By: Tommy Lugaresi

Building Juggernauts Out Of Junk: Constructing decks, breeding creativity, and a casual atmosphere through monetary restrictions.

Magic is, fundamentally, a Pay To Play game. For some players out there, who have little spending money or often choose, as I do, to spend it on other things, this can be a heartbreaking reality to accept. A reality where many of the wonderful 'chase cards' that everyone lauds will rarely find their way into our hands and decks. Playing with proxies feels like cheating, and is, in theory, pirating. It's that whole Pay To Play concept. So, unless I'm testing out a new deck idea, proxies are a no go. Yes, it's a shame that we may not be able to play with some of those chase cards, but the bigger shame is that those who own those cards may never try to build a deck without them. Our funds may be limited, but our creativity is not! Do not dismay my fellow Planespaupers--er... Walkers... Magic is a game that rewards creativity.

Starting the creative process: Finding the diamonds in the rough.

Magic is a game with many options. But, because of competitive play, many good cards get tossed aside because they're not quite fast enough to yield the desired results, or no one is quite sure how to powerfully utilize them yet. This is where we can find inspiration. Sometimes, we even find a diamond in the rough.

It was just after the release of Zendikar, I went to a local card shop and bought some Mirrodin boosters for a modest price of $3.50 each. Upon opening one of the packs I unveiled what was, at the time, considered a "crap rare." A card with a 2 star rating on the gatherer database that no one knew how to use. Purchasable online for $0.25. The card? Mesmeric Orb. Sure, it's considered a great card now. I, like many people before me, saw the power of that card and wondered "How do I protect myself from it?" That's when the inspiration struck. I was probably one of the first persons to ever combine it with Gaea's Blessing. Together, they made a powerful combo. I started out to build my deck using Ebay to cut costs here and there. Things started to come together. Hedron Crab; Vision Charm; Tome Scour; Memory Sluice; Brain Freeze; Boomerang; Arcane Denial; Trick Bind; Howling Mine; Mana Short and some others.

In the end I had a deck that could cast almost every card for just one or two mana. After some maiden play tests I found that I had quite a powerhouse deck. A little tweaking and it became even greater. And this deck only cost me about $65 to build. Quite a modest price considering that some people can play down a single dual land, like Underground Sea, worth more than the entire deck. You may say that a Mill deck isn't a very casual styled deck, but it was blast to play a lot of quick games. There are plenty of diamonds out there if you search hard enough. But what if you can't find one?

The infernal machine: Engines. The heart and soul of casual deck building.

Ah! Engines! How I love them. One of the great things about casual game play is the creativity. Some of the engines people create are amazing. This is where you can really look through the extra cheap rares and have fun. One of my most favorite engines that I've created got started because my brother threw a Lurking Predators into our Junk Cards box. I laid claim to it thinking: "This is a cool card. I should make a deck with this." Later, I opened up to a Lurking Predators in a booster which further fueled my desire to construct a deck with it. It's time to build. My idea was to have an engine that would allow me to put some big baddies like Novablast Wurm, Doomgape, or the massive Autochthon Wurm right onto the battlefield without ever needing to cast them. I liked how Lurking Predators worked by taking creatures off the top of your library and putting them into play, and decided to fully embrace the concept. Doing so would allow me to eschew cards like Summoner's Egg and Elvish Piper.

I needed to find a way to stack creatures on top of my library.

Congregation at Dawn fits in well, but it wasn't enough... Ah. Sylvan Library, though perhaps a tad pricey for budget building, will work perfectly here by allowing me to 'draw under' my top two cards. Add in a few Call of the Wild for insurance if I don't get a Predators out, or if my opponent refuses to cast any spells to trigger them. I can re-stack the creatures that go into my graveyard with Haunted Crossroads--And look at this, Mortuary will automatically put creatures that go to the graveyard from the battlefield back on top of my library. My engine is complete. Now to finish the deck. A few creatures to help with mana; Attrition, and some other creature removal spells; Seal of Cleansing and Primordium for artifact/enchantment removal; various green deck recycling cards; Dowsing Shaman is a must for getting back my many enchantments; And a Sterling Grove, my budget didn't like that choice, but they're better than Greater Auramancy due to the ability to sacrifice it to search for other enchantments.

The final result was quite a powerful deck that was capable of, if you drew the right cards, placing a creature like Autochthon Wurm onto the battlefield on the fifth turn. Or you could build the engine up to a point where every spell your opponent casts to hinder your army could release two or three more behemoths. Yet, it didn't feel cheap or 'cheezey' like so many other combos that can yield similar results (Like using Sneak Attack on a Summoner's Egg to bring out a Darksteel Colossus on the third turn). I didn't need to make it cheap either, the deck is powerful enough. It would have been quite easy to cheese it up by adding in the inexpensive, yet far overpowered Eldrazi creatures. Or creatures with colors that I do not produce, like a Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, he would work great with Sylvan Library. Doing so was unnecessary.

I determined early on that I wanted my deck to be able to stand even if I couldn't get my engine together. Which means I should be able to cast any and all of the creatures in my deck. I've done so too. Yes, even the Autochthon Wurm.

(While writing the above paragraph and thinking back on the deck building experience, recounting the various cards and money used to construct it, something didn't match up in my mind. As I had mentioned, some of those cards were a bit expensive for budget building. But for some reason, I could not recall why this deck had not extracted any more from my bank account than my mill deck. After a bit of thinking. it came back to me... ... I, uh... *Looks around sheepishly* I used a few gold bordered cards... I know that some of you are thinking "Those aren't real cards!" And I kind of agree with you. I'm not too fond of using them, but at least they are printed by Wizards; and tournament legal so long as you have card covers with an opaque backing, or so I have been told. I think this analogy presents my opinion well: Genuine cards are like whole milk. Because of all the fat in whole milk it carries a richer flavor and is deeply satisfying and filling. Collector's Edition and gold bordered cards are like low fat or skim milk. For all intents and purposes it still is milk, and is generally considered so. But it's not whole anymore because something is missing. Which I guess would classify proxies as something along the lines of warm tap water with a couple non-dairy creamers mixed in. An unpleasant solution which should never be intended as an extended substitution.)

Taking it to extremes: How low can you go?

As you've probably noticed by now, I really like making decks for as little money as I can. It's something that appeals to me. I like the challenge of it. So, in due course, I wanted to see what kind of trade off there would be pertaining to power and speed versus price. What was the least amount of money I could spend that would still yield a competent deck? I figured $30 or less could do the trick; The only remaining problem was finding the trick. I started to keep my eye out for a killer combo that wouldn't break the budget barrier I set up while still leaving me with enough money to build the rest of the deck.

It was just after the release of Worldwake. A friend of mine had just been introduced to Magic by way of an M10 intro deck. Having heard that I was familiar with Magic, he called me up and invited me over to duel and help him out with building decks and such. After some leisurely games and chatting he told me he had a lot of cash on him and he wanted to buy some cards. We set off on some bikes to the nearest card shop where he bought various boosters from sets that I recommended to him. Some Worldwake; Some Zendikar; A few M10; A 10th Edition pack and a few others. He ended up buying a few, opening them up, then buying some more. I had never seen anyone do that before. Satisfied that he had purchased enough cards we returned to his house and I began to organize the cards he got into color-coded piles and then started modify his deck. Once I was finished, I looked through the various piles again.

And there it was in the stack of black cards. The rare from 10th and a rare from one of the Zendikar packs. It was the combo I had been looking for to base my deck on. Sleeper Agent and Bloodchief Ascension. Beautiful.

Throw a Vampiric Link on the Sleeper Agent for more awesomeness and cast the whole thing on the first turn with a Dark Ritual! Then Memory Sluice your opponent when the Bloodchief goes hot, and if you conspire it could be spell the end game. Fan--This is totally freaking amazing--tastic. Bloodchiefs were still a bit pricey so I decided to wait for them to go down in price, and lucky me, they went on sale. I purchased the cards for my deck for just under $20, meaning that I met my goal of keeping the total value of the deck under $30. Even with the changes I've made after the initial play testing it still averages under $30. I'm going to have to show you the deck now, and ironically, if a lot of you readers out there end up constructing it, it could potentially drive the prices up ruining it's sub $30 value. Oh, well... Here's the deck as it stands now:

[cardlist]

[Lands]

16 Swamp

4 Bojuka Bog

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

4 Sleeper Agent

3 Wall of Bone

2 Cabal Interrogator

1 Sengir Vampire

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Bloodchief Ascension

3 Greed

4 Vampiric Link

1 Thought Dissector

1 Vexing Arcanix

4 Memory Sluice

2 Blackmail

2 Cry of Contrition

2 Hideous End

1 Sadistic Sacrament

4 Dark Ritual

2 Cabal Ritual

[/Spells]

[/cardlist]

The deck works quite well most of the time. The Hideous End are decent creature removal, and along with the Vexing Arcanix, can put a counter on the Bloodchief Ascension. There are some cards for milling and discarding once the Bloodchief is ready. The Wall of Bone are used because they have enough defence to block the Sleeper Agent without killing it or dying itself. If you don't mind having to spend more mana some Drudge Skeleton or Reassembling Skeleton will work too.

I haven't made any changes to this deck for a while and it's occurred to me that some Dash Hopes would probably be a better choice than the Sadistic Sacrament and Cry of Contrition. Hmmm...

It's not too hard to build a deck for less than $30 or $40. I've done it more than once. I built a mean Red Deck Wins for under $30, but I think I've already proved my point.

Creating and fostering the casual atmosphere: How do you define casual play?

I suppose that after seeing the deck presented above some of you have already planned on making this deck and replacing some of the budget cards like Wall of Bone with Will-o'-the-Wisp. If so, I recommend you pay close attention to this section of the article. Because what I'm trying to tell you is that you don't need to. Part of what can make casual play great is not playing with the best cards out there, but playing with what you have. It was that very concept presented in this GathingMagic article by Jiggy that attracted me to the Elder Dragon Highlander format, now officially called Commander. Choose to use those Coastal Tower you have in that box tucked away in your closet instead of insisting on the proxies of Hallowed Fountain or Tundra just because you have four copies in another deck. The proxies are acceptable because you own enough copies of that card, but they're kinda unnecessary. Taking an extra turn or two to get going probably won't ruin your deck. However, that doesn't mean you can't still play with some of the best cards while playing casually. My brother does it quite well. Probably because he understands what casual play is all about. (Note: It's not the Hokey Pokey.)

What is it that my brother and I understand about casual play? Well, it took a bit of thinking, but I think I've got it nailed down. Competitive MTG is all about defeating your opponent as quick as possible. Taking advantage of any and every weakness they have and exploiting it till you win. So, when those players try to play in a casual setting they end up choosing to not crush their opponent immediately, but let them build up a little, and then crush them into oblivion. This in not playing casually; It's just waiting a little to launch your many WMDs at the opposing forces. It's fun to win, that is true. And I, like everyone else, enjoy winning. When you play casual Magic the point is not to win, that is just your goal.

You see, it's not choosing to not destroy your opponent when they're weak, but choosing to attack your opponent when they're strong, and enjoying the power struggle and Battle of Wits while trying to emerge victorious! This is what I believe casual play is all about. The power struggle. The Battle of Wits. These are where my brother and I have had the most fun in playing Magic. Don't get me wrong though. I'm not saying that you can't play casual Magic and still play quick killing decks. We do that all the time. In fact my brother will often request we play a lot of fast games to test out a new deck. I can still remember when we played into the early morning testing out his Exalted themed deck...

Finally, I'd like to present one last idea for encouraging a casual play atmosphere: No sideboard. Some of you might be sure that I'm crazy now, but think about it, sideboard can slow down starting the game, having to figure out which cards to swap out, and it can be plain annoying. Sideboard is understandable when you're swapping out for similar cards because you're not drastically changing what you build it to do. Unfortunately, most people use sideboard to exploit the natural weaknesses found in the most common decks of the day. Let's say you've constructed a mighty artifact deck. People cower in fear when they see you take it out of your deck box, still haunted by the last humiliating defeat they suffered by the terrible forces held within. Then someone decides to completely hose you by sideboarding in four Hurkyl's Recall. Your entire deck undone by a single, two to cast, instant. Well... That really sucks. Or, maybe you're playing a Mill deck, and your opponent sideboards in four Gaea's Blessing. Even though they're not playing green. And they're deck was never designed to be recycled. That's like bringing a bicycle to a foot race. No one ever said it was against the rules, but it was certainly implied. What's worse is when they don't even understand that they've caused a faux pas by making it impossible for you to win.

"What is that? A bike? This is a foot race."

"I'm still using my feet."

"I can't out run you if you're on a bike."

"Well, you should have thought ahead, like I did."

"I didn't think to bring a bike because this is a foot race! Bringing a bike would be like cheating."

"Yeah, like cheating. But not actually cheating. Besides, I'm still using my feet. We covered this already. Let's get this race started already, so I can win."

"Yeah, so you can win. I don't have a chance because you're on a bike!"

"I still don't see anything wrong with this. I just prepared better than you did."

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Yes. Winning is you're goal. But if that goal is unobtainable from the beginning, there's not much point in playing. The game stops being fun.

I think sideboard can mostly be done away with. Instead I encourage you to make decks where you make sideboard cards always relevant. My brother made one using red/blue elemental blasts and such. Dang. That deck will mop the floor with you...

If problems arise, or maybe you want to prevent problems from occurring, I recommend you invoke some House rules. My brothers and I have agreed to not use Eldrazi creatures, and our group still played with mana burn until just recently.

My closing commentary: The follies of competitive play.

I like casual Magic. Competitive play can be really fun too, but I've seen it devolve into an arms race all too often. As you play Magic your decks will naturally get better as you gain deck building experience. When you first started you probably had a deck that could win within ten turns. As time passes you upgrade and tweak your deck. Now you can win in nine turns; Then eight; Seven; And so on down. If you haven't won by turn five, you've already secured your victory. It's at this point that all the duels start playing the same. It practically devolves into a coin flip of who drew the better opening hand. If the other 53 cards in your deck barely matter you're not really playing the game. When you start playing with combos that can put a Darksteel Colossus or Inkwell Leviathan onto the battlefield on the first or second turn you've gone too far. People get frustrated and may quit playing altogether, done and disgusted by how all the fun has been sucked out of the game they once enjoyed. I've seen accounts of this happening in the forums and in the group with which I play. Others will escalate things further and start using proxies of whatever they want to gain the advantage. Power Nine? You're probably never going to own any of them, but who cares so long as you win, right? The same goes for any banned or restricted cards. Maybe you'll just build the deck featured in this video out of proxies. Whee! Win during your opponent's first upkeep! Others still, like my brother, will find a way to beat them with an iron defense. First turn Inkwell or Colossus? Shroud or Indestructible? Not a problem. Just play an Innocent Blood on your turn and watch with a wry smile as their eyes widen, awestruck, when you defuse their bomb with a single mana. You just shot their one trick pony in the face. They refuse to play against that deck because they can't win, and you refuse to play without it, otherwise you can't win. In the end, everyone loses because no one wants to play Magic anymore. If you play in a competitive group where no one has started the de-evolutionary arms race that sucks all the fun out of the game, I congratulate you. I hazard a guess that groups like that are few and far between. I like casual play because the duels can be vastly different than what can be found in competitive. My brother and I have both dueled into a stalemate where the victory was determined by who drew their last card first. That's fun. Those are the kind of games that endear me to casual Magic. You don't have to play with a 'bad' deck. You just need to remember to enjoy the game and the company of your friends.

This article is a bit longer than I expected it to be. So I thank those of you who not only read through to the end, but found it engaging and insightful. Thanks for reading. I hope that I've left you feeling excited with new ideas.

And now I will try to say something inspirational:

Keep on casting spells and walking planes.

...Urgh, that was terrible. Let me try one more time.

Remember, fellow Planeswalkers: A sharp mind is often better than a sharp sword.

...Was that good? ...I hope that was good.

--T. Lugaresi