Hello folks! Welcome back to the third installment of our series. I hope that you have had a great week!

One of the fun things about casual Magic is that most of the stuff that gets written here lasts. Magic articles about tournaments don't last. You can have articles on Scars's impact on Standard or the new metagame in Extended after a new deck rises or how a certain deck will matchup against the format's tier one decks. All of this stuff changes over time. Many articles are out of date in just a month or two.

That's not true with casual articles. Although a few will be outdated here and there, the vast majority of the work will stand the test of time. An article about a casual format, or a variant way to play the game will last. Another article could be about these ten cards that you might not commonly play and how they really work for casual Magic. A third could be some decks for your kitchen table needs. Timeless articles are all around.

With a "format" as long lasting and diverse as ours, casual Magic has several ways it differentiates itself from other formats. Take Standard, for instance. What impact did the reprinting of Lightning Bolt have on Standard? It was massive! What impact did it have on casual Magic? It made a staple a bit cheaper and easier to acquire. I mean, that's nice and all, but hardly monumental. It's not going to change casual Magic forever.

When new cards are released, we can immediately asses them for their value. With a great degree of accuracy, I am able to tell what cards from a new set will have an impact on casual Magic. Do I hit every one? No, I doubt it. Do I miss occasionally? Sure I do! When you have the whole of Magic-dom to judge cards against, it's easy to see what will make a splash.

Of course, in casual land, I expect to see every card in some form or other. There's nothing wrong with playing Shock when Lightning Bolt is available. Tournament players will tech up their decks and discuss the opportunity cost of not having an optimized deck, but I think we're good to go.

Occasionally, something comes out that take a while to judge properly. It took a long time for casual players to figure out how to play, and play against, planeswalkers. It was something brand new. It took a while to figure out equipment. It was brand new. Now, we know the value of such things.

The same is true of formats and variants in casual magic. Some are easy to figure out. If you like Peasant Magic, then Pauper Magic is pretty simple to figure out. One allows everything but 5 uncommons, and the other bans all uncommons. Those formats will look similar.

Sometimes, you get something so different from the norm, that it takes a while to sink in. That was Archenemy. There's one player playing against many, and with an Archenemy deck? That's something new and interesting. It took a while to suss out. But now that we have figured it out, I think it's time for an article or three on the product.

Archenemy: The Product

When Archenemy came out, I picked up one of each deck. I'm sure I was like a lot of people in that regard. The decks were okay. Some were much better than others as an archenemy deck. The thing that stuck me was the rules for building the archenemy deck. You could only use up to 2 of each scheme and 20 cards must be in your archenemy deck. Here was what was weird – if you bought one of each deck, you ended up various numbers of scheme cards. Some were printed as a one-of, some with two, and then these scheme cards came in fours:

1. Your Fate is Thrice Sealed
2. Realms Befitting my Majesty
3. Introductions Are in Order
4. I Delight in Your Convulsions
5. Your Puny Minds Cannot Fathom

The problem with this is that you cannot play cards that you open, since you are limited to two of each scheme max. Why have four in the product if you can't play them all?

Also, there are some serious power imbalances. All Shall Smoulder in My Wake is much weaker than Tooth, Claw, and Tail. The first destroys an artifact, an enchantment and a nonbasic land. The second destroys three permanents. One is obviously better than the other.

This week, we'll take a look at how you win as the Archenemy. Next week, we'll look at the Archenemy format from the opposite side of the coin.

Archenemy: Victoire by Control

In order to win, you have to kill all of your foes. Alternatively, you could win with an alternate condition like Coalition Victory or Chance Encounter. In order to win, there are basically two paths for an Archenemy to follow.

The first is the control path. In this one, you destroy your opponent's resources and threats, and then rally some of your own. Then you launch an attack with big creatures (or a horde of creatures), and start killing off players. Note that in this format, the big bad starts with 40 life, goes first, and draws on their first turn. Those are some advantages that control decks can really use and abuse. Since card advantage will be so important (fighting off multiple players requires it), scheme cards that provide you with that advantage are necessary. Schemes like Your Puny Minds Cannot Fathom to draw you four cards, or the above mentioned Tooth, Claw and Tail are great ideas for this deck. Other ones I especially like include Nature Demands an Offering, which forces four permanents you don't control to get shuffled back into libraries; Which of You Burns Brightest? which can kill a bunch of creatures an opponent has; and arguably the most powerful scheme – Behold the Power of Destruction, which destroys all nonland permanents one opponent controls. Boom!

If you go this route, I recommend focusing on cards that hurt many opponents. For example, Liliana's Specter is not just a flyer of 2/1 proportions at a cost of three mana, but also forces all of your opponents to discard. Since they are all gunning for you, that's a wise idea. (see also: Unnerve, Cackling Fiend). Another example from the same color is Innocent Blood. That forces everybody to sac a creature (including yourself). Cards like Pyroclasm, Curfew, Infest and Retribution of the Meek have strong value as cheap ways to affect many opposing creatures.

With powerful schemes and a deck that can handle a lot of permanents, you'll be well suited to win a control game. Let's take a look at just such a deck right now!

"Kneel Before Me!"

• (60)
• 4 Innocent Blood
• 4 Damnation
• 2 Mutilate
• 4 Unnerve
• 4 Exsanguinate
• 2 Roiling Horror
• 2 Spirit of the Night
• 2 Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 2 Necrologia
• 2 Leyline of the Void
• 2 Promise of Power
• 4 Guardian Idol
• 4 Mishra’s Factory
• 1 Volrath’s Stronghold
• 4 Barren Moor
• 17 Swamp

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"Archenemy Deck"

• (20)
• 2 Your Fate is Thrice Sealed
• 2 Realms Befitting My Majesty
• 2 Your Puny Minds Cannot Fathom
• 2 Nature Demands an Offering
• 2 Which of You Burns Brightest?
• 2 Every Last Vestige Shall Rot
• 2 Only Blood Ends Your Nightmares
• 2 All Shall Smolder in My wake
• 1 Behold the Power of Destruction
• 1 Tooth, Claw, and Tail
• 1 All in Good Time
• 1 My Genius Knows No Bounds

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This deck wants to keep people off your back until you have established control of the board. Then it wants to swing with one of the six cards dedicated to beaters, or the 2/2 guys that hide from your removal.

Innocent Blood, Damnation, and Mutilate will try to keep creatures off the board. Many of your schemes will do the same. There are edict schemes, and creature removal schemes a-go-go. Killing creatures should prove to be quite simple.

Since you are killing creatures, I thought having a few cards that become creatures would be of value. Mishra's Factory and Guardian Idol both fit the bill. You can clean out a board, and then attack with impunity. No one will dare to stop your evil power now!

I love Roiling Horror in this format. You start with 40 life, so it is bound to be a large creature. In fact, suspend it for one mana on turn four (or turn three with a Guardian Idol played on turn two). Then resolve it during your upkeep, and swing for 20ish with it immediately. It's really strong. Imagine it post-Exsanguinate. Ouch.

Spirit of the Night is your stereotypical beater. It's nothing special, just serviceable. Kokusho doesn't mind getting killed, since its death will drain 5 life from each of your foes. Play it either before or after you set up dominance, as you desire.

For card drawing, you have Necrologia and Promise of Power in the deck, which is not much. You also have many ways of card drawing in the schemes. My Genius Knows No Bounds is basically a Necropotence for X cards and X life lost for X mana spent when you flip it up. Your Fate is Thrice Sealed reveals the top three cards, puts lands into play, and the others in your hand. Your Puny Minds draws you four cards. These card drawing schemes here and there are a helpful addition to your deck. This deck's card advantage is more from an Innocent Blood killing four creatures than it is from a Tidings.

Leyline of the Void is a great card for a deck that doesn't muck around with opposing graveyards. It's is very effective against a variety of strategies. From Genesis to recursion to threshold to flashback to dredge and more, graveyards are often packed with goodies intended to be used again. I think LotV is a great way of shutting them. Meanwhile, you can recur yourself with the singleton Volrath's Stronghold. You only have six creatures in the deck, but because they are winning conditions, I thought a means of recursion like the Stronghold, would prove very valuable.

Now let's look at the second path to victory over your petty foes.

Archenemy: Victoire by Combo

The only other major path open to you is combo. I don't think you want to take an aggro deck against a heap of players and decks, all at once. I don't think you want aggro-control, or midrange, and so forth. You want to stay clear of 1 for 1 trades like Disenchant, Counterspell, Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares in control.

On the other hand, combo just wants to find the pieces of a winning combo, fire it off, and then laugh at the simpletons that just were defeated. I suggest banning the alternate win condition life cards for the archenemy, and alternate win cards of any sort for the little peon maggots battling the archenemy. Since the archenemy begins with 40 life, a card like Felidar Sovereign and Test of Endurance seems a little unfair.

Assembling combo pieces can be easy or hard, depending on the nature of the combo, and what colors you are playing. You'll want a combo that can go infinite, because you don't know how many opponents you have to go through. Therefore, it seems like infinite damage (or something similar) is the ideal path to victory. Don't play a combo like Pandemonium-Saproling Burst – which deals 21 points of damage and that's all.

You also want to stay away from the clunky combos. They may be a lot of fun, but there is way too much of a spotlight on you for that. Your opponents will be slinging all sorts of removal at you. If you can drop all of your combo pieces in one turn, that'd be ideal. Otherwise, you may need to protect your resources. Cards like Asceticism and Privileged Position should be good for that.

You also need to be prepared for blockers. If you get an infinite damage engine going, and someone has out Leyline of the Meek, then you are going to die. If you are not packing creature removal, then a simple Platinum Angel stops you from winning no matter what path you use.

Alternate win conditions are better than simple combos because they cannot be disrupted by an artifact, enchantment, creature, and so forth. When they go off, everybody dies.

You have to be prepared for every contingency. What if they have counters? How do you stop them from killing you before you go off? How do you find your combo pieces? How do you prevent them from getting destroyed?

It's not easy.

"My Evil Will Corrupt You!"

• (60)
• 4 Bitterblossom
• 2 Breeding Pit
• 4 Contamination
• 2 Eldrazi Monument
• 2 Mind Slash
• 4 Blasting Station
• 2 Sapling of Colfenor
• 4 Darksteel Sentinel
• 2 Exsanguinate
• 2 No Mercy
• 4 Deathrender
• 4 Gravedigger
• 4 Leechridden Swamp
• 4 Bojuka Bog
• 16 Swamp

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"Archenemy Deck"

• (20)
• 2 Nature Shields its Own
• 2 All Shall Smolder in My Wake
• 2 Every Last Vestige Shall Rot
• 2 Your Puny Minds Cannot fathom
• 2 Your Fate is Thrice Sealed
• 2 Roots of All Evil
• 2 Introductions Are in Order
• 1 Evil Comes to Fruition
• 1 My Genius Knows No Bounds
• 1 All in Good Time
• 1 Tooth, Claw and Tail
• 1 Behold the Power of Destruction
• 1 My Crushing Masterstroke

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Okay, the deck is done! Let's talk about it. This deck is doing three major things.

Thing #1: It wants to keep your opponents from playing cards by using Contamination to prevent them for tapping lands for mana other than {B}. Contamination is great for this, but it can get Disenchanted very quickly. If so, don't worry. That's not the end of all things evil and dark, there are many other ways to keep you up and winning. For fuel, I included four copies of Bitterblossom and two Breeding Pits. These should make the fodder for your Contamination.

Thing #2: This deck wants to stay alive. It has several cards to keep people from just coming over and breaking your kneecaps. First of all, it has 6 indestructible creatures sitting around and being awesome. Sapling of Colfenor and Darksteel Sentinel are great creatures that can block again and again. Since they are indestructible, they are able to shrug off things like Day of Judgment and Rend Flesh.

Beyond those, the deck is packing No Mercy. When this is out, your opponent is stuck. If they deal damage to you from a creature, that creature dies. It keeps a few creatures from really racking up the combat damage over and over again. Whatever sneaks through your net will end up dying.

Thing #3: This deck wins by combo kill. Here's the kill. You want to equip a Gravedigger with Deathrender. Then sacrifice it to a Blasting Station to deal one to someone. When it dies, put a Gravedigger from your hand into play and equip on Deathrender, and then bring back the dead gravedigger to your hand. Rinse and repeat for infinite damage.

This deck is pretty synergetic. I added cards that helped out multiple phases of the deck. For example, you need to draw cards and find creatures. What does Sapling of Colfenor do when it attacks? You need time to set up, and if you take a lot of hits early to Bitterblossom and creatures attacking, you may get hurt. Exsanguinate comes to the rescue. Eldrazi Monument is both a sacrifice outlet for your tokens, but it also makes all of your creatures indestructible, so anybody becomes an uber-blocker. They are also great at attacking for a lot of damage if you have out a lot of creatures. Mind Slash is both an outlet, and a way to strip counters and other cards that stop you from winning from people's hands.

Even with the lands, I tossed in Bojuka Bog to take out people's graveyards, and Leechridden Swamp to slowly kill people without going through an enchantment like Ivory Mask.

The schemes support the deck. For example, Introductions Are in Order allows you to tutor your deck for a creature card – I'd recommend getting Gravedigger since you need two to go off. Roots of All Evil puts five 1/1 saproling tokens under your control. Evil Comes to Fruition puts seven 0/1 plant tokens under your control (unless you control ten or more lands, then you get seven 3/3 elemental tokens instead).

I also use it to destroy artifacts and enchantments your opponents have. Take a look at Every Last Vestige Shall Rot. When you reveal it, you can pay X and then put each nonland permanent target player controls with X or less on the bottom of their library. That immediately ends threats to your superiority. Others return from the previous deck. You see Tooth, Claw and Tail; Behold the Power of Destruction; and All Shall Smolder in My wake.

The other new scheme is Nature Shields Its Own. When a creature attacks you, and isn't blocked, you put a 0/1 green Plant token into play blocking it. This scheme lasts until you are attacked by four or more attacking creatures in one go. It will go away at the end of that combat. Here's the trick though - with an Eldrazi Monument out, those tokens become indestructible (among other things). That means they survive. That's a pretty useful scheme with this deck.

The only other new one is My Crushing Masterstroke, which takes all nonland permanents you do not control, and puts them under your control until the end of the turn. You know better then those fools what to do with such power. They get haste and untap. The creatures must attack their owner if able. Then you can sacrifice them en masse to your various outlets, use artifacts, and basically make a nuisance of yourself.

I got this combo idea from an article by The Ferrett. The rest of the deck is fully mine, but I want to give credit where it is due.

Being the villain of the storyline is fun! I hope you got some ideas from today's article. Many of the principles of having good archenemy decks are just good principles for multiplayer decks, so the decks are translatable.

Have you been playing with Archenemy the last few months? What do you think of it? What's your favorite Archenemy moment?

I hope you enjoyed today, and thanks for reading!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent