MTG Salvation

So, recently I moved house (about 200 miles) and got a new playgroup at the local lgs. I didn't know the power level of the new group so I went in with my most casual deck, Djeru, With Eyes Open (superfriends token swarm).

After one game I was invited to another table to join a game that was about to start along with one of the players from the first game. The guy I'd just played against looked panicked and told the rest of the table that he didn't want to play another game with me as I was a competitive player.
While this is true (at my old lgs I played Thrasios+Tymna DoomTide and Kess Storm) I hadn't done anything remotely 'competitive'. I'd made 18 tokens from Elspeth, Sun's Champion and then made her emblem and took out my two opponents in two turns of combat. All the other guy did was spend 8 turns outlasting a Herald of Anafenza.



My problem is this, I need a deck with the following characteristics:
1. Doesn't try to win
2. Doesn't use expensive cards like ABUR duals/Mana Crypt/Force of Will
3. Has enough interactions in the deck that I can still feel like I'm playing the game with no endgame.

If it helps, the other decks in the new group that I've seen are:
Daretti, Scrap Savant - loops artifacts for fun.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim - cleric tribal/lifegain.
Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa + Ravos, Soultender - small unblockable guys (til he plays too many anthems).
Firesong and Sunspeaker - boros goodstuff?
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - superfriends + voltron.
Verdeloth the Ancient - token swarm
Ishkanah, Grafwidow - spider tribal.

Was thinking something like Rowan Kenrith and trying to avoid making the emblem go infinite. Something similar to Clones.dec could be a thing as it would scale with my opponents but I really don't want it to be that.

I was thinking what you thought at the end of your post: maybe Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. I wouldn’t use the big juicy reanimated targets either, just regular mill and try to make a big Lazav. Maybe don’t include evasion so that they can chump him? They’d have nobody else to blame but themselves if you get a big creature off Lazav and if they didn’t at least put up a few chump blockers.

Yeah, Lazav could work. I'd be paying things that synergise anyway like some targeted removal.

Think I'd have to keep a lid on the mill stuff, they have a philosophy (at least I think that's what it is) that they don't like to spend too much money on singles so there wouldn't be any Eldrazi Titans to counteract the mill. Would have to hold back on things like Traumatize and Nemesis of Reason, but smaller things like Manic Scribe and Duskmantle Guildmage should be fine.

I think maybe if I put a restriction on myself like 'no rares/mythics' and 'no mana rocks' it would at least make me feel better about playing the deck and make it a more interesting process for me.

For cases like this one I have my Gonti, Lord of Luxury deck. It scales well with all sorts of power levels and gets just as nasty as your opponents allow you to.
Ofc you could still go down route one of B control and mana doublers into Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire, but you don't need to.

I’d say Gruul with something like Xenagos. Nobody in their right minds could accuse that of being competitive, heh, but he’s just as good or better than Rafiq for this application. Plenty of destruction + ramp, big hammerlicious critters to make bigger, it’s a hoot and swings toe-to-toe with any non-cEDH deck.

If you want super casual Lazav, skip the mill entirely. I have a Lazav clone and copy deck that literally has no win condition other than what my opponents bring to the table. That way no one can blame me for what happens. It doesn't often win, but the best win was with six copies of an opponent's Aurelia swinging for an additional six combat steps to kill everyone (thanks to Mirror Gallery, a kicked Rite of Replication, and another random clone).

Teysa 2.0? She can pillowfort pretty well, and then start bashing for 4 unblockable general damage a turn will slowly but surely end the game. Swords optional for power-level reasons I assume.

Scarab God is another option for that mill strategy. Just casual, incidental mill (like Mindcrank, Mesmeric Orb, Altar of the Brood). Geth works, Wrex, heck, most UB generals work with that. Then just use a bunch of steal-y stuff to raid their GYs.

I feel like everyone offering suggestions missed the part where freaking djeru was "too competitive" for this playgroup. The scarab god would probably make them shred their clothes and run around screaming.

I'm going to suggest the same thing I always suggest when people are experiencing power level discrepancy woes: political phelddagrif (not group hug). Everyone gets the chance to do their thing, but you still have control over the game, and if you play your cards right you've always got a very good chance of winning. It's a control deck that doesn't feel controlling, and it's extremely skill-intensive, so it's satisfying to play even for an experienced player against scrubs. And it can be built effectively on virtually any budget (my current version follows a <$2 per card rule, excluding phelddy himself).

I've got a few versions in my sig, check out the most recent one for the budget list, or the second for the non-budget list if you're interested.

You could always build some sort of Craw Wurm heavy deck. Green wurms and such can be fun and are usually not too bad on feeling opressive.

Go with a Najeela, the Blade-Blossom with a "budget build".

• This would be a brand new deck no-one had ever seen before.
• You'd be doing 5 color with "Limited" mana base meaning you'd be slower
• Doubling season and swords, etc that give infinite loops are outside your budget
• Some of the warriors are extremely powerful, to give you attacks but not "broken"

I mean I use Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant and limited my total budget to $20. Faster turn they can flip is like turn 5 and turn 6 to use the mana. On average its like turn 9-10. So if they don't see it coming it is definitely their fault. Just casts big x spells, or things that make tons of tokens.

Go for a casual tribal deck. Something like Birds, Shamans, Druids, Soldiers/suicide white, Knights, Super Casual Knights, Ooze or bunches of others. With this group the more casual or janky the better.

Or, you could do the jankiest thing ever: Lyzolda, the Blood Witch, Shadowborn Apostle, Cleric tribal with no demons in the deck. <--- Been wanting to do this for quite a while now.

Thanks for the ideas.

I had thought of doing some generic tribal that wasn’t anything special. Something like mono blue crab tribal with Ultimus in the command zone, all the relevant colour crabs, some changelings and tribal anthem artifacts.

I did want to do Najeela, but with legendary warrior tribal. It’d definitely not synergise well but not sure how strong it’d actually be.

I do have a Phelddagrif sat in a pile somewhere, might be fun to just confuse them with some string pulling lol Plus, you can’t really get mad at the pink hippo.

A little while ago I made a deck where the point was to give creatures to my opponents.
I had cards to punish people for having creatures, but over-all it was very casual, and quite different to play.
Also, good for a budget brew.

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/war-riders-in-the-sky/

If I was presented with this situation, I think I would build pure pillow fort.
I don't think there's anything more frustrating than beating everybody other than that guy and not being able to finish the game.
This would drive me to find ways to make my deck building better, and I think could help get them moving.
Also, for extra salt, I would include that enchantment that draws the game lol

I was thinking about this when slapping a deck together yesterday. When deckbuiding my advice is: stop trying to win. You've got to have some pet magic cards or interactions you like that aren't very good. Whether its some janky creatures that has cool art, or the way to cards fit together that is corny but makes you happy. Find one or some of those, and support them with cards to make them shine. Don't just try to make a good deck that can carry your silly favorites, really make those wierd choices shine.

--A helpful question to ask yourself when cutting cards for building this way might be "Which of these cards is going to make for a more fun game of magic for an observer or for myself" not "Which cut will raise this decks win %". If the deck is fun to shuffle up and durdle around with, it might not bother you what the end result of the game is. You should play that game 100% still; but it's a lot more fun for everyone if your decks are the same level than if your pulling punches. I'd also recomend not worrying if you've janked your decks up to much, it sounds like you will have no problem bringing their power lvls up for the next session (or even next game) if you have no play.

I think the blue deck you mentioned is a perfect goofy thing to fit in. ANd hey, maybe your going to be one of the only people to ever win with the sleaper OP Homarid Spawning Bed.

Quote from Mojo Rhino »

I think the blue deck you mentioned is a perfect goofy thing to fit in. ANd hey, maybe your going to be one of the only people to ever win with the sleaper OP Homarid Spawning Bed.

Don't go forgetting Tidal Influence to let the table know when you're gonna swing at them.

Oh jeez, I forgot about that card, that one is next level special. If you end up making that work...