By JD Look

Hi! Welcome to the first column of Casual Decknology. The purpose of this column is to help you determine exactly what you should plan for when creating a casual deck, as well as how to go about creating a casual deck.

As we all know, deck-building can be very, very challenging at times. There are often times random cards such as Maelstrom Pulse or Braid of Fire that we may want to make. The joke with some of my friends is a casual horsemanship deck, maybe because its horsemanship. There are a few questions and points that you should start considering when you start building a new deck. Today, I’d like to walk through those points and start building a deck with you, in my next column, I’d like to answer question and walk through a few specific cards that are fun to play with and against.

1a. What type of deck do you want?

Generally, you can classify a deck in 3 ways, combo, control, and aggro. Often times, a deck relies on more than one element of those profiles. Sometimes a deck’s types are determines by its creature type. Elves, for example, are usually aggro. Straight forward aggro, They can have combo or control elements, but it’s a straight rush. It's usually the same way with goblins.

Also, when asking this question, recognize what type of deck this should be. Is it a single player or multiplayer? This is very important. A single player deck would be structured with fewer sweeps and more spot removal. A multiplayer deck is generally going to deal with sweeping effects. If I had to come down and classify, Lightning Bolt is a great single player card, but it loses some effectiveness in multiplayer. However, Pyroclasm is going to be ridiculous amounts of fun in multiplayer.

1b. I have a card/idea  I want to build around, where should I start?

The answer here is very similar. You should think about multiplayer versus single player. Let’s take two legendary dragons, Vorosh, the Hunter and Rith, the Awakener. Which card belongs where? Vorosh is an obviously single player card, its created with dealing one person damage, then pumping it’s own P/T. I’d consider Vorosh’s colors more acclimated with single player. Some of the most famous cards in blue and black and Type 1 power-houses, or rather, Yawgmoth’s Will, Dark Ritual, Force of Will, and Daze.

Rith is a powerful multiplayer card. It deals with all permanents of a certain color on the field. And its colors are in strong multiplayer colors, red, green, and white. Depending on your theme, Lurking Predators, Warp World, or Angelic Chorus would be great choices. Then there are obvious supporting cards as well.

So Let’s say out of all this, I want to make a combo deck, that’s spell based, and multiplayer. What should I do next? Where do I start?

2. Identify Mechanics, Interactions

For my spell based deck, I’m going to want to combo out to win. There are a variety of mechanics that will allow me to do this, but one in particular sticks out, and that’s Rebound. Yes, rebound can be a multiplayer win condition. Cast through Time is a wonderful mythic to use in an EDH deck, or casual multiplayer deck. It opens up a world of fun to explore and allows for tinkering by simply switching colors around. However, it’s cost is prohibitive, and it requires time to resolve.

To which I have to say; don’t fret about the cost of the spell. Spell costs are deceptive. I’ve run across cut throat multiplayer casual groups that try to win quickly, but generally among friends, people allow others to develop some sort of board position or have some fun with their deck. Early attacks can be counter acted by cards such as Wall of Frost and Wall of Ice.

A specific interaction I want to focus on is the rebound, to which I thought of one color to rebound things, red. Lightning Bolt suddenly got a lot better. For 1 mana, you get 6 points of damage. Yes, a 6:1 ratio. It is insane. You can cast Urza’s rage for 3 one turn, and kick it a turn later for 10. Kicker+Rebound is awesome. Yes, you can quote me on that.

3. Identify Cards

Don’t bother to identify a color yet, usually identifying cards is enough. In the scheme of a lightning bolt/cast through time deck, I’m in Izzet colors. Djinn Illuminatus seems tailor made for this interaction. Drop a Cast Through Time and then a Djinn Illuminatus and you’ll be in control of the board as long as you can live ‘til your next turn and you have enough mana to kill someone off quickly. Some cheap spells are Lightning Bolt, Galvanic Blast, and Grapeshot.

I also need to fuel my combo, and find it. Accessible in blue are fun instants like ponder, brainstorm, and preordain. Accessible in red are seething song and pyretic ritual. If you play in a meta where quick attacking occurs a lot, pack in merfolk looter and wall of ice. These will allow you to create short burst of mana to quickly lay a Djinn Illuminatus, which allows you to find the cast through time and win condition.

Also, get some protection and a secondary win condition. The secondary win condition here will be burn, but be creative. Don’t plan to just attack or just combo out. People will see your deck, and adjust their deck to the meta accordingly. In order to protect my win condition, I use a simple counterspell. It protects against everything I don’t want to get hurt. Similarly, Pact of Negation, Deprieve, or Daze could easily work in this slot.

4.(optional) Identify Colors

You could be stuck with your color scheme. Let’s revisit the original concept for the deck. Instead of rebounding burn, I could rebound Sprout Swarm and Chatter of the Squirrel. Suddenly, I’m popping out tokens and pumping them with Muraganda Petroglyphs. My pool of cards is consisting of Lightning Bolt, Galvanic Blast, Djinn Illuminatus Sensei’s Divining Top, Chatter of the Squirrel, Sprout, Sprout Swarm, Thelonite Hermit, Squirrel Nest, Alpha Status, and Muraganda Petroglyphs. What do I pick? Both are strong options. I would advise going back to the original theme. The idea is to combo out with spells. Therefore, go with red. Also, go with what feels right and what will be fun to you and other players. Your reputation as a game player and letting others have fun is important. It will allow you to get introduced to new people, new groups, and importantly, new trade binders.

5. Select Cards and Determine Mana Base

This step is very self explanatory. I always aim for cards that will provide a 2 for 1 effect, that will affect my game positively, protect my cards, and allow control over my deck. Don’t forget to game around your meta however. The best laid plans can be ruined by not planning for what you might meet. You will always find that you can substitute out for cards better suited to your metagame. Also, as a rule of thumb, a few cards over 60 isn’t bad, especially if you know someone likes to run a mil deck. Simply put, find the cards that will help out the most in your regular play group. In this case, I wanted some protection creature and otherwise, acceleration, and a few more burn spells. Let’s take a look at a quick first draft:

[deck title="U/R Casting Bolts"]

[Land]

4 Halimar Depths

4 Steam Vents

6 Islands

10 Mountains

[/Lands]

[Creature]

4 Wall of Frost

4 Djinn Illuminatus

2 Merfolk Looter

[/Creature]

[Spells]

2 Quest for Ancient Secrets

3 Cast Through Time

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Urza's Rage

2 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Galvanic Blast

4 Grapeshot

3 Pyritic Ritual

2 Brainstorm

1 Obliterate

[/Spells]

[/deck]

I can say that one of the things this deck is lacking is creatures. I’d invite you to share some creatures to use in this concoction of fun. Also, I’ll share with you a version of this that I currently play casually for fun with my playgroup:

[deck title="U/R Missle Defense System (MDS)"]

[Lands]

9 Island

9 Mountain

2 Halimar Depths

4 Izzet Boilerworks

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

4 Dominus of Fealty

4 Djinn Illuminatus

4 Merfolk Looter

1 Rakka Mar

1 Sphinx of Magosi

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 Research//Development

4 Grapeshot

3 Cast Through Time

3 Counterspell

4 Pyritic Ritual

4 Surging Flame

2 Quest for Ancient Secrets

4 Lightning Bolt

[/Spells]

[/deck]

Yes, 63 is a bit bigger than  60, but its for a reason. In my meta, there’s a few nasty mil decks (an Allies one my friend runs comes to mind). Also, Rakka Mar and Sphinx are there as beats and chump blocking. Little trample occurs in my meta, so I can get away with 3/1’s. There’s obviously places to improve, but it runs well and allows for people to have fun, which is what my meta enjoys.