A bit of background: I've been an avid casual deck builder for as long as I've played Magic, but my casual deck tastes have changed a lot over time. In my early days, I'd play with the theme decks with the prettiest art (I still have many fond memories of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor from playing in the hall at primary school!). After a while, I moved onto building my own decks, but I didn't have a lot of cards and none of them have really stuck in my memory. In more recent times (INN-block onwards), I started building more ambitious decks with extra singles that I'd ordered, producing decks with many 4-ofs and rigid game plans. However, I've started building decks from whatever I have in my collection, going through common boxes and my rares binder to find cool cards. This has led to decks that have a lot of variety, such as my mono-black with singleton rares from the last #10 years of Magic, and a UR Devoid deck made from pre-release supplies, a release draft and a fat pack.
My question, then, is how much variety do you usually put into your casual decks? I personally favour the aforementioned decks with huge variety, only running multiples of a card if it's an especially exciting card. I find that when I run my 'four-of decks' the games seem to become samey as the game plan is always set and always the same. I also like how having a different hand every game leads me to have to think on my feet as the win con often changes every game.
Your thoughts?
*Please note that I am obviously avoiding talking about EDH and other singleton formats, as only 60-card casual is played in my area.*
W soldiers
R Goblins
B Zombies(Rot)
G Elf/Beast
G Elves
RG Shamanism
R Dwarves
B Control
UB Delve
U Control
UG Turbo Fog
UR Super friends
UR Scry
W Lifegain
WB Warriors
I won't play EDH HOWEVER I do really enjoy trying to make a normal deck work with only 1-2 ofs of the really powerful cards that I enjoy. This keeps my circle of friends from thinking that i'm just spamming great cards. I like to build in a way that allows me to reuse, protect, save, call upon those really rare cards in my deck. I really enjoy resilient decks. that falls under several categories, and they don't always win, and I'm okay with that. I just want to find some interesting interaction between cards and make a deck that I enjoy playing. I also get bored pretty easily, so I've got over 50 decks, though I've retired some because they are either too powerful in my group, or because they are from when I first began and had a thing for lifegain lol.
My question, then, is how much variety do you usually put into your casual decks? I personally favour the aforementioned decks with huge variety, only running multiples of a card if it's an especially exciting card. I find that when I run my 'four-of decks' the games seem to become samey as the game plan is always set and always the same. I also like how having a different hand every game leads me to have to think on my feet as the win con often changes every game.
Like others have mentioned, I also find variety by making separate decks, each focusing on a different synergy or key card interaction. It can be difficult to take advantage of card synergies when only playing singletons, and especially so if not playing tutor effects.
I usually don't have much card variety per individual deck mostly due to budget constraints. As a result, each individual deck has a pretty narrow game plan, often with 4 or 8 functional copies of an effect for redundancy. I also try to splash as few colors as possible, as I can't afford to shell out for manabases that'll support 5-color good-stuff decks.
Deckbuilding on a budget can be pretty challenging since many chase rares, format staples, or casual favorites can often exceed budget. It can be a challenge to find format-legal cards which fill a specific niche - optimally for its price. Sometimes a brew may halt abruptly when a card's price spikes, only to continue later on after a reprinting.
Lord, Variety.... I have a ton of decs... over thirty now.... I build to try different mechanics and to match my mood
BU Mill
BU Dimir top deck control/play denial
W Samurai
W Bolster
WG Token
R Myr burn
UW Azorius' Protection
BU Zombies
BU Artifact
BW Extort
B Vampires
RG Devour
BW Clerics
BG Deathtouch/Returned
W Soldier Exalted
BG Mortivore
BG Elves
GW Unicorns
BU Untap fun
BR Unleashed
RW Boros
B Black Devotion
U Unblockable
RU Izzet Burn/Control
BW Human to Zombie agro
BURWG Dragons
GW Drakoma Bolster
I also try to splash as few colors as possible, as I can't afford to shell out for manabases that'll support 5-color good-stuff decks.
Deckbuilding on a budget can be pretty challenging since many chase rares, format staples, or casual favorites can often exceed budget. It can be a challenge to find format-legal cards which fill a specific niche - optimally for its price. Sometimes a brew may halt abruptly when a card's price spikes, only to continue later on after a reprinting.
- I feel that cheap Etbt mana fixing like Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse and the new life lands from KTK are sufficient fixing for a cheap casual deck, as I usually find casual decks to be quite slow.
- Budget is a very valid point, and I usually find that having a wide variety of cards makes it less of an issue. If something is expensive, it's a lot more palatable to buy or trade for one copy than for four.
I like to make casual decks with redundancy and narrow game plans. I enjoy playing my decks when they work as intended. If I want to change it up, I'll just play a different deck. I rarely make two decks with overlapping cards.
To keep myself from being bored with Magic, I look up rules interactions or cards with unique abilities and loosely buld decks around them. I do it in the most competitive way I can.
I am a control player, but I try to vary my play styles in order to be a better player. So, from time to time, I'll build an aggro deck, or a Combo deck. The only criteria is that I have to like it enough to want to play it and improve it. Most of my magic time is spent building and testing the deck rather than playing lol
A bit of background: I've been an avid casual deck builder for as long as I've played Magic, but my casual deck tastes have changed a lot over time. In my early days, I'd play with the theme decks with the prettiest art (I still have many fond memories of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor from playing in the hall at primary school!). After a while, I moved onto building my own decks, but I didn't have a lot of cards and none of them have really stuck in my memory. In more recent times (INN-block onwards), I started building more ambitious decks with extra singles that I'd ordered, producing decks with many 4-ofs and rigid game plans. However, I've started building decks from whatever I have in my collection, going through common boxes and my rares binder to find cool cards. This has led to decks that have a lot of variety, such as my mono-black with singleton rares from the last #10 years of Magic, and a UR Devoid deck made from pre-release supplies, a release draft and a fat pack.
My question, then, is how much variety do you usually put into your casual decks? I personally favour the aforementioned decks with huge variety, only running multiples of a card if it's an especially exciting card. I find that when I run my 'four-of decks' the games seem to become samey as the game plan is always set and always the same. I also like how having a different hand every game leads me to have to think on my feet as the win con often changes every game.
Your thoughts?
*Please note that I am obviously avoiding talking about EDH and other singleton formats, as only 60-card casual is played in my area.*
W soldiers
R Goblins
B Zombies(Rot)
G Elf/Beast
G Elves
RG Shamanism
R Dwarves
B Control
UB Delve
U Control
UG Turbo Fog
UR Super friends
UR Scry
W Lifegain
WB Warriors
clan sig by me
twitch.tv/TheBlueMuzzy
@thebluemuzzy
I usually don't have much card variety per individual deck mostly due to budget constraints. As a result, each individual deck has a pretty narrow game plan, often with 4 or 8 functional copies of an effect for redundancy. I also try to splash as few colors as possible, as I can't afford to shell out for manabases that'll support 5-color good-stuff decks.
Deckbuilding on a budget can be pretty challenging since many chase rares, format staples, or casual favorites can often exceed budget. It can be a challenge to find format-legal cards which fill a specific niche - optimally for its price. Sometimes a brew may halt abruptly when a card's price spikes, only to continue later on after a reprinting.
BU Mill
BU Dimir top deck control/play denial
W Samurai
W Bolster
WG Token
R Myr burn
UW Azorius' Protection
BU Zombies
BU Artifact
BW Extort
B Vampires
RG Devour
BW Clerics
BG Deathtouch/Returned
W Soldier Exalted
BG Mortivore
BG Elves
GW Unicorns
BU Untap fun
BR Unleashed
RW Boros
B Black Devotion
U Unblockable
RU Izzet Burn/Control
BW Human to Zombie agro
BURWG Dragons
GW Drakoma Bolster
And I have more but I cant think of them all lol
- I feel that cheap Etbt mana fixing like Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse and the new life lands from KTK are sufficient fixing for a cheap casual deck, as I usually find casual decks to be quite slow.
- Budget is a very valid point, and I usually find that having a wide variety of cards makes it less of an issue. If something is expensive, it's a lot more palatable to buy or trade for one copy than for four.
I am a control player, but I try to vary my play styles in order to be a better player. So, from time to time, I'll build an aggro deck, or a Combo deck. The only criteria is that I have to like it enough to want to play it and improve it. Most of my magic time is spent building and testing the deck rather than playing lol
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio