Hello Nation! I was playing some Planechase recently with some friends. I was able to play a lot of cards that I acquired in the not-so-distant past, and some worked differently than how I thought they would play. I wanted to review the game, and then talk about how the cards are different than I thought. Perhaps you can get ideas here for your own multiplayer games, no matter what format you play – Commander or Chaos or Planechase or whatever.

It was my birthday. For years in our playgroup, my birthday was a holiday of immense proportions. Sometimes you find that getting people to actually attend a given week's Magic festivities is a little difficult. It feels like herding really big cats; the ones with saber teeth. Everybody is off having fun, getting drunk, going on dates, or…shudder…working. I think every casual group is significantly larger than the size of people that come out on any given night.

For my birthday, things would change. People would actually make it. For one night, our playgroup would expand from 6-12 to 25. It was awesome! I don't know how the tradition began, and I'm not sure why it focused on my birthday and not someone else's. Whatever the reason, for that one night a year, everybody would show up.

Well, ever since I left to head to London, and then Detroit, it's been hard to get the gang back together on a regular basis. As a surprise for my birthday this year, my girlfriend got me to a Red Lobster, and brought out a few of my old friends. Of course we got together and played Magic afterwards!

On our way back to Aaron and Melissa's, we stopped at the card store. They were playing Friday Night Magic with a booster draft of Scars. I said howdy to some people, and then a few players got a chance to see Abe's Deck of Happiness and Joy, in its complete form. They marveled at its sight. The legend grows!

I thought it would be really cool to post a few pics of the deck, in its full glory. Here you are, and Happy New Year and such:

Here is the deck of happiness and joy:

This is the deck is all of its glory. All of those dark purple sleeves you see are my actual deck. The small handful of gold cards are also my deck, they are my tutor stack – frequently tutored cards that are in my deck but are in their own sleeves and beside the deck for convenience (they are the duels, and a few cards like Akroma the First.)

The large cards in between are Vanguard, Archenemy, and Planechase cards. There's also a few spindown dice, Planechase dice, and an Ertai life counter – the one with the spinny plastic disc on the back.

Now, I know what you are thinking. The first thing you are thinking is, wow, that's a really big deck:

And you'd be right, of course. But that's okay. You are right, of course. But once you get a good feel for the deck, you can play it like a star. You'll love playing the deck:

In fact, I hear that you want a game right now? Is that right? You wanna throw down with me? With ME?!?!?

I don't rate your chances highly.

Want to know how it played?

I had Abe's Deck of Happiness and Joy. Aaron had a 300 card Five Color Highlander deck called The Essentials. Mike had a mono-White control deck. Jason had a large Highlander deck with 500ish cards (I think it's that big). I pulled out a stack from my 2000+ card deck and grabbed the Planechase stack. We rolled some dice, shuffled some cards, and got ready for Magic.

We started playing a rocking multiplayer game. Aaron had a third turn Exalted Angel targeted by a Swords to Plowshares when he attacked on turn four with it at Mike. I had some quick defense in Horn of Deafening. Jason had a slow hand. Mike started dropping some midrange cards, and the Planes kept things interesting.

I played my MVP of the night really early. It basically won me the game – Nim Deathmantle. I think it was the only card from Scars of Mirrodin I drew or played all night. It won't be an MVP yet. At the beginning of the game, it brought back a dying Weathered Wayfarer. Wow! Don't worry, it will be powerful and game changing later.

I dropped Sun Ce, Young Conquerer, and he began to swing for five at people (with the Deathmantle). I killed Jason's Ajani Goldmane with it too. He had made 9 0/1 goat tokens from the Goldmeadow plane. Then he pumped them to 1/2s with Goldmane. I played a quick Molten Disaster to sweep a lot of the board. I killed a newly played Mother of Runes by Mike and a bunch of goats. By then, Aaron had gotten Wonder in his graveyard after playing Intuition and getting three incarnations – Anger, Wonder, and Glory. His creatures were immune to my Disaster.

At some point in time, I played a card that we all laughed at – Chandra Ablaze. Frankly, there are times I play my deck, and one or two cards will come up, and I wonder again why I play them. I have a five color deck, and Red is the color rocking the smallest number of cards. Yet, I found a place for this Planeswalker. I played Chandra Ablaze, and we all laughed. I said I should probably take her out, and Aaron agreed. Someone attacked me, and I said, jokingly, that they should have attacked Chandra Ablaze.

We wound up in Cliffside Market and got stuck there for a while, and kept switching life totals. Aaron had a very strong defense and was building a powerful attack. I switch him the lowest life total and drop a Red card to Chandra Ablaze to hit him for 4, but I am unable to follow over later turns, and he regains life.

Throughout the rest of the game, on three occasions, I used Chandra Ablaze's second ability to have everyone discard their hand and draw three new cards. I always used it when I had chump cards in my hand, and once right after Aaron had played Time Spiral. I blew through my hand and drew three more.

Well, I have to give credit where credit was due – Chandra Ablaze helped me find answers and problems in order to eventually win the game (spoilers!).

I managed to drop Future Sight, and for a few turns it got me a lot of cards but someone finally took it out by sweeping the board of artifacts and enchantments. I can't recall who. I lost my Deathmantle and Horn. After Mike attacked with ten soldier tokens from a Decree of Justice at Jason, he dropped Jason to one. Which meant is was up to me to kill him – never leave a foe hanging around. I played Vengeful Rebirth and returned the Nim Deathmantle and shot Jason for 2 damage – he died.

In the meantime, I had played Pentagram of the Ages. I picked it up because of its ability to prevent any damage to me, not just combat damage. I added it to my deck about 3 or 4 months ago. This was the first time I had drawn it. Aaron used a Hibernation's End and built it up until he got Arc-Slogger. I was able to stay alive for a bit with my Pentagram and his lack of Red mana. He was shooting creatures instead, and I used Chandra Ablaze to find a Sterling Grove and sacrificed it for an Ivory Mask. I played it, and protected myself from his creatures.

I have out a few creatures, Aaron has out a ton. He finishes off Mike. I got knocked to 3, but I played a Clearwater Goblet. I'm about to gain 5 life a turn. Hiding behind a Pentagram of the Ages, Nim Deathmantle, Clearwater Goblet, and Ivory Mask makes it really hard to kill a guy. My creatures are getting powerful, and I'm starting to swing with a Deathmantled Fear guy after I kill Aaron's Black creatures.

Aaron is getting exasperated. He has a Damnation in his hand, but if he plays it, I just trigger the Deathmantle three times and bring back all of my dudes. I have out two Glen Elendra Archmages, one is real, the other is a token made by Isle of Vesuva. He Arc-Slogs the token, and it can't come back from persist or the Deathmantle.

He Slogs the 4/4 Archmage, and it dies and comes back. I sac it later to counter one of his crucial spells, a Dismantling Blow targeting my Goblet. I forget to trigger the Deathmantle and bring it back – stupid. I get a stupid counter. He draws and plays a Hallowed Burial, which is great for him. I cannot bring back any of the creatures that have died. His life is in the 20's. I have out two man lands though – Mutavault and Stirring Wildwood. We get stuck in Shiv and I don't roll to get out. I make my lands creatures and swing for lots with firebreathing. He gets some blockers after rolling two Chaos for Shiv and making some dragons, but he can't get out. I play Filth.

My plan is to swampwalk him for two plus Shiv firebreathing. If he gets out of Shiv, then try and kill Filth and just swing for five a turn with my swampwalking land/creatures. He can't get out of Shiv again, and plays some defense. He can't get past my Pentagram with his dragons – I take five, and regain five on my upkeep with the Goblet.

I attack for something like 8 with Filth, and then pass the turn. He gets us out of Shiv on the first roll. His life is in the single digits. He tries to find answers for my setup, but he is struggling mightily. He has no cards in play or in his hand that he can use to draw answers or tutor or fix the game state. My lie is in the 40s. Even with Glory in the ‘yard able to really help his game state, my swampwalking Filth is ending it quickly.

A few turns later, the game ends. We had a ton of fun, but since we started playing late, Mike and Jason had to leave. It's something like 12:30 am, and we leave behind Magic.

Lessons from the Game:

I expected Pentagram of the Ages to be good, and it was very good. If I were to cut my deck down to 500 cards, I still think cards like it, Horn of Deafening, and Safeguard would make the cut. I like defense. The Pentagram was great, amazing, awesome defense.

I relied on some old classics to win. Clearwater Goblet has always been a powerful card. Ivory Mask has always been a valuable tool. Sun Ce dealt a lot of mid game damage, and he's been in my deck for years. Future Sight has always been a power card.

Chandra Ablaze drew me nine cards, and she helped me find answers, like Sterling Grove to get the aforementioned Mask. After doing nothing but teasing her all night long, she really brought game. She will not get pulled out for a while.

Nim Deathmantle was always expected to really contribute, but came to the forefront early and often. It saved my team from a board wipe, it saved creatures after they got killed, and if I had remembered to use it to bring back a Glen Elendra Archmage, it would have made a nice little combo with it. Its view in my eyes continues to rise. I think it may be the third best card in Scars of Mirrodin behind Exsanguinate and Darksteel Sentinel.

There are a lot of classic strategies in this game. As you can see, Incarnations are an important part of magic. Ever since they showed up in Judgment, we've been playing a ton of them. The Essentials runs four. I think I run five in H&J. When you get an Intuition or Gifts Ungiven or Buried Alive even a simple Entomb, you have to think about them. Getting an ability that cannot be Naturalized is pretty strong. There are cards out there that hose graveyards, and we play them, but there are not as many.

Great cards like Decree of Justice, Hibernation's End, and Arc-Slogger saw their head raised. You have to be prepared to see this sort of stuff. When I used the Sterling Grove, I couldn't get something game winning, like Mirari's Wake. I had to just get Ivory Mask to keep me alive.

I recently added a few cards I purchased from CoolStuffInc.com to my deck. Would you like to know what they are? I thought so!

I picked up:

• Arabian Nights Desert Twister
• Super Secret Tech
• FOIL Soul Reap
• FOIL Revoke Existence
• Vampiric Dragon
• Punish Ignorance
• FOIL Gleeful Sabotage
• FOIL Stomp and Howl
• FOIL Nullmage Advocate
• FOIL ASIAN 7^th Creeping Mold
• Haunted Crossroads
• Puppeteer Clique

I regularly massage my deck by adding a few cards, and then taking out a few cards. Just a couple of weeks ago, I pulled 20 cards.

I felt like my deck needed some additional artifact and enchantment removal of various stripes. I still have a few that I want to add, but haven't yet (such as Mystic Melting). I also enjoyed the lower price point that V. Dragon has these days since its reprinting in Archenemy. It was totally worth grabbing one for H&J.

Which is pimpier – A foil Masques Desert Twister or an original Arabian Nights one? Obviously, I went the original route, but I think you could debate that.

Anyway, I hope that you totally enjoyed today's article. I wonder what's the next topic we'll cover here?

See you next week,

Abe Sargent