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By: urzishra14, rob chesley
Dec 01 2007 10:46am
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Hello, welcome again to my hopefuly more frequent article.  Last time, I talked a little bit about Lorwyn, this time I want to talk a bit more about multiplayer and why its so cheap to start playing. I believe I can argue that it is probably one of the cheaper formats on MTGO. I will also touch upon a few deck ideas, more geared toward multiplayer. I love building decks that consist of very cheap, affordable rares and thats what I will be focusing on today.

Planar Chaos, king of cheap!

When wondering around MTGOTraders, as I do often, I was gandering at good multiplayer cards for cheap. Planar Chaos's major theme is muliple staple cards got jostled around the color pie and found homes in complete opposite colors. If any of you out there read comic books, Marvel did something similar with their popular "What If" series, in which many of Marvel's popular villians and heroes take the road less traveled. I loved that series as I loved seeing the multiple ways that certain characters interacted with one another if certain events didn't happen (or did happen). Being this is Magic's "What If", it intstantly became one of my favorite sets online to collect. For cheap rares outside of the usual suspects, like Damnation and Extirpate, there is a wealth of mutliplayer goodness to be had from this set.

If you are looking for good multiplayer cards, look no further then green and white. Both these colors offer great compliment cards to any of their respective colors. The real winner of Planer Chaos however is Jedit Ojanen of Efrava. Here is a decklist that is Standard legal that I've piloted to moderate sucess in the multiplayer rooms:

Jedit's War-Pride61 cards

18x
Forest
4x Terramorphic Expanse
3x Jedit Ojanen of Efrava
4x Wall of Roots
4x Mire Boa
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Yavimaya Dryad
4x Nacatl War-Pride

4x Stonewood Invocation
4x Loxodon Warhammer
4x Krosan Grip
4x Gaea's Anthem
Jedit Ojanen of Efrava

I decided to play another round of Standard 2HG for the purpose of the article with this deck to see how it fares against the more Lorwyn themed decks going on and here is the results. I waited ten minutes and couldn't get a game of Standard up so I tried it against an Extended 2HG. I had a fairly good draw with plenty of lands, but I drew three warhammers which decided the game fairly quickly. Put out a dryad, equip, rinse, and repeat. This deck is extremely potent as the deck's evasion plays well in the format. It also has a couple of bait cards that players may want to use their spells for, like Gaea's Anthem and Wall of Roots. It plays just like any other standard green beats deck. While many of you are thinking, why is this a good multiplayer deck? It doesn't have any mass destruction and it kind of is a one trick pony, why doesn't it have any other outlet to win?

Other cards that make the cut for good and cheap from Planar Chaos are Body Double, the five dragon legends, Magus of the Tabernacle, Porphyry Nodes, Serendib Sorcerer, Serra Sphinx, Voidstone Gargoyle, and Wild Pair. Each of those cards I listed are well below a dollar each. Many of these cards are under played and definately overlooked. There are also many cards that are under two bucks from Planar Chaos, like Akroma, Timbermare, and Groundbreaker. Those would make great additions to your multiplayer decks. Enough of Planar Chaos lets move on.

Aggro philosophy for multiplayer

My philopsophy when it comes to playing multiplayer is this, I figure I'm the target so I might as well take as many people out as possible. This strategy works well in team formats, like 2HG, which is really the more popular format online. It also allows my spells to get targeted more then my teammates, which if they are playing any kind of mid-range to late game kind of deck, it helps. I also enjoy playing Aggro decks, its what makes Magic fun for me. I also try to make decklists that are as versitle as possible. Aggro is one of the few archetypes that work in 1v1, 2HG, and FFA fairly effeciently. Combo has a better chance in FFA games, as the other four or five players are hellbent on getting each other, the Combo player just has to set up, defend, and prepare to win the game. I take to heart many of my strategies offline as well. In my circle of offline players, I'm considered the biggest threat on the battlefield. That is mainly because of my tournament success and the amount of time I've spent playing the game. Combo, for me, is hard for me to pull off if you are considered the main threat out there, so playing Aggro suits me as I'll need to defend as well as attack every turn before I die.

Another aspect of my decks that you may find interesting is that in multiplayer you should always include the split second versions of the common spot removal spells out there. Not only does it deflect any counterspells out there, they can also be used as defenders of your own cards. It is why you see Stonewood Invocation in nearly every deck I build. It is a very versitle card, used in defense to protect against cards that may take my best creature away and it is always one of the best pump cards in the game. I love Krosan Grip the one extra mana is really a non-factor considering that the majority of online multiplayer games, you easily go into muliple turns and you usually always run into difficult to remove artifacts or enchantments. I routinely run into cards such as, (Debtor's Knell), Mirari's Wake, or Loxodon Warhammer. Besides, having spot removal opposed to having global removal lets us play with some of those cards ourselves and make the battle more one-sided.

Time Spiral, Black's multiplayer set!

Black has some excellent multiplayer cards, and the majority of them are from Time Spiral and are under a dollar. I saw a deck the other day that was a simple black aggro deck that used recurring creatures to overrun opponents. The following deck is what I could remember and what I would do with some of those extra Time Spiral black cards:

Nether Traitor

Nether Traitor of the Pit
60 cards

20x Swamp
4x Nether Traitor
4x Nether Shadow
4x Sengir Autocrat
4x Liege of the Pit
2x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
4x Basal Sliver
4x Smallpox
4x Innocent Blood
4x Bad Moon
4x Tendrils of Corruption
2x Diabolic Tutor

 

The deck offers multiple routes to go and this deck might surprise a lot of players at the next multiplayer game you have, I'm sorry I don't remember who originally had this deck. I played with them last week where I was beat down by a bunch of tokens with multiple Bad Moons in play. This is kind of like the deck that won't die. I added the Liege of the Pit because he is one of the best cards to play with cards like Nether Traitor and Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder. He also comes up as a surprise on turn four when you can easily smack someone for a few turns and if you get the engine going, much you might as well call it a game. It can also play the control game very well, by using well timed Smallpoxes and Innocent Bloods you can keep the game at your pace.  I don't remember if the player I seen using a deck similar to this originally played with Tendrils or not but I feel it's necessary to keep a high life total with a deck that can be disrupted. Nothing in this deck, except for maybe the Bad Moons, cost more than a dollar, and if they do, not much more than a dollar. I find this to be one of the more entertaining decks I've played with online, not to mention one of the more consistant decks I play with.

Finally the Bear Beatdown deck!

The following deck is meant entirely for fun, it really isn't the most optimal way to play. I have to put a warning before I post the decklist. The story behind the bear deck, started several years ago. I wanted to build a deck entirely out of bears. I think they are an interesting aspect of the game. But at the time, this one guy we used to play cards with always played with wolves. I mean he would go out of his way to play with wolves, even if they weren't very good. So it kind of stemmed from that. The deck is part inside joke, part insane, part grizzly. I am truely not making up this next part. In preparation for this article, I decided to go test it out. I played a guy who played with many of the best cards in the game, I'm fairly certain it was a (Vedalkan Shackles) control style deck. I went first played my forest passed the turn. He plays his fetch land passes. I get out an Ashcoat Bear. Followed up by a Spectral Bears, he doesn't counter. Several turns later, I give my Spectral Bears trample. He tries to steal one of my bears I end up using Stonewood Invocation. He is left breathless. After that he claims to be sick and leaves. My bear deck is victorious. I had a good laugh and a good time. Here is the decklist:

Bear Beatdown!
60 cards

20x Forest
4x Ashcoat Bear
4x Grizzly Bears
4x Werebear
4x River Bear
4x Spectral Bears
2x Caller of the Claw
4x Krosan Grip
4x Stonewood Invocation
4x Blanchwood Armor
2x Alpha Status
2x (Fist of Ironwood)
2x Sword of Kaldra

Werebear

He does have the right to bear arms!

 

As you can see it is definately just a generic green beatdown deck. Using cards like Blanchwood Armor and Stonewood Invocation to wear down the enemy and defeat them. It has some psuedo protection with Caller of the Claw. But really, this deck is about smashing face as soon as possible and with bears at that.

That is all for this installment. I hope you enjoyed the decks. Please comment below on what you think I could do to improve my articles. What would you guys like to see covered? I prefer to stay out of competitve articles, as I'm not very good at writing them. I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday. If you ever want to try my own decks against me, feel free to steal them and make them your own. I'm Urzishra14 on MTGO come challenge me. Until my next article, have fun beating people down with bears!

2 Comments

Hat by mtgotraders at Tue, 12/04/2007 - 19:02
mtgotraders's picture

Is that a burger king hat your wearing?

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