out. I recently replaced my old art ones with the new promo art. Check them out, they're super cool.
The sideboard:
This is really just my outs to my most hated decks in the format.
My absolute most hated is the 20 islands + 40 counters deck. It's not so much the unfun nature of the deck, but the brutal attitude of it's average user.
This card goes in as a 4x, and allows me mull into one, preventing me from having my guys countered. This combined with duress, mind twist has yet to result in a loss to those decks.
This lady allows me to really improve my game versus a lot of annoying deck types. Discard can no longer target you, Burn can no longer target you, all the combo decks that relied on target player grindstone, helm-line, no longer work. Though the card isn't the best option versus some of the options, it's blanket ability to knock out many different annoying decks forces it in as a 4x.
Rather than play a third leyline, I went with the crypt as a 3x. Having it as a 0 cc, it doesn't force me to open with it in my hand like the off colour leylines. There's a few decks you'll see in the casual room that rely on graveyard interactions. They're usually totally unprepared to deal with targeted hate.
This are both mass removal against decks that run a lot of annoying creatures. Usually Jitte is enough to take care of their lords, or important creatures. These two are just the last nails in the coffin.
This is in there for one archetype only, the mill decks. Obviously 1 isn't a sure protection, but those decks are getting rarer. Combined with the Leyline you're off to the races.
This is just a space filler. I almost never side it in, and should replace it with something more useful.
So that's my deck. Without sideboard you can build it for a fairly reasonable price. You could always sub out the tutors and put in some spot removal in their place to really bring the deck down to the easily affordable range. Good luck and see you in the casual room!
28 Comments
I must say the Leylines surprised me a bit. That must take a lot of people by surprise games 2-3. Particularly 40 counters.dec. (How do they win anyway? Manlands?) Jitte is probably a card that is required in any decent classic deck that includes creatures. I am surprised it doesn't get you more blocks. I know when it was in standard it was the number #1 cause of rage disconnections. I wouldn't run it in cas cas without knowing my opponent first but that is probably one reason I never play Classic.
EDIT
Don't know if you are aware of it but this:
http://jamuraa.com/pure/deck_new.php
makes decklists look fairly presentable.
I am new to this...i know I have been living in the dark age but i am totally hooked to it!
thanks!
The reason people quit to jitte is cause it is clearly not a casual card. Either is mind twist.While the deck may be casual as a whole (obv its not a tourney deck), it is running a lot of cards that are going to get automatic concessions and people blocking you if you are playing this in the casual room.
The deck itself is pretty commonplace, nothing new there, but i do like the off color leylines in the sb.
Not a 'casual' card? Well then, please enlighten us all on what the definition and description of "real" casual cards are. I've played magic since 4th edition and I have never noticed any special markings on my cards labeling them casual or otherwise...
You will re-open an eternal debate here ... the famous 'what is casual'.
In fact, I totaly agree with you.
In theory, there is neither casual nor competitive cards. There are only casual and competitive decks.
But for several players, it seems that some cards gained this attribute. So are some cards like Force of Will as well, but also some other like wasteland, jitte and mind twist in example (that last card not even being played in any competitive decks in classic/legacy btw). It is not a very realistical approach, but it is how it is in some mind though, and I unfortunately doubt you could change that statement, whatever your arguments...
In my opinion, some players are confused between what is a casual deck and what is a beginner deck (no offense to beginner, I highly respect & encourage them as well). Both find place in the casual room, but they are radicaly different. While this frontier isnt clear, this kind of misunderstanding will go on.
To me that's clear, this classic deck is nothing but casual. To try to cast a nantuko shade in a competitive classic environement is like to give to your opponent a Time walk and probably a game in example ... The presence of powerful card wont prevent that deck from loosing extremly quickly and without any doubt vs any serious build. That said, the deck isnt a simple pile of 'card i like' but follow a strategy. That's what defines casual deck to me.
Tuned vs untuned really.
Good work on the article endless. I like the deck so I might have to give it a go. "Casual" is like beauty, it's in the eye of the holder (to some extent) so it's really hard to find any card that someone out there isn't going to ban you for using. To me, casual means that I'm not too concerned about winning/losing but that's just my opinion.
To define casual I find it useful to contrast it to it's accepted opposite, competitive magic. Competitive magic is any game where something tangible is at stake. Usually, that's money or packs. It also fits into any game that is training or practice specifically for playing competitive magic. Practicing for the local 5k is competitive, as is practicing for your local $3 buy in tourney. If the game itself is not about tangible rewards, the drive to compete should be considerably lower. Conversely, as soon as a reward is introduced expecting a "casual" turnout is ludicrous. My local EDH league can't seem to figure out why people would bring "degenerate" decks to the weekly EDH tourney, and I can't help but shake my head. It doesn't matter if the prize is 1 pack or a million, once you start tournament style magic up it becomes competitive. Nothing brings out the competitive drive quite like having money or valuable prizes on the line.
To contrast, casual magic is a game of magic without the stakes that define competitive magic. That would most likely lead a reasonable person to assume that a player in the casual room with a type 2 Jund deck or popular top 8 legacy deck has not brought out an appropriate deck. Generally, if a deck was tuned specifically for a competitive meta-game, it isn't really casual even if it is being presented in a casual environment. That isn't to say casual decks are not tuned, because the casual room almost certainly has a meta-game. People still share ideas, and some ideas are more popular than others. That meta-game may not be defined by the extreme competitive nature of tournament play, but it exists. The idea however that any single card is strictly competitive, and that it has no casual use, is more difficult to quantify and defend I think. You can certainly define break cards down into two categories, good and bad. Some cards are deeper into each camp than others are, but it is rather tough to peg which cards are the farthest in and which are just really good or bad. Magic can surprise you, and cards that look great can stink and vice versa. Bad cards are not "the" casual cards, they are just bad. Casual magic doesn't mean you are playing to lose. If you are playing it is likely to win and not just to play.
I also don't think there is a specific "type" of deck that is not casual. Even though land destruction and denial strategies are met with ire, it doesn't mean they can't be casual. It is certainly everyone's right to tag their games with a statement like, "No ld, no counters," but that is a personal preference. It is arrogance to assume that everyone else will blindly conform to our definition of casual, so be upfront about what you are and aren't willing to play against. Even those hated archetypes have foils in magic, the LD deck doesn't really want to face down super fast aggro. If your deck can't beat LD because you don't do anything for a bajillion turns and you can't design around a meta with LD in it, then say you don't want to play LD and move on. Put that in your game title, and just maybe you'll find someone else who doesn't do a whole lot till he's played fifteen lands so he can hardcast Emrakul, This EDH Game Is Torn The %#&^ Up.
Great first article minus the formatting, but then my first article was... less than ideal
Anyway the deck looks neat, though I don't know if creatures are prominent enough to require Damnation over spot removal, but it is casual classic, so who knows! Eh, well I guess it does kill Emrakul, soo...
In regards to Casual vs Competitive I laugh, as I hear that as Casual vs Elitist, or Casual vs Hardcore, as per my MMO forthcoming. I fully embrace casual formats and I'll try to steer away from certain themes when playing in casual environments, but there only so much I can do so as to still have fun. Cards like Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Force of Will and Pernicious Deed are all fun for me to play, regardless of format, and I'll not sacrifice my fun to play a game with other people. /rant
To quote Element H, casual is indeed in the eye of the beholder, unless it rolled a 5 or less, then it's in the stomach of the Beholder!
Xenomythosbiologically speaking Beholders don't have stomachs. In fact as far as I remember from Elminster's Ecology of Beholders they consume magic to live.
......A wizard did it. Cheese falls on your head and you die, no saving throws.
I've had that happen. Sucks.
This is a casual classic deck... "real" classic decks do insane stuff..
The actual problem is that classic is what most beginners end up playing in the casual room as it houses every card online.. and so u'll see draft decks => proper decks => tournament caliber decks that are slightly off (like playing with shocklands or without some key components)...
I think that if we actually used 3 different tags then this whole casual problem could be solved.
Beginner decks, as I see it, are random piles of whatever cards their owner has. These decks lack a cohesive strategy and serve only to have fun and see what happens. If someone asks you "what does your deck do?" and you stare at them blankly or cannot describe it in a sentence, then your deck is a beginner deck. Not that there is anything at all wrong with that, but it is what it is.
Casual decks are decks that have some cohesive strategy, but they simply are not good enough to play with in a tournament. Decks like burn.dec, discard.dec, elves.dec, and LD.dec fit this description. To me, these decks are very casual. Also, budgetized versions of popular tournmament decks also fall into this category.
Tournament decks are decks with a very powerful cohesive strategy that can compete with the best decks in their respective formats. These decks do not make card inclusion decisions based on card availability or price, but on what card best fills a purpose for the deck. Tier 1, 1.5, and 2 decks fit in this category, and are the only things that should be played in the TP room. Everything else should be in cas/cas IMHO.
Sometimes a casual deck becomes tier 1 or 2 due to changes in the meta. This categorization is still artificial and doesn't truly recognize a basic truth: Playing a griefer deck whether competitively or not is going to be seen as uncasual by those who mind being griefed. Now by that I mean strategies that focus on denial (via counters or discard or land kill) or seek to punish the opponent for playing anything. I for one enjoy mass destruction and while I hate when it happens to me I am willing to risk that to enjoy the game. A lot of the objections players have towards a particular strategy whether it be aggro, combo, griefer or control are that it denies them having fun (in their eyes.) This is unsolvable. Basic human nature. I hate card a) you play it I complain. You complain about the complaint and a big discussion over what is and isn't acceptable ensues. The only way to be sure you will be OK is to check beforehand. And even then some people are going to misunderstand or miscommunicate.
This will be an ongoing debate that no one will ever agree to. It's almost the same argument of what cards are good cards and what are bad cards. There are no bad cards. It all depends on what your needs are. Even Sorrow's Path can be playable in the right deck.
One of the better "what is casual" discussions I've seen in awhile. The one card that provokes concessions that really amazes me is wastelend. I've had several people concede when I play this card, but not to include one or two when people are playing things like cabal coffers and the like is just plain irrational. I think some players must have some sort of "every land is sacred" attitude - otherwise, conceding to a fairly narrowly tailored land destruction card like this just doesn't make sense, particularly when it should be commonly included in many decks that aren't "land destruction" decks overall.
Personally, I'm fine in cas with Wasteland and Strip Mine, but NOT if said deck also includes Crucible or LFTL. The latter is just playing a pretty unfair strategy, the former is just hedging against against other land strategies.
I would like to point out that i did agree that this was a casual deck. All i said was jitte an mind twist are not casual cards, and are going to get him concessions and blocked.This is not just an opinion either, anyone who plays jitte in the casual room knows that it gets more concessions than almost any card.
I use to get a fair amount of concessions just from Duress. I mean I dont mind if people concede to a turn 1 discard spell. Though it does make me question their upbringing lol.
I really think that's just poor sportmanship. It's one thing if you see a game that says something like, "No discard" and then you turn one Duress. I've won plenty of games where I got duressed turn one, a duress doesn't even really indicate a "discard" deck. I have had a hard enough time in the past finding decent people to play with in person, and its just worse online. :-/
The implication that something is wrong with people who concede to cards/effects they dislike is misleading at the very least. As if it isn't easy to find matches online. Sure finding players you want repeat matches with can be trying but that's a different story. I can see someone being frustrated with running into constant "spoiler" cards and not wanting to adjust their decks to deal with the "unfairness".
I am fairly certain concession is the one thing about magic online that is a good thing. Imagine if you could NOT concede at will. Ponder that for a bit. Poor sportsmanship is abusive language directed at you and your deck, stalling (not simply a pause but minutes going by without action), disconnecting without a good reason, etc. The former is a violation of the Coc so you can be proactive with that if you want and you can just concede and block vs the dcers (in casual games, as in tourneys if your op dcs you just wait them out for the win.)
If someone is going to concede to commonly played spells, perhaps its for the best to start their own game and put their requirements for a complete game somewhere where everyone can see it. I just think its a time waster for everyone if they are going to be that picky and not take steps to avoid that situation. The game gave them the tools, so why not use them? There are two people involved in the game, and its frustrating to get constant concessions for playing a card like duress. Especially if they could have avoided the situation entirely. Concession isn't the only tool players have at their disposal to avoid playing against cards they don't like. If someone ignores a blatant sign that you don't want to play against discard or something, I wouldn't play it out with someone like that either. At the same token I don't expect my opponents to be psychic and just assume I will scoop to card X if they play it. At the very least I'd ask the other player at the start of the match if he's playing whatever it is I wouldn't want to play against, so as not to waste his time if we get into a match only to concede because he plays some card I hate.
If someone needs accommodations not explicitly stated in the same rules everyone is playing by, then shouldn't they have a responsibility to the other player to let them know if they stand to potentially waste his/her game time?
To clarify I wasn't bashing concession in general. I didn't mean to leave that impression. I don't even mean to say its never acceptable to concede to someone you don't want to play against for any reason, after all I'm not some kind of fascist. I just don't think it should become a trend is all. It doesn't really have to be that way, I think there is a better option.
In a perfect world everyone would be responsible to the same degree. However, what really is responsibility? My Dad used to say it is the individual's ability to respond. (Simple right?) Some people are more limited in this fashion than others. To some the only response they can muster vs duress is concession. Imho if you face constant concessions from one card it is time to examine YOUR approach to the game.
You might want to think about finding a more narrow criteria for your own games. Such as "No Quitters" or "Bring your A game" Ive seen both those messages and I assume they are effective since the players in question have been posting them for a while now. Now if you post a match/game and explicitly request no concessions (meaning preemptive concessions, not "oh you got this, gg") and someone violates that then you block them so they can't do it again.
This goes to the principle of the only person you must please is yourself. Everyone else is merely a bonus. I prefer to please more than myself but at this basic level of responsibility you are hurting no one. I believe in caring about others and respecting your fellow people whether you dislike them or their actions but at some point it is simpler to just block and move on.
The constant complaints I see in Cas Cas about concessions are just as constantly derided for the whining they are. EVEN though I think complaints are valid in general, complaining about a specific player in chat who quit X game is just whining as it serves no other purpose. (Shame? Doesn't exist online.) So it goes in a vicious circle when the whole thing can be avoided by eliminating those whose behavior you find undesirable from your play circle.
I get that you weren't attacking concession as a general principle but it seemed a good time to make that point. Since often in these discussions that becomes a sidetracking bone of contention.
I concede when I know my opponent has earned the win. I must say, if I still played any sort of casual game online I would likely put something to the effect of "no quitters" in my tag. It's a fine idea. I just find better use of what time I do have to play drafting, so that's all I do now.
Personally, I would never re-examine my approach to the game for playing in a perfectly legal and fair manner. If I was bringing tourney decks to the table, then sure that's out of line for a non competitive arena, but for playing a specific type of card never. I've played all sorts of games all my life, and people screaming "cheap" happens everywhere. I'd recommend reading Sirlin's "Playing to win" for anyone who uses the word cheap to describe a style of play in a game, even if its just to understand where the other player is coming from. Ever since games have gone online the mantra seems to be, "If you can't beat it, call it cheap." But, now I'm the one digressing. I guess I just wanted you to know the background of my POV.
And now I'm going to sleep, or something like it. Good talking with you Paul.
More often than not, the people who put something in there have a bone to pick with everything, and are much more likely to start verbally blasting you. My favourite are the ones who put "fast players please" then concede when you take more than 2 seconds to figure out which 2 cards to put back from brainstorm.
Interesting, considering the idea is the solution most highly recommended by wotc employees (ORCS) for dealing with people bringing decks you can't or don't want to handle.
I tend to not limit my games but I have occasionally put something like "no more elves please" in my tribal wars classic games after seeing 30 in a row. (Only happened twice but it was enough to warrant a message.) However, labeling people who do that as being contentious is a mistake I think. Just like generalizing about people doing anything is usually bad form. Simple yeah but bad form no doubt.
The "fast players" posters are the exception to that rule as the very concept is rather rude and inconsiderate.
I am a little surprised at you Linton, being "Mr. Danger" and all Id think you'd be happy to risk a few occasions of having to block someone to potentially have a good time.
==edit== though I imagine your experience in your format has more to do with it than anything else. Classic being a huge minefield of all kinds of players.
I agree that some aspects of the deck are nasty. That is a virtue of the decks I have to deal with. I wanted to build a deck that could slug it out in Casual with anything I might find there outside of tourney decks. This deck includes a large and varied tool box to do it. Yes some of the cards are out of place and may seem odd, however they're often needed in the varied matchups. I'm no different than anyone else out there I'd imagine. There's certain games I just hate to lose, and my number one is the 40counters.dek. The other is 2 ticketelves.dek. While I agree that mind twist is a great card, is it really not casual? Anything under 4 mana avaiable and hymn is more efficient. I'm actually really excited that this topic has sparked such interest. The casual room is great fun, and classic is the king of the formats in there. It allows for the most interesting decks by a long shot.