The Casual Planeswalker

Tag: Casual Planeswalker

Casual Friday-Keeping it Casual

Have you ever had a new guy join your casual Magic group and have him dominate every game that didn’t involve teaming up against him? Maybe you had some awesome deck encouraged a collective groan from the group as you started shuffling it. There are plenty of tournaments that encourage players to bring their strongest, most competitive decks, and it can be tough when decks made to win a tournament play against more casual decks. Casual play always seemed like the place to get away from playing to win as fast as possible and trying new strategies or just focusing on the fun. Here are some of what I think are the best ways to make a deck more casual and more fun.

Lower Power

Magic cards are built to have some cards be clearly better than others according to their rarity. The best cards are naturally going to be in shorter supply than others. Some more competitive players, used to just buying whatever is needed to make a deck great, can run into the problem of making a deck too strong for casual play against players that just make decks out of whatever they find in booster packs. Thus there needs to be some balance between the strongest cards of your deck against everyone else’s cards.

This is a really hard thing to avoid because the coolest cards are always the most rare. Engulfing SlagwurmEngulfing Slagwurm is a really cool card, eating up all your opponent’s creatures instantly. It’s an awesome blocker, and with LureLure, it is a devastating attacker. A friend in our play group had this combo in his deck and could play it by turn 5 or so. Any kill spell could easily take it down but when he follows up with Eldrazi there eventually comes a point where nobody can get rid of these huge creatures. I always dreaded playing this deck because I always feel I have to rush and focus on taking down this one person before they can get too much steam and become unstoppable.

Of course it’s no fun to deliberately put awful cards in a deck, but when the odds are stacked in such a way then games may end up turning into Archenemy whenever someone play’s their ultra-powerful deck. Some formats have also been created to avoid these gross imbalances of power. Pauper Magic and other similar types that restrict players to only commons or limit the number of cards at higher rarities can allow newer players to build a more competitive deck while forcing veterans to stretch their creative muscles building a strong deck without the strongest cards.

Reduce Complexity

I am probably most guilty of making a deck that is too complex. I love creating the most convoluted schemes to achieve victory and the most complicated battlefields in Magic. Yet sometimes decks can get too complex to be any fun for anyone else in your playgroup. Some people don’t like having to take 10 minutes looking at the field before making a decision as simple as playing an awesome spell or even to not do anything at all.

I made a deck like that before. It used one of my favorite cards of the whole Scars of Mirrodin block: Knowledge PoolKnowledge Pool. A card that stops everyone from playing their spells and forces them to pick some other spell? The only thing better than that would be two Knowledge Pools at the same time! I almost immediately got 4 of them, easy enough because nobody else wanted them, and filled it with cheap and nearly harmless spells I could swap with others. I played the deck against 3 other people, able to play two Knowledge Pools at the same time. If you’ve ever used this card, you can imagine how excruciatingly long it takes to do anything. Needless to say, that was the first and last time I ever played that deck.

Make It Unpredictable

A deck of 60 cards, with 24 lands, only needs a minimum of 9 different cards. Why not make those cards that will always lead to the win? Red decks, the color that is supposed to love chaos, seems to benefit the most from this. Throw in 4 Lightning BoltLightning Bolt, Ball LightningBall Lightning, Lava SpikeLava Spike, and others and you can win pretty quickly. It’s great to have that consistency in a competitive format but when playing just for fun with a casual group, it can be pretty boring to play a deck that will always do the same thing. It’s great to mix it up with a wider variety of cards even if they are really powerful.

The Highlander format really embraces this strategy. When there can only be one, it’s a lot harder to know what the deck is going to do. It’s a favorite format of many, especially the Elder Dragon Highlander, or Commander. This format is great because it allows some of the more interesting and expensive cards to be used. Where else would someone be able to play Magmatic ForceMagmatic Force consistently?

Let The Opponent Play

Land destruction is, I hope, the most hated ability among most players. Even if you’re playing great, if all your lands are gone you’re probably going to be stuck with whatever you have on the field until the game ends. Then you have all sorts of really cool cards in your hand without any way to play them. All that’s left to do is sit around until your opponent gets the upper hand and kills you.

The same situation occurs when locked down with counterspells. Strong combos like CounterbalanceCounterbalance and Sensei’s Divining TopSensei’s Diving Top are not very fun to play. Really, a lot of the most powerful combos are frustrating because really good decks will be able to win the game with them in only a few turns. One of the worst new combos I’ve played against was Splinter TwinSplinter Twin with Deceiver ExarchDeceiver Exarch. It’s a horrible infinite combo that makes you lose the game against an army of millions of copied creatures. I really hate when my friend plays the deck, but avoids using the combo even though it could easily win him the game. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I hate winning only because someone else chose not to win when they clearly know they could. I think it’s best to remove these types of combos if you want to have fun casual games.

Don’t Hate

This is tough to do with some decks in multiplayer games because some just have to focus on another player to play effectively. Mill, Discard, and Burn decks become less effective as it plays against more than one opponent. Most people can accept being targeted by these decks as it is the only smart choice, but other decks can usually do okay in multiplayer at least.

I’m mostly referring to decks that are made only to play against another particular deck. There’s nothing wrong with responding to the meta game, like including more counterspells in decks if everyone tends to tap out for huge creatures and spells. However I have seen people play a deck with Blue Elemental BlastBlue Elemental Blast, Absolute LawAbsolute Law and other similar cards to use every time someone pulls out their favorite red deck. These one-sided matches are never very fun to see.

These are some of the most common problems I’ve seen playing casual Magic. When new players join your group these problems can come up again and again. Have you run into players that have decks that are way too competitive? Have you made rules to keep casual Magic fun and casual?

June 8, 2012
Casual Friday-Planechase Edition

Today marks the release of the latest in casual Magic: Planechase 2012. It also marks the return of Casual Friday where I will be looking at the most fun casual cards every week. This week I thought I’d give the rundown on the 4 planechase decks that will be available to play. They all look very cool and are reminiscent of planes old and new. Each one focuses on one or two abilities and look to be a lot of fun, especially with a a few additions.

Chaos Reigns

‘Chaos’ is definitely the best way to describe this deck which makes the most use of all 5 colors and the cascade mechanic from Shards of Alara. The decks ramps up the mana to play tons of 2-for-1 cascade spells. As it is it plays a pretty simple strategy that uses cascade to play more spells than the opponent and gradually gain the advantage. Of course, the deck also comes with an assortment of planes to add even more chaos to the battlefield.

This deck seems to really embrace the idea of chaos, perhaps a little too much. All the planes look pretty neat, especially OrzhovaOrzhova which will return all creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield. But that plane, and many others, don’t really help the strategy of the deck which is cascading into multiple spells each turn. My favorite plane from this deck would have to be Windriddle PalacesWindriddle Palaces. It’s like Future SightFuture Sight that everyone can play, giving you more options for cards to play or a hint at what card you would play with cascade.

But Cascade is a pretty strong ability on its own so creatures with it don’t really have many other strong abilities. You’ll have to rely a lot on your planes or other spells to really pull of some cool stuff. A lot of creatures in this deck do have flying though, with evasion being the best way to deal damage other than a Mass MutinyMass Mutiny to end the game.

Like any preconstructed deck it could use some new cards to make things more interesting. A couple planes, Izzet Steam MazeIzzet Steam Maze and MinamoMinamo, could really help you get the most out of casting multiple spells with cascade. For the deck itself, it could really use some stronger spells to make cascade really useful. It’s hard put some order into the deck but you can at least make some guarantees by controlling the type of cards you have for two mana or less. If they’re all kill spells then you know that every time you play something like Shardless AgentShardless Agent you get to kill something. It’s a neat trick that could be made the focus of the deck by adding more 3 mana cascade spells and more strong 2 mana spells.

Night of the Ninja

A lot of people have been fascinated with ninja and I know a few people that really liked their brief appearance in the Kamigawa set. Starting long after Kamigawa, I never had the chance to check out this neat ability. Betrayers of Kamigawa sets were never available at my local card shop. With 2 brand new ninja this deck includes all 10 cards with Ninjutsu, along with plenty of cards to help them take out your opponents.

The Ninjutsu ability allows these creatures to swap replace an attacking creature if your opponent declared no blockers. The ninja comes in unblocked as well, allowing you to sneak some damage and a pretty strong ability after damage is dealt. Thus this deck is centered around two key mechanics: having unblocked creatures, and creatures with “enter the battlefield” or “leaves the battlefield” effects. With cards like Baleful StrixBaleful Strix you can easily draw a card from playing it, fly over defenders, Ninjutsu something awesome into play, then playing the Strix again to draw another card.

Most of the planes in this deck do real well with this strategy. The top planes for this deck are probably TakenumaTakenuma, drawing you cards when you Ninjutsu, and Bloodhill BastionBloodhill Bastion, giving your ninja double strike giving you double their effects. Other planes are great as well, but I’m not sure why the Zephyr MazeZephyr Maze was included in this deck. While the flying creatures in here would become a threat, there are only a few and they should be swapped with Ninjutsu after attacking. This also makes the smaller ninja pretty useless as their abilities won’t activate if they don’t deal damage.

As for the regular 60 card deck, I feel it’s pretty well put together aside from a lack of power that comes with all preconstructed decks. I think the biggest weakness with this deck is the inclusion of all the ninja, of which only a few are really great. The most versatile are probably the classic Ninja of the Deep HoursNinja of the Deep Hours and the new Sakashima’s StudentSakashima’s Student. The strongest, particularly Silent-Blade OniSilent-Blade Oni, can be difficult to play with their high cost. It could probably also use a couple more cards that make the ninja difficult to block once they are on the battlefield. Whispersilk CloakWhispersilk Cloak and Vela the Night-CladVela the Night-Clad are the only cards in this deck that help with that.

Primordial Hunger

This deck uses another ability from Alara: Devour. It’s clearly a JundJund deck, even including the card in the planar deck. The deck also throws in a bit of Selesnya from Ravnica too, making creatures more than just the means to obtain the strongest creatures. It’s still not the Jund that dominated standard during Shards of Alara, but it should prove pretty fun.

The planes look to be pretty neat, with Jund giving every creature devour 5 and providing some token generation. This feels like a really strong ability when combined with this deck. MycolothMycoloth and Preyseizer DragonPreyseizer Dragon really benefit on Jund, really pumping their devour power. The inclusion of the Selesnya Loft GardensSelesnya Loft Gardens is also sure to be a big hit. This plane is a Doubling SeasonDoubling Season on it’s own, with the chaos ability also doubling mana.

It’s going to be real tempting to wait for Selesnya to appear to make all your tokens and devour all the creatures. There are a lot of cards in this deck that are real exciting for a player like me that wants huge game-ending effects. Some great cards include Warstorm SurgeWarstorm Surge and Hellion EruptionHellion Eruption. They are lots of fun to use on their own but together with some tokens the game is over with 5 creatures. The great thing about casual is that this is a combo that is a bit easier to pull off. The Kilnspire DistrictKilnspire District can also help provide the mana for these awesome combos.

This deck also comes with my favorite new card in this set: Thromok the InsatiableThromok the Insatiable. It’s a simple card, a 0/0 with devour X. His power increases exponentially so you want to devour everything once you play him. This deck doesn’t look like it has enough token generation to make him more than a 25/25 at max, but the potential for awesome is there. He might make a really cool Commander for a red-green deck.

Savage Auras

Enchantments are the focus of this deck with a lot of the coolest enchantment cards from Zendikar. and some great new ones. The deck is light on creatures and heavy on enchantments but a lot of those have Totem Armor, including the new Felidar UmbraFelidar Umbra. This enchantment is easily moveable allowing you to protect any creature. It can also be used to move this enchantment to something like Bramble ElementalBramble Elemental or Krond the Dawn-CladKrond the Dawn-Clad that may show up later in the game. Felidar Umbra can keep your creatures alive at instant speed and can protect you with Lifelink.

For planes, the real star of this deck is AkoumAkoum, giving all enchantments flash and allowing you to destroy creatures without an enchantment for its chaos ability. In this deck there is nothing better than surprising an opponent by blocking than throwing down a Spirit MantleSpirit Mantle or Indrik UmbraIndrik Umbra to take out an attacker. For those that like putting all their enchantments on one creature, Astral ArenaAstral Arena should be real great.

Like all of these preconstructed decks there are some weird additions to the planar deck as well. KessigKessig is thrown in here even though there are no werewolves anywhere in this set. It’s a little weird, but it’s also nice that there are planes that can be used in decks with more specific themes.

This deck is probably my favorite overall in this set and would be my first pick at the release event. However each deck has something really awesome, including a new mythic rare legendary creature for fans of Commander. What do you guys think about the new set and the new cards?

June 1, 2012
Reigniting the Spark

We are back everyone! After a long absence we are glad to return to give the latest in news, tips, and tricks for all the Casual Planeswalkers. We’ll have new articles from myself as well as from our newest author Ben Bateman who started with how he was introduced to Magic on Wednesday. And what better time to return than with the upcoming release of the next casual Planechase set coming June 1? We’ll be going into the cool cards in this new set soon as well as cooking up some hot combos from the previous Innistrad block as well. For now, here’s a quick rundown of the next set.

Planechase was a great casual format first released a few years ago with new plane cards. One plane would always be present on the battlefield with a static effect that applied to everyone. Players could roll dice to try and change to the next plane or activate a chaos ability that usually did something pretty cool like playing creatures for free, adding tons of mana to your pool, drawing cards, and more. Planechase 2012 adds a bit more complexity and allows planes to do a lot more than the earlier cards. Some planes have you planeswalk away through abilities on the plane card itself, for example. Of course, the real draw of the new planar cards are the phenomenon cards. These cards will show up as you planeswalk, but instead of having a static effect these cards will do something awesome, like destroying all creatures, and then moving to the next plane card. This should add a bit of variety, instead of having a simple game of moving to each plane one after another.

Like every new set, Planechase 2012 will come with 4 new decks and 21 brand new cards that will make a great addition to many casual decks. Many of these cards bring back abilities from older sets including ninjutsu, devour, cascade, and totem armor. It’s great to see the return of these abilities and what better was to do so than in casual sets? We’ll take a look at these new cards and the new decks soon, but for now it is just good to be getting back to the Casual Planeswalker!

May 25, 2012
Better than Grizzly Bears?

There are a lot of standards in Magic that let you know what you should expect to pay for certain abilities on cards. Perhaps the simplest one to recognize is that the minimum power for a creature that costs 1G is to be 2/2, Grizzly Bears. As the bottom line for cards that cost 1G, useful and exciting Magic cards that cost 1G need to be better than Grizzly Bears. We’ve seen plenty of these over the long history of Magic from commons that have the ability to be stronger than Grizzly Bears during certain conditions to rare cards that can go beyond normal cost restrictions.

It’s pretty easy to be stronger than bears, apparently. A lot of times the slot of the Grizzly Bear is taken to create a 2/2 that gets stronger by using the mechanic that is big in the new set. Zendikar in particular has a whole lot of these guys. It started with the Oran-Rief Survivalist. He seems like a 1/1 at first, but he gains a +1/+1 counter as soon as he enters the battlefield. The Survivalist is my favorite of these “bears” so far, gaining more +1/+1 counters for each time another ally enters the battlefield. With allies and proliferate these guys get to be an early threat in many games.

After that, Worldwake gave us the Gnarlid Pack
Gnarlid Pack. By using Multikicker it seemed like this pack added more grizzlies for each 2 mana you had to spare. These guys are pretty useful for their versatility since you can pump them up if you happen to draw them late game. Of course you also had the option to play them early and start attacking a few turns in. For a common they were pretty neat and were an easy introduction to the Multikicker mechanic.

Rise of the Eldrazi had two great Grizzly Bears to demonstrate their two biggest mechanics. We had the Beastbreaker of Bala Ged
Beastbreaker of Bala Ged, a very straightforward leveler that became a 6/6 with trample once you put a ton of mana into it. The winner of best bear for this set though was easily Nest Invader
Nest Invader. You had your 2/2 for 1G, but he also came with his own Eldrazi Spawn as a refund.

The Scars of Mirrodin Block had one typical “bear” and also a really cool rare one. Carapace Forger
Carapace Forger was a 2/2 for 2 that became a 4/4 with Metalcraft, but Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Melira, Sylvok Outcast is a card that shows what you can do with a rare Grizzly Bear. She’s a nice 2/2 that protects your creatures from infect damage and a killer combo with Phyrexian Unlife
Phyrexian Unlife can make you totally invincible.

The new Transform mechanic in Innistrad leads to yet another incarnation of Grizzly Bears. The Gatstaf Shepherd is what we’ve come to expect from bears, even though it doesn’t look like he would be able to fight them too well. Once you make use of the Transform mechanic he becomes an intimidating force to be reckoned with. He may not be able to keep getting pumped up like the Oran-Rief Survivalist, but intimidate does make sure that you will be able to attack for three, provided they don’t have green or artifact creatures. However there is a pretty strong tribal theme in Innistrad, so these Howlers will probably be pumped pretty quickly by other werewolves.

Innistrad is looking to be an exciting set. Be sure to keep an eye out for how Magic fills the usual spots like the designated Grizzly Bears. Check out our spoilers for the rest of the cards in this set as the spoilers continue.

September 2, 2011
8/21/11 Podcast – EDH

The guys from The Casual Planeswalker talking about EDH and other goodness.

Today’s Lineup

EDH Lots of talking bout this
Pizza – Its good for you
EDH Comic

Crew:

Brad Osborne
Leroy Phipps
DJ Clark
Joshua Fassett

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

August 22, 2011
Killer Combo – “Lather, Lash, Repeat”

Spellskite is one of the most exciting cards to enter Standard with the release of New Phyrexia. You’ll see it included in plenty of competitive maindecks and even more sideboards.

What’s great about Spellskite is that he acts as a spell-absorbing wall around you and your creatures. The fact that his ability can be activated not only by paying one blue mana, but by paying two life gives him the flexibility necessary to be a truly powerful card.

By attaching a Livewire Lash to your Spellskite, you’ll be able to add injury to insult when your opponents spells bounce off you and stick to Spellskite. Remember though, Spellskite must be a legal target of any spells you send his way.

If you really want this combo to be lethal, get a couple of Spellskites on the battlefield and use their ability to switch the target of a spell back and forth between the two, every time a Spellskite equipped with Livewire Lash becomes the target, the Lash will deal the two damage.

If your opponent doesn’t have an answer, you’ll be able to spend blue mana and your own life to switch the target as many times as you need to. Keep in mind also that you could be the one to initially target the Spellskite which is carying the Lash, you don’t need to wait around for your opponent to cast the right spell.

Let me know how this one works out for you! Have fun, and keep it casual.

June 15, 2011
Killer Combo – “Hide and Seek”

We spent Game Day at Hall of Heroes – a great little shop in Mt. Pleasant, MI, and we had a lot of fun despite the fact that we were rather poorly equipped. Having just got in from Colorado all I had was a Pre-Con combined with cards from a couple drafts. Brad, my TCP compatriot, decided to play with the “Rot From Within” Event Deck.

While I did win a few games, Brad actually made it to the final four with “Rot From Within” which is a testament to that deck’s out-of-the-box power.

Today’s combo is one we came up against a couple times at Game Day. Using Gitaxian Probe to prepare the ground for Inquisition/Duress is something that came to our minds when we first started looking over the New Phyrexia spoilers, but we yesterday was the first time we really saw the power of this combo.

Not only does a first-turn Gitaxian Probe allow you to prepare for everything your opponent has in store in the coming turns, but it allows you to most effectively play a discard spell, and when followed by Inquisition of Kozilek in particular, can ensure that your opponent’s start is slow.

Gitaxian Probe’s second effect of drawing a card to replace itself leaves you with a card advantage where you would have otherwise had to do a one-to-one card trade.

This combo, which we like to call “Hide and Seek”, is one of the best first turns in Standard, in my opinion. It gives you much-needed data about your opponents hand and the often-crucial card advantage at the outset of the game.

June 13, 2011
Killer Combo – “Word of the Day”

Phylactery

Today’s word, children, is “phylactery”. A phylactery is an amulet or charm. More specifically a phylactery is that thing that your opponent uses to clean himself up after you play an indestructible 5/5 on the first turn – or at least that’s what it sounds like…

Dark Ritual will help to ensure that Phylactery Lich is your game-opener, but, as you can all see, the Lich won’t be surviving very long unless his phylactery – in this case a stone or vial from D&D lore – isn’t attached to artifact in the vicinity. So, in order to actually pull off a first turn play you’re going to have to have an artifact on the board before the Lich hits.

Luckily we’ve got a number of ways to do that in Standard today without the inconvenience of actually paying for it. In the case of Darksteel Relic, you can even ensure that the Lich is more or less in it for the long haul. However, don’t get too cocky or a Hex Parasite might end the Lich’s run by eating his soul…

June 8, 2011
MTG Commander, Magic: The Gathering BattleMage, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

The guys from The Casual Planeswalker talk about MTG Commander cards and some of their favorite old magic video games.

Today’s Lineup:

website (giveaways) like on facebook or follow on twitter
mtg commander visual spoiler
mtg commander launch date
real-life achievement cards!?
emperor format
the mimeoplasm
duels of the planeswalkers
magic: The Gathering Battlemage
magic the gathering tactics
new phrexia at game day

Crew:

Nick Roelofs
Brad Osborne
Joshua Fassett
Leroy Phipps
DJ Clark

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

June 7, 2011
Mass Removal, M12 Spoilers, and more!

The Casual Planeswalker guys talk about their experiences and thoughts on mass removal, M12 Spoiler, and more!

Show Notes: check out one of our favorite card alterers! Eric Klug at http://klugalters.blogspot.com/

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

May 30, 2011