I'm not usually one for playing in two-man queues in MTGO, or even entering into any kind of constructed tournament. I love drafting, casual constructed, and, above all, I love multiplayer. I am writing this article with 2HG standard format in mind, but the cards and deck I'm listing will have uses - likely even better uses - outside of the 2HG games.

Playing multiplayer comes with a lot of obvious differences - removal is far more abundant, sweepers more devastating, and starting life totals higher - but also with subtler ones. More and more, I've been finding standard tournament decks du jour (e.g., Jund and UW control) appearing in casual multiplayer rooms. There's a reason these decks have won major tournaments, and there's really no way my amusing-but-nigh-unplayable Lorthos deck is going to beat them. But what if we could find a deck that was not only cheap, but also provided a way to pull off wins against these powerhouses? Impossible, you say! One of those subtle differences in multi is the rise in effectiveness of cards that are worded like "each opponent" and "each upkeep," and we can use this wording to our advantage, taking otherwise unplayable cards and turning them into things to be feared.

The above cards are, indeed, hilarious in multiplayer. The Sovereign wins the game for you in 3HG pretty safely and even in 2HG it's easy to see how it can be a major threat. Sorin is 30 burn for 6, potentially. The Ascendant is a huge one-drop. And the Ascension triggers during both of your opponents' end phases. The Ascension is doubly tricky because you have to be damaged, so the guy attacking your partner does nothing to prevent the trigger from occurring. All of these cards are too obvious, though, so let's take a look at a few real clunkers. These are cards that, when your opponent plays them in a constructed 1v1 duel, you start to feel good about a win.

In 2HG, the Breath is burn for 10, the Omen an actual threat, and the Advantage a legitimate card. Although the Omen and Advantage have potential to be great cards in a deck, it's the Breath that is the unlikely workhorse. Just like in 1v1, it would take 4 Breaths to kill your opponents, but, unlike in 1v1, you have a buddy who's also doing damage. Hopefully, he'll be doing at least 10, if not more, and the Breath makes a great finisher - not only for the amusement of winning with Breath of Malfegor, but who's expecting instant-speed 10 burn for 5?

Well, that's all well and good you might say, but you can only have 4 Breaths (alas!) per deck, so what else can you put in? Well, let's see. I want to find a card that takes advantage of their being multiple opponents. Preferably, I'd like to have a creature that does this. Let me introduce you to:

Not only does this guy fit our needs perfectly, he's hasty and has some evasion! What more could you want from a $0.10 rare? Obviously, the main draw to this guy is that the turn he hits the board, he deals 5 damage to your opponents. Turn 2, assuming he lives and attacks unblocked, he deals 7. Then 9. So, after three turns, this unlikely hero has put your opponents down 21 life. Not too shabby.

The other main problem with these cards, other than their being mediocre in 1v1, is their relatively high sticker price (5 and up!) so we're going to have to get some rampers in there. I happened to have 3 Birds of Paradise lying around in my collection, so I used those. Llanowar Elves, however, assuming your mana is balanced well otherwise, serve as fine, extremely cheap replacements for your ramping needs. I also included 4 Borderland Rangers, but with the release of M11, half these should likely be replaced with their Sylvan Ranger equivalents. I also considered tossing in a few Liliana's Specters, but I found I still didn't like these as much as my beautiful Blightnings. I have an extreme fear of Planeswalkers in multi, especially due to the removal and sweepers being so strong, so I prefer to have stuff like blightning that can for sure reach into a Jace or Gideon. (On a side note, Breath of Malfegor and Lightning Reaver do fine jobs of this as well!)

Speaking of removal, our being in Jund makes said spells pretty easy to come by. I automatically slap 4 x Terminate into almost any BR deck I play, but I also wanted a wrath effect. I toyed with Comet Storm, but realized that the cheaper, if two-sided, alternative of Chain Reaction is nearly always a Wrath of God in 2HG games.

After making my tentative deck, I noticed a lack in 4-drops and put in a pair of Bloodbraid Elf for excitement. Dragon Broodmother also fits well into our game plan, but, being expensive and not really played all that much, I only had one in my collection. I put it in anyway.

Jund-like Multi
by Maeiou

The bonus to our "star" cards being mainly unseen in other formats is their low price. Clearly, the Birds and the Elf are going to be more than 1 ticket, but everything else is going to cost very little - something extremely important to a budget-conscious student. As always, the two most important things to me for my decks are (1) costliness and (2) enjoyability. I find this deck great to play with, often getting smiles in response to casting a Breath at my opponents for the win, and I hope you do too.

Altogether, this deck will run you about 22 tix, assuming you splurge on Birds, but can be reasonably dropped to around 13, if you're frugal or have some Birds, lands, or Bloodbraids lying around. A good deal.

Let's playtest.

 Game 1

My ally is playing UG swarm, with cards like Awakening Zone and Elvish Visionary feeding a big Mycoloth drop. He also has some shenanigans with Lorescale Coatl and Recurring Insight.

Our opponents are playing UG Allies with all of the usual suspects and, I'm told, Big Esper, although we never get to see any of the huge beasties.

My opponent starts with Leyline of Anticipation on the board. My own opening hand holds a swamp, forest, Crag, Ranger, Omen, and double Terminates. It looks like I'll be keeping. By turn 3, the only plays have been an Etherium Sculptor and my buddy's Awakening Zone. I drop my Borderland Ranger. By this time, my hand has grown to include a swamp and a mountain (courtesy of the Ranger) and a Chain Reaction. On my turn, opponent flashes out Umara Raptor and follows up with a Nimana Sell-Sword on his own turn. The artifact deck is rolling along, despite having only one land, and plays out a Master Transmuter. The mix is right for a Reaction. 

Everything dies and I'm ready for my next turn, having just drawn another Chain Reaction and Dragon Broodmother. My opponent plays out a Bala Ged Thief and, after I play the dragon, plays another paired with a Jwari Shapeshifter, promptly forcing my ally to discard his hand save an Into the Roil. Luckily, he had played his Mycoloth the turn before as an 8/8. I'm also forced to drop a Terminate and Baneful Omen, leaving me holding a Lightning Reaver, Chain Reaction, and Terminate. The Artifact deck does nothing on turn 7, leaving out its Master of Etherium. Despite having good board position, I'm not in the mood to discard the rest of my hand, so the Chain Reaction wipes the board again after my attack.

The opponents are down to about 23 life, and the next two turns I drop two Lightning Reavers, dealing 17 total, while my ally swings once with another big Mycoloth. Game, good guys.

 Game 2

It quickly becomes clear that my ally and I are playing a Grixis removal/discard deck and a RG ramp. I'm faced against the ramp, and my ally, who is playing a UG mill, is playing against Grixis. Gameplay proceeded pretty normally and my ally succeeded in milling Grixis deck just to find an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn in the last 6 cards of his deck, shuffling his whole library back in. In the mean time, my double Lightning Reavers and Dragon Broodmother have been Terminated, and my hand mostly discarded. My ally begins working on ramp opponent to find the expected Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. Demoralized and defeated, we resign.

Game 3

My ally is playing what appears to be WRB control with emphasis on white, his opponent a dedicated W life gain deck, and my opponent a RG ramp-into-big-shit deck. My ally has cute combos like Roc Eggs mixed with Day of Judgments to destroy everything and make some 3/3 fliers, in addition to Ajani Goldmane and Oblivion Ring in hand. His opponent drops a Serra Ascendant on turn 2, which hastily gets o-ringed after its first swing. Meanwhile, rampy and I have been doing very little, besides my Blightninging him. He'll go on to drop an Oracle of Mul Daya and an Awakening Zone to speed things along while I'll respond with a Borderland Ranger to meet my 5-land requirement. I eventually Blightning out a Felidar Sovereign which, as far as I can tell, was opponent 1's main game plan, but he goes on to drop a Sun Titan. My opponent ends up playing out a Broodwarden. All of these creatures meet a Chain Reaction, which wipes the board and sets up my ally to attack with 3/3 fliers and make a 31/31 avatar with Ajani. My opponent gets out a (Broodmother Dragon) whose babies and it will hit us for 15. I end up playing only 1 creature all game - that Borderland Ranger - but dealing 42 combined damage between Baneful Omen and two Breath of Malfegors. Overall, a very fun game to play for us, and likely infuriating for our opponents. 

All in all, this has been a super deck to play with. It lacks some early-game answers, unless you've got a Terminate and a Chain Reaction in hand, and there is no doubt this would perform terribly in 1 v 1 due to the faster pace of those games, but there is something intensely satisfying in flipping up a Breath of Malfegor with Baneful Omen, when you can practically hear your opponents groaning in frustration that they're about to be dealt 20 damage with such cards. Unless your ally is playing some sort of control-ish deck, though, I wouldn't count on coming out on top in too many matches. Luckily, since 2HG is such a control-friendly format, most people usually are.

Although I did some playtesting with this deck, I was also playing with another deck of mine (which, incidentally, is also extremely amusing, and I may post later on it if anyone has any interest in seeing a Lorthos deck) and observed a frustrating trend. As I mentioned in the beginning, Serra Ascendant is an extremely powerful 2HG card. With cards like Serra Ascendant, Felidar Sovereign, and Luminarch Ascension dedicated-life-gain white is becoming a serious threat. In fact, out of the 5 games I played with my Lorthos deck, I saw the four turn-1 Ascendants. While 2HG has become a safe hold for casual players - even more so than the casual 1v1 room, often - the Ascendant is an unwelcome addition to the battlefield. It's hard to think of something than can hate on a 6/6 flying lifelink on turn 1, but it needs to be done, sooner rather than later. Rather than moaning, which I've done enough already, I'll try to think of something to drive them off the battlefield. If you've got any ideas, let me know!