This is an extended format deck that I have been tuning for a while. It is still based on what I can afford to own and thus not a perfect list but I enjoy playing with it and I hope you will too.
One of the things I love about Magic: The Gathering, in fact one of my favorite things about magic is the phrase "comes into play." Yes I know it was just changed to battlefield. Yay? "Comes into the battlefield" doesn't quite sound right yet but hey at least I don't have to say it every-time it happens. *grins* Another thing that is great about magic is mass removal. Armageddon, Wrath of God, Mind Twist were all some of my favorite cards in beta/unlimited, and they still are today. Desolation Giant while not a Wrath of God (and thus having a low value on the secondary market) does offer both things. When it comes into the battlefield if you paid its kicker cost (WW) you get a Wrath of God + a Hill Giant (3/3). If you don't pay the kicker your creatures go away but you still get a Hill Giant (3/3). No one is ever going to play it for 2RR under normal circumstances but it is good to keep in mind the possibility.
The first deck:
This version is the one I've been using mostly on MODO though I have recently changed to a newer version I will list below. First things first. There is no sideboard. There is a very good reason for that. I like playing 1 of games against the random players of the Casual Room, never really sure what deck I will face next or how my opponent will play or chat. If they do chat at all. I wish all the players in Casual treated it that way and chatted with the dignity of adults or at least some semblence of civility but the randomness of meeting people online and playing different decks suits me just fine.
Analysis:
Draw: we have a variety of ways to draw cards. (Carven Carytid), Coiling Oracle (part land fetch/part draw), Elvish Visionary, Mulldrifter. Each card serves a slightly different purpose and all are abusable with the Crystal Shards as recursive draws. Mulldrifter in particular with evoke works great as a 2 card draw for 4 mana (3 for the evoke and a blue for the bounce). Visionary and Oracle can both help out in case of a low land draw. Carytid is great as a blocker for the early game. The only draw back is the GG cost. Which is not insignificant, but you will usually not regret having it in hand.
(Civic Wayfarer) is a great 1 of land fetcher that can be very recursive. A friend asked me "Why not use Farhaven Elf? Isn't it better?" My response to this is yes and no. Yes because you might be looking for lands to come into play. No because you may want the land in your hand and for 3cmc you only get a 1/1 instead of a beefier 2/2. Ok I'm sure most of you are completely unsurprised by that.The lands in hand can lead to better Realm Razer results.
Bounce: Crystal Shard, Ogre Savant (paid with blue mana of course) , Stonecloaker. Each of these is useful in similar ways. Crystal Shard is a threat to your opponent's mana stability as they need to keep a mana open (or 2 if you wait till the end of their turn) so there goes that turn 3 beast that wins the game for them. On the other hand late game the threat of bouncing their creatures diminishes. But that isn't the point of the Shards in this deck, it is just a nice bonus. I can't tell you how many players have ignored the Shard repeatedly during a game. Ogre Savant is an alternative non conditional (assuming you always pay the blue mana) bounce. It is also a bit of a beast so if it bounces and is let unblocked it can give your opponent a beating. Stonecloaker does two things at once. Very rarely the 2nd thing backfires and bites you instead. Usually you don't care. Removing cards from graveyards is a nice BotES* trick. Particularly if you have lots of mana and nothing better to do with it. But most of the time it stops all the fun things like Flashback, Unearth, Eternal Witness. Dust Elemental is an odd card. 6/6 flying with flash. But the draw back is what interests us. Return 3 creatures? That means if you have overcommitted the board because your opponent didn't play anything and you needed to do something to avoid terminal boredom you have a way to bounce all and recover or just cast Desolation Giant later.
187 Sweepers: Desolation Giant with Kicker (costs WWRR2 or 6 cmc), (Myojin of Cleansing Flame). As I said above Desolation Giant is a nice hill giant that cleans up the board if your opponent doesn't counter it. Also of note is the fun combo of Myojin on the board (with Counter intact) and then Desolation Giant, Then you get to swing for 4 damage unobstructed. The only draw back to these cards is the occasional indestructible creature. Not a lot can be done about that except maybe bouncing the creature or just flying over it. I have won games where the opponent had a Darksteel Gargoyle because I managed to flush the rest of his creatures and then played men until I could alpha strike for the kill.
Recursion: Deadwood Treefolk With the 5 color version of this deck I used Gravedigger instead, but the treefolk makes a very nice blocker when all else fails, and he gives you a creature back when he leaves play too so even if you have to chump block instead of bouncing him, you end up ahead. The drawback of course is 6 mana is steep even for a 3/6 so this is strictly a mid to late game card. More on late game tactics later.
Toolbox Miscellaneous: These are the cards that you put in the deck to deal with common threats in the format. Because there is no sideboard these cards are important even if sometimes they are dead cards in hand. Mystic Snake Mostly useful against control decks and decks that seek to disrupt your combos by destroying and or removing the Giants and Shards. Expect some concessions if you get this in play with mana to bounce and cast again with a Shards in play. At the very least you get a 2/2 flash creature. I for one consider all forms of cards to be acceptable in casual with the caveat that people playing uncreative mainstream decks are not fun to play against unless they are bad at them. And why play with something you are bad at? Well there is the fun factor but back on track. In prior versions of this deck I have used Steamcore Weird and Nekrataal as spot removal. Aven Cloudchaser is my enchantment removal creature. You can not be afraid of putting him into play just as a body. Sometimes a body is needful either as a chumper or to deal some unblocked damage. Or as an intimidation factor. People hesitate to attack with 2 toughness monsters if they know you can block and kill them. Particularly if they know you have bounce. Pestermite is a tactical card used to tap down a hard to block creature or untap a good blocker.
Primeval Light This card is specific to a certain combo deck hate. I find that while many extended players in casual go very unusual directions a large number can not resist the obvious combos. Such as this card and Enchanted Evening. Running this card x2 usually ensures that I won't have to worry about being cheesed by this deck. I don't know how long it will be popular but this card is not only the weapon they use to wreck you, it is the answer to their own combo if used on them. It also works nicely against the (Sigil of the Throne) clones walking around in Casual.
Mana and Mana Destruction: Darksteel Ingot, Realm Razer. Ingots are a very good 3 drop considering how much artifact hate is in the format. The flip side to this is that you will wish they'd disrupted your ingot when they go for your shard instead. On the other hand being able to ramp quickly to 6 mana is so important that having the ingots means you may live long enough to Desolation Giant and or cast Realm Razer for the win. A player who watched several games commented to me they felt my deck was interesting but that Realm Razer is just an 'I win more' card. I was a little confused by this term so I asked them to clarify. They said they meant that it doesn't help unless you are winning already. I disagree strongly. I have had many games where the board was neutral and neither side had any advantage. Playing the Realm Razer may lead to either a game win or a concession. It does lock down a winning position but this is desirable. Even a soft lock means your opponent has to fight that extra bit harder to stabilize. Also you can always bounce it if you set it up right on the Beginning of The End Step of your opponent's turn. The lands come back into play tapped which means doing so gives them no advantage. This allows you to do it again if you need to.
Early Game tactics: One of the hardest things about random games in Casual is not knowing what you are facing ahead of time. You have to be prepared to mulligan under the right circumstances. You also may need to sit and not block anything for a turn or two while your mana stabilizes or until you can get the right combination of creature and bounce available. Stonecloakers are often useful surprise blockers against low toughness monsters, particularly fliers, and most particularly if you can then bounce them again. Elvish Visionary and Coiling Oracle can be good recursive blockers or chump blockers if need be while you set up the Desolation Giant. Pestermite can be useful in tapping stuff down in a hurry.
Middle Game tactics: What do I mean by Middle game tactics? I mean generally you are about 15-20 cards into your deck, each side has some creatures out, you have 5-6 mana sources in play and you have one or more Crystal Shards in play. Your idea here is to find ways to disrupt your opponent's plan and at the same time cause as much damage to them as possible while keeping control of the board. This may be hard to do if you opponent is also running control or has a nasty hard to kill combo. There are some truly heinous combos in the extended format so it is pointless to hope you can stop all of them. In fact it is somewhat pointless to even discuss them all here. Needless to say, after a while you will learn which ones you can't stop and you will concede as needed. Or not if you enjoy watching them unfold. Your job here is to get the mana to play Desolation Giant, Realm Razer, and usually this leads directly to the End game.
Late Game tactics: How often do you get to the late game with this deck? Very rarely against most opponents. You will have either failed to stabilize or stabilized and then received a concession as they see the inevitable. If you do get to the late game you will be top decking for an answer probably and hoping to recurse the Deadwood Treefolk or something similar. If you do get the Deadwood Treefolk out it usually means you get to retrieve the parts you are missing in the graveyard (assuming they haven't been exiled first.) You will probably be sitting on one or more Mystic Snakes and carefully denying your opponent helpful plays. I have had quite a few games where the ending was a squeaker. Not an ideal situation if you are trying to take board control. On the other hand it beats losing straight out.
Below is another variation I have been playing with more recently.
Differences: 20 lands instead of 26. No bounce lands. I love bounce lands but I changed this in response to an increase in tempo decks where Id get a bounce land in play only to have it destroyed/bounced repeatedly. Enough games like this convinced me that the flood wasn't working. This is very metagame influenced. Also gone are the Primeval Lights because that deck seems to have been put aside for the moment. Gaea's Blessing is in because Mill decks are growing in popularity. A reminder that they don't work as straight mill is never amiss. Blessing allows for some fairly flexible draws too. I dropped a Mulldrifter as well because while I love drawing it I don't love drawing 2. Crazy? perhaps. Sanctum Gargoyles seems to be decent tech against nonexile artifact hate. Vithian Renegades is my own nod to an increase in affinity or neo affinity. Harmonic Sliver is old school coming back. I played with this alot in the early versions of this deck. I added Ancestral Visions and Lotus Blooms to give the deck some boost in the early game. Riftwatcher is another old school card finding its way back to the deck. The theory being a 2/3 flyer with life gain for 3 cmc is a good staller. Below are a couple of game excerpts I took notes from while on Modo.
Game 1: Opponent ZeaMoore4 playing blue red. No discernable archetype but burn and loot.
He chooses to play first.
He plays a Mountain
I play Vesuva- copying Mountain
He plays Island and Merfolk Looter
I play Forest Gaea's Blessing (for 0 returned to deck) (something I do when I draw a null land hand. It works, I draw Steam Vents
He plays Mountain Izzet Guildmage then loots discarding Heat Shimmer
I draw and play Plains and Crystal Shard
He plays Stitch in Time but losses flip and swings with Merfolk Looter and Izzet Guildmage for 3
20-17
I play Steam Vents which I drew with the blessing.
He loots discarding (council of soratami) and plays Izzet Boilerworks returning Mountain and casting Stitch in Time again and again losing the flip then swings with Guildmage for 2 damage.
20-15
I play Plains and Aven Cloudchaser with no target leaving Steam Vents untapped for the Crystal Shard.. I decide to tap it and the shard to return the Guildmage to his hand.
He loots discarding Izzet Boilerworks then
casts Magma Jet on Aven Cloudchaser and then plays the Guildmage again
then He replays the Mountain He returned the turn before.
I play Mountain and Desolation Giant with kicker
He plays Magma Jet targeting me
20-13
then plays a morphed creature (I never do find out what this is)
I play island and attack with giant 17-13
and then I cast the second Desolation Giant (which I top-decked) with blue up to bounce other giant. I was planning to play pop the first giant back to my hand and play it with kicker...This way of course is better.
And He concedes...no gg or anything but chatted after game when I pmed him...seems like a nice guy...I think a lot of people can't chat during play because they get nervous and or uptight and worry what mental tricks their opponents may play on them. But in casual this worry is groundless and silly.
Game 2: Don't recall his name and He was a fairly nonchatty player.
I choose to play first.
my starting hand: Mountain, Forest, mystic snake, Crystal Shard, carven caryatid, Gaea's Blessing, Aven Riftwatcher
I kept again trusting in the draw...was only a little disappointed.
I play a Forest
He plays crumbling necropolis
I draw and suspend Lotus Bloom and play Mountain
I play Gaea's Blessing (targeting null again) and draw a Plains
He plays graven cairns
I play Plains and Aven Riftwatcher
He plays island and phyrexian arena
I play Crystal Shard and attack with Aven Riftwatcher for 2
22-18
He plays Mountain and cruel edict I sac Aven Riftwatcher
24-17
Lotus Bloom comes into play and I sac it for 3 white mana. I play Realm Razer
He passes turn after taking 1 from arena
24-16
I attack with Realm Razer for 4
24-12
He plays island after taking damage from the arena
24-11
I swing with Realm Razer for 4
24-7
I play a Forest
He plays a swamp after taking 1 from arena and then concedes with no comment.
don't remember name...did not say gg...I guess the one Realm Razer is noncasual enough for some people to be angry about it. I am of the opinion that it is not nearly as unfriendly as some of the unstoppable (if you aren't running full counters) combos you can see in this format.
for some reason MTGO didn't record the game win/loss so I couldn't grab the name from that. He did not chat at all except to express that He was annoyed at my play speed. This after I explained that I was taking notes and trying to play fast.
these are just two sample games and honestly I found it hard to keep track and play well but these are fairly typical games. the lowest anyone got me without winning tonight was 3 life so it can get hairy. the thing about this deck is it can give you wonderful top decks or frustrate you to no end as you never see the main cards. Yes it could be built more to purpose (tuned for tourney) but if it were I think it would cease to be casual.
I get a lot of comments from the more friendly players whether they win or lose against this. they often remark on how unusual or weird it is. No fruity pebbles this! I hope you enjoyed this article. Email me with comments at gando.thebard@gmail.com or simply message me on line at Winter.Wolf.
Paul Leicht,
Once a member of team hacked (a team of writers who were also players)
Currently a member of Magic Samurai on MTGO.
*Beginning of the End Step.
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